SHARKS OF NEW YORK.

Bush Advocate, Volume XI, Issue 863, 25 November 1893, Page 6

SHARKS OF NEW YORK.

Xn New York, if you are making bu • a brief stay, do not, in parcelling out your ■ time, overlook Broadway, the Central Park, and Fifth Avenue. Begin (advises a correspondent of the " Daily News") at the bottom of Broadway, tne "down town' end, cay from the Battery; and walk np to, say, the junction with Sixth Avenue, going round by the newspaper offices, the Post-office, the City Hall, Union Square and Madison square on your way. This, with a tour of Fifth Avenue and Central Park, should tell you a good deal about the famous city which is the Guaucial heart of the Republic. And all the while, as tho sailors say, KEEP YOITP. WEATIIEr. EVE OrEN T . To beware of strangers ts a good " line" anywhere and at any time. In Now York and Chicago it should be imperative. Within four and twenty hours of my arrival in Broadway, ennning myself at the hotel entrance, a gentleman in a fur coat and Hash with jewellery came up with outstretched hand. "Ah ! How are you, Colonel?" be eaid with effusive geniality. "You remember me on board ship?" 1 knew him by instinct for the " confidence man," who prowls around to entrap the Btranger, and had rehearsed in amy own mind A J.ITTI.E COMED r for his benefit. " Remember you ? Rather," I eaid, wringing his paw with force. " And I take this as very good of you. You've • «oms io pay me back that ten shillings, I guess." The fellow's face was a Btudy. " I — I think you're mistaken," he gasped. "Danno 'bout that," I replied, ""but there's evidently a mistake somewhere." Tableau : Two men gazing at each other, each with head cooked slightly on ono side, and left eye closed. Pause ; succeeded by a broad grin on each countenance. Confidence man turns right ahout face, and without a word walks rapidly across to 28thatreet. I need scarcely say that he never set eyes on me before, nor I on him, and he retired, I fancy,

THINKING I WAS IK THE BUSINESS. Shere are numbers of these men who make thia sort of knavery their profession, and I the amazing thing is that bo many per- j sons at home and abroad fall into their clutches. They carry the practice of fleecing \ the victim of their misplaced confidence pretty near the region of fine art. We have them in London also, but they aro rampant in svfih. American citiesaslsew Yorkand Chicago. It is quite understood that the whole tribe of land sharks are centring their operations for this season upon Chicago, and with foreknowledge deteotives from aU tke large cities are specially detailed to watch them. WORSE PAXGEES. In Chicago there ara worse dangers, how--ever, than the confidence man. On Tuesday Slight Eev. Dr Johnson, a well-known clergyman of high position, was returning from a meeting at the Young Men's Institute when -a woman stumbled across his path. A ruffian simultaneously emerged from the shadows and murderously assaulted kirn, on the accusation of tripping «p his wife. The young men from iha meeting coming upon the scene at the Moment, the confederates, who were evidently •liaat on blackmailing or theft, decamped. Two Bights later a citizen was assaulted, robbed,l -and left for dead near one of the princi pa thoroughfares by A "SAN» SAHCJER." Tiiis species is so named (being very numerous) feonj its custom of using a long bag loaded wtth sand as its favorite weapon for bashing a. viotim senseless. Sandbagging iB as well recognised an occupation here as., fishing or shooting. Tour" -visit to . the Chicago Fair will cost money' Iha food at the hotels of any position is excellent and not dearer, while it is much better than at establishments of the.same olass at iiome. It is the odds and ends that will make you stare.

SIX SHILLIKCS FOR HAIR CUTTING, •fivepence for blacking boots in your ownhotel, a shilling for a bottle of Belfast ginger ale, ara trifles that occur to me on the moment aa experiences recently endured. The jieople. of Chicago, if the plain truth most bo told, ore very generally crediited with a 'firm intention to make -tliis summer return them the money (and. aa muoh more as fortune gives) which they fe*Te,iiivestad in World's Fair stook. Nay, itis •a ren said that they mean to ehear the wool very *«lose. All this may be spite and lying, but, on ■the whole, frugal reader, bound for Chicago, and patting money in thy pocket, hear the -words of wisdom i Though thou husband thy resources to the uttermost, eat the bread of <tarefnlness, and practice the severesteconomy, thou wilt perodventnre find tha outlay far in ■aicessof thy calculations.