The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-11
HIS GOLD BRICK WAS BRASS.
A SOUTH CAROLINA MAN TAKEN IN
BY AN OLD GAME.

| Inc commence Men " no F1aEG0 tHG
Game Run Out of Savannah by
Chief McDermOtt-They Went to
Charleston From Here and Worked
an Orangeburg Man For $4,000.
He Thought He Was Buying an In
terest in an Arizona Gold Mine
From an Indian Along With
About $4,000 in Fure Gold DeIiv-
cred to Him in Hand-The Gang
Now said to BE in Florida.
The Reubens of the Flowery state would
| do well 20 tie an extra knot in their
money bags and regard all strangers with
suspicion for a time to come, now. A
| gang of confidence men, who spent some
time in Savannah, is now luxurating in
the land of oranges and freezes Its
! speciality is selling gold bricks. though
the sharpers have no objections to turn
ing a neat trick on anything that comes
| handy
The police detectives dropped on to the
gang shortly after its arrival here and
watched it so closely that it made no at
tempt to do anything. Finding that they
were known, the swindlers assured tho
detectives that they did not intend doing
anything here. but after having spent a
few days here they were advised by order
of Chief McDermott that the locality was
no longer healthy for them. They ac-
cordingly picked up their traps and HE'D
to Charleston. At the latter place they
| succeeded in selling an Orangeburg busl-
ness man few gold bricks for the paltry
sum of $1,000, The Orangeburg man did
not discover how badly he had been sold
until the swindlers had had plenty of time
10 get out of their way. He then started
| out to look for the men who had gotten
| has money, but as usual In such cases, he
was anxious to keep the matter as quiet
as possible, in order to keep the fact OF
his having been so badly fooled out of his
money secret Had he used less secrecy
and acted more promptly the swindlera
might now be behind the bars.
The Orangeburg man told Chief McDer-
mott all about how he was done out of
his money. 1t was the old, old story of
the gold bricks, the long-lost mine and the
lndian who was the only possessor of the
secret of its location: The men who work.
ed the trick were evidently artists in their
line. the head swindler and the victim
met at hotel in Orangeburg. The swim
ance and good talker of course. He told
an Interesting story about a large land
claim owned by him in Arizona and his
| discovery OF the fact that a valuable mine
existed on his claim He had been unable
| TO locate the mine, however, he said, and
the secret of its existence was known
only to an old Indian woman, who had
lived on the place for years, and her son.
Inc Indians were willing to sell their
| secret, ne sad, but demanded a large sum
OF money, when he was unable TO pay Here
| the pretended Arzonlan began TO put
some fine touches on the story. His peo
| pie were originally from South Carolina,
he said, and he had heard that his father
had brother still living in the state, who
was wealthy. His object in coming to
Carolina was to find this wealthy uncle
and interest him in the mine, with the
hope that he would advance the money
to buy the secret from the Indians and
develop the mine. His search for his
wealthy uncle had been unsuccessful of
course, and he was about to return to
| Arizona without the prospect of securing
| the mine. If he could only find some per-
son who would advance the amount nee
essary to purchase the secret from the
Indians, he would be willing to give him
a half interest in the property. The mine,
he declared, was bound to produce mill
ions.
All this of course, interested the South
Carolina man, but naturally he wanted
some evidence of the richness of the mine.
me confidence man was ready for him.
He had brought the son of the old Indian
woman east with him. Not only that. but
the Indian had brought with him a large
amount of the gold which he had taken
from the mine himself and melted into
bricks. The value of this gold alone, the
confidence man declared, was in the
neighborhood of $4,000. The Indian, how
ever did not know this. and was willing
to sell not only the secret to the mine, but
all the gold he had in hand for 5000 SO
there was a chance for a large and certain
profit on the speculation at once in addi-
ton to the future wealth to be drawn
from the mine
This looked like pretty queer sort of
story and the Orangeburg man had his
doubts. Mr.. Jackson, the name by which
the stranger had introduced himself, an
nounced his willingness to prove his story.
a The Indian, he said, was a that time
camped within three or four miles of
Charleston, and had his gold with him.
They could go there and see him. He
made an engagement to meet the Orange
burg man at the Hotel Calhoun in Charles
ton on certain day. They met according
to agreement and taking hack drove
three or four miles out the King street
road to a secluded spot, where sure
enough, they fonud an Indian, or what
looked like one. They talked with him
and told him the object of their visit. The
Indian appeared to be in an unfriendly
humor, however. He said that he and his
kind had always suffered by the white
man and he wanted no dealings with any
of the palefaces. They could get nothing
out of the supposed Indian and returned
TO Charleston. Jackson suggested that
they go out again the next day and carry
a flask OF whisky. They did 80, and after
taking a couple of drinks the Indians
tongue loosened nicely. BE produced
lot of yellow shining blocks. which he de-
ciared he had melted himself from gold Sc
cured from the mine in Arizona, and offer
ed to sell the lot together with ihe secret
gested that the blocks might not be real
and that il would be well for them TO
chip off a piece of one of the blocks take
I ii back to town and have it assayed. This
was agreed to- A piece was Clipped out
from one of the blocks. When the two
asked the Carolinian if he did not know
some reliable jeweler who could test the
metal and tell them whether or not il was
gold. The Orangeburg man, whom it
| would be just as wen 10 call Smith, knew
a friend IN the business and together they
| called on him. The jeweler applied the
| usual tests and pronounced the metal 10
| be gold OF at least p carat fineness.
The confidence man had another finish
| ing touch to put to his work, however.
When they strolled back to the hotel TO-
! gether and stopped at the clerks desk.
he carelessly picked up a card lying there.
/ 1T was inscribed y. r. Brown, L. s. as
| saver" whats this" exclaimed Jack.
son. my old friend Brown here. Just
showed the card to Smith. He proposed of
course that they so up and see Brown,
and get his opinion on their sample OF
! gold. They were shown to Browns room,
/ and after cordial exchange Of greetings
| and an Introduction for Smith, they stat
ed their business. The pretended assayer
| took the gold, which the sample undou0t.
eddy was, went through a series of exper.
| iments and ended by pronouncing 1t gold
| OF the highest quality. He also INDUCED
in lot Of technical talk and told them
| of his recent reappontment by President
! Cleveland In fact, he was so well pleas