[Ads-l] Antedating of "con artist"

[Hugo]

con artist, OED: 1899

Here's Ben Yagoda on sham/con/choke artists with a possible 1898 in The
Capital via Google Books, but Google shows me nothing:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/03/06/portrait-of-the-artists/


But there are some con artists in a baseball report in The Times
(Washington D.C.) of 17 August 1898:

---
The ex-Pittsburg twirler was positively invincible as long as he wanted to
be, and, up to the seventh inning, he gave the visiting "con" artists but
four hits.
---

The times. (Washington [D.C.]), 17 Aug. 1898. Chronicling America: Historic
American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85054468/1898-08-17/ed-1/seq-6/>

Hugo

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