L 
 
CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE. 
 
Twenty Years a DetectiYe 
 
 IN THE WICKEDEST CITY IN THE WORLD. 
 
 20,000 ARRESTS MADE 
 
 12,900 CONVICTIONS ON STATE AND CITY LAWS 
 
 200 PENITENTIARY COVICTIONS 
 
 The Devil and the Grafter 
 
 HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER TO DECEIVE, 
 SWINDLE AND DESTROY MANKIND 
 
 AN ARMY OF 600,000 CRIMINAL AT WAR WITH 
 SOCIETY AND RELIGION 
 
 By CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE 
 
 The World-Famous Criminologist and Detective 
 
 "the Incorruptible Sherlock holmes of America" 
 
 After twenty years of heroic warfare and scores of hairbreadth 
 escapes, in his unceasing battle with the devil and the grafter, 
 Mr. Wooldridge tells jn a graphic manner how Wildcat Insurance, 
 Fake Mines and Oil Wells, Turf Swindlers, Home Buying Swin- 
 dlers, Fake Bond and Investment Companies, Bucket Shops, Blind 
 Pools in Grain and Stocks, Pool Rooms and Hand Books, Fake 
 Mail Order Houses, ordinary Gambling Houses, Panel Houses, 
 Matrimonial Bureaus, Fake Underwriting, Fake Banks. Collecting 
 Agencies, Fake Medicine Companies, Clairvoyants, Fortune Tellers, 
 Palmists and other criminals of all classes operate, and how their 
 organizations have been broken up and destroyed by hundredst 
 
 THE WORK ALSO CONTAINS 
 
 Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge's "Never=Fair' System 
 
 For Detecting and Outwitting All Classes of 
 Grafters and Swindlers 
 
Copyright, 1908, 
 
 BY 
 
 CLIFTON E. WOOLDRIDGE, 
 
 Chicago Publisliing Co., 
 
 83-91 Plymouth Phu-e,' 
 
 Chicafj^o. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting this work to the public the author has no 
 apologies to make nor favors to ask. It is a simple history of 
 his connection with the Police Department of Chicago, com- 
 piled from his own memoranda, the newspapers, and the official 
 records. The matter herein contained differs from those records 
 only in details, as many facts are given in the book which have 
 never been made public. The author has no disposition to 
 malign any one, and names are used only in cases in which the 
 facts are supported by the archives of the Police Department 
 and of the criminal court. In the conscientious discharge of 
 his duties as an officer of the law, the author has in all cases 
 studied the mode of legal procedure. His aim has been solely 
 to protect society and the taxpayer, and to punish the guilty. 
 The evidences of his sincerity accompany the book in the form 
 of letters from the highest officers in the city government, from 
 the mayor down to the precinct captain, and furnish over- 
 whelming testimony as to his endeavors to serve the public faith- 
 fully and honestly. 'No effort has been made to bestow self- 
 praise, and where this occurs, it is only a reproduction, per- 
 haps in different language, of the comments indulged in by 
 the newspapers of Chicago and other cities, whose reporters 
 are among the brightest and most talented young men in all 
 the walks and professions of life. To them the officer acknowl- 
 edges his obligations in many instances. Often he has worked 
 hand-in-hand with them. They have traveled with him in the 
 dead hours of the night, in his efforts to suppress crime or 
 track a criminal, and have often given him assistance in the 
 way of suggestions. 
 
 He now submits his work and his record to the public, hop- 
 ing it will give him a kindly reception. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface 7-8 
 
 Testimonials n 
 
 Biography of the Author 27 
 
 Graft Nation's Worst Foe 51 
 
 The "Never-Fail" System to Beat the Get-Rich-Quick Swindles ... 112 
 
 The Best Rules for Health 116 
 
 Matrimonial Agents Coining Cupid's Wiles 119 
 
 Our Penal System is a Relic of Early Savagery 192 
 
 Vagrants, Who and Why 204 
 
 The Young Criminals and How They Are Bred in Chicago 230 
 
 Wails of Fortune Tellers 24(> 
 
 Wife or Gallows 267 
 
 A Clever Shop Lifter (Fainting Berthal 272 
 
 Front 9.84: 
 
 The Criminal's Last Chance Gone 288 
 
 Burglary a Science 311 
 
 Cell Terms for "Con" Men 341 
 
 Panel-House Thieves 348 
 
 Gambling and Crime 358 
 
 A Heartless Fraud 401 
 
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 
 
 The two arch enemies of happiness and prosperity are the 
 Devil and the Grafter. The church is fighting the Devil, the 
 law is fighting the Grafter. The great mass of human beings, 
 as the}^ journey along the pathway of life, know not the dan- 
 gers that lie in wait from these two sources. Honest them- 
 selves, credulous and innocent, they trust their fellow man. 
 
 Statistics show that four-fifths of all young men and women, 
 and nine-tenths of the widows are swindled out of the money and 
 property that comes to them by inheritance. Every j-ear thou- 
 sands of laboring men spend their hard earnings and beggar 
 their families by falling in traps laid for them. Thousands of 
 innocent girls and women, struggling for a respectable liveli- 
 hood, fall victims to the demons who traffic in human honor. 
 
 The Grafters spend millions upon millions of dollars annual- 
 ly in advertising in America alone. There is not a Post Office 
 in the land where every mail does not carry their appeals and 
 thieving schemes; and they collect hundreds of millions of dol- 
 lars annually from the trusting public. The State and National 
 Governments spend millions of dollars a year in trying to catch 
 and curb these grafters. Some of Satan's worst grafters are 
 found in the church, working tlie Ijrethren ; and lie has them 
 by thousands in every walk of life. 
 
 The object of this book is to protect the public by joining 
 hands with the church and the government in their work against 
 the Devil and the Grafter. The author reveals and exposes the 
 Grafter with his schemes, his traps, his pitfalls and his victims. 
 The reader of this book will be fortified and armed with knowl- 
 edge, facts and law. Ihnt sliould forever protect him, his 
 family and his friends fi'om tlie wiles of the Grafters. 
 
 It is with tlic conlideiK-e tliat tliis work fills an iini)erative 
 need, and tliat it sliould l)e in the hands of everv iuiiii<iei-. every 
 physician, every teacher and every mother and father in the 
 land, that the author and publisher seiul it forth on what they 
 believe to be a mission of good to the world. 
 
WORDS OF COMMENDATION. 
 
 From Chas. S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois: 
 
 "It is with pleasure that I am able to say that Detective 
 Wooldridge has conducted all his cases with zeal and intelligence." 
 
 J. M. Longenecker, former State's Attorney, says: 
 
 "Mr. Wooldridge has thorough knowledge of evidence and is 
 .",n expert in preparing a criminal case for trial. I have found him 
 to be one of the most efficient officers in the Department." 
 
