The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-02-17
ORIGIN OF WORD GRAFT"
Has Been Used for Many Years
Among Petty Western Gamblers.
Located by a Close Observer Along
Mexican and Canadian Frontiers
aud in a south Atlantic Town,

In 1873 or 1879 7 was with my
parents in one of the smaller towns of
one of the South Atlantic coast states.
writes William R. Luke, of Nashville,
Tenn. TO the New York sun. During
our residence there my family became
quite intimate with an 'aristocratic"
but impoverished family whom / shall
here call Price. In this family was a
son, a handsome. dashiHg but reckless
young fellow, whose dissolute habits
finally caused him TO be forced 70 leave
home to avoid criminal prosecution. His
return after an absence of more than
two years in the West well recoIIect.
as il furnished the only sensation can
recall during a three-year residence in
E He had sunk to the level Of q
common gambler, one Of the petty sort
that run game at county fairs and
such public affairs Henry Prices
game" was what / believe is now
called the greasy pig" selling TO over
conhding COuntrymCn and gullible
youths cakes Of shaving or other soap
about which bills of various denomina-
tions had previously apparently been
wrapped. often did I hear him refer
to his game" as his graft" 20 him
self as a CRATER" and to all his asso-
ciates among these petty tricksters as
'grafters;" but always the term was
confined to this one class of sharpers-
never to thieves nor real confidence
men, nor such gamblers as conduct
regular banking" or short card"
game; indeed, 1 received the idea that
its application was exclusively to those
persons who worked" the county and
State fairs then so popular throughout
the South and West-the 'thimble rig
gers" greasy pig," and "three-card
monte" men and such like gentry.
Some five years later, as a youth in
search of adventure. I found myself a
part of that human fiotsam and jetsam
to be found all along the Mexican
frontier. and along the borders Of civil
jzation as far North as Wyoming And
everywhere I heard of graft" and
"srafters,' still used in a restricted
sense, though now including the opera
lions of the petty confidence mantle
hard luck story" the hypothecating Of
'phony' jewelry, &c, but never includ-
ing the genuine gambler or the thief
OF any degree. After some years OF this
rowing I returned to my native State.
and graft" and "grafters" became
only a memory till one day in 1901.
while residing in a New England city.
met a man just returned from bust
ness visit of some months to Peoria
Ill. where he heard the word for the
first time, and used il as describing the
practice or practitioners OF every
known mode of deceiving for pecuniary
profit. The CRATER" according to
him, was in illinois, person who was
a sharper of any size. great or small,
but first of all that convincing indi-
vidUal of the promoter" type who sells
worthless stocks or other securities by
his ingenious and convincing argu-
mcnts.
In the same year I became a resident
Of this city. where 1 found the word in
quite general use everybody apparently
understanding its application as now
accepted all over the country. ] am
convinced that its application to cor
rupt politicians and business men is its
latest development and that, like young
Lochinvar. the word itself came TO us
"out of the West" as so many of our
typicaIly American words have come.