Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-18
WORKING The BRITISH

Not manysof the pate de foie gras
crooks. as wsscau them. from this country
who were warned cut of the British isles
few months ago have been 'mugGed' In
this country" remarked Pinkerton man
Of long experience who was on duty at the
Benning races. Nest of them were chaps
of good American antecedents and rearing,
who, going broke in their wanderings
around Europe. simply turned shady from
what they considered necessity. Their
education and good manners enabled them
to butt in with good people in England, and
not few of them were such finished prop
ositions that they were able to go right on
skinning the English lambs for years at a
stretch without ever being suspected OF
anything except the possession OF whole
lot of luck. The spike-tailed, shooting
lodge American grafters in England were.
as / say, a comparatively new breed, but
1t must not be ims gined that American
crooks Of a less toplofty sort haven't been
spinning the Englishmen for their wads
for good deal longer than generation.
There was Jim Packard, western
crook. who went over to England to see
what he could see in 1874 Jim had a bank
but he had been a shell worker SO long IN
this country that after a while he began
to ache to get in motion. He took In tie
fairs all over provincial England with the
pea graft, and he found that 1t was like
taking the yeast money from little girl
on her way to the bakery. He was running
his game In Yorkshire one afternoon when
he had the fun of trimming no less an In
dividual than the Prince Of Wales. now the
King Of England. The prince didn't guess
where the pea was five straight times for
guinea a clip, and then he laughed ana
moved on with his party. Packard had
pair of cuff buttons made out of two of the
quid that Albert Edward donated to him
and passed the other three over to pals as
souvenirs. Tom O'Brien. the American
gold-brick man. who's now doing litter
at a French penal settlement for killing his
PAL Kid Waddell, in Paris, carried one OF
these guineas as a pocket piece for years.
Frank Fears an American crook who
sprang from fine old New Orleans fam
lily. was the boy who introduced the cute
little game Of three-card monte into the
Isles of Britain. They're a good deal moro
here, but they bit all right at Fears bait.
for he looked like the president OF at least
four banks. and there never was any bet
ter monte man than Frank Fears. When
he set out to work the game on the trains
in English he engaged an English crook az
his valet and travelled in STYLE He did a
testy, grouchy, equity part on the trains.
and kept bawling at his valet to wrap him
In rugs, and all that sort OF thing. Then.
after while, he'd howl at his valet for his
solitaire board and cards, and he'd begin a
game of solitaire. Most people have pro-
pensity for rubbering at another mans
Z
got 'em. He'd fizzle out with his solitaire
game, to the amusement OF the other pas
sengers. and then in a snappy, ill-humored
sort of way Fears would invite them to
pick out the monte card. Willing to divert
the testy and important-seeming man,
they'd stand for the harpoon. and Fears
threw 1t into them for years without the
least trouble. He used to work the Paris
express from LAndon particularly. and
once in while he'd go right ahead and do
a profitable monte stunt through to Con-
stantinople or st. Petersburg. When he
had accumulated a whole dishpan full of
money, Fears came back to the United
States and began to enjoy himself. He set
tied down on a plantation in Alabama, and
he's there yet for all know.
Dan MakePeace, half Creek Indian
who was onacfhe5 crook from his earliest
years. took a swell band of American dips
over to England in 1878, and what the
Makepeace outfit did to provincial England
was too many to talk about Dan used the
makeup and graft Of an American street
medicine seller, with the long black hair
the sombrero. frock coat, and that kind Of
stun. He'd charter an open carriage and
sell American'a'y YARDS with a gold watch
and chain and diamond pin with every
fifth shilling package. but that was only a
side issue. the main graft being to get the
crowds together With the crowd around
the carriage, Dams squad Of leatherworkers
would get busy. Every one of the dips on
Dams staff was class A man at the game
and the way they did de-walletize England
oSOIdiio dHu wv dtSS was SCan0dlOuS. 1t
took the! Makepeace outfit more than two
years to scover Great Britain, but they got
away with It without airy pinch Not a
man OF that crowd had to work for three
try after that cleanup. - =
Joe Morton, an American spark CRATER
engaged IN a little continuous performances
oewel-swiping soiree In the early eighties
throughout England that netted him some
thing handsome to live on for the rest OF
his days. Joe was suspected just once. and
once only. In London, owing to a tumble
and he got out of it in pretty cunning style
Inc 1eWelry clerk placed a tray full of the
stones In front of Morton. Morton knew
that he didn't happen to have with him the
right kind OF duplicates for these stones
80 he decided to execute straight pickup.
unusual for Joe-and the clerk got wise to
1t. Morton saw, that the clerk was next
and he instantly worked fine piece Of
h1pping. He tipped the stone into a big
japanese vase that was standing a few feet
away on another counter The clerk didn't
see him do that. but he went to the pro-
prietor and did his whispering. and Toe was
summoned to the Office and requested to
produce the missing diamond, a big and
valuable one. He stormed and ragged and
threatened to see the American minister
and bring the proprietor to his knees When
the store detective told him that he'd have
to submit to being searched he put up some
tragedian work that. on the stage, would
have set Irving back in the wings Searched
he was, however, all the same and when
the rock wasn't found upon him the groyeI-
ing that the jewel Shop proprietor framed
up was something abject, so I'm told. Joe
cycloned out, swearing that nothing less
than a million dollars in damages wouId
ever satisfy him. He went straight to his
lodgings and described to big Kate MUIR
tina, with whom he was working, the Japa-
nese jar into which he had Tipped the big
diamond. Kate put on her things and went
right down to the Jewelry shop and bought
the jar. The diamond was still in the bot
tom OF it. There weren't many crooks OF
his day who could trim Joe Martin when 1t
came to picking 'em coming and eofne.'
Old-Time "Cold Snaps"
Those who think that billiards and ex-
treme winter weather are peculiar to mod