The Arizona sentinel., 1896-09-05

they develop school of apprentices who can do the work for them. The apprentice begins by some simple method of begging. This accustoms him to study and judge of strange faces. It cultivates an expression oI face and tone of voice betokenine great need and humility. The average street thief has this habitual expres- sion of injured innocence. From ply ing the trade of the thoroughiare 1t is long road to that state of opulence where one from an office located in a central public building manipulates the operations of an army of flight fingers" "shoplilters," counterfeiters or confidence men.
 Swindling is all art-a profession-a business. Itmay be turned into either one of these vacations, according to the ability, tastes and temperament of the rascal, and it's votaries are members of all grades of society.
 So numerous are the systems con- trived by sharpers to carry on their schemes for deirauding the public it is difficult in few examples to give the reader an adequate idea of how ingenious and extensive their opera tions are.
 Persons who get circulars from swindlers often wonder how their names are obtained by the latter The ways are various. Subscription lists of the city weeklies. are bought or stolen, and nearly every swindler exchanges his letters or the addresses of those who answered his advertise ments with other swindler in similar lines of business. Hence the re- cognized fact that after a person has once been swindied he Is much more likely to be Caught" again. Nearly all the dealers in objectionable books, those who advertise "your future husband or wife" fortune told" and retired clergyman" sell their letters for one cent each, or more, to the bogus money operators. So it will be seen that some lines of swindling have their branches, paying @ large percen- tage on the money invested.
 A firm of "sawdust" speculators at one time bought 30,O00 letters received by concern that had realized $50,000 out of certain bogus sewing machine. This machine was made of cast iron and turned by a small hand wheel. It would sew two pieces of the finest material together, but anything coar- ser would demolish the whole ma chine and render it useless. The same enterprising firm bought about 10000 letters from a woman in Brooklyn who advertised to supply every young man and woman with the date of their marriage and description of their future partners for life. This woman received in nearly every one of these 10000 letters a, 50c stamp, and no evidence was given that she had ever sent a single reply. Indeed, so great was the harvest that some fifty Or sixty of the letters had not been open ed by her and still contained the soc stamps. They also bought up letters addressesed to quack doctors, dealers in objectionable pictures, also letters from lottery keepers, fortune tellers, etc. Another firm on Wall street ad vertised two steel engravings of dis tinguished persons mailed free on receipt of $l. They received some 10000 replies, with dollars inclOsed' and sent in return two ten cent stamps of the present period. Some adver- tisers offer "Diamond Rings" "Catal- ogues," Recipes "Songs," etc., simply to get addresses, and after get ting all they can out of parties reply ing they find it a profitable business to sell the letters to "sawdust" and other swindlers, who again sell them to others.
 It is surprising how credulous some people are, particularly in regard tc these curious advertisements. They are willing to part with their money with little hope of getting an adquate or reasonable return. And strange tC say, people are swindled in a similar way over and over again.