Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1891 — IT PAYS TO KEEP POSTED. [ARTICLE]

IT PAYS TO KEEP POSTED.

Old Games that Are Being Worked Every Ray In the Week. \ * . New York World. “People would save money by reading the papers,” said a Broadway policeman, commenting on the bogus check game, the fom-flam game, the overcoat and umbrella game, the bunco game, the green-goods game, the get-me-out-of-the-station-house game, the send-the-goods-home game and other common methods of swindling prevalent in New York. He had dropped into “The Owl” cigar store to notify the proprietor that a tall young man with a blond moustache was operating in that and to request that if the aforesaid young man should order a few boxe4 of cigars as Christmas presents fori his friends, delivered at his residence in a swell part of town, to do up th*j goods slowly enough to consume timtj enough to notify the headquarters o J the “Tenderloin” precinct. Thd name which would be given, he said, would be that of the real resident afl the address named, but the swindler would meet the delivery boy on- the front steps and get possession of the goods under some pretext or other. It was a game that had been worked somewhat extensively of late, and had been duly exposed, but as long as people didn’t read the newspapers they were liable to be caught. They wanted to catch the swindler. “You see,” he continued, in a philosophic mood, “no matter how thoroughly these tricks are exposed by the newspapers there are plenty of people to work ’em on. You’d think nobody of any sense could be buncoed, now wouldn’t you?* And yet there are lots more* being caught* that way than you ever hear of. A good many smart men and lots more smart women never read the newspapers—at least the police reports, Yhercnmes record. They think the papers shouldn’t print it, maybe,and yet the printing of such things saves many from being swindled. These swindlers are more afraid of the newspapers than they are of us, for if their games weren't made public, you know, they’d be swarms of ’em where there’s only one now. Yet it seems like nobody reads the newspapers when a chap like this can work such a racket, now don’t it? And all the other games, too—l tell yov if everybody would read the newspa pers it would save us a good deal o trouble and drive these swindlio games out of the market—yes would.” And with this bit of sount philosophy the big man in swung out and tacking down upon the Thirty-third street corner into 4 gang of toughs caused a sudden movement in all directions.