Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1872 — Sharp Practice by Boys. [ARTICLE]

Sharp Practice by Boys.

Our citizens who attend the varions exhibitions from time to time at tbe City Hall, frequently ask themselves how all the boys get in the shows, and are at a loss for an answer. After careful observation, we have got so far into the secret as to be able to tell how some of them do it. ~ The capital needed to start the business in the first place is ten cents. With this the young sharper purchases balf-a-bar of soap, puts it in a paper and waits outside for a rush. With the rush he finds himself at the door, when the doortender stops him and«sks for his ticket. The young sharper says: “I just-went ont to get this soap for a man on the stage, and he’s in a hurry.” Not suspecting anything wrong, the door-tender permits him to pass in. When inside the lad takes his seat and pockets the soap for the next show which comes along. If the door-tender is changed through the evening the soap is dropped out of the window to an accomplice, and sharper No. 2 slides in on the “soap dodge.” Another trick which their ingenuity has invented is to direct a telegraph envelope to one of the performers on the stage, put it in a pass-book and make inquiries at the door for the actor to whom they have directed it. They are told by the doorkeeper to “go behind the curtain and deliver it.” They step inside, close the door after them, put the pretended dispatch and book in their pocket, and and see the show out. These dodges have been played at the City Hall in this city by the lads for months, and only by accident was tbe practice discovered by which the sharpest showmen traveling have been swindled. —Hudson (N. Y) Remitter.