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About Oregon City courier. (Oregon City, Or.) 1902-1919 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1906)
COUMEI MAGAZINE SEOTIOX. OREGON CITY. OREGON FKIDAY. MARCH 9, 1900. PAGES 1 TO 4. OREGON " CITY ' THE PRIYATE DETECTIVES. THEIR NAME IS LEGION, AND THEY WATCH AIL CLASSES OF BUSINESS EMPLOYEES. Some Clever Schemes for Swindling Firms and Corporations Sharps Whs Make a Regular Business of letting Damages. In no other country in the world, are bo many private detectives employed as In the United States. Every great corporation has Its stall of "secret service" men, many of them recruited from the detective forces of European countries. The chief occupation of these com mercial detectives is to protect the various Institutions they represent from the depredations of professional swindlers of all kinds. These "crooks," are a formidable army. Groups of them travel from city to city, concocting and carrying out frauds of all kinds, aided in their ne , farious plans by "shady" lawyers, phy sicians, ana even, at tunes, by tne em ployes of the corporations Which they sees to victimize. Insurance companies are the favorite prey of this robber bands. Of one audacious swindler, who was recently brought to justice, it is stated that, assisted by his confederates, he defrauded seven different accident In surance companies of sums aggregate ing some Ji3,u00. Had he varied his method, It is quite iiKeiy tnis particular "crook" would still be reaping a golden harvest But he repeated his device too often. His trick consisted in slipping on a piece of soap while taking a bath, and sustaining "severe internal in juries." He always had a doctor (of course, a confederate) to testify to the serious nature of his accident; but: although the trick in itself was diffi cult of detection, a constant repetition of It naturally awakened suspicion, and led to the downfall of the swindler Some of the sharps pose as mechan ics, and prey upon employers of labor, their method being to pretend to sus tain some injury in the course of their work. Aided by shyster doctors and lawyers they bring actions for dam ages. Sometimes by taking out acci dent insurance policies, they contrive to gain a double share of plunder. Railway companies are victimized In much the same fashion that is to say, by bogus claims for Injuries and accidents. In these cases the frauds are generally more elaborate, involving not only the services of dishonest doctors and lawyers, but the testimony of witnesses paid to perjure them selves. Of one group of railway sharpers, the ringleaders of which were brought to justice, It came out In the evidence that they made more than $5,000 a year by their practices. A real railway accident, especially one of any magnitude, is a perfect wind fall to some of these rogues, if they are anywhere in the vicinity. Taking advantage of the confusion and excitement, they make their ap pearance among the injured. Theii "injuries" are generally, of course, of an internal nature, and, uttering heartrending groans, they are carried off to be attended, if possible, by some medical accomplice. Now and again the conductors of trains are in league with the sharpers, which,, of course, greatly facilitates the frauds. Indeed, it is said that railway accidents such as small collisions, have been deliberately brought about by conspiracies of this kind. One particular "crook" made large sums by conspiring with conductors to push him off the train -when it was in motion! In this way he acquired a profitable crop of "permanent Injuries to the spine," for which the railway companies had to pay smartly, So numerous and so astute have the American detectives become of late years, however, that such frauds have become Increasingly difficult The suppression of malpractices of this kind is, as stated, the principal work of the great army of commercial detectives, many of whom are appar ently ordinary citizens, or even work ersknown as "plain clothes men.1 Among their minor functions is the watching of suspected employes especially those of banks and great financial houses, Any tendency to extravagant habits or irregular living on the part of em ployes 13 noted and reported upon by these unsuspected watchers, others there are Who, in the guise of clerks and laborers, secretly note any ten dencies to disloyalty or discontent In this way approaching strikes are de tected, and, oftentimes, nipped In the bud, THE AMATEUR SMUGGLERS. MOST TRAVELERS FEEL JUSTI FIED IN OUTWITTING AND HEATING GOVERNMENT. Started by the Artist. "One of the greatest difficulties In an," remarked a critic, " is to get one's facts right, and for this you have to go not to art, but to the people who understand the things represented. "I received my first lesson in this direction when, as a youth, I painted a coast scene with a ship in the fore ground. It was highly praised by all who saw it, with the exception of an old seaman, who, when he examined the rigging, politely turned aside to conceal his amusement No ship, he explained, could possibly have gone to sea with the ropes and tackle arranged as in my picture. So I had to humble myself to learn to draw reeving blocks, shrouds, yards, and other por tions of a ship's rigging as they really are. ' "But It is not always possible to be true to fact. "Take, for Instance, a typical picture which represents a herd of self-deny ing cattle grazing in a meadow where the herbage Is of the scantiest, while near at hand are unprotected fields of grain into which they could walk at will. Why did not the painter Include