Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-03-11
THE BOGUS NOBLEMEN.
A SIMPLE METHOD OF uNMASKlNG
 THE PRETENDERS.

<A"eTlCAnS EaSlly laken 1ns
 On any fine day you can see dozen fraudulent noblemen airing themselves on upper Broadway.
 A bogus baron, counterfeit count, a nliscalled marquis, should never impose on anybody.
 How can they be detected?
 Easily enough. Suppose you have a nobleman presented to you; the intro ducer should be able to vouch for him if the matter of title is point in question.
 But your bogus nobleman nearly al- ways presents himself. Then go to the consulate of his country.
 A SURE DETECTOR.
 There it is easy to satisfy yourself of his identity. Generally speaking. al- though not always, realnoblemen regis ter at the consulate on their arrival in New York, but every consulate. even if the gentleman has not recorded there, is moro or less able to give information as to noblemen belonging to their country. Thanks to the English Peerage (Burke's and Debrett's) and the German Gotha- ische, Grafen and Freiherrn Calendar, as we'll as to the army lists of both coun- tries, it is pretty easy to get at the facts. And there are so many real noblemen and officers of the German and English armies here in this city that the bogus article could easily be detected by being confronted with the real one.
 The impostor is generally good looking and distingue and has a dangerous knowledge of what he is talking about, depending on his good looks and his cheek to carry him through. And our rich girls, blinded by what they believe to be the honor of being courted by a real live lord or count, fall an easy vic tim to the interruptions fortune hunter.
 Counterfeit noblemen and real noble men, who have so far forgotten what is due to their name that they closely re- ways will abound in great cosmopol- itan city like New York. AS long as the present inordinate love for titles exists in this enlightened republic, people must not be astonished if they are the dupes of such as have smattering of educa- ton and the cheek to call themselves by high sounding title.
 All these counterfeit noblemen have one characteristic-that is, on all possi- ble occasions they will brag of their noble descent and will tell the most wonderful, stories of their doings at home and of the ! doings of their ancestors generations be- fore them.
 The latest specimen who has been an- moving various families, particularly that of MT. William Steinway, represented himself as nephew of the latter, called himself at various times Count Bonin. | Count von Arnin, Baron Fedwitz and various other names. What his real in- tentions were have not been found out as yet. Inspector Byrnes of the metropol- itan police has nipped his career in the bud.
 | SPECIMENS OF THE SPURIOUS. | A peculiar and rather amusing case once came under the notice of the writer, himself for long years an officer in the Prussian service. He used to lunch reg ularly at down town restaurant, when one day he was told by the proprietor that he had an ex-officer, who was down on his luck, as waiter.
 The said waiter claimed to be a Count X-, and said that he was a first lieu tenant in a crack cavalry regiment of the Guards. The writer was rather curi- ous to see the waiter, as he had person. ally known Count x. He was rather skeptical as to the walters identity, sec ing that he told wonderful stories of his prowess during the Franco-German war. the count in reality having entered the army only after the close of the cam paign.
 At last the waiter made his appear ance, and after having been taken to task he acknowledged that he was not the count, but was once the counts ser want. The latter fact accounted for his intimate knowledge of the counts family affairs.
 Many are the cases where American wives have married bogus noblenlen and suffered bitterly for it afterward, simply because they did not take the trouble tt make inquiries, but believed everything the smooth tongued rascals said.
 The writer was talking on Fifth avenue with a gentleman, when the name of a marquis well known in New York was ity the marquis was, he received as answer:
 "Oh, he is not really marquis, only we all call him so."
 The most dangerous are the Italian, Spanish and French marquises and other noblemen, as titles of nobility exist in those countries to such an extent that they arc really difficult to classify.
 All this makes it very hard for such noblemen who come here to gain a foot ing ill good society, as people have been so often duped by the spurious article that when an authentic man comes he is apt to be looked on with dubious eye.
 If the consulates here arc not able to give information, it is easy enough tc write to the American consuls in Lon don, Berlin, or whatever country the claimant of the title comes from, to re- ceive authentic information.
 But as long as the inordinate craving of Americans exists for titles, so long will the American store keeper and tailor, as we'll as the American heiress, fall an easy victim to the foreign adven turer who comes with big sounding title. The more names and the longe: the title the better.-New York Journal