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After these, the huge powers of the land, cleansed states,
counties
and cities must join the Augean stable-cleaning, for graft
is
everywhere. The fight against graft is only beginning, and it will
end
only when a new generation learns that honor is above money, and
that
"grafting" is the most disreputable form of theft.
WHOLESALE
SWINDLING GRAFTERS.
A chain of stores in various cities for no other
purpose than the
obtaining of goods under false pretenses from wholesale
merchants is
the latest novelty in the swindling line. It has often been
remarked
that the originators of plans to dupe the public might coin
their
brains into cash without nearly the draft upon their originality
that
is called for by the devising of a swindling game. But the
criminal
instinct or incentive seems to lay its hold upon persons who
might
otherwise fill a leading and respected place in honorable
avocations.
The men who conceived the system of credit for goods to the value
of
many thousands of dollars, which they quickly disposed of in
different
cities by auction and attractive sales, closing up their stores
and
decamping when they had converted the credited stock into cash,
were
swindlers of unusual calibre.
The police of several cities now
have the task of unearthing the
frauds and bringing them to justice. They may
or may not succeed in
so doing, as the scheme was craftily laid and carried
out. A harvest
of $100,000 as the returns for a daring exploitation of the
credit
system will be regarded, even by the gilt-edged among the
robbing
fraternity, as a fine stroke of craftsmanship. The ingenuity of
these
cormorants calls for constant readjustment of honest persons to
the
conditions created. The lesson of the so-called bargain-house
fraud
will be conned, and for a long time to come it may be
practically
impossible for the same scheme to be worked again. But the
feature of
such enterprises is that they are designed only for the one
operation.
After that they become worthless to their
originators.
RELIGIOUS GRAFT PAYS.
"Fake" religion as a
business may have a fanciful sound, but there are
plenty of men, and women,
too, in this day and age who have found it
to be an extremely practical,
well-paying proposition. The readiness
with which a good share of the people
are always anxious to receive
any new religion, or an old religion revamped
in new fashion, makes
the road of the charlatan whose trade is the
promulgation of a fake
religion one strewn with roses and money. Women are
principally his
victims, although there are plenty of men with a penchant for
adopting
strange religions, and from them the faker manages to reap a
harvest
that makes the pay of the average minister look like the earnings
of
an office boy. While the manner of securing money through the cloak
of
a false new sect is generally so hidden that the votaries of the
cult
are never aware of its existence until after their leader is
exposed,
the main object is never lost sight of by the leader, and the
main
object is always, "Get the money."
Out of the great mass of
religions or NEW THOUGHT sects started each
year in this country, it is
declared that but extremely few are
started with any idea other than that of
separating a lot of people
from their money. Occasionally there is a man who
sincerely believes
that he has discovered something new and precious in the
way of a
religion, and establishes a cult with the motive only to help
people
according to his own lights. But the mass of the new religions,
sun
worshipers, psychists, Brahmins, Hindus, theosophists, mystics,
etc.,
are promoted with the same object in view as that of the old
negro
voodoo doctors--get the money.
FINANCIAL YIELDS ARE
LARGE.
The financial yields of the new religions are incomparably higher
than
is the voodoo man's gain. His followers, who believe in black art
and
other foolish, old-fashioned things, are nearly always drawn from
the
poorer, even the indigent classes--classes that have but little
to
spend, even on a religion. But the East Indian religionist, or the
sun
worshiper, draws his clientele from the better classes, and his
followers
have the money to reward him in a way that is astounding.
He dabbles not with
the poor--neither, it must be confessed, entirely
with the ignorant. His
victims come from the upper walks of life,
sometimes from near the top, and
their name is legion.
There is a Hindu who has now left this country to
go back to spend the
rest of his days in luxurious idleness, the while
chuckling over the
gullibility of the smart American people, who came here
with a new
religion and made a fortune.
This man was an educated,
cultured man of high caste. Sent at an early
age to England to attend school,
he returned to his native country at
the age of 28, wise in the things of two
worlds, that of his own and
that of the occidentals. For a while he buried
himself in the native
life of a loathsome colony of Fakers. There he learned
much of their
religious style by rote, and, putting this along with a
smattering of
Buddhism, psychology and sun worship, he managed to appear in
America
with a new religion, fairly reeking with the essentials required
by
those who want mysticism served along with their religious
beliefs.
