The Holbrook news., 1911-11-17


 W ings and gold. It has about " it the lure of easy money and
 swinging hammocks, and there is a popular feeling that fortunes wait for the hustling American who ventures into the land of the Monte zumas.
 Americans look upon the Mexican as an untutored and childlike individual who cannot compete with Yankee shrewdness. Sooner or later the ad- veuturous fnancier of the northern re- public ventures across the line into the southern republic and invests in a banana plantation, a dye wood con cession or a mine of ineffable rich ness.
 FIeecing the "gringo" has become an established business in those arid lands that lie to the west and the south of the Rio Grande del Norte. A stream of good American dollars Is poured across the line into the Hand of tomorrow" The Mexican has taken a leaf from the book of the dead and gone boomers of the old boom towns of the prairies. The recent insurrec- tion has stimulated business of this sort, but it has been well established for the last decade.
 Takers Looking for Victims.
 You can buy anything you may hap pen to desire among these transient promoters of the resources of Old Mexico. They have aped the advertis- ing of the legitimate concerns that are honestly endeavoring to open up cer- tain rich sections of the backward re- public. The fact that many colonists well placed and carefully instructed have made money in the new lands has made business good for the faker and the swindler who have followed in the steps of the honest promoter.
 Many of the plausible tongued gen. tlemen who come up out of Old Mex leo to sell plantations are Americans, sun tanned, saturnine men, with a gift of tongues. The great majority of them, however, are gentlemen with saddle colored complexions and Cas- tilian accents. They let it be known that for reasons not unconnected with the disturbed conditions of their home land they must sell. Their descriptions of their very great plantations roll from practiced tongues.
 They will sell you anything from sugar beet plantation to a salt mine or a gold mine. They prefer to deal in those lost mines," of which all trace vanished before the revolution of 183S Some old Indian in their group of family retainers has, so the story goes, recently rediscovered this place of fabulous richness. The plausible gentleman cannot return, and work this mine. He will be thrown into jail or he will be persecuted by his political enemies. Alas, he needs money now, at once. He must sell, and he usually does sell. The gold brick has always been a weakness of the American
 Banana plantations are one of the main standbys of the dark skinned promoter. He always has many pie lures. They are photographs of beau tiful banana groves, with himself standing well in the foreground. Big punches of the fruit are dropping over his shoulder, and around him are number of white clad halfbreeds, to whom he refers as his "peons"
 His language rises to iridescent heights as he describes the "so grand hacienda" and the vast acres that sur round his home. His tongue fairly drips gold as he describes the fertile land, the glorious climate and the certainty of a fortune to the lucky man who grasps the providential op- portunity.
 These gentlemen with the smooth and versatile manners invade Amer ican cities. They work very cautious ly and very quietly among the sort of people who dream of getting rich over night by some lucky speculative turn. They stop at the little out of the way hotels and tell a tale of perse- cution that accounts for their secre- tive movements.
 Talk for the Investor.
 As a rule the swarthy coloring, the Castilian accent and the photographs of the plantations. concessions, rubber groves and banana forests are all that the promoter needs in order to con vince his victims.
 "Ah, but see, senor,"" he exclaims, There is the station of the railway that is located quite near the haci- enda" As he talks he rifles through a bunch of Mexican photographs, se- lecting one now and then with much to edify his listener
 You will see that there is transporta- ton for the ulireT'is lie fruits and