The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-06-20
How Swindlers use the Mails
BY Frederick !. Hnskin

1t is a very old theory that the pub
lie likes to be humbugged. Confidence
games began in America when the
first traders gave handful Of glass
beads to the Indians in exchange for
valuable furs. The Indians seem to
have liked 1t. The ordinary methods
Of sending information about his
schemes from place to place by word
OF mouth, or by demonstration, soon
grew too slow for the American con-
fidence man. and long before the '70s
he was working the mails for all they
were worth in pushing his ideas.
There was no law against 1t. because
such q contingency had not been fore
seen, and soon there appeared in pa
pers and in circulars sent through the
mails most astounding offers by which
the ambitious might amass fortune
by the expenditure of only few
cents.
sending out their circulars and for
gathering In the cash that spendthrift
souls sent their way. Wonderful Of
fers to heal far-away patients by
means Of magnetism, hypnotism. mind
control, or by simple medicines hith-
erto unknown. crowded the mail bags
and called for an Increase in the post
office forces. Astrologers and phren-
ologists solicited patronage in printed
letters that we're rich in mystical lore
and overlooking with queer rhetorical
combinations. Bond Investments.
banking schemes. turf enterprises,
mines. great tropical plantations and
dozens of get-rich-quick schemes
found voice in circulars. cards and
letters. The unsophisticated country
woman was told, in a surprisingly
friendly letter. how she could find a
most remunerative life at home by
doing sewing or embroidering, or So
liciting, and her equally unsophisticat-
ed husband became initiated in blind
pool schemes for specializing in
stocks.
Then the government awoke to the
realization that the people were being
swindled: that its own postal service
was the quickest means of doing the
swindling. and that it was being used
for all 1t was worth. In 1872 swind-
ing by mail had grown so noticeable
that the attention Of congress was
drawn to 1t. and a law was enacted
making 1t punishable by fine to mail
Through any post office letters or cir
culars concerning illegal lotteries" or
schemes devised to deceive and de-
fraud the public. In 1876 the term
''illegal" was stricken from the law,
and all lotteries came under the ban.
An older law, dating back to 1868. had
also prohibited the sending of lottery
stuff by mail. but the makers of the
bill had overlooked the attaching Of
any kind Of penalty to it, so 1t was
necessarily Of little use.
IN 1890 the law was made to apply
not only to lotteries as they are gem
orally known. but to all "so-called gift
concerns and similar enterprises Of
1ering prizes dependent upon lot or
chance" Year by year the law has
frightened It's grip on the mails and
any scheme that savors of fraud Is
brought promptly under the notice of
the post office authorities and sifted
down to the bottom. All offers OF
work, or OF commodities. or Of prizes
\ Tor guessing contests are given the
\ respectful and careful attention q the
postal authorities. and II there IL any
suspicious air shout It the promoter
OF the scheme Is promptly brought b.
fore the bar az justice and given IN
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