Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-02-18
(TO be Continued
POSTAL DETECTIVES.
How They Werk to Keep the Malls
C1e0PaOf Fraud.


The maintenance of large force O!
trained detectives or inspectors, as
they are designated upon the rolls OF
the postofice department, has greatly
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 circular and by advertis
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 the department.
It is an easy matter to obtain full lis is
of any required number of names,
running up Into the thousands. Lot.
terry companies make a business OF
selling full lists of the names of their
patrons, and other swindling concerns
which obtain originalists are addicted
to the same practice.
Countrymen who reply to hundreds
of snap advertisements wonder how ii
is that the hundreds of fascinating
enterprises from one end of the coun-
try to the other obtain their addresses
and they feel, some way, that they
must be persons of Importance. Their
vanity is hattered, and in innumer.
able instances they undergo regu-
lar course of training before they &C.
anire sufficient fund of experience
to enable them to realize that they
are on the wrong side of the instltu-
ton for the feeble minded.
The art craze, which during the
last few years has spread over the
country like an epidemic, has develop
ed a swindle that is very hard for the
department to reach, and which
affords a livelihood for a large num-
Der of enterprising and INSCRIPTIONS
persons. The knaves tax the great
army of unsophistieated girls who
imagine they have artistic tastes by
showing them, through the medium
of circulars. how they can put them
selves IN the way of earning comfort
able incomes with the expenditure of
a trifing SUM for an outfit. They az rec
to take work That is produced accord
ing to their System" and require a
small cash payment in advance from
the favored artists. The department
finds this most troublesome class of
cases to deal with, the originaters
protecting themselves completely, as
rule, against prosecution.
The postoffice department. spen t
months trying TO break up the swim
die of a man who contracted to send
pianos and organs from his manufac-
turtles in Maine and California to any
part of the country on payment of 50
or s. or 81 to defray the cost of box
ing the instruments. The articles
were received according to contract
but they proved to be cheap toy
pianos and organs, the expense of
boxing which. was about 10 per cent.
of the SUM RENTED in each case, An
other fellow made a lot of money by
boxing and forwarding very cheap
mouth organs to all vino patrouized
him through the mails.
The proprietor of snide but harm
less cure for deafness reaped q harvest
of $50 or $40 day for long time.
His headquarters were in New York
The president of a bogus medical col
lege did prosperous business in
selling diplomas, but as the men who
bit at his bait were confessedly as
great swindlers as he was, the depart
ment was long time getting him.
This was swindle pure and simple.
An army of rIralists forwarded
hard earned dollars for a knowing
machine knife sharpener, simple,
effective" and received in return,
sticks dipped IN emery dust, and
pieces of iron. Another ingenious
pocrator found a market for thousand
of copies of a cheap edition of the
scriptures by representing the book to
be a collection of very tough stories.
it is not recorded that the department
interfered with this missionary enter
prizes.