TRICKS AND TRAPS 
 
 OP 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 "To be forewarned is to be forearmed." 
 
 PUBLISHED BY C. H. B&AINAB,D, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 ROSS & TOUSEY, NEW YORK, Wholesale Agents. 
 
 1 8 5 7. 
 
(Copyright Secured.) 
 
 TRICKS AND TRAPS 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW ORLEANS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 WESTERN RIVERS. 
 
 The design of this work is to expose the way in which 
 Strangers and Travellers are imposed upon and fleeced by 
 villains who infest the Crescent City and the conveyances 
 which float upon the Rivers leading thereto. It is presum- 
 ed, that with this little book for an eye-opener, adviser, and 
 guide, that any man who has brains, and will use them, may 
 pass over the whole ground unscathed, particularly if he 
 keep a civil tongue within his mouth, and bad liquor out 
 of it. 
 
 TRICKS AND TRAPS 
 
 OF 
 
 ST. LOUS, CHICAGO, 
 
 AND THB 
 
 IF" -A. ~JE\. "\7\7" 13 ST. 
 
 One object of this book is to ventilate the processes by 
 which unsuspecting people are duped and swindled in the 
 leading cities of the West ; but its chief aim is to instruct 
 the Emigrant how to avoid imposition on the route to his 
 new home, and particularly to expose the wiles, artifices, 
 frauds, and over Teachings of the Western land sharks and 
 land speculators. 
 
BRAIN ARCS 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 TRICKS AND TEAPS 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 "To be fore-warned is to be fore*armedv» 
 
 PUBLISHED Bt C. H. BRAINARD, 
 BOSTON, 
 
cuss ICS 
 
 A* 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1857, by 
 
 C. H. BRAINARD, 
 in the Clerk ; s Office of the District Court of the District of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 CONTENTS OF PART I. 
 
 Introductory Chapter, .... 5 
 
 Chapter 1 — Peter Funk Shops, - - - 10 
 
 Chapter 2— Patent-Safe Swindlers, - - 23 
 
 Chapter 3 — Pick-Poekets, both sexes, - 35 
 
 Chapter 4 — Garrotters and Highwaymen^ - 44 
 
 Chapter 5 — Gamblers and Gambling-Houses, 52 
 
 Valedictory, - 62 
 
 Electrotyped by E. W. Glover, 128 Washington St., Boston. 
 
 DURST 
 
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 
 
 When the subject of the Tricks and Traps of 
 New York city was given out to the gentlemen who 
 have in this little book entered upon their task so 
 happily, it was deemed possible to embrace all 
 that was necessary of instruction, illustration and 
 warning, in a volume of the size of the present ; 
 and as several gentlemen of worth and standing to 
 whom the plan of the work has been submitted, 
 had urged that it be published at a very low price 
 so as thereby to secure an immense circulation, it 
 was decided to publish it in a sixty-four page 32mo. 
 volume, at five cents per copy. 
 
 But the subject has grown upon the authors' 
 hands ; they have found it impossible to treat it 
 fully in so small a volume, without sacrificing to 
 mere matter-of-fact utility every particle of that 
 amount of wit and humor which is absolutely 
 requisite to make the book interesting ; and as 
 without the retention of these attractive character- 
 istics the work would in all probability fail of 
 accomplishing the object proposed — usefulness 
 and extensive publicity — the publisher has decided 
 to recommend to the' authors to take their own 
 course and do full justice to their theme — satisfied 
 that so long as the same number of pages and the 
 same amount of matter, will, under the present 
 plan be furnished at the price originally announ- 
 ced, the- friends of the project, as well as the pub- 
 
4 
 
 lie generally, will not complain of the issue of 
 half a dozen volumes should so many be deemed 
 
 necessary. 
 
 It was also supposed when this work was pro- 
 jected, that, like an Almanac, it would " answer 
 for any meridian ; " but though the examples and 
 teachings it presents are of such general applica- 
 tion as to make it of service every where, still dif- 
 ferences of custom and habit, but more especially 
 geographical and physical causes, render additional 
 issues suited to other localities necessary, in order 
 to form a work which shall, to use a popular 
 phrase, be " National not Sectional." With this 
 view, two other subjects, " The Tricks and Traps 
 of New Orleans and the Western Rivers ; and the 
 Tricks and Traps of St. Louis, Chicago, and the 
 Far West," (see second page of the covert, have 
 been taken in hand and will be issued shortly. 
 
 The publisher will be gratified to receive any 
 hints or suggestions from parties who may become 
 interested in the objects of this work — and is dis- 
 osed to pay a fair pi ice for any manuscript that 
 e can make serviceable. 
 
WHAT THIS BOOK IS MADE FOR. 
 
 Yankee land abounds in felicitous rascals. 
 
 If the production of highly finished scoundrels 
 ever becomes a matter of emulation among the 
 nations of the earth, patriotism, a national pride 
 in our country, and the undeniable facts in the 
 case lead us to assert, that America need yield the 
 palm to none ; and should there ever be a great 
 World Exhibition of Rogues, in which all nations 
 shall vie with each other in producing fine assort- 
 ments of scamps, we modestly claim in behalf of 
 our beloved city of New York the very first place 
 for its fine corps of swindlers. We admit that she 
 has not, perhaps, so large a per centage of dishon- 
 est men as other towns are able to boast, but we 
 humbly believe she could show as great a number 
 of hitherto unknown varieties of knaves ; she 
 could make so fine a display of seedling rogues, 
 so to speak, who have sprouted into unexpected 
 forms of rascality, and developed strange kinds of 
 vice, that society was totally unprepared for, that 
 we should beat all competition out of the field, 
 and our triumphant reprobates would walk away 
 with all the first prizes. 
 
 The world, however, has not yet progressed so 
 far in this direction that rascals have become cher- 
 ished objects of national loving kindness, or even 
 of popular commendation. It has not yet quite 
 reached that point towards which, however, it 
 
G 
 
 seems to be rapidly progressing, when rogues 
 shall be the almost universal rule, and honest men 
 the rare exceptions, for whom insane asylums 
 shall be provided and tears of commiseration be 
 shed by the pitying majority outside the bars. 
 The present tide of public op'inion sets the other 
 way, and just now the popular prejudice is in 
 favor of honesty and fair dealing. 
 
 Cheats and swindlers find their natural homes 
 in great cities, and New York, which possesses 
 ample accommodations for many thousands of 
 these amiable, but at present unpopular gentry, is 
 certainly overcrowded. 
 
 These differ somewhat in kind and quality, but 
 they have one common object — to live without work 
 upon the fat of the land, and put their hands in 
 the pockets of other people for money with which 
 to foot the bill. These tricksters, who live by 
 their dishonest wits, are sometimes so ingenious as 
 to provoke almost our admiration ; and so assidu- 
 ous -and persevering in the prosecution of their 
 illegal trades, that their attention to business 
 might be quoted as an example to those who in 
 honester walks of life are indolent and dilatory. 
 
 With the great robbers, the speculators of the 
 Exchange, the fraudulent bankrupts, the default- 
 ing bankers, the railway stock forgers, and other 
 game of that huge size, this little work has nothing 
 to do ; it proposess to deal only with the petty 
 rascals who infest the town ; to show up the two- 
 and-sixpenny thieves, and the small swindlers of 
 every kind who surround unsuspecting strangers 
 immediately upon their arrival in the city, and 
 take inexperienced victims before they have had 
 even time to shake off the country dirt from their 
 feet, and get their eyes fairly open to the superior 
 nastiness of New York mud. 
 
7 
 
 This book is addressed particularly to persons 
 of both sexes who are about making their first 
 visit to this metropolis, and its object is to put 
 them on the watch against the tricks and wiles of 
 the sharp-witted, small-scale cheats of the town — 
 to give them a knowledge of the swindlers they 
 will encounter at every turn, and the traps and 
 snares for which they must be constantly prepared 
 — to, in short, condense into a small space a great 
 deal of that valuable information which others 
 who have not been forewarned against these perils 
 of purse and pocket, have dearly bought with an 
 actual experience as mortifying as it is expen- 
 sive. 
 
 It is a very annoying circumstance to have 
 one's pocket picked without the satisfaction of 
 knowing who was the thief, and how the trick was 
 done ; but in that case one has the consolation of 
 feeling that in that at least he himself is not to 
 blame — but it is a most humiliating thing for a 
 man to be fooled out of his money by the Patent 
 Safe-Game, or the stuffed Pocket-Book dodge, and 
 to realize that his own verdant simplicity has con- 
 tributed more to his ensnaring than even the 
 shrewd cunning of his victimizers. 
 
 No man likes to write himself down an ass ; 
 but after he has bet, and of course lost, his last 
 dollar on the mysterious Thimble-Rig, he is very 
 likely to have full faith in the length of his own 
 ears, and will thereafter, whenever he meets one of 
 the donkey genus, feel instinctively constrained to 
 greet his assinine brother with a gentle bray of 
 recognition. To prevent, in some measure, the 
 increase in the land of this already too numerous 
 tribe, this book is sent forth — and if any self-con- 
 fident man, in glancing over its pages turns up 
 his nose in contempt at the various simple tricks 
 
8 
 
 by which other people have been gulled, and con- II 1^ 
 gratulates himself upon his own superior shrewd- II £00^ 
 ness, let that presumptuous individual beware — - 11 sofltf 
 the chances are ten to one, that that identical self- II warni 
 conceited person will on his first visit to New II again 
 York, before he has been twenty-four hours in the II Intel] 
 city, be victimized in more ways than he has got jl mere 
 buttons on his shirt, and will thereby cut his wis- il leagi 
 dom teeth at the cost of all his small change. 
 
 Let no one to whom these pages shall come, n try < 
 contemptuously reject the word of friendly caution, f A 
 however simple and unnecessary it may seem, for u wh( 
 it may always be turned to good account by per- Isisj 
 sons who are unskilled in the ways of the world ; 1 k 
 and our word for it, the farmer's boy who should lev 
 come to New York, thinking by pure mother wit Ik 
 alone to outgeneral the professional sharpers of 
 this interesting town, would stand an equal chance In 
 of success with that city youth, who, having no 
 knowledge of agriculture, should attempt to man- I 
 age a farm, and expect to raise abundant crops by 1 
 sowing wheat in the middle of August, or digging I 
 through the snow-drifts of December to plant his 
 early potatoes. 
 
 The plan of this diminutive volume will be to 
 take up, one by one, the different classes of scoun- 
 drels to whose arts strangers are the most ex- 
 posed, to give, as far as possible, the general char- 
 acteristics of their appearance and manner, to note 
 down the particular haunts infested by each ; to 
 give an exposure of their modes of doing busi- 
 ness, and to illustrate the whole by true anecdotes 
 of real adventures which have happened to ac- 
 quaintances of the writer ; or which have been 
 exposed from time to time in the newspapers, or 
 which may be found on the records of the various 
 police courts. 
 
9 
 
 It is hoped that no inconsiderable amount of 
 good may be accomplished in this manner ; that 
 some young girls may find herein words of useful 
 warning, which shall put them on their guard 
 against the wiles of the Fortune tellers — the sham 
 Intelligence office proprietors, and the other nu- 
 merous villains, of that class, who are always in 
 league with seducers and keepers of houses of ill 
 fame, and who find among unsophisticated coun- 
 try girls the easiest prey. 
 
 And it is also believed that many young men 
 who come here to go into business, or to see the 
 sights, and who would, perhaps, like hundreds of 
 their illustrious predecessors, be swindled out of 
 everything they possess, even to their boots and 
 breeches, may by these few well meant hints be 
 spared this mortification ; that they may be re- 
 minded to have their wits about them, and thus 
 have the satisfaction of beholding, at a fair and 
 honest price, all in the city that is worth looking 
 at ; and the writer trusts that this little book may 
 do something towards keeping all its readers from 
 moral detriment, or pecuniary loss while passing 
 that course of metropolitan experiences popularly 
 denominated " seeing the Elephant." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 PETER FUNK SHOPS. 
 
