The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-03-04

lc5S cnaln schemes all obviously want
u whole lot for nothing, or little or
nothing, and this, combined with their
strange simplicity. is at the bottom Of
the success Of the fellows who attempt
to make their fortune through the use
Of the mails.
"You would naturally suppose that
persons sufficiently intelligent to pos
scss an interest in stock speculation
would be able to steer clear Of invest
ment agents whom they only know Of
through circulars, would you rot?
And yet the department is constantly
in receipt Of tales Of voc from indivi.
duals who have invested stable sums
Of money with New York and Chicago
swindlers claiming to conduct spccula-
tive businesses, who operate entirely
through the mails. These outfits are
broken up by the United States post
Office authorities as soon as their
fraudulent character is clearly cstab-
lishcd, but it seems impossible to
drive these fellows who run these al
legged investment agencies wholly out
Of business.
"Thc game SO easy for them, and
they are fully aware Of the great diff
Guilty found convicting them. AS
soon as one brokerage firm hat car
rics on its business entirely by mail is
smashed, the men who have been sue
ccssfully conducting it simply move
down to another block and open up
another firm name. The shift only
involves their getting out another
batch of literature. The thousands
and thousands Of dollars which these
sharpcrs take in year in and year out
from people whose way Of expressing
themselves on paper makes it patent
that they are educated men and NO.
men, is a perpetual source of astonish-
| ment to me.
"Thc smaller fry Of the mail swind-
lers are the fellows who advertise that
they will send solid gold watches, and
all that sort Of things upon receipt of
one dollar. Now, doesn't it seem rea-
sonablc to imagine that my man or
woman sane enough 20 run loose In q
civilized community ought to know
perfectly well that a solid gold watch,
or whatever other article it may be
perhaps genuine diamond ring can
not be bought for the sum Of one dol
lar? And yet there arc responses to
these ads. reaching literally into the
millions and the promoters Of these
lodges nearly always get rich. Last
year VIZ routed out a fellow in Boston
who advertised in n very elaborate
and splurgy fashion throughout tho
country that he had got hold of a lot
of lucky stones, on his travels through
India, which he was willing to purvcy
by mail upon the receipt Of a dollar
per stone. The money that chap got
was something fabulous. The dollars
were just raining in when the inspec-
tors swooped down on his Office and
cleaned MIN out. He didn't care then
whether he was cleaned out or not.
He had got the money.
Something over year age the de-
partment nailed a clever woman who
was operating her little dodge down in
~tlorida-a woman Of tremendous
shrewdnoss this one was, sure enough.
She advertised and sent out circulars
to tho effect that she was a natural
born healer of any old disease that
was ever included in a medicine book,
mental or physical, and set forth tho
fact that, if anything, she was some
better as an absent healer than she
was as a contact healer. All the per-
son afflicted with any sort Of disease,
had to do was to hike a fve-dollar note
along to her and she would spend five
minutes at a certain hour of the day
or night thinking Of the person re-
hitting the money. Thus the afflicted
one would be made whole. If I 70
member correctly, this little woman
pulled in something like 5000, 900 with
her scheme, and if she had really de-
voted 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 stu
alton 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 nm alb
sent healer all right-although there
was q merry twinkle in her eye 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
government been disposed to estab-
lish any such contention.
Not In recent wears have anv Of