MYSTICISM DRAWS MANY CONVERTS.
He had a new god, a
new heaven and forty different and distinct ways
of torturing one's self
while worshiping his deity. Mortifying
the flesh through fasting and
self-denial, torturing one's self by
standing with the hands above the head,
etc., all were included in the
new creed, besides such things as astral
bodies and the other things
that go with a new religion. He first held forth
in a sumptuously
furnished city flat, where he managed to draw to him a small
gathering
of the select who love to dabble in mysterious oriental
affairs.
The flat was a dream in itself, and when to it was added a
tall,
ascetic young Hindu, with the look of the fanatic burning
brightly
in his eyes, and mystic rites of a religious nature, the effect
was
irresistible; at least it proved to be to those foregathered under
the
tutelage of the young oriental. There were incense burnings and
incantations
galore. At first these things did not cost anything.
No. The young mystic was
simply working for the enlightenment of the
world, working to spread light
into the stygian darkness of the old
and false dogmas and
creeds.
After those who flocked to his standard had been so thoroughly
imbued
with the sincerity of his teachings that his word was law to
them,
the money question came to the fore. He, the missionary,
wanted
nothing for himself--oh, no. But there was need for funds for
the
establishment of the cult in India. A school and home must be
founded
for the young devotees of the new religion in that country, a
place
where they could go and live and be trained in the tenets of the
creed
and prepared to go out in the world and teach. And it was for
this
that the Hindu had come to this country, to permit the chosen
ones
here to acquirement with the new deity by subscribing to the
school
fund.
Since the beginning of things, when man first beheld the
sun and bowed
humbly before it, it has been the custom to heap offerings on
the
altar of worship. So the Hindu went back with funds enough to
start
half a dozen schools if he had been at all inclined that way, which
he
wasn't, and the people who were his followers are still living in
the
hope that he will return.
AMERICAN FAKER GETS THE
COIN.
Then there is another kind of charlatan, the American
fake
religionist, of which, perhaps, there are just as many as of
the
foreigners with the weird doctrines of the orient. This type of
faker
is coarse compared with the soft-shod, incense-burning Hindu, but
he
"gets the money" without much trouble. He is generally a ranter
as far as
preaching goes. His methods are those of the shouter, his
religion includes
visitation of spirits, shaking of bodies and other
manifestations of divine
power. He boldly asks for contributions, not
for a school to be established
for the training of missionaries for
his faith, but for the furtherance of
his own work right here in this
country.
"It takes money to fight the
devil," is a favorite cry with this type
of sacrilegist. The stronghold of
the religious faker is that the
people who follow him believe in him
implicitly. One faker recently
proclaimed himself the son of God, come to
revisit earth, and, when
assailed by a paper for it, stood up in an audience
of his believers
and asked them who they thought him to be and how they
regarded him.
The answer was that he was the son of God, and his mission was
to
save all mankind from sin. It is obvious that, when a man with such
a
hold on a clique asks for money, it is sure to be forthcoming
without
question. At times he does not have to ask for it, one man of
this
kind having had money showered upon him at a meeting by the
hysterical
women of his flock.
FAITH IN CHARLATAN
STRONG.
This man has operated in at least four sections of this country,
has
served a term in state's prison for alienating a wife's
affections
along with the husband's money, has been driven out of two towns
by
angry husbands; but now he is again in possession of a following
which
believes implicitly that through him, and through him only, is
it
possible to obtain eternal salvation.
In appearance this man is a
human shark, long-faced, thin of jaw and
nose, and with a mouth that is
nothing but a straight line cut in the
face. In repose he might be taken for
a shyster lawyer, but when he
begins to speak and the artificial frenzy is
burning in him it is easy
enough to see why impressionable women may be drawn
to him. Even a
strong-willed man, observing his actions and the degree of
enthusiasm
in him, is apt to feel that he can be nothing other than sincere
in
his beliefs. But, if he is sincere, his sincerity runs only
towards
making of his beliefs a good business proposition, and avarice is
one
of his strongest points.
The persistency with which women will
take up and practice the
cruelest of religious customs is evidenced by the
manner in which a
Chicago girl tortured and starved herself to death in an
effort to
obtain salvation through the mortification of the flesh. She was
not
of an ignorant type, either, as might be imagined, but fairly
well
educated and extremely intelligent, with running to
intellectuality.