 The Peter Punks of New York have been so - 
 often described, and the various habits and tricks 
 of the animal so often noted, that it seems almost 
 a work of supererogation for us to set up our 
 finger-board to mark the characteristics of the un- 
 clean thing. But we have in our daily walks 
 through the city, seen so many convincing proofs 
 of their still existing rascality, that it is impossi- j 
 ble to cherish the fond hope that they have yet 
 been so put down as to be of little account. To 
 ignore the presence in our midst of these fellows, 
 would be like sitting down on a hornet's nest, and 
 while those amiable insects were stinging us to 
 madness, swearing that they were butterflies, and 
 that there was no such thing as a hornet in Ame* j 
 rica. Peter Punks do exist here in our most t 
 crowded streets, and on the most public corners. ' 
 Everywhere, in fact, where they can spread their | 
 impudent nets with any likelihood of entrapping ' 
 their verdant prey. 
 
 And the constantly recurring cases of Peter | 
 Funked countrymen, whose bad bargains in brass 
 ' watches and pewter jewelry, are every now and then 
 reported in the newspapers ; to say notbing of the 
 equally mortifying though not so expensive expe- 
 riences in dry goods and other articles, of their 
 more worldly wise brethren of the cities and large 
 
11 
 
 towns that are not so publicly reported, show con- 
 clusively the truth of the round old saying, that 
 "the fools are not all dead yet." 
 
 It is not for the benefit of this hopeless class 
 that this article is written — for a fool will be a 
 fool even should you drill a hole in the top of his 
 head, and pour in quarts of liquid wisdom through 
 a tin funnel ; but there are many people in the 
 world to whom a word in season will suffice to 
 place them on their guard against these beings who 
 should have been born sharks with leathery hides 
 and forked tails, but who, by some inexplicable 
 mistake of Dame Nature, are bipeds, parading 
 this mundane sphere in boots and breeches. Lest 
 the innocent persons for whose advantage these 
 lines are penned, should be ignorant even of the 
 meaning of the name " Peter Funk," it is best to 
 begin at the beginning and describe what a " Pe- 
 ter Funk "is. 
 
 The Peter Funk of the city is a small souled 
 pick-pocket ; he does not exactly cut through your 
 coat or pants, and insert his digits therein, but 
 under specious pretences he induces you to hand 
 over your purse to him, thus virtually making a 
 cat's-paw of your fist ; he. is a man who steals 
 your cash, but does it under a flimsy show of busi- 
 ness ; he inveigles you into an offer, and then 
 either sells you one article and delivers you an- 
 other which is inferior, or multiplies the price you 
 have proffered, and the quantity you engaged to 
 take. The wares he puts off upon his victims are 
 almost valueless and sometimes worse than noth- 
 ing. A man who is silly enough to buy a watch 
 of a Peter Funk auctioneer, is often stupid enough 
 to expend "money on it afterwards, in a vain en- 
 deavor to make it go ; when for all the good such 
 endeavors will effect, he might as well spend his 
 
12 
 
 superfluous cash in putting a balance wheel on a 
 clam-shell, and thereby trying to make it keep 
 good time. 
 
 The most notorious and noticeable of the Funks 
 are the Mock Auctioneers ; they have their offices 
 in the very heart of the city ; on Broadway, in 
 Chatham street, and the Bowery and other quar- 
 ters that would not be suspected. They make no 
 pretence of concealment, but open the doors of 
 their shops and bellow as lustily as if their busi- 
 ness was the most honest in the community. The 
 worst class deal principally in watches and gal- 
 vanized jewelry, which they sell as the genuine 
 articles to those unsuspecting strangers who step 
 into their stores in the hope of picking up a cheap 
 bargain. The watch the buyer carries off is cer- 
 tain to be a dummy (a. watch with no works inside) 
 or a galvanized composition article for which lie 
 has paid three times its value ; and all jewelry 
 that comes from these establishments is utterly 
 worthless and false. 
 
 The Peter Funk is generally a flashily dressed 
 man, with a profusion of jewelry about his per- 
 son, and his den has the appearance often 
 of a most respectable place of business. He is 
 always surrounded by a number of persons who, 
 when a stranger enters, are actually engaged in 
 bidding against each other with the greatest appa- 
 rent eagerness, as if each was afraid of losing a 
 rare bargain. These individuals are "decoys/ or 
 mock bidders, who are hired by the chief of the 
 establishment to act the part of bona fide custom- 
 ers. They are all carefully " got up " for the 
 purpose, and disguise themselves as respectable 
 people in many ways. One will appear with the 
 black garments and white cravat of a preacher, 
 and will preserve the long face and sanctimonious 
 
13 
 
 deportment befiting the gravest of the cloth, — 
 another will come out in the garb of a quaker, 
 with drab habiliments and wide hat, and will 
 " thee " and " thou " his fraternal rascals with as 
 an honest a face as if he were not the greatest 
 scamp of them all ; while another will be dressed 
 as a country farmer and will do iniquitous service 
 in homespun and hob-nails. There is no church 
 in the city where there is less appearance of row- 
 dyism than that in some of the Peter Funk auc- 
 tion shops. Any thing that would be likely to 
 cause a person to suspect that he was in the com- 
 pany of sharpers would be ruinous to the business 
 and is therefore most carefully avoided. 
 
 To give the uninitiated individual an idea of 
 their mode of doing business, let us suppose a 
 scene. Imagine a neatly fitted up shop, the most 
 prominent feature of which is the " boss devil, ' 
 in shape of the auctioneer. This person attired 
 in the glossiest of broadcloth, the whitest of linen, 
 the shiniest of boots and the choicest of jewelry, 
 is perched upon a stand with a watch in his hand, 
 the excellence of which he is lauding at the top of 
 his voice, occasionally stopping his rapid talk to 
 open and display the article he has to sell. 
 
 Around the room are distributed the " decoys " 
 or " ropers in," who look as respectable as so 
 many missionaries or hard-working farmers in 
 their Sunday clothes. They are chatting among 
 themselves in slang terms, cracking their jokes 
 with each other in the most loaferish friendly 
 way, until suddenly a customer heaves in sight, 
 when their whole demeanour changes instantly 
 and they behave as if they were perfect strangers 
 to each other. 
 
 As soon as the hoped for customer is in, the 
 auctioneer redoubles his laudations of his watch, 
 
14 
 
 and offers it for the inspection of the crowd ; it is 
 passed from hand to hand, and comments are 
 made by the " decoys " especially intended for the 
 ears of the new comer, after this fashion : " Fine 
 watch " eighteen carat gold " genuine John- 
 son movement ; " " cheap as dirt ; " " splendid bar- 
 gain ; " " the man don't know what he is selling 
 "worth any man's $200." At last it reaches the 
 hand of the customer, Young Innocence, who has 
 heard every word of all this ; if he is not a judge 
 of watches he is very likely to trust the opinions 
 of so many men who appear to be strangers to 
 each other, and to have no interest in praising an 
 article which does not belong to them ; if on the con- 
 trary he chances to be able to tell a good watch 
 when he sees one, he takes a careful look at it 
 himself and discovers that it is in reality an ex- 
 cellent time-piece, and also observes that none of 
 those around him who arc bidding against each 
 other are offering half the real value of the thing. 
 He is, therefore, most likely impressed at once 
 with the idea of getting an excellent bargain, and 
 turning a pretty penny by buying a really valua- 
 ble article for half price. 
 
 Young Innocence accordingly joins in the bid- 
 ding, which is of course kept up againt him with 
 much spirit, the decoys being however exceeding 
 careful to have the watch finally struck off to the 
 stranger. He overjoyed with his bargain at once 
 hands over his money. 
 
 Now comes the grand secret of the whole trans- 
 action. The watch exhibited for sale was a genu- 
 ine article of high value. As soon however, as it 
 is knocked off to his customer, the auctioneer, 
 with a most bland smile and obsequious manner 
 insists upon putting it in a box and tying it up 
 nicely. In doing this he changes watches, substi- 
 
15 
 
 tuting for the " genuine Johnson," a plated brass 
 one of similar appearance, but which, instead of 
 being worth $200, would be dear at twenty cents 
 a peck. 
 
 Young Innocence, suspecting nothing, goes 
 away rejoicing ; and when he finds out his mis- 
 take either concludes that the experience is worth 
 the money, and so hides his mortification and 
 shame in his own bosom ; or else braying a report in 
 the morning papers, he speeds to the police office 
 and obtains an officer to go with him to the Funk 
 Shops and try to get his money back. In this he 
 is sometimes partially successful, and after much 
 trouble, and a good round fee to the officers, he 
 may recover half what he invested. 
 
 Sometimes the victim gets his wrath up to con- 
 cert pitch, and resolving to take it out in dry 
 knocks, proceeds to the place to kick up a huge 
 row ; in which event Young Innocence is sure to 
 have the worst of it. In that case the hangers-on 
 of the establishment set upon him ; the parson- 
 looking man will pick his pocket, while the Quaker 
 punches his head ; and they often finish such a 
 customer by contriving to have him arrested by 
 some accommodating police officer, and carried off 
 to cool his ire in the Tombs. 
 
 This is a short history of the commonest game 
 of the Mock Auctioneer ; and although the story 
 has been told a thousand times, and printed on 
 thousands of sheets and diffused through all the 
 land, still hundreds are fooled every year by the 
 same process, and probably will continue to be 
 until some generation of men is born into the 
 world with their wisdom teeth ready cut, as the 
 following incident makes evident : — 
 
 A few years since, just after some outrageous 
 cases of Mock Auction swindling, the Mayor of 
 
16 
 
 this city employed met to parade up and down 
 Broadway, with signs upon poles, bearing the 
 words " Beware of Mock Auctions." Before the 
 most notorious den of all he stationed a trusty 
 policeman, with the largest sign of the lot, " Be- 
 ware of Mock Auctions ! ! ! ! ! " — and into this 
 very place, and on the first day of the banner- 
 men's appearance, walked a green-horn and got 
 victimized ; giving as a reason, when making his 
 complaint, that as the standard. bearer was a po- 
 liceman, and stationary, he thought it was all the 
 other auction shops he was to beware of — he 
 judged in this case, doubtless as he had of Patent 
 Medicines, that those are most genuine which are 
 the heaviest labelled with " Beware of Counter- 
 feits.' ' The next day every Peter Funk had his 
 own private standard-bearer ; and so great a laugh 
 was raised against the Mayor out of this incident 
 that he let the Peter Funks alone for the rest of 
 his term. Verily it is harder to shield some per- 
 sons from harm, than it is to " keep a moth from 
 a candle." 
 
 Two cases which have fallen under the writer's 
 direct observation will serve to illustrate the sub- 
 ject, and to show the practical workings of the 
 Mock Auction dodge. 
 
 A young man, named Charles Wilbor, who has 
 since outgrown his greenness and become amply 
 able to take care of himself, came down to New 
 York from the undiscovered wilds of Rhode 
 Island, to see the town, and learn as to the truth 
 of all the stories he had heard about " York." 
 Charley was a pretty clever fellow so long as he 
 staid in the country — he could chop as much cord- 
 wood, or plant as many potatoes in a day as any 
 of his inches ; he was an acknowledged beau at 
 the husking frolics and parm' bees, and at the 
 
17 
 
 spelling-schools he reckoned himself hard to beat, 
 and had on sundry occasions " spelt down " the 
 whole school. Charley was, in his own estimation 
 at least (and he hasn't got over it yet) an exceed- 
 ingly cute chap. 
 
 Well, Charley got tired of farm work and de- 
 termined to visit the city and see the sights. The 
 village tailor equipped him in a suit that was 
 fearfully and wonderfully made ; the paternal Wil- 
 bour gave him a hundred and twenty dollars, and 
 down he came. The very first day of his sojourn 
 in the metropolis he dropped into an auction shop, 
 where a gentlemanly looking man was selling 
 watches. The gentlemanly looking man " spot- 
 ted " Charley instanter, for his verdancy was pal- 
 pable ; he was in fact, so very green that his ap- 
 pearance excited country emotions in the breasts 
 of sundry Vermont stage horses, and they evinced 
 a strong desire to go and lie down in the shade of 
 him. But Charley thought he was smart, and 
 thoroughly believed in his own wide-awake-a-tive- 
 jness, and power of outwitting any city sharpers 
 who might make a set at him. 
 
 Into the shop strolled the Rhode Island inno- 
 cent, and immediately the Peter Funk and his at- 
 tendant sprites scented their victim. 
 
 Charley looked around with an air of bashful 
 "cuteness," as if he wanted them to understand 
 that it was no use trying to fool him. Seeing 
 however a set of respectable and grave persons 
 about him, he was soon completely off his guard. 
 
