NEW STYLE TRICKSTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21141, 26 March 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW STYLE TRICKSTER.

IRISH HOSPITAL SWEEPS. SLUR CAST ON NURSES. A particularly mean form of swindle was worked on many prize winners in tho last Irish Hospital Sweep. The swindle is especially to bo condemned because it casts a reflection on the Irish Hospital nurses who drew tho tickets from the drum. Tho trick was worked in the following fashion. Suppose a lady in Glasgow had won a prize in the sweep. The swindler, usually a respectable-looking man or in some cases a lfidy, calls and says he has had a letter irom the nurse in Dublin who drew the ticket. The nurse is represented as a friend of his, and tho swindler insinuates politely that she would bo glad of a little gift of, say, £5 or £lO from the lucky prize winner. Tho caller himself, of course, says he has no interest iu tho matter, being merely an acquaintance of tho nurse, but he leaves tho address of tho nurso in Ireland, also his own. In tho cases where the game has worked the swindler himself is generally a permanent resident of the district where tho prize winner lives. Tho Irish address given is an accommodation one, and letters received there are forwarded to the person in Glasgow. Should tho prize winner write to Dublin to tho address given, he or sho will get a reply that has been written in Glasgow and posted in Dublin. In ono case in which the swindle was worked in Glasgow a woman who had won a prizo of £660 was induced to send £lO to an address in Dublin to a supposed nurse. Sho got a letter in reply thanking her for her present and wishing her as much luck in tho next sweep as in the last.