DROPPING THE PIGEON.

This fraud is often practised upon the unsuspecting. Sometimes by a pin-box or needle-case, at other times coin. Men who will not play cards are often swindled by this trick. The way it is done I will explain by relating a game which was played in Nottingham (in 1868). A young farmer had come to town for the purpose of buying a lease of Lord C...'s solicitor. Some tricksters became acquainted with his errand, and determined to have his money. They could not get him to play any game, for he knew none. Two of them combined to effect their purpose, and they agreed to drop the pigeon on him, saying that they knew he would bet on it. This pigeon is a curiously-contrived needle-case, which opens at both ends, but has but one visible opening. This is filled with needles. The secret opening at the other end also has needles in it, but they are stuck into cork, or some such substance, to keep them from rattling. 

In this affair the two gamblers pretended to be entire strangers. One of them invited the young man to take a walk with him; he consented to do so; the other took the case, and went on ahead out of sight, and dropped the case in the road. The gambler and the young man behind came up to the case, and the gambler, who was watching, picked it up, and said, "See here, we have a fine needle-case, and we will have a joke on the owner, if we meet with him." He then opened the visible opening, and turned out the needles into the young man's hand, and told him to keep them while he put pins in their place. This he did, and shut the case up again. Presently the secret partner of the gambler same, meeting them as a stranger, and inquired if they had seen a very nice needle-case, which he had lost a while before. The young man, who still held the case, replied, "Yes, I have it here; but it is not a needle-case. It is a pin-case." "Oh, no," said the man, "it has some very fine needles in it." The gambler then said, " I would like to bet you that there are no needles in the case." The owner of the case gave it a shake, rattled the pins, and then said, "I will bet there are." The gambler pulled out a sovereign, and offered to bet it. The owner of the case replied, that he would bet twenty pounds. The gambler said that he had not so much money. The young man felt so confident that he would win, if he should bet, that he offered to bet ten pounds. "No," said the owner, "I will bet a hundred pounds, and no less." The gambler said to the farmer, "Let us bet him the hundred pounds; I will go one-half of it." The young man put up his half, and the gambler then said, "I have not the money now with me; do you put it up for me, as we can but win." Young Yorkshire said he had not so much with him, but he would put up his gold watch to make up the balance. He did so, and the gambler held the stakes. The owner of the case pulled out the stopper, and turned out the pins. They then laughed at him; he said there should be needles somewhere in it; he then opened the secret opening, and there were some dozen or two fine needles stuck there, and of course he won, as he bet there were needles still in the case. The young man's feelings can better be imagined than described. My exhibition was at the Mechanics' Hall at the time, and I saw the victim, who told me the story, and that he had not written home since, and should not until he should have retrieved his loss. He told me that if it should be known at home how he had lost his money, he would be ruined in the estimation of all who knew him, and that he never intended to go or write home until he had made as much or more than he had lost.

Variation.—Folding up two sixpences in a paper, the two being separate, one on each side. The paper is dropped and managed the same way as the needle-case or pin-box.

 

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