Snake Charmer

Here's a character that suddenly appeared draped with a gigantic snake, a large macaw, and a small alligator in his suitcase. His schtick was that he would charge to have your picture taken with them, the prices based on what you wanted to have in the photo - he offered all three to a woman for $15 - she seemed pleased to have the snake draped around her (see video here). At first charming, it soon became very exploitative of everyone concerned, including the animals; he was offering to sell snakes for $250. With concerns about exotic animals being taken from their natural habitats, this seems a questionable livelihood, but we wanted to show you this as a classic if extremely flamboyant example of a typical big city hustle. There's been much written about the classic NYC hustles and scams, some of which are still practiced today exactly the same way as in the 19th century on the same street corners. Perhaps in another era this fellow would have been an organ grinder with a monkey...