Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-03-26
UNCLE SANS MAILS.
How They Are Used BY SwindlerA
to Deceive the Unwary.
Ingenious Scoundrels Who Always Find
Some New Scheme to Fleece the Gull
hble in All Parts OF the Country
The Work OF Post-Omce
Detectives.
Iwashlng.on Cor. chicago Neu,.l

Corrupt men have used the mails ever
since the Government took control Of that
service to swindle the public. The main.
tenance Of large force of trained deteci
tives, or inspectors" as they are desigI
mated upon the rolls of the Post -ofice De!
partment. has greatly purified this branch
of the service Ii the particular mentioned
but an infinite number OF swindles are still
carried on through the agency Of the
mails. The Government can not UNDER
take the guardianship of individual fools,
but collectively It is Of great benefit to
them, and by the enforcement of general
rules saves them large amount of money
! every year.
! Swindlers reach their intended victims
/ by circulars and advertisements in care
less 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 depart-
ment. 1t Is an easy matter to obtain fool
lists Of any required number of names,
running up into the millions. Lottery
companies make a business of selling lists
OF the names 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 managers
OF fascinating 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 flattered, and in innumerable in :
stances they must undergo q regular
course of training before they acquire q
sufficient fund of experience to enable them
to realize that they are on the wrong side
OF institutions for feeble minded.
The art craze, which during the last few
years has spread over the country like an
epidemic, has developed swindle that is
very hard for the department to reach and
which affords a livelihood for q large num-
Der of enterprising and INSCRIPTIONS per-
sons. 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 incomes with
the expenditure of a trifiing sum for
an outfit. They promise to take work that
is produced according to their ''system," !"
and in every instance require a small cash
payment in advance from the favored art
lists. 1t is almost unnecessary to state that
the whole business is an unmitigated swim :
die. The department finds this a most
troublesome class of cases to deal with, the
originators protecting themselves very
completely, as rule, against prosecutions.
The art swindle is not new thing by any
means, but as women and girls are not
careful readers of newspapers the crop of
victims appears to be inexhaustible.
First and last, Chicago has furnished O.
long list of swindlers who operate through
the mails. There are several of these artfuI
art establishments located there who do
business in various guises. With the Fund
schemes readers are familiar, and the
same thing, with notifications, amend
ments and variations, has been tried in
many other places, none, however, on so
ambitious scale. Advertisers in out-of-
the-way places who promise to send pianos,
organs, barometers, threshers, corn shell
lers, sure cures for all ailments of the flesh,
gold watches, sewing machines, books and
almost every article in use on payment
OF small sum are numerous. The POST
office Department spent months trying to
break up the scheme OF a man who con-
tracted to send pianos and organs from his
manufactures in Maine and California to
two or three or four dollars to de-
fray the cost Of boxing the instruments.
The articles were received according to
contract, but they proved to DE cheap toy
pianos and organs, the expense of boxing
which was about ten per cent. of the sum
remitted in each case. Another fellow
made lot of money by boxing and for,
warding very cheap mouth organs to aal
who patronized him through the mails.
The proprietor of q snide but harmless
cure for deafness reaped a harvest of thirty
or forty dollars day for long time. His
headquarters were in New York. The
President Of bogus Medical College did q
prosperous business in selling spurious di-
plomas, but as the men who bit at his bait
were confessedly as great swindlers as he
was, the department was long time GET
ting at him. This was O swindle pure and
simple.
flaming advertisement, by which 10
was made to appear that e. p. Tiffany, Of
New York, would express gold watch to
anybody in the United States for five dol
lars, was published in great many news
papers not so very long ago. Thousands
OF people, supposing this to be a great
New York jewelry house, sent on their
contributions. An immense number of
orders were received before the postal au-
thorities could interfere. Several bogus
cattle and cutlery companies have perpe-
trated swindles on the gullible public, aud
graveyard insurance companies and mar
riage associations have had their runs.
An army Of ruralists forwarded hard
earned dollars for a knowing machine
knife -sharpener, simple, effective and cas-
lily operated" and received in return sticks
dipped in emery dust and pieces of iron.
Another ingenious operator found a mar
ket for thou lands of copies of cheap edi-
ton Of the Scriptures by representing the
book to be collection of very tough sto.
ries. 1t is not recorded that the depart.
ment interfered with this missionary en-
terprise.
The foregoing comprises only a very
small percentage of the games that are at
tempted to be worked upon the credulous
through the medium of Uncle Sans mails,
but the list is long enough to give an idea
of some Of the labor that is required of the
postal detectives and of the difficulties that
are encountered in preserving the service
In cleanly condition.
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