Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-19
SWINDLING BY MAIL

Notwithstanding the fact that we are
generally credited with being a newspaper
reading nation, 1 am often tempted to be-
| lieve that there must be many millions of
| intelligent persons in United States who
| never so much as glance at the head lines
| of a newspaper" remarked an official of
the Post Office Department. ''At any rate,
| If these millions to whom 1 refer ever actu-
| ally do read the newspapers, their guilt
bility must be so profound as to be I'M
| fathomable. The Post Office Department
| is constantly issuing fraud orders against
| individuals and alleged firms engaged in
| getting rich in the operation of schemes
that 1t would seem as If any shrewd child
| of ten ought to be able to see through with
| out the least bother.
The other day, for example. the depart
ment got after chap out in Cincinnati tho
| for some months had been conducting what
! he called a turf bureau He alleged in
| his really admirably written circulars that
| he had private and absolute certain meth
| OBS OF obtaining information as to the
horses that were slated to win races on
tracks all over the United States, and he
| guaranteed returns of tremendous proper
tons Well, when we looked this fellow
up, he promptly skipped, and his incoming
mail was seized 1t seems incredible but
every days mail brought in, thousands of
dollars. in amounts ranging from IS &C
tuaily up to $500, and the letters incosing
cash and checks We're nearly all of them
apparently written by persons of educa ton
The book in which the man kept his simple
account of cash received showed that since
he put his scheme into operation he had
taken In less a sum than $465 600 all
most out of the question as it may appear
He has got away, but. even If he is cap
tured, very much doubt if any very heavy
punishment can be visited upon him These
slippery chaps who work their lodges by
n ha ha to avn
ploy first-rate lawyers. and these lawyers
can generally successfully construe their
clients circulars as not having really prom
ised anything to the gulls after all.
THE endless chain schemes that the de-
partment runs down year after year are
all of them money makers for their opera
tors. 1T would actually seem as If all
busted individual had to do to get rich is
to get a lot Of circulars printed and send
them out. borrowing the money for postage
and there will always be enough gulls to
start him on his way. The cherry-tree
scheme worked by a gang of southern men,
one Of them a clergyman, was colossal
| success for its promoters, and yet not
man in the crowd had a coin to bless him
self with when they started the endless
chain scheme in motion. The more recent
fountain-pen fraud worked by a couple of
Pennsylvanians. yielded returns that went
in to the thousands every day. and haven't
a doubt in life that any number of similar
endless-chain schemes are being worked
inns very Ody ludt we Sldil AdS Z " 81 dIlSI
later on.
'The people who bite on these endless
chain schemes all obviously want whole
lot for nothing. little or nothing. and
this. combined with their strange SIM
picity, is at the bottom of the success of
the fellows who attempt to make their for
tunes through the use of the mails.
you would naturally suppose that per-
sons sufficiently intelligent to possess an
interest in stock speculation would be able
T., CT ola Of whom
they only know of through circulars. would
you not? And yet the department is con-
stantly in receipt of tales of woe from in
dividuals who have invested sizeable sums
of money with New York and Chicago
swindlers claiming to conduct speculative
businesses, who operate entirely through
the mails. These outfits are broken up by
the United States post office authorities as
soon their fraudulent character is clearly
established, but it seems impossible to drive
these fellows who run the alleged invest
merit agencies wholly out Of business. The
games too easy for them. and they are
fully aware of the great difficulty found in
convicting them. AS soon as one broker
age firm that carries on it's business en-
tirely by mail is smashed the men who
have been successfully conducting 1t simply
move down to another block and open up
another brokerage Office under another
firm name. The shift only involves their
getting out another batch of literature
The thousands and thousands of dollars
which these sharpers take IN year in and
year out from people whose way OF eX-
pressing themselves on paper makes 1t
patent that they are educated men and wo-
men Is a perpetual source of establishment
to me.
.sThe smaller fry of mail swindlers are the
fellows who advertise that they will send
solid gold watches and all that sort OF
thing upon the receipt of one dollar Now,
doesn't 1t seem reasonable TO imagine that
any man or woman sane enough TO run
loose in a civilized community ought to
know perfectly we'll that a solid gold watcn,
or whatever other article it may be. per-
haps "a genuine diamond ring. cannot ne
bought for the sum of one dollar! Ana
vet there are responses to these ads reach
ing literally into the millions. and the pro-
motors of these lodges nearly always get
rich Last year We routed out fellow IN
Boston who advertised in very elaborate
and splurgy fashion throughout the coun-
try that he had got hold of lot OF lucky
storas' on his travels through India, which
he was willing to purvey by mail upon tne
the receipt of a dollar per stone. ne
money that chap got was something ldpu-
Ions The dollars were just raining H.
n.hen the inspectors swooped upon his Of
fee and cleaned him out. He dldn care
then whether he was cleaned out OF NO.
He had got the money
s.Something over a year ago the Depart
mont nailed a clever woman who was ope-
ra ting her little dodge down IN fioFioa--a
woman of tremendous shreWonesS' th,s ole
was sure enough. She advertised anu seilt
out circulars to the effect that she was
natural-born healer of any old disease
that was ever included in medical DOCK.
mental or physical, and she set forth the
fact that if anything. she was some better
as an absent healer than she was as a
contact healer. All the person aff1icted
with any sort of disease had to do was
to hike a s. note along to her. and sh"
would spend five minutes at a certain hour
of the day or night thinking of the person
remitting the money. Thus. the afflicted
one would be made whole. If l remember
correctly. this little woman pulled In some.
thing like 5000 600 with her scheme, and II
she had really devoted five minutes OF
thought each day to each of her SUBSCRIBERS
the day would have had to be about two
months long The beauty of the situation
in her case was that absolutely nothing
could be done in the way of punishment to
her. She chung to it when nailed that she
really was an absent healer all right-ai-
though there was merry twinkle IN her
eve as she said it-and the government
hadn't any way of proving that she wasn't
what she claimed to be. even had the gov
ernment been disposed to establish any
such contention.
mot in recent years have any OF these
mail svindiers been so bold as that hui
norist who. advertising that he would send