River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-10-12

But razor is the real thing in
crowd
l could have used it better than A,
If they had only fought with razors
in the war;
Then, corn cutter in hand, he coolly
crawled down from the buggy, and be-
gan walking slowly through the
crowd, carefully scrutinizing every
face as If trying to locate the man
who had threatened to take his hearts
blood. The glitter of the corn cutter,
and the terrible look Of vengeance
on his face had the desired effect, and
when he climbed back into the car
riage, every man stood as if paralyzed
They seemed to have forgotten what
had happened, or what was expected
to happen.
Immediately the CRATER slgnaled
the driver to start, he himself remaining
standing in the carriage as if terribly
agitated and repeating:
Il would like to see some man cut
my heart out; would just like to have
him try it," at the same time feeling
the edge of the big knife, as if to see
that it was sufficiently sharp
The team went off at a trot. The
grafter's hotel and livery bills had
been paid in advance, and no stop
was made until they had reached a
small town 20 miles away.
The CRATER was $400 or $500 to the
good. AS the carriage moved away
the dupes still stood in line, staring
sheepishly at one another, with ten
cent belts dangling from their hands.
The old darby who had been so obe-
dent was the only man who had the
courage to protest.
'See yher," he yelled, "you gener-
Gus white man, what my family gwine
to do fer sumpin to eat? Gin me
back ma ten dollars, or l top you
buggy over, you schoundrel!"
So saying, he and his two colored
companions rushed toward the car
riage, when an officer who stood con-
veniently near said:
What you niggers lettering around
here for? Go on home, or I'll run
you in"
Eventually, of course, this clever
CRATER landed in states prison.
A Chicago man once made a great
deal of money out of the sugar graft.
With an old horse and a covered
peddler's wagon, he started out with
load of sugar, put up in tin cans,
each holding $I.80 worth at retail.
The wholesale price was about $1.25.
After remaining in some county
seat long enough to "get line on the
town." he would start out and call
upon the farmers of that county, with
proposition to sell one of his 80
pound cans of white sugar for $1.25
in cash. He would represent that he
had recently moved to their county
seat, where he expected to reside in
the future, and would make regular
80 day trips, enabling them to re-
plenish their supply of sugar at the
lowest possible price.
Sugar, being a staple article, and
there being an actual saving of SO
cents on every purchase, he had no
difficulty whatever in making sale
at the house of almost every thrifty
well-to-do farmer. Many farmer.
who wondered how this man could af-
ford to sell sugar SO much cheaper
than the cheapest grocers in many in
stances paid for it several times over.
The graft was more like thieving
than grating When selling can
of sugar for $1.25, the CRATER would
almost invariably be handed five,
ten. Nor even a twenty dollar bill.
Having become very skillful in
palming, he would always keep
palmed in one hand one dollar bill.
nicely folded in such way that the
figures would not show on either side.
Should a farmer hand him a larger
bill, he would begin folding it as he
had the one dollar bill, and then
would suddenly say:
"Well, here I am, short of change,
so just let this go, and pay me on my
next trip, in 80 days"
He would then shift the large bill
for the one dollar bill, and, handing
the latter to the farmer, would say:
''Put it in your pocket and pay me
next time"
There was not one chance in q
thousand that the farmer would un-
fold the bill, but he would lay it care
fully away in his purse, just as it had
been handed him.
This was a graft of some magnitude.
TO make Is or 20 sales per day was
not an uncommon thing, and where
the proper change was given the
CRATER received the first cost of the
goods at least, and if only half
dozen farmers were grated in a day,
his ill gotten wealth accumulated rap
idly. He was very careful not to go
into the county seat again during his
stay in that county and never to
travel any road the second time. To
replenish his stock, he would have
several barrels of sugar shipped to
small nearby towns.
This grafter's success through ILL
nois was something marvellous for a
business operated without capital.
After a few months he decided to try
Kansas, and the second day out he
was overtaken by party of six or
seven men on horseback whom he had
victimized the day before, and who
Immediately took him from the wagon,
forced him to pay back their money,
and enough more to defray their ex-
penses. Then they took him back to
the county seat and landed him in
Jail.