The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-05-24
Where the Real Suckers Are.

1t has been very truly remarked
that, whatever may have been the
4 case in the past, the suckers do
not now live in remote and sparsely
settled sections of the country. They
are found in the cities, the supposi-
tious centres of intelligence and en-
lightenment. The get-rich quick artist,
the5yender Of bonaBzs mining stock,
the individual with an irfallible sys.
tenn for beating" the wheat market,
no longer make up their mailing lists
from county directories and rural vot-
ing registers. They look for-and
they fnd-their victims within com.
muting distance of the New York
Stock Exchange and the Chicago
Board of Trade.
After the ingenious persons men
toned have cleaned up satisfactory
volume Of metropolitan money there
is plenty left for the makers Of ''hand
books" the writer's Of "policy" and
the innumerable other s'sure.thing''
sneeialis:s who flourish and wax fat
upon the self-sufcient denizen of the
city-the man who vaunts himself up
on his shrewdness and who has moth
ing save contemptuous pity for the
Individual whom he styles the rural
Hjay." It's fact, which has re-
ceived repeated demonstration through
the recent exposure of metropolitan
swindles, that nine out of ten victims
of the gudgeon fishers are denizens Of
big cities. The swindlers would
starve to death if they had to depend
upon the rural districts fer drres.
It is true thatthere still occasion
ally visit the cities bucolic gentlemen
who will pay literally to see the Ma
sonic Temple turn around or who will
make first payment Of $1O on that
altitudinons structure upon the assu-.
rance of o plausible stranger that the
property may be purchased outright
for $500; or ssuoh q matter. But these
rural visitors are rare and they are
becoming rarer, and even in the very
height Of their verdenoy they were
not half so green as the city-bredt
Hjay who prides himself on his as.
tuteness, yet who is the producer.
for all the tonts, back room gamblers
and miscellaneous swindlers a a big
oisy. 4
Il should be remembered, more.
over, that while. the rural ''jay'' is
swindled only once or twice year.
the metropolitan "casy mark" gives
| mp his money week insand week out
when he has any money to give up.
His gullibi!ity is continuous per.
| lformanoe, while the begailement Of
the rural brother is merely an episode
in an otherwise sane and conservative
career. ThsS truth Soff hes matter Is
that the country, as distinguished
from the city, contains the conserved; ue
intellig igtnce Of the nation. II is the
bulWark which will protect us agaiir st,
the thousand and one ssisms from
Socialism up or down --whioh are:
now p'aking headaay in the urban
centres. s3is.
hatever the ruralite might have
,beensa quarter Of q century ago, Gs is
now tho egual e /; ;ss = tropoiiiitan Yel.
low citizen il everything that calls for
the exercise of ntelligsnce and his
superior in the hard common sense
which is req qnired so prevent this
aountry from becoming ! political and
social lunatic nsylu d.
The s yaesd q Of tradition has dis.
|appaarsd, ana I'D its place stands the
level. headed cons ssrvasise citizen,
who lis Do impregnabls ito political
bunko stserers aB he now is u The lag.
gard sendsr of & gold bricks aad light.
Mig rods. 0hicago Cbronicle. ss