Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-10-02
BATTING THE SUCKER FAMILY
Modern Instances of Reaching "EasY
Money" and the Re-
suit.

Swindling has improved, like all other
arts, that the rude gold brick and the
fortune in Spain have been almost entirely
replaced with heater devices. The up-to-
date ICON" man not only takes 1t as his
motto that he should make two suckers
cough up" where there was only one
sucker" before, but he feels it necessary
to employ a painless method whereby the
victim will hardly know how he was
parted from his money. There is a sub
stantal reality of some kind behind the
modern swindle, an orifice in the earth OF
something that closely resembles value.
The transaction has all the earmarks of
real business, and everyone knows that
business is a sinkhole for the majority who
engage in it; therefore losses are borne
with more or less philosophic resignation.
A man hates to spend good money for a
package of green goods, which are not
even green, while the misfortune of poor
Investment" does not so gall his spirit.
The thought that he might have won on
the Investment" consoles him.
The matriomny game is an old but ever
productive line. A New York man sent out
10000 circulars saying that young widow
with $4,000 wanted to marry nice man.
Several thousand nice men sent about $l5
apiece to pay half the travelling expenses
| OF the WIDOW, WHO was COullLB llBlll away
| to Join them in holy matrimony. The
widow was situated at such place that half
her fare to her destination would be about
SO She was always half fare distant
| from her sutors, and she remained dis
tant Her manager, unfortunately could
/ not produce her to the authorities, and he
| therefore went to jail.
| A Cincinnati grocer liked the brokerage
| scheme of Francis NJ. Mclean, whose ad-
dress was the Standard Oil building, New
| York, and who was highly recommended by
| five prominent concerns She had inside
| information on the stock market. The gro
| Ger sent a check for $500 had il invested in
| Union Pacific, and learned that the
amount had grown to $500 The fair oper-
| ator did not remit this money, but wrote to
! the customer that there was big deal COM
| ing in Pennsylvania, and II he would add
$500 TO the $500 he would get the benefit Of
it. Mr. Grocer sent the additional amount
! and thought he had netted 5000, when Mrs.
Mclean regretfulIy wrote him that the
| Pennsylvania shares had been turned into
shelters, and then all the profits just nat
urally smeted into a deficit of s7l4,62. The
grocer was not the only one. The postal
authorities found that the womans husband
had cunningly written the recommendations
| Of five prominent concerns and that the
pair had taken in more than 100000. The
husband was sent to Sing Sing for eighteen
months and the woman vent free under
suspended sentence. Afterward they prob
ably lived in retired ease.
Walter 5, Mayer, postoffice inspector at
New York, who spends his time unearthing
| swindlers and having their mail returned
| to the senders marked fraudulent" got
hold of a cotton circular one morning and
found that 10000 copies Of the batch had
Just been mailed. II was a great cotton
deal which would net 8 per cent month
to tie participants. Mr., Mayer sent for the
promoter and confronted by a dapper per-
son who called himself Charles Hoege, and
said he was American manager, the head
man being in Europe, The inspector guessed
that there was no other head man than
Hoege, and he proceeded to catechise him
on cotton, and found that he knew little
about II. Hoege's portrait was soon dis
covered in the rogue's gallery but the bird
flew before he could be captured. Mean
while 10000 gudgeons responded 20 the cir
culars in a single week, and some Of tbs
letters which the authorities opened befor,
J returning 10 the senders contained sums Of
b money ranging from a few dollars up t,
5000