 It is of no use to detail the exact particulars of 
 his victimization. Suffice it to say, that the long- 
 haired Charley, the gay beau of Little Cowtown, 
 was completely taken in. He left behind him a 
 hundred and " eleven dollars, in return for which 
 lie carried away a watch which would no more 
 
18 
 
 keep tinio than a town pump, and which was worth 
 
 about four cents a pound, by weight. Moreover, 
 one of the Funks followed him and made him 
 redeem a Jersey ten dollar bill, on which there 
 was five per cent, discount. 
 
 Charley went into a jeweller's shop to buy a 
 key ; Charley bought a key — Charley tried to 
 wind his watch, but the watch wouldn't wind — 
 he might as well have tried to wind up a county 
 court-house. Charley discovered he was sold and 
 resolved on vengeance ; he would go and demand 
 that Funk should make restitution or he would 
 make a row ; he thought his brawny arms, which 
 had been developed by country labor, would be 
 amply sufficient to maul the aforesaid Peter. So 
 Charley hastened to the shop, hoping to arrive 
 there before the respectable customers who had bid 
 against him departed ; for he meant to charge 
 Peter with fraud, and appeal to these men who 
 were spectators of the transaction to see him right- 
 ed. To Charley's great delight he found the same 
 set of customers present ; by some lucky accident, 
 so it seemed to him, none of them had gone ; so 
 Charles counted on speedy justice. 
 
 Charley walked in and demanded his money 
 back ; Peter couldn't think of it — Charley in- 
 sisted — Peter was firm — Charley told Peter that 
 if he did not restore the money he would be 
 thrashed ; Peter thought not ; Charley was sure of 
 it, and began to take off his coat. Peter stood un- 
 moved — Charley had got his coat off, he handed 
 it to a quiet looking man who seemed to regard 
 him as an injured individual; then he asked Peter 
 for the money — Peter didn't think it could be 
 done — Charley took off his vest and handed it to 
 the friendly gentleman — then he asked for the 
 
 money — Peter thought not — Charley took off his 
 
19 
 
 cravat and handed it to the quiet man — then he de- 
 manded his money — Peter thought not — Charley 
 took off his shirt collar and gave it to the quiet 
 man— then he asked for his hundred and eleven dol- 
 lars — Peter thought not — Charley then rolled up 
 his sleeves and for the " last time " asked for his 
 money, Peter still thought not. Then Charley made 
 a rush at Peter, intending to smash him, but all 
 the quiet gentlemen "thought not" this time; 
 one tripping Charley's foot — his fist went into the 
 counter; the rest set upon him, and in a few min- 
 utes his head was battered so that he could not 
 l ave told his face from nine pounds of raw beef. 
 Then he was pitched out of the back-door, the 
 I uiet gentleman who held his clothes giving him 
 a parting kick as he went over the threshold. 
 
 The door was instantly bolted, and Charley 
 found himself in the street, minus all his money 
 and half his clothes, and his head one universal 
 damage. He luckily found a friend who took care 
 of him, and provided him with funds to return 
 home. He eventually returned to this city and is 
 earning a good living in a respectable capacity ; 
 is thoroughly posted in New York rascality, and 
 particularly well informed on the subject of Mock 
 Auctions and Peter Punks. 
 
 The Peter Funks, however, do not always come 
 off first best. Some years since, the mate of an 
 Eastern vessel having been taken in by some of 
 these rascals, squeezed dry and pitched out of their 
 shop, returned shortly with a crew of his brother 
 mates, and closing and bolting the doors, the sea- 
 men gave all inside a regular mellowing ; unfor- 
 tunately, however, including in the number a very 
 respectable gentleman from Michigan, who like 
 poor Tray, was found in bad company ; coming 
 out from the Funk den, the leader of this band of 
 
20 
 
 Retributionists turned to the listening policeman, 1} 
 (who on the occasion of his former visit, had seen f 
 him ejected from the premises without saying a | 
 word except to advise him to " be off, and make , 
 no further disturbance/') and told him he was a | 
 Funk, and he should receive the same sauce if he | 
 opened his clam-shell or laid his finger on one of 
 the party ; and the delighted crowd taking their 
 part, the now perfectly satisfied Tar-Tar and his 
 company, after giving three rousing cheers, de- 
 parted unmolested and triumphant. 
 
 The other case referred to, was that of a very 
 respectable druggist belonging to one of the larg- 
 est cities of New England, who, since the writing 
 of the Introductory Chapter to this work, came to 
 New York and got victimized. He was a well 
 educated and well read man, and took the New 
 York papers ; but despite all this and the knowl- 
 edge he had gained of city life over his own coun- 
 ter, he took a new lesson in our huge school ot 
 nature to add to his fifty years' experience of hu- 
 man vileness. In a self-sacrificing spirit he de- 
 tailed his mishap to the writer, requesting that the 
 incident should be published in this little book for 
 the benefit of the very class of self-confident indi- 
 viduals to whom the Introductory Chapter refers, 
 and among the chief of which he considers him- 
 self entitled to be ranked. 
 
 Dr. Pill-cochia had finished his business ready 
 to take the evening boat home, and to kill time 
 took a stroll in Broadway ; passing by several of 
 the Mock Auction shops, and smiling in pity on 
 the verdants he saw therein, he came to a very 
 respectable looking Dry Goods store, with a red 
 flag hanging outside, and not a Minnie Rifle shot 
 from the Park, when " shawls at only 56 cents," 
 struck his ear ; he stopped and stepped confidently 
 
21 
 
 in, and there sure enough were good sized and 
 handsome summer shawls " going at 56 ; " in- 
 tending to purchase some presents for his country 
 nieces, he " went in " with the crowd, and at his 
 bid of 60 cents down came the hammer, with a 
 " How many, sir ? " " One box/' was the reply. 
 " Mr. Cash takes a box at sixty. Who takes 
 another ? " Dr. Pill-cochia stepped up briskly to 
 the very respectable appearing clerk at the highly 
 poiished black-walnut desk, and laid down one of 
 Uncle Sam's gold eagles ; this was immediately 
 
 I snatched up, and a bill for " One box, 10 shawls, 
 $60," thrust under his nose. " My bid was 60 
 cents a shawl/' says the Deacon, in a very decided 
 tone, u and I shall neither accept the goods or pay 
 the bill." " You will not ? " rejoined the yery 
 indignant clerk. " Why, my good sir, you look 
 like a business man, and do you pretend to say 
 that you expected to buy such shawls as those for 
 
 | 60 cents a-piece ? The thing is preposterous on 
 the face of it. What hotel do you stop at, I shall 
 send up the package and insist that the bill be 
 
 ! paid." Such a procedure and exposure, if com- 
 ing to the ears of his waggish friends at home, 
 would have cost Deacon P. the entire yearly 
 receipts of his soda fountain ; so the finale was 
 
 ( that he took away two shawls at $6 each, such as 
 he could have bought of his next door neighbor 
 
 (at S3. 25, and abandoned the remaining dollars of 
 his gold eagle to the auctioneer to pay the expense 
 and commissions for re-selling the rest of his pur- 
 
 ' chase. " Let him that standeth take heed lest he 
 fall," is the advice the Deacon freely gives to his 
 friends bound to New York. 
 
 In a like spirit of self-sacrifice, the writer of this 
 particular paragraph admits, that several years 
 
 j since he himself had half a million of needles 
 
'22 
 
 stuck into him by a very skillful New York auc- 
 tioneer and his three assistants, when truly he had 
 bargained for but a thousand ; he makes this con- 
 fession with a view to induce others whose experi- 
 ence in various ways, if detailed in this work, 
 would serve the public" good, to send in their nar- 
 ratives to the publisher ; and he has not a doubt 
 if a tithe of those " who could tell a tale " would 
 come forward, the company would be very respect- 
 able in numbers, at least. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 POCKET-BOOK DROPPERS, THIMBLE-RIGGERS, 
 AND PATENT-SAEE SWINDLERS. 
 
 Probably the greatest fools in this clusty vale 
 of tears, are two-and-sixpenny knaves ; men silly 
 enough to be constantly endeavoring to overreach 
 their fellow-travellers in this piggish world, by 
 low cunning and petty meanness, and small tricks 
 contemptible enough to cause the cheek of an 
 honest man to blush with shame, and make him 
 want to box, the ears of grand-mother Eve for 
 having brought into the world such a scurvy set 
 of brats. 
 
 There is one comfort about the thing, however, 
 which is that these would-be smart chaps are not 
 unfrequently caught in their own traps, and some- 
 times cut their own fingers with the tools they 
 have carefully sharpened for somebody else. — 
 That's the time when honest men must rejoice, 
 and throw up their caps, and kick up their heels 
 and have a good time generally. Eor there is 
 never known a jolly good fellow of the right 
 stamp who sees a rogue fairly caught and exposed 
 in a little bit of scampism without feeling a strong 
 disposition to indulge in hilarious fancy horn- 
 pipes, to an extent that would make his heels as 
 tender as first love, and his knee-pans rattle like 
 
24 
 
 a quarter's worth of small change in a wooden 
 contribution-box. 
 
 These few remarks are a fitting prelude to our 
 little sermon on Pocket Book Droppers and 
 Thimble-Riggers, and the Patent- Safe Games ; 
 and if the reader does not see the relevancy 
 thereof before we get to " seventeenthly," he'd 
 better step up to the Captain's office and get his 
 money back, for we can assure him that he hasn't 
 got sense enough to get his five cents' worth out 
 of this little volume. 
 
 The reason why these remarks, remarkable as 
 they are for " solid chunks" of wisdom, and for 
 their winning and particularly jolly gracefulness, 
 are appropriate upon this occasion, is this : — No 
 man, boy or green-horn was ever yet victimized 
 by the Pocket-Book Droppers, the Thimble-Rig- 
 gers, or the Patent-Safe men, who didn't have so 
 strong a spice of the scamp in his own composi- 
 tion as to think he was coming a sure and profit- 
 able swindle upon some one not up to his own 
 level of sharpness and treachery. These three 
 games are all levelled at that particular trait of 
 human nature which makes men desire to grab 
 and pocket somebody's spare cash, without ren- 
 dering an equivalent therefor ; and the very rea- 
 son why so many persons are losers by them, is 
 that the great majority of mankind are so highly 
 seasoned with roguery that it comes to the sur- 
 face with the slightest provocation. There are 
 hundreds of men pretending to be civilized, who 
 although they wouldn't commit murder or high- 
 way robbery, and probably wouldn't pick pockets 
 for fear of being detected in that fashionable re- 
 creation, would, nevertheless, pocket a man's last 
 dime without remorse, if they could get hold of 
 it under color of a bet or a bargain. One of the 
 
25 
 
 permitted amusements of a good Christian is to 
 keep a sharp eye on these would-be-sharpers, and 
 to laugh clean down to his toe-nails when he sees 
 one of them out-sharped ; and great is the rejoic- 
 ing of his charitable heart when he beholds those 
 who go out for wool come home shorn. 
 
 Pocket-Book Dropping may be almost consid- 
 ered as one of the by-gones ; it being very seldom 
 attempted except in cases of very aggravated ver- 
 dancy on the part of the victim. It is always 
 done in the same manner, and the tools necessary 
 for the perfect performance of this little comedy 
 are a green-horn, one, or perhaps two sharpers, 
 and an old pocket-book full of counterfeit or 
 broken bank bills. 
 
 Perhaps the best way to give an idea of the 
 plan, is to detail the experience of an individual 
 whom we will call Ned Underbill, and which one 
 circumstance is only one of twenty years' series 
 of verdant things in which Underbill aforesaid, 
 has been engaged all his life. 
 
 When Ned first came to New York, in 1849, 
 ; before he had got the hay- seed out of his hair, he 
 was one day strolling up Chatham street, admir- 
 ing the manifold curiosities of that Israelitish lo- 
 cality. He had resolutely repulsed all the hook- 
 nosed Hebrews, who wanted him to buy second- 
 hand clothing, and, with a hard-heartedncss, which 
 has utterly deserted him later in life, had shown 
 himself proof against the seductions of a black- 
 eyed Jewess, who had tried to persuade him that 
 a pair of pantaloons, big enough for half a dozen 
 Scotch giants rolled into one, were just the thing 
 for him, "the tip-top of the fashion and a sphlen- 
 did fit," when suddenly a pocket-book was drop- 
 ped at his feet, and as suddenly picked up by a 
 
26 
 
 well-dressed young man who was apparently in a 
 furious hurry. 
 
