The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-05-26
.FONG MOON SLIPS ONE
OVER ON MR.. MASON

IL eNtTylH ilS tndi has ucNciopcu
in regard to Walter r. Mason is
put in evidence at his preliminary
hearing tomorrow it will make some
interesting testimony and will &C.
cupys good deal of the courts
time The hearing will commence
at nine O'Clock.
Postoffice Inspector Smith return
ed to st. Paul this morning, having
completed his work on the case
against Mason, and it is possible
that the next federal grand jury
will be asked to return an indict-
ment against the man on the charge
of using the United States mails to
defraud. Ii seems to be cOnclusively
shown that Mason and John Long
are the same individual. Mason
played the part of DR.. Jekyl and Mr..
Hyde, seemingly, in his effort to
do" the Chinaman, Fong Moon. AS
Mason, he was writing letters for
Fong Moon, proprietor of the local
Chinese laundry, and as John Long
he was swindling him, if the evil
ueHct tndt mas come 10 lSHl Is 10
be believed.
Wrote Letters for Moon.
Mason wrote some letters for Fong
Moon during the winter and got
into his good graces and learned
that he was buying laundry soap,
rice and other supplies in large
quantities, and informed him that
he had a friend named John Long
who travelled for the American Sup
ply company of Minneapolis, which
was the largest house of the kind
and dealt in these goods, he said.
He thought that he could get the
goods for about half what Moon had
been paying. Moon pricked up his
ears at this, and had him write to
John Long. In due time a letter
came back, signed John Long" and
saying that this was the time to-
buy, as the company was having a
reduced sale and would sell very
cheap, but would not like to take
the time to ship the goods until
the sale was over.
Moon then sent check to Long,
at Owatonna, but it came back with
the request that money order be
sent instead. Moon did not like to
60 to the extra expense of getting
the money order, but finally did,
and John Long got it cashed at the
postoffice. Edward W. Springer,
clerk in the postoffice there, yester-
bot 10
Mason as the party who got the
money under the name of John
Long.
Wanted Further Orders.
Mason kept at Moon personally
and through letters signed as John
Long, to place further orders while
che sale lasted, it is said, and this
Moon did from time to time, and
says that he sent six remittances
an all, amounting to $135, but Post
office Inspector Smith has been able
20 find but three money orders. He
thinks that the others must have
been checks. Mason, personally and
as Long, kept "stringing" Moon
along on one pretext or another, it
is said, to keep him satisfied in the
absence of the goods arriving.
Moon would get letters three or
four times week from Long,
mailed from LeSueur and Owatonns.
Once after the goods were supposed
10 have been shipped and had not
come, Long wrote that they were
in a freight wreck at Montgomery
and would have to be sent back to
the house to be reboxed and clean
ed up. 1t is needless to say that
the goods never came. The Ameri-
can Supply company does not exist,
according to Mr.. Smith.
"Lons" Had Scheme.
Finally, Mason found Moon so
easy that he seems to have planned
on extending his work among the
Chinese laundrymen of the north
west, and, according to Postoffice
Inspector Smith, he wrote out a
form of recommendation for him.
self and asked Moon to rewrite it
in the Chinese language, so that he
could use it with other Cinnamon.
ms Recommendation redu some
thing like this: This is good man.
He sells goods cheap and is good
man to deal with. l have done
business with him, and found him
to be a good man. You better buy
goods of him, too"
But by this time Moon had had
great white light streak across his
oriental mind. He had taken
tumble" in United States language.
Then his mind got to working in
the way that Bret Hart character
ICED when he wrote: For ways that
are dark and tricks that are vain
the heather Chinee is peculiar"
Slipped One Over on Mason.
Instead of copying the recommen-
dation into Chinese, Moon wrote one
in Chinese of just the opposite i'm
port, reading something like this:
This is bad man. He says
he sells goods cheap, but they
don't come. | have done bust
ness with him and found him
bad man. was stung. You
better pass him up"