Evening star., 1922-05-07

to keep free Of the walls. Finally
played leading hand in a big fake
Investment business and cleaned up
a small fortune. With this he bouEhr
partnership In Wall street curb
house. which hAa made progress un-
ocr his schemlnH and the conserva-
tive. restraints Of an able partner,
Today he Is more than moderately
rich, married. settled and probably
straight for life. Tho ablest and the
most Objectionable man of the three.
And a success.
But the moso triumphant Of these
three does not yet approach the estate
OF some confidence men. There are
In too many high seats fellows who
have made their piles by utterly
gradulent dealings and false pre-
tension and intention. But their op-
erations were so we'll draped with
respectability that the public has
never recognized them as simple
swindlers. To mention the name. OF
some of these greater rogues would
be TO excite violent protest, yet their
schemes were of the common order
and would have brought them to
common disaster IL operated by less
able brains and skillful hands. Some
Of these efficient one were, to my
certain knowledge. the early part
ners. associates and pupils Of other
men who wear notorious names and
have populated the prisons. A good
deal of this has to be accepted on
the bare assertion of the writer.
Names are not to be used.
Here lies the fundamental trouble
in arguing the question. The pub
lie hears the names of the failures
only. One knows DR.. John Grant
Lyman, because he came to grief and
went to prison. One knows the
debonair Doc Waterbury for the same
reason. and the rather blnndering
Doc Owens. One hears continually
of the Gondorfs. because they have
been repeatedly in the clutch OF the
law and sometimes in prison. One
is familiar with confidence men who
have written their recollections, be-
cause they failed, needed money and
found it expedient to get 1t for tell
ing part of what they know.
But one never hears the names Of
the successes-and one judges only
by what one knows.
THE fact seems to be that the rules
Of life apply themselves in the
same way to those who keep and
those who break the law. II some
worldly master were to select at ran
dom. hundred each from the youth
OF an old list-rich men. poor men.
beggars. thieves. doctors, lawyers.
merchants, chiefs-he would probably
find in tho end about the same equa-
tion in all classes. Eighty failures.
seventeen or eighteen assorted
mediocrities and two or three sue
cesses-that would probably be the
ratio. among the respectable as among
the thieves.
becomes of the money of the failures
among swindlers? 1t is often said.
and with much truth, that every gam
bier has a weakness for gambling, a
patent fact. upon reflection. Every
physician has a weakness for medi-
cine and every writer for writing.
So every cheat and swindler has a
weakness for the fraudulent and un-
real, for the glitter and the display.
for the fruitless vanities.
The thief or cheat is man who
wants things too exigently to respect
the prohibitions Of society. He wants
not the money but what II gets him
And IL he is q fraud himself and thus
q lover Of the fraudulent. 1t is not
hard to discover where his earnings
go. The show of resort places. the
tinsel Of expensive hotels. the de-
mands Of unreal and hyper-expensive
women, the reputation Of open-hand-
edness-all these absorb his fortunate
profits and send him on into less
pleasant adventure.
Ill-got gains and well-got gains
stay or ny. according to the tempera-
ment Of the getter. The mystery
does not lie In the good or evil OF
men but in their brains and nerves.