In his picture the fences which ac tually surrounded the corn fields? Simply because they would have spoilt the composition, and consequently reality had to be sacrificed to the de mands of art." MOTHER OF SENATOR DICK OF OHIO. Mrs. Magdalene Dick is one of the few mothers In Washington who can visit the United States Senate cham ber and look down upon a son who is a member of the most powerful legislative body on earth. That son is the Hon. Charles William Frederick Dick, senator from Ohio, who succeed ed the lamented Mark Hanna. There Is especial swelling of pride in the breast of Mrs. Dick as she looks down from the Senate Gallery upon her boy, for the reason that she knows better than any one else how many were the struggles and how rough the paths that led to his present honor. Both parents of Senator Dick were born in Germany but they met and married here, settling in Akron Ohio, where the father was an humble arti san. He was careful and frugal after the German fashion but was not very successful in business. The little fam ily knew what It was to work hard for the necessities of life. The future senator knew what It was too, to be born of the traditional poor but honest parents. His schooling was limited, for hi had to beffln wortowhen able to earn even a little bit First he was a messenger bwy in a bank, then clerk in a hat store and he was very proud when he acquired a half interest in a feed and machinery establishment All this time however, he kept studying at night to gain an education, and to achieve something better than an anxious Interest in the market price of oats. The good mother who looks down upon him in the Sen ate can recall with much pride the struggles of the son to better his place in the world and she did her part to help him. He went into politics and was elected county auditor before he was 30. This is always the best office in any courthouse and gave the young man a start not only in politics but in business. His activity and shrewd ness in local elections led to his se lection in 1892 as chairman of the state executive committee. He won the election by such a small majority that there was no glory In It but the following year he managed the second election of McKInley as Governor with onlendld results. Later he went to Congress from the old Garfield dis trict and when Hanna died, came to the senate by unanimous vote. Mrs. Dick is of fine appearance, not yet 70 and remains calmly complacent over the romantic career of her son who may yet achieve still higher honors. Foreign Dealers Know the American Mania tor Private Smuggling tnd Sell Accordingly Many Disappoint ments in Kcsuus. If the arrivals on one of the big liners were drawn up In rows on the pier and searched, it is doubtful if five per cent of them would escaDe the charge of smuggling. The women are said to break the law In greater num bers than the men, although the latter cheat the Government of larger -mounts. The majority of women don't understand the customs laws. Said a nervous little lady on the promenade of the Deutschland as the tugs were cushing the bier steamer Into the dock: "I've got two china salt cel lars under my hat Do you suppose they'll hear them click together? They cost 5 cents apiece at tne f alais Royale, but they're so cute." "Why you dear old goose," said a burlness-llke person near her, I uess you'd jump over board if you had my trunks to wriggle through the examination. Just listen. You know you're allowed to replenish your wardrobe If you're gone a year. When I decided to go over twelve months ago, I Just took all the old trunks in the house, I had eleven in all, and I filled most of them up with the stuff you usually send to the Salvation Army. Thought some of them would go to pieces on the trip. I got rid of more than half in London, and bought beautiful English leather trunks to take their places. And the things I've brought back in my replenished ward robe!" "But the foreign names on so many dresses?" gasped the nervous one. "I've ripped them out and sewed in the names that were in my oid dresses." I She was even cleverer than the white- haired gentleman who confided to his neighbor at table that he, had brought ucitiv mime lauo gowns worm at least 30,000 francs (JC000) a piece that were entered in a sworn invoice at b.000 francs each. "But." eaid the little maid at his elbow, "won't the ap praisers know the real value?" The ven. erable sinner stroked his white beard complacently: "Why should they sus pect the Invoices approved by the Am erican Consul at ? Ah, they are my very good mends at the eon- suiate," he purred. Real Syrian Rugs. - Even the steerage has its amura-lem inere was a commotion on the immi grant deck of a French liner one morn ing. aeverai Hundred Syrians were westward bound. One of them had stolen a roll of bedding from another. The officer to whom complaint was maae was not deeply interested. Hadn't the Immigrant a good berth la the steerage? Why so much fracas for a bundle of dirty rags that should hare Deen stowed in the hold? The com plainant wared desperate: "Mother of the Prophet his bed of dirty rags! It was or Syrian rues, the best a dozen sent by a merchant of Damascus to his Brother merchant in New York." The duty on Syrian rugs is heavy but who would think to find them in the dirty bedding of an immigrant! A glove buyer for one of the biir Am erican houses used to bring back on each semi-annual trip, for his own pur poses, twelve dozen pairs of gloves care fully hidden in many pockets of his coat and overcoat Almost every tourist who can afford it buys a diamond ring wnue aoroad. A feather