East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-05-04
SPANISH PRISONER
STORY ONCE MORE
BROUGHT TO LIGHT
According to Account He is Still
Lingering in His Dungeon Cell
Beautiful Daughter Waits.
LOCAL MAN RECEIVES LETTER
Opportunity Offered Wesley n. Mat
lock to play the Prince Charming
at Cost OF Few Hundred Dollars
old Fraud Is Getting Aged But
Still Lingcrs Along.

The Spanish prisoner" still fingers
in his dungeon cell and his beautiful
daughter, Mercedes, is still waiting to
give herself and her golden pesos to
whomsoever will break the chains of
her imprisoned sire Wesley n.
Matlock of this city is the latest citi-
zen of Umatilla county to be given an
opportunity to pursue the rain bows
gleam and, though his has ever been
an adventurous heart, he refuses to
be lured by the chance to be a bene-
factor, by the money bags or even by
the star-eyed Spanish senorita.
The timehonored swindle has run its
course in this part of the country.
Time was when the foreign-stamped
letters begging assistance to liberate
the old don from the donjon and to
assume the guardianship of his daugh-
ter and her wealth wrung dollars
from creduious local people but the
fraud has been exposed so often in
the newspapers that nowadays the
missiyes no longer cause the heart of
the recipient to flutter. his philan-
thropic soul TO expand and his imag-
ination to wander to the days of peace
and plenty. They only provoke smile
and the letter is filed away with 9TH
Ell relics.
Everyone knows the story of the
Spanish prisoner" Sometimes 1t va
ries a little but its general trend is
the same. A nobleman of Spain has
been imprisoned falsely put with a
few hundred dollars spent in the right
direction he can be liberated. You, IL
you happen to receive the letter. are
sometimes told that you are distant
relative of the prisoner or sometimes
he has heard that you are a man of
generous impulses. II you will send
the dollars, he promises that you shall
not be the loser thereby. for he has
a regular Rockefeller treasure bu-
ried in secret place. In fact it is
this buried treasure that has resulted
in his Incarceration. lie will gladly
share this with you as soon as re-
leased. or else he appeals to you
through his beautiful daughter. Mer-
cedes. left through his Imprisonment
without a guardian. She is an heir
ess and you will get to keep part OF
her wealth and TO handle all of It.
IL you rise to the bait and send the
money. you live for awhile between
blissful anticipation and uneasy inn
patienct The bliss ultimately gives
way to the uneasiness and in time you
awake to the fact that you were
"stung," Sometimes your chagrin
prompts you to bury the memory and
be game loser and sometimes your
sense of loss prompts you to report
the matter to the authorities. In eth
er case your money is gone and you
are entitled to membership in the
Suckers Club
Thousands of these fraudulent let
ters have been sent broadcast
throughout the United States and
every once In awhile a dupe is found
Some of the swindlers have been
caught and prosecuted but others rise
to take their place.
Mr.. Matlock, who received a letter
last week, is "wise" to the gag and
the visions of wealth and beauty he
knows are but illusions. Anyway he
figures that the gentle Mercedes must
be confirmed spinster by this time
and faded belle for quarter of a
century ago she was in the first flush
of youth.