CHAPTER VII.

GAMES AT FAIRS AND CIRCUSES.

How Licenses are Obtained—The Directors’ Disgrace—Personal Experience—Collusion With the Authorities—Officers of the Law as Blackmailers—The Author’s Aim—The Needle Wheel—Its Construction—How Operated—The “Faked Element”—“Cappers” as an Adjunct—“Representing”—“Corona,” or “Mascot”—“Cappers,” “Bookkeepers” and “Suckers”—Nursing False Hopes—The “Wheel of Fortune”—Its Principle—Mode of Betting—“Playing for Prizes”—The “Six Number Wheel”—Defrauding Greenhorns—A Manipulator a Victim—The Board of Trade Wheel—The Squeeze Spindle—How Operated—Disadvantages of “Suckers”—A Reminiscence—The Discomfiture of a Countryman—Fraudulent Spindles—A Countryman’s Enforced Demand—Tivoli, or Bagatelle—The Game Explained—“Representing”—“Cappers”—The Jenny Wheel—The “Faked” Devices—The Profits of the Machine—The O’Leary Belt—Its Fraudulent Winnings—“Cappers”—Risks of the Operator—“Hap-Hazard, or Bee-Hive”—Box and Balls—An Unfortunate Experience—Miniature Race Track—Striking Machines—Top and Bottom Boxes—The Swinging Ball 284-310