Connecticut western news., 1892-05-26
A DEsPlcABLE KIND OF sWINoLINo.
The Freo Crayon Portrait swindls and It's Thousands of Victims.

| The Freo Crayon Portrait Swindls and It's Thousands of Victims. Really am of the opinion that of all the numerous devices for swindling con- | fding people that have been exposed | from time to time that which promises
 life size crayon portrait for nothing on
 the receipt of a photograph is the most l despicable. A few days ago received 1 . note from lady of Washington ask ing me to go to the "Crayon Portrait ! House." in certain building in this city, | and get photograph that had been sent
 that concern in response to its advertise
 ment in various magazines and period | icals.
 A copy of the advertisement was for warded. knew at a glance that this
 was another of the free-crayon-fifty- cent-fve-dollar-f frame schemes, several of which have been broken up in Brook lyn, Chicago and New York. but
 thought 1 might recover the photo | graph. The latter was the only portrait | of dead son, and as such was beyond price. The seductive advertisement promises to return the picture, but this | lady had written repeatedly, inclosing
 stamps for it's return, and got no reply. | 1 afterward found that was only part of the game
 Under the plea of getting crayon l | procured information enough from the | crayon portrait concern to justify call | upon Captain Mclaughlin, of the Ten derloin precinct. He told me that he
 had received two complaints from peo- l pie who had claimed to have been swindled by this company before he had | been in charge of the precinct three days.
 | "Of course they are crooked" said he
 "but we can do nothing without com | plaint. These people work the out-of- | town racket-they don't swindle any body here. where their dupes can ap- pear against them at any time. l have written these persons who complain
 that if they will come to this city and
 prosecute I'll raid that place in five
 minutes. We can't do anything with out complaint and complainant. When l went back three days later
 the crayon portrait house was packing up. The scowling young woman in | charge permitted me to search among
 several thousand photographs for the | picture of the lady's dead son while she told me more contradictory stories of the free crayon business than could re-
 member in a week. The rough shelves | were crowded with these pictures packed on end in boxes. There were thousands | of them. Most of them were of loved
 ones who had departed this life. The tender inscriptions, the elaborate in- structions about care and return-the | aged parent, the short lived infant,
 brother, sister, husband, wife, faces photographed after death, tintypes, old
 cherished ambrotypes in plush velvet cases, forgotten and covered with dust. inclosed as many stamps as this one in quirer whom happen to know has done, | what a golden harvest these dusty DOT traits have yieldedl
 Many of the pictures were in their
 mailing covers, and these bore the post
 marks of every city in the Union. They
 had just been torn open and the money
 and stamps extracted, and, if no order l for free picture in five dollar frame | had been given. were chucked away in | the dust. as many of the originals have ! doubtless been years ago. While l was | there the letter carrier delivered mail | containing money and stamps, and the scowling woman scowled more because the amount was not larger. Verify the crop of fools is perennial, and there is a sucker born every hour.-New York Herald