Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-10-26
PRES, HYDE ON "SOME-
THING FOR NOTHING. y
Continued from Page One)

"There were five nine-pin games.
Each contestant pays 10 cents. Il
there are six contestants the winner
gets 40 cents. If eight he got 81.
"1herc We're several devices for
draw ing from q bunch of envelopes
with a number inside on a ticket. Ii
was q blind game. and no man could
tell whether the fakir had placed the
numbers Of the valuable tickets or not
nor could he tell in what proportion
the valuable stood to the useless.
"Thc same result was gained by
shooting with an air gun at tags with
numbers on their backs 1t was impos-
sible to tell whether there We're any
numbers on the tags that correspondent
with those on the prize board. During
the entire day we saw no one win any
p"iZe worth more than a few cents. "A
person had to pay five cents shot.
There were two booths With knives
stuck up in Il board at the pear. A per
son paid five cents for SIX chances to
throw rings at the knives. We saw
eleven people try without success. but
the next person succeeded i'll ringing
two fivc-cent knives. These knives
wvre set at such an angle that it vas
very difficult to ring one of the them.
although it looked quit" easy.
"The greatest fake Of the fair vas
what might be termed the medicine
man He picked out old men. mostly
farmers. who naturally would not offer
much objection TO find out if the vic
tim needed the cure or not, he was ask
"a to place his hand on the bulb Of q
,l,, q 81,
was another bulb. OF course the heat
of the hand caused the red liquid in
the first bulb to flow into the other. If
the right hand was held CIR the bulb il
was called Il test for the heart; if the
eft, q test for the liver. and the pres
ence of uric acid in the blood. The
victim was always bad off and needed
the treatment With the help of three
confidence men, he was usually able
to give the old fellow treatment for
seven ailments, apparently free. After
the treatment was over, the confidence
men paid % cents apiece for each of
the seven ailments. The fakir would
bring pressure to bear on the victim
so that he would pay up. The treatment
consisted of electric shocks from a
common battery used for that pur-
pose. We saw this man get $l.75 from
each Of two old men in less than 20
minutes"
| could not help contrasting these cX-
hibitions of indecency and fraud with
q corresponding fair which | attended
about the same time year aGo--the
cattle market in Thun, Switzerland
The Swiss peasants with their families
OF IA n Hr,t
there was nothing indecent; nothing
dishonest; no fakirs and no frauds. Ev-
erythine offered for sale was of sub
stantial value at fair price.
Now the Maine farmer is far above
the Swiss peasant in intelligence and
character. Why. then, do Maine farm
ers GLOW themselves and their families
to he insulted by the presence of these
low fakirs at their agricultural fairs?
Will not the Oranges take up the
question ard instruct the managers of
fairs that they cannot have their sup
port as long as they persist in selling
vulgar obsenity and transparent fraud
at 81 a foot frontage?
s5windle~ and swindled are smooth
outside and rough inside of the same |
piece of moral shoddy. The first prin-
ciple of an honest man, whether farm |
er, merchant, lawyer or financier
should be to having nothing whatever
to do with any enterprise which is not |
organized. and economically |
and efficiently administered; to let Sc
verely alone every form of business |
which offers him profit based on a |
loss to come one else If |
you stick to this principle you will lose
a few apparent chances to make ,
money, but you will escape 10 times as !
many chances to lose money. And you !