The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1903-03-05
A SUCKER A MINUTE
A Story Hard to Believe But it Made
Millions for E. ]. Arnold & Co.

Three hundred and thirty three thou
sand dollars month. Fifteen thou
sand dollars day.
This is the stupendouS fortune which
grew from ssshoestring" thrown out
to the public from the hands of "E.
j. Arnold s. Co., - the original "get-
rich-quick" swindlers.
ARNOLD s. co.. number their
victims by the millions, While the
public was handing in its money with
reckless prodigality, Arnold & Co.,
were spending it on trotting horses,
carriages, costly paintings marble
palaces, opera boxes and society.
Never before in the history of
dupIicity has such barefaced swindle
been so successfully carried out.
Magnificent offices were those of Ar
mold s. Co., in St. Louis, in Chicago,
in Washington. Your feet sank in
to priceless carpets as though into
snowdrifts. Turf pictures adorned
the walls. A Sunday school quiet
pervaded the air. There were desks
Of quartered oak, beautiful chande-
liers, beautiful girls drumming away
at typewriters, mail men opening
money bags and money letters. cashiers
working day and night to keep track
of the torrents of lnrushing gold.
Arnold the millionaire, was plain
Bob Skidmore who in former days had
often missed a meal because he did not
have money to procure it.
He and Gil Lumpkin, a broken
down broker who had brains but had
been feeced in Wall street formed the
scheme for fleeing the public.
They went to St. Louis and rented
modest Offices In a business building.
They argued that St. Louis. being in
the center Of the country, they would
find their subscribers more accessible.
They hired a writer Of advertise.
ments who was wonder in his way.
Small ten-line advertisements began
to appear. These brought in returns
sufficient to pay their Office rent.
The business grew. From small
trlckle Of customers it became a tor
rent-an avalance which all but swept
them of their feet.
They grabbed the money with both
hands. They hired men whose duty
it was to take in the money, count 1t
and hand it over to them.
With the appearance Of page ad-
vertisements in the newspapers the
receipts began to run up to 5000 a
day. And still it grew.
The advertisements themselves
were wonders in their way. No lover
Of mysteries and lead-pipe clnches
could throw them aside without read
ing them to the end. Once read, out
came the pocketbook, ind of went a
bill to E. j. Arnold & Co., to be used
at their discretion. They might use
it for cigars, or for rum, Ut for a
square meal at Tony Faust's but you
would never know it.
ga good thing will be cut loose to-
morrow" tine typical advertisement
would read: 1--WE are on with both
feet. Ten to one will be the lowest odds.
Get your money down and plunge for
the limit. Plunge Plungel Plungel
"You can t fool our Checkers Here
is what 'Dopy' Dave discovered in the
gray dawn yesterday. Lying in the
alfalfa inside the track, he saw a
stable door open and a horse come out,
led by jockey in his store clothes.
The trainer was behind him watching
on all sides for spies.
-"As before remarked, our checkers
know their business. They are wise
to every move. 'Hunpy' Sam was in
a tree, and caught the start. 'Dopy'
Dave had him at the quarter, Tinker
at the half, 'Nosy at tbelmile-a Sec
ond faster than the time has ever be-
fore been made on the track.
.sCan you beat this?
sand the horse? We propose to
make the biggest killing OF the year
on him today.
Get in on the game at once, and
send in a plunge. 1t will be home
alone on the bitsky' for him. Can you
beat this? 1t is as easn as tackling a
baby for milk BOTTLE
Tens. hundreds. thousands, yea,
tens of thousands of dollars would roll
in on such tips as these; but alas.
there was no s'gray dawn trial. " There
was no horse. There was no "Dopy''
Dave or s'Humpy' Sam or "Nosy, "
or anything like lead pipe cinch.
There was nothing, in. fact. but
burned up money on the part of the
public. And the most astounding part
I of it all was the hard and brassy as
surance of the tipsters.