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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1905)
(THE .SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, SEPTE3IBEII 24 1905.. PROTECTING THE PUBLIC FROM SWINDLERS , SECRETARY CORTELYOU'S FRAUD ORDER BLASTS BUNCO MEN & & & SAMPLES OF GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEMES Tf yeJ wast to inew rfUzr Jmt procusc a caie ami irr. Mmmii sso sis "Mf r WASHINGTON, Sept. 18. (Special tjerosponaenee ox me bunaay Oraconlan.) The arch-enemy of the gra-Usr jast now Is Goorge Bruce Cor tety, Postmaster General. How he is rxtarmUtaiing such vermin as get-rich-qulck meters, gamblers, cheap jewelry ImMcm gteerere. patent medicine quacks md akftra fattening upon the superstl ttaiis f?he people Is moat for a good story, Wtoon k oomos to one-man power. It 4oMe more by faf than any of his CMot colleagues and even more than xmy 0m prosecuting . or judicial officer of Dk, Gy rjmofi t . By one fell stroke of his pnaife nui utterly Mast a man's business career. sad from Ms judgment there Is ab sataMy no appeal; it 1b not reviewable tay tle courtg. What worse fate can befall a business 3Min tlwui to be forbidden the privilege of i i t. tivtrnt; letters and to ' know, besides. ikmt all .audi communications addressed to Mm arc returned to the sender with th awful brand "fraudulent" stamped rof Ms Haste la damning scarlet lot tors? Soch.Se the penalty of the "fraud orow" gtroi only to the Postmaster Gen eral to Intttct- The first fraud order was laouci tn flW. .against the promoter of the fawour, J3w Orleans lottery. During the fvK wontfcs that Mr. Cortolyou has been la oMce be ha Issued more of these judg ments Umvh Were signed In the first seven roars of the fraud order law's existence. H ma run out of business more than noble the number of grafters who fell a JT to the most energetic of his predeces sors during the same months of any year. Promoters of fraudulent enterprises have eon excluded f rom the malls at the rate of more thou one per day since the former secretary to President McKIaley took the rotas of the largest of our executive de oartmeaits. Docs Not AVait for Complaints. An anti-graft Innovation was put into effect aJtnoat as soon as he took up his stw docks. Former postmasters general bad been content to simply wait upon the oomntatats of outraged citizens who had We buncoed. Not until then was the fealt sot rolling for an investigation Mr. Cortolyou, however, had more stren vons notions. That busy corps of detec tives known as postofllcc lnwj vectors had Veon lately transferred to the immediate ofnoe ot the Postmaster General. He or dored these sleuths to search a certain doss of journals for suspicious advertise' menus. -Ostensibly as private citizens, the inspector now answer these seductive offers and Uncle Sam returns the amounts to which they allow themselves to be buncoed for the sake of gleaning evidence The bunco shop Ik then visited, and If af fairs there are down to the Inspector's suspicions action Is immediately taken The man who does the actual work of Joogtog the culprits Is R. P. Goodwin, the aottetajit Attorney General for the Post lace Department. The bunco man is Tismonua to appear before him in Wash Ington and to make such answer or do fence to the charges preferred or such CKwannuoa concerning them as he may desire. After a full hearing a brief of the evidence submitted and of the conclusions ranched by Mr. Goodwin is handed to Mr. Corteiyou. who either Issues the fraud or der or dismisses the charges. In most esses the accused person appears with a lawyer, who vigorously defends him. Some of these hearings have consumed a fortnight. If the accused fail to appear, action Is taken whether or no. The Post master General seldom, if ever, ignores th superior legal opinion of the assistant Attorney General, and It Is safe to say that a fraud order recommended by the latter wttl be Issued. Although, as stated, there is no appeal from the Postmaster General la the matter, he may revoke a fraud order when the assistant Attorney Oenernl ho rocommends. A large propor tion of the SKW fraud orders issued since ISTff still stand on the record as unrevoked. One assistant Attorney General of a past administration was noted for his activity In revoking orders and It was no uncom mon ooenrrence for him to have one re voked two days after It was promulgated. At nrosent, however, it Is more difficult than ever before to have such a verdlot reversed. The first fraud order that agates the New Orleans lottery was, by the way. suspended for a time, but now stands on the record as unrevoked. Bffcctivoly Put Out or Business. The enterprises which may thus be Masted are lotteries or similar enterprises where prizes are distributed on a chance baste or any scheme to defraud. The or der when put In effect