American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-11-27
A Gigantic Confidence Game.

Harper's Bazaar.
A Gigantic Confidence Game.
In spite of the repeated warnings of the
newspapers against the cunning machina-
lions of the confidence man, in spite of
the revelations which flood the public
prints daily, describing the shrewd meth
DDS by which innocent, simple minded
persons are defrauded of the hard-earned
accumulations of years. there are some
who will never learn prudence, caution
and foresight until they have had the Bit
ter experience itself. After the fingers
have been badly burned the child, who
may be quite advanced in years if not in
sense, learns to beware of the fire. After
the horse is stolen there is no end to the
caution displayed in securing the stable
door.
A gigantic confidence scheme has lately
come to light near this city, gigantic in
the amount of money fieeced from a toll
ing farmer, but almost infantile in its con-
ception. Puerile as it was, it was enough
to deceive the poor dupe upon whom it
was practiced. The facts in the case are
these:
A few months since a strange couple
appeared in the vicinity of Kokomo
They were as much in the Gypsy style as
old wagon drawn by donkey which had
apparently seen many weary years CT serv-
ice, and they had the usual number of
dogs following in their wake. The woman
was gotten up after the manner of an
Indian squaw and told fortunes, while the
man was a fully-develOped root-and herb
doctor, protesting to possess universal
panacea. He had come after roots and
was enthusiastic in his search for them
and in his devotion to science. He was
an Englishman, it appears. and was decid-
edly fluent in speech.
Now, it so happens that near the juno
ton lives a wealthy and highly respected
farmer, Michael Lock. This man the
Gypsies had picked out for their dupe,
and their plan of operation succeeded like
a charm. The woman, through her won
deIful powers, which enabled her to pierce
the future, told our farmer that 800, 900
in gold were buried in his farm; that she
was the only one who knew just how to
diagrams of the spot, and all the knowl-
edge in the case necessary to get at the
treasure were in her possession; and that
she was both ready and willing, not to say
anxious, to dig it up-fOr q consideration,
of course. The sum demanded was absO-
lutely trifing, and simply Insignificant in
comparison with the value of the gold.
She would actually consent to raise the
treasure and confer lasting wealth on
Farmer Lock for the sum of s., 900 in the
currency of the realm in the form of rag
money What was S. 900 in Uncle Sans
money to 800, 900 in bright, yellow gold?
Nothing. So thought the farmer. And
then the thing looked so fine. Here was
a woman who had documents, plans,
drawings, in fact everything, going to show
that she knew.all about his farm and all
about the treasure supposed to be hidden
in its subterranean depths. He resolved
to raise the 200 at once. But he did
not raise it as easily as he resolved to
freely as usual, and the offer of $500 in
terest for the use of 5000 for sixty
days was of no avail with the memorable
bank cashier. unless the borrower
would tell what he wanted to do with the
money As last resort he went to DIR.
Pennington, of this city, and succeeded in
raising the money, for which he gave
mortgage on his farm. He then sought
the woman, showed the money and gave it
to her to count She counted it, said it
was correct, and then appeared to roll it
up for him. Instead of rolling up the
greenbacks she actually rolled up some
pieces of brown paper cut in the right
size, and, as a substitute for seventy-five
dollars in gold a halfpound of shot. Her
of hand work completely deceived
the innocent farmer. The fraudulent
package was returned to him with strict
commands not to open it till he had car
ried out her request, and the lady pocket
ed the real wealth. She wanted Lock to
keep the package, as it would be so much
safer in his care, but she directed that the
knots in the napkin must not be meddled
with. The penalty attending his disobey-
ing her instructions was the ruin of the
whole business. He was required to do
several foolish things in order to obtain
possession of the treasure. The pro-
gramme was that he should take the
money home and keep it, take a shovel
full Of Indiana earth to Kentucky, and
then bring back a shovelful of Kentucky
earth and place it in the hole from which
the Indiana earth had been taken. When
all this was done his friends would meet
him, raise the gold, and receive their
S5 600 compensation. The instructions
we're carried out literally and involved a
trip to Cincinnati and an invasion of the
sacred soil of Kentucky. But the farmer
was after the 100000 in gold, and
was equal to anything. He secured the
earth, returned to his farm, and waited for
he genial Gypsies. But they didn't come,
md have not come, upto date. Still Lock
believed they would yet appear, and it was
not until after many days of vain waiting
md with the greatest reluctance that, on
he 18th inst, he allowed the mysterious
5ordian knot to be cut and the napkin
opened, when the package was found to
contain even less wealth than the average
package. 1t has also trans
bred that there was secondary scheme
o obtain So, 600 on account of an alleged
b5O, 900 gold deposit, but, although Lock
lctually raised the 81, 600, the woman, the
herb doctor, the wagon, the dilap-
dated donkey, and the beggarly ours dis
appeared, apparently well satisfied with
heir harvest.
/ see the KokomO Tribune is out in an
Extra supplement with a column heading
lilating upon the shrewdness of the game,
md apologizing for Lock on the ground
hat he is a good, well-meaning farmer,
who doesn't read the papers, and is not
wise overmuch. The experience of the
)ast few months, however, it is supposed,
will be the means of charging Farmer
Locks visual angle so thai, when he next
Encounters an Indian squaw and u root
md herb doctor who have plans for rails
ng hitherto unheard-of treasures, he will
nc better prepared to understand and
yrapple with the wicked ways and the |
wicked people of this wicked world
Rokomo, Ind. (Noc. 14), Cor. ChicdgO
Tribune.
The annual expenditure for each |