Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-16
Deadbeats in Three Styles.

There is probably rot a place in tho
country where the tricks of swindlers
are more practiced than here in WASH
ington. Not that there are any more
swindlers here than anywhere else, but
it is a place where shiftless people get
stranded, and think and think and plot
and plan to get loans that they know
they can never pay. There is a class,
numerous enough everywhere, o inn
provident to get on without leaning on
somebody, that somehow lands here,
hoping to get a permanent lien on the
Government. This class seldom, if ever,
succeeds. The Government, even the
most extremely political part of it, has
no use for drones or ne'er-do-weels. 1t
wants honest men who can answer
.'here!!' with a clear, ringing voice
whenever called, and whose anne are
good at the bottom of a check. The
deadbeat gets on poorly trying to get a
Government place; so, of course, he
can do no better than put his old dead
beat machinery to work and get out of
town in some way. This means that
somebody suffers.
There is a style of deadbeat living
and d~eadbeating OF a good name. He
may be the descendant of a President,
though this is rare. Some honored and
honorable Cabinet Ministers have had
bad luck with progeny, and more than
one great Senator has vicariously gone
to the devil in the second generation.
The more honored and we'll known the
name the easier the game. Not
more than a month ago the son of
a most honorable gentlemen. once the
member Of a famous Cabinet, came to
Washington and easily played his
fathers name for $1O0-perhaps for
more; the hundred-dollar instance is
the only one reported thus far. To
give the name would be to unnecessarily
dishonor it. 1t would not help to get
the money back, though a poor man
lost it. The swindler came and was
well received by a friend of his father.
He was shown every attention, and
complimented on every hand. The
friends of his father are plenty here and
the o reaped the benefit. When he
was ready to 90 away he suddenly re-
membered that he had no money and
remarked that he would like to get rec
ognized and :'draw on the old man.,
He casually remarked to a friend of his
fathers, ''you know he is good for half
a million" The friend knew that he
was, and was not the man to see his
son want, so he indorscd the draft. 1t
took but three days to learn that he
had made a fool of himself. The ''old
man. repudiated, and the son went on
to ''work'' the honored name of his
father somewhere else. This is only
n instance. Honored names are the
innocent causes OF dishonored debts
many, many times every year here in
Washington. Fathers get tired Of idle
sons and refuse to pay their drafts,
even at the risk Of causing a friends
embarrassment. 1t is we'll to beware of
great names.
Another frequent bleeding scheme is
to strike a wealthy man in office. The
Observation-Disclosures newspaper
men work this scheme the easiest. The
genuine correspondents are not to be
feared. Of course a man hates to be
disobliging, especially when he has, as
q politician, been asking favors all his
life, and SO when he gets to Washing
ton he is stuck for a nice little bundle
of dishonored debts. He losses them
oSANC . oO AAA1AJ ASooOAo WCAA pau AOAs
and balances them by remembering
how well he has been repaid for little
favors done genuine newspaper men.
One of the others, and perhaps the
most frequent of all the schemes, is to
visit Washington, spend all the money
brought and then get a resident friend
from the same State to go security at a
hotel. This trick is too common to be
interesting and too tiresomely frequent
to be strange.
Senators and Representatives are
bled right along. That is a regular
thing, and they stand it like little men,
or great men, as the case may be.
Probably the money owed in Wash
ington by borrowing deadbeats would
build a wall around the city a hundred
feet high if all were paid at once with
interest to a competent and trustworthy
engineer Washington Republican.