Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-11-29
Corr promising Circumstances
Of Net Handsome Returns
ever ManipulatOrs.
VICTIMS COME THROUGH
TO AVOID PUBLICITY.


United States today. More money is
being extorted through blackmail than
is being lost thievery.
A thousand expert gangs collected
hush money from the wealthy during
the last year. The total of the sums
which have been paid runs into the
millions for the prosperous year of
1915; thousands of dollars are being
paid every day.
The facts of these cases are not pub
lie; the police hear of scarcely ten per
cent of the holdups. The victims pay
to avoid publicity. A list Of only the
more recent victims would contain
many names of national prominence;
it's publication would create one OF the
greatest sensations which the country
has ever known. But it will not be
published-the names are known only
to such of us as never tell
More blackmail is going on today
than at any time within my knowl-
edge; it is not safe for man or a
woman of wealth to make chance .ac-
Quaintances in the city of New York,
or in any other of our large cities
The most innocent meetings may be
made the basis for INSCRIPTIONS de-
mands for great sums of money.
The better hotels, the winter re-
sorts, the fashionable dansants, are
filled with handsome women and well
dressed men who live, and live WELL
by prey. A considerable number OF
women and men holding licenses as
private detectives devote themselves
solely to selling the results of their
Investigations to the highest bidders;
some Of these detectives are associated
with men and women who work with
them to trap the unwary.
The war has made blackmail uu-
profitable in Europe; the wealthy
Englishman and Frenchman who con-
tribute to the gangs of London, Paris
and Monte Carlo are now uniformed
and in the trenches, safe from the lures
of the sirens; and then military gov
ernments make short shift of those
who attempt to get the sOldiery into,
trouble. The general atmosphere of
Europe being so Improbable and SO
unpleasant, many of these information
Of prosperity to New York They
have contributed their experience and.
ideas to the fund of knowledge which
home experts possessed, and the re-
suit is that blackmailing has become
finely developed, renumerative art.
The best" criminals in the world
are turning to blackmail; they find
that it is safe, needs little exertion,
and is most profitable. 1t has all the
desirable features of crime. 1t is not
game for the piker, but for the GRIM
inal who has the ability to pull off
big things in a big way. One good
job will provide enough money for
several years of high living. A few
have become so rich that they can af-
ford to be respectable
The rich woman is now the best vic
tim; the pocket bullying man with
sporting tastes, who formerly made
game for the sharps, is now seldom
used; he has learned to fight and no
blackmailer is looking for trouble
when rich women and eminently res
pectable men can be shaken down
without an effort The wealthy mar
ried man is a second choice. These
two classes are afraid of publicity
they are panic stricken at the thought
of their pictures on the front page of
newspaper as defendants in a moi
some suit.
The classes from which the great
est tribute is taken are, in the order
oot their popularity and productiveness.I
to the underworld.
/. Wealthy married women
2. Wealthy, very respectable men
with strong social and church con-
nectiOns.
3. College boys and school boys
with money in their own right or with
wealthy parents.
4. The daughters of wealthy fami-
lies.
5. Married men who go out for "a
good time" on the uiet-especially
away from home.
New York is the largest field of op-
Grafton because of the great number
of strangers and the concentration of
wealth. No one knows anyone else in
New York, and the opportunity for
making acquaintances are vastly SUI
periOr to those of other cities. But
Boston, Philadelphia Chicago, st.
Louis-in fact all of the larger cities
are the scenes of operation of more
or less magnitude.
l speak of these society blackmail-
ers as gangs, but they are not to be
confused with ordinary criminals, ex-
cept in their desire to get money with
out work. Many Of them are we'll ed
ucated or at least appear to be; they
have pleasing manners, dress we'll, and
have such general air of refinement
that people who are accustomed to
good society are taken in. They must
dance, ride, drive a motor, and be
thoroughly at home anywhere in order
to achieve the largest success. A
broken down gentleman makes bet