The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-03-02

| take the darling with him. There ~
but one conditionss the ready money
which the prisoner brought with him
to Spain has been exhausted; then dis
tant relative Is therefore requested to.
send enough to liberate the valisc con
taihing the secret receptacle and the
certifcate'of deposite This money IL
to be sent TO the good priest at an ad
dress indicated. and having received
| IL, the good priest will at once secureo
the valise and start FOR America the
LAND of the FREQ and the home of the
brave" with the darling daughter
The above is generally the first let
ter of the series 1t is quickly follow
cd by another ii which the prisoner
pathetlcally states that his strength
| is rapidly failing anu the end Is near
He besceches his dear distant relativ-
to assume the trust and be loving
father TO the darling daughter. The
| third letter Is from the good priest
himself, who in brief. touching terms
and hopelesslt bad English, announces
| the death of the unhappy prisoner,
the good priest adds that the danling
daughter is under his care. He Is
ready to put his promise into execu-
tion and start for the United States
as soon as he shall have received the
necessary funds from the distant
relative. The good priest frequently
incloses with his letter bogus news
paper clipping announcing the death
in prison at Barcelona of the famous
ICuban patriot (sometimes called Au-
gustin Lafiente); the newspaper notice
also speaks cunningly of the confis-
Gated valise and the darling daughter
II is simple scheme but presented
in such a plausible way that almost
any unsuspecting distant relative" OF
European extraction would be morH
or less deceived by the glad prospect
of falling heir to the agreeable custody
of darling daughter with big Tor
tune, and a one-fourth interest there
in as an additional recompense.
Naturally the first impulse of the dis
tant relative is to ask lawyer or
Judge or some authority what course
he ought to pursue in the promises
but as lie thinks of doing this his at
tention Is taken by the warning In the
prisoners letter beseeching him not
to mention the matter to any living
soul lest the secret of the valise ana
the hidden receptacle be indiscreetiy
betrayed.
The valise, after all. with its conceaS
ed certificate of deposit, is the key 70
situation and possession must be TAX
en- of II before anything can he done
or said This ESQ cunningly set forth
by the prisoner) Is very evident to the
distant relative, and so he quite fre'
auently preserves the secret intact.
and instead of consulting lawyer or
writing to the American Consul-Gen'
eral at Barcelona nc quietly sends a
draft for the sum demanded to the
kgood priest and awaits results or
course he waits In vain, and the poor,
dead prisoner and the good priest ana
the darling daughter in the course OF
time pass out of his life forever leaving
| him only an uncomfortable memory OF
the money he so cheerfully contributed
TO the confidence game.
For nearly twenty years these SAM
knaves have been practicing their swim
die. and 1t is needless to suggest that
they are very carefully organized;
they have confederates not only In tho
United states but i'm most other coun
Itries The confederates IN question
select n man and find out all they can
about him; they g9t shold of family
names, family origin, and family char
lacteristics This Information Is trans
mitted to the rnscals in Spain, and
LETTERS are at once written to the pros
lpective victim. The scheme is present
cd and developed in q veay plausiva
way and many of our fellow country
men have "bittcn" promptly and chee'
fully.
Under the Spanish laws felony
must be consummated before the po-
lice may act and a mere attempt to
obtain money by false pretenses does
not appear TO warrant arrest. The
money must be actually paid over and
the prosecuting witness must be pres
ent i'm propria persona to testify; 9TH
erwise prosecution would be useless
Recently the letters written to tina
distant relative have varied somewhat
from the original the political prison
or having become noted Russian
banker who abscondcd, leaving de-
felt of some millions of roubles, Kill
ed in a quarrel i'm England another
Russian, and finally took refuge in
Spain, where he was apprehended and
charged with manslaughter.
This change of character however is
immaterial, and i'm the future more
new characters will probably be In
troduced by the gang. The scheme
is the same, and the public is warned
to place no credence I'm such or simi'
lar letters.
Every effort has been made by the
Department of State and its represen-
tatives in Spain to unmask these scoun
drels and bring them to Justice, ana
the Spanish authorities have also been
active and several members OF the.
gang have been apprehended and held
for trial. but so far no conVictiohs
have resulted, owing probably to ths
| peculiarity of the Spanish law refer-