Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1912-06-13

IN Winter y 8ouu tatu VIII p"t tNo1o
portions under water knee deep for
weeks at time. The other portions
never come out.
The whole OF this 10 surrounded
by higher land. making 1t a vast
shallow basin that would be a lake
II It were not a sponge. OF course.
the idea is to drain the Everglades.
and the state is now at work dig
cling trenches up from the sea In
5000 square miles Of territory. IL
seems foolish. Eight thousand SQUARE
miles of level water. no portion OF
IL more than twenty feet above the
tide. and all one vast sponge OF en-
tangling saw-grass marshes and cy-
press swamps. The idea Of people
buying It seems ridiculous. But
when one sees, as has occurred In
the last few years, thousands OF
Northern men buying this land at
fancy prices per acre in the fond
belief that 1t will soon be drained
and tit for cultivation, he begins
to think that people have no sense
of humor and very little OF any
other kind.
Florida is not the only place where
this scheme has been worked or can
be worked. There are many other
places that have been used for land
frauds for the last fifty years, and
for that very reason they are all the
more useful today to those who wish
to make use Of them to swindle
their fellow men. There is Arizona,
for example. There are hundreds OF
acres there that can be bought cheap
and sold to human beings in the
North and East for fabulous sums
ON the expectation that the land Will
soon be irrigated. To be sure, the
land is SO high that the only way
1t could be irrigated would be from
the moon. But people won't go TO
see it until after they have bought
1t. Or If you like, you can sell land
on Long Island which is only on Long
Island when the tide is out. The
public will fall for any easy propo-
sition so long as 1t isn't new.
Starkloff and Potter were two
clever swindlers recently caught
Their game was to get a victim to-
look at some isolated tract of land,
bringing his money with him las an
evidence of good faith"
When their victim started for town
they would meet him at some lonely
place on the road and after making
sure that he had the money, would
snatch It from him with all the crude
violence of reckless highwaymen.
Then, mounting horses concealed
nearby, they would ride away.
The two were also adopts at the
green-good game offering to sell
farmers $4,000 in counterfeits for
$1,000. The swindle which caused
their Indictment was worked often
by them in England, where the
amount Of money which wealthy
people leave when they die is pub
lished in the newspapers. Starkloff,
under an assumed name. would write
from New York to deceased per-
sons heir saying that he had been
commissioned by wealthy Color
ado miner, who the dead man had
once befriended, to turn over to
them hugh block of gold.
This generally would bring their
victim to this country to get the
bullion. Starkloff would meet him
and introduce him to Potter, who
posed as a mine owner, from whom
the man would be persuaded to buy
a sailed mine. When the man re-
turned to England he would receive
a letter from Starkloff or Potter,
telling him to say nothing about It,
because he would merely show him
self up as a fool. The letter was
meant to make the dupe keep silent,
and, strange as it may seem, it had
that effect in most every case.
How Potter and Starkloff swind-
led a philadelphia in a hotel In
Belgium became known when they
we're indicted last year. Starkloff
scraped up an acquaintance with the
prospective dupe, and one day as they
were chatting in the hotel lobby,
the swtndler picked up a satchel
near by. saying that its owner had
apparently either lost or forgotten
it, and that, they ought to keep It
until his return. A few minutes la
ter Potter rushed in, and searched
for the satchel, which he said con-
tanned valuable papers. On receiv-
ing it Potter was pr0fuse in thanks,
and the three had some drinks to-
:.