The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-11-21

For many years Chicago has been
the headquarters for the swindlers
and confidence men of the country.
Chicago bSjng the great railroad and
distributing center OF the west,
strangers are drawn here in great
numbers and for many years they
have supported large class of men
who live by their wits. Because of
the ease with which money is obtain
ed by various kinds of swindles the
swindler has fourished in Chicago
despite the utmost vigilance and activ-
ity of the officers of the law both
state and federal. In devising
schemes, swindlers always have in
view two objects: First, obtaining
money for nothing; second, evading
the law. The ingenuity displayed by
these men is often remarkable. AS
the attorney for one of them remark
ed after his client had been convicted:
IF that man had used the same in.
genuity and persistence in legitimate
business that he has In inventing
swindles, he would now be million.
aire."
The evolution OF the swindling
game during the last 25 years is very
interesting. Twenty-Five years ago
the swindler eked out precarious
existence. His operations we're con-
fined to the shell-game, short-change.
fake-bet, green goods. gold brick and
other similar schemes. Usually these
schemes were worked upon country
people and only small sums could be
obtained. They also lacked another
important feature of the modern
swindle In that there was no provision
for defense in court. Swindlcrs who
worked these schemes depended upon
avoiding detection, but they could
make no defense to the scheme itself.
This was dangerous and cumber-
some method of procedure and during
the last decade has been superseded
by the confidence game or scheme to
defraud in its modern form.
In the '90s these schemes began
to exhibit some. of the elements OF
their modern perfection The method
adopted was to conduct the swindle
by an elaborate imitation of business
methods. An example will show the
great advance that was made over the
old method The man would open
an Office and insert advertisements
in the papers stating that business
firm with large capital wished men
substantial salaries. This would at
4 tract scores of men who would come
to the Office. Each victim would be
told that he had all the qualifications
necessary to conduct the business and
would be offered salary of two OF
three thousand dollars year and
commissions, and would have some
state assigned to him. He would ther
be told 1t was necessary for him tt
make a deposit of two, three or five
hundred dollars, as the case might be
and contract, shrewdly drawn
| would be presented to him to sign
He would pay his way to Cleveland OF
Milwaukee---as Ohio and Wisconsin
were the states they usually gave
where his employer would pay nj
more attention to him. When ht
| would return and demand his deposi
| he would be shown the contract. yari
| ous provisions of which he had no
kept, and the. money would mot b'
returned to him.
| Another scheme was to advertise
| for sale partnership In an old ant
established business. set of fak'
books, showing profits, would be pro
duced for the inspection of the vic
tim and he would pay $500 or 81 1,00'
for new partnership. Some pre-
tense to conduct the business woul'
be made, but soon the business woul'
| fail and the victim would be out o
his money. Schemes of this kind wer,
conducted In great numbers In Chi
cago during the latter '90s and up int
the first few years OF the presen
century, and millions of dollars thu
obtained from the credulous.
There was weak point, howevei
in schemes of this nature. When tn
swindler was hailed into court h
could show no effort to Conduct rea
business. The defense was Away
that this was not crime but only
failure to carry out a contract; bu
the courts held that contract othei
wise legal, II used In connection wit
scheme to defraud, could not aval
as q defense.
Then the next step In the evolution
Of modern Swindlins was taken t
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