The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1908-01-09

Edwin W. SlM0s
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For many years Chicago has been
the headquarters for 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
have supported a 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 flourished in Chicago
despite the utmost vigilance and activ-
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,
Iake-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the last decade has been superseded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 it's 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
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
commissions, and would have some
state assigned to him. He would then
be told it was necessary for him to
make a 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 a weak point, however,
in schemes of this nature. When the
gwindler was hailed into court he
could show no effort to conduct real
business. The defense was always
that this was not crime but only 6
failure to carry out contract; but
the courts held that contract other
wise legal, If used in connection with
a scheme to defraud, could not avail
as defense.
Then the next step in the evolution
Of modern swindling was taken to
meet this difficulty. The swindler
would actually make pretense of
carrying on real business, and then
simply wear out his victim by various
conditions and annoyances. The
scheme in it's present form is a clever
advance over all those previously
used. A swindler to-day is connected
in some way with corporation of
some kind, and, whatever part he may
take, his profits are derived ultimately
from people who purchase the secnri-
ties OF these corporations. In order
10 avoid danger, the corporation will
have something. If it is mining
corporation, 1t will actually have some
place that It calls : mine and it will