The "sawdust game," was a confidence scam that only swindled those who deserved to be swindled.
The term “bunco” has come to mean to any type of swindle, but in the 19th century it usually referred to a confidence game involving crooked gambling.
The Audacity of a Professional Thief.

A Young Lady in Atchison, Kansas, Eats Four Pounds of Wedding-Cake, and in Her Dreams Sees a Likeness of her Future Husband
The old saying that by partaking of wedding-cake overnight, a girl is sure to dream of her future husband, induced a young lady at Atchison, Kansas, to try whether there is any truth in it, and in order to make a sure thing, she ate four pounds of wedding-cake on going to bed. She did dream of some being, but she had no amount of money that could ever induce her to marry him. Served her fight; what businesses had she to eat so much wedding-cake? Those Kansas girls are always overdoing whatever they attempt.
Illustrated Police News, May 20, 1875.


