South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-05-19


Liberty street.
, In addition to these operators doing bus
iness under several different names, there
, are few who, having not yet risen
to this pre-eminence, are content to swim
, die by single cognomen. Among them
is S. Y. Adando & Co., No. 60 Park Place
whose lithographic letter, covering three
large pages, sets forth the manifold excel
lencies Of his wares and the extreme rea-
sonableness of his rates. He, too, is "a
man of honor" trusting to the honesty
of his correspondent, and manifests in an
: extraordinary degree that Wholesome
dread of the Post Office, and great
solicitude that money shall be sent
by express, which is prominent in the
|. epistles of all the swindlers. G.. Z. Ben
son & Co., No. 176 Broadway, is shrewd-
er knave than some of the others in many
respects, for he boldly puts his letter into
type and bats his hook for the most fool
ish of very tiny gudgeons. After offering
a package of $500 for S25, 9 package OF
5000 for $40, and one of 5000 for 5000,
he says:
On receipt of price In registered letter for either
of these packages, we viii send the goods by mail
in registered package which is the only safe way
by mail there is then no cause for fear whatever
or we will safely pack either size package and
send by express c. o. d. on receipt of depsit OF
for No. 3 package. the balance to be paid on re-
| oeipt OF package, and mark them in such way
| that no one Will suspect or know but ourselves.
We will give any information desired of us at any
time, but We suppose any one knows what to do
with money when they getit
William Cooper & Co.," who styles
himself "dealers in fine stationery, 6SS
Broadway" has devised yet another method,
by having all of his thousands of circulars
actually written by hand, in which work,
up to the time he, or rather his business,
suddenly came to grief, he had eight men
constantly employed, and had so drilled
them there was no perceptible difference
in the chirography of his missives. He
also enclosed printed circular, with the
assertion that very few are to be issued,
which he begins with this alluring scrap
of secret history:
When Congress authorized the present issue Of
greenbacks, the Treasury Department executed
plates of enormous cost and wonderful workman
ship. from which the whole amount of currency
authorized by Congress was to be printed, and it
was ordered at the time that as coon as the whole
amount nad been n printed the plates, some D 10y IN
ing Department, conveyed to the navy yard and
melted. Now, it SO happened that the plates from
which the /, and dollar bills had been printed
were not destroyed. How it was brought about, we
as matter Of prudence do not state. 1t is enough
to know that the plates are still preserved unin-
jured, and we trust their whereabouts will never
be known except to us.
He then proceeds to offer at fabulously
low rates money in any desired quantity,
surreptitiously printed from these plates,
SO miraculously saved from the fire.
Rufus Stockton, stationer, wood, steel
and copper engraver," 204 Broadway, is
the pioneer title in the fraud, but now is
so seldom seen as to be unworthy of
further notice.
II. Golfer s. Co., 1876 Broadway, also
does business in the usual way, and on a
small scale. Last, but by no means least, |
is a rascal who is aware of the rescality of |
the other fellows, and advises his dupes of |
the fact thus:
Express all your moneyto this address,
McNALLY d Co., 229 Broadway.
DEAR SIR: You no doubt have some reluctance |
in engaging with Us; perhaps you have already re-
ceived from different parties in New York, who /
represent things highly colored, with great mix
ture of dattery, in respect to the goods they de-
sire to dispose of, and their extreme cheapness;
they unaccountably got hold of the way we |
DO business, and as near as possible they try to |
initiate us; they are flooding the country with cir
culars, receiving money, and sending nothing in |
return; you can see for yourselves: how can any |
one sell 81 ,0C0 worth of the goods for S10y They
can't do it, and more, they won't do it. We have |
letters every day from parties they have gulled |
and caught. Now of two evils you can choose the /
least; We have goods that no one ever has, far,
found fault with. Remember, we do this business |
with two names. One to write to and one to ex-
press all money to; make no mistake in address
ing us if yOu desire 10 do business and yourself |
justice. Address by ''mail - your letters to
p. MATBoRS q Co.,
Box PIC Jersey City, n. j.
Thus far / have used my space to pre-
sent all the names under which this knave-
~ is perpetrated, with enough of the dis
tinguishing traits of each of the circulars
to prevent all but those absolutely bent on
being robbed from obeying the order of
the last quoted, and expressing all their
money to these rogues. 1t must next be
shown how it is that these men can flood
the country with these demoralizing cir
culars with entire safety This explana-
ton involves an eTpose of fraud which is
so transparent that this exposure ought to
be unnecessary. Were there little more
sense and honesty in the people at large,
it would be sufficient to say that these
circulars are self-evident lies; but this not
being the case, it must be shown that these
men really do not deal in counterfeit
money. In that simple fact is not only
their immunity, but their profit To pro-
duce an imitation of the United States cur
rency sufficiently exact to have ready
circulation is an operation not only requir-
ing the expenditure of much time, labor,
skill, and money, but involving more risk
of punishment than most men care to as
sumo. These cheap Johns of villainy
have therefore hit upon an expedient which
demands a skill, little labor, and less
money, besides being perfectly unob-
noxious to any crimes act which ever
has been, or, perhaps, ever can be devised.
When these knaves first began, they con-
Quoted their business exclusively through
the Post Office, and at that time they were
as grimly jocose with their dupes as now,
for they sent as the counterfeits" the
small Photographic cards of the green
backs lately so common, and which could
be bought in Unlimited quantities for a
fraction of penny each. But the United
States Government speedily tired of being
partner to this fraud, and without much
law to back it up, but with great moral
and popular justification, it seized the let
tiers coming to the New York Post Office
for the counterfeit men, and returned the
money contained in them to the senders.
But in the end, the only effect of this res
olute attempt to break up the swindle was
to put the schemers to the trouble and ex-
pense of getting up new Autographs,
which bristle with such phrases as this:
q DoN'TwRITE BY BIAIL-sEND oNI.YBY
EXPRESS, CHARGES PREPAID. 81
Their own letters, of course, went by
mail, as before, and, being in plain en-
velopes, were unknown and unchecked.
By the aid of directories commercial lists,
and advertisements in newspapers, they
obtained lists of names of persons in all the
cities and towns, while, by some
means, those of men unknown beyond the
narrow confines of obscure hamlets were
also on their lists. 1t was this part of
their scheme which involves the most
labor and adroitness, for having obtained
their lists they had nothing to do but mail
their Autographs, and sit down with their
pockets wide open to catch the golden re-
6ux.
1t is impossible to say what proportion
of the hundreds of thousands of circulars
they issued had the desired effect. Some
Of the recipients tossed them contemptu-
ously away, others were indignant, and in
stantly mailed them TO the New York Su-
perintendent of Police, with the idea that
they were putting him on the trail of a
hitherto unknown villainy, and demand