But the thrall of a new religion got her in its power, and,
believing
she was sinful, she strove to cast out her sins and died in
the
attempt.
It is seldom that pernicious practices of religion fakers
carry
persons to this extreme, but deranged mentalities, wrecked homes
and
depleted pocketbooks are of such frequent occurrence as to merit
a
wholesale crusade against this type of fraud, even without raising
the
question of religious scruples.
PAWN TICKETS ON
DIAMONDS.
Another instance: Some working man or washing woman, having
saved up
a little money for a rainy day, reads an alluring advertisement in
a
newspaper that a party was looking for a small loan on valuable
family
jewelry and diamonds. The interest offered is much higher than
that
allowed by any savings bank. Diamonds, as everybody knows, are
just
as good as money and offer perfect security. In hopes of profiting
a
little more on their savings, such prospective victims respond to
the
advertisement. The party looking for the loan appears to be a
well-dressed,
smoothly-talking man, who represents himself to be the
scion of a wealthy or
aristocratic family temporarily in hard luck. He
produces a pawn shop ticket,
on the face of which appears that some
pawn broker had advanced on certain
diamonds a large sum of money, say
$500.
[Illustration:
Two
minds with but a single thought;
Two heads that beat us
all.
]
Now, it is a matter of common knowledge that pawn brokers know
their
business, and that no pawn broker would advance more than
one-third,
or, at the highest, one-half of the actual value of the
articles
pledged. It is that common belief which the swindler makes, as
it
were, the psychic basis for his operations. The victim having
once
jumped at the conclusion that the diamonds offered as security must
be
worth at least $1,000 or thereabouts, the rest becomes
easy.
VICTIM ANXIOUS FOR INTEREST.
The victim naturally
considers a further loan on such diamonds of $200
or $250 a desirable risk.
The offer of 10 per cent or more interest on
the loan is another allurement
which makes the transaction still more
desirable. The pawn broker recognizes
his ticket, and the diamonds,
when redeemed, turn out to be worth
considerably less than the amount
which the broker was supposed to have
advanced on them. The victim
loses some more by redeeming the
diamonds.
Complaints by such victims have been coming thick and fast into
the
state's attorney's office in Chicago and other large cities.
The
conspiracy between the swindler and his accomplice, the pawn
broker,
is almost self-evident. In some instances indictments have
been
returned against the perpetrators of the fraud, but the
prosecution
could not succeed. The reason is obvious. On the face of
the
transaction everything seemed to be regular, and the defendants
could
not be made criminally responsible for an erroneous conclusion
arrived
at by the victims as to the business sagacity of the pawn broker
or
the probable value of the diamonds. And yet who would doubt, in view
of
the many identical complaints, that the plans in connection with
the
fraudulent transaction had been laid carefully in pursuance of a
conspiracy
to defraud the public?
NEW LAW BADLY NEEDED.
On the civil side
of legal practice there is the writ of injunction
to prevent threatened
irreparable injury to property by one person to
another. But in case of
organized fraud upon the public in general our
modern legislatures have not
yet grown to the proper appreciation of
the wise and ancient saying that
comes from the orient, "The rat hole,
not the rat, is the thief." Our laws
punish the thief when caught, but
leave the "hole" intact and ready to give
shelter to other "rats."
The authorities may know well the fraudulent
character of a concern
organized and existing for the express purpose of
fleecing the public,
and yet, in the absence of a complaining victim, they
are absolutely
helpless and unable to prevent victims from being ensnared by
that
concern.
Suppose the legislature would enact a law making it a
felony for
persons to set in operation any scheme to defraud the public and
fix
adequate punishment for such offense, would not such a law enable
the
authorities to anticipate and prevent a great deal of that
misery
which is caused by organized frauds of all kinds and descriptions,
to
a class of people that least can afford it?
POSTAGE STAMP
GRAFTER.
The postage stamp grafter is one of the most pestiferous of
the
"toucher" genus. He bobs up in offices, on the streets, in
hotel
lobbies, everywhere and at all times. Here is the song he
sings:
"I'm broke, mister, but I don't want any money. I am
looking for work and have just answered an ad. in the
paper, but, to
tell the truth, I have only got a nickel,
and if I break that to buy a
postage stamp I can't get a
cup of coffee. Just a 2-cent stamp is all I
ask."
