SWINDLING AS A SPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 25 November 1907, Page 4

SWINDLING AS A SPORT.

Paris, SepteinlK-r ■>:,. Two Englishman, who gave their names as William Spencer and William Cummins, have been arrested here for swindling. Spencer declares that he adopted the life of the "sharper" for love and not for money. He is thirty-nine years old, and owns a pretty and luxuriously-furnished Hat in the Kuc Tronchet, near the Madeleine, lie is believed to bo worth about Clfflywn, and declares that he has taken to thieving not from necessity or from greed of gain, but owing to his love of sport. At about lupdh-time to-day Spencer and Cummins—a man of tiftytwn. who lives in the Hue Mogador—made the acquaintance of an American who was .sitting at a table near them in a c.ll'e close by the Opera. "My friend and I." said Spencer, "are the representatives of an important pockctluxik manufacturer in Vienna. If you have no objection I should like yon to look at tin- sample of our goods. You will -oe that the lock of it closes with ftich perfection, and the leather is so stipple and so cleverly worked up, that nobody can touch, take out. or even feel kink-notes inside it." The American expressed his astonishment, and Spencer laughingly >aid. "Well, put some notes into it and try and get them out again." The American took a bundle of banknotes out of his pocket to the value of tSXI, and put tliein into the pocketbook. Cummins shut the book anil handed it back to the American, saying. '"Now take the bank-notes out again."' The victim tried to get the pocket-book open again, and the two Englishmen suddenly remembered that they wanted to call up a friend on the telephone.

Ten minutes later, as they did not return, the American liegan to feel qualms. He broke the pocket-book open. and found that it contained a sheet of white paper. By a clever sleight of hand Cummins had substituted this for the bank-notes while he was closing the pocket-book. The American rushed off to the nearest police station, and by a stroke of luck ran into the two thieves. who were laughing at the ease with which they had got the money. When arrested, the}' gave their names, and Spencer made the declaration with reference to his fortune and his life of crime.