Evening star., 1902-08-08
ATTEMPT AT FRAU D
ALLEGED CONVICT WANTS SUP
PLY OF CLOTHING.
Offers Walking Stick for Sale and Ap-
peals to Sympathy Of Parties
Solicited.


hurbugging business men of philan-
of Mr. VIM Hahn of VIM. Hahn & Co. Of
this city a few days ago. From recent de-
velopments it seems that the scheme was
operated on a gigantic scale and doubtless
many charitably inclined business men
throughout the country have parted with
more or less of their cash in the effort, as
they supposed, to aid an unfortunate man.
Mr. Hahn, however was not made victim
of the swindle, as a newspaper story from
another city forewarned him and he was
cautious.
The means of working this money get
ting scheme is through letter purported
to be written by a convict in the Colorado
state penitentlary at Canon City, Col.
Evidently the game has been widely oper-
ated, for the letter is written on sheet
of penitentiary note paper.
Cleverly Written.
The letter presumably is dated at Canon
City, Col, July %, 1902, and it Is cleverly
written 1t impresses one as an honest,
straightforward declaration of an erring
man who means what he says. manly
tone pervades the communication and no
cant Is jndulsed in.
The letter follows:
1SAC OI Tie SOuIuuu4CdIAOAs
Il sincerely hope you will not think me
too presumptuous in taking the liberty Of
writing to you, but 1t is matter of much
Importance to me. l am here doing a
sentence from one to ten years, and am
about to go out in a few months providing
that l can get clothes, and I am taking
this means to raise them. live In WASH
ington and happen to know Of your repu-
tation, and l am calling on you for aid,
and 1 hope you will give it your attention,
as 1t means a great deal to me.
Il have made a walking cane and 1t Is
worth $25 for any man to take the pa
tience and skill on the outside to make one,
but my time In here. what little have, Is
not worth anything If l can only get what
l love so dearly. that is my liberty.
Now what l want you to do Is exchange
me a pair of shoes for 1t. The laws OF
Colorado don't furnish any money or
clothes for a person that gets parolied. and
that is the reason that 1 am so anxious
to get your permission to send the cane
and you can see the workmanship before
you send the shoes. The express will be
prepaid on the cane.
"If don't get clothes why it means years
for me, so you can give me some encourage
ment. Hoping to hear from you soon,
''l'"'"' ''0'S 'eSpesf JAMES WHITE.
Register No. 5322.'
The gentleman who received the letter
has not responded. 1t is not unlikely that
other business men in the city have re-
ceived communications and canes from
this convict" perhaps written in a slight
ly different tone and signed by different
name, but nevertheless all emanating from
the same source A feature of the letter.
which is noticed close peruSal, Is that
there is no statement in the printed head
ing that the note paper is from any pen
itentiary, and the name Of the warden OF
the Colorado institution does not appear.
A number of business men in Baltimore
also received letters from a supposed con-
vict. The text of the communication Is
similar to that of the letter received by Mr..
Hahn, but different signatures appear at
the bottom of the requests for aid. The
resemblance between the letters, however,
and the phraSeology, and other details.
are sufficient to convince one that all the
letters came from one party set
of plotters. In the case of the working OF
the scheme in Baltimore the canes were
sent at the same time as the letter and
an investigation at one of the express
offices showed that more than a score OF
citizens including the mayor, had received
canes and presumably the letter that went
with it.
1t is presumed that the field the man
Is working embraces the whole country.
An estimate has been made concerning
the amount Of profit resulting to the ope-
rators from this scheme. The value of the
canes is perhaps about 25 cents a piece
If the speculator sends out 10000 their
cost would be $500. If he gets an aver
age of 80 on each 1000 applications the
profit would be $3.50. This is thought
to be a conservative estimate, for the
for money, and it Is thought that when
the facts are known it will be discovered
large sums were sent from different cities
to the unfortunate convict"