The Greeley tribune., 1908-03-05


For many wears Chicago has been
the headquarters Tor the swindlers
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 fiourished 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 inyenting
s"4udl'Ss tie NhH4I HOW De a IlllIllpH-
aire"
The evolution of the swindling
game during the last 25 years is very
interesting. Twenty-Five years ago
the swindler eked out precarous
existence His operations were con
fined to the shell.game, short-change,
fake-bet, green goods, gold brick and
thor similar oh
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 10 the scheme itself
This was a 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the last decade has been superseded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 sos these schemes began
to exhibit some OF the clements 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
ola method. The man would open
an office and insert advertisements
In the papers stating that business
| firm with large capital wished men
to represent it in various states at
substantial salaries This would al
tract scores OF men who would come
| to the oftice. Each victim would he
told that he had all the qualifications
necessary to conduct the business and
| would be offered salary of two or
three thousand dollars 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 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
| 'So4' iSNHl u anu NSHldhu his deposit
he would be shown the contract. yari
Gus provisions of which he had moi
kept. and the money would not he
returned to him
Another scheme was to advertise
for sale partnership in an old ant
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 81 .O0I
for new partnership. Some pre-
tense to conduct the business wou,t
be made, but soon the business woult
fail and the victim would be out O
his money. Schemes of this kind wer,
p conducted in great numbers in Chi
cago during the latter '90s and IN int,
: the first few years of the presen
century, and millions of dollars thu
obtained from the creduous.
There was weak point. however
in schemes of this nature When tn
. swindler was hailed into court h
could show no effort to conduct rea
business. The defense was alway
| that this was not crime but only
| failure 20 carry out contract; bu
the courts held that contract otbe,
| wise legal, II used in connection wit
/ scheme to defraud, cogld not ava
Il as defense.
II Then the next step in the eyolutlo
4 Of modern swindling was taken t