their hard-earned pennies in your great scheme for the
amelioration of the condition of the down-trodden, or what do you do?
Tell me how the thing works."

"Why, my work is all pantomime. The man who hired me said I had a face
that was worth a fortune. I go up to a slot machine, and act as though
I never saw such a thing before. Then I monkey around, and seem to be
puzzled, and my face looks serious, and the people in the depot waiting
for trains gather around and watch me, and when the jays are all ripe,
ready to pick, I put a penny in the slot, draw out a stick of gum, put
it in my mouth, and then I smile one of those broad smiles, like this,
and the people begin to put in pennies, and they surround the machine,
and money just flows in, until their train goes, when another crowd
comes in and I work them on the chocolate slot, and just blow in pennies
belonging to the syndicate that owns the machines. Oh, it's a great
snap, Uncle Ike. You ought to go into it," and the boy threw away his
gum and went to eating chocolate.

"Is that so? My face would be my fortune, too, would it?" said Uncle
Ike, who was beginning to show that he was mad. "And what salary does
the syndicate pay you for your valuable services as a piece of human fly
paper?"

"O, they don't pay me any salary," said the boy, as he took out a
handful of syndicate pennies and poured them from one hand into another,
to show the old man that he had wealth. "I don't ask anything for my
services. I just get pay in fun, and have all the gum, and chocolate,
and lemon drops that I can eat. The man told me it would be an
experience that would be valuable to me in after life, being in the eye
of the public, leading the people. He said this would be the making of
me, and open up a career that would astonish my friends. Don't you think
so, Uncle? Can't you see a change in me since I went to work for the
syndicate?"

"Well, I don't know but I do," said Uncle Ike, as he pondered over the
remarks of the boy. "You begin to look more bilious, probably on account
of the chocolate you have eaten, to deceive the people at the depot into
the idea that it is good stuff. And perhaps this experience will be the
opening of a career. If you can, by your actions, cause strangers to run
up against a slot machine, I don't see why you couldn't, in time, be a
pretty good capper for a three-card monte game, where you could pick
out the right card, and the jay loses his money. If this i