It is too small a request to refuse, and besides there is a
chance
that the fellow may be telling the truth. Anyway, it is only a
stamp.
You produce the stamp, and may give the "toucher" several stamps
so
that he can answer more advertisements for work. A half day of
industry at
this scheme gives any competent "toucher" enough stamps
to buy a little food,
a good deal of drink and a night's lodging.
There is no difficulty in
disposing of stamps thus collected, for the
salonkeepers and others that buy
them--sometimes at a discount--know
they have been given, and not
stolen.
"You are the third man that has tackled me for a stamp today,"
said
a man in the lobby of a downtown hotel recently to a young man
who
"wanted to answer an advertisement for work." "Here, give me
the
letter; I'll stamp and mail it."
Whereupon, to use the vernacular
of his kind, the young man made a
sensational "getaway" via the side
entrance.
Akin to the postage stamp scheme is the one of "touching" for
three or
some other odd number of pennies to make up the amount necessary
"to
send a telegram home for money." The "toucher" in this case
usually
admits frankly that he came to Chicago and got drunk, spending
all
his money. For victims he picks the men that look like they
might
sympathize with a fellow in his predicament.
THE CLERK
GRAFTER.
It may or may not be so that a sucker is born every minute.
Doubt as
to the exactness of this has been expressed, the consensus of
opinion
being that the average runs higher than Barnum's estimate. But as
to
the natural increase of devious and various ways for making, or
trying
to make, suckers out of the world's inhabitants there can be little
or
no just doubt. A new one is born every time the old one gets
stale.
Here is the latest:
The scene of operation, which is guaranteed
to be harmless when
performed, but sure to be painful when the reaction sets
in, is a
small office, store, or shop, any place where the total number
of
employees is small.
Preferably it is a place where a young woman
stenographer, clerk, or
other worker is employed, and, preferably, the
stenographer, clerk,
etc., is of pleasing and attractive appearance. The more
so the
better, though this is not absolutely necessary.
PLAYS ON
TARDY VICTIM.
In fact, the only condition actually necessary to the
successful
prosecution of this new game is that one of the employees
come
down to work later than others. This must be. The operator picks
a
morning when said employee is late in arriving at his or her place
of
employment. If the employee is a young woman stenographer, so much
the
better. Operator may be either male or female, but should be of
prosperous
appearance--sort of money-no-object appearance.
"Is the Stool Pigeon in?"
he inquires. Of course, he doesn't call this
party "the Stool Pigeon," having
first carefully informed himself
as to the individual's Christian name and
surname, so as to be in a
position to rattle it off with becoming
familiarity.
"Not yet, but soon," replies the Fall Guy. He doesn't know
that he's
the Fall Guy, but he is, unless he happens to possess more than
a
human average of suspicion and wariness.
FALL GUY TAKES
BAIT.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Now, I wouldn't have come to deliver this
package
if he hadn't promised to be here at this moment. And he wanted it
so
badly--and I can't wait!"
"That's too bad," says Mr. Fall Guy. "But
that's all right; you may
leave the package in my care and I'll see that he
gets it the first
thing he comes down."
"So kind of you," purrs the
operator. "The only difficulty in the way
of that is that I must see him when
I deliver it."
Nothing coarse or abrupt, you will see; instead the
smooth, purring
round of the wheels that grind artistically and
well.
Here the operator begins to bite the under lip and look at the
clock
with clouded brows.
"Hm! I can't wait, and he wanted it so much
this morning!"
SUCKER DIGS OUT COIN.
Fall Guy being a friend
of Stool Pigeon's (the operator has picked
him because of that
qualification), gets solicitous. "Well, there's
a collection of a dollar on
this package; that is all, really." If
Fall Guy looks burdened with money the
charge may be as high as $2.50.
Hardly more than this. It may run as low as
25 cents. The package
contains, according to the operator, anything from a
pair of cuff
buttons to a pair of shoes.
And Fall Guy pays at least
often enough to make the game worth playing
for the
operator.
FLEECING INVALIDS AND CRIPPLES.
This is a story of
the most despicable graft extant. For, although it
has been broken up in
Chicago, it still flourishes in nearly every
other large city in the country.