 R. W. McClaughrey, Warden of U. S. Prison at Leavenworth, 
 Kans., Ex-Warden of Illinois State Penitentiary and Ex-Chief 
 of Police of Chicago, says in a letter to the author: 
 
 "You were not only subject to bribes, but also frequently a 
 target of perjurers and scoundrels of every degree. You came out 
 from every ordeal unscathed, and maintained a character for in- 
 tegrity and fearlessness in the discharge of your duties that war- 
 ranted the highest commendation. It gives me pleasure to make 
 this statement." 
 
 J. J. Badenoch, Ex-General Supt. of Police, writing Mr. Wooldridge, 
 says: 
 
 "Dear Sir — Before I retire from the command of the Folic- 
 Department, I desire to thank you for your bravery and loyal 
 service. The character of your work being such that bribes are 
 frequently offered by the "criminal class, it becomes necessary 
 to select men of perfect integrity for the purpose, and I now 
 know that I made no mistake in selecting you for this trying 
 duty. It affords me great pleasure to commend you for your 
 bravery and fidelity to j^our duties." 
 
 Nicholas Hunt, Inspector Commanding Second Division, says: 
 
 "I have known Clifton R. Wooldridge for the last ten years. 
 As an officer he is par-excellent, absolutely without fear and with 
 a detective ability so strongly developed it almost appealed to me 
 as an extra sense. If I wanted to secure the arrest of a desperate 
 man, I would put Mr. Wooldridge in charge of the case in 
 preference to any one I know, as, with his bravery, he has 
 discretion." 
 
 Geo. M. Shippy, Chief of Police, of Chicago, writing Mr. Wool- 
 dridge, says: 
 
 "Your heart is in the right place, and while I have always 
 found you stern and persistent in the pursuit and prosecution of 
 criminals, you were very kind and considerate, and I can truth- 
 fully say that more than one evil doer was helped to reform and 
 was given material assistance by you." 
 
 Luke P. Colleran, Chief of Detectives, says: 
 
 "His book is most worthy and truthful and commendable; and 
 I take pleasure in commending it to all." 
 
SHERLOCK HOLMES 
 IN REAL LIFE. 
 
 From The Chicngo Tribunr i.f 
 Novomber 25. 1900. 
 
 "Chicago may be sur- 
 prised to learn that it has 
 a Sherlock Holmes of its 
 own, but it has; and be- 
 fore his actual experiences 
 in crime-liunting. the I'lC- 
 tional experiences tlirou!.:h 
 which Poe, Dnyle, and 
 Xick Carter i)Ul their 
 detectives pale into in 
 significance. His name i- 
 Clifton R. Wooldridgc. 
 
 "Truth is stranger evtn. 
 than detective fiction, an i 
 in the number of In- 
 adventures of mystcr\. 
 danger and excitement li 
 has all the detecti\i 
 heroes of fiction and n:! 
 ity beaten easily. 
 
 "He has personally ar 
 rested 19,500 peoi)lc. 2tiii 
 of them were sent to the 
 penitentiary; 3,000 to the 
 house of correction; 6,000 
 paid fines; 100 girls under 
 age were rescued from 
 lives of shame; $100,000 
 worth of property was re- 
 covered; 100 panel iiousr-> 
 were closed; 100 matri 
 monial bureaus were 
 broken up. 
 
 ••\Von].!ri,l^,rc \VA> I, 
 
 lusul perhaps 500 bribe 
 of from $500 to $5 
 each. He has been 
 der fire fortj'-four tim 
 He has been wound 
 dozens of limes. He ha? 
 ompersonated a 1 m o s 
 every kind of character 
 He has, in his crime hunt 
 ing, associated with mem 
 bers of the '400' an* 
 fraternized with hobo" 
 II e has dined with tin 
 elite and smoked ii 
 opium dens. He has dom 
 everything that one ex 
 pects the detective of fic 
 tion to do and which tli< 
 real detective seldom does 
 
 "When occasion re 
 quires he ceases to appcai 
 as Wooldridgc. He cai 
 make a disguise so quick 
 ly and effectively tha 
 even an actor would bt 
 astonished. Gilded youth 
 negro gambler, hone^ 
 farmer or lodging hous< 
 'bum,' it requires but ; 
 few minutes to 'make-up. 
 to run to earth elusiv. 
 wrong-doers." 
 
 The pictures which ap 
 pear here are actual 
 photographs taken from 
 life in the garb and di.- 
 guises worn by the au 
 thor in several famous 
 
 SisgriiiBccl as a 
 JEW IN THE OHETTO 
 
"HECK HOUSTON"— STOCX-RAZSEB FROM WYOMING 
 
 In this garb the author makes himself an easy mark for the crooks 
 
 and grafters of the Stock-Yard district. The hold-up man — 
 
 the card-sharp — the taunco-steerer — the get-rich-(|uick 
 
 stock-broker fall "easy game" to the detective 
 
 thus disguised. 
 
ASSOCIATING WITH THE STOCK Ain> BOND OBAFTEBS 
 
 DiBgUis.'.l ;is ,IT1 I-;ilKlis 
 
 lnvfstm«-tit. Mr. \V( 
 Th«' trap Is m 
 In II few 
 
 im.iii wlin li.is U1XI10V ami Is lnokiiiji f"V m k'^oil 
 iDliirl.lKi' Is fiislly inistaki-n for a ■surkcr." 
 t. \lv apparoiitly walks Into it; but, 
 nImifoH, tho ifraftor fliuls himself 
 on tlio way to prison. 
 
POI.XCV-SAM JOHNSON 
 
 This is a favorite disguise of tlio author wlien doing detective duty 
 
 among the lowest and most disreputable criminals, l^nsus- 
 
 pectingly tiie crooks offer him all sorts of dirty 
 
 work at small prices for assistance 
 
 in criminal acts. 
 
Wr. NEVER SIiEEP 
 
 Dotoctivos (lisKiiis'il :is tiainps: "I nm made all thlnps to nil 
 mi-ri." .says St. I'aiil. 'I'lie Dcti-cllvc rndst also make hlmsj'lf all tliiiiK^ 
 to all m»-ii. thai ho may llixl and tatrh the raaials. To bf up-to-dato 
 It Is tKTfssary to bo able to assiinu" as many dlsgiilsi's as thorc arc 
 «lassi-s of people among whom criminals hide. 
 
POLXCV-SAM JOHNSON SHOOTING CRAPS 
 
 An illustration of the way the detective employs himself in the gam- 
 
 Dling dens. It is often necessary to play and lose money in 
 
 these places that he may get at the facts. Observe that 
 
 he is watching proceedings in another part of the 
 
 room while he is throwing the dice. 
 
SHADOWING ONE OP THE TOUR HUNDRED. 
 
 Fomo of tlu> most danKfrnus Kiaflors in tlio woiM hobnob with tho 
 ilitf, litre wo liavc our anllinr in cvenliiK ilrcss. passing as 
 a man of society at a l)an<niot of tlie rich. 
 Hliadowinjf a • lilKli-llyer" erook. 
 

