Proceeding on their way until they reached the first saloon, “It is my treat, uncle,” said the man. After the drinks were served, he asked to be excused for a moment, and stepped into a back room from the bar—he was seen no more. After a long time, the barkeeper informed the old man that his friend was one of the worst crooks in St. Louis. With less than ten dollars he staggered out of the saloon, wandered over the city dazed and half insane. On the following day he was found down on the wharf crying like a child. What had happened? He had been in the hands of a Confidence Man.
There are being formed in all walks of life—high and low—associations and alliances, spurred on and incited by extravagant promises—the hook baited according to the fish—which culminates in certain disaster. The pathway of life is strewn with victims of Confidence friends—instead of friends. As in all these subtle and dangerous diversions we believe every trap and scheme are under the direct control and supervision of Satan—playing the rôle of Confidence Man. Many with a natural impulse for pleasure knock, and at once arms are wide open to receive them; lust beckons, and the Broad Way becomes choked with her votaries; covetousness shouts her promises, and the love of money soon burns out every high and holy aspiration. Fame holds the chaplet in full view, and men are ready to exchange heaven in order to have it pressed upon their brow.
But alas, in the end—in the end—“it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.” When the curtain falls, too late to recover, we shall be found on eternity’s shore, shipwrecked, robbed, ruined—victims of the great seducer. No one but an incarnate devil could stoop to the low plane of Confidence Man in business and social life; but think of what it means: by flattering promises, smiles, and kindness force an entrance into the heart life, and when once in possession, desecrate, prostitute, and destroy. We insist that it takes a devil-possessed man to operate in this particular field, and the world is full of such. We therefore conclude he is the god of this planet, blinding the eyes of his unnumbered victims.
XX
THE TRAPPER
“And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”—2 Timothy ii. 26.
“Surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.”—Psalm xci. 3.
To be a trapper requires something more than setting traps and baiting them. The old trapper returns from a season spent among mountains, rivers, and forests—ladened with valuable furs of every kind: beaver, bear, otter, fox, mink, wildcat, coon, opossum, etc. Remember the animal kingdom is infinite in variety; no two alike. A trap that will catch a beaver will not answer as a bear trap; a coon and a mink are as far removed from each other as a polished American and a native of Madagascar. A coon will not go within a rod of a chain, but have little if any keenness of scent for protection. A rat will not go near an object if the smell of human hands is on it.