Arizona republican., 1904-06-14

l charm It was, in the literal sense O.
 the word, as the purchasers found out.
 for the mail brought a bicycle watch
 charm made of plated wire wrought in
 the form of a bicycle The tires were
 indeed unpuncturable. Every state
 meat in the advertisement was literal
 ly and exactly true The manufactur-
 CT had merely neglected to mention
 such an unimportant detail as the size
 of his machine. There is something to
 be learned in punctuation. too. When
 an obscure publication offered a watch
 chain and charm as premium with
 every subscription, hundreds of un-
 suspicious readers mentally patiently
 fer the arrival of the watch, chain.
 and charm The publisher. however,
 thought in hypheEs and sent a watch
 chain and charm cheap at that"
 Another industrious operator offered to teach aspiring agriculturists how to
 raise mushrooms at a profit. guaran-
 teeins to buy all that were produced
 by the amateur gardeners. Ostsnsfbuy the learner Was free t1 buy his muzh- room spawns at any seedstorr. hu. actually most of them purchased from the advertiser. paying at the rate os' four dollars a pound for spawn that cost exactly six dollars per hundred pounds when bought firm a bono-fde seedsnan:
 But We made good our offerl was the protest when the inspectors came to overhaul the concerns affairs. We bought and paid for every pound CT mushrooms that were sent back to us. Apparently this was true. bat the total quantity shipped to the New York of fee in eight months. according to the firms own books. was exactly five pounds. A persevering German in Min nesota reaped this harye est. All the other aspirants taken together did not produce enough mushrooms to geTnish a steak. As any reputable scotsman would have told them ct the start. mushroom raising is one Of the most uncertain of agricultural enterprises and success usually comes only after painstakiag efforts and repeated dlsap- | pointmcnts."
 But the prize swindle was pcTpetrated by the genius who signed himself Rob- ert H. Banks and represented himself as the receiver for the Mississippi Val ley Planter. Witt the letter was en- closed what purported to be g copy Of a decision by the "court or claims signed by Judge W. p. GaIaway and attested by J. Jacob Storcn as cierh ir favor of the winners of the prIzes of fered by the Mississippi Valley Pub fishing company;
 "The real kernel was fhc statcuen: | that the recipient of the circular was entitled to d certain prize which would l be shipped on receipt of the freight | charges. Tn nearly every case, by a 1 strange coincidence, the fortunate ad- ] d1 essee had wen premium number sey- | en. a horse and Lilly buggy and har- | ness, valued at two hundred and sev- enty-Gve dollars With equally re- uniformity, the freight ! charges were placed at twenty-uinc | dollars and sixty cents. Never was a | bubble blown with less aCtual soap. In | the first place, there had never been 1 such a concern as the Mississippi Val | ley Publishing company Or such a pub ! Hcation as the Mississippi Valley Plan | ter. There wds no such COdTt as tke | court Cf claims, no such judge as N. l r. Galway, and no such clerk of cou,t | as J. Jacob StOrch. To crown all, there | was TO such person as Robret II. | Banks. The promoter of the scheme | called for his personal mail under an other name"
 The fraud order interce pted six hun dred money orders, and a number of | registered letters. It became known q | week or two ago that a few people h Phoenix had been swindled by Jhis con- rern. All these people, with the hun dreds wko had come before them. were reaching out after valuable prizes which they. in the nature of thing. must have known they had never aorned or even competed for. "He has me for some orc e,sc. but I'll take the horse and buggy just the samc," must have been the thought which flashed through those six hun dred heads; and it is an unpleasant | cn the wickedness Of hu- man nature. The Trime swindlcr sim ply makes victims or men not ulwin- Ing to be his accomplices.