The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-07-25
Made Study By Walters, bartenG-
ers and Street Fdkirs
CIRCUS TICKET SELLER At THE FRONT
wANY TRICKS EMPLOYED IN RE.
uEvINe THE UNsUsPEcTING
OF THEIR CASH.

The art of short changing is studied
~. walters bartenders, street fakirs
ana various other servants of the pub
liz The man to whom all other short
changers doff their headgear is the
ticket seller in the circus box office,
and next is the man who climbs about
among the seated thrOng in the big
tent disposing of concert tickets.
There are two ideal methods of re-
turning change in an apparently hon.
,ast manner and at the same time re-
tanning part of it. One of these is used
when the change is in silver and one
is employed when the bills are handled.
For illustration, a two-dOllar note is
rendered in payment Of some article
costing 10 cents or quarter. The
person making the change counts it
correctly from his left hand into his
right. He takes particular pains that
his victim shall see that it is correctly
counted.
Then he dumps the handful of silver
into the hand of its owner. This looks
50 fair that few persons take the trOu-
BILE to recount the money. Here is
handful of money into the outstretched
hand the artist rertains a half dollar
slightly contracted to secure the piece.
Perhaps a $40 note is rendered in
pavment for a ticket The man in
the gilded box first counts the bills
over to himself Then he reaches out
t. the waiting hands and counts 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 wad he
Smilngly places them in the impatient
victims hand. The operation is SO
apparently honest that nine times out
of ten the man pockets the bills with
out counting them.
If he should count the roll he would
find himself one or two dollars rhort,
for one of the bills repOsing in the
center Of the bunch is doubled in the
middle with the two ends even with
the single ends of the other bills. One
bill is thus counted as two.
one Of the most brilliant methods of
short changing is known among the
profession as the quarter dodge A
tivedolIar note is rendered in payment
of an article costing a quarter. The
smooth one picks up a handful Of Is
cent pieces and counts them one at
time into the palm of the purchaser.
He counts the article purchased as
"one. the first quarter being placed in
The buyers hand being two" etc. He
says. One. two, three, four-one dol
lar; one. two. three, four-two dollars;
one, two, three, four, four twenty-five,
Tour fifty four seventy-five, five dol
lars 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 op-
Grafton. but the reader will notice
Ua' the manner of counting changes
When the third dollar is reached. In
stead Of saying. "One, two, three, four
three dollars" the artist says, zone,
Two, three, four, four twenty-five, four
"1'|, etc, thus skipping a dollar en-
uFt'I. 1t may seem preposterous that
SUch a barefaced swindle could be sue
N'SStul,y worked on even a denizen Of
IooUnN or Railway. but in practice it
Is successful ninety-nine times out of
a hundred.
minor method of holding out
V'aASe when selling ten-cent tickets to
"e Srand concert after the big show"
: frequently used. If dollar is hand
gu To the ticket seller he hands back
,''e ucket, counting it as 'ten," then
N'I'eS ne counts. twenty. thirty;
" nifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, nine
concluding and the ticket is one
Uo-aI The ticket is thus counted
twice.