There are still other reasons. A “come-on” is frequently a wild
looking being, with lengthy hair and an embarrassed manner, who
continually falls over himself and gets buncoed or robbed before he
reaches the swindlers to whom he morally belongs. “If he is a queer
sight,” said an operator, “he won’t attract so much attention in Jersey
City as he would in New York.”
Chief of Police Murphy told me the other day that there were many
“green goods” men quartered in his bailiwick in temporary exile. They
received visits from men who might be customers and who might be
clergymen trying to convert them. It was hard to get evidence against
these criminals, as their victims are as interested in not being found
out as are the operators themselves. They continue to take many of the
“come-ons” to Bound Brook and there perform the final act in financial
juggle.
There “green goods” men who used to be very active in catching and
despoiling “come-ons,” but who now say that they have reformed and
are leading simple Christian lives, are John Morgan, James Wilson and
Michael Ryan. If they have really become converts to religion the
business they have gone into is probably that of guides, for they
are seen meeting strange looking men with chin whiskers, wide hats,
carpet bags and agricultural boots at the trains. In a short time,
sometimes only two or three hours, these same men reappear at the ferry
or railroad station carrying a valise that they did not have with them
when they arrived.
So easily identified are the “come-ons” that the ferry employes
recognized them half a block away. Sometimes they call out to each
other so that the “come-ons” can hear:--“I’ll bet that fellow has
$10,000 in that bag,” or “Looks like a counterfeiter.” Then they enjoy
the alarm of the “come-on,” who turns pale and escapes as quickly as he
possibly can.
At the Pennsylvania Railroad ferry in Jersey City there is a youth
representing the “green goods” men continually on the watch. He scans
the faces of all passers by and looks out carefully for detectives.
Knowing all the employes of the police department by sight he can get
an idea if there is anything unusual going on, or if the department
is on the watch for some criminal. This youth was pointed out to me
yesterday by a private detective once in the employ of the Law and
Order Society, and who told me that the “green goods” men were still
doing business on a large scale, though they were not so bold as before
the sessions of the Lexow committee.
Some of the operators have been robbed lately by “come-ons.” So great
has been the publicity of the exposure of the business that it is hard
to realize that there can be a single man in the country who could be
gulled by it, but still hundreds of New Yorkers make a fat living off
“green goods.” During the Lexow investigation a few of the Jersey City
operators who did not know human nature very well thought that the end
of the “green goods” trade had been reached, and that they would have
to think up some new scheme for making a dishonest living.