The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-08-24
G0l0 BRICK tAMtS.
SOME NEW ONES THAT THE
sHARPERs NOW OPERATE.
The Latest Devices That the Swim
Z dlers Use to Separate the Confid-
ing Individual and His Money.

ing Individual and His Money.
Americans are the cream Of the
credulous, declares a writer In Pear
sons Magazine. We sometimes har-
Dor the idea that the British is the
most ready and willing OF all men
to part with his money to a sure
thing gamester, but when it comes
to competition against all comers
the average American hits the bulls
eye.
The sure-thing men of today (in-
corporated) know this and build up
on it. One of the biggest of them
claimed not long ago that If he were
given time he could sell worthless
stock to three Americans out of
every five, provided the gullible three
had the money or could raise 1t.
He actually counts upon one vic
tim for every SO circulars sent out
through the mails. The common
average, as the postal officials will
tell you, is one dupe for every hum
dred circulars. Not bad, consider
ing the cheapness Of printing and
postage.
There is a firm in New York that
collects and sells addresses OF peo-
Pile who buy things through the mails
or who have at some time evinced
a desire to do so. These addresses
are sold at SS thousand. They
are assorted under various headings.
If, for example, 10000 men have
sent in appalications for wives to a
New York matrimonial bureau that
list is worth SOS to SO diamond
ring concern that is setting up cir
cular mill.
The sure-thing operator has pas
sed through various stages of pro-
gress. The now unsafe shell game,
gold brick AID green goods swindles
which he operated with such profit
able results in the sos and the ear
ly '9Os made way for the half In
terest game, which ffourislhed 10
years ago, and the employment game
which is still going on, though not
to it's former extent.
The half interest advertiser sold
you a partnership in anything from a
peanut roaster to piano factory.
Win you had bought it the next
thing was to find it, or if you found
it you discovered that it belonged
to somebody else who knew nothing
about the men who sold it to you.
The employment game consists of
an opportunity to sell on high sal
ary the goods or the stock of a COM
pany in which you must first buy
shares. Then when you have paid
over your money you are assigned
territory, generally long distance
from the company's Office.
After you have gone at your own
expense to Milwaukee. Dubuque or
Kansas City, there to await tele-
graphic orders as to what to do next,
you take it out in waiting. The or
ders never come, and when you go
back to the company's office you find
that the company has foated away
on the magic carpet, nobody knows
where.
But it was soon found by the
swindlers that these devices, like the
green goods game, IS rather crude
and almost equally unsafe. So to
the education of the man who ran
the half interest or employment
scheme was added a post graduate
course in high finance.
1t came to be recognized by the
swindling gentry that there was
nothing like corporation when one
wanted to do really safe and pros
porous business. Then, too, the cor
poration must have something some
where.
If it is mining company it must
have a hole in the ground. If it is
rubber or coffee company 1t must
have some sort of concession from
the Mexican or South American
government, which it always very
easy to get If it is cotton concern
it must have fence corner some
where down South.
These things are actually neces-
sary in order to show in court when
the time comes that the men who
have taken your money have endeav-
ored to carry out their part of the
contract and that they have failed
is merely their misfortune. For to
fail in business is not necessarily
a crime.
The Times and Democrat would
advise it's readers to let all these
concerns that want to make money
for them while they sleep severely
alone. They are swindles, pure and
simple. We have declined to odver-
tise several mining concerns that
were trying to sell it's stock to the
public. Ninety-nine per cent Of such
things are fakes, and if you put your
money in them you will lose 1t. If
you have more money than you want
to use invest in some enterprise right
here at home that Is managed by
people you know to be honest and
trustworthy.
lnt.. G.ln