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.

Cincinnati, Ohio, November 1893 - Pretty Ida Lawrence gets arrested while entertaining some hackmen in Cincinnati, O.
It was just 2 o’clock the other morning when Ida Lawrence reached Fifth and Vine Streets, Cincinnati, Ohio. She had a jag that would have poisoned an ordinary man.
But Ida was happy. She was still happier when she met with a crowd of all-night hackmen.
“Hello, Ide,” said one.
“Goo’ night,” said Ida.
“Hain’t seen you for a time. Where’ve you been?”
“Me? Where’ve I been? Oh, no place. I guess I ain’t been no place.”
Then she sang:
“On the Midway, the Midway, the Midway Plaisance,
Where the naughty Algiers girls
Do their naughty, naughty dance.”
And she danced a dance that made even the boy on the stone fountain blush. Behind a telegraph pole stood Officer Moffit. He sneaked over and stpped the performance by calling a patrol wagon. The next day he told Judge Gregg about it and the Judge sent Ida out for four months.
Reprinted from The National Police Gazette - November 25, 1893


