Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1870-01-13
NO. WALLACE, j
From the Cincinnati Commercial,l
How the Fool Tax is Col
1ected. ii

Our friend Sharp, OF the lnde
pendent detective service, assures
US that the fool tax is levied and
collected with degree of success
altogether unknown to the Gov
ernment service. Indeed, if Com.
missioner Delano could invent as
ready means of raising funds for
the Government as the specula-
tors who prey upon the credulity
of mankind are able to employ,
he might speedily pay of. the ma
tional debt.
Our attention has been especial
ly called to a new, and, it appears,
highly successful mode of opera
ton by which avarice works upon
the credulity of its victims in q
manner that, when successful
causes US little of sorrow for the
latter. Though the confidence
game has often been exposed in its
thousand and more DISCUSSES, men
continue to act as though they be-
lieved it possible to purchase a
hundred dollars in gold or its e.
quivalent by the investment of
five or fifty per cent of the amount,
and greedy gudgeons bite eagerly
at bare hooks, only if the hooks
are of never SO slightly different
shape from those by which their
brother gudgeous had been caught
before them. 1t seems almost a
pity to expose a kind of knavery
which levies its tax on the rapaci-
ty of mankind, but it is perhaps a
humane duty, having regard to the
interests of the dependent, who
are made to lose many a much
needed dollar by the overreaching
propensities of those upon whom
they rely for support.
For some days the express COM
panies have been charged with the
delivery at various rural stations
in this and neighboring States, of
small sGlid-looking packages in
tin boxes, carefully soldered to-
gether. and marked S. Is, c. o. D.,
which translated into the vernac-
ular, reads as addressed to the a.
gent, "Don't let go Of this until
you receive five dollars and seven
ty.five cents current money with
the merchant" Generally the
charges are promptly paid, and the
recipient of mysterious looking
box hastens to a convenient cor
ner to examine his treasure. In
nine cases out of ten this is the
last seen of him. He finds it con-
venient to keep out Of the way of
inquiring eyes until his venture
is supposed to be forgotten, In
the tenth case, slight 'squeaP
denotes that the consignee of the
tin box has learned something to
his advantage, but not in the way
he hoped.
Sitting by the warm stove in
a country store he had read and
heard discussed by the crowd of
evening loafers ataking advertise
ment signed by Noyes & Co., Wall
street, New York, or Wagon & Co.,
or Gumbridge & Co., of the same
known locality, wherein the in
formation was gratuitously given
that for the paltry consideration
of FIVE dollars current money the
advertiser would send to any ad-
dress "6rst-rate imitation" of each
of the denominations Of National
Bank currency. Now, without
exactly deciding to embark in
the business of circulating coun-
terfeit money, it struck him that
a ''first-rate imitation" of a one
thousand dollar note, a one hun
dred dollar note, fifty dollar
note, and one Of each of the small.
er denominations could somehow
be made available for a good deal
more than five dollars.
1t took buta few daysto get q
return from his order, which out
of abundant caution was not ac-