The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-05-19

mall order CRATER tolls not, neither
does he spin. However, it doesn't
follow that he is living easy. Quite
the contrary.
These are troublesome times for
the nimble-witted gentry who seek to
employ the mails as a medium
through which to make their money,
end the strenuousness is becoming
more marked each day
Aroused to a sense of it's duty in
this direction the government,
through the postofffce department,
is engaged in the wholly commenda-
BILE work of protecting the people
against themselves and suppressing
those thrifty individuals who would
fatten off them. There is an aston
ishingly large number of men and
women in all walks of life who need
to be protected, too. Those who have
made fortunes through questionable
deals of this kind will tell you so IN
strict confidence, and will assure you
that their victims came from no par
ticular class, but represented all
walks in life A bargain" fraudu-
lent or otherwise, if properly pre-
scented, makes as strong an appeal
to the educated man of affairs as
it does to the one in humble cir
cumstances, and milady of means IS
as keen in the pursuit of something
for nothing as her less fortunate sis
ter, says the Detroit Free Press
The glittering inducements that
once confronted the unsuspecting on
every hand are not so much in evil
dence, however. Time and postoffice
inspectors, chiefly the latter, have
worked changes, and the mail order
business has been reduced to a point
where it is decidedly prOsaic. That
is, it would be were it not for the
attempts of an army of f1y-by-nights
to get past the Watchful inspectors
This class serves to enliven the stu
alton, and eliminates the possibility
of those intrusted with the task of
suppressing concerns of doubtful
merit suffering from ennui.
The OId-TimerS.
Not so many years ago any sort
of an advertisement, however appar-
mttted to appear in magazines de-
voted to the mail order if the bust
ness saw fit to use. Everybody who
knows anything about the game has
heard of the dodge worked as long
ago as during the civil war by an
enterprising man who was reputed
to have made himself rich thereby.
Selecting the period when the mill
tary service had been made compul-
sorry he inserted an advertisement in
the newspapers in various parts of
the country stating that for S sent
to him he would tell the writer how
to escape the draft He was literally
swamped beneath a shower of 81
bills from those anxious to know
how this most veXatiouS problem
could be settled. In due season they
each received an envelope in which
was enclosed the answer the single
word, enlist" being printed on a
slip of paper. 1t was certain way
to avoid being drafted, but the ad-
vice was not followed in every in
stance
Later came the men who, for a
like sum, agreed to furnish you with
a positive eXterminatoT OF bedbugs,
reaches and similar household pests,
together with full instructions re-
garding its use. Again the dollars
poured in, and as fast as the mails
could carry the reply back there went
forth mysterious little boxes. Open
ing one of these the recipient found
himself in possession of two fiat
pieces of wood, each possibly three
inches long and two inches wide,
whose actual value was but frac-
ton Of a cent. Accompanying these
were the instructions, reading
something like this: Catch the bug,
place him carefully on the upper
side of the lower block, then put
the lower side of the upper block
on him and press tightly until he is
dead"