The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1914-06-02
GOVERNMENT CAMPAIGN
Against Promoters of Get-Rich Quick
Schemes.

rlch-qulCk promoters who had beer
put out of business in one year had
separated their clients from seven
| ty-seven million dollars, a lagre pro
portion of which came from the
purses of credulous women. Here's
how some of the traps for the un
| wary are laid, as told by Mary Ham
[! ilton Talbot in the Ladies' World.
why" so the alluring advertise
ments read, 'scrimp and save fol
your life time for four per cent. when
you can so easily double your prin
cipal in a years time by judicious
Investments" To the innocent one
able, but she does not stop to think
that there are millions of dollars ly-
ing idle in the banks of this country
whose owners would snap at a chance
to invest them and have them double
in a years time If the investments
thus advertised were really safe you
would certainly never hear of them
Their management would certainly
send out agents when the man next
door has a million dollars to invest at
half the rate they are promising you.
The following is merely one of a
thousand experiences. A few days
ago the husband of my friend died,
leaving her with little property, but
with a life insurance policy for $4,-
600. To live in Washington on the
proceeds of that was a task, and she
knew it.
Then came the devil and tempted
her. He came in the guise of a news
paper advertisement of wonderful
and guilt-edged investment. 1t would
double her legacy in year. More
than that, it would certainly pay div
idends beyond her needs. Haste, said
the messenger of gold, was impera-
tive. She did as directed. She sent
every cent that she had except
enough to carry her for a month or
so, until the golden stream should
begin to flow. She received finely
embossed certificates in return.
In calm assurance she waited She
renewed her rental in home that
she had thought of giving up. Then,
one morning she read disaster in the
newspaper. In lurid headlines, the
tale that meant her undoing was
spread abroad to the public. The peO-
pie from whom she had bought her
stock had been raided by the United
States Government The stock itself
was named as an Out-and-Out Swindle.
Her money, she read, would never
come back.
We hear on all sides the same
stories, with variations, told over and
over again. Ten years ago an old
white-haired woman in my own fam
dad 70 mt q
money in mining stock, and each
year since she has been looking for
the dividends promised; instead she
regularly gets literature like this:
1--WE want you to read this telegram;
it contains the best news we have
yet received. 1t tells of the great
excitement out there over the dlScOV-
cry of another big vein on the prop
erty adjoining ours on the east. Our
mine manager proves that the same
series of veins cross our property"
Then follows a description OF the
work which is going on. Attached to
the letter is a type written copy of the
message from the mine manager to
the promoter on the form used Tor
night letter kilograms of the tele-
graph company. 1t is all so skillfully
gotten up that it creates the impress
sion of absolute genuineness, and how
often have | heard, after its receipt:
"Well, | guess you can't call that
fake any longer, when the mine is
in actual operation and all those
splendid veins in sight Maybe it is
no fake, but it has fooled thousands
of women into investing their money
ta rQCnltS
The widespread desire to make
some money on the side,' as well as
the attractions of being a writer,
have been played upon in the follow
ing advertisement, which can be seen
in hundreds of papers:
Learn short-stOry writing by mall
lin two weeks. Entire course only ten
dollars. You can earn fame and for
tune. Conan Doyle and Rudyard
Kipling get as high as $1,000 a story
| Address --
There are in the interior sections
of the country, and in the cities as
we'll, any number of persons who be-
/ Eeve that story-writing is an &C.
complishment that may be attained
| by following few rules, much after
! the manner that obtains in develop
| ing the muscles or making geranlums
grow in the back yard. The adver'
tisement reader probably has sue
j ceeded in accomplishing the two lat
ter. and can see no reason why per
son cannot just as easily make
good" at short-story writing. While
| it is true that these tutors-by-mall
send a booklet containing a collec
ton of hackneyed rules for short
story writing" it is also true that
ideas, originality or inspiration, al
of which are needed for success IN
this work, never enter into the ques
ton. 'It's the way it looks on the out
side, not the idea of what is in it
which counts" is the logic OF these
schemers. Aspirants for money ano
fame rush blindly into the net which
is laid for them, waste time and effor1
and money in pursuing something fol
which they have not the slightest apt
itude and of which they have not the
slightest knowledge. and are made tt
lose faith not only in the world, but
worse still, in themselves. A maya
zine editor recently revealed to me-
l. .&-w~w