136

Chicago Dispatch.
June 6/93.

8

CROOKS AT WORK

Short Change Men Use Buffalo
Bill Tickets.

Capt. Shippy and Lieut. Bonfield
Know Billy Beecher's Gang of
Crooks Are at Work.

They Secure General Admission Tickets to
the Wild West Show, and by Representing
Them to Secure Reserved Seats Find Buyers
Who are Fleeced--Bonfield and Shippy
Make Damaging Admissions--Big Ed Price,
Bunk Allen, Gil Fitzgerald and Other Notorious
Crooks at Work Without Fear.

Those who witness the mimic warfare at
the Wild West show between the Indians
and the pioneers, in which the rascals are
repulsed by honest men "under command of
Buffalo Bill," little realize that a real warfare
is being waged between other rascals and
honest men in which Buffalo Bill is as ever
on the side of the people and fighting for the
people's rights.

Billy Beecher's gang of circus grafters
saw in the Wild West show an opportunity
for a summer's engagement and Billy went
to the managers of the show with a proposition
for the "grafting" privilege. This
was refused and Beecher went away vowing
that he would do business anyway. Since
that time he has with a gang of smooth
men successfully victimized verdant strangers
by selling them 50 cent tickets of admission
as reserved and even box seats. This
caused considerable kicking, in every instance
the victim abusing the management
of the show for the swindle.

In truth the management was not an interested
party, but for the past month has
been doing its utmost to break up the gang.
In this it met the antagonism of the
Woodlawn Park police, whose actions and
statements lead to the supposition that they
are not only cognizant of but a party to the
swindle and participants in the division of
the spoils.

How the Swindle Is Worked.

The game as worked is this:

Buffalo Bill refuses to sell tickets of admission
to these grafters. During the week
they get small boys to go in and buy two or
three tickets, giving them 5 cents as pay
for their trouble. In this manner they secure
several hundred tickets and are ready for
the Sunday's rush.

About an hour previous to the opening of
the show they range themselves on Sixty-
third street, just outside the main entrance
to the grounds. Here they announce that
tickets to the show inside are for sale, and
keep up a continual cry. They stand as
near to the grounds as possible and thus fool
many. They do not tell anyone that they
charge the "usual slight advance," leaving
the victim to do all the talking. If a man
asks for a dollar seat he gets it, and if he
asks for three box seats he gets them, but
they are not box seats or reserved seats,
but merely the 50 cent general admission
seats. Repeated attempts to break up the
gang have failed.

Yesterday Manager Scheible, of the show,
stamped the tickets in large type 50 cents.
This covers the whole piece of cardboard,
and in a measure spoiled the game of the
swindlers.