Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-07-20
Short Chanuinq.

snort changing.
From the New YORK Sun.
The art of short changing is studied
by walters, b~artenders, street takers
and various other servants of the pub
lie. 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 whL climbs about
among the seated throng in the big
ent dispOsing of concert tickets.
There are two ideal methods of re-
turning change in an apparently nom
ess manner and at the same time re-
tanning part of it. One of these is used
when the change is in silver and n
is employed when bills are handled.
For illustration, u 81 note is ten
dered in payment of some article cost
ing 10 cents or a quarter. The person
making the change counts it correctly
from his left hand int his right. He
takes particular pains that his victim
shall see hat ii is correctly counted.
Then he dumps the handful of silver
into the hand Of its owner. This looks
so fair that few persons take the trou-
BILE to recount the money. Here is
where they are easy. In turning the
handful Of money into the outstretched
hand the artist retains a a dollar or
a quarter in his palm, which is slightly
contracted to secure the piece.
Perhaps a SO note is rendered in
payment for a ticket. The man in the
gilded 20 first counts the bills over tC
himself. Then he reaches out to 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
count the free ends. laying the end
back over his hand as he counts. He
does this slowly and deliberately.
Then rolling the bills into a wad he
smilingly places them in the impatient
victims hand. The operation is so APP
parently honest that nine times out OF
ten the man pockets the bills without
counting them.
IL he should count the roll he would
find himself 81 or 50 short; 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
ounted as two.
One Of the most brilliant methods OF
short changing is known among the
profession as the quarter dodge. A Sc
note is rendered in payment for an ar
ticle costing a quarter. The smooth
one picks up a handful OF 25-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 two" etc. He
says, 'One, two, three, four-one dol.
lar; one, two, three four-two dollars,
one, two, three, four, fou twenty-five
four fifty, four se~venty-1ve. five dol.
lars" At every count the operator
places a quarter in h palm Of the vic.
tim.
The pieces are counted rapidly, ano
there is nothing suspicious in the op.
Grafton; but the reader will notice tina,
the manner of counting changes wher
the third dollar Is reached. Instead OF
saying, "One. two, three, four-three
dollars" the artist says "One. two
three, four, four twenty-five, four fif-
ty," ETC.. thus skipping a dollar en-
tirely. 1t may seem preposterous that
such a barefaced swindle could be sue
cessfully worked on even a denizen Of
Podunk or Railway. but in practice
1t Is successful ninety-nine times out
of a hundred.
A minor method Of holding out
change when selling 10-cent tickets tc
the grand concert after the big show"
is frequently used. If a dollar Is
handed to the ticket seller he hands
back the ticket. counting 1T as ten
then in dimes he counts, twenty, thir-
ty, forty. fifty, sixty. seventy. eighty
ninety" concluding IAN the ticket is
one dollar" The ticket Is thus counted
twice.