THE TRICKS OF THE EAST.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 39, 14 May 1907, Page 6

THE TRICKS OF THE EAST.

It is doubtless if any race of swindlers can quite equal the Asiatic. The smile, which is childlike and bland, of the accomplished Chinaman often masks a profundity of cunning and a dexterity in fraud that the Caucasian cannot rival. Even the mild Hindu has a faculty for fraud that is not always suspected. In the bazaars of Calcutta and j Bombay the vilest poison is sold to British sailors as whisky or brandy in bottles branded with a reliable dealer’s name. Jack pa3 r s the price of the genuine article, but is supplied with a villainous compound of native concoction. The dealer knows the value of j brands. He lays in a stock of the genuine bottles and never disturbs labels or capsuls. By the skilful application of the blowpipe he drills a small hole in the bottom of the bottle, draws off all the genuine liquid, replaces it with his own poisonous stuff, closes up the hole so that no trace remains, and palms off the bottle on unsuspecting Jack as “fine old Irish” or “Scotch.” The abstracted liquor will, of course, always sell on its own merits elsewhere. Another ingenious device of the mild Hindu is to drill a hole in the thickness of a rupee, and then to scrape out the silver from the inside, leaving only a sort of shell, without damaging the impression on the rim. ■ Lead is then poured gently in, mixed with some alloy, which gives the re- < quisite ring, and the hole is carefully clo'sed. Only a keen and experienced eye can detest the imposture. The silver j which is * thus abstracted will be l worth nearly a shilling, and the manipulator has still his rupee to spend. But the operation may occupy him the greater portion of a week, during i which time he might have earned two > rupees by honest work ! < In fact, it may be said that if the ingenuity and talent which are ap- j plied to swindles were directed to legitimate ends, the rewards would ] be both greater and more continuous j that in the precarious and hazardous t harvests of fraud. Leaving out of ] sight the moral question, it is indisputably the fact that honest lab- < our pays best.