Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1860 — A. New Drop Game. [ARTICLE]

A. New Drop Game.

A new sort of “drop game,” we notice, has begun to be practiced in the various portions of the West, and we suppose we may look for its speedy introduction into this city. The game is about thus: “A well dressed man goes along the street of a place, and suddenly tumbles down in a fit. He gasps and writhes; and goes through all the symptoms in a manner that would do credit to an actor. Of course a sympathizing crowd gathers around; the unfortunate man recovers, and in return to a shower of questions, he tells a melancholy story of his destitution and ill health; that he is on his way home from Pike’s Peak, Kansas, or somewhere else, where all his family had, one after another, died; that he had been defrauded of his all by some legal trick or other; and how he had been obliged to leave the cars for want of money. He dismally moans out that his ankle is terribly sprained, and, having no money, he don’t know what on earth he shall do. Of course, no crowd can stand such a tale unmoved—their pockets are immediately opened and the desolate gentleman walks off with a pretty handsome sum, only to repeat the trick in some other place. The trick is practiced more extensively in country towns.