Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-19
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY.

Victims OF mall order 1raucS SeIoom
protest.
1t is only through the watchfulness Of
the post Office inspectors that the per-
petrators are brought to justice.
This is true especially. 1t is learned
at the office of the solicitor Of the Post
Office Department. in cases of medical
frauds, where sick persons not only will
furnish glowing testimonials for the
most ludicrous nostrums, but actually
will testify on the witness stand that
they have been the beneficiaries of
miracles. So the authorities discount
such testimony entirely and consider
only expert medical and pharmaceutical
witnesses.
Covering a Range of Maladies.
An outstanding case was that of the
doctor who advertised nostrums
covering almost the entire range OF hu-
man maledies. He supplied mixture
of one-fourth alcohol, one-fourth water
and one-half olive oil varied with vege-
table oils to suit different conditions.
Thus this mixture with trace OF spear
mint and Glove was advertised as an III
fallable cure for cancer, tumor, ade-
noids, asthma, catarrh. goiter end
typhoid. With Glove and peppermint it
was guaranteed to cure stomach trouble.
black plague and leprosy. With Glove
and anise it was infallable against
eczema, pimples and smallpox: with
spicuard, against insanity, fits, paralysis,
meningitis. mad dog and snake bites:
with cinnamon. anise and Glove. against
blindness, cataract and deafness.
The prescription was one full bottle
once week, swallowed all at once. 1t
u-nr11d n1ala naIjant nfar sanity
drunk whose stomach was able to hold
the texture of olive oil and alcohol.
The prescriptions, the doctor" said,
has been revealed to him in vision.
Our medicine 49," he declared, will
actually grow new eyes in heads where
they have run out"
How can medicine grow new eye
where the surgeon has taken one out?'
he was asked at the hearing.
Blood Making Eyes.
when you were born into this world
you had two eyes didn't you?" he re-
piled. We'll, your mother gave you your
eyes with her blood didn't She? Now
I don't see why your blood wouldn't
make another eye 1t 1t was good. There
are only two ways of making an eye,
one with glass and one with blood.
is not better than mine because there's
nothing in either of them that hasn't
been made with blood"
And he actually produced witness
who said that she had been born blind
but that she felt the doctors medicine
was growing new eyes in her head"
But the fraud order was issued just
the same Not only in fake medicines,
but in land. oil stocks and nearly every
thing else victims seem to demand the
right to be swindled. The person who
has been cheated once IS easiest TO
cheat again, according to fraud experts
In the Office of the solicitor of the Post
ONCE Department. and sucker list
Is valuable bit of property. Thus one
oil stock promoter. now in jail, devoted
years of labor and a great deal OF
money to securing such list OF 3o0,0O0
names. It included practically every one
who ever had bought any fake Oil STOCK
in the past. He figured that they were
the easiest to sell again"
Letters as Key TO Honesty"
A Washington man, who had been
mulcted out of the savings OF a lite-
time in oil stock schemes. recently call
ed at the solicitors office to protest
against fraud order which actually
had saved for him a small part of his
investment out of the wreckage. He ad-
mitted that all the evidence was against
the company and that they had no as
sets and no prospects to back the enor-
nous amour of stock they had placed
oh the market. :,
But" he said, mo man who was dis
honest, could write such nice letters"
Another man called to inquire ABOUT
the status OF a cheap oil stock Whlcn
he had bought from some wildcat orok-
ers He was paying for 1t on the IN
records showed that this company had
been put out of business by fraud or
der several years before. But he was
still hard to convince.
AS he turned to leave he remarked
doubtfully: Maybe I'd better stop pay
ing on this stock, but Til think 1t over.
The Post Office Department made its
big drive against fake oil stock pro-
moters In 1923, with the result that the
worst offenders i'll the Texas snd Ar
kansas fields were put out OF business
and sent to jail. Since then there has
not been great deal of this type OF
swindling. But now the jail terms are
expiring and there has been consider
able revival AS a result, large force
of inspectors Is working from the Fort
Worth Office.
Prohibition Swindles.
Prohibition has brought its share of
mail-order swindles, headed by that in
genious Canadian who offered two
quarts of guaranteed Canadian rye sent
by mail for So" He fulfilled his con-
tracts to the letter. His customers
could do their own distilling.
A succession of fraud orders has been
issued against swindlers in Cuba, Ger
many, France and Austria. advertising
solid liquor by mail-that is. tablets
which could be dissolved In water. One
Austrian firm offered capsules, which,
according to the amount Of water used
would produce whisky. brandy, gin
grog, Madeira, malaga. Mosel, port
Rhine, sherry or tokay."
The primary objection Is not that the
prohibition law is being violated, but
that it isn't. If solid liquor" was g
possibility 1t would be the subject Of