Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1908-191?, 1910-03-12

he hers sold L ,o% apgIes 9So, .a9a AND
milk for the boarders IN
at the summer hotel and hens that ~
laid eggs for them. John was making O.
what the neghbors called a good liv
ing for himself and wife and three
children
One day John went 20 the postoGlce
and was surprised to receive a nice.
confidential letter from James w.
Snowden, of { he Rio Vista Banana
Company of New York, whose planta.
tions were in El Campo. Brazil offer
ing him shares in the company at low
figures that were to be advanced
30 per cent There was n prospectus
accompanying the letter explaining all
about the plan. John didn't know Mr.
Snowden, but Mr. Snowden seemed to |
know him. and as he required but
little money, only $40 a month. and
guaranteed him two per cent. month
on his investment, IL was easy for II
John, on his way home to sketch n
future of purple and gold, especially H
as the circular said that the food prod HI
uct of the banana is TO that Of the WI
potato A to / and to that of wheat ~
as 1873 to L. q
Next day he sent the first $40 to .
the Rio Vista Banana Company and -
by return mail received ten shares of s>>lf~
the stock and contract which he %S<>2ZzJ
signed and forwarded to New York .
For 25 months he kept sending SO
month, but no dividend was returned
Then he wrote to Mr. Snowden maxi
ing anxious inquiry TO why he was
receiving no profit on his $3.50 invest
ment Mr. Snowden replied that in c3I2=
the spring the Rio de Janeiro had TZC1
overhowed its banks and the planta. S1FS/
ton had been flooded This had killed V<S
the banana trees and they had all had
TO be replanted; but the prospects were bright
for a big crop the next season and the nlanta.
tion would probably not require renewal for
Is or 20 years. He must be little patient and
meantime bear in mind that the product of an
acre OF bananas was ~ times that of wheat
John shook his head. but sent two more
ten-dollar nstallments, the last of which was
returned to him unsealed with the word "Fic.
titious" stamped in big type slantingwise
across the envelope Dazed. he asked the viii
lage postmaster what that meant.
Means there amt such company or
that it's a fraud" explained the postmaster
John said nothing. but went home looking
very thoughtful. Two hundred and seventy dol
lars gone!
But out Of this experience John derived
one satisfaction. When he received circular
from the Inland Seas Copper Mining Company
of New York. offering him large profits on a
small monthly investment, he penced the
word Fictitious" across the top of it in big
letters and sent It back. But copies of the
same circular caught three men in his county,
Now, il John had but known it. Fictitious"
was stamped all over the banana bait upon
which he had bitten. just as it is stamped
upon the literature of many advertising com
panies that offer large profits to outside in
vestors, only the dupes don't see it.
John is the type of sucker who was for
merly caught by the green goods operator
though in paying good money for secondhand
h. hotra .afd naf, aIntf
TO Jennie. The only reason why John and
thousands of others throughout the country
are becoming part owners In coffee, banana
and rubber plantations. gold mines. cotton
fields irrigation lands timber lands. oil wells
and many other enterprises instead OF pur-
chasing green goods and gold bricks and get
ting into and out of similar games is because
these latter schemes are no longer profitable
TO their operators on account OF the extreme
risk IN conducting them.
Evolution in fraud. In everything else.
is the order of the day. The crooks have been
educating themselves. They have yearned for
a higher order Of things and they have at
tanned to IT, Besides, the higher order OF
things Is the safer order. To sell man a
brass brick for a gold one is crime and no
valid defense for 1t be set up in court;
hut selling shares in a rubber company which
is an easier game, is, on the face or II, not
crime, and to convict such an offender of fraud
is often very difficult.
In getting his education the sure-thing op-
orator has passed through various stages OF
progress The now unsafe shell game, gold
brick and green goods swindles which he oper-
ated with such profitable results in the eight
les and the early nineties made way for the
hslf.interest game which nourshed ten years
ago and the employment game which is still
going on. though not to its former extent. The
half interest advertiser sold you partnership
In anything from a peanut stand to piano
factory and when you had bought 1t the next
thing was to find II, or If you found 1t you dis
covered the it belonged to somebody else, who
knew nothing about the man who sold 1t TO
you The employment game consists OF an
opportunity 20 sell on high salary the goods
or stock of company in which you must first
buy shares. Then when you have paid over
your money you are assigned a territory. gen
orally long distance from the company's Of
soc and st'sr you have gone. at your own