It is not only despicable but it is
heinous, fiendish, unspeakable. It is the
sort of a thing that causes
the blood of an honest man or of a manly rogue to
boil, and long for a
chance to clutch its inventor by the throat. It is the
letter-copying
scheme. Real criminals take chances on death, or the
penitentiary,
and on personal encounters with those whose money they
unlawfully seek
to acquire, but the vultures behind the "ads." promising
lucrative
work at home content themselves with mulcting helpless invalids,
aged
and infirm persons who seek to contribute to their own support
and
persons whom poverty has driven to desperation, and who see in
the
gilded promises of the cormorant an avenue of escape.
The public
is familiar with the advertisements which constantly are
seen in the
newspapers offering employment that will not necessitate
canvassing, or
peddling, and which can be done in the home with great
profit. Occasionally
the "ads." explain that the work is that of
copying
letters.
[Illustration: AN ATTEMPT TO CATCH YOUR EYE]
WRITE
SMOOTH LETTERS.
The victim answers the "ad." and in reply receives this
stereotyped
letter--the form is the same in every instance:
ESTEEMED FRIEND:
Replying to your application to write letters for
us at
your home during spare time, we beg to say that your
writing is satisfactory, and we have decided to offer you
the
appointment.
The work we give out is simply writing letters from a
copy
which we furnish, for which we pay you direct from this
office at the rate of twenty dollars ($20.00) per thousand.
You do not
have to write any certain number of letters
before receiving pay, and
all letters you write you return
to us. There is no mailing them to your
friends, as most
other advertisers who advertise for letter writers
demand,
neither is there any canvassing or selling anything, or
anything else to mislead you; you simply write from a copy
which we
furnish, and we pay you direct. We are an old,
reliable firm, always
state plainly what is required, do
exactly as we promise and treat our
employes honestly.
The work is easy; the letters to be written are
the length
of the ordinary business letter, and all we require
is
neatness and correctness. We furnish all materials free of
charge, paper, etc., and prepay all costs of delivery to
your home. You
work only when you desire or have leisure
time, and no one need know you
are doing the work.
We pay spot cash for all work done the same day
as
received. We use thousands of these letters for advertising
our business, because we receive better results from using
written
letters than from plain printed circulars. We have
a large number of
people all over the country working for
us, and if you desire to become
one of our regular workers
we request that you send us one dollar, for
which we will
send you our regular dollar package of goods you are
to
write about.
This is all you are required to invest,
there being no
other payments at any further time, and this deposit
is
returned to you after doing work to the amount of two
thousand letters. We are compelled to ask for this small
deposit to
protect ourselves against unscrupulous persons
who do not mean to work
and who apply out of idle curiosity.
We also send you first trial
lot of letter paper, copy
of letter to be written (as we desire all
letters to be
written on our own letter paper), also instructions and
all
necessary information. After receiving the outfit you start
to work immediately. More reliable workers are needed
at once, and we
guarantee everything to be exactly as
represented. If you find anything
different we will refund
the amount invested.
Fill out the
enclosed blank and send it to us with one
dollar or express or
postoffice money order (stamps
accepted), and we will immediately send
everything, all
expenses prepaid. You can start to work the same
day
you receive the outfit by simply following our plain
instructions.
Kindly reply at your earliest convenience. Fill
out
enclosed blank and direct your envelope carefully. Trusting
to be favored with your prompt services, we remain,
Very truly
yours,
LESLIE NOVELTY COMPANY,
Per C. C.
KENDALL.
ROB BED-RIDDEN WOMEN.
In their investigation of this
sort of swindle the police discovered
that almost invariably the victims were
bed-ridden persons or women
in straitened circumstances who were in frantic
search of some means
of keeping the wolf from the door. Many instances were
found where
some unfortunate had taken up a collection in the neighborhood
in
order to raise the necessary dollar to send for the "outfit."
Persons
were found who were actually starving and who had pawned their
last
possession to get the money that was to start them on the road
to
affluence.
Of all the offices raided Detective Wooldridge did not
find record of
one instance where a victim had been able to keep the
requirements of
the swindlers. The supposed letter sent to be copied was
generally
about 800 words in length, full of words difficult to spell,
of
rude and complicated rhetorical construction and punctuated in a
most
eccentric manner. The task imposed was practically a life-time
job, and even
if anyone had fulfilled it there were a hundred
loop-holes whereby the
thieves could escape payment by declaring their
specifications had not been
heeded to the letter.
