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
A free admonition without any fees / To warne the Papistes to beware of three trees A free admonition without any fees / To warne the Papistes to beware of three trees "A free admonition without any fees / To warne the Papistes to beware of three trees" is an English broadside ballad published by William Birch in 1571 and is not currently set to any tune An original copy of the ballad is located in the Huntington Library, however online facsimiles are available for public consumption. The first lines of this ballad, "If that you be / not past all / grace, / O Papystes / heare mee / speake, / Let reason / rule,