 .2 5 
 
:i (InnKoroiis stop. Many n niiiKd man traces his downfall to 
 the (i;iy hf Ixmm In yoiitli tn "hot" a little "to make 
 llu' game intorcstinK" 
 
3inma Ford (Sisters) Pearl Smith 
 
 POUR FAMOUS NEGRO WOMEN GRAFTERS 
 
 As confidence workers, highway robbers, and desperate criminals they 
 
 were the terror of officers and courts. Togetlier tliev stole and 
 
 robbed people of more than $200,000.00. They were finally 
 
 run to earth and put in prison. Our author followed 
 
 one of them across the continent and back. 
 
THE DESTINATION OP THi: GRAFTER. 
 
 TIio way of the tranapressor is hard." "Bo suro voiir sin will find yovi 
 
 out." The jH-nitentiary is full of hriKht men who mlRht linve 
 
 been eminently succes.sful — an honor to tlx-mselves and 
 
 a blessing to mankind, if they had only heedi-d 
 
 the old adage — "Honesty is the best 
 
 poliey." 
 
■WOOI.DBIDGE'S CABINET OP BURGBAB T001.S. 
 
 author from robbers and crooks duiing ins 
 eighteen years of service. 
 
CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE 
 
 AMERICA'S FOREMOST DETECTIVE. 
 
 Clifton E. Wooldridge was born February 35, 1854, in Frank- 
 lin count)', Kentucky. He received a common school education, 
 and then started out in the world to shift for himself. From 
 1868 to 1871, he held the position of shipping clerk and col- 
 lector for the Washington Foundry in St. Louis, Missouri. Sev- 
 ering his connection with that company, he went to Washington, 
 D. C, and was attached to the United States Signal Bureau from 
 March 1, 1871, to December 5, 1872. He then took up the busi- 
 ness of railroading, and for the folloAving nine years occupied 
 positions as fireman, brakeman, switchman, conductor and gen- 
 eral vard master. 
 
38 BIOGEAPHY 
 
 When the gold fever broke out in the Black Hills in 1870, 
 Mr. Wooldridge along with man}' others went to that region to 
 better his fortune. Six months later he joined the engineering 
 corps of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad and assisted in 
 locating the line from Canon City to Leadville, as well as 
 several of the branches. The work was not only very difficult, 
 but very dangerous, and at times, when he was assisting in 
 locating the line through the Royal Gorge in the Grand Canon 
 of the Arkansas, he was suspended from a rope, which ran from 
 the peak of one cliff to the other, witli his surveying instruments 
 strapped to his back. This gorge is fifty feet wide at the bottom 
 and seventy feet wide at the top, the walls of solid rock rising 
 three thousand feet above the level of the river below. The 
 work was slow and required a great deal of skill, but it was 
 acomplished successfully. 
 
 ^Ir. Wooldridge went to Denver in 1880 and engaged in con- 
 tracting and mining tlie following eighteen months. He then 
 took a position as engineer and foreman of the Denver Daily 
 Republican, where he remained until ^fay 29, 1883. The fol- 
 lowing August he came to Chicago and took a position with the 
 Chicago, Milwaukee &' St. Paul railway. In ISSfi, he severed his 
 eonnetion with the railroad and founded the "Switchman's 
 Journal." He conducted and edited the paper until May 2Gth, 
 when he was burned out, together with the firm of Donohuc 
 & llenneberry at the corner of Congress street and Wabash 
 avenue, as well as many other Inisiness houses in that locality, 
 entailing a total loss of nearly $1,000,000. Thus the savings of 
 many years were swept away, leaving him penniless and in debt. 
 He again turned his attention to railroading and secured a posi 
 tion with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and had 
 accumulated enough money to pay the indebtedness which re- 
 sulted from the fire, when the great strike was inaugurated on 
 that road in February, 1888. The strike included the engineers, 
 firemen and switchmen, and continued nearly a year. On 
 
BIOGRAPHY 29 
 
 October 5th of that year Mr. Woohlridge made application for a 
 position on the Chicago police force, and having the highest 
 endorsements, he was appointed and assigned to the Desplaincs 
 Street Station. It was soon discovered that Wooldridge as a 
 police officer had no superiors and few equals. Neither politics, 
 religion, creed, color, or nationality obstructed him in the per- 
 formance of his police duties, and the fact was demonstrated and 
 conceded times without number that he could not be bought, 
 bribed, or intimidated. He selected for his motto, "Right 
 wrongs no man; equal justice to all." His superior officers 
 soon recognized the fact that no braver, more honest or efficient 
 police officer ever wore a star or carried a club. 
 
 The mass of records on file in the police headquarters and in 
 the office of the clerk of the municipal and criminal court demon- 
 strate conclusively that he has made one of the most remarkable 
 records of any police officer in the United States if not in the 
 world. Mr. Wooldridge has seen twenty 3^ears of experience 
 and training in active police work. Ten years of this time he 
 was located in what is commonly known as the Levee district, 
 a territory where criminals congregate and where crimes of all 
 degrees are committed. 
 
 Born in Kentucky. 
 
 Mr. Wooldridge is therefore of Southern extraction. And in 
 spite of the "big stick" Avhich this terror of the grafters has 
 carried for twenty years, he still "speaks softly," the gentle ac- 
 cent of the old South. But behind that soft speech there is a 
 determined soul. The smooth-running accents of the South 
 are in this case the velvet which hides the glove of iron. 
 
The following are some of the deeds of valor, work 
 and achievements he has accomplished: 
 
 AN UNPARALLELED RECORD. 
 
 20,000 arrests made by Detective Wooldridge. 
 
 He keeps a record of each arrest, time, place and 
 disposition of the case. 
 
 14,000 arrests made for violation State and city mis- 
 demeanors. 
 
 6,000 arrests made on criminal charges. 
 
 10,500 of these prisoners paid fines. 
 
 2,400 of these prisoners were sent to jail or the house 
 of correction. 
 
 200 of these were convicted and sent to the peniten- 
 tiary. 
 
 1,000 get-rich-quick concerns were raided and broken 
 up. 
 
 60 wagon loads of literature seized and destroyed. 
 
 A conservative estimate of the sum contributed an- 
 nually by this highly civilized nation to "safe investment" 
 and "get-rich-quick" concerns is $150,000,000. 
 
 300 poker, crap and gambling games raided and closed; 
 $1,000,000 lost. 
 
 200 wine rooms closed up. These wine rooms were 
 the downfall and ruination of hundreds of innocent girls. 
 
 185 wild-cat insurance companies raided and closed. 
 
 2,500,000 bogus securities and 10 patrol wagon loads of 
 books, papers and literature seized. These companies paid 
 no losses, and there were, it is estimated, 1,000,000 persons 
 who had taken out fire insurance policies in these wild- 
 cat companies. 
 
 They had sustained fire losses and were not indemni- 
 fied. The conservative estimated loss by these wild-cat 
 insurance companies is $10,000,000. 
 
