The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-12-28
SOME ENGLISH DECEIvERs.

A Queer Class Which Furnishes the
Petty Impostors to American Society.
From the Neao York Star.
Doubtless no class of adventurer has been
so generally successful in hoodwinking
fashionable New York as the impecunious
young Englishman Of fairly good address
and presentable wardrobe. The discov-
cry last summer "Alhert A. Sutton" was
not the brot her of Sir Richard Sutton, the
owner of the Genesta, and that, in fact,
he was an all-around fraud, pro
duced as great a sensation in club circles as
if such thing had never occurred before.
He has Ian ded in New York with nothing
but a small handbag and an English accent,
was taken in at the hoffman house and
the best clubs IN town at his own valuation
and in couple of weeks had establish ed
himself in some of the most select circles in
New York, even going so far as to borrow
large sums of money before he was found
out.
1t was the same old game of young
Englishman taking advantage of American
Anglomaniacs which has been in operation
here for years. Yet in spite of hundreds of
lessons in the past, the victims are ever
ready to be fieeced. Such discoveries are
being made here all the time, and for one
that gets into the newspapers there are
hundreds which the public never hear Of.
The singular part of it is that
men claiming German, French, OF other
continental titles or ar stocratic connec-
tions are universally treated with great
caution until their claims are proved be-
yond a doubt, while Englishmen, about
whose families American society would be
apt to be better informed, are gulped down
for what they say they are. It is generally
through an accident that these Adventures
are discovered, some of them going on for
months without exciting suspicion, un il
some unlucky admission or encounter leads
to an investigation.
Sir Reginald Talbot, who was the most
successful Of the social free lances, changing
his name and base of operations until he
had covered most Of the large American
cities and finally got his picture put into
the Rogues' Gallery, made the boldest and
most daring assertions about his record. A
glance at "Burke's Peerage,n the chronicle
of the landed gentry, or "The Armory,n
would have expos the fraud, but he knew
the American Auglomaniac and felt safe.
1t often has been remarked that the
queerest class of people coming to this
country come from England, and they are
perhaps the least desirable. New York is
full of the younger sons and family black
sheep whom their relatives have sent over
here to get rid Of, and who are only waiting
for remittance or a lucky turn at cards TO
go straight back to England. 1t is from
this class that the social swindlers are re-
cruited, for the last thing any of these
chaps would think Of doing would be to go
to work, and when their cash gives oIt
they find 1t easy to borrow money and pass
themselves off as people of Importance.
A day or two since the writer met one of
these lively young Eng Iishmen. His family
had given him an outfit and liberal sup
ply of money TO go out west and stay away
from home, where he Kept them in co slant
terror by his wild escapades and general
worthlessness. He never got any further
west than Niagara Falls, and even on the
steamer coming out he began to mag
Nifty the Importance Of his ia niiy
and hint at connections he never pos
sessed. In a short time his money was all
go1e, and from a fashionable hotel he re-
moved, leaving an unpaid bill behind him,
to an obscure uptown boarding house. The
misrepresentation of this individual were,
perhaps, OF harmless sort, and he doubt
less considered himself the victim OF cir
cumstances. The only effort he ever made
to get work was to insert an advertisement
in a newspaper saying that "a young man
of excellent connections and education
would accept q position as agent Of an
English house or as private secretary
BY making bold bluff to tailors and
hatiers, who are almost as gullible as the
Anglomaniacs, this individual managed to
keep up utward appearances. His board
bill had been chung up" as he expresses it,
until remittances could arrive from abroad.
This young man has written letter asking
for help to every relative he has 10 The
world. One Of these was brotn er-in-law,
a banker ia London, whom be had never
seen, but who knew the y pc well enough
to send a curt note back, declining to come
down with a cent. The outlook for his
raising the wind is gloomy at present, but
he will probably degenerate until the family