Soapy Smith gambling house. Legend has it that above the entrance of the stairway leading upstairs to the gambling games was a sign that read "caveat emptor", Latin for "let the buyer beware". Smith's younger brother, Bascomb Smith, joined the gang and operated a cigar store that was a front for dishonest poker games and other swindles, operating in one of the back rooms. Other operations included fraudulent lottery shops, a "sure-thing" stock exchange, fake watch and bogus diamond auctions, and the sale of stocks in nonexistent businesses. Because of bribes, some of the police officers patrolling the streets would not arrest
Latin syntax like the following, there is potential for confusion, since the "quīn" clause, though positive in Latin, is translated in English with a negative: In the following context, the words after "quīn" express not what actually happened but what very nearly happened: The pronoun "quī" 'who' or 'which', when followed by a subjunctive, can mean 'a person such as' (generic): It can also mean 'in order to' (purpose): Another meaning is 'in view of the fact that' (giving an explanation), as in the following example, said jokingly of a consul who was elected on the last day of the year: Another