directs postmasters not silj" to return, as stated, all first-class matter addressed to the subject of the ac tion, -bat to withhold the payment of money orders and the return of the money to the rotntttors. In cases where the senders are unknown the letters are sent to the doad letter office and the money contsinod. If not finally traced. Is dropped Into the treasury of the United States. The detectives who scent out all of these bunco enterprises are under the direction of William J. Vickery, chiof Inspector of the Postofflce Department, a Hoosler vet eran of the lynx-eyed corps who before his recent promotion to the top of the ladder had charge of the Cincinnati division of nostoffice inspectors. He is the chief ''watch dog" f Uncle Sam's, mall, and to Ms hx falls more particularly the respon sibility of hunting down those who rob the matte, of instructing new postmasters, of tracing lost mall and the location or nam ing of new poetofflces. Analyzing Alleged Medicines. Another official concerned in the hunt ing down of the grafter is Dr. Harvey W. WyMe. shlef of the Government's bureau of chemistry. Any patent medicine or other article suspocted by the industrious Inspectors Is sont over to Dr. Wylle's laboratory for analysis. Many of thecure alls thus submitted are found to contain Ingredients which have never been known to medicine as a panacea for the human lite in question. Remedies which of late have especially fallen under the ban of suspicion are of that category recom mended through very seductive advertise ments as having the properties of Ponce de Leon 8 long sought fountain. Some of these have been found to be tablets of pure corn starch. Plain salt and water have been found to constitute the sole in gredients of some nostrums. Others are of choap elements equally impotent in the diseases for which rocommended. Export medical testimony Is often called for after Dr. "Wylle's analysis Is complotod In a case. This was done in a case ending in the Issue this week of a fraud onder against a medicine, "Na ture's Health Restorer," advertised as a euro for diseases which run the gamut from falling- hair to broken back. The documents in the case contained not only tho statement of Dr. 'Wylle. but of throe "Washington Physicians called as exports. Rotten "Investment" Schemes. The get-rich-quick "investment" schemes are now receiving the special attontion of the Inspectors. Swindling concerns -alleging to place investments of their "clients' " money at enormous rates of interest fairly swarm the country. Although capitalists are glad to loan their money on real estate se curity at from 4 to 5 per V:ent. and to the Government at 2 per cent, thou sands of poor people throughout the oountry are easily heing gulled Into turning over their funds to concerns promising- EO per cent, or even more. A concern - calling itself tb "Neptune ! Caas s.ny' recently advertised, from j P0JT 0S77C: G&Zft7ttyY7' Philadelphia that for $2 the Investor would be shown how to realize profits of 800 per cent on a capital of Ji, or make an income of $260 per month and work only two or three hours a month. The details, eagerly purchased by gul lible persons anxious to get rich quick ly, were these: "Get 500 families in your city who will pay per month for medical servioos. Get them to pay you the money on a guarantee that you -will furnish them a physician whenever they requre one. Then make a deal with a physician whereby ho will look after the 590 families for $260 per month. Your net profits will be 5250 per month. Get 1006 families and you will make $300 per month." Another 860 per cent investment was lately offered by a man in North Pem broke, N. Y., who advertised that any om sending him a quarter would re ceive In exchange a $2 bill .and that 525 would be sent to any one who could "detect 1L" Persons sending a quarter rccelvod each eight receipts for 25 cents, which the advertiser aid constituted a "two-dollar bill" against him. Henceforth, he can receive no mail; he moves to a strange placo and does business under an alias, -which would be according to the .common practice of tho debarred "bunco 'man. For example, one Fred Swartz. charged with conducting- fraudulent schemes in New York and Philadelphia under va rious aliases, lately changed his namo to "Prof. Alex Aires," and from At lantic City solicited subscriptions 0f 50 cents each for the "Fortune. Magazine," which he alleged to publish, and whose columns were said to be devoted en tirely to phrenology, astrology, palm istry and the occult sciences. A se ductive feature of the advertisement was a statement that subscribers would be permitted to participate In a con test for a prize of $100. Mr. Vlckery's Inspectors found that no such maga zine existed. Horso Jtnco Allurements. The most common of the get-rich-qulck schemes now being blasted