The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1915-08-19
CITY MEN ARE EASY
SWindIerS Now Pass Up the
Rural DWeIIers.
Automobiles and Newspapers Have
Combined to "Put Them Wise" to
the Soon" Man-Town Folk
Still Fall for SWindles.

Omaha.-Attracted by the great
try, an army of sharpers and ICON"
men are swarming around Nebraska
farmers. But they are meeting with
mighty poor success. The ruralists
who, few years ago, would bite" at
almost any old bunco game have be-
come so thoroughly sophisticated that
they are as wary as Jack rabbit and
as wise as a treeful Of owls.
The lightning-rod agents are going
out of business; the washing-machine
statesmen who take fake receipts for
their goods are hurting other pas.
lures, and the spurious nurserymsn
who sell willow sprouts for grape
trees are finding that they are no lon.
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 gull.
bic ones are the city men and the
men from the towns-not the farmers.
try is buncoed out of a few dollars,
but when the "con" man 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 S1,OOO,.
900 on their bunco games it was sig'
nificant that not a single farmer was
caught by them, but that every one
of their victims came from the cities
and larger towns.
William Hall, farmer of Cass coun
ty, was approached by suave strang
er who wanted to leave a harmful OF
washing machines at Halls place and
get Halls signature to rental con
tract while the agent was out selling
The farmer saw that the contract was
so worded that it became promis
sorry note under certain conditions, SO
he had the fellow arrested.
Last summer and fall a gang went
through the West selling wild horses
to any purchaser, the purchaser to
go down into Arizona and catch his
horses right on the plains. Many
thousands of dollars were paid in to
their treasurer, but not a single pur
chaser was able to catch one of the
horses he had bought. And these fel
lows did not even attempt to sell to
the farmers. They went after the city
men and the men in the small towns
A few years ago no farmer in Ne
braska could build 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 the
other fellow But after some of the
contracts turned up at the bank iI
the form of sight drafts the farmers
became suspicious. Now the light
ning-rod man can do business in the
towns and small cities, but he cannot
sell a yard of lightning rod to
farmer.
The farmers have got so keen they
can smell swindling scheme before
the sharper has a chance to unfold
his scheme to them.
All these schemes are still worked,
But now it is the man from the smaR
town or the foreigner who is caught
by them. The western farmers have
got the money, but they no longei
wear chin whiskers, nor do they have
hayseed in their hair and lizards on
their backs. But no ICON" man can
fool them any more