 $200,000 of lost and stolen property was recovered and 
 returned to the owners by Detective Wooldridge. 
 
 129 slot machines seized and broken up: valued at 
 $10,000. 
 
 130 policy shops raided and closed; $100,000 would bo 
 a conservative estimate of the amount lost by the players. 
 
 125 matrimonial agencies raided and broken up. 
 
 4,500.000 matrimonial letters seized and destroyed. 
 
 1.500,000 matrimonial agencies' stock letters seized and 
 destroyed. 
 
 1,400,000 matrimonial stock iihotographs seized and de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 500,000 plidtograplis sent (o th.' matrimonial agencies 
 by men and women who were seeking their aftinities 
 seized and destroyed. 
 
 40 wagon loads of matrimonial liti-rature seized and 
 destroyed. 
 
 110 turf frauds raided and closed: .$8,000,000 lo.t by tlie 
 public. 
 
 $20,000 bribe wa< offered Wooldridge by the turf 
 swindlers to let tliem run. but he refused to take it 
 
105 panel houses raided and closed. 
 
 $1,500,000 was stolen annually from 1889 to October, 
 1896. At that time there were 64 uniformed officers sta- 
 tioned in front of the panel houses. Detectives Wool- 
 dridge and Schubert were assigned to break them, which 
 was accomplished in three weeks' time. 
 
 100 bucketshops raided and closed; $5,000,000 lost 
 through them. 
 
 July 31, 1900, Detective Wooldridge, in charge of 50 
 officers, arrested 415 men and landed them in the Harri- 
 son Street Police Station, and dismantled the following 
 bucketshops: 
 
 10 and 12 Pacific avcmc. 25 Sherman street. 14 Pacific avenue, 10 
 Pacific avenue. 210 Onera House Block, 7 Exchange court, 19 Lyric 
 PAiilding, and .37 Dearljorn street. It was one of the largest and most 
 sensational raids ever made in Chicago, and will he long remembered. 
 
 IZ Opium joints raided and closed; $100,000 spent, and 
 hundreds of persons were wrecked and ruined by the use 
 of opium. 
 
 75 girls, under age rescued from a house of ill fame 
 and a life of shame, and returned to their parents or 
 guardians, or sent to the Juvenile School or the House 
 of Good Sliepherd. 
 
 50 home-buying swindles raided and closed; $6,000,000 
 lost. 
 
 48 palmists and fortune tellers raided and closed; $500,- 
 000 lost. 
 
 45 spurious cmplovment agencies raided and closed: 
 $200,000 lost. 
 
 40 bogus charity swindles raided and closed; $300,000 
 lost. 
 
 38 blind pools in srain and stock raided and closed; 
 $500,000 lost. 
 
 35 bogus mail order houses raided and closed; $3,000,000 
 lost. 
 
 34 sure-thing gambling devices raided and closed; 
 $2,500,000 lost.^ 
 
 33 fraudulent and guarantee companies raided and 
 closed; $900,000 lost. 
 
 30 fraudulent book concerns raided and closed; $1,000,000 
 lost. 
 
 28 panel-house keepers were indicted and convicted. 
 
 15 owners of the property were indicted and convicted. 
 
 This broke the panel-house keepers' backbone and they 
 never recovered to resume business again. 
 
 Emma Ford, sentenced to the penitentiary April 5, 1902, for five 
 years. Pearl Smith, her sister, sentenced to the penitentiary June 19, 
 1893. for five years. Mary White, May 20, 189.3. for two years. 
 Flossie Mooro. March 27. 189,3. for five years. Seventy-five thousand 
 dollars is said to have been stolen by her in eighteen months. 
 
 $8,000 bribe was offered Detective Wooldridge to let 
 Flossie Moore slip through his fingers. 
 
 $3,000 bribe was offered by the same woman for the 
 address of Sadie Jorden, who was an eye witness of the 
 robbery of E. S. Johnson, a retired merchant, aged 74 
 years. 
 
28 wire tappers were raided and closed. These 
 men secured the quotations from the Board of Trade and 
 pool rooms, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were 
 secured from the speculators who were victimized; $200,000 
 lost. 
 
 27 dishonest collecting agencies raided and closed: 
 $200,000 lost. 
 
 25 swindling brokers raided and closed: $800,000 lost. 
 
 23 lotteries raided and closed: $1,700,000 lost. 
 
 $100 per month bribe to run his lottery was offered 
 Detective Wooldridgc, April 21, 1900, by J. J. Jacobs, 217 
 Dearborn street, who conducted the Montana Loan & 
 Investment Co. He was arrested and lined $1,500 bv 
 Judge Chetlain. June 21, 1903. 
 
 22 promoters raided and closed: $1,000,000 lost. 
 
 22 salted mines and well companies raided and closed: 
 $2,000,000 io^t. 
 
 20 city lot swindles raided and closed: $1,000,000 lost. 
 
 20 spurious medicine concerns raided and closed: 
 $300,000 lost. 
 
 $30,000 wortii of poison and bogus medicines seized 
 October 29, 1904, as follows: 
 
 $12,000 worth of spurious medicines seized b}' Detective 
 Wooldridge from Edward Kuehmstcd. 6323 
 Ingleside avenue. 
 $5,000 worth of spurious drugs seized from J. S. Dean. 
 6121 Ellis avenue. 
 $2,500 wortli of spurious drugs seized from Rurtis B. 
 McCann, 6113 Madison avenue. 
 $500 worth of spurious drugs seized from J. X. Levy. 
 356 Dearborn street. 
 S;2.000 worth of spurious medicines seized from W. G. 
 Xay. 1452 Fulton street. 
 
 17 women arrested for having young girls under age 
 in a house of prostitution. 
 
 16 fraudulent theater agencies raided and closed: 
 $100,000 lost. 
 
 l.l pioturists of young girls for houses of ill funic nn<l prostitution 
 iirrosfcd ami fined. 
 
 $S.O0() bril)e ofrpwl Dptpollvp Wooldridito. SoptoinlKT 27. ISO."., liy 
 M.iry Iliistinss. who l<('pt » house of prostitution iit 128 ('\istom House 
 pliKc. She went to Toleiio. ().. and secured six jfirls under aite nnd 
 lirou^'lit them in the liouse of prostitution. 
 
 One of tlie Kirls escaped in her nicht clothes by tying a sheet to 
 the window. There weri" six In nundier. as follows: 
 
 I.izTie I^'hrman. May Casey, Ida Martin, Oertie Harris, Kittle Me- 
 Ciirty and I.lzzle Winzel. 
 
 .\fter Mary Ilastinus was arrested and she found out that she could 
 not brll>e WooidridKC slie gave bonds and fled. Some months later she 
 was again nrresteil, and the case ilrauged along for two years. 
 
 The witnesses were bought up and shliipiil out of the state. The 
 case was stricken oIT, with leave to reinstate. It is said it c«>«t her 
 $20.(10(1. 
 
