The Carlisle independent., 1908-01-16

W. StNfSs
 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 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 inventing swindles, he would now be million aire."
 The evolution of the swindling game during the last 25 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 a defense in court Swindlers who worked these schemes depended upon avoiding detection, but they could make no defense to the scheme itself. .~1his was a dangerous and cumber- some method of procedure and during the last decade has been superseded by the confidence game or scheme to defraud in its modern form.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 '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 it in various states at substantial salaries. This would at tract scores of men who would come 10 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 it 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- ous provisions of which he had not kept, and the money would not be returned to him.
 Another scheme was to advertise for sale partnership 3n an old and established business. A set of fake books, showing profits. would be pro- sduccd 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 sos and up into