The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-08-24
sWINDLERs BY MAIL.
Often Exposed by Newspapers, They
Catch Old Constant Reader"
Again nd Again.

AGAIN no Again
Washington Evening Star.
generally credited swith being newspa,
per reading nation, am often tempted
! to believe that there must be many mil
lions of intelligent persons In the Unlteu
States who never so much as glance dt
| the headlines of newspaper, remarked
an official of the Postoffice Department.
AT any rate, If these millions to whom
refer ever actually do read the newspa-
| pers. their gullbility must be SO pro-
found as to be unfathomable. The POST
| Office Department Is constantly issuing
| fraud orders against individuals and al.
legged firms engaged in getting rich In the
| operation OF schemes. that 1t would seem
| any shrewd child of 10 ought to be able
| to see through without the least bother.
The other day for example. the de-
partment got after chap out IN Cm-
| conducting what he called TURF Du-
reau.' He alleged in his really admirably
written circulars that he had private and
! absolute certain methods of obtaining In
| formation as to the horses that were
slated to win races on tracks all over the
United States, lni he guaranteed returns
of tremendous proportion Well. when
we looked this fellow up he promptly
| skipped, and his incoming mail was SELL
| ed It seems incredible but every days
| mail brought in thousands OF dollars IN
! amounts ranging from IS actually up 10
| $500, and the letters inclosing cash and
| checks were nearly all of them appar-
emily written by persons of education.
| The book in which the man kept his sim
pie account Of cash received showed tnat
since he put his scheme into operation
he had taken in no less a sum than 1885,
900, almost out of the question as it may
appear. He has got away, but even II he
| Is captured, very much doubt II any
very heavy punishment can be visited up
on him. These slippery chaps who work
| their lodges by means OF the mails nave
| the money to EMPLOY frst-rate lawyers,
n ltxT o.
fully construe their clients circulars as
not having really promised anything to
the gulls after all.
THE endless chain schemes that the
department runs down year after year
are all of them money makers for their
operators. IL would actually seem as II
all busted individual had to do to get
rich is to get 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 clergy
man. was a colossal success for its pro-
moters, and yet not a man in the crowd
had o coin to bless himself with when
they started the endless chain scheme IN
motion. The more recent fountain pen
fraud, worked by couple OF Pennsyl-
vanians, yielded returns that went into
the thousands every day, and haven't
a doubt In life that any number OF similar
endless chain schemes are being worked
this very day that we shall have TO go
after later on.
THE people who bite on these endless
chain schemes all obVi )usly want whole
lot for nothing or little or nothing, ana
this combined with their strange sim
plicity Is at the bottom of the success
of the fellows who attempt TO make tnelr
fortunes 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 to steer clear of Investment agents
whom thew only know through circulars
would you not? And yet the Department
is constantly in receipt of tales OF woe
; from individuals who have invested size,
able sums of money with New YORK ana
Chicago swindlers claiming to conduct
speculative businesses, who operate en-
tirely through the mails These outhts
are broken up by the United States post
Office authorities as soon as their 1rauu-
uIent character is clearly established, but
J it seems impossible to drive these Fellows
I who run the alleged investment agencies
} wholly out OF business.
"The games too easy for them. and
they are fully aware Of the great DIM
Guilty found in convictins them. AS soon
as one brokerage firm that carries on
} it's business entirely by mail Is smashed
the men who have been successfully con
Quoting 1t simply move down to another
block and open up another brokerage
office under another nrm name Ine
shift only involves their getting out an
other batch of literature. The thousands
and thousands of dollars which these
sharpers take in year in and year out
from people whose way OF expresslng
they are educated men ana women is a
perpetual source of establishment to me.
THE smaller fry of the mail swindiers
( are the fellows who advertise that they
: will send solid gold watches and all that
sort of thing upon the receipt of one dol
lar. Now, does4t it seem reasonaoie Io
imagine that any man or woman sane
enough to run loose in a civilized com
munity ought to know perfectly well tha'
a solid gold watch, or whatever other ar
ticle it may be, perhaps genuine ola'
of one dollar? And yet there are re-
sponses to these ads reaching llterallS
into the millions and the promoters OF
these lodges nearly always get rich
Last wear we routed out a fellow in Bos
ton who advertised in very elaborate
and splurgy fashion throughout the coun
try that he had got hold OF LOT o.
lucky stones on his traVeis tfrousn IN ~,
dia which he was willing to purVey pS
mail upon the receipt of dollar pei
stone The money that chap got wal
simply fabulous. The dollars We're Jus
raining in, when the inspectors , Smoo ~
| He didn't care then whether ne was
cleaned out or not He had got th'
money. A., IA
partment nailed clever woman VINO Wa'
| operating her little dodge down IN floI
ida-a woman of tremendous shreWdneSS
this one was, sure enough ON 60 60 ~.
tjged and sent out circulars to the enec
that she was a natural born healer of any
old disease that was ever included II
/ any medical book, mental or pnyslcai
and she set forth the act that II any
, thing she was some better as an "absen
) healer than she was as a constant hear
: er. All the person afflicted with any soI
! of disease had to do was to hike nVe
! dollar note along to her and she woul'
spend Ave minutes at a certain hour
: the day or night thinking Of the aR PsFsSt
/ 80 r,ou1d he made whole. If | remempe
Correctly CITY, Il this little woman pulled il
something like 100000 With her e; sche 1In
) and II she had really devoted I'VE mn ~
= utes OF thought each day to each OF ne
, s subs the day would have had to b
about two months long The . beauty .o
: the situation in her case was Iha az arse Da,
t ~ ni,nIshmcnt to her. She chung to
!, ~ nailed that she really was an homes
healer all riGht--ulthough there WAS
h. y Z Al +