 I''<iur notorious neuro women, footpads and higliway roblMTs, arresli-tl 
 by Detective Wisildriilk'e. whose stealini.'s are esthnated by the |«dlce 
 to have Ix-en over $2(Mi.O0(». The following are tlw nanu-s of the women 
 arrested : 
 
 5 mushroum banks raided and closed: $500,000 lost. 
 
BIOGRAPHY 33 
 
 Detective Wooldridge has been under fire over forty times, 
 and it is said that he bears a charmed life, and fears nothing. 
 He has met with many hair-breadth escapes in his efforts to 
 apprehend criminals who, by means of revolver and other con- 
 cealed weapons, tried to fight their way to liberty. 
 
 He has impersonated almost every kind of character. He 
 has in his crime hunting associated with members of the "400'' 
 and fraternized with hobos. He has dined with the elite and 
 smoked in the opium dens ; he has done everything that one 
 expects a detective of fiction to do, and which the real detec- 
 tive seldom does. 
 
 Wooldridge, the incorruptible ! That describes him. The 
 keenest, shrewdest, most indefatigable man that ever wore a 
 detective's star, the equal of Lecocq and far the superior of 
 the fictitious Sherlock Holmes, the man who has time and 
 again achieved the seemingly impossible with the most tremen- 
 dous odds against him, the man who might, had such been his 
 desire, be wealthy, bo a ''foremost citizen" as tainted money 
 goes, has earned the title given him in these headlines. And 
 if ever any one man earned this title it is Clifton E. Wooldridge. 
 
 It is refreshing to the citizenship of America, rich and poor 
 alike, to contemplate the career of this wonderful man. It fills 
 men with respect for the law, with confidence in the adminis- 
 tration of the law, to know that there are such men as Wool- 
 dridge at the helm of justice. 
 
 The writer of this article has enjoyed intimate personal as- 
 sociation with the great detective, both in the capacity of a 
 newspaper reporter, magazine writer and anti-graft worker. 
 The ins and outs of the nature of the greatest secret service 
 worker in Chicago, Clifton E. Wooldridge, have been to me 
 an open book. And when I call him Wooldridge, the incor- 
 ruptible, I know whereof I speak. 
 
 I have seen him when all the "influences" (and they are the 
 same "influences" which have been denounced all over the 
 country of late) were brought to bear upon him, when even his 
 
34 BIOGKAPHY 
 
 own chiefs were inclined to be friglitened, but no "influence" 
 from any source, howsoever high, has over availed to swerve 
 him one inch from tlio path of duty. 
 
 Cannot Be Bribed. 
 
 He has been offered bribes innumerable ; l)ut in each and 
 every instance the would-hr l)riber has learned a very unpleas- 
 ant lesson. For iW\< man. who might be worth almost any- 
 thing he wished, is l)y no means allluent. But he has kept 
 his name untarnished and his spirit high through good fortune 
 and through bad, through evil repute and good. 
 
 Wooldridge does not know the meaning of a lie. A lie is 
 something so foreign to his nature that he has trouble in com- 
 prehending how others can see profit in falsifying. It lias 
 Ix'cn his cardinal principle through life that liars always come 
 to a l)ad end finally. And li<' lias seen his healthy estimate of 
 life vindicated, bo<h in tlic liigh circles of frenzied finance 
 and in the low levels of sneak-thievery. 
 
 TlJE-ALENDOUS AMOUNT OF WoRK DONE. 
 
 But tlie most remarkable thing to me about Wooldridge is 
 the work be has (lone roiisidcr for a moment the ri'cord which 
 heads this aiticlc ('i)iild anything shout forth the tremendous 
 energy of the man in anv plainer terms? There are men in 
 the same line of work with Wooldridge. who have been in the 
 service for the same Icnulh of time, who have not made one 
 arrest where he has made thousands. 
 
 Twenty thousand arrests in twentv years of service, a thou- 
 sand arrests every year, on an average. A thousand get-rich- 
 f|uick concerns, victimizing more than a million people, raided 
 and put out of business; thirteen thousand one hundred con- 
 victions; hundreds upon hundreds of wine rooms, gambling 
 houses, bucketshops. opium joints, houses of ill fame, turf 
 frauds, bogus charity swindles, policy shops, matrimonial 
 agencies, frandubnl guarantee companies, sjuirious medicine 
 
BIOGRAPHY 35 
 
 concerns, thieving theater agencies and mushroom banks brought 
 to the bar of justice and made to expiate their crimes. 
 
 That is the record of the almost inconceivable work done by 
 Clifton E. Wooldridge on the Chicago police force. The figures 
 are almost appalling in their greatness. It is hard for the mind 
 to comprehend how any one man could have achieved all this 
 vast amount of labor, even if he worked twenty-four hours a 
 day all the time. And yet it is the bare record of the "big" 
 work done by Wooldridge, aside from his routine. 
 
 Life History of Wooldridge. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge from March, 1898, until April 5, 1907, 
 was attached to the office of the General Superintendent of 
 Police and worked out of his office. During that time over 
 1,200 letters and complaints were referred to him for investi- 
 gation and action. 
 
 April 5, 1907, Detective Wooldridge was relieved of this 
 work and transferred, and crusade and extermination of the 
 get-rich-quick concerns ceased. 
 
 September 20, 1889, Detective Wooldridge was placed in 
 charge of twenty-five picked detectives, who were placed in 
 charge of the suppression of hand-books and other gambling 
 in Chicago. He remained in charge of this detail for three 
 years. 
 
 On December 13, 1890, at' the residence of Charles Part- 
 dridge, Michigan avenue and Thirty-second street, while three 
 desperate burglars were trying to effect an entrance into the 
 house, Detective Wooldridge espied them and in his attempt 
 to arrest them was fired upon by the trio. One shot passed 
 through his cap, clipping off a lock of his hair and grazing his 
 scalp. The next shot struck him squarely in the buckle of his 
 belt, which saved his life. 
 
 Numberless Hair-Breadth Escapes. 
 
 August 20, 1891, he met with another narrow escape at 
 
36 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Thirtieth and Dearborn streets, while attempting to arrest Na- 
 tlian Judd, a crazed and desperate colored man. Jndd threA\ 
 a brick at him, striking him over his left temple, and inflicting 
 a wound two inches long. 
 
 Judd was shot through the thigh, and afterwards was sent 
 to the house of correction for one year. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge, alone in a drenching rainstorm at 4 
 o'clock on the morning of June 23, 1892, at jMichigan avenue 
 and Madison street, intercepted three horsethleves nnd hold- 
 up men in a buggy trying to make their escape. 
 
