sily
available now than in the days of my early practice owing to the
great number of new crimes created by the statutes.

One of the most ingenious devices for extorting money that ever
came to my attention was invented by a client of mine named Levine
--a poor sort of character, to be sure, but cleverer than many a
better man. In detail his method was as follows: He first bought
at wholesale a large quantity of cheap watches covered with gold
plate. To the inexperienced they looked as if they might possibly
be worth forty or fifty dollars apiece. They cost Levine about
two dollars and twenty-five cents each. His next step was to select
some small shop belonging to a plumber, grocer, or electrician
which was ordinarily left in the charge of a clerk while the owner
was out attending to his work or securing orders. Levine would
find some excuse for entering the shop, engage the clerk in
conversation, and having secured his attention would produce one
of his watches and extol its merits at length, explaining what a
great bargain it was and how--only owing to an exceptional
concatenation of circumstances--he was able to offer it for the
ridiculously low figure of thirty dollars.

Now it never made any difference to Levine whether the clerk wanted
the watch or not. His procedure remained the same in all cases.
He would first offer to let the fellow have it by paying one dollar
a week on the installment plan. If this did not appeal to the
clerk Levine would persuade him to keep it for a short time on
approval, paying down a dollar "as security." Almost all of his
victims would agree to this if only to be rid of him. In default
of aught else he would lay the watch on the counter and run away.

Nothing more would occur for a couple of weeks, during which the
clerk would hold the watch pending its owner's return, little
suspecting what was going on meantime. Levine, having "landed"
his watch, immediately swore to a verified complaint in an action
at law for "goods sold and delivered," setting forth on the date
in question he had sold--not to the clerk, but to his _employer_--
a gold watch for the sum of fifty dollars, which the latter had
then and there promised to pay for at once. The complaint further
recited that the money had been duly demanded and payment refused,
and asked judgment for fifty dollars and the costs and disbursements
of the action. Levine would then procure from some irresponsible
person an