The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-04

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feAGLIoETRo VISITING THE GRAND MASTER
moment, is still fresh in the minds of the
people. Through secretly sailing the sea
water with gold victims eager to become
rich were captured and ths rascally pro-
iectors secured large sums of money. The
difference between this swindle and
Keely's motor is that there is something
in it. A ton of sea water, some men OF
science tell US, contains a grain OF gold,
which may be extracted by a simple chem
ical process. But, however simple the
process of extracting the gold may be, 1t
would probably cost much more b the
grain of gold would be worth to obtain it.
p. T. Barnum remarked at n time
that the public dearly loved to be hum
plugged. 1t would be almost as much OF
a truism to assert that they dearly loved
to be swindled. Though the tricks OF the
gold brick man lave been exposed time
and again he still pursues his vocation
with apparently undiminished success.
Rural victims and sometimes keen bust
ness men In the cities fall victims to his
wiles, and when they discover that their
gold has been transmitted into brass they
wonder at their gullibility. By numerous
other devices, which prove how fertile the
swindler is in expedients and how prolific
in inventions, he has succeeded in keeping
abreast of the times. Driven from n
sphere of enterprise, he tries another and
anticipates efforts made to circumvent
him by changing his modus operandi as
well as the character of his operations.
Thomas De Quincy wrote of Murder
as a Fine Art" Had he lived in our days
he would have much less trouble in writ
ing of swfndling from a similar point OF
view. To mention even briefly all the
successful swindlers of the last three or
four decades would require a large volume.
For that reason / will restrict myself to
the mention of a few that attained a
worldwide celebrity previous to the begin
ming of the present century. Further
more, it should no be forgotten that the
devices and tricks which were successful
in deluding the public in former years
would probably fail to achieve the same
results low. 1t would be impossible for a
Cagliostro to pursue a similar successful
career of fraud now, nor would it be pos
eible for q swindler now to secure such q
universal prominence in infamy as was
gained by that notorious individual about
q hundred years ago.
John Laws Mississippi scheme in
france and the south sea bubble in Eng
land have been generally included in the
list of gigantic swindles, but / think i'm
properly SO. There can be but little doubt
that the majority of the projectors of the
south sea scheme were honest men, n
though these projectors were certainly
visionary they had no intention CT de-
frauding the public. The same may be
said Of Laws scheme. Bad as Laws repu-
tation was, there were but few that at
tributed dishonest motives to him in bis
financial transactions in France.
John Law was a Scottish ~adventurer and
man of the world who had gamblsel
and amused himself in many of the CAPT
tails of Europe. He was a man OF good
family and mad an undoubted talent for
finance. Meeting the Due d'Orleatls, then
regent Of France, at a time when that
country was in a bad financial condition,
he succeeded in interesting him in some
of his financial projects. Under the royal
authority Law founded a bank of circu-
aation and discount, and afterward secur-
ing a concession of the territory OF Louisi-
ana, which was supposed to be rich in
gold and silver and precious stones, he or
ganized a company and hoated its stock
to an unlimited extent. h people be-
came crazed with the speculative mania,
the shares rose from 35 to 40 times their
original value, and Law was made comp
troller general and had the whole court at
his feet. Sooa the collapse came, and the
shares so valuable before became practl-
eally worthless. Law secretly left Paris
with only a few coins in his possession OF
al the millions he had handled. He died
nine years later in extreme povertys but
convinced till the last of the utility OF his
scheme of finance
The affair Of the diamond necklace,
which involved one of the best planned
and successful swindles ever perpetrated,
has been made the leading incident IN one
Of Dumas novels and furnished Thomas
Carlyle with subject matter for one OF ms
most interesting essays. The lncldenu
caused a great scandal IN France at the
time, besmirched the name of Marie An
~toinette. innocent as she was OF all COM
plicity, and contributed in no slight de-
rree to the revolution and the destruction
Of the royal family.
The chief actor in the affair OF the dla-
mond necklace was an adventures VINO
STYLED herself the Countess dc Lamotte
and claimed descent from Henry III, but
vvho had been half servant, half compan-
ion to a lady of quality, and had h u
ricked up an acquaintanceship with the
4nanners and gossip of court society. The
cardinal Prince Louis de Rohan had long
heen excluded from court and was ex-
fremely DESTROYS of establishing himself
Il The queens good graces. Through her
~oripinal patroness Nine. dc Lamotte pc
came acquainted with Cardinal de Roman
and knew how eager he was to propltlape
Marie Antoinette. Becoming aware ina.
"a oou,rt jeygeler. Roehmer4A aaa aiamonn