 The well-dressed young man asked Ned if it 
 was his pocket-book. The devil in Ned's checked 
 shirt-bosom suggested that he should say " Yes," 
 and pocket the book without further question, but 
 somehow he actually said " No," a piece of un- 
 premeditated honesty which quite took him by 
 surprise. The well-dressed young man walked by 
 his side, and opened the treasure, disclosing to the 
 astonished gaze of Ned a number of bills of the 
 denomination of tens, twenties and fifties. 
 
 " Very strange," said the stranger, " here, I 
 must leave the city on the first train, and what to 
 do with this money I really don't know. There 
 seems to be several hundred dollars of it ; it will 
 of course be advertised in the morning, and a large 
 reward offered ; it's too bad that I can't stay to 
 get it ; no one will think of offering less than one 
 hundred dollars for the recovery, and I must go to 
 New Haven on the next train, for my poor uncle 
 is dying." 
 
 Ned couldn't volunteer any aid, for he didn't 
 feel exactly delicate about offering to relieve the 
 man either of his newly found treasure or his 
 dying uncle. But a sudden thought came to the 
 stranger, and he acted upon it instantly. Turn- 
 ing to Ned, he again spoke, " See here, friend, 
 you look like an honest man, and I feel that I can 
 trust this matter with you. I'll give you this 
 monev, and divide the reward with you. Give 
 me fifty dollars, and in the morning you can re- 
 store it to the owner and pocket the full reward." 
 
 This suited Ned's complaint exactly, but he 
 hadn't the fifty ; however, he raked out twenty- 
 seven dollars and a silver watch, which he passed 
 over to the accommodating stranger, and received 
 
27 
 
 the pocket-book, while the man with the dying 
 uncle made tracks into the dim distance. 
 
 The honest Underbill tucked the treasure under 
 his checked shirt, hugged it to his heart, fully in- 
 tending to appropriate the entire amount to his 
 own private use, and hurried to his room at his 
 cheap Greenwich street tavern, where he locked 
 himself in and proceeded to count his treasure- 
 trove. 
 
 The sequel can of course be imagined. There 
 were bank bills to the amount of two hundred dol- 
 lars, Wild Cat Michigan money, broke all to flin- 
 ders fourteen months before, and worth about a 
 dollar and a half a ton. The remaining bulk was 
 made up of fly-leaves torn out of a shilling Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 My gentle Edwin was sold ; my gentle Edwin 
 forgot his gentleness and swore fearfully ; but no 
 amount of profanity, however excusable under 
 the circumstances, could bring back that twenty- 
 seven dollars, good money — could restore that 
 silver watch, or give him a single minute's private 
 interview with the gentleman who was in such a 
 hurry to get to New Haven to see his respected 
 uncle kick the bucket. 
 
 This is the whole mystery of the pocket-book 
 game ; the complete thing reduced to a point — 
 the entire secret boiled down to half a gill, so that 
 it can be taken at a dose, and thoroughly cure our 
 readers of any liability to be imposed upon and 
 humbugged by New York Pocket-Book Droppers. 
 
 THE THIMBLE-RIG DODGE. 
 
 The Thimble-Rigger is a bird of passage ; that 
 is to say, he is continually on the wing. He is 
 particularly prevalent about race-courses, cricket- 
 
28 
 
 grounds, and wherever there may be an idle crowd 
 collected away from the city, with a spare sprink- 
 ling of green-horns in it ; and it is only the very 
 green ones who arc verdant enough to be taken in 
 by him, for the very appearance of the man is 
 enough, in most cases, to deter a person with even 
 a scanty allowance of brains from risking any 
 spare cash on the " little joker." The imple- 
 ments used in this game are very simple, and con- 
 sist of a little stand, three thimbles and a little 
 ball about the size of a small pea. Not unfre- 
 quently the operator dispenses with the stand 
 altogether, and uses his knee instead. He puts 
 the pea under one of the thimbles in the full sight 
 of everybody, changes it from one to another a 
 few times, and then in a confident voice, challen- 
 ges any one to bet under which thimble the pea, 
 or " little joker " is. He has a little bit of leger- 
 demain by means of which he changes the pea 
 from one thimble to another imperceptibly, and 
 in a manner absolutely impossible to be detected 
 by inexperienced eyes. It therefore follows, that 
 if a man is so confident that he knows the exact 
 whereabouts of the " little joker," that he is will- 
 ing to bet his money on it, he must inevitably 
 lose. The sharper in moving the pea about from 
 one position to another, unconsciously, to all ap- 
 pearances, allows the bystanders to see him, in ap- 
 parently the fairest manner possible, place it un- 
 der one of the thimbles. Some victim, then, think- 
 ing to take advantage of what appears to him an 
 inadvertance on the part of the gambler, offers to 
 stake a certain amount of money that he can point 
 out the position of the little ball. The sharper at 
 once puts up the cash, and when the green one 
 with a triumphant smile points out the thimble 
 which as he supposes covers the nimble little 
 
29 
 
 sphere, to his great astonishment it has disap- 
 peared and is discovered snugly concealed under 
 an unsuspected thimble, whither it has been cun- 
 ningly conveyed by the quick finger and thumb 
 of the gambler. The thimble-rigger is always 
 surrounded by a few fellows who are confederates, 
 and whose business it is to encourage outsiders to 
 risk their money, and also to protect their princi- 
 pal in case of any muss. 
 
 Frank Otter, an ugly looking specimen of back- 
 wood's humanity, was victimized by the thimble- 
 rig game. After he had resided two years and a 
 half in this city ; so deep -seated was the natural 
 greenness in his system, it seemed to be constitu- 
 tional ; and although he is now a jour printer of 
 moderate repsectability, there is still a strong dash 
 of the old-time verdancy in his character. 
 
 Frank went to the Long Island race course, 
 where he encountered a knight of the thimble. 
 Frank had heard of the game before, but Frank 
 thought himself so particulary up to snuff that he 
 was perfectly safe ; so Frank stood by to see the 
 game go on, and see if he could follow the " little 
 joker " on his travels, and mark his stopping places 
 every time. The Artful Dodger, who was regard- 
 ing him with a speculative eye, humored his cus- 
 tomer, and in five minutes Frank thought he had 
 got the hang of the thing completely — he laughed 
 long and loud at the wrong guesses of several of 
 the by-standers fwho he afterwards found were 
 
 Eartners in the game), and complimented himself 
 ugely on his sagacity. So certain was he that 
 he had caught the trick, that at last he bet a ten 
 spot to prove the accuracy of his observation. 
 Frank lost of course. Perceiving that he had been 
 swindled he determined on revenge, speedy and 
 effective — to that end he with commendable 
 
30 
 
 promptness and presence of mind, knocked the 
 Thimble-Rig-man about four rods, with a single 
 blow of his fist, for he had a hand like a quarter 
 of beef, and a foot like a range of leather moun- 
 tains. 
 
 The belligerant printer, however, only got one 
 single broadside into the enemy, before he was 
 boarded by the whole crew, who pummelled him 
 till his face looked as if somebody had used his 
 head to fight bumble-bees with. He found his 
 way to a low shop where he bathed his face in rum 
 to take out the swelling. It is supposed that he 
 must accidentally have swallowed some of the 
 liquor, for he was found two days after by a watch- 
 man trying to unlock the Crystal Palace with a 
 night-key, so that he could go to bed in the dome. 
 
 We need hardly caution those who peruse this 
 pamphlet, never to bet on the Thimble- Rig Game, 
 for we earnestly believe that those who have cau- 
 tion enough to invest five cents in this book, and 
 sense enough to read it, will have too much of 
 both to be gulled by the shallow swindling of the 
 New York Thimble-Riggers. 
 
 THE PATENT-SAFE GAME. 
 
 Safe, safe, Patent-Safe, what does he mean, I 
 wonder ? There you go, young Innocence, think- 
 ing of Herring's Fire Proof, or Wilder's Patent 
 Salamander, I'll be bound. The Safe to which I 
 refer, is no such cumbrous and ponderous ma- 
 chine, but a most ingenious little device to do 
 spoonies out of their funds. The "Patent Safe," 
 frequently called the " Mexican Puzzle," and 
 sometimes known as the " Chinese Balls," is a 
 small ivory or wooden ball, having two concealed 
 apartments ; the sufferer, however, knows nothing 
 
31 
 
 of the existence of the second one, until the in- 
 stant he discovers that he has been cleverly duped 
 by a pair of confederate sharpers. 
 
 The manner of using it is as follows : one of 
 the swindlers having made the acquaintance of 
 the intended victim, induces him to make a short 
 pleasure excursion for an hour or tw o, to the 
 Elysian Fields, at Hoboken, to Greenwood, to 
 Statcn Island, or some near by retired spot. Once 
 there they fall in with the other swindler, who af- 
 fects to be a stranger to both of them, and in the 
 course of conversation this latter person produces 
 the " Safe," and exhibits it as a curiosity. Open- 
 ing one of the secret compartments, he shows a 
 little bit of paper enclosed therein. The other 
 scamp now borrows the little instrument, and in 
 the sight of the stranger he opens it and takes out 
 the piece of paper, and throws it away, the owner 
 of the ball in the meantime looking the other way 
 or engaging himself with something else. 
 
 The safe is now returned to the owner, and his 
 confederate commences bantering him for a bet, 
 about the piece of paper inside. A bet is eventu- 
 ally made up between the two, and the owner of 
 the safe puts up his money, when the other one 
 discovers that he has not enough by a hundred or 
 two dollars to cover the amount. He accordingly 
 proposes to borrow of the stranger that amount 
 for just five minutes, proposing to give him half 
 the winnings. The victim having seen the paper 
 abstracted, and of course feeling confident that 
 his companion will win and repay him at once, 
 immediately hands him over the cash. The owner 
 of the ball now opens the second compartment, 
 and produces another piece of paper, thus winning 
 the bet ; he then at once makes off with the money, 
 and divides with his companion, who soon con- 
 
32 
 
 trivcs to rid himself of the stranger, who being now 
 squeezed as dry as a lemon, is of no further use. 
 The spoils are divided, mid the despoiled sufferer 
 has to grin and bear it. 
 
 This is the modux operandi of the "Patent 
 Safe." There are of course some slight varia- 
 tions from this formula, but the general features 
 as thus given will apply to most eases. It is one 
 of the many Confidenee games by which unwary 
 strangers are fleeced, and which are so called from 
 the fact that the swindlers first make the acquaint- 
 ance, and secure to a certain extent, the confidence 
 of his proposed game. The most ingenious de- 
 vices are resorted to by this class of sharpers to 
 ingratiate themselves into the good opinion of de- 
 sirable strangers with big money bags. They dis- 
 play a perseverance, which in another calling 
 would be most praiseworthy. If a Confidence man 
 was a tinker, and exhibited half the enterprise in 
 the legitimate exercise of that gay business that 
 he does in robbing honester people, he could in a 
 year make tin pans enough to shingle America, or 
 construct a pile of copper tea-kettles that would 
 rival in size the old he-Pyramid itself. They mani- 
 fest a wonderful tact — laying their plans deep, 
 and always contriving to spring the trap when 
 their victim becomes ripe for their purpose by 
 having a large sum of money with him. Some 
 of them make a systematic business of it, sparing 
 no money or pains, or time, to thoroughly secure 
 the confidence of the man they want to plunder, 
 the object being to throw him completely off his 
 guard ; many a man lives for days on terms of 
 jovial good fellowship with some roystering blade 
 he picks up at the fashionable hotel where he 
 stops ; and enjoys with him (oftentimes scot free,) 
 champaign and oysters, and — other delicacies of 
 
33 
 
 the season, only to find at last, that his boon com- 
 panion is only a contemptible black-leg, intent 
 upon fleecing him, and whose sole means of living 
 are cowardly swindling. 
 
 These fellows hang round the principal hotels 
 in great numbers, watching their chance to rob a 
 stranger by enticing him to some Gambling Hell, 
 or where they come the Patent-Safe Game over 
 him, or have his pocket picked, or himself robbed, 
 perhaps garrotted, by their confederates. 
 
 All Patent- Safe men, however, are not Confi- 
 dence men ; many infest the out-of-the-way parks 
 and places of resort and interest to strangers, con- 
 tenting themselves with game of a more bumble 
 class than that which patronizes the Astor House 
 or St. Kicholas Hotel. 
 
