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
Beware (album) Beware (album) Beware is a studio album by singer-songwriter Will Oldham, released on March 17, 2009, on Drag City. The album is Oldham's seventh under the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy. "Beware" was recorded in October 2008 at Engine Studios in Chicago. This album showcased a more upbeat and less melancholic side to Bonnie Prince Billy's music, with the artist attributing this to 'having found love' in a monologue to an audience on the album's subsequent tour. It was engineered by Neil Strauch and Will's backing band included Joshua Abrams of Town & Country, Jennifer Hutt, Emmett Kelly of the Cairo