Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-02-07
TRICKS TO CATCH THE WISE.
Wasers That Resulted In Favor of the
Persons Who Made Them.

A gentlemanly looking man, with tne
merest suspicion Of a Yankee accent,
has recently been going the rounds OF
the West End (London) bars and bill
lizard rooms. winning all sorts Of queer
bets from people who fondly imagine
they knew a thing or two"
One that hardly ever failed to net
him a few shillings or sovereigns. as
the case might be, he called his Fly
wager" He would offer to bet, says
Pearson's Weekly. that he could make
a fly take all the matches out Of an
ordinary stone match stand, such as
Is generally to be found on the coun-
ters of most saloon bars. AS soon as
the money was staked he would catch
a fly from the wall, take 1t by the two
wings and keep putting it on the
matches one by one, the insect mean
while picking them up with its legs
instinctively and with almost mono
tonous regularity.
The shabby genteel man, with the
iron jaws and the gaunt cheeks, who
used to haunt the Fleet street bars and
bet unwary wights that he would swal'
low a beer glass there and then, ha@
lately Joined the great majority. He
died from an overdose Of ground glass
for, Of course, he took good care to
pound the tumbler to dust before at
tempting to fulfill the terms Of his wa
ger-the which, by the way. he invar-
iably won.
A variation Of this trick bet, how
ever seems to be rife In Paris, where
a certain M. Alexandra offered the
other day to wager 5000 francs (a200)
that he would swallow yard Of GAL
vanized iron stove piping. His chal-
lenge was promptly accepted by cur
ious and guileless American. Where
upon the intrepid Alexandra repaired
to whitesmith, armed with the pip
ing, which was one-sixteenth Of an
inch in thickness and five inches In
diameter, with the request that he
would reduce it to powder. The re-
quest was promptly carried out.
Then, in the presence Of the other par
ty to the bet and couple Of Witness
es, the layer Of the wager divided the
filings into five portions, mixed them
into books" Of larger beer and tossed
them off at intervals Of ten minutes.
A we'll known "bookie" recently lost
Two or w
offered to bet him that he could pro-
duce three horses which could go nine
ty miles in three hours. The layer Of
the wager easily accomplished the feat
by starting all three horses at once, by
which artifice thirty miles only was
the distance they had to traverse in
the time specified.
Roger Crab wagered e 1000 that he
would live for a year on three shillings
and six pence, and won his bet. In
deed, he more than won it, for at the
end of the twelve months he had man
aged to save threepence out Of his
housekeeping money" his expenditure
for food, therefore. averaging just over
three farthings a week. For this sum
even the cheapest Of ordinary vegetar-
ian diet-such as lentils. for instance
was quite out of the question, and he
had to content himself with nettle
soup thickened with corn flour, pud-
ding made Of bran and turnip leaves
chopped together, and so forth. Yet
on this diet Crab not only survived,
but actually gained some few pounds
in weight, while, as for his general
health, he declared that he had never
felt better than he did at the termin-
alton of his self-imposed ordeal