 It was with a party of these chaps, that a friend 
 of the writer had an adventure in Greenwood 
 Cemetery. Livingston Welles, for such is his ro- 
 mantic cognomen, is a Michigander of rather mild 
 appearance externally, green as a frog, but with 
 the courage of fifty-six boiled-down devils in him, 
 and the strength of a high-pressure steam engine 
 to back him up. Welles went to Greenwood, and 
 during his visit, while standing about with a cigar 
 in his mouth, was accosted by several individuals 
 who, after some conversation, and two or three 
 big drinks from a private bottle of theirs behind a 
 tomb-stone, got him to bet on the piece of paper 
 in the little wooden ball. 
 
 Livingston bet all his money, his watch and 
 chain (the gift ot an elder brother), his shirt studs 
 and his new gaiters, and of course, he lost all, 
 and there was a fair chance of his going Lome in 
 his stockings. 
 
 The other chaps, as they were four to one, did 
 
84 
 
 not apprehend any trouble, and began to make 
 sport of the verdant youth. 
 
 At last, it got through his then rather thick head, 
 that he had been fooled, whereupon he took off his 
 coat and struck out right and left, a la Tom Hyer. 
 A black-leg fell down at every blow, and in one 
 minute by the watch, the delegate from Michigan 
 was master of the field. He dragged the pros- 
 trate swindlers into a pile under a big monument, 
 
 inscribed " Sacred to the memory of 
 
 and battered their heads against the marble till 
 they were as mellow as harvest apples. 
 
 Then he re-captured his own money and prop- 
 erty, took the last drink of their private brandy, 
 broke the bottle over the head of the ring-leader, 
 and victoriouslv walked away. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that these fellows are 
 sometimes beaten at their own game, they are very 
 unsafe and unprofitable persons to have to do with, 
 and we recommend our readers, who visit the big 
 city, to steer clear of the Patent- Safe, and keep a 
 sharp look out for Confidence Men, 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PICK— POCKETS — MALE AND FEMALE. 
 
 Now we've said our little say about the swin- 
 dlers, who take money from inexperienced per- 
 sons under the guise of a wager, or similar sort of 
 half-way fairness and give-a-man-a-chance-for-his- 
 life-ish-ness, we come by a regular gradation up to 
 a higher class of dishonorables, a more honest 
 kind of thieves, the regular pick-pockets. More 
 honest did we say ? Well, we don't mean exactly 
 that, but less contemptible; for we hold that the 
 individual who steals money from your pocket 
 and sneaks away before you catch him at it, is not 
 half so mean a thief as that one who inveigles you 
 into a bet, and not only takes away your cash but 
 laughs at you into the bargain. 
 
 We're very glad that we've got done with these 
 scurvy knaves, and as we wash our hands of their 
 dirty tricks, we come with a certain feeling of 
 relief to the more endurable and in a certain sense 
 chivalrous class of rogues — pick-pockets, highway 
 robbers, and garrotters ; chivalrous, because unlike 
 the former, who in almost every case are allowed 
 to go free upon giving up their plunder, these 
 carry their three or ten year handcuffs in all their 
 ventures ; and more endurable from not causing a 
 man to feel like a ninny as well as a victim. But 
 before dismissing this portion of our subject, we 
 
36 
 
 feel impelled to say to our readers that the " drop 
 game is not always played with broken bank 
 bills and brown paper, or " thimble-rig " with a 
 " little joker." There is another class of these 
 practitioners who, compared with those we have 
 above ventilated, are as sharks to pickerel, or as 
 whales to pond-suckers. How many who read 
 these pages will admit, with a long-drawn sigh, 
 that in the manoeuvres we have just exposed they 
 discern the identical process by which in Wall, or 
 State, or Third streets, they have through Insur- 
 ance and Mining shares, and Railroad and Bank 
 stocks, been victimized out of all they possessed. 
 No matter what your sex or what your position 
 in life, dear readers, there is a moral for each one 
 of you in every chapter in this half-dime book ; be 
 wise then, and gather from its pages all the instruc- 
 tion, and from its examples all the applications 
 possible — to some of you it may prove worth five 
 cents the letter. 
 
 There is something about the business of pick- 
 ing pockets that is particularly charming. — ■ 
 What it is beside its emoluments and daring ex- 
 citements, is not to be easily told ; but there are 
 many amateurs in it besides the regular profes- 
 sionals. It is only the unpractised experimenters 
 in the graceful art, that are ever caught in the act ; 
 the thorough-bred pick-pocket selects so well his 
 victim, his time and opportunity, that these joined 
 with his dexterous way of doing the job, render 
 him almost exempt from detection. 
 
 Pick-pockets are of both sexes ; indeed the fe- 
 males are the more successful, possibly because 
 less liable to suspicion ; no man of any gallantry 
 whatever would ever suspect that the black-eyed, 
 red-lipped, cherry-cheeked beauty, so faultlessly 
 and fashionably arrayed, who sits opposite him in 
 
37 
 
 #n omnibus was a professional thief— or for a mo- 
 ment imagine that at the very moment he is 
 most admiring her many charms, she is endeavor- 
 ing to perfect a plan to rob him of his purse and 
 possibly his watch and breast-pin, as she brushes 
 past him in getting out of the stage. Yet it is 
 even so — such are the ways of the world, and the 
 wickedness of women. 
 
 Pick-pockets go well dressed ; it is the very ne- 
 cessity of their profession ; their fashionable attire 
 and slap-up appearance generally, are the key 
 which admits them among the very respectable 
 but exceeding innocent and unsuspecting people 
 whose surplus cash they design to appropriate to 
 their own pressing necessities. They often, how- 
 ever, expose themselves to the experienced eye 
 by over-doing this ; — mounting a profusion of jew- 
 elry, and wearing embroidered bosomed shirts, 
 and pants and coats of the most stunning pat- 
 terns, far transcending all limits of good taste. — 
 In this however they are rivalled by the gamblers, 
 and even the rich fast men of the town, who make 
 great pretensions to immaculate respectability; 
 so that really it is sometimes a very difficult mat- 
 ter to tell a pick-pocket from one of the aristo- 
 cratic " bloods " of the city. 
 
 The female pick-pockets are also generally at- 
 tired in the most elaborate style — and at this time 
 like many of their sisters of a more indelicate 
 profession, frequently carry such an expanse of 
 crinoline and other mysterious contrivances, that 
 it is quite a journey to travel round one of them ; 
 all the flummery in the way of laces, trimmings, 
 jewelry, and the thousand expensive nothings of 
 female attire which can be piled on to a fashionable 
 lady, are worn by these feminine rascals. Not a 
 few of them are very beautiful, and employ all their 
 
38 
 
 fascinations in the way of business, to throw the 
 intended victim off his guard while the robbery is 
 being accomplished. 
 
 The pick-pocket is never at home except in a 
 crowd ; then only can they work to full advantage 
 and without exciting suspicion ; and therefore 
 whenever there is a rush of people to any particu- 
 lar spot, then are these gentry the first on hand. 
 They are always in full feather at Steamboat Ex- 
 cursions, Grand Railroad Jubilees, Conventions, 
 State Fairs and public shows of all kinds. 
 
 In New York they are particularly to be found 
 at the places of amusement. Two of them, a male 
 and female, will frequently attend the theatre or 
 opera together, and in the crush of getting in and 
 out, they generally contrive to secure some rich 
 plunder, and being dressed in the height of fash- 
 ion, and to all appearances the very pink of re- 
 spectability, suspicion is disarmed, and their true 
 character is never suspected by their unfortunate 
 victims until too late to reach them. The wo- 
 men frequent the cars, omnibuses, and stores ; on 
 pleasant days, when the latter are thronged with 
 customers, they may be found busily engaged pric- 
 ing goods, and ladies when shopping should 
 avoid coming in personal contact with strangers 
 however well appearing, or fashionably dressed. 
 
 Female pick-pockets confine* their attentions 
 mostly to their own sex ; and as they are familiar 
 with all the intricate mysteries of the female ward- 
 robe, they are perfectly qualified to search out the 
 hidden hoard however cunningly concealed. — 
 Their mode of operating is by means of a very 
 sharp knife or pair of scissors, by the dexterous 
 use of which they take away the entire pocket 
 when necessary, or cut into and extract therefrom 
 the porte-monnaie or purse, which is quickly emp- 
 
39 
 
 tied and thrown away. Some pick-pockets use a 
 small blade of razor-like sharpness attached to a 
 finger-ring ; a knowledge of this fact may enable 
 some men to account for a delicate slit in their 
 clothing not made by the shears of their tailor. 
 
 Another method of pocket robbing to some ex- 
 tent in vogue, is through the agency of Chloro- 
 form. As an example, we quote the following 
 from one of our city papers : — 
 
 " Chloroform is being used in thefts with great 
 adroitness and frequency. A Mrs. Fitzgerald was 
 riding in one of the New York omnibuses on Tues- 
 day, when another well dressed lady entered, and 
 apparently took out her handkerchief and passed 
 it carelessly two or three times before Mrs. F.'s 
 face, who observed a peculiar odor, but recollects 
 nothing further until she woke up and found the 
 other lady gone, and her own pockets thoroughly 
 stripped of everything valuable." 
 
 This same manoeuvre has been put in practice 
 in Railroad cars, upon both lady and gentleman 
 passengers by both male and female scoundrels ; 
 indeed upon a night train the thing would be most 
 convenient. People travelling, and especially 
 ladies, should have a care as to who sits behside 
 them ; and be very chary of accepting a " little 
 cordial," or "smelling salts " from the hands of a 
 stranger. 
 
 It is said the Parisian thieves are much more 
 expert than those of New York, making use of 
 ingenious contrivances not known here. Among 
 other things they are said to manage to do a good 
 business in vehicles, by the use of false hands and 
 amis ; the fictitious members are allowed to repose 
 quietly in the lap of the operator, thus putting at 
 rest ail suspicion, while the real hands are making 
 little voyages of exploration into the pockets of 
 
40 
 
 the adjoining people. No case of this kind has 
 to our knowledge been detected in our immacu- 
 late city of New York, but we have no doubt our 
 enterprising rascals will introduce this inglorious 
 foreign custom, when they find their own devices 
 fail them. And as applicable toother manoeuvres 
 as well as this in question, we would say to all our 
 readers, when seated beside strangers, whether in 
 coach, car, theatres or conventions, never allow 
 that stranger's cape, shawl, mantilla or dress to 
 rest concealingly over that part of your person 
 where your money is deposited. 
 
 The best way to avoid pick-pockets, is to keep 
 out of crowds. In cities this rule applies to all 
 classes and to almost all circumstances ; well 
 knowing they cannot operate effectually except in 
 a throng, the lower class of thieves frequently re- 
 sort to numerous ingenious devices to draw a 
 crowd together. They sometimes get up sham 
 fights at the steamboat landings railroad depots, 
 and to give the thing a real look, stand regular 
 licks and bloody noses ; in the rush and pressure 
 to see the fun, the accomplices of the combatants 
 usually contrive to do a very handsome business. 
 
 The true way to avoid losing by these cunning 
 rogues, is to carry but little money about the per- 
 son. Here, you young Innocent from the country, 
 when you come to see the Elephant the first thing 
 you do, go to a respectable hotel, or to the store 
 of some trusty friend, and have the bulk of your 
 cash deposited in a safe ; never perambulate the 
 city with more money than is sufficient to pay 
 your way handsomely. Few city men as a gen- 
 eral thing carry in their pockets larger sums than 
 five or ten dollars. Then, if the pocket is rob- 
 bed, the amount the thief gets is not enough to 
 make him in love with his profession ; nor is it 
 
41 
 
 «jiough to make the loser insolvent, unless he is 
 cuing business on a very small capital. 
 
 Of the multitude of cases of petty pocket rob- 
 bery which have been reported in the papers, per- 
 haps one single case will suffice as an illustration 
 and warning. 
 
 A young Englishman, one of the true cockney 
 sort, who could no more put his " h's " in the 
 right place, than he could put his head into his 
 boots, came from the old country in his youth, 
 and settled in some barbarous county of New 
 Jersey, where in addition to his English infelici- 
 ties ot speech and manner, he acquired some Jer- 
 sey peculiarities, which it might be supposed would 
 entirely unfit him forever for the companionship 
 
 of civilized beings however this is not to the 
 
 purpose. 
 
