SHARPS AND FLATS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 137, 10 June 1911, Page 13

SHARPS AND FLATS.

BIGAMY AT SEVENTY-SIX. SAUCY VARLETS INDEED. A RUSSIAN SYDNEY STREET. HOST TO A HUNDRED THOUSAND. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 28. CONFIDENCE TRICK VARIANTS. London will probably have more visitors from all parts of the earth this summer than ever city has welcomed in history before. And among our visitors there are bound to be a goodly sprinkling of the chevaliers d'industrie who prey upon tbe simple-minded. Confidence tricksters are ever with us, but the number is certain to be greatly augmented during the course of the next two months, for London will afford, during that period, glorious opportunities for the profitable practice of their peculiar talents. As a rule one cannot feel much sympathy for the guileless body who falls into the booby traps of these gentry. The confidence trick in all its variations is as a rule so simple that it is difficult! to imagine a. man with a grain of common sense bedng taken in by it. Yet scores of men manage to make their livings at the game, and almost every week Scotland Yard receives complaints from victims of confidence tricksters.

The other day a couple of Russians who had made modest fortunes in America as waiter and hatter respectively, were fleeced of a goodly sum by a Somewhat novel variant of the confidence trick. They were staying in London prior to returning to their native land, and put up at a respectable hotel near Paddington.

On Monday whilst strolling towards Hyde Park, they were accosted by a man who, in broken English, asked them the way to the park. He proved to be a Russian, also on his way back to the Czar's dominions. Conversation led to refreshments, and drinks to confidences, and finally, after a pleasant daj- round town, the trio returned in company to the Paddington hotel.

Next day the three of them started out to explore the West End, and had not proceeded far ere they ran into another compatriot, a chance acquaintance of the man of the broken English. By a strange coincidence he also was returning to Russia at an early date. The quartette were soon cementing their new friendship in a convenient wine bar. Suddenly the last recruit gave a cry of joy and rushed from the bar. Ho returned almost at once dragging with him a fall good-looking young fellow, whom he introduced to the other three as a particular old friend whom they ought to know. The newcomer proved to be a particularly vharmfmg chap, and the j Russo-Americans were delighted with him. He informed them that he had just come into a big fortune, and begged them to lunch with him to celebrati the event. The invitation was cordially accepted, and the five of them trooped od to a restaurant, lunched in style, and drained many glasses of vodka to one another's health. Then the tricksters began to operate their little plot.

Then a bright lidea occurred to the first acquaintance—the Paddington friend who had stopped at the hotel the previous night. "We are all strangers in a strange land," he said. "London is a dangerous place, but if we stick to one another we may escape the sharks who are always trying to rob foreigners. AYe are all going to Russia in a few days. Let us put our money together, and two of us will always keep it in sight, so that it cannot be stolen."

It seemed an excellent plan to the hatter and tbe waiter, and though the young man who had come into a fortune demurred at first, he was persuaded by the others. One of the friends went out and bought a small black handbag which it' was agreed nobody would think contained treasure worth stealing.

The waiter and the hatter contributed all the money they had about them, £ 14 in English money, 263 roubles in Russian notes. SO roubles in coin. The capitalist produced a fat roll of notes and the others also emptied their pockets of notes and coin—a good many notes but not very much coin. Then the bag was locked and the key handed over to the waiter, while the lhattcr took possession of the bag.

Then an adjournment to the park was proposed. On the way a shillingsworth of nuts was purchased, and they sat in the sun and cracked nuts and enjoyed the pageant of Rotten Row.

.Somehow or another the rich young man got a piece of shell in his throat, which produced a violent attack of coughing. Nothing, it was decided, would do him any good but a drink, and accompanied by the Paddington friend he left the park to get one. As time passed the other friend became anxious, and suggested that he should go and look for the young man and his companion. Ho made the waiter and the hatter promise that they would not leave the place until he came back. He fully trusted them, he said, to stop there with the bag.

And stop they did, for two hours, when, looking in the bag, they discovered it contained nothing but a few coppers and a roll of noted drawn on the Bank of Engraving.