The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-09-21
SWindling the ssGrangers. "

The. success of the man who goes
among the farmers soliciting their
money for his useless wares has long
been scandal and shame. It is not
all the farmers fault. He is like other
men in most respects. Human nature
is much the same, the world over. But
his isolation offers fewer opportunities
for consultation and for combination in
selF-defence. A scheme that would fail
in the town merely because it would at
tract the attention of others, and be dis
cussed by them while looking on, may
be carried out in the retiracy of the
farmers home. A band Of scoundrels
covering house in he village with a
network of lightning-rods, and then
bulldozing the owner into promlssory
note for ten times the cost of the work,
would fail merely from the casual pres
ence Of the neighbors who might chance
to pass while the work was going on.
Yet this transparent fraud may be sue
cessful when attempted on an unsus-
picious and busy man who stands alone.
Legal technicalities tend to demoralize
the farmer. He sees some one sWindled
by the combined shrewdness of two
sWindlers, one of whom is a lawyer,
and he learns to distrust the law.
Finding his name signed to very HARM
less contract, he is persuaded that he
has SCOT his foot in it, and he will paw
out rather than stand for what he
knows to be his rights. fearing the law.
And, at all this, the self-suflicient man
on the crowded streets will smile, and
say the farmer ought to have more
sense. And this is true. We should
know more than we do. But experience
is slow school, and it is essentially the
school of those who live and labor in
isolation.
But the position of the farmer offers
the swindler better opportunity to es-
cape detection. The latter may be
cleaning in far-distant pastures before
his little scheme has been discovered,
whereas, if it had been contaminated in
the village, the idle loafers, the lawyers,
the officers, allwould have been on his
track while it was yet warm.
1t is the duty Of the press, as well as
of reading and observant farmers and
others to warn everybody against the
oily tongues OF the peddler of cloths,
carpets, linens, etc., that have escaped
duty, or are bankrupt stocks, and sold
for song. The travelling vender of
gratis and fruit trees is dangerous
fellow, for it takes long time to prove
his guilt. But tree-planting is matter
Of SO much Importance to the planter,
and he should be SO absolutely certain
of what he is doing, that it seems
strange that any one should permit him.
self to take the risk of relying on the
representations of an irresponsible
stranger.
But it is useless to attempt to enum-
crate the wiles of the wicked. The wis
dom of the serpent will be sufficient to
enable him to hide his trail. An old
swindle will be succeeded by new one,
and when the old is forgotten it will be
revived. The only safety is in giving
wide berth to offers of sudden riches at
the hands Of strangers to all offers Of
something.for moth ing and especially
to every proposition that suggests on
its face any intrigue, any fraud upon
the Government, or on private persons,
or any gain where others must lose.-~
Western Farm Journal.