 The name of our young cockney appropri- 
 ately enough is England ; and he bears the Scrip- 
 ture pre-nomen of Isaac. After several years so- 
 journ of Isaac in the Jersey wilds, he decided to 
 visit New York and seek his fortune. 
 
 Ike was shrewd enough to tell a steam saw-mill 
 from a wild pigeon, and could distinguish with 
 remarkable accuracy between a blackberry bush 
 and a log-cabin ; and hence gathered confidence 
 that he could open that huge oyster, the world, 
 and extract the savory meat, without pricking his 
 fingers with the shells. After due preparation 
 Ike came to the city, which he immediately pro- 
 nounced to be considerable of a village, but noth- 
 ing to what we " ave in Hingland ; " Ike how- 
 ever, bad heard enough of the " tricks and traps " 
 of this interesting town, to convince him that the 
 thieves and swindlers are pretty keen in their 
 way, and the sequel satisfied him that they at least 
 are fully up to what they " ave in Hingland." 
 
42 
 
 With commendable prudence, Ike resolved to 
 make sure of his funds so that no New York 
 sharper should do him out of his cash — he was 
 confident in his ability to take care of his own 
 money as well as anybody else could do it for 
 him, and therefore did not leave it at his hotel ; it 
 was not wise to carry it loose ; and after due con- 
 sideration he hit upon the notable plan of sewing 
 up his precious store in his pocket ; judging that 
 if he himself could not get at his funds without 
 ripping up the stitches, no one else would be able 
 to accomplish the feat. Having done this, and 
 reserved enough small change to pay for what 
 beans and bread he might be disposed to consume 
 in the course of the day's rambles, Ike started out 
 to see the Lions. 
 
 Time passed quickly away ; Ike opened wide 
 his fish-grey eyes, for he saw more wonders than 
 he ever dreamed of even in " Hingland." He 
 made many acquaintances, such as they were; for 
 a habit of asking many questions led him into 
 many very queer places, and among the rest of 
 his new found friends was a pretty black-eyed 
 maiden, in seeming great distress, whom he met 
 in Chatham street, just in the edge of the evening. 
 She accosted him, grew very confidential, and 
 gently drew him into an alley-way, where unob- 
 served she might recount to him her woes ; and 
 finally so touched upon his sensitive feelings that 
 he was disposed to relieve her necessities with a 
 liberal portion of his money ; on putting his hand 
 to his pocket, however, it encountered the precau- 
 tionary stitches which guarded his treasure, and 
 he was fain to limit his charity to giving the fasci- 
 nating but unfortunate Jewess all the small change 
 he had reserved for his supper and evening enjoy- 
 ments. 
 
 I « 
 
43 
 
 Making a hasty promise to meet her at the same 
 hour the next evening, he tore himself away from 
 her blandishments and took himself to his lodg- 
 ings ; on arriving there, his first work was to see 
 that his money was all right. He found the stitches 
 as he had placed them in the morning, and 
 greatly felicitated himself upon having balked the 
 New York pick-pockets ; but a further examina- 
 tion convinced him his money was gone — a small 
 slit had been cut in his pocket, and his funds ex- 
 tracted through this new place of exit. 
 
 The interesting black-eyed girl had done it. — 
 When the verdant Isaac, touched to the heart by 
 her tears, had put his hand to his pocket for money, 
 the action had betrayed to his fair but false com- 
 panion the exact locality of the treasure. It was 
 she who had cut the pocket and extracted the 
 dimes, and this too after Ike had given her all the 
 other money he had in the world. 
 
 Isaac now thinks New York pick-pockets quite 
 surpass anything they " av in Hingland ; " and he 
 has so far lost confidence in the whole female sex 
 since that little occurrence, that he solemnly avers 
 he wouldn't trust any woman as far as he could 
 throw a meeting-house by the steeple, or a four 
 year old Elephant by its tail. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GARROTTERS AND HIGHWAYMEN. 
 
 Of course our readers wish to know something 
 of the institution of Garrotting, which a short time 
 ago was one of the fashionable amusements of our 
 city. Also, of the knife and slung-shot entertain- 
 ments, to which strangers and even our own citi- 
 zens are occasionally invited without ceremony to 
 partake of. 
 
 Garrotting is the Spanish for choking ; Garrot- 
 ter is the Spanish for choker ; but what the Span- 
 is for the man who gets choked, we don't know 
 and don't think it of very great importance to 
 know. 
 
 Garrotting is made use of in Spain, in Mexico, 
 and the Spanish colonies generally, as a means of 
 executing condemned criminals." The process is 
 that of seating the culprit against a beam from 
 which protrudes a sharp spike so as to touch the 
 back of the neck ; around the post and around the 
 victims neck passes an iron collar, which by 
 means of a lever and screw forces the spike into the 
 spinal column, separating the vertebra? and caus- 
 ing instant death ; a seeming barbarous process 
 but perhaps less painful than hanirin^. 
 
 In the countries named the garrotte is in the 
 hands of honest men and the villains are the 
 
45 
 
 chohees ; but in this enlightened land the rogue9 
 have turned the tables on the honest folks and be- 
 come the chokers ; so look out you fellows who 
 wander o' nights into strange places in strange 
 company. 
 
 Garrotting in New York, means the choking the 
 presence of mind and strength out of a man in an 
 instant, for the purpose of robbing him while in 
 that delightful condition. The operation is gen- 
 erally performed by a gang, usually three or 
 four; they approach the customer from behind and 
 while one or two hold his arms, the chief or choke- 
 ; master throws his arm around the neck of his vic- 
 tim, forcing back his head, jamming his chin so 
 hard against his upper jaw that it is impossible 
 for him to make a noise, while at the same time 
 the throat is so violently constricted that the suf- 
 ' ferer can not breathe. 
 
 While in this perfectly helpless position another 
 of the gang rifles his pockets of all his valuables, 
 and as a finishing stroke he is generally knocked 
 down by a blow on the head, that he may not be 
 able to collect his scattered senses before the ope- 
 rators make good their escape. Thus it will be 
 seen that . garrotting is highway robbery, unat- 
 tended with any of the romance with which it was 
 formerly surrounded by the gentlemanly practi- 
 tioners of that delightful profession. It is high- 
 way robbery aggravated and made unbearable by 
 the most brutal violence and complete disregard 
 of human suffering. 
 
 Street robbery by aid of the knife is seldom re- 
 sorted to, as it is difficult to strike a blow that will 
 prevent an outcry from the victim ; blood, too, 
 would be likely to fall upon the operator's clothes 
 and lead to his detection. The slung-shot is there- 
 fore the most appropriate weapon ; it consists of a 
 
short rope or strap, with a leaden or iron ball at 
 
 one end and a loop at the other ; the loop passes 
 over the wrist while the cord is taken in the hand 
 and the ball swings free. 
 
 The slung-shot is both a convenient and dan- 
 gerous weapon ; it can be carried in the pocket at 
 all times, or gathered in the hand or under the 
 cuff ready for instant service, while a blow from 
 it when swung by a nervous arm is most deadly. 
 Thus provided the robber turns upon his victim 
 as he passes him, or creeps up stealthily behind 
 him, or perhaps boldly asks the time of night, and 
 as the unsuspecting and accommodating stranger 
 looks down upon his gold repeater, cracks him 
 over the head, seizes the watch and runs. There 
 is about as much wisdom in shaking one's leg 
 over a boat's side under a shark's nose, as in ex- 
 hibiting a watch after dark in the streets of New 
 York city ; keep beyond striking distance of every 
 stranger -that accosts you after ten o'clock, P. M., 
 or after dusk if it be in a by-street, even if he ap- 
 pears to be helplessly drunk. 
 
 In the good old romantic days of Dick Turpin 
 and Claude Duval ; of the Paul Cliffords of our 
 romance writers, robbery was elevated to one of 
 the fine arts, and highwaymen were at the same 
 time the terror of the men, and the admiration of 
 the women ; so much so, that even the first novel 
 writer of the age was not ashamed to devote two 
 whole books in illustration and praise of a high- 
 wayman hero. 
 
 The robber of those times rode the best horses 
 that the purest blood could produce ; carried the 
 best arms that craftsmen's skill could invent ; and 
 attired himself in the jauntiest and most costly 
 clothes that money could buy. One of these po- 
 lite gentlemen of the road would stop a coach or 
 
47 
 
 travelling carriage with the pleasant air of a gen~ 
 tleman, aud rob all the inmates with the manners 
 of a prince ; apologizing to the gentlemen while 
 he took their purses and watches, and praising the 
 beauty of the ladies while in the act of possessing 
 himself of their jewelry and trinkets. Having 
 satisfactorily accomplished his job, he would raise 
 his laced hat with a bewitching grace, and ride 
 away like a noble cavalier. Now there would be 
 some satisfaction in being robbed in that kind of 
 style, and if a man did not have any money with 
 him, he would almost feel like giving the engag- 
 ing brigand his note for thirty days payable to 
 bearer, and no questions asked. 
 
 But alas, for the degeneracy of the times ! the 
 good old pleasant days of being robbed in gentle 
 peace and aristocratic comfort are gone forever. 
 The highway-man of this age is a brutal ruffian, 
 armed with bludgeon and slung-shot, too cow- 
 ardly even to attack a single man except with a 
 gang at his heels, and who having stripped you of 
 all your money will smash your skull in very ex- 
 cess of dastard brutality. Of such are the street 
 robbers of New York city. Until the streets are 
 nearly deserted they avoid respectable quarters, 
 and hang about the by-streets or public parks ; or 
 lie in wait along the lonely avenues in the upper 
 part of the city ; they seldom attack a sober per- 
 son. Occasionally a belated business man, or one 
 bound home from the cars, or out late in quest of a 
 physician, is troubled with their attentions. But 
 in almost every case of street robbery, and gar- 
 rotting in particular, an investigation would show 
 that the victim was obfusticated with liquor. 
 Sometimes a careless, sauntering stranger is 
 pitched into and relieved of his valuables, but as 
 a general thing they pay their court to young gen- 
 
48 
 
 tlemcn going home "elevated" by champaign 
 from tall parties; or "tight" from a gambling 
 house; or "tipsy" from having a good time 
 with a crowd of good fellows somewhere. 
 
 Garrotting, as an institution, may be said to be 
 almost extinct in this city — it went out of fashion 
 in a desperate hurry immediately after a sensible 
 Judge sentenced three garrotters to the State's 
 prison ; one for life, and two for twenty-one years 
 each. They didn't seem to appreciate the joke 
 of this kind of dealing, and we have heard very 
 little of performances in the garrotting line, in the 
 course of eight months. 
 
 It may be laid down as a first-rate truth, that 
 strangers need fear little from garrotters or slung- 
 shot men if they keep sober, and don't go into 
 places where they "shouldn't oughter." But if 
 they are so anxious to see city life that they will 
 go to the sailor dance-houses in Water street, and 
 will " trip the light fantastic toe " in the Dutch 
 "Apollo Rooms" of Centre and William streets ; 
 and will " shake a leg " in the Dead Rabbit As- 
 semblies of the Five Points ; or "jerk their little 
 pas " with the saddle-colored beauties in the " nig- 
 ger " dance houses of Thomas street and West 
 Broadway; if they will poke their noses into 
 every panel-crib, and pick-pockets' dens, and flash 
 drinking shops, and thieves' rendezvous they can 
 hear of or scent out, and won't be content unless they 
 "sample" the poisonous liquors at every rum 
 hole on the route, and get so " toddied " that they 
 cannot tell a dictionary from a hook-and-ladder- 
 truck, why then they need not complain if they 
 are garrotted or have their skulls broken. 
 
 We have one piece of advice for all our readers 
 that if adhered to will secure them almost entirely 
 from attack '.—Keep sober, and go only where you 
 
49 
 
 have honest and reputable business to attend to. In 
 fact the great rule for any man's conduct in a city, 
 by the observance of which he may go, from the 
 age of kites and peg-tops to that of spectacles 
 and crutches, without ever a fight or the symptom 
 of one, is " keep sober, and maintain a civil tongue 
 in your head. ,f 
 
 We close this chapter with an account of a case 
 of garrotting which occurred in a back street 
 where a respectable white man has no more busi- 
 ness in the night time, than a jackass has in a 
 double bed. It is a low tale, but is given to show 
 young men how Rum, by inducing low taste and 
 reckless habits, can debase a being created " a 
 little lower than the angels." 
 