The "outfit" consisted of a cheap penholder, a pen
and a box of fake
pills.
Imagine the joyous anticipation with which a
starving cripple would
await the arrival of the "outfit" that was to give him
the opportunity
of prolonging existence! The bright hopes of the work-worn
widow who
expected by this genteel means to keep her little ones in
bread!
Think of the despair of both upon discovering they had paid
out
money so sadly needed--money which probably had been begged
or
borrowed--only to discover that they had been victimized instead
of
benefited!
"OPERATORS" CRINGING COWARDS.
Trembling,
cringing, whining specimens of humanity were found in
charge of each of these
fakers' dens when Detective Wooldridge swooped
down upon them. They were
typical of their graft--small, mean,
snake-like, cowardly. None among them
was found who would bid defiance
to the officers, who would resist intrusion
by the law or who would
go into court and fight. All were cheap and dirty in
mind, loathsome,
shrinking, snarling, but not daring to bite.
Among
those driven out of business by Detective Wooldridge were the
Twain Novelty
Company, the Leslie Novelty Company, the Illinois
Industrial Company and
Blackney & Company.
"I have raided all classes of swindling
institutions," said
Wooldridge, "but it gave me more pleasure to run down
these fellows
than all the others put together. They did not dare try to get
money
out of people who could afford to lose it, or who were out in
the
world where they could talk with others of more experience.
Their
dupes were in almost every instance the most pitiable objects of
the
communities in which they lived. The facts disclosed by these
raids
were enough to fill the heart of the blackest grafter with
indignation
and a desire to trounce the perpetrators."
SHARKS RUIN
BUSINESS MEN.
NEW LINE OF FINANCIAL GRAFT.
A new loan shark, or
self-styled "financial agent," who preys on the
business man and
manufacturer, robbing him of his money and business
more relentlessly than
the old-time loan shark ever dared with the
helpless wage earner, has made
his appearance in Chicago and says he
has come to stay.
[Illustration:
MR. FIRST MORTGAGE; FIELD OF RISKY INVESTMENTS]
Under the guise of
discounting a manufacturer's accounts at his usual
rate of discount, the
"financial agent" secures his first hold on
the struggling manufacturer, who
sees the opportunity to enlarge his
business by collecting cash for his
merchandise as he sells it. But
the first step with the "financial agent"
means entering the portals
of bankruptcy.
The loan shark first finds
for his victim an industrious, hard-working
manufacturer or wholesaler, who
by his push and perseverance has built
a business beyond his capital, and
approaches him.
"You have a good business here," remarks the agent. "If
your customers
all paid cash it would be pretty easy sailing. Life would be
one long,
sweet song if everyone paid for goods as soon as they were
ordered,
wouldn't it?"
OFFER OF CASH AROUSES INTEREST.
Even
the largest manufacturer in the country could not but accede
to
this.
"I have been watching your business for some time with a
great deal
of interest," continues the suave grafter, "and I would be glad
to
discount your bills at the regular rate of discount, so it would
cost
you nothing and you would have an opportunity to double your
business.
"I presume you give the regular trade discount of 1 per cent a
month
for cash. On that I can save you a little money and help your
credit
materially. You receive 1 per cent a month on your
purchases.
"This you cannot take, as you are cramped for money, because
your
customers do not pay their bills promptly. Thus you lose 2 per cent
a
month by not buying and selling for cash."
GETS $800 FOR
$1,000.
The manufacturer begins to see a thriving business on a cash
basis
without exposing his weakness, and agrees to allow the banker
to
discount his bills.
"In the morning," begins the agent in
explanation of his system,
"you send us $1,000 worth of duplicate invoices of
the goods which
you shipped today, with shipping bills attached. You attach
to the
invoices a note for $1,000, so the account may be kept from the
notes,
and not from the invoices which we hold. In return for the note
we
will send you a check for $800, less our commission of 2 per cent
a
month, just what you are paying now because your business is not
done on a
cash basis. The $200, or 20 per cent, we have to deposit in
the bank which
loans us the money which we in turn pass to you. When
any bills are paid we
will refund your 20 per cent which we hold.
