The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-03-05
POSTAL DETECTIVES.
How They vaek tn Keep the Mails Clss,
of Frauds.


Of Frauds.
Hartford Globe.
The maintenance Of a large force of
trained detectives or inspectors" as
they are designated upon the rolls of
the Postoffice Department, has great
ly purified this branch of the service.
An infinite number of swindles are
still carried on through the agency of
the mails,'
swindlers reach their intended vic.
Tins by circulars and by advertise.
ments in careless or characterless
newspapers. The former method is
preferred by sharpers as being the
least likely to come under the notice
OF the official spies of thedepartment.
1t is an easy matter to obtain full
lists of any required number OF names,
running up pinto the millions. Lottery
companies make q business of selling
full lists of thenames of their patrons,
and other swindling concerns which
obtain original lists are addicted to
the same practice.
Countrymen who reply to any one
of the hundreds of snap advertise
ments wonder how it is that the hun.
dreds of fascinating enterprises from
one end of the country to the other
obtain their addresses, and they feel,
some way, that they must be persons
Of Importance. Their vanity is fat.
tered, and in innumerable instances
they undergo a regular course of train
ing before they acquire a sufficient
fund of experience to enable them to
realize that they are on the wrong
side of the institution for the feeble.
minded.
The art craze, which during the last
few years has spread over the country
like an epidemic has developed q swim
die that is veryhard for the department
toreach, and which Affords a livelihood
for a large number of enterprising and
INSCRIPTIONS persons. The knaves
tax the great army of unsophisticatetl
girls who imagine they have artistic
tastes by showing them, through the
medium Of circulars, how they can
put themselves in the way of cal ming
comfortable incomes with the expen-
diture OF q trlfling sum for an outfit.
They promise to take work that is
produced according to their "system,"
and require a small cash payment in
advance from the favored artists.
The department finds this a most
troublesome class of cases to deal
with, the originators protecting them
selves very completely, as q rule,
against prosecution.
The Postofiice Department spent
months trying to break up thescheme
OF a man who contracted to send
pianos and organs from his manu-
factories in Maine and California to
any part of the country OH payment
of 50 or So or 81 to defray the cost of
boxing the instruments. The articles
were received according to contract,
but they proved to be cheap toy
pianos and organs, theexpense Of box
ing which was about 10 per cent. of
the sum remitted in each case. An
other fellow made q lot of money by
boxing and forwarding very cheap
mouth organs to all who patronized
him through the mails.
The proprietor of q snide but harm
less cure for deafness reaped harvest
OF $50 or $40 q day for n long time.
His headquarters were in New York.
The president OF a bogus medical col
!ege did a prosperous business in sell
ing spurious diplomas, but as the men
who bit at his bait were confesselly
as great swindlers as he was, the
department. was a long time get
ting at him. This was swindlc pure
and simple.
An narmy journalists forwarded hard
earned dollars fora "mowlng ma1hine
knife-sharpener, simple, effective" "and
received in return, sticks dipped in en-
cry dust, and pieces of iron. Another
ingenious operator found market for
thousands Of copies OF a cheap edition
of the Scriptures by representing the
book to be collection of very tough
stories. 1t is not recorded that the
department interfered with this mis-
sionary enterprise.