 Our frail hero's name is Scranton. We don't 
 wish to expose the young man by giving his real 
 name ; so for this occasion we will give him the 
 prenomen of a Eoman emperor, and call him 
 Adrian. Well, Adrian is a good hearted fellow, 
 but he drinks. He can do a great variety of 
 things of no particular use to anybody, and he 
 drinks. He was too smart for the country where 
 he was born, so he came to this city ; he is a ca- 
 pable young man — but he drinks. 
 
 On 'the particular occasion to which we refer, 
 Adrian had been having a good time with some 
 dashing young ladies not of the tee-total order ; 
 wine had been tasted, to say nothing of brandy 
 punches. And when Adrian started for his board- 
 ing house his head hummed like a bee-hive. He 
 met an acquaintance and did cock-tails with him ; 
 then they set down and talked over politics— then 
 thev did cock-tails ; then they eat some stews and 
 Welsh rare-bits— then they did cock-tails— then 
 they did cock-tails— after that they did cock-tails 
 and then started for home— but the landlord called 
 
50 
 
 them back, and they did cock-tails with him ; then 
 
 they did cock-tails with the bar-keeper — as it was 
 then getting late and the bar- keeper wished to 
 close, they did cock-tails and left. 
 
 Adrian's friend at once deserted him and left 
 the overloaded youth to pursue his journey alone. 
 But at this crisis the young man had become 
 slightly confused, and quite undecided whether he 
 was atoot or on horseback ; he gazed intently for 
 some time at a hydrant, trying to decide whether 
 it was his; bedstead or his friend Seymour; he 
 wanted to do the polite thing ; if it was his bed- 
 stead he wanted to pull off his boots and retire ; 
 but if it was his friend Seymour he wanted to 
 propose cock-tails ; but he didn't want to go bed 
 on his friend Seymour, nor ask his bedstead to 
 drink with him. He says he doesn't know how 
 he ever decided this knotty point, but he distinctly 
 remembers that cock-tails came of it. 
 
 On the corner of the next street he fell in with 
 a sandy-haired girl, who pitying his condition of- 
 fered to see him home. Having once attended a 
 Woman's Rights meeting, and seen the pictures in 
 Hirper's, and having a vague impression that it 
 was leap-year, he thanked her kindly, thrust his 
 arm under hers, and thus escorted and protected 
 he moved on. 
 
 In Duane street they were met by four fellows, 
 who seeing Adrian's condition quickly hustled the 
 girl away, and put him through the garrotting pro- 
 cess ; he was divested of his money, watch, finger- 
 rings, coat and boots, in less time than he could 
 have swallowed another cock-tail ; then, for a fin- 
 ish, they gave him a blow which left him extended 
 upon the side-walk. 
 
 Sobered somewhat by the porformance, the 
 abused individual picked himself up, and pro- 
 
51 
 
 tected by his plucked appearance from further 
 harm, he reached his home without being again 
 molested. 
 
 Whatever became of the sandy-haired girl 
 Scranton cannot tell ; but he is strongly of opin- 
 ion that as she had designs upon his valuables, 
 she was as much disconcerted, and probably lost 
 as much by the garrotters as himself. 
 
 Our readers may rest assured that there has not 
 been one case of garrotting in a hundred where 
 the garrottee has not prepared himself for the ope- 
 ration by the indiscriminate use of " Cock-tails," 
 " Cobblers/' " Juleps " or " Smashers," and they 
 need fear little from the garrotters if they will only 
 mind our golden rule — "Keep sober, and don't go 
 where you ' shouldn't oughter.' " 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 GAMBLING AND GAMBLING-HOUSES. 
 
 " I don't gamble, and so this chapter doesn't 
 refer to me." How do you know it doesn't? — 
 You'd better read it and see, and not throw the 
 book down in that disdainful sort of way, as if 
 you were as pious as a high-pressure martyr and 
 didn't know any more about sin than a bull-frog 
 does of eating peaches and cream. 
 
 We didn't, hasty reader, take you for a gam- 
 bler ; and this book isn't written for gamblers, 
 we'd have you to understand ; but for honest 
 chaps like you and the writer, who don't bet 
 " Faro," or " Fight the tiger," but who ought to 
 have an idea of how the thing is done, and the 
 slippery paths that lead to where it is enacted, lest 
 we be tricked into it some day, or find ourselves 
 unconsciously sliding downwards into its ruin- 
 ous vortex. If you now understand us, and have 
 got done putting on airs, and are ready to act 
 sensibly, we will g on with our subject. 
 
 It is by no means difficult to write an interesting 
 chapter upon gambling in New York ; for there is 
 every variety of it done here, from the knot of 
 negroes in a beer cellar, hustling pennies in a hat, 
 to the operations of Wall street, by which tens of 
 thousands are lost at a sweep ; but the difficulty 
 
53 
 
 lies in writing so as to excite the fears and the 
 wholesome disgust of inexperienced young men, 
 rather than merely to raise and stimulate a dan- 
 gerous curiosity. You will hardly believe us, un- 
 unsophisticated reader, when we assert that many 
 articles, and some books are published abusive of 
 a particular vice, on purpoee to induce persons to 
 practice it. There are too many young persons 
 ready to say, " your preaching may all be very 
 good, dear grand-mother, but I would like to see 
 the folly of it too." We have not a doubt, that 
 if disposed, we could make a cash contract with 
 some of our gambling-house keepers, to write a 
 flowery book upon this subject ; we to have a 
 carti -blanche to say all we chose denunciatory of 
 them and their profession, and they to take thous- 
 ands of the work off our hands for gratuitous 
 distribution ; and we are very confident that some 
 weak, heedless, self-conceited, self-confident, reck- 
 less, light-headed/ • simple-minded, over-curious, 
 foolish descendants of Adam and Eve, will di- 
 rectly after reading this book, step into some Mock 
 Auction shop, "just to see how the thing is done," 
 Ad get bit before they leave it. 
 
 How ! did you laugh then reader, and say that 
 you did not doubt it too ? Well, my fine fellow, 
 have a care that despite reading this very chapter 
 you do not find yourself some day laughing out 
 of the other side of your mouth as you leave 
 some gambling hole. Eemember Deacon Pill- 
 cochia, and "take heed lest you fall." 
 
 The Gambling Hells in this city abound in 
 every street ; they are of two descriptions, the se- 
 cret, and the open ; the latter are vile appearing 
 and repulsive, while the former are fitted up with 
 great splendor ; some rivalling even Oriental mag- 
 nificence in gorgeousness. Against the lower order 
 
54 
 
 of these houses it is needless to say anything, for 
 a stranger would not think of entering one of 
 them unless he was so far gone as to be beyond 
 the influence of advice and warning ; and as to 
 the aristocratic hells, were we so unwise as to point 
 them out, it would avail our readers nothing, 
 since they could not obtain admittance to them 
 without an introduction. It is against false friends 
 and the incipient taste or habit of gambling, that 
 we would fore-arm our readers. 
 
 The manner in which the great majority of 
 young people are inducted into the mysteries and 
 excitements of games of chance is, by the various 
 styles of social or private gambling, begun in the 
 company of friends or companions, and generally 
 for no greater stakes than " the oysters/' a " bot- 
 tle of wine," or " theatre tickets," or some com- 
 paratively inexpensive trifles. It all costs money 
 though, and many a man begins in this way, who 
 would shrink back, if he saw so many dollars 
 actually placed upon the table with the proposi- 
 tion to play for them and see who should take the 
 pile away with him. There are thousands of 
 ways of gaming without cards or dice, or any of 
 the professional paraphernalia ; and " matching 
 pennies " infringes the moral statute against this 
 fascinating vice, just as much as betting five hun- 
 dred on a king, or " going a thousand better " on 
 "three Aces and a pair of high-heeled Jacks." 
 Playing a rubber of " Whist" at "five dollars" 
 a corner, or doing a little " twenty deck poker," 
 with a dollar " ante," is no more gambling, than 
 going " odd or even," for the drinks, or skipping 
 a copper for a shilling stew and mug of ale. 
 
 Hats-bane is Rats-bane, be the lump large or 
 small. 
 
 A taste for acquiring money without work is de- 
 
55 
 
 veloped by betting ; for in fact any game of chance 
 can be reduced to a bet. This dangerous practice 
 obtains largely with our country cousins ; as much 
 so in proportion to their numbers, perhaps, as the 
 more marked procedure of direct gaming among 
 the accomplished sharpers of the town. 
 
 Young men in the country, while hanging about 
 the " store," or the blacksmith's shop, are exceed- 
 ing apt to indulge in a little social game of brag 
 as to their achievements of strength, skill, or 
 agility ; and have many a dispute as to the weight 
 of a fat ox or a favorite pig ; the speed of a fast 
 horse ; the length of time in which a certain man 
 can plough an acre ; whether A can rake and bind 
 as fast as B can cradle ; how many cords of wood 
 Jones can chop in a day, and whether Brown can 
 lift a barrel of cider by the chimes and throw it 
 over the tail-board, and so on. All these points 
 are animatedly discussed and result generally in a 
 wager, which when feasible is decided on the spot. 
 In this way our rural friends, many of them, come 
 to the city pretty well prepared to go a greater 
 length in gambling, just so soon as they became 
 possessed of more money to back up their opin- 
 ions with. The transition of betting mugs of 
 cider on the weight of a pig, to betting a " pile" 
 on the speed of a horse, or the color of a card, is 
 by no means so great as it may seem. 
 
 " Now the argument from all this is, that the city 
 is held responsible for all the sins of the country in 
 this respect, and young men are said to be " led 
 from the paths of rectitude by the vices of the 
 town," and all that sort of humbug ; when the fact 
 is, that they had got so far out of the sight of 
 rectitude before they left home, that they probably 
 never would have got back again, city or no city. 
 But our mission is not to defend the city, thank 
 
56 
 
 fortune ; for if it were we should have our hands 
 full for the rest of our natural life. We only want 
 gently to insinuate, that the old city has got sins 
 enough of her own to bear, without having thrust 
 upon her shoulders, broad as they are, all those 
 of her country cousins. 
 
 We have said that it was not possible to gain 
 admittance to the upper Gambling Hells without 
 an introduction — this is true — Fifth Avenue itself 
 is not half so exclusive. 
 
 And why is this ? Think you, my simple friend, 
 it is because their proprietors fear the police ? — 
 Why, as a matter of pride and assurance, Pat 
 Heine would at any time bet the Astor House (he 
 is rich enough to buy it), against an apple wo- 
 man's stand, that he " could not be shut up for a 
 single evening. No, my good friend, if you knew 
 who own the buildings where these Hells are kept ; 
 who patronise them, and who are patronised by 
 their keepers, you would be well satisfied that no 
 law except " black-mail " law, can affect them. — 
 No ! it is to keep out the fathers, brothers and 
 friends of victims in course of being fleeced ; to 
 prevent the honest merchant from seeing what his 
 partners, clerks or customers are about, that this 
 wall of exclusiveness is maintained. You can 
 only be introduced, Young Innocence, by some 
 acquaintance of the proprietor in whom he has con- 
 fidence: that confidence being based upon the fact, 
 that your chaperon (introducer) is either a paid 
 agent — a " stool pigeon " or " roper-in," or a man 
 who is on the direct road to ruin himself, and who 
 has become so reckless, that he would not hesitate 
 to drag a friend with him, and, perhaps, share in 
 the profits of his plucking. 
 
 And now you city youth, who are about to 
 come into possession of a fortune ; you, student 
 
\ 
 
 57 
 
 from the South, whose rich parents grant ton 
 every desire ; you Western juvenile, whose father 
 counts his prairie acres of wheat by the thousands ; 
 and you young man from the East, whose energy, 
 industry, capability, and hitherto unspotted in- 
 tegrity, have gained for you the entire confidence 
 together with the custody of the books, safe-keys 
 and treasures of our Merchant Princes and Bank- 
 ers, look for a moment at the pit-falls around 
 your feet, and the spring-nets over your heads. 
 
