Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-31
HEARD AND SEEN.

II discovered a new industry the other
day. said a very mad houseowner to
Star reporter. Talk about thimble rigging
| and sure-thing games and taking money
! away from a blind man. those risky
| and uncertain pastimes compared to it. The
scheme is simply buying tax titles in the
District and sitting down till the owner
comes around and redeems the certincate
| with interest or the title passes over to the
purchaser. There are two or three firms
and individuals who make living that way
| in Washington and they are so we'll known
or have such a standing at the District
building that the government has had rub
Der stamps made with their names to
save the clerks the trouble of writing their
names on the tax books. 1t cost me some
thing like $3.50 to get onto the game and
L confess L am mad clear through. l do
not know whether there is something
crooked about the deal. but 1 strongly sus-
pect there Is. And 1 can tell you just how
it works.
Il own the house live in, and as 1 don't
own anything else, and have not owned that
very long. 1 may be urusuany green in the
matter of taxes. But the other day a man
said to me jokingly: Sorry to see they are
going to sell you up for taxes. Why didn't
you come around and borrow the price?
Sell your aunt, said 1! But the fellow
insisted that he had seen it advertised In
the delinquent tax list. Now If there is one
thing l have never read in my life il was
the delinquent tax list l don t consider II
edlfying, enlightening entertaining But
mere was case where it appears l ought to
have read 1t.
so l hurried down to the District build
ing and was informed that my property had
been put up for sale and l would have to
go to another office to find out what had
been done with 1t. 1 had not seen any auc-
rod Aaer
l seriously doubted the statement. But /
drilled down into the basement and there
nice little old lady got out fat printed
volume and hunted through till she found
my name and assured me that my house
had been sold over my head for taxes with
out my ever being the wiser. That was
where l got onto the rubber stamp racket
The whole of the book she had was filled up
with rubber stamps with the names of not
more than three or four firms and indiyfd-
uals on them. The old lady explained that
along in March the men who made a bust
ness of that sort of thing gathered about
big table in one of the upper rooms of the
District building and bought in all the
property that had not had the taxes paid
on 1t. At the end of two years the govern
ment gives them title to the property. At
the end OF twenty years they own the piece
In fee simple If between the two and the
twenty years the rightful owner turns I'D
and finds out what has happened to him. he
has to pay off all the back taxes and inter-
est and suppose put up with any sort of
blackmail scheme the man wants to
work on him. don't know about that end
of 1t as l had not let mine run over the
point where the tax grabber had gotten a
title to my ground. But though had only
let 1t run over a. week, it cost me $3.50 to
straighten the matter out and get permits
sion to pay my own taxes. / don't know
how much of that extra money went as a
rakeof to the tax sharper, but 1 know l
had to loosen up to that extent.
Naturally I. was more or less hot, but 1
inquired in the interests of science, of the
old ladv with thps hpok W. NV fhaxy RI
not notify the property owners instead of
the tax gamblers who make easy money Off
and explained that they advertised the
property for sale and that SO many of the
property owners lived out of town that they
could not reach them all by mail, so they
did not notify the people who were most in.
terested. She added that they tried to reach
all resident property owners.
They must have tried awfully hard to
reach me, as ], have been living in the same
place for about two years and this is the
first time I ever heard of this easy-money
get-rich scheme: oh. no. I'm not mad nor
know who got my $3.50 and I'd like to meet
the man who bought in my house just to
tell him few of the things 1 think of the
business he Is In"
A little old lady in the deepest mourning
who is said to be making collection of
Washingtoniana, attended an afternoon tea
the other day and was telling group of
interested listeners Of her latest finds She
| said while on a recent trip to Minneapolis
| she came across a rare George Washington
memorial pitcher in the possession of a
Mrs. Edward A. Stevens, whose home is at
206 West Lake street, in that city.
The pitcher, she explained, Is made of
common ware glazed over, its surface being
badly cracked and showing other signs of
extreme old age. On one side of the vessel
Is an ode to liberty, In the quaint lettering
of We olden time, as follows, r%s"s'sH
20 Liberty, thou goddess heavenly bright,
Profuse Of bliss and pregnant Win delight; =
Eternal pleasures In thy presence reign,
And smilng plenty leads thy wsnton train. ~ I
On the reverse side Of the pitcher IL q
picture of George Washington IN. heaven
below which Ii shown a female dgure rep.