Chicago by day and night . eircalling. The term bunco-steerer originallymeant a decoy, or capper, who led orsteered the confiding stranger against a buncolay-out. Lately, however, its meaning hasbroadened. By bunco-steerer is now meantthe oily, genial gentleman who approaches youon the street corners and politely inquiresafter your health, supplementing this querywith another as to whether you would not like achance to get into any sort of game whatso-ever. The bunco-steerer will turn his wits toalmost any scheme to make money at the ex-pense of his more honest fellow-creatures. Hebelongs to t
Chicago by day and night . eircalling. The term bunco-steerer originallymeant a decoy, or capper, who led orsteered the confiding stranger against a buncolay-out. Lately, however, its meaning hasbroadened. By bunco-steerer is now meantthe oily, genial gentleman who approaches youon the street corners and politely inquiresafter your health, supplementing this querywith another as to whether you would not like achance to get into any sort of game whatso-ever. The bunco-steerer will turn his wits toalmost any scheme to make money at the ex-pense of his more honest fellow-creatures. Hebelongs to the great army of confidence menwho prey upon mankind in general and upongullible strangers in large cities in particular. The confidence man! Ah, beware of him ifyoft value your peace. He may make his ap-pearance at any moment and in any very suave and polished gentleman whosits opposite to you at the table in the dining- 83 car and chats so delightfully with you as youride into the city together may be a wolf in. ..j> .\.\v\\. sheeps clothing, with de-signs on your purse. Thevery clumsy confidenceman who walks up andslaps you on the back with a cordial How dedo, Jones, how are all the folks? and imme-diately tries to scrape up an acquaintance, is notto be dreaded except by very green people whohave never been in a big city before. It is thepoHshed villain, the polite, well-dressed personwho, while preserving a dignified demeanor,nevertheless tries to scrape up an acquaintanceand then proceeds to divulge—as he will sooneror lat&r—a chance by which a little easy money can be made, who is to be feared. A very goodrule to go by is to preserve a polite manner toall strang^ers, but not to enter into confidentialrelations with any man who hasnt been intro-duced to you by some one whom you thor-oughly know. The pleasures of a chance ac-quaintance may be great but they are accom-panied by dangers to your purse. If you gointo a quiet little game of cards at a hotel it i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectamusements, bookyear1
