The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
CITY RUBEs.
FREDERIC j. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, ID. G.

! 4NCW Slly, lO."1H6 lQed,
usually SO popular with city people.
that all rubes live in the country,
seems to lack force in New York this
season. Too many people are being
cleverly separated from their small
change. For in the wake of the
crime wave has come an epidemic of
petty graft, to which the slsewd,
sophisticated New Yorker has sue
cumbed as easily as he did to last
years flu. showing himself to be
quite as gullible his rural relatives.
Hardened shopkeepers of long city
training have been buying fake furs
and paste jewels with reckless good
nature that would -astonish even a
suburb, and thousands of canny
Broadway residents have been con-
tributing to fake, causes with a senti-
/ mental abandon rarely exhibited by
the citizens of small town. In spite of
all the talk about money being tight,
beggars and fraud specialists are hav-
ing nicer time in New York this
year than they have ever had before.
| Here is the sort Of thing which is
constantly happening to enliven the
atmosphere along Broadway and
Fifth avenue.
| The other night. friend of the re-
porter, shrewd young business man
in Wall street. was on his way home
| dressed. welI-built stranger. who
stretched forth a gloved hand in de-
| lighted recognition.
Il don't suppose you remember me-"
said the unknown one, with an admir-
able mixture of cordiality and reserve,
| but l have seen you SO often on the
| street. I'm enjoyed N the next Of
| flee building, you know. Here is New
York we don't speak to people so
| readily as we do in my home town.
1NTaA I'd Ill
awfully lucky to run into you now, for
| I'm in need Of help. Just had an ac
cident ami had to haul my car into q
| garage about three blocks from here,
! and now I find I'm just five dollars
| short on the repair bill Worst of it
is 1 promised to meet my wife at the
station this afternoon. She'll be load
1 ed down with Christmas junk and
| won't have a cent left. AS soon as L
| caught sight of you, tho, it occurred
| me OUT
| A New Touch.
At this point, the stranger drew
| forth his wallet and disclosed a fat
roll of small bills
! I've got fifty-three dollars here
| he smiled drolly, but the repair bill
is fifty-eight' Then, with engaging
! frankness: II am going to ask you if
| you can let me have the extra five
| until tomorrow morning. 1 can run
| right over to your office from mine
! in few minutes and hand it back to
you.''
That's all right interrupted our
| friend uneasily, but agreeably, taking
a five spot from his much smaller roll
| Of bills. GLAD to let you have it.
I may need some help myself some
| time"
| And that was the end of the incl
| dent-except that the cordial stranger
has never been seen since, and~inquiry
in the next office revealed no Informal
| ton concerning him. But few days
later, the morning papers warned treir
readers about this particular form OF
| touch
1t is extraordinary to what lengths
the small fraud artist will go to OBJ
| tain five spot, as the young assistant
of well-known woman philanthro-
pist here can tell you. This young
woman was quietly cataloging in her
| office, the other day, when a nice
Hooking young man. with soft brown
/ eyes and neatly combed pompadour,
| attired in immaculate clothes, dashed
| excitedly in the door and asked to see
Mrs. J. the young woman's employer.
| Where is she?'' he demanded, his
face flushed apparently from the ex-
ertion oe running. Il must see her at
once. I ran all the way up here from
the hote' down the block. Gone to
| lunch? oh, I say. that's tough. Is
there any way L can reach her immed-
'iately-you see. I'm in a rather en-
barrassing predicament."
Pm afraid 1 don't know where she
is said the assistant. but she ought
to be back in about an hour"
| What am 1 to dor" exclaimed the
young man dramatically. perhaps
you can advise me. You see, I've asked
a girl to lunch, and when we were
seated at the table down there at the
hotel, 1 suddenly discovered I didn't
ElQ 80 n,
my other clothes. you know he ex-'
planned in evident embarrassment
I $50, knowing Mrs. j. very well,
thought I could just run up here and
get loan from her, but suppose it's
no use. I can't leave the young lady
waiting for an hour"
The Bogus Friend
The young assistant was sympa-
thetic. She thought the young man
looked very boyish and helpless, and
she felt sorry for the damsel, who was
about to be deprived of her luncheon
with him. So she took the fifteen
dollars he said he needed from
her own purse and insisted upon his
accepting it in perfect confidence
THAT he would return it, as he said he
would, the next afternoon.
But when Mrs. J. returned, the
lyoung assistant was dismayed to learn
that that good lady had never heard
lof Gavin Courtney, the name the
young man gave, nor did she know
tany young man who answered his de-
scription. A few days later, however,
when she described him to the police,
they seemed to be on quite familiar
terms with him.
! One of the most expensive cases of
fraud which recently occurred on Fifth
lavenue in the shopping district was
one in which that most sophisticated
of humans, a professional chauffeur,
was hoodwinked.
| The mans employer, a very wealthy
woman. had just removed her twenty
lthousand-dollar sable coat from stor-
age in a furrier's shop, and upon re-
turning to the car, left it in his care
while she continued her shopping. As
1.-THE chauffeur waited. a stranger saun-
tered up and engaged him in CONVEX
sation. about the town. the weather
land about various makes of cars. Then