Any bank compels us to have a
representative in your store to look
after our interests, as a matter of
form. We will just appoint your
bookkeeper--a matter of form entirely. Once a
month we will send a man
over to check up your books. He will see that none
of our money has
been overlooked."
BEGINS TO SHOW HIS
TEETH.
All this sounds businesslike and plausible, and the arrangement
runs
smoothly for a time, probably six months, to allow the
manufacturer
time to sell all his open accounts to the financial agent.
Then
the loan shark sends in a statement of the account, and, if
the
manufacturer complains, begins to show his teeth.
On the statement
appears all money the manufacturer has received and
in addition an extra
charge for $50 a month to cover the services of
their agent--the
manufacturer's own bookkeeper. Also an additional
charge of from 1 to 2 per
cent for additional service rendered,
although the agency has had absolutely
nothing to do with the accounts
beyond holding them as security. All overdue
accounts are charged
back to the manufacturer, and a request for a check to
take them up
immediately accompanies the statement.
As few accounts,
if allowed to mature at all, are received by a
manufacturer on the exact day
when due, the check called for often is
a formidable one. The manufacturer is
at his wits' end. He goes to the
agency post haste and, after they find it is
impossible to hold him
up for a check, they say:
"Oh, well, never
mind, the bank--always the bank--is pressing us on
those overdue accounts,
but we can hold up the 20 per cent until these
accounts are taken care of.
That will be satisfactory, we are sure."
[Illustration:
DEBT]
LOSES HIS 20 PER CENT.
After this the manufacturer's
chance of ever seeing anything more
of his 20 per cent has vanished. Each day
the agency trumps up some
fictitious charge of stamps, new check books, extra
labor, taxes,
additional fees or other charges that could originate nowhere
but in
the brain of a financial crook.
Finally the manufacturer finds
he has nothing on his books but
accounts belonging to the agency, on which he
is paying carrying
charges of from 5 to 10 per cent a month. The agency
refuses to return
his 20 per cent, which they claim has been charged off by
the bank to
take care of the overdue accounts.
The victim, seeing the
plight in which he is placed, demands an
accounting and threatens legal
proceedings. The agency in turn demands
he give them an itemized statement of
each account, which they have.
They agree to check them up, and, if found
correct, promise to give
him a check for the 20 per cent which they hold.
That night the light
burns late over the bookkeeper's desk in the
manufacturer's office.
In the morning the statements go to the office of the
loan shark, who
says:
"I'll have the auditor check them up and send
you a check as soon as
we find out everything is straight."
TRADE
STATEMENTS TO CUSTOMER.
The manufacturer leaves the office. The loan
shark gets busy with the
statements, and stamps each of them:
"This
account has been transferred to Killem's Mercantile Company. You
are notified
to pay this account to no one else."
These statements are mailed to the
customers. When the manufacturer
returns the loan shark greets him cordially
and remarks:
"Unfortunately one of my clerks mailed out a lot of your
statements
last night, but I guess that won't matter. He stamped on them
that
they had been transferred to us and sent them out as he does
everyone
else's. He didn't understand. I am sorry."
As expected, the
manufacturer, when he sees his business and
confidence abused in this manner,
flies into a rage. Then the suave
agent takes the bull by the horns and
issues his ultimatum.
"Our bank"--always "our bank"--"thinks we are not
getting all the
money coming to us from your account. They demand that in the
future
you deposit all your checks with us. I am sorry, for I know
everything
is straight, but your using us as a bank will last but a few
days.
Everything will then run smoothly again."
And unless some friend
comes to the aid of the manufacturer the
agency's prophecy comes true, and it
does last but a little while.
SHREWD BEGGAR GRAFT.
Pretend to be Deaf, Dumb and Blind, Playing on
Sympathy--How
Philanthropy is Humbugged--Begging for Money
to Reach Home--An Army of
Frauds and Vagabonds--Mastering
the Deaf Mute Language for Swindling
Purposes--The Public
Should be Careful in Disbursing Alms.
Speech
is so common, eyesight so precious, that he who would appeal
for charity
needs no better warrant than that he is dumb or blind.
In an age when words
are multiplied and golden silence is seldom
found, the very fact that lips
can give no utterance is so unusual
that their mute assertion of misfortune
is seldom questioned. There
is nothing so pitiful in all the world as an
asylum for the blind.
