The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-06-17
OF COUNTERFEIT
SWINDLERS
Startling Disadvantages for a Peck
Of Shavings---$l3oo Tied Up---Sad
State Of Morals!

There is a class Of swindlers in New
York who are coming money by adj
vertising to sell thousands of dollars of
weli-cxccuted counterfeit currency notes
for only.a few dollars in genuine cur
rency. Their plan Corporations is quite
simple, but at the same time mastery
and ct1icacious. Who has not heard Of
or seen those admirably Autographed
letters, executed in almost exact SEM
blance ofquill-pen manuscript, wherein
the writer (who is generally one of
firm, fictitious of course,) after making
sundry tiattering advances to the one
addressed in order to gain his conf
dence-telling him that the writer has
heard of him as Il man ssthat will do to
trlst,' and that he is about to open up
Il way for him to amass Il fortune, but
that nothing must be said about it
proceeds to inform this individual, SO
highly honored, that by sending to the
writer's firm the small amount of ten,
by Express !, package of five, ten, fifty
or perchance one hundred thousand
dollars in counterfeit bills so admirably
executed as to defy all human detec-
ton: There are very few of our rea
ders who have not either received, been
shown, or read in the papers of the pro-
posais of these New York swintilers, and
J hundreds have laughed at the impu-
dence and rascality of these vile felOns,
or scorncd their infamous proposals.
But not so has every one done who has
been thus tempted, as we have recently
learned much to our surprise.
In the Nicksburg Times of the 18th,
we stumbled upon the following state
ments contained in an article referring
to the business done by these New York
Swindlers:
There is now lying in the hands of
! thirteen hundred dollars, which has
been paid in by different dupes, and
| afterwards garnisheed by them on find
| ing out what the supposed valuable
packages contained, three hundred dol
! lars of which was paid by a man, a citi-
zen of that place, who is worth over
two hundred thousand dollars. We
saw a package of this character in the
| Express Office yesterday that was being
| returned to the vendors, with the fol-
lowing: &C. o. ID. 800. From the Har-
mon Watch Co., Salesroom No. 90
Broadway, New York. Factory, Hud-
| son City Heights, New York. Seth
Grey & Son, General Directors''-on a
nicely printed label, in two colors, and
directed to s'Mr.-, Monroe, La.'
| Unwilling to believe that there eX-
listed in this section of country the
amount Of turpitude ascribed to it by
the Times, we addressed Il note to the
Express agents at this place, expecting
that the supposed SANDER would be in
stantly refuted. Our surprise was
equalled only by our modification
when we had pcrused the annexed re-
ply to our note of inquiry to MeSsrs.
Oliver Il Byrne:
MONROE, June ID, 1871.
G. w. McCRANIE, Esq:
| Dear .Tr-The facts as stated by you
arc true, as those also in the extract
| affixed to your letter-with the eXcep-
| ton only, that the individual referred
to in Monroe, in connection Herewith,
is not, that we are aware of, so wealthy
ats rumored. There are but few in our
| midst whose fortunes could touch that
| figure. All the facts connected with
! each of these cases will be more fully
developed by the legal proceedings now
being taken by the parties.
Very truly, OLLvEl;& BlKNE.
The quality of avarice needs not to
be strained to make it Il dangerous foe
to ones peace and happiness. But
here are men who, influenced by that
passion, are willing to hazard the pun
ishment threatened upon the back of
every United States currency note in
the land and to become felons at heart,
| if not iii fact or in law, in order to ac-
uuirc Il wealth every representative
dollar of which would possess Il sting
| moro painful and less durable than that
nature to be selfish, but only to the
| starving or dishonest to take that which
| is anothcr's. Even the swtndierS of
| New York are less dangerous to society
who patroniZe them. The swindIer, us
we have been shown, although promis-
! ing to send his customer counterfeit
| bills, never in fact sends u single dol
lar. The <'packages" come promptly,
it is true, but they contain not money,
but Saw-duSt or ShavingS! We have
seen three or four of these packages
thus filed. One had on the covering
IL 4