Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-09-10
A Street Scene in woodbury..


An electric belt fakir stationed himself
at the court house corner on Monday even
ing and soon large crowd was basklng IN
his eloquent exposition of the healing vir1
tues of electric belts. OF course this gentlei
man was not talking for fun, nor was he OF
missionary tour, even If his words gaVs
that impression, and when the interest had
reached the proper pitch the financial end
of the proposition was brOached. First
belts were sold, ''for advertising purposes,
at quarter each, and the quarter was
passed back with the belt. Then the price
was raised to fifty cents for advertising
purposes, u and halves, dollar and two
dollar notes went into the carriage so fast
that nobody could keep track of them.
But only belts came back, and some who
passed up their coin didn't even get them.
The result was natural, in Woodbury.. A
citizen rebelled, and the fakir for protee-
ton, sought the police, and the police led
him to the Office of His Honor, Mayor Ladd
So great was the press Of outraged Wood
burians that His Honor permitted to enter
only the accused, his accuser, representa-
tive of the press and an officer. The fakir
was accused of taking three half dollars
and passing back three belts, but no money,
and the disappointed buyer felt that he had
been swindled out of $1.50, because the
same treatment had not been accorded him
as was accorded the purchasers at a quarter.
His Honor failed to see that any dishonest
act beyond sharp practice, had been COM
mitted, and the complainant accepted a
half dollar, and the incident closed. The
fakiE asked police protection out of the
sisg and was escorted TO the trolley between
twdeofficers and the Mayor, followed by Is
crowd of several hundred citizens. Th&sV
were peaceable enough, but boarded t Il
troIIer,-s-,e,, fs5la-eIre ofus Inc WIS
reached informed Mr.. Fakir that he was
beyond Woodbury. police protection, and
must cough up'' or they would take their
change out of his hide. The trolley men
held the car, and he coughed, and save
punch or two got away with whole skin.
1t is estimated that when business ceased,
the street merchant had about forty Wood
bury dollars, how many he finally got
away with, is problematical.
The DEMOCRAT derives no pleasure in
reporting events of this character, but we
hope the result of this particular scoun--
drels experience will deter similar swin6-
lers from visiting our city. The argument
that people who buy from street fakirs
have no right to expect value receiver
hence should silently suffer loss and learn
lesson, is not sound. The weak, tie
credulous, the avaricious, the easily pur-
suaded, are Just as surely entitled to pr
lection of the law as the powerful AID
discrete, and as the fakir is rarely parsob-
age of business probity, we believe tie
highest interests of our city will be SUI
served by refusing them the right to prar
tise their schemes under the protection IF
the law. 1t costs our citizens good monsv
Tor ponce service, ana IL Ougne hoe 10 pc
assigned to protect street 1aklrs from The
The highwayman expects to pay the penaLv
for his crime, if detected, hence is kI,o
beside THESE fellows VINO eApece 10 a'ossin
the same result, but by cowardly methods.