Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-07-18
WELL LAID scheme
TO DEFRAUD


against couple of swindlers in the
guise of lightning rod agents Jesse
Bogart, of Liberty township, might
have been defrauded out of a snug sum
of money by an alleged lightning rod
concern. As it is the would be swind
lers, notwithstanding their well-de-
vised scheme, are wholly the losers and
at last accounts had practically aband-
oned the fight, while the farmer was
i'll the possession of bran new lightn-
ing rod for his barn and was in posi-
tion to dictate his own terms in settle
ment.
A couple of weeks ago the willy
lightning rod men appeared at the
farm of Jesse Bogart short distance
below Oak Grove. Their scheme was
as follows: They endeavored to i'm
press upon the farmer that they had
an especially good thing in lightning
rods, which they desired to introduce
in that locality. They wanted to erect
lightning rod on his barn as speci-
men of what theycould do. If he would
consent the cost to him should be only
nominal and the lightning rod men
would look for their return in the in
creased business that should result
from the lightning rod as an advertise
ment
They tried to make it clear to the
| farmer that he would not be running
the least semblance of risk He would
not even be asked to sign an agree
ment, although one was carefully pre-
| pared, ostensibly intended for other
| farmers to sign, less favored than Mr..
Bogart who, as above stated was to
have special terms. The agreement
bound the farmer to pay for the lightn-
ing rod at the rate of seventy-fve
cents per foot with the proviso that
each ball or similar feature comprising
the fixtures should count ten feet.
This in itself is indefinite and illusory.
but, as the sequel would show, persons
approached are never asked to sign the
agreement.
The only thing that was to bind Mr..
Bogart was verbal agreement, by
which he was to pay ST.. for the
whole job. He was to tell his neigh
bors that he had paid for the lightning
rod at the rate of seventy-five cents
per foot, but it was to be understood
between himself and the agents that
he was paying for only ten feet of the
lightning rod,
To say that the farmer did not be-
come little suspicious at this stage
of the game would probably be assum-
ing too much. At all events, he left
them go ahead and put up the lightn-
ing rod but as the sequel showed he
was very careful of the part he played
and saw to it that they got no sigma
ture from him
In a short time the Job was oomplet-
ed and then the agent went into ecst-
calling the farmers attention to this
or that feature, which stood unexcel-
led. 1t would be a great help to
them they declared, if Mr.. Bogart
would sign certificate to the effect
that they had satisfactorily put up a
Lightning rod on his farm carrying out
all the terms of their agreement
This, they held. he could not reason
ably decline to do, now that he had a
sample of their work before his eyes.
Now, it occurred that the paper on
which this certificate was written was
the one on the opposite side of which
was the carefully worded agreement
that the farmer was not asked to sign.
The lightning rod men, of course,
took pains TO conceal the fact that if
the farmer gave on the back of the
agreement certificate such as they
desired it would give the document all
the legal force of an agreement proper
ly signed and would make Mr.. Bogart
liable for the full cost of the lightn-
ing rod or in all probability sum
that really exceeded the cost.
During the days that the lightning
rod men had Mr.. Bogart in tow he
read or he remembered of having read
of a scheme practiced elsewhere by
lightning rod agents to defraud farm
ers. The methods employed in those
instances suggested several features of
the present transaction. Therefore,
when the men asked him to sign the
certificate on the back of the agree
ment he peremptorily declined.
There were several days before there
were any developments. Then party
came along and demanded that Mr..
Bogart pay for the lightning rod, not
according to the verbal agreement,
which made him liable for 81 80, but
for the full amount as implied in the
written agreement, $l40.
OF course they didn't get the money.
The signature which they had expect
ed to obtain in order to make the
| agreement legally binding was lacking
and they had to resort to buster and
bluffing They threatened the farmer
with arrest and imprisonment and
pointed to the fact that the lightning
rod was on the barn to prove that they
had him in their nower