The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-07-26

1t Is a very old theory that the public
likes to be humbugged Early conf
dence games began in America when
the first traders gave a handful OF
glass beads to the Indians in exchange
for valuable furs. The Indians seem
to have liked it. The ordinary method
of sending information about his
schemes from place to place by word
OF mouth, or by a demonstrator, soon
grew too slow for the American con-
fdence man, and long before the 7Os
he was working the mails for all they
were worth in pushing his ideas. There
was no law against it, because such a
contingency had not been foreseen, and
soon there appeared in papers and IN
circulars sent through the mails most
astounding offers by which the am
bilious might amass fortune by the
expenditure of only few cents.
Lotteries made use Of the mails for
sending out their circulars and for
gathering in the coin that spendthrift
souls sent their way. Wonderful offers
to heal far away patients by means OF
magnetism, hypnotism, mind control or
by simple medicines hitherto unknown
crowded the mail bags and called for
an increase in the pOstoffice force.
Astrologers and phrenologists solicited
patronage in printed letters that were
rich in mystical lore and overfiowing
with queer rhetorical combinations.
Bond investments, banking schemes,
turf enterprises, mines,, great tropical
plantations and dozens of get-rich-
quick schemes found voice in circularsS
cards and letters. The unsophisti-
Gated country woman was told in
surprisingly friendly letter how she
could find a most renumerative life at
home, by doing sewing or embroidering
or conVassing, and her unsophisti-
Gated husband became initiated in
blind pool schemes for specializing in
stocks.
Then the government awoke to the
realization that the people were being
swindled that its own postal service
was the quickest means Of doing the
swindling and that it was being used
for all it was worth. In 1872 things
had grown so noticeable in the mail
swindling line that the attention of
Congress was drawn to it and law
was enacted making it punishable by
fine to mail through any postoffice let
ters or circulars concerning Illegal
lotteries" or schemes devised to de-
ceive and defraud the public. In
1876 the term illegal" was stricken
from the law and all lotteries came
under the ban. An older law, dating
back to 1868, had also prohibited the
sending of lottery stuff by mail, but
the makers of the bill had overlooked
the attaching of any kind Of penalty
to it, SO it was necessarily of little use.
In 1890 the law was made to apply
not only to lotteries as they are gen
orally known, but to all "so-called
gift concerts and similar enterprises
offering prizes dependent upon lot or
chance" Year by year the law has
frightened its grip on the mails, and any
scheme that savors of fraud is prompt
Iy brought under the notice of the
postoffice authorities and sifted down
to the bottom. All offers of work, of
commodities or of prizes for guessing
contests receive the respectful and
careful attention of the postal author
titles. and if there is any suspicious air
about a scheme the promoter of it is
promptly brought before the bar of JUS
tice and has an opportunity to prove
the truth of his offers. From the
passage of the act of 1890 to the end of
the last fiscal year, 2,409 fraud or
ders" were issued by the Postotice De-
partment. and if the persons against
whom they were issued did not COM
ply at once with the law suits, fines
and other unpleasant things followed.
The average swindler who uses the
mails is a willy fellow. He has learn
ed the art of wording his offers so
thew attract the remote and indiffer-
entIv educated, and so plausible do his
statements sound that he finds easy
and ready victims One is frankly
amazed at the credulity Of the human
race. A typewriter company of New
York induced persons to send $3.50 as
a guarantee of good faith in copying
at home" scheme in which the purchas-
or was to have a typewriter and 500
sheets of paper and copy letters at
% 70 a thousand. The typewriter
nroved to be a toy affair that was use
iass for the work The purchaser
was out about 81 and the firm in that
much.
One clever New York firm bought