The record-union., 1891-09-22
AN AMAZING CHEAT.

1t is all but impossible to believe that
human credulity in any part of the globe
is SO great as to lead people to be taken in
by the sh-Rose-Lively swindle re-
ported from West Virginia. Gullible
people there are, and fools also, but that
any man or woman sane enough to make
and lay up a little money honestly could,
in this blaze of the nineteenth century,
be swindled by such bare-faced impos-
ture as that referred to passes belief Had
such a" story been written into dramatic
form and presented upon the stage, it
would have been pronounced so idiotic
and supremely absurd as to deserve the
contempt of all people.
But here is sober fact-more fanciful
than the widest flights of Imagination.
Here are people with schools, papers,
banks, mercantile establishments, public
officials and all the means for obtaining
information concerning financial schemes
In which the Government is interested
swindled out of their coin by trio of
rascals who did not, it appears, so much
as give reference or offer the slightest
security to their victims. Not less as
founding than the gullibility and idiocy
of the people was the daring of the oper-
ators. That anyone could venture upon
such swindle, having the full knowl-
edge that simple inquiry at any postof-
fee, bank or other place Of that order
would expose the thievery, is amazing.
1t appears that Ash, Rose and Lively
represented to the people of West Vir-
ginia that the Federal Government was
in distress; that all the available gold was
being shipped out of the country, and the
Washington authorities could not COM
mand enough to respond to calls upon it.
1t had therefore authorized a secret organ
ization to be formed to aid it by
private appeals to the people,
since public announcement would create
panic and do incalculable harm. Of
such secret organization the three swim
dlers were, they said, agents to establish
branches. The Treasury Department,
they explained, had plenty of paper
money, and for every $500 advanced in
gold to help it out Of its trouble it would
advance 81 900 in currency. Nothing less
than $500 would be received, because the
Federal Government could not deal in
small sums as it would necessitate too
much minute detail.
On the strength of this story, told by
the three swindlers, the people in large
numbers went into the woods and
mountain passes and took solemn oaths
of secrecy and were enrolled members of
the Government Aid Society for two
purposes; to help the nation out of diff
culty-and here was where the senti-
mental part of the initiatory ceremony
came in-and to make s. out of every
gold dollar they had, or could rake or
scrape. They collected their hard earn
ings in gold, broke up their old-age
funds and brought to light their hard
earned savings and turned the whole
over to the rascally thieves, receiving in
return only the certificates of the swim
dlers, pledging the Government to pay
to the association members in the ratio
stated.
In this way, we are told, the thieves
gathered up over $4,000 before their
scheme was discovered and exposed and
the Federal detectives could run the
villains down. OF course any man or
woman who, in this day, is so densely
ignorant as to be taken in by such q
swindle is deserving of no pity. IN
fortunately, however, they who will
suffer the most are the innocent, the
wives and children of men who put their
all into the scheme, mortgaged their
homes and even sold their personal ef-
fects to laid the Government and tickle
their greed. Two of the swindlers have
been taken, and third is now pursued
by posse. Hanging would be altogether
too refined a method of taking the life
out of the carcasses of these robbers of
the poor. They ought to fall upon con-
ditions that will insure keen torture
They will be sent to the West Virginia
penitentiary, however, and live out their
terms at the expense of the very people
they have robbed.
a ~