Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-01-06
GERMAN BANKERS
ARE VIC1|M|zED
SPANISH SWlNDlE IN NEW GUISE
is PERFORATED ON
THEM

IS PERFORATED ON
THEM
p. T. 1arnum's OFT Quoted Remark
Anent the Sucker, is Still More
Forcibly Proven.
When genial P. T. Barnum lounged
near the menagerie cages of his cir
Gus and chuckled to himself. There's
a sucker born every minute" he must
have been gifted momentarily with
second sight. The state papers for
the past year have been containing
articles with remarkable degree of
frequency exploiting the old Spanish
swindle, which some smooth and sWar-
thy resident of old Madrid has been
trying to perpetrate upon the thrifty
North Dakotans Only few days
ago the governor received letter
from a prominent merchant in the
central portion of the state, enclosing
a Spanish swindle communication,
and asking what he should do VIA
it
1t is with relief that the attention of
the criminologists is turned at the
present to the German empire. The
Germans are stolid race. They are
deliberate in their procedure and it
is with surprise that Americans read
of leading Berlin merchants being VIC
Z timized by the Spanish swindle game
in a new guise. Some one has said
that the people will believe any old
fairy tale if you are clever in dress
ing it up." Some one needs a DRESS
ing down. as the following item to an
eastern paper from it's Berlin cores.
pondent will testify:
Several of Eerlin's large financial
firms have recently fallen victims to
an ingenious swindie of somewhat
unusual nature. Some time ago these
firms each received a communication
from Kief, or some other Russian city,
purporting to be written on behalf of
a highly placed" Russian ecclesiastic
and making the following suggestions:
The ecclesiastic, it was said, was
the father of child for which he
wished to make provision. He de.
sired to assure to the child one mil
lion rubles ($5OO,OOO), which, how
ever, was only to be paid at the ex-
piration of ten years time or in case of
his own death occurring in the mean
time The ecclesiastic had some qualms
about depositing the money in Russia.
therefore Desired to entrust it %
some German firm of good repute un.
der the following conditions: He
would place in the hands of the firm a
million rubles of which the firm was
to have the use free of all interest or
tax, in return the firm was to give
a promissory note, drawn In the
childs favor and payable ten years
hence, or on the intervening death of
the ecclesiastic. If the firm was will
ing to consider the proposition it was
requested that trustworty employe
acquainted with the Russian language
should be sent to Kief to arrange the
matter with the highly placed &C.
clesiastics legal representative.
Despite the somewhat improbable
and mysterious nature of the prop
posal. several of the large Berlin
firms fell into the trap and sent their
representatives to the appointed meet
ing place in Russia, armed with full
power of attorney to carry out the
transaction, here they were met by
the alleged representative of the &C.
clesiastic and although the negotia-
tons at first presented difficulties,
everything was finally settled, and
the legal representative arranged with
the employees of each firm, (all un-
known to one another) to call upon
him at various times to receive the
million rubles and hand over the pro-
missory note.
A note for the amount of million
rubles. however. requires a govern
ment stamp of 500 rubles ($3,750)
and this stamp. which can be obtained
at any revenue Office, the employees
were instructed to bring with them
to the final rendezvous. This they
did each Berlin representative APP
pearing with his $3.50 stamp at the
appointed hour. The legal represen'
tative of the ecclesiastic took the
stamp and sat down, apparently to
fill in the required particulars in the
promissory note. but suddenly inter-
rupted his writing to leave the room
for a moment, on some pretext, TAX
ing the stamp with him.
OF course. he did not return, but
taking the stamp to the nearest rev.
enue Office returned it unused, re-
ceiving in exchange the full value,
less a fractional deduction. The en-
ployes of the different Berlin firms
have now returned to Germany, each
minus $3.50 and two countries are
busily engaged trying to locate the
legal represeI tative of highly placed
Russion ecclsiastic"
Wireless telegraphy clearly ex
planned and demonstrated at Presby-
terrain church lecture Monday night.