 Every one of you are marked men : the gaming- 
 house keepers have spotted you ; your names are 
 entered upon their books ; your present means 
 and future expectations ; the money that passes 
 through your hands, together with your facilities 
 for reaching more, and of covering up delinquen- 
 ces by false entries and other means, are all esti- 
 mated ; and your habits and little indulgences all 
 noted. No Collect from the Directory, or from 
 the minutes of the Assessors or of the Parisian Mar- 
 riage Brokers and Secret Police combined, could 
 give as good a clue to a man's position, prospects 
 and habits, and consequently of his value as a 
 " pigeon," and his availability of being " plucked/' 
 as does this " Doom Book " of the gambling frater- 
 nity give of you. You are watched and your foot- 
 steps dogged ; your detectors and tempters move in 
 the best society ; some of them hold positions of 
 authority and trust ; they were once honest and true 
 men, and having been tempted and fallen theim 
 selves, know well how to drag others down. Nor 
 are your tempters confined to the male sex alone ; 
 women, and in the first circles too, lend themselves 
 innocently or designedly to the work of initiating 
 you into this dangerous vice — like fat trout, 
 whose habits and locality certain keen sportsmen 
 well know, you are eagerly sought after, and every 
 
5^ 
 
 thing that sociality and good fellowship can ac- 
 complish to mask their approaches and disguise 
 their bait, rest assured will be put in play. 
 
 Distrust then all persons who invite you to play 
 Tor a sum, however trifling the amount ; especially 
 
 BEWARE OF THE MAN WHO WOULD INDUCE 
 YOU TO ENTER A GAMBLING HELL ON ANY 
 
 PRETENCE WHATEVER ; SHUN HIM CUT HIM 
 
 INSTANTER — AS YOU WOULD THE EVIL ONE, 
 THE MOMENT YOU SEE HIS CLOVEN FOOT. 
 
 Sometimes a man finds himself in one of these 
 places of perdition before he is aware of it ; he is 
 invited by his designing friend to see some choice 
 paintings; to visit a shooting gallery; or private 
 club-house, where some fine spirits meet to smoke 
 and sing and joke, and, assenting, suddenly finds 
 himself in large and splendid apartments, garnish- 
 ed with the most costly mirrors, pictures, carpets 
 and furniture — he is invited to the supper table, 
 which is covered with everything that can tempt 
 the appetite, including the choicest wines, of all of 
 which he is invited to partake scot free ; if his eyes 
 be not open now to where he is, or, if opened, and 
 he be fool-hardy enough to sit at this board, nine 
 chances to one he is in an hour's time fitted to 
 take a calm look at the " tiger," (as the faro banks 
 or roulette tables are jocularly and zoologically 
 called, ) or any other engine of evil that may be 
 presented him. 
 
 He looks at the gaming table; he sees there 
 what would be fortunes to him won on the turn of a 
 card ; he sees piles of gold and rolls of bills rapid- 
 ly changing hands ; if he is tempted to play him- 
 selt he may win a few dollars and depart richer 
 than he came ; but, foolish man, you are like to a 
 fish with the bait in his mouth ; the hook and line 
 is attached thereto, and in the end you will be 
 brought up with a round turn. 
 
It is not the object of this book to inflame curi- 
 osity to see these hells, any more than to make it 
 serve as a directory where to find them ; but to tell 
 men in the plainest terms keep away — don't go into 
 them: if by any chance you find yourself in one, flee 
 instantly, as you would from the mouth of the bottom- 
 less pit. Be assured it is the only safe way. For 
 if once you venture into a place where you see 
 money changing hands in large quantities every 
 minute, and men coining big piles of gold without 
 effort or exertion, your fingers will itch to dip into 
 the golden heap, and the chances are ten to one 
 that you will drag out your spare dollars and go 
 at it, and if you do, you may in an hour acquire a 
 taste that can never be entirely relinquished. A 
 man's common sense may cause him to forsake 
 the habit of gambling, but he can no more eradi- 
 cate the taste than he can pull off his head with a 
 boot-jack. 
 
 It is a curious fact that lookers-on at a gaming 
 table never see any but the winning side. Can't 
 you see, you miserable numbscull, (pardon us for 
 knocking you over the head to bring you to your 
 sensesj that for every dollar one man wins a hun- 
 dred cents must come out of another's pocket? 
 Go to ! some of you men who ordinarily have sense 
 enough to make money elsewhere and come here 
 like fools to waste it. Go to ! get up a stock com- 
 pany ; pay in your money and then draw it out in 
 checks in proportion to your shares — hire rooms 
 and set yourselves to gambling ; as fast as one of 
 you is cleaned out let him leave, and let no money 
 be carried away from the establishment — pay your 
 landlord one dollar for each game you play, and 
 at the end of a few months what will your divi- 
 dends, and what your stock be worth? Your 
 landlord will have 'absorbed it all. 
 
60 
 
 In this example, reader, you have a true exhibit 
 of the rationale of all gambling ; it is the keepers 
 of these hells alone that make the money ; what- 
 ever the winner takes away one evening he is sure 
 to bring hack and lose the next. Do you think 
 the managers of these dens do not know their men ? 
 Do you suppose they do not understand how to 
 deal their cards ? Would they venture to sustain 
 those expensive rooms, that army of hangers-on 
 and attendants, those free suppers with wine run- 
 ning as unchecked as if it were Croton, did they 
 not know when and how to turn up the knave of 
 trumps 1 
 
 In one word, reader, Gaming as practiced at the 
 fashionable hells in New York, is only an immense, 
 gaudy "Thimble Rig" and "Patent Safe Game" 
 swindle. 
 
 Now, we suppose, you expect a story to close 
 this chapter; something humorous to relieve its 
 sombreness ; but what is the use; to attempt to 
 be funny over such a subject would be like crack- 
 ing jokes at a funeral ; and as to gambling stories 
 the papers and books are full of such, and the pri- 
 sons are crowded with the heroes of them ; the 
 grave too is filled with the suicides and broken 
 hearts consequent upon indulgence in the vice of 
 gambling. If, dear reader, we have thus far led 
 you on by endeavoring to amuse, in order to fix 
 your attention, and thereby instruct you, excuse 
 us now when our theme is too excessively harrow- 
 ing to be dull, and let us all finish this chapter in 
 a frame of mind suited to an advantageous con- 
 templation of its subject. 
 
 Take then, friends, the advice of a man who has 
 been through the mill ; who knows every spot on 
 the cards, every point on the dice, and every 
 chance on the balls, and don't make a beginning ; 
 
61 
 
 don't gamble ; don't wager, don't bet ; if you 
 once get under way, it will cost you all you can 
 earn, beg, borrow or steal ; if you begin with oys- 
 ters you will end with doubloons. If the clerk 
 gambles, the till suffers ; if the merchant games 
 the banks lose ; robbery and forgery are the natu- 
 ral results and Sing Sing looms in the distance. 
 
 PLEASANT PROSPECTIVE. 
 
 Beware, young readers, of weak companions and 
 false friends ; if you are asked to go to the theatre 
 or to play a social game of whist, do so, but stop 
 there — if you are invited to bet even a trifle, have 
 the manliness to refuse point-blank : say you have 
 read this little book, and one that understands the 
 matter well, has said therein, that the man who 
 wagers is a fool, whose companionship is unprofit- 
 able, while he who would take an acquaintance to 
 a gambling saloon may be safely set down as a 
 villain, with whom further communication is dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 Don't gamble ; don't wager ; don't bet. 
 
 If any of our readers desire to peruse an intensely 
 interesting narrative, descriptive of the manner in 
 which, in England, young men of wealth are ruin- 
 ed — systematically plucked — by aristocratic gam- 
 blers ; and thereby be able to form a better judg- 
 ment of what may be going on here, let them obtain 
 
62 
 
 the "Diary of a London Physician " and read the 
 article referred to below. It may he issued shortly 
 as a volume of our Half-Dime Hand-Books. 
 
 Prison, London, Oct. 17, 1831. 
 
 To the Editor of the Morning Herald, 
 
 Sir — There is an awful narrative in the 
 current number of Blackwood's Magazine, of the 
 fate of a gamester, which, in addition to the wri- 
 ter's assurances, bears intrinsic evidence of truth. 
 Independent even of this I can believe it all, high- 
 ly colored as some may consider it — for I am a 
 ruined gamester. 
 
 Yes, sir, I am lying here as it were rotting in 
 jail, because I have, like a fool, spent over a gam- 
 ing table all my patrimony ; twenty-five thousand 
 pounds are all gone at Rouge et Noir and Hazard ! 
 All gone ! I could not help thinking that the wri- 
 ter of that terrible account had me in his eye, or 
 has been told something of my history. 
 
 If I had a hundred pounds to spare, I would 
 spend it all in re-printing the "Gambler" from 
 Blackwood's Magazine, and distributing it among 
 
 the frequenters of C 's and F 's, and other 
 
 hells. I am sure its overwhelming truth and 
 power would shock some into pausing on the brink 
 of ruin. 
 
 I am, sirs, yours obediently, 
 
 A Ruined Gamester. 
 
 \ 
 
63 
 
 VALEDICTORY. 
 
 Readers we have a great respect for you all, 
 especially for those of you who have paid their five 
 cents for this book instead of borrowing it of a 
 suffering friend ; and as we have now come to the 
 close of this volume we suppose you expect us to 
 throw in a benediction, and wish you good luck 
 and happiness, all for the same five cents. It is a 
 good deal to give for the money, but we are dis- 
 posed to he generous and not stand for trifles ; and 
 so we wish you, one and all, a pleasant journey 
 through life ; as much money as will be a real 
 benefit to you ; a large share of common sense 
 with wit to use it, and all for no extra charge. 
 
 And now don't, for Heaven's sake, any of you 
 go and make insane jackasses of yourselves by 
 running into the very snares that we have warned 
 you against. When you come to New York try 
 to act honestly by every one ; for we assure you 
 that one-half the people who are taken in by the 
 tricks we have described, lose their money while 
 endeavoring to swindle somebody else. Keep 
 your eyes wide open, and shun the advances of 
 smooth spoken strangers of both sexes — don't 
 trust any one until an acquaintance of longer than 
 a single day has given you assurauce of his fair- 
 ness and honesty, and last not least, don't get 
 
 DRUNK. 
 
 You will have enough to do to keep out of trou- 
 ble if you retain the full possession of your five 
 senses and four limbs ; but you are morally cer- 
 tain to get into a muss if you stupify yourself with 
 
64 
 
 u doctored " liquors until you can't tell whether 
 it is you or the pavement is moving ; and don't 
 know whether you are in Broadway or a tamar- 
 ack swamp. When a stranger is in town in such 
 an oblivious state that he takes the City Hall Park 
 for a sugar bush, and the Park Fountain for the 
 sap kettle, his condition is sure to be discovered 
 by many of the honorable gentlemen who make 
 that delightful locality their haunt, and pick up an 
 honest living by larceny, and the visitor is then 
 safe to be taken in with a vengeance. 
 
 There are other games which are practised upon 
 strangers ; other evils to warn them against, which 
 we shall take up in succeeding volumes. 
 
 And now, good readers, we shall leave you — for 
 a month — to your reflections ; we trust you are not 
 quite so green as when you began the perusal of 
 this pamphlet ; we truly hope that you are slightly 
 wiser, and sharper, and up-to-snufter than you 
 -svere — if so, we shall not regret the time we have 
 spent in writing, any more than you will regret 
 the half-dime you have expended lor the 
 "Tricks and Traps of New York." 
 
 \ 
 
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Wisdom for Half a Dime! 
 
 TRICKS AND TRAPS 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW VOBK CITY. 
 
 A little book which every man, woman, and 
 youth, residing in or on their way to New York ; 
 or who ever expect to visit that vast habitation 
 of rogues, swindlers, and honest men, should 
 possess themselves of, and con over well. Its 
 cost but Five Cents per Copy — to many it may 
 prove worth a half dime per line. 
 
 CONTENTS OF PART II. 
 
 Chap. 6. — Lotteries and Lottery Policies. 
 " 7. — Art Unions and Gift Enterprises. 
 " 8 . — Employment Offices — Partnership 
 Swindles. 
 
 " 9. — Bogus Ticket Offices — California 
 and Western Passage Swindles. 
 
 " 10. — Confidence Women Confiding 
 
 Creatures — Indignant Husband 
 Dodge. 
 
 «< 11. — Street Walkers — Panel Games. 
 «« 12. — Hackmen — Porters — Hotels, &c. 
 
 Publisher prepays Books ordered Mailed.