Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-07-05
BEAUTIFUL BLACEMAILERS.
How he business OF Professional
BIac KIM all Is Conducted in New Hark.
L

BIackmaiII Is Conducted in New 1ark.
New York Star
One of the fungi of modern society
is the feminine biackmailer, who fat
tens on the folIies and foibles of men
who have more time and money than
the fortune that rules their destiny
should have allowed them. She is in
every sense an adventures, and relies
entirely upon the luck that the day
may bring forth. Like the lily of the
field she tolls not, neither does she spin;
but she is arrayed far more gloriously
than Solomon, and is most Wonderous
fair to see. With pretty baby face, a
magnificent form and superb carriage
she moves with q velvety tread until
her large innocent eyes have fastened
themselves upon some man of wealth
and leisure, and her net has been care
fully laid to ensnsre his careless feet,
and when she realizes that her hour of
triumph has come she creates havoc
and lets loose the dogs of war. The re-
suit in the majority of cases is that the
startled victim is willing ut any cost to
stop their scsndalous bayiDg, and 3
round sum passes from her plump and
rosy fingers into delicately-worked
purse, when she gracefully retiIes to
gre en- fields and pastures new.
Those ladies who invade society but
TO kill and destroy domestic felicity and
break up quiet homes are to be met
with everywhere. In Paris, London,
St. Petersburg, the German watering
places and all along the route of the
married tourist they blossom like q
rose, and are more plentiful than the
dollars the infatuated victim lays at
their feet. In Washington, also, where
the wise Solons of America go annual
ly to make Jaws for the healing pTeser-
walton of the nation, they thrive mirac-
ulously, and grow plumper and more
prosperous at every recurring session
of Congress. Events likewise occur at
Albany each winter which make the
unhappy law giver gnash bis teeth as
he reluctantly parts with his hard-earn-
ed dollar to avoid publicity which at
other times he courts, and causes him
to curse tie day that he left his quiet
home in q peaceful country village to
engage in the heated turmoil of a pc
litlcal life.
But it is in New York especially that
Matchmaking has been reduced to
fine art by those brilliant fiends who
can smile so sweetly and alurin ely
and yet be villains. Half the troubles
of the wealthy in the leading city of the
Republic have not been told, and
never will be, because they are in most
cases hushed up by asilence that is
golden and dearly paid for. A report
er of The STAR, converslng last week
with an astute and observing detective,
who had grown. old IN the service,
learned enough of the ways and meth
DDS of these pretty blackmailers to chill
his blood Tor the safety ofmen who
have money to spend and are SO heart
lessly assisted to spend it.
"These adventuresses," said the de-
tective, whose years have given him
an experience from which to speak,
come to us from all parts of the world,
and include all types OF beauty for all
tastes. A woman to succeed must be
not only beautiful but fascinating. She
must be more than ordinarily inIelli-
gent, and quick to see point and
take advantage of ii. She must needs
be as sweet and attractive as the rose;
and, like the rose, she has numerous
thorns with which to puncture and
bleed her victims. The occasions upon
which my services have been desired
to free the lacerated, but too confding
young man from tolls that he could
not break hi mself, would fill book.
The last case of the kind | was engsg-
ed in occurred but two weeks ago. The
victim was the son of a gentleman of
wealthy in the interior of this State,
and he had come 10 New York to OBJ
tain governmental appoin ment. He
was stopping with relatives in Manhat-
tanvllle, and strollipg one evening near
the river he met a pretty little maid,
whose winsome mouth tremulous &C
count led the young rustic to believe
that she was as pure as the blush on
her cheek when he addressed her. The
girl waa engaged in the service of a
family in the neighborhood; and art
fully learning the position and wealth
of her new tlamo, she led him on by
degrees, meeting him frequently by the
river bank, until she had him so fast in
her net that escape was impossible.
She demanded money to prevent ex-
posure, to which for time the young
man acceeded: but when the girl ascer-
tanned that he was engaged to a veal
thy and very worthy young lady in q
Western town, she became so exorbit-
ant that he refused further tribute and
detied her to do her worst.
Ihsu she engaged a lawyer and began
a suit against BIN for breach of prom.
Use and seduction, and wrote to his
father that she was an innocent coun-
try girl whom his son had heartlessly
betrayed. In this last act she went too
far. The old gentleman shrewdly sus-
pected that the letter was too carefully
pathetic. and read too much like blank
verse TO be written by a servant unless
aided by her lawyer, and he came on
to this city to investigate. He found
his son worried nearly into fever and
moving heaven aud earth to raise the
money that was demanded to keep the
81 H. l.,