subs. (thieves’).—A street swindler, a CONFIDENCE-TRICK MAN. [From MAG = to talk + man.] For synonyms, see THIEVES. Fr. un chevalier de la retourne.
1838. The Town, ‘The Swell Mob,’ 27 Jan. A MAGSMAN must, of necessity be a great actor, and a most studious observer of human nature…. Without [these attributes] a man might as well attempt to fly as to go out for a ‘mag-stake.’
1856. H. MAYHEW, The Great World of London, p. 46. The dependents of cheats; as ‘jollies’ and MAGSMEN, or the confederates of other cheats.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. MAGSMEN. Fellows who are too cowardly to steal, but prefer to cheat confiding people by acting upon their cupidity.
1864. Leeds Mercury, 7 June. The case we now report is one in which an Englishman—a Yorkshireman too—was swindled by two MAGSMEN.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Good-Night. You MAGSMEN bold that work the cram.
1888. G. R. SIMS, in Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The MAGSMAN earns his living by what is called the confidence trick.