There is nothing which so draws one to share the
burdens of another
as the appeal of him in whom the wells of speech are all
dried up.
We sympathize with illness, we grieve at the misfortune which
visits
our friends, we mourn with them when bereavement comes, but all
these
things are in the course of nature. They are sad, but they may
be
expected. But then a figure in health rises and asks for charity in
the
hushed language of the mute, philanthropy halts and humanity gives
alms. But
if the dumb can evoke assistance, assuring of sincerity and
disarming doubt,
how hushed is the questioning when the blind apply!
How much stronger than
speech or silence are the sightless eyes that
stare unblinking at a darkened
world! How sad is the fate of that man
who was buried by demons when God
cried out, "Let there be light"!
But not every man is mute who stretches
out his hand in silence.
Laziness is such an awfully demoralizing vice that
some who choose
to beg a living and decline work are even base enough to
feign a
misfortune they ought to fear. Fellows who find the winter
pinching
and the ranks of vagabonds full to repletion arm themselves with
a
slate and pencil and haunt the public with appeals for help on
the
untrue claim that they are dumb. One of the most persistent beggars
of
this kind makes the rounds of residence districts with a printed
card on
which is stated the bearer's desire to reach his home in some
distant
city--the destination varies from time to time--together with
a long-primer
endorsement by a group of names which no one knows. The
fraud always asks for
some slight money offering--nothing can be too
small--with which to assist
him in the purchase of a ticket.
Usually his paper shows that he needs
but a very little more, and
he asks one, by a series of pantomimic signs, to
enroll his name,
together with the sum advanced, in regular order on a blank
list
which he tenders with his touching appeal. He is so well drilled
as
never to be surprised into speech, and looks with such straight,
honest
eyes into the faces of the women, who form much the larger
number of his
victims, that they cannot question him and usually give
up a dime or a
quarter without a struggle. The beggar can readily
collect a good day's wages
in this manner, and it is a matter of
surprise if he does not receive an
invitation to partake of food three
or four times a day. He never lets his
list get full. However small a
margin he may lack of having raised the sum
needed to buy his ticket
to his home, he never gets quite enough, for nothing
is easier than to
stop in some secluded spot and erase the names of his
latest donors,
thus proving to those on whom he shall presently call that
their help
is not only needed, but will so nearly end the necessity for
continued
appeals. This class of beggar never looks like a dissipated man,
is
always polite, and bears refusal in so noble a way that nine times
out
of ten the flinty-hearted women who refused him at the back door
hurry
through to the front and give the more generously that they have
harbored
suspicion.
Another set of leeches have mastered the deaf mute language,
and
always ask with a pleading, painful face which meets you as your
eyes
lift from his written questions, if anyone in the house can talk
with
him. He supplements the penciled question and the eloquent glance
of
eyes trained by long use in the art with a few rapid passes of
his
hands, a few dexterous wavings of the fingers, in a language you
have
heard of and read about, but cannot understand. If the
unexpected
happens and a person be present who can converse with him, your
beggar
is sure of some entertainment, and the usual scene of one you know
to
be honest talking to one who may be equally so, and certainly
seems
needy, will almost infallibly wring from you the coveted
assistance.
It is like two minstrels at a Saxon court. You know your own
has
seen the holy land, though you have not, and as he tells you,
this
thread-bare guest talks familiarly and correctly of distant
realms.
That is all any one can know to a certainty, but you give him
the
benefit of the chance that he may be honest, and help him with
such
loose change as comes to hand. Time and again the pretended mutes
have
been detected in their imposture by men who pitied a misfortune
and
gave money at their homes in the morning to see it spent for drink
by
an arguing, contentious fellow in the evening.
Some beggars even
assume the appearance of blindness, and haunt the
homes of comfortable
people, led by a little girl and asking alms
in the name of an affliction
that is always eloquent of need. He
will sometimes carry a small basket full
of pencils, or other little
trinkets, and glazes over his evident beggary
with the appearance of
sales. But he does not hesitate, once the money is in
his hands, to
ask his patron to give back the pencils, as he cannot afford to
buy
any more. These people can sometimes see as well as the child
that
seems to lead them, and yet their eyes, when they choose to
assume
their professional attitude, seem covered with a film through which no
light can penetrate. |
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