by fraud orders are those which advertise extensively to invest money for clients by betting- on horse races. Large prof its are always" guaranteed. One of these concorns, lately denied the use of the mails, had tho audacity to ad vertise that "all element of chance is eliminated" from Its system of invest ments. Then thero are tho lotteries. against which Uncle Sam has waged untiring war for decades. Of lato, Ger man, Mexican and West Indian lotteries have boen reaching: -out Into the United ! States Xor customers. Agents of the , German enterprise havo been particu larly persistent. "Guessing contests," such as have been features of various Journals for several years, have lately been put under the ban by Attorney-Genoral Moodj", who rules that such schemes are. in effect, lotteries undor another guise. Hitherto the Postofflce Depart ment had hold thnt when patrons ot such enterprises could use a "dope book," or records, or scientific informa tion of some sort, in making their cal culations, their guesses were an appli cation of calculation, foresight and knowledge, eliminating, to an extent, at least, the factor of chance. Mr. Moody's recent reversal of this opinion was based upon an opinion of the Su preme Court of the United States. But, returning to the "bunco Ramos," here we have a peculiar sort, which of lato has been sprouting up all over the land with surprising rapidity. This Is the "letter-writing at home" fraud. The credulous reader is captured by the ad vertisement,, which promises anybody $100 a week without hard work if he will but apply for information. Almost as soon as he replies to the advertise ment, the would-be amanuensis re ceives Instructions that before begin ning his profitable work ho Is expected to buy the inevitable "outfit." just as a guarantee of good faith. The outfit Being bought.at an excessive price, tho applicant hears no moro from his prom ised employers, -who are. In fact, merely dealers in "outfits." Almost as com mon is the cheap jewelry "graft." Un der the guise of valuable prizes distrib uted gratis, brass rings and ot,her trin kets are really being sold at enormous profits, realized in postage stamps sent in by applicants. leanest Grafter of AH. But the meanest grafter of all of these for which the Postofflce Inspec tors are gunning fs ho who gets his salt from the tears of bereaved persons. One of these concerns had agents all over the country collecting from the funeral notices in the various papers names and residences of persons lately deceased. Immediately a letter would be addressed to tho corpse, it would State that the Bible which he had lately ordered, and on which he had desired his namo embossed in gilt letters, was finished, and would be forwarded upon receipt of a stated rate, always exces sive. The family of the dead one would at once suppose that "poor, dear John" had longed for the Holy Bjtok In his last hours, and so they would prize the volume as a souvenir of tho lost one, and it must be bad. at any cost. The grafter engineering this enterprise had a raft of cheap Bibles, which he sold at a profit of several hundred per cent. "Throw away your razors, gentlemen I Throw them away!" began the seductive advertisement of another victim of the fraud order. "Try my patent substitute once, only once, gentlemen, and you will never use a razor again! Easy, quick, safe and sure. Never wears out. and always retains Its power. Write to me!" Mall was delivered by the hundred-weight to this "inventor." One of the Inspectors se cured one of these razor substitutes. It was a little, oblong cake of some sub stance resembling pumice stone, and the accompanying circular directed that !t be rubbed firmly back and forward over the beard after It had been lathered. Occult Medical Treatment. An alleged "faith healer" of Sea Breeze, Fla., who advertised under the name of "Mrs. Helen Wilmans," claimed power to heal any disease or affliction. Including poverty, by a method of concentrating her mind upon the patient taking the treat ment. For such services she solicited re mittances of $3 per week or $10 per month. inspectors detailed upon the case discov ered that although the "faith curlat" her self opened the voluminous mall addressed to her, and took out the money which came pouring In thereby, she. without a careful reading of the communications, handed them over to a corps of clerks, who answered them accordjng to stereo typed forms placed before them. The As la tan t Attorney-General decided that the curlst, however energetic and capable of effort she might be, could not find U possible to send specific and Individual thought waves to all of her patients. To this chargo she replied that she could think for a tbousend sufferers at a time quite as easily as of one. Despite her claim of a mental multiple circuit system, the Postmaster-General