Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-07-23

F1a-cisco today It is pretty to be known 10 al
the gwinal2rs over the country tomorrow.
AZ OF TIES 1.4 Lave lists of addresses OF peo-
pie who may be easily victimized These are called
sucker lists, and they are classed according 70 tne
ease with which the may be swindled- One list
may be headed hard suckers, another easy suckers
and third will take any fool thing The Dig
snindlers have their agents and branch offices scat
tered over the country whom they send instruc-
ticns and sucker lists
Take for instance C. E. Mitchell of Spokane,
Wash whom we convicted last May. He was an ex-
mining newspaper reporter, lecturer and theatrical
manager who dealt in fake mines taking in hundreds
OF thousands of dollars for stock and paying dividends
out Of the funds received. In writing one OF his
agents he said: This includes all the people who
have ever bought shares of me- give them our best
propositions and follow-up letters. am sending
YOU here letter / have Just received from Mrs
Blank. She is not heavy investor herself but has
brothers and sisters who are well healed and 1t Is
worth while to cultivate the family In another let
ter this man wrote that he had wealthy German IN
Iowa who would take $4,000 in German-American
stock if we (Mtchel) could answer his questions.
He continued: win 1? should say so! We will
make so per cent on this deal
Fake Mines.
1--WE have all sorts of fake mining swindles,'
tinued the inspector. They backed by who
send an agent to Arizona Nevada other
state of the well known for its copper, silver
gold This agent is instructed to get some land near
the gold mines and he, perhaps spends 800
buy the side of mountain He then has fraudu-
lent mining engineer make report the property,
and he may dig few holes and put up derrick
He takes out a claim and goes through all
the operations that would with legitimate enter
prise There may be some photographs taken and
money spent in printing. Then the stock is gotten
out at 81 per share and the advertisements put
in the paper. Some such schemes sold for mil
lions and then report made that the gold lead has
played out.
1T is the with rubber plantations in Mexico
many of which paid for in installments until the
time the trees supposed to come into bearing
Often the title TO such lands is good and the photo
graphs of the plantations those of other rubber
districts, perhaps not far away.
Not infrequently the who handles stock has
his ONCE in his carpet bag where he carries seal
OF the company and about from place 10 place
One man tried TO sell me 81, 900 worth of stock in
fake mining scheme. He came here to Washington
and We afterward found that he had the seal with
him and that he signed with his own hand the names
Of both secretary and president on the certificates
We had draft for $4,000 sent TO him to Chicago and
he went there straghtway to receive It, the mean
time it was directed that someone else opened IT,
You see, We never open a mans mail except by mis-
take This draft a bank which did not exist
in Chicago and We had our there to arrest him
He is now serving a term in the penitentary
Side Lights the Wireless.
1T is impossible to know how widely these fraud
schemes extend" said Inspector Sharp They swal-
low up the savings of army Officers the insurance
money OF widows and the savings Of all classes even
to the government clerks. Take the Wireless Tele-
graph company; it has cost the people millions One
OF the first evidences had OF its extent occurred
shortly after came TO Washington We had already
begun TO draw our nets around it and the Washington