The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-04-09
POSTAL DETECTIVES.

The maintenance OF a large force oil
trained detectives, or inspectors" as
they are designated upon the rolls Of
the Postoffice Department, has greatly
purified this branch of the service in the
particular mentioned. An infinite mum
Der of swindles are still carried on
through the agency of the mails.
SWindlers reach their intended victims
by circulars and by advertisements in
careless or characterless newspapers.
The former method is preferred bv
sharpers, as being the least likely to
come under the notice the official
spies of the department. 1t is an easy
matter to obtain fulllists of any required
number Of names, running up into the
millions. Lottery companies make q
business of selling lists of the names OF
their patrons, and other swindling con-
Germs which obtain original lists are adj
dicted to the same practice.
Countrymen who reply to any one OF
the hundreds of snap advertisements
wonder how it is that hundreds of fas,
cinating enterprises from one end of the
country to the other obtain their ad.
dresses, and they feel. some way, that
they must be persons of importance
Their vanity is hattered, and in innu.
merable instances they undergo regu.
lar course of training 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
Predetermined.
The art craze, which during the last
few years has spread over the country
like an epidemic, has developed swim.
die that is very hard for the department
to reach, and which affords livelihood
for large number of enterprising and
inscriptions persons. The knaves tax
the great army of unsophisticated girls
who imagine they have artistic tastes by
showing them, through the medium Of
circulars, how they can put themselves
in the way of earning comfortable in
comes with the expenditure of trifline
sum for an outfit. They promise to take
work that is produced according to theil
system" and require small cash pay
ment in advance from the favored artists
The department finds this most trouble
some class of cases to deal with, the orr
gina ors protecting themselves yer,
completely, as a rule, against prosecu
ton.
The Postofice Department spen
months trying to break up the scheme
of man Who contracted to send piano.
and organs from his manufactures ii
Maine and California to any part of the
country on payment of two dollars ol
three dollars or four dollars to defray
the cost of boxing the instruments. The
articles were received according to con
tract, but they proved to be cheap toy
pianos and organs, the expense of box ms
which was about ten per cent of the
sum received in each case. Another
fellow made lot of money by boxing
and forwarding very cheap mouth-organ
to all who patronized him through tn,
mails.
The proprietor of harmless cure TO
deafness reaped a harvest of thirt, O.
forty dollars day for a long time. Hi
headquarters were in New York. TIL,
president of bogus medical college die
a prosperous business in selling spuriou
diplomas, but as the men who bit at hi
bait were confessedly as great swinder,
as he was, the department was lonl
time getting at him. This was a swindl
pure and simple.
| An army of ruralists forwarded hard
learned dollars for moving machln,
knife sharpener, simple. effective" ant
received in return sticks dipped in emer,
dust and pieces of iron. Another in
genious operator found a market TO
thousands of copies of a cheap edition
of the Scriptures by representing tn,
book to be collection of very tougl
stories. tits not recorded that the de
partment lnterfered with this mission
ary enterprise. Hartford Globe.