The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-03-21
QUEER TRIO OF FRAUDS.
RAILROADS syIADLID ~ MOTHER
LND MR. JUO DIIGHIEEs.
limitations OF Paralysis 80 feriec, oS
youn. Women That Hundreds Oh
Dollars We're Paid To Them.

der For instance. only a lew n.ohlhs
ago an old man was arrested ana sent
40 ian for counterfeiting United States
notes OF high denominations with pen
and ink. His work indicated the posses
sion OF decree Of skill when, had IL
been exercised in any legitimate callihs'
would certainly have brought III more
money than tho man ever made out OF hi'
countcreeiting operations one OF the
best engravers on steel now living IS
serving a long term in Sing Sing prison
for lending his skill to the production on
counterfeit notes, although until he be-
CANA untrustwOrthy he was always dnlc
10 make large earnings by wofkIns lot
the United States or the bank note en-
craving companies
So with the men who make uuIsldia
tools and with the clever men VINO use
such tools, especially for safe breaking.
The ingenuity which forgcrs ANA alien
swindlcrs often use 10 cover their opera
ton or TO develop the necessary pre-
liminary confidence in the minds Of their
victims Is another source OF wonder. no
one but novelist or "a swindler could
have conceived the involved chain Of
plausible lies which Stephen w. Dutton
told to Miss Godfrey and her mother
while he was arranging 10 swndle them
ont OF $4,000 worth of Washington real
estate. DuttOn's mind was so perverted
that he seemed even 10 believe many OF
these stories himself, and told them as
facts 10 his lawyer. so that upon more
than one occasion during the trial when
resulted in his conviction his lawyer
would follow out some line OF question:
ing which would end i'm an injury 10
buttons own case. simply because Out
ton had lied 70 him.
The peculiar abilities exhibited by CO.
ple like Dutton. and by bunco workers
and green goods men. may not Doe so easy
TO market I'm the ordinary business woild
as those Of the manually skliui. Out
sfU1 IL seems as II the world ought 10 p'
able 10 put them TO use. Meantime the
possessors of such abilities. hnding no
legitimate market for them, put them
TO uses which force tho world az large
To take strong protective measures. lro-
badly as dangerous lot as there is or
swindlors Of this kind includes the per-
sons who defraud insurance companies
and collect damages from transportation
companies and others for personal IN
iuries which they claim 10 have received
as the result of some lapse Of duty on
the part Of the defendant company or its
agents. IL has become almost an axiom
that "a fury has no mercy for corpora
ton" and for this reason transportation
companies. whether they own steam rail-
roads. trolley roads or horse car lines.
avoid getting into the courts as much
as possible by making settlements IN prl-
vate for injuries for which they are sald
to he responsible. il IS evident that
where a claimant has lost an arm. les.
a hand. a foot. or an eye. or. in fact.
suffered any actual mutilation there Us
little chance of fraud. for few persons
for the money that could be obtained
thereby. For this reason the accident IN
eurance companies are not so easily VIC
timized as ara the transportation com
panies for their policies are more speci'c
MS TO what Injuries shall call for paw
mont than is the common law. Tho con-
mon laws holds every person and cor
pcration responsible for all the injury
which he or it may accomplish. whether
II be to the physical form or the NicllH
or to his nervous or mental functions.
This affords an opportunity Wheh mas
been taken advantage of 10y erea. num-
her of pcreons: and even the expert ply
sicians who have made special study
OF the subject declare that IL is next 10
imposeible to separate with certainty me
real sufferers from the swindlers.
To the unsympathetic claim agent
whose business it is TO settle with IN
iured persons at the earliest moment ana
for The smallest amount of money posi-
lilo a. does not seem within the realm of
possibility that a strong man c"uid "'
made into a helpless Invalid almost ii ''u
instant. and this without recei'l"@
thing IS entirely possible every phl sl.i'"
'c,,1 .,t,.eioal injury. Yet that such
IT., a., entirely, nosslble every physician
Ian .cs,ifv and New Workers have one
,,ro,,irort case I'm evidence of this which
ai,,,oet overv one remembers. IL is that
80 roiicop,on Criffonhagcn who hcrOical-
T.. e,,,,,.od "a team of runaway fire horses
- r-nio, SNARE during the great Column
-, ,aradc I'm 1902. Grinouhagcn has
- hoo, oh1o 70 do police duty since
Ia toe heon retired upon half pay. The
poi,cc Commissioners could hardly be-
lio,o that he was not feiening until they
r,d tho most positive assurances from
rt,,..iciaos that he was a wreck from
nervous prostTatiOn. the result or me
,,,,,oraois strain upon his whole system
-, 10 ,r,o,no,ts when he was stopping
a.. ,n,ddenod fire horses from dashine
- a. .,o,,d of spectators in Union
-
~, ,,,,,or,ot,fv of the Police C0mmis-
80 IN his case will suggest at once
80 t,,, roador the field in which success
~, evindlcrs work I'm getting money
TO-, r.flroode and other corporatiOns
ava from nronortv owners. Who can
.,u r.botber "a headache or a hackache
&c assumed or not2 And vet even the
tomrorarv sufferer from these common
ailments knows that they readily unfit a
rereon for any useful work. and no Juror
,,o,,ld v,ithIoid svmpatbv or money dam
600 fro,, tho ncreon who had become q
cbron,. sufferer from one Of these ail-