boa is al most the first purchase of the American woman arriving in London, and what customs official can prove that she did not carry it out of her own country with her. How seldom do those first purchases in London and Paris outlast the evan escent charm of novelty. Flimsily built of fragile material, they drop to pieces before the owner has had time to weary of them. If they do last for any length of time, It is only to become a source of anger and disgust The silk petti coat bought at the Bon Marche, Paris, for which you paid $8 what a bargain it was until one day you felt myster ious prickings at your ankles and stooped to find that the half inch wide steel ribbon which gave such a chic set to the bottom, had broken loose from the dust ruffle and slashed the silk to bits, and your stockings to tat ters. To comfort you, every depart ment store in New York and Chicago Is showing you identically the same skirt; without the steel stiffening, for -sometimes, remembering these things, the high prices that assailed you in London and Paris, you may won der how the French women ot moderate means manage to dress so welL Americans Chanted Double. The answer is that Amerioans an abominably over-charged. A raw clerk in the Louvre once told an American customer that the house would make her up a pongee suit for 150 francs. He was sharply contradicted by an older employe who explained that the suit would cost 300 francs. As the lady moved away without ordering the gown, she heard the novice remon strate. "You told me ISO bancs'1 "For Frenchwomen, yes." erowled the oia nana, Dut tuat was an American. The biggest lace house In Vienna fand Vienna Is the cheapest nlaee In the world to buy lace) purposely puts np the prices to allow a good margin for bargaining. Experienced Amer ican buyers for fashionable New York tailors who go yearly to Paris for models, take with them on their snoo ping excursions, a French friend with whose assistance they secure materiali and models for about half the quoted price. French workmanship is inferior. The models brought home by a tailor who has a shop Just off Fifth Avenue were sent into the workroom to be resewn before they could be plaeed in the show cases. Stylo is what the Frenoh tailor aims at Chic, beautiful, a gown must be. If it falls to pieces the first time it is worn so much the better fer the business madams needs another gown. A womaa whe had ordered a single dress frem oae ef the big French houses complained ef the workman ship. The manager shrugged his shoul ders: "One dress, why sheuld we bother at all for that!" Most expensive French lingerie Is frequently finished with reugh seams, lace is sewed te unhemmed edges; threads in hand embroidery are left oose the garment simply falls to aieces even in the most careful laundry. ino words can express tne norror ot English tailoring. In Londen they have made an attempt te meet American tastes, but - the English tailor's con ception of the short skirt is a tweed monstrosity escaping the shoe tops la front and tickling the pavement be- SAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. PLAN PRESENTED TO CONGRESS BY WHICH MANY DEFICITS COULD BE AVOIDED. During the Pait Five Years the Government Has Lost Over a Hun dred Million Worth of Tlmber-The Remedy. Every now and then there is a sharp passage at arms in Congress between the East and the West. In fact some of the rather prominent men of Con gress still seem to think that the West is a separate country, and not in reality a part of the United States and entitled to the same consideration that it shown the Mississippi Valley, The Atlantic uoast or the New England States. An instance of this kind oc cur ed the other day when Senator Tel ler, of Colorado, was addressing the Senate. He resented the intimations that the funds used in connection with lift-; j . .15- f -1 : 1 m0 "V-W xr- V? hind, while a straight rew ef stitch ing is beyond the modest inability of tne iflngiish workshop, Many a woman who in her first month abroad materially diminished her letter of credit, has come home to wish for the trim smartness of Broad way. The frills beleved of the- Baalish woman, and the skin tight little jackets of the Freaeh weauin quickly lose their fascination lor the American woman whose aim in dress is uausually a seem ing simplicity that has cost her tailor hours ef nice calculation and herself a great deal ef treuble and not a little money. After all, the exp rlenced American traveller buys few things outside of his own country. Considering quality and manufacture', nearly all articles of ordinary wear are cheeper la the Uni ted States than elsewhere. The law aHows nly Site werth of foreign ap parei te be brought in duty free, and if this is ceasclantleaslr lived up to. the saving Is email ea imparted goods. A few gloves, estrich yluatee or small pieces ef Jewell y, .are about the only things the sensible tourist will bother with on his return. Doings iaKsvr Tsck. The wife ef a Wall street millionaire, whose name in New York is almost a household word, as the eelice declare unwittingly furnished the eassword to a magnificently furnished aeeireom for tashionable women at an uptown ad dress the other day and the place was raided fcy the police. Ia it were twenty wemen, whose finely appointed equip ages awaited them in the street The appeals of the women, members of some of New York's wealthiest fami lies, when the detectives and officers gained entrance to the drawing room and revealed themselves, formed a thrilling tableau. Several women went on their knees to the detectives. Thev offered their rings, watches anything tney possessed rather than face the ex posure of arrest or even the chance of their identities becoming known, One woman clasped the detective sergeant by the knees as she knelt pleading for her liberty. Another tore her rings from her fingers, and offered them all to him, saying: "If my name m known there will be murder or sui cide in my heme, for my husband will either kill me or I hall kill myself." Tolstoi Bard oa Ibsen. Count Tolstoi was one 4av discussine Tbsen with a friend. Said the latter: "I have seen a great many of Ibsen's piays, but 1 cannot say that I under stand them. Do you?" Tolstoi smiled, and reofied: "Ibsen doesn't understand them hinwelt He just writes them, and tfu down and wans. After awMle his exoounderi and explainers cqme and tell him pre cisely what be meant," M ..; z-.