 At the point of a revolver he commanded them to halt. As 
 they approached him no attention was paid to him, or to what 
 lie was saying. Seizing the bridle of the horse, he was dragged 
 nearly a block before the horse was checked. A twenty-pound 
 hojoc weight was hurled at him by one of the robbers, which 
 jast missed his head. Another one of the robbers leaped upon 
 the horse and rained blow after blow upon his head Avith the 
 buggy whip. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge shot this man in the leg; he jumped 
 off the horse and made good his escape while "Wooldridge was 
 ongaged in a desperate hand to hand encounter with the other 
 two robbers. Wooldridge knocked both senseless with the butt 
 of his revolver. They were taken to the police station and gave 
 their names as John Crosby and John McGinis. Both were 
 found guilty a month later and sent to the penitentiary by 
 Judge Baker. 
 
 Saves Women and Childijex in Fire. 
 
 March 4, 1892, Detective Wooldridge by his prompt and 
 courageous actions, and the immediate risk of his own life, 
 succeeded in rescuing from the Waverly Hotel (which was on 
 tire), at 202 and 204 S. Clark street, two ladies who were over- 
 come by smoke on the second floor of the burning building: 
 :ilso a lady and two children, aged two years and five months, 
 respectively, fvnui the fourth floor. 
 
BIOGRAPHY 37 
 
 This act was performed b}' tying a silk handkerchief around 
 his mouth, and on his hands and knees crawling up the wind- 
 ing stairs to the fourth floor, where he found Mrs. E. C. Dwyer 
 unconscious. Placing the two children in a bed quilt, he threw 
 it over his shoulder, and seizing Mrs. E. C. Dwyer by the hand, 
 dragged her down the stairs to a place of safety, where medical 
 assistance was called. 
 
 Sept. 21, 1902, Detective Wooldridge was placed in charge 
 of the Get-Rich-Quick concerns with which Chicago was infested. 
 He also had charge of the suppression of gambling at parks 
 and other places of amusement, the inspection and supervision 
 of picture exhibitions in penny arcades and museums, and the 
 inspection and supervision of illustrated postal cards sold 
 throughout the city for the purpose of preventing the exhibi- 
 tion, sale and circulation of vulgar and obscene pictures, the 
 "work of gathering evidence against and the suppression of 
 dealers in "sure thing" gambling devices, viz., loaded dice, 
 marked cards, roulette wheels, spindle faro layouts, card hold- 
 outs, nickel slot machines and many other devices. 
 
 Oct. 25, 1893, Detective Wooldridge had a narrow escape 
 while trying to arrest Charles Sales, a desperate colored man. 
 for committing a* robbery at State and Harrison streets. Sales 
 "whipped out his gun and fired four shots at Wooldridge at 
 short range ; two of the shots passing harmlessly through his 
 coat. Sales was arrested and given one year in the house of 
 correction. 
 
 Rides to Station on Prisoner's Back. 
 
 June 6, 1894, Detective Wooldridge arrested Eugene Buchanan 
 for committing a highway robbery at Polk and Clark streets. 
 A few days prior he had held up and robbed Philip Schneider 
 and kicked out one of his eyes. Buchanan was met in the alley 
 hetween Clark street and Pacific avenue, where he resisted 
 arrest and fought like a demon, using his hands, club and head. 
 In the scuffle he ran his head between Woldridge's legs and, 
 
:i8 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 tried to throw him, but Wooldridge was to quick for him and 
 fastened his legs around Buchanan's neck like a clam. Buchanan 
 could not free himself. Wooldridge pulled his gun and placing 
 it in the ear of Buchanan compelled him to carry him to the 
 Harrison street police station on his shoulder. It was one of 
 the most novel sights ever witnessed, and will he long remem- 
 bered by those who saw it. 
 
 Buchanan was convicted and sent to the penitentiary for three 
 years. Upon his release he applied to Wooldridge to assist 
 him in securing a position. Wooldridge took him to his 
 home, fed him and secured employment for him with Nelson 
 Morris & Co., where he remained three years. He afterwards 
 committed a highway robbery in Washington Park and is now 
 serving an indefinite term in the penitentiary. 
 
 Hangs on Window Sill. 
 
 May IG, 1805, Detective Wooldridge, accompanied by Officers 
 Kern, O'Connor and Cameron, located Matt Kelly at 411 State 
 street, who was wanted for a criminal assault. Kelly was a hold- 
 up man, ex-convict and a notorious safe-blower, who several 
 years prior to this shot two officers in St. Louis, Mo. Kelly 
 was found behind locked doors on the second* floor and refused 
 to open the doors. Detective Wooldridge went to the adjoining 
 flat, opened a window and crawled along the ledge until he had 
 reached Kelly's room; with a revolver in his mouth he pushed 
 up the sash and was faced by Kelly and his wife. 
 
 "Go back or I'll kill you," said Kelly as ho pushed his re- 
 revolver in Wooldridgc's face. 
 
 Wooldridge had meanwhile secured a good hold on the sill 
 of the window, but was not in a position to defend himself. 
 The Kelly woman tried her best to shove him off; she succeeded 
 in loosening one of his hands, and for an instant Detective 
 Wooldridge thought he would have to fall. With an almost 
 superhuman effort Wooldridge broke in the window and cover- 
 ing Kelly with his own revolver ordered him to throw up 
 
BIOGKAFHY 39 
 
 his hands, which he did. He wns taken to the police station 
 and heavily fined. 
 
 A Plot to Kill Detective Wooldridge. 
 
 A dozen of the highwaymen and robbers on whom Wooldridge 
 was waging a relentless warfare gathered together on the 
 ntorning of July 4, 1895, and formed a plot to kill Wooldridge 
 and get him out of the way. They concluded that the night 
 of July 4, when everyone was firing off revolvers and cele- 
 brating, would afford the best opportunity. They imagined it 
 would be an easy thing to shoot him from one of the windows 
 or from a housetop while he was on duty patrolling his post, 
 and no one would know where the shot came from, as there 
 was shooting from every direction. 
 
 An oath of secrecy was taken by all present, and lots drawn 
 to see who was to do the deed. In all probability their plan 
 would have been carried out had it not been for a colored 
 woman, who was watching them and heard the whole plot, and 
 who went with the information to the Harrison Street Police 
 Station. 
 
 Captain Koch and Lieutenant Laughlin were notified and 
 upon investigation found the report to be true. They took im- 
 mediate steps to protect Wooldridge by placing three additional 
 officers in full uniform with him, and also placing six men 
 in citizen's clothes on his post. Every man they met was 
 searched for a gun; every crook, vagrant and thief that they 
 could lay their hands on was placed under lock and key in the 
 station, and by 11 o'clock that night there was no square in 
 the city quieter than the one this officer patrolled, and in two 
 weeks' time "Coon Hollow" and the whole neighborhood for 
 half a mile in every direction had undergone the most remark- 
 able change known to police history, and this change was ap- 
 parent for a long time thereafter. 
 
 February 11, 1896, Detective Wooldridge, while trying to ar- 
 rest a panel-house keeper and three colored holdup men at 413 
 
4a BlOGKArHY 
 
 Dearborn street, was fired upon by one of the trio. Kid White, 
 the shot striking the bar of his watch chain, which was attached 
 to the lower button of his vest. When the bar was struck the 
 bullet was diverted from entering Wooldridge's stomach, and it 
 glanced off and passed through his overcoat. 
 
