The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-01-10

millions and millions of dollars. Al
of you have seen the advertisements
Of Lawrence & Co., where $5 or $40
put up on stock margin, in thirty days
would realize 800. Did it ever occu,
to the flats that if the chances of gain
were SO tempting and sure, Lawrence
& Co. would be more than mortal il
they did not keep it themselves, but
the owners Of over 81 900, 900, in sums
varying from $5 to 800, seemed to
think that Lawrence & Co. were a
sort of good genii, who gave new
lamps for old ones, and whose special
mission it was to give $5 gold coins
to poor people at IS cents apiece.
When will people learn common sensea
Whenever you see an advertisement
in the paper where man proposes to
give yOn five or ten times the worth
Of your money, you may be sure that
that man is liar and a thief. Thanks
to Anthony Comstock, it looks as il
these vagabonds would have their
swindling business broken up for the
present; but you may be sure that it
will only be for little while, for the
profits are so large and gulls are so
plentiful, that it will not be long be-
fore they turn up with some new
scheme, of which will try and give
you timely warning.
A pleasant piece Of intelligence
comes from the report of the morgue
of 800 men and women missing dur
ing the past year; how many dropped
out Of sight for whom no one inquired,
and Of whom no record remains, will
naver be known-perhaps fully as
many as were reported aud now the
question comes, what became of them7
l alluded to this matter nearly year
ago then there we're less than 200
reported, now there are 800. Many
of the cases have an air of horrible
romance about them, at once startling
and terrible. An eminent artist in
Brooklyn was engaged one evening
on a drawing; he had on at the time
common working blouse, and his
supper was almost ready on the table;
he heard a boy in the street crying
the evening papers, and stepped to
his door to get one-that man was
never seen again, dead or alive. There
seemed to be ifo cause for self-0estrue-
ton, his family relations were a II that
could be desired, and his income from
his profession ample, but if be had
been dropped in mid ocean lie could
not have been more completely ex-
tinguizhed. Another man, an emf
nent merchant, bids his friend good
bye in front of the Astor House at 4
o'clock in the afternoon, and starts for
his home in Brooklyn; lie, like the
artist, was never seen or heard of
after. What seems particularly
strange is, that only small percent
age of these lost people are from the
country; out of the 800, New York
furnishes over 200. 1t is a terrible
thing to think of, this sudden wiping
out, but it only illustrates the preca-
rious c:,aDces of life in large city,
and it may he that the escape of the
old fool Blair, whose would be assas
sins are now doing the State some
service, may furnish a partial key to
the disappearance of this grim army,
which the hoard of vital statistics dis
misses under the brief heading of
missing"
About eighteen months ago a man
walked deliberately up to show win
dow and broke it, and then quietly
waited for arrest; he made not the
slightest attempt at escape, but bold
ly proclaimed his guilt. When taken
before the Judge, he was asked why
he had done it, and be replied that he
was starving aud took that means of
getting into Jail rather than perish in
the street. Public sympathy was at
once aroused, and there was general
rush to his rescue; one sent him a
new coat and pants; kind hearted
woman baked him mince pie, anoth-
Ell sent him a roast chicken, while
many sent him money and other pres
ents from different parts of the city
Every thing went on swimmingly for
three or four days, when one of the
sharp detectives happened to see him
by chance, and it turned out that he
was an old States prison bird, who
had done the same thing a number Of
times before, aud who was just out of
Jail. A person would naturally think
that one such lesson would be suff-
cient, but last week a fellow By the
name of Howard startled the town by
smashing window and stealing some
things to save his wife and child from
perishing. Again the people got