CHAPTER XLIL

SHARPERS,   CONFIDENCE-MEN AND   BUNOO-STEEKERS — WIDE
OPEN  TRAPS-TRICKS OP "SAWDUST" AND  "GREEN-
GOODS"   DEALERS.

The Bunco-Steerer's Victims —Glib Talkers and Shrewd Thieves — Watching
Incoming Trains and Steamers — Accomplished Swindlers — Personal
Appearance of a Confldence Gang —^ Robbing the Same Man Twice —
Headquarters of Bunco Men — Plausible Stories — Different Forms of
Bunco Games — A Noted Bunco Operator — Hungry Joe and his Victims
— How a Confiding Englishman was Robbed — The Three Card Trick —
Arrest of "Captain Murphy's Nephew" —A Game of Bluff — Swindling
an Episcopal Clergyman — Pumping a Victim Dry — Working the Panel-
Game—A Green-Goods Man's Circular —The Spider's Instructions to the
Fly — Seeking a Personal Interview—Victims from the Rural Districts —
The Supreme Moment of the Game — Sliding Back the Panel and Chang¬
ing the Bags — Seeing the Victim off — Moral.

UNFORTUNATELY the temptation to take a hand in a
seemingly innocent game of chance can scarcely be re¬
sisted by most people. Men of standing and respectability,
including authors, politicians, divines, and even famous gen¬
erals of America and Europe, have thus become easy prey for
sharpers, and have been roundly fleeced by confidence-men and
bunco-steerers. The desire to beat the sharper at his own
game often leads the stranger on to his ruin.

The skfllful and accomplished operator hunts his dupe
among those of high life, while a lower order of these crimi¬
nals select the ignorant, and especially the gulUble countrymen
for their victims. It is a singular fact that while the rustic is
often a trifle suspicions in his dealings with thieves, men of
education and long experience are easily taken in by the glib-
tongued, nattily-dressed young man who shakes hands with
them so cordially on the street corner. The leading confidence-
men and bunco-steerers are an industrious set.    They are usu-

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