 Detective Wooldkidge Eoughly Handled. 
 
 In 1896 Wooldridge's tiercest fight came when he arrested 
 George Kinnucan in his saloon at 435 Clark street. A dozen 
 roughs, henchmen of Kinnucan, who were in the saloon at the 
 time, came to the saloonkeeper's rescue. The officer wat; 
 knocked down, his billy taken from him and himself beaten un- 
 conscious with it, and his face and head kicked into one mass of 
 bruises. Through it all he managed to hang on to his revolver. 
 This alone saved him. He finally managed to shoot Kinnucan 
 through the hand and forearm, and a moment later a uniformed 
 man burst in and evened up the battle. Six of the toughs were 
 arrested, and Wooldridge was left alone by them for a long 
 time. 
 
 Fine Work in a Thieves' Resokt. 
 
 In the same year of 1896, Detective Wooldridge, disguising 
 himself as a cheap thief, entered a Clark street criminals' re- 
 sort and fraternized with thieves, murderers and vagabonds 
 of all kinds, in order to obtain information, leading Wooldridge 
 into the most amazing school of crime ever witnessed by a Chi- 
 cago police officer. He was accepted in good faith as a proper 
 sneak thief by the brotherhood, and for his benefit the "man- 
 ager" of the den put his "pupils" through their "lessons." 
 
 These lessons were in shoplifting, pocket picking, purso 
 snatching and other forms of larceny requiring skill and deft- 
 ness. When he had seen enough Wooldridge g(M)erously volun- 
 teered to "rush the growler" and went out — and called the 
 patrol wagon. Twenty-three crooks were arrested this time. 
 Each one of them swore he would have killed the detective had 
 
BIOUKAPHY 41 
 
 his makeup or conduct for an instant directed suspicion toward 
 him. 
 
 Makes High Dive. 
 
 Xovember 30, 1896, Detective Wooldridge made a high dive. 
 
 To offset his aerial stunt he took a high dive from the top of 
 a building, landing on his head in a pile of refuse with such 
 force as to go "in over his head" and stick there so tightly 
 that it required the combined strength of two officers to pull 
 him out by the legs. 
 
 It was near Twelfth and State streets while pursuing two 
 women across a roof that his remarkable stunt took place. The 
 women jumped from the roof into a pile of refuse. They landed 
 on their feet. Wooldridge came after them. He landed on 
 liis head. As he landed he grasped a Avoman with either hand, 
 and held them until the arrival of his brother officers effected 
 his release and their capture. 
 
 But these are only humorous incidents, things to laugh over 
 when the day's work is done. In the parlance of the detectives, 
 they belong to "straight police work." As a direct antithesis 
 to them is the story of the murder and the black cat, which 
 is in real life a weirder and more startling affair than Poe's 
 fantastic tale of the same subject. A black cat helped solve a 
 murder in a way which puts a distinct strain on the credulity 
 of the uninitiated. 
 
 Story Rivals Poe's ^'Black Cat." 
 
 A rich man had been murdered in a certain part of the city. 
 He was in his library at the time of the crime. His family 
 was in an adjoining room, yet none of them heard any noise, 
 or knew what had been done until they found him lifeless on 
 the floor. Investigation proved that he had been shot, but not 
 with an ordinary weapon. The missile in his heart was a com- 
 bination of bullet and dart, evidently propelled from a powerful 
 air rifle or spring gun. But no clew was left by the perpe- 
 
42 BIOGEAPHY 
 
 trator of the crime, and Wooldridge carried the strange mis- 
 sile in his pocket for several months before a single prospect 
 of apprehending the murderer appeared. Then it was the 
 black cat that did it. What strange coincidence or freak of 
 fate it was that impelled the cat to literally lead the detective 
 to a little pile of dirt in an alley that night Wooldridge never 
 has attempted to explain. But lead him it did, and when he 
 dug into the disturbed ground he found something entirely new 
 in the ^un line, the weapon that had discharged the fatal 
 bullet in his pocket. Eventually he traced the gun to its in- 
 ventor, and from there to the man who had purchased it, a 
 young fellow named Johnson, and a supposed friend of the 
 murdered man's family. The consequence was that this man 
 proved to be the murderer. When arrested he at first denied 
 his guilt, broke down under the sweatbox ordeal and confessed, 
 and — killed himself in his cell next morning. 
 
 For mystery and good fortune in bringing an apparently 
 untraceable criminal to justice this incident perhaps has never 
 been equaled in Chicago's police records. 
 
 On Duty in Great Strike. 
 
 In 1900 Chicago's great building trade strike occurred in 
 which 60,000 men were thrown out of employment. Many 
 acts of violence were committed. Several men were killed and 
 many maimed and injured. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge was placed in charge of thirty picked 
 detectives from the detective bureau with orders to suppress 
 these lawless acts and arrest the guilty offenders. Through 
 his vigilance and untiring efforts law and order were soon re- 
 stored, and he was highly complimented by Chief of Police 
 Joseph Kiplcy and the public press. 
 
 Literally speaking, the darkest t^ituation into wliich his ex- 
 periences have led him was the tunnel by which inmates of 
 Mattie Lee's famous resort at 150 Custom House place escaped 
 when the place was raided. Mattie had decided that it was a 
 
BIOGRAPHY 43 
 
 nuisance to go to the station every time the police wanted to 
 arrest her, so she had the tunnel dug. 
 
 After that when the police called on her Mattie greeted them 
 with an empty house and a sweet smile, while underground the 
 inmates were crawling on their hands and knees to safety. 
 Wooldridge found the tunnel and, crawling in, "snaked out" 
 six colored men and women whom he found in the darkness. 
 Versatility is a requisite with the successful detective. 
 
 Remarkable Work as a' Ragpicker. 
 
 May 28, 1905, perhaps, his appearance in the role of a rag- 
 picker, which led to the arrest and conviction of two negro 
 highwaymen, Henry Reed and Ed Lane, was his most daring 
 and successful effort at disguise. Lane is at present serving 
 a lif^ sentence in Joliet for the murder of Robert Metcalfe. 
 
 The assault and robbery of a contractor named Anderson 
 was the occasion for Wooldridge's assumption of the guise of 
 ragpicker. Anderson had described Lane so accurately that the 
 detective was sure of recognizing him once he put his eyes 
 upon him, but in those days a detective to go into the black 
 belt looking for a criminal was to spread a wide alarm over 
 the whole district. Consequently he "made up." A pair of 
 large, worn overalls, a coat three sizes too large, a bunch of 
 papers between his shoulder blades to give him a hunch back, 
 burnt cork, a curly wig, a bag and a piece of telegraph wire, 
 and the erstwhile shrewd-looking detective was in ten minutes 
 the typical negro ragpicker who shambles up and down alleys 
 on the south side in hope of picking up enough for his day's 
 bread. 
 