-r .: IN THE NEW YORK CUSTOMS HOUSE. the Irrigation reclamation service had been given as a bounty to the West. In the first place, since the money is all paid back to the government, he stated that it was simply In the nature of a outside dependency of the nation." That the commercial Interests of the east, if not its statesmen, are alive to the desirability of promoting the settle ment and Internal improvement of the west, ia shown by tuo very comprehen sive action takea recently by the Na tional Board of Trade in Washington, a powerful association, composed of representatives from most of the great commercial bodies of the United States. The organization represents a combined capital of billions of dollars employing several hundred thousand workers; it has been a strong factor in urging legislation on various important In ternal works; It was the first of the great commercial bodies of the East to advocate the passage of the national irrigation law and it has a regular standing committee on forestry and Irrigation. The report of the organization this year is most interesting and reads as follows : It la gratifying to note that much of the legislation on Forestry and Ir rigation matters which Las been con sistently urged by the National Board of Trade has been enacted into law. The National Board was the first or ganization representing the commer cial interest of the whole country to re commend a national Irrigation policy and June 17. 1902 a National Irri gation law was enacted. There is in the Irrigation Fund at the present time about $30,000,000 which is in creasing from the sale of public lands at the rate of at least, $3,000,000 a year. In the matter of Forestry legislation the National Board of Trade recom mended the passage of the bill pro viding for the consolidation of the various forestry branches of the Government Into the Bureau of Fores try of the Department of Agriculture. This bill was enacted into law at the last session of Congress. The National Board of Trade has stood against the practice of exchang ing worthless "scrip" land in the national forest reserves for valuable public lands outside of the reserves and has repeatedly recommended the repeal of the law permitting this prac tice. This law was repealed at the last session of Congress. At the last meeting of the National Board, opposition was expressed to what was known as the 640 Acre Home stead bills Increasing the homestead entry In parts of South Dakota, Colo rado and in Montana from 160 acres to 640 acres; these bills were all defeated at the last session of Congress. v Much, however, remains to he done. The National Board of Trade has con sistently advocated the saving of the great public domain for the use of the. real homemaker as against the land and timber grabber and the speculator. Trade and commerce will Increase as population increases, and our National land policy should be administered to preserve our remaining half billion acres of public lands for those who will build homes upon them. As laws which . tend to overcome this policy the Na tional Board has continuously, since Its meeting in January, 1902, urged the repeal of the Timber and Stone Act, the commutation clause of the Home stead Act and the Desert Land Act, In accordance with the recommendations 53 "Lucky" Baldwin's Irrigated Ranch Twenty Years Ago a Desert, loan, and further he contended that the Irrigation law was of as much import ance to the east as to the west that it was national in character, and that it would benefit, not only the section where It was applied, but reflexly every other section. In fact the west was somewhat tired of this idea which seemed to obtain among some eastern statesmen, of being considered as an of the President in his annual Mes sages to Congress. A Public Lands Commission appoint ed by the President, consisting of W. A Richards, Commissioner of the General (Continued on next page.) 0 m . .a rjpk Every Empty Envelope Count, as Cash Fir-,"f -f; 'tf T wiry mobavlll mm hrt IhU K)ertlmenl m teen ind who I '. is the title of Our New Catalogue for 1 906 the most beauti IJfuI and instructive horticultural publication of the day ioo pages w engravings 7 aupero colored piaies 1 7 duotone plates of vegetable and flowers. Tm gtn thb csttlsfiM tte Uigm poadbU cdRtthitloo, w auk tha following liberal offer I ' p'j I cn vctii u Huopf, wt wm nut IQ catalogue, ana alio acua iidv V rl'-J-3&? of cimrge, ourfamoui JO-Cont " Horutenon " Collection of aeeda, contain- . i . ' J "c pacaeiOTcaor bUM HlM rt.i 0i.nl t.nty r.niHi mixta m' Hn. Trt LiHuti tarlj Ku.f I tmaltf a coupon nvtot, wliirb, when emptied "Sit - H Klurned, wiu t accepted u a 23-ceal ceeti payment a tuy order V Jf uwuDUnf tofi.cnudgawaa. lM In ' Wkm Tiff4 (carlo t.dtihi la acau ""ii - H '""""a. WU ho eaceptea