The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-16

had grown so noticeable in the mail
swindiug line that the attention of
Congress was drawn TO it and q law
/ was enacted making 1t punishable by
! fine to mail through any postof1ice let
| ters or circulars concerning ''illegal
lotteries or schemes devised to de
ceive and defraud the public. In 1876
/ the term 'jllegal' was stricken from
r, 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 attach
! ing OF any kind of penalty TO IT., so
1t 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 SPECIALIZED gift
concerts and similar enterprises offer.
ing prizes dependent upon lot, or
tightened its grip on the mails. and any
scheme that savors of fraud is prompt
~ brought under the notice of the post
office authorities and sifted down TO the
bottom. All offers of work, or Of com.
modities, or of prizes for guessing con-
tests are given the respectful and care.
/ full attention of the postal authorities.
and II there IS any suspicious air about
1t, the promoter of the scheme is
promptly brought before the bar of JUS
tlce and given m opportunity to prove
the truth of his offers. From the pas.
sage of the act of 1890 10 the end of
the last fiscal year, 2409 fraud or
ders were issued by the postoffice
department, and if the persons against
whom they were issued did not com
ply at once with the law, suits, 6ues
and other unpleasant things followed.
Tho average swindlcr who uses the
mails is willy fellow He has learned
the art of wording his offers so they
attract the remote and indifferently
educated, and so plausible do his state
ments 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, IN.
duced persons to send $3.50 as guar
anty OF good faith in Copying at
home y scheme, in which the purchaser
was 10 have a typewriter and 500 sheets
of paper, and copy letters at $3.50
thousand. The typewriter proved to be
a toy affair that was useless for the
work. The purchaser was out about
So and the firm in that much.
One clever New York firm bought up
a lot of letters from an agency to get
addresses, then wrote each person. that
he or she had won q prize which would
be sent on receipt Of S137 to "cover
cost of boxing and packing charges. -
Each delighted person invariably sent
the amount and received a piece of
cheap jewelry worth a few cents. A
blueing company offered "pew Auto
matte Tension Sewing Machine TO
persons selling 30 packages of wash
blue at ten cents a piece. The machine
proved to he toy affair, and the letter
IN answer TO woman 8 threat to sue is
filed away as mark of genuine clever
ness on the part Of the artfu dodeer
who originated the scheme. Bogus de-
tective agencies We're thick in the land
for a while. For certain sum of
money they would send star. ccrtif-
cate OF membership, credentials, etc,
to the purchaser, and not until the as
tonished victim had been hauled up
before unfeelng magistrates for carry
ing a gun, or for impersonating an
that he had been the victim of
scouudrel,
The South was wrought up consider
ABLY 4 few wears since over the opera
tions of 1.-The National Industry Coun-
Gil, which extorted money from the
negroes under the pretense Of helping
them get pension money BY request
of the organization bill was intro
duced into Congress providing pensions
for OK slaves. This was used as a
means of swindling the negro out Of
his hard earnings, 1t was declared
that $l00,o00,000 was 10 be sent at
once into the Southern States, and
under one preteXt or another money
was obtained from those who were ex-
pecting share of the pension. This
and several like organizations were
suppressed by fraud orders. Another
set of enterprising folks who found the
negro An easy prey followed on the
heels Of these. A Chilicothe, Ohio,
firm advertised fluid that would turn
/ the backest skin white. and others
offered liquids that would make Ky
hair straight. Many of these were in
furious preparations and fraud orders
| have put most of the firms out of busl-
| ness.
A Dallas firm found ready market
! for "mineral rods. which were sup
I posed to discover gold and silver be.
| low the surface Of the earth, In order
TO stimulate interest In them the firm
might be revealed by this magic.
! Other schemes Of this kind have had
! surprising success in the South, but
/ they, too, have been suppressed by the
! Government. Nevada and Missouri
sprung wonderful school of magnetic
healing on the public. The president
of the institution guaranteed to de.
vote a certain time each day to cab
sent treatment Of his patients for
the snm of So a mouth, payable In
advance Nobody appears TO have
been healed, because the president
was busy debating letters to other
trusting souls at the time he should
have had his mind on his prepaid pa
tIents 1t is a pity he came under
the Government IS dlspleasure, for he
guaranteed TO cure poverty, and to
give success in business at the rate Of
81 month per patient.
a Florida woman got into the same
trouble by promising to devote fifteen
minutes a day to each patient when
thoughts from her soul would enter
theirs and renew them TO better and
higher life. She was q little more
clever than the Missouri man, hav.
ing in some way given the Govern
ment sufficient absent treatment TO sue
cessfully evade tho penalty of the law,
though it has been ON her heels for