blacklisted her.' That, she would read from the starry heavens all of the future that anyone mjght hanker for, and that she guaran teed this-for 10 cents per reading, Mme. Carlotta Barse Fredericks, a mystical de scendant of a long line ot seventh sons lately advertised from Gardiner Me. The gullible person who would mall the 10 cents immediately learned that the web of fate had never been so greatly tangled for any other person since the world be gan. Ten cents worth of research had de veloped this Interesting fact that the per son in question was so far out of the ordi nary. For an additional $2, to Indemnify her for her lqss of sleep, the seereas promised to "wrest from the stellar blue the last detail of these amazing compli cations, and. to dispatch ' the translated information, post baste to-the anxious in,. a" .- l?iX - The Only REAL BORAX SOAP Um crar star ax Sots axrl Soap Chips in dishwater, laundry vtzbtx, cleaning -water, -wash Tratcr, and all -wrater into wirl.f Vinnrta aM t nrtld-f tlio TMfllf TrTt Tv wlrrf nV handa and hjgiecIcftHy clean garments, dishes, etc . . Antiseptic and Harmless SXND for beautifully illustrated booklet "Borax in the Home" which contains information bf Talnc'to tt r -r- t t j n l Ti 1 r rm . every woman, auo sample oi .oornx, aaraxa -Data. jroTCasr. or xorxc xaxcum f owner p isjue Ask your dealer for 20 MULE TEAM brand PACIFIC COAST BORAX CO., SAN FRANCISCO. CAL TftAOMMAUK ..-ml H.- A sUC -vats. . . tic "u. iiipnwi quirer. If the bewildered patron hesitated too long In sending the $2 the seeresa for warded to her a second stereotyped letter announcing a benevolent cut In tho price to $1, because of her unusual Interest taken In this particular case. Aran added inducement "the magic, magnetic Hebrew charm" would be thrown In. This potent talisman would c6mpel love, force fortune or drlvo yowling cats from the back fence. Some of Chief Vlckery's plain-clothes men detailed on the sorceress case reported that she did not read individual horo scopes, but that she had a dozen stock horoscopes already drawn, one for encn month of the year: also that each patron was made to believe that he was the most favored and presents a case of tremend ous individual Interest. Hence the fraud order which prevents Mme. Fredericks from doing business until she changes her location and becomes Madame Somebody Else. JOHN ELFRETH WATKIXS. Broadly Tolerant, Human and Sympathetic Ann Shannon Monroe Pays Tribute to the City of Pprtland and the Oregon Spirit. Anna Shannon Monroe contributes to the Common Sense Magazine an ar ticle on "The Northwest Corner of Our Country." She la the great grand daughter of Geonre Shannon, the youngest member of th Ijerris and Clark party, and spent several weeks bere and hereabouts the past Sum mer. What Miss Shannon says con cerning Portland Is subjoined. BUT while Portland Is nearly through with the duties of hostess to the world, and while the excitement of crowded streets, over-run hotels and thronged cars Is beginning to abate, tho resulUcommerclally of thia -great Summer house party has hardly begun to' be felt. It Is like the first far-distant roar of an avalanche, which the keenly sensitive ear readily recognizes, though It may hardly be heard by one less finely attuned to na ture's warnings. This avalanche, which Is even now bear ing down upon Portland and the tributary Northwest, will be both destructive and constructive In Its results. It is mado up .of .peoplo from every quarter of the coun try m search of better homes, better cli mate, better health, better investments, and better conditions of living. It is made up of men with capital and men without a cent; of single women, and bachelors; of men with young families, and old peo ple grown weary of a lifetime in one com munity. Money will pour Into the "West, valleys will be settled, forests hewn down, land cleared, and the smoke of fires from many homes will ascend Into the clear Western air. Cities, towns, villages, electric lights, street car systems all these marks of an old civilization will In the next few years break out upon the face of the Northwest like freckles on the cheek of a sun-kissed girl. The world has pictured this principally as a land of towering mountains and wide' valleys where Indians and cowboys still added plcturesqueness to the scene; but now it knows tho Northwest as a land rich in opportunities, with every avenue of trade and commerce awaiting the hand of the man with a little capital and much enterprise. Everything has Just begun In the North west, especially In Oregon. Though riot a new state, in age, it Is new in develop ment. The oldtlmers who suffered every hardship to reach this land were an ad venturesome, poetic. Imaginative class ot people who went west in search of homes and when they found them in a land that appealed to