The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-17
SRORT CHANGING.

Tricka whieh circus MEN. psdlers and
walters Practise Commonly.
The art Of short changing IL studied by
walters, ~bartenders, street takers and
various other servants of the public. The
man 10 whom all other abort changers dofi
their headgcar IL the ticket seller In the
circus box ofloe, and next In :he man who
climbs about among the seated throng In
the big tent disposing Of concert tickets.
There are two ideal methods Of returning
change In an apparently honest manner
and at the same time retaining part Of II.
Ono Of these In used when the change is in
silver and one 10 employed when bills are
handled.
For illustration. a two dollar note Ia ten
dered In payment Of some article costing
ten cents or a quarter. The person making
the change counts IL correctly from his left
hand into his right. He takes particular
pains that his victim shall SEQ that IL Is
correctly counted.
Then he dumps the handful Of silver into
the hand OF Its owner. This looks 80
fair that few persons take the trouble to
recount the money. Here is where they
are easy. In turning the handful OF money
into the outstretched hand the artist retains
o half dollar or a quarter in his palm,
which is slightly contracted to secure the
pieos.
Perhaps a ten dollar note is rendered in
payment for a ticket. The man in the
ailded box frat counts the bills over to him.
self. Then he reaches out to the waiting
hands and u the bills for the benefit
of the buyer.
He does not place the bills entirely in the
victims hands as he counts them, however,
but grips one end of the bunch In his left
hand while he counts the free ends, laying
the ends back over his hand as he counts
He does this slowly and deliberately.
Then rolling the bills into a wad he
smihngly places them in the impatient VIC
honest that nine times out of ten the man
pockets the bills without counting them.
II he should count the roll he would find
himself 81 or 81 short; for one OF the bills
reposing In the oentre OF the bunch is
doubled in the middle, with the two ends
even with the single ends Of the other bills.
Ono bill is thus counted as two.
| One Of the most brilliant methods OF
short changing is known among the pro-
fession as the quarter dodge. A hve-dollar
costing a quarter. The smooth one picks
up a handful of twenty-five cent pieces
and counts them one at a time into the
| palm of the purchaser.
He counts the article purchased as one,
the first quarter placed in the buyers
hand being 4two," DO. He says: "One,
two, three, four-one dollar; one, two,
three, four--two dollars; one two, three,
four, four twenty-five, -four fifty, four
a~eventy-hve, five dollars At every count
the operator places a quarter In the palm
OF the victim.
The pieces are counted rapidly, and there
is nothing suspicious in the operation;
but the reader will notice that the manner
OF counting changes when the third dollar
ls reached. Instead of saving, One, two,
| three, four-three dollars the artist says
Zone, two. three, four, four twenty-five,
four ffty,' &c, thus skipping a dollar en-
tirely. It may seen preposterous that
such a barefaced swindle could be sue
| oessfully worked on even a denizen of
Podunk or Railway, but in practice it is
successful ~ninety-nine times out OF a hun
dred.
A minor method OF holding out change
when selling ten-cent tickets to the grand
concert after the big show" is frequently
used. II a dollar Is handed to the ticket
seller he hands back the ticket, counting
II as ten, then In dimes he counts, twenty,
thirty, forty. Atty, sixty, seventy, eighty.
ninety concluding and the ticket is one
dollar The ticket is thus counted twice.