The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1900-07-07
dow PEOPLE ARE v1cTIM!zED.
"a Foe! and His Money Soon rte
Proves to BE . Truthful
Old Adage.

II have . client" said an F street
lawyer to a Washington Star reporter,
whose faith and credulity should be
restrained. There are many such per-
sons all over the country, who seem
DESTROYS of being gulled.
Every once in awhile one of these
schemes of obtaining money under
false pretenses. always morally and
frequently legally. is exposed in the
press to good effect.
There are many of these nets into
which the dollars of the duped fly. OF
the schemes one of the most pop
ular is the alleged contests of
jumbled words or letters. All
offer prizes to the winners
If these propositions are carefully read
it will be observed hat a date is al
ways set when the competition Will
end, and that. the person addressed
will miss half his life if he does not
enter into the contest forthwith.
Some of these alleged contests are
free others requiring the payment
OF n sum of money to enter
This client of mine went into one
of these contests, tent on a dollar and
then consulted me. I advised him to
let his money go and not TO exercise
his brain in arranging .iumbled words
in the future. He handed me 4 letter
he had received, which read something
like this:
"'Esteemed Friend: Some time o
you answered our jumbled-letter con-
test. Promptly on receipt of same
we notified you that you were one of
the successful contestants. Since then
We have not received Il line from you.
Now. as several letters have come back
to is misdirected we thought that
yours was one of them. for we feel
quite sure that had you received our
letter we would have had an answer
ere this, as the puzzle was such a hard
one that those who succeeded in solv-
ing the same can congratulate them.
selves. The only condition imposed is
that you will forward one dollar as a
subscription to Dur magazine, and YOU
may lave a beautiful premium as well.
"Remember hat this is the only
condition. and if you do not send us
one dollar you will positively have no
standing in the contest and your an
swer will have no consideration. Do
not miss this opportunity Zone which
you will never have again the longest
day You live). So send one dollar by
return mail. Remember that we are
not to be classed with other puzzle pro-
pounders.' ETC., etc.
Erich. isn't it? Yet there are people
by the thousands all over tie country
who are daily being taken in by such
dead open-and-shut grab bags for OBJ
tanning money. Some of them are
swindles and are receiving the atten-
ton of the government to the extent
that their mail is stopped. Others, like
this one. sail along the edge of actual
fraud, as the fish. when landed. receives
an alleged magazine or something
which is not actually fraudulent for his
money. At the same time, in this case,
II the amount were large enough to
warrant a suit l believe hat these con-
Germs could be reached by legal proc
ess. / need scarcely add that all of
the contestants answering are in
formed that they are successful |
That's the bait at which they bite and
their dollar landed. while the hard
puzzles are so simple that any child can
solve them"