their sense of the beautiful they were satisfied. They settled In the fertile valleys along .the Columbia and the Willamette rivers, took up as much land, as they could use, and .have been content ever slnco to live easily la the shadow of the mountains, with their families grow ing up about them. They are true nature lovers. They haven't made a fad of the simple life and written about It for the papers, but they have gone Into the most Inaccessible regions of America and lived It. Their natures are as open and broad as the very plains about them. They havo Imbibed the grandeur of life from the grandeur of nature's manifestation that meet their eyes whichever way they look. They "are neither sordid nqr money-mad. They are satisfied with life In Oregon as It Is. Thus It is- left for the Easterner, with his keen eye for business chances, for Improvements, for utilization of facil ities, to develop tho Oregon of 'today Into the Oregon of tomorrow. The State of Washington, lying north, has attracted more attention from East erners in the last 15 or 20 years than has Oregon. In consequence, Washington Is settled moro largely by people newly from the East, and her cities and towns 'have a fresh spick-and-span appearance, as It they had been carefully laid out according to well-defined plans. The houses are new and shining with fresh paint, and the lawns are small, neat and perfectly kept. There Is little In Washington to suggest the usual Idea of the West excepting that which nature supplied. The people one meets nearly all Impress one as being. Easterners or Canadians, and one wonders at so many people away from their homes. But In Oregon all thl3 Is different. Port land. In the first place, is a beautiful old fashioned city, with narrow streets, and large, old-fashioned homes, set back In Immense "yards" where children romp with' no fear of "spoiling the lawn" and play hide-and-seek In and out among giant evergreen trees which have stood for cen turies. The people one meets were born there, and their fathers came In wagons or afoot fifty years ago. They love Ore gon and have no desire for anything moro than to live and die In sound of her roar ing forests, and by her mountain streams. Many are rich, most of them are ordin arily prosperous, soma of them, are poor, but all apparently contented. Few are zealous dollar-hunters. Everyone seems to be taking life very easily, the business men and women. In the morning, saunter ing slowly to office or store, going de liberately about their work, without haste or hurry, taking time for each event, and living each day in full enjoyment of what It offers. There la none of that living In tomorrow spirit that marks and mars life In many of the large Eastern cities. It Is a world of today; thus while Oregon of fers every chance of investment and for new enterprises. It offers, at the same time, an object lesson In sane living which the nervous, hurried city dweller In the East should take to heart. It Is to be hoped that In the amalgama tion ot West and East, which is sure to take place on the shores of the Columbia, that which is best In the West shall pre dominate, and the Oregon spirit shall continue to rule, when every valley is dotted with farm homes and hundreds of cities are towering with sky-scrapers. There Is room for hope In the reflection that It Is Impossible to attain the degreo of strenuoslty among the mountains that Is quite attainable In flat districts. The most zealous chaser of the alluring dollar would unconsciously slacken his pace while his eyes were raised to those won derful snow-crowned peaks. Hood. St. Helens. Adams. Rainier and Jofferson. Let Oregon hold fast to that whieh makes her so adorable; to her open-heart-edness. her generosity, her broad vlev, polnt. Let her never lose the Influence of forest and plain, of mountain and sea. Let her remain as she Is today, broadly tolerent. human and sympathetic. Danderine Grew Miss Wilson's Hair AND WE CAN PROVE IT. Dmderint Is St Exhilarating, Invigtraiing a and strengthening to both the hair and scalp that even a 25c bottle of It Is olten enough to show wonderful im pxoTements. It at once. Imparts a sparkling brilliancy and Telrety softness to the hair, and a few weeks' use will cause n&w hair to sprout out all over the scalp, and grow abundantly, long and beautiful. Use it every day for awhile, after which two or three times a week will be enough to complete whatever growth you desire. LatBSthotorranh of Mfs Carrl. Wilon, 3728 84th Place, Chicago. ""NOW at all druggiste, in three sizes, 25f cents, 50 cents and $1.00 per bottle. IT DEC To show how quickly DamferiiMK acts, - otuu it large sample tree Dy return mail ww ociim una auverasement to tae KnowIl.Mi with their name and axktrtmm and ten wnNs in ?1v-t- - x w mt v yjmmgK. iox axd auAjLisTixo. t WOODARD, CLARKE & COMPANY. r