The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1908-02-27

EDWIN w. SIMS.
For many years Chicago has been
the headquarters for the swinders
and confidence men of the country
Chicago being 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 a million
aire."
The evolution of the swindling
game during the last rs years Is very
interesting. Twenty-Five years ago
the swindler eked out a precarious
existence. His operations were 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 Swindlers 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the last decade has been superseded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 a business
firm with large capital wished men
to represent 1t in various states at
substantial salaries. This would at |
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 or |
three thousand dollars a year and !
commissions, and would have some |
state assigned to him. He would then
be told 1t was necessary for him to
make deposit of two, three or five
hundred dollars, as the case might be,
and a contract shrewdly drawn,
would be presented to him to sign.
He would pay his way to Cleveland or
Milwaukee-as Ohio and Wisconsin
were the states they usually gave
where his employer would pay no
more attention to him. When he
would return and demand his deposit
he would be shown the contract, vari-
GUS provisions Of which he had not
kept, and the money would not be
returned to him.
Another scheme was to advertise
for sale partnership in an old and
established business. A set of fake
books, showing profits, would be pro-
duced for the inspection of the vic
tim and he would pay $500 or $1,000
for a new partnership. Some pre-.
tense to conduct the business would
be made, but soon the business would
fail and the victim would be out of
his money. Schemes of this kind were
conducted in great numbers in Chi
cago during the latter 90s and up into
the first few years of the present
century, and millions of dollars thus
obtained from the credulous.
There was weak point, however,
in schemes Of this nature. When the
swindler was hailed into court he
could show no effort to conduct real
business. The defense was always
that this was not a crime but only a
failure to carry out contract; but
he courts held that contract other 1
wise legal. II used in connection with
/ scheme to defraud, could not avail
Is defense.
Then the next step in the evolution
,f modern swindling was taken to |