Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-08-17
CITY Men ARE EASY
SwindIers Now Pass Up the
Rural DWelers.
Automobiles and Newspapers Have
Combined 70 "Put Them Wise" 70
tho ICON" Man-1own Folk
sill Fail for SWindieS.

Omaha.-Attracted by the great
prosperity OF the trans-Missouri coun.
try, an army Of sharpers and CON
men are swarming around Nebraska
farmers. But they are meeting with
mighty poor success. The ruralists
who, a few years ago, would bite" at
almost any old bunco game have be-
come so thoroughly sophisticated that
they are as wary as a jack rabbit and
Is wise as q treeful Of owls.
The lightning.rod agents are going
out Of business: the washing-machlne
statesmen who take fake receipts for
their goods are hunting other pas
lures, and the spurious nurserymen
who sell willow sprouts for grape
trees are finding that they are no Ion.
ger able to dispose Of their stock. The
farmers are wise" to their tricks.
There are still many schemes
worked on the gullible to separate
them from their money, but the guilt.
Bile ones DIRE the city men and the
men from the towns-not the farmers.
Now and then q man from the coun.
try Is buncoed out Of a few dollars,
but when the "con" nan OF the pres
ent starts out after money in big
punches he goes after the city men
and lets the farmer severely alone.
The automobiles and the newspa.
pers have worked the transformation.
Back Of the automobiles are the great
corn and wheat fields, Of course, but
the autos have put the farmers in the
suburban class everywhere and the
newspapers have taught them the
wiles Of the bunco artists.
When the Mabray gang Of swim
dlers, operating in Omaha and Council
Bluffs. cleaned up more than $1,000
900 on their bunco games it was sig
nifcant that not q single farmer was
caught by them, but that every one
Of their victims came from the cities
and larger towns.
William Hall, I farmer Of Cass coun
ty. was approached by a suave strang
er who wanted to leave a harmful Of
washing machines at Halls place and
get Halls signature to a rental con
tract while the agent was out selling
The farmer saw that the contract wa'
so worded that It became a promis
sorry note under certain conditions, 81
he had the fellow arrested.
Last summer and fall a gang wen
through the West selling wild horse
to any purchaser, the purchaser t
go down into Arizona and catch hi
horses right on the plains. Man!
thousands Of dollars were paid In Il
their treasurer, but not a single pun
chaser was able to catch one Of tn
horses he had bought. And these Eel
lows did not even attempt to sell t,
the farmers. They went after the cit.
men and the men In the small towns
They had evidently been UP agains
the farmer before.
A few years ago no farmer In Ne
braska could build a new barn with
out half a dozen lightning-rod agents
going after him. They even Offered
to put the lightning rods up almos
free Of charge in order to beat thu
other fellow. But after some Of thu
contracts turned up at the bank II
the form of sight drafts the farmer'
became suspicious. Now the light
ning-rod man a do business in tn
towns and small cities, but he CANNOT
sell a yard Of lightning rod to.
farmer. "T
The farmers have got so keen the!
can smell a %swindling scheme before
the sharper has a chance to unfolt
his scheme to them.
All these schemes are still worked
But now 1t is the man from the small
town or the foreigner who ia caugh
by them. The western farmers have
got the money, but they nc longe1
wear chin whiskers, Q do they hav'
hayseed in their hair and lizards OF
their backs. But no ICON" man cal
fool them any more. 30.