Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1903-01-01
SLAUGHTER OF lNNOCENTS
Smooth CRATER With an Old Game
Catches the Knowing.

the town was here Saturday. He did
not confine his grating to the "Rube"
or raw specimen, but caught and
fieeced the knowing ones as we'll.
The sharper procured livery rig and,
accompanied by his wife and driver,
drove up and down the principal
streets, announcing his exhibition.
He waved huge knife, fully three
feet long, in the air, and announced
that the lady would swallow it.
Having created sufficient sensation, he
came to rest at the corner of the rail
road park at Sixth and Front streets
and opened his exhibition. He was
Immediately surrounded by a curious
and expectant throng. Having secured
the usual small boy as assistant he
proceeded to do a few rope tricks.
After awhile the lady was going TO
swallow the knife. He would also
cut off the boys head. This he knew
sounded impossible, but was easy "if
you knew how. - He told the boy
that he was Santa Claus and explained
his youthful appearance by stating
that the Old Santa with whiskers wa
his father and that he himself was
young Santa Claus. He poured forth
an unceasing torrent of words and
kept his audience laughing and happy.
Before the lady swallowed the
knife, the sharper took the opportunity
to state the business feature of the en-
tertainment He was introducing a
new metal, which would replace very
largely the use of gold in jewelry.
1t was new alloy, somewhat
resembling brass, but would not tar
nish. 1t would always look like gold
though there was not particle of
gold in it. 1t was just as good as
gold and fit for king or queen to
wear. " As u starter he would give
away few cuff buttons. In this dis
tribution, however, he was troubled,
because the buttons were secured by
boys instead of men. To remedy this
he would charge n small amount, say
% cents, for each button. Having
secured purchaser, he Immediately
gave the money back, saying, Buy
cigars with this. Take the button,
and all 1 ask is, that you wear it,
show it to your friends and talk about
it," He gave away a.number of but
tons under this plan, which seemed to
him good one. The charging of the
fee shut out the pestiferous small
boys, so that the buttons went
whore they would do some good and
he always gave the money back
Then the faker exhibited rings,
watch chains, diamond pins and
watches. He would sell the rings at
80 cents each, the chains at 81, the
pins, not real diamonds, but "Mon-
tana" diamonds, at 50. OF course il
anyone wished to sell this stone after
wards for $780, as n real diamond, that
was none of his business. The
watches would be sold at $50 each.
SO the CRATER began selling rings at
80 cents each and giving the money
back. He would sell three dozen
rings. The remark was heard that he
could not sell that many. "What, "
roared the faker, Il can't, can't |?
I'll just show the gentleman that l
can sell these rings and sell them, not
Mt 80 cents, but at-well, | won't say
81, I'll say 50 apiece. He scribbled
his initials ON a piece of paper
inserted it in n ring and offered the
combination for sale at 81, soon secur-
ing a taker. He pretended to be about
to give the money back, when better
thought struck him. He deposited
the ~ in box aud put 81 more Of
the company's money on top of IL,
saying to the purchaser, !" Stand right
where you are DON'T move " The
sale Of rings was lively, each pur-
chaser expecting to get the 81 back
and 81 more with it. The knowing
ones knew, of course, that it was
skin game" but did not rightly
locate the point at which the "skin-
ning' would take place. They felt
safe in buying the rings, for was he
not going to sell chains, pins and
watches? All the while, the lady
sat in the hack and smiled at each
purchase Pretty soon she would
swallow the knife. When the sharper
had sold as many rings AS possible, he
called in the slips which he had given
with each purchase and redeemed each
one with watch chain. Then he
announced that the show was over
and that no would be in the same
place at 7 o'clock in the evening to
sell ladies goods and watches. Prob.
ably also the lady would swallow the
knife at that time. But ho never came
back.
For 81 each purchaser has brass
ring and a tin watch chain, possibly
aggregnting % cents in value. The
faker is supposed, on rough es-
innate to have secured about 500.
He is young, good looking, with a
mesmcric flow Of language and phe-
nomenal smoothness.
MIlD0ED bMn CIIINIDC