 While thus pursuing his way Wooldridge not only discovered 
 the presence of Reed and Lane, but actually worked through 
 the refuse in a garbage box upon which Lane was sitting quar- 
 reling with some confederates over the division of the previous 
 night's spoils. He even went so far as to pick up an old coat 
 
44 RIOOHAPHY 
 
 wliich Lane liad discarded. 'I'hcrt'upon Lane ordered him to 
 set out of the ;dl(!y or j^'el his throat cut froui ear to ear. 
 AA'ooldridire weut liunihly out. and waited. 
 
 Hero of So.mi: Fiekck Fights. 
 
 Presently Lane and Keed appeared and went south on State 
 street. Wooldridge followed, and at an opportune moment 
 seized them hoth from hehind. The fight that followed is 
 historic. Only sheer Itick and tlie threat to kill hoth antag- 
 onists on the spot if they did not cease resistance saved the 
 detective's life. After knocking hoth men down with his billy 
 he succeeded in hohling them until a fellow officer came to 
 his rescue. They were arrested and convicted June 25, 100.'). 
 and sent to the penitentiary for three years. « 
 
 May 19, lOOG, Detective Wooldridge raided the following 
 places: H. C. Evins, 125 S. Clark street; George Deshone. 
 64 ?^. Clark .street; E. Manning Stockton, Bar & Co., 50 Fifth 
 avenue, seizing some $30,000 worth of gambling paraphernalia. 
 
 Disclosures of conditions which so seriously threatened the 
 discipline of the T'nited States army and navy that the secre- 
 taries of tlie two departments and even President Roosevelt 
 himself were called upon to aid in their suppression. 
 
 It was charged that a coterie of Chicago men engaged in 
 making and selling these devices had formed a "trust" and 
 had for years robbed, swindled and corrupted the enlisted men 
 of the army and navy through loaded .dice, "holdouts," mag- 
 netized roulette wheels and other crooked gaml)ling apparatus. 
 
 ('i:o()K!;i) (; A.Miti.iNC TursT. 
 
 The "crooked" gnml)ling "trust" in Chicago spread over the 
 civilized world, had its clutches on nearly every United States 
 battleship, army post and military prison; caused wholesale 
 desertions, and in general corrupted tlie entire defensive in- 
 stitution of the nation. 
 
BIOGRAPHY 45 
 
 Thy to Corrupt Schoolboys. 
 
 Besides the corruption of the army, these companies are 
 said to have aimed a blow at the foundation of the nation by 
 offering, through a mail order plan, for six cents, loaded dice 
 to schoolboys, provided they sent the names of likely gamblers 
 among their playmates. 
 
 This plan had not reached its full growth when nipped. 
 But the disruption of the army and navy had been under way 
 for several years and had reached such gigantic proportions 
 that the military service was in danger of complete disorgani- 
 zation. 
 
 Thousands of men were mulcted of their pay monthly. De- 
 sertions followed these wholesale robberies. The war depart- 
 ment could not find the specific trouble. Post commanders and 
 battleship commanders were instructed to investigate. 
 
 The army investigation, confirmed after the raid and ar- 
 rests, showed that the whole army had been honeycombed with 
 corruption by these companies. Express books and registered 
 mail return cards showed that most of the goods were sold 
 to soldiers and sailors. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge Secures Evidexce in Novel Way. 
 
 In August, 1890, complaints had been made at the Stanton 
 'Avenue Police Station for several Aveeks concerning the estab- 
 lishment of a disorderly house at 306 Thirty-first street, but 
 try as they would uniformed officers were helpless so far as se- 
 curing evidence enough to convict was concerned. Wooldridge 
 at that time a uniformed man, was put in plain clothes and 
 detailed on the ease. One of the great stumbling blocks in 
 the way of the police had been the high basement under the 
 house, which made it impossible for any one to look in the 
 windows of the flat without the aid of the ladder. As the pres- 
 ence of a ladder would arouse suspicion, the problem of view- 
 ing the inside of the flat was a difficult one. 
 
46 BIOUBAPHY 
 
 One thing the other men on the case had overlooked. This 
 was the presence of a beam jutting out from the top of the 
 building to which a rope, pulley, and barrel were attached, 
 used as a means of lowering garbage and ashes from the second 
 floor to the alley. Wooldridge saw the possibilities of the rope 
 and barrel trick. Attaching to the rope a vinegar barrel with 
 holes bored in it at convenient intervals, he awaited an oppor- 
 tune time, curled up in the barrel, and had himself drawn up 
 to the level of the windows by two officers. The lowering and 
 raising of the barrel being a customary thing in the building, 
 excited no suspicion in the minds of those in the flat, and 
 Wooldridge, with his sleuth's eye at one of the holes, saw what 
 served to drive the place out of existence and secure the con- 
 viction of its keeper. 
 
 Acts as Vendor of Fighting "Chickens." 
 
 One of the last exploits of Detective Woolridge before his 
 completion of the twenty years of service, was the breaking up 
 of the cock-fighting mains, which infested Chicago during the 
 latter part of 1900 and the early part of 1907. 
 
 The story savors of the burlesque. Wooldridge obtained in- 
 formation as to the whereabouts of a cock-fight which was to 
 be pulled off. ■ Then he sought out and purchased a pair of 
 decrepit old roosters, that would not fight an English sparrow, 
 bundled them into a sack and started for scene of action. Ar- 
 rived in wliat he knew to be the neighborhood of the fight, he 
 declared that he had been sent to deliver some "fightin' chick- 
 uns." He was directed to an old, abandoned building. Here 
 he was admitted and left the antique roosters. Then he said 
 he was going for more birds. Instead he went for a patrol 
 wagon. And that was the end of the chicken fight. 
 
 The trapping of the Wildcat Insurance companies furnishes 
 one of the most dramatic chapters in the financial history of 
 the United States, if not in the world. It involves millions 
 of stolen dollars, brutal filching from the poor, heartless com- 
 
BIOGRAPHY 47 
 
 mercial brigandage and finally the running to earth and con- 
 viction of the ringleaders and promoters of the "WILDCAT 
 INSUEANCE COMPANIES" OF CHICAGO, by Detective 
 Wooldridge. 
 
 The police and postal authorities vi^orked together. Two 
 thousand eight hundred letters were sent out asking for infor- 
 mation and gathering evidence. 
 
 At the trial of Dr. S. W. Jacobs, on one of these cases, there 
 were 200 witnesses present. Five of these witnesses were vic- 
 tims, and lived in tents. Three were living in wagons: One. 
 Samuel James, of Westfield, Illinois, a carpenter, 64 years of 
 age, had a wife and six children. He had built his house 
 rtiorning and evening. 
 
 Bribery Tactics of No Avail. 
 
 James accomplished the end of his heart's desire. It cost 
 him $900 and his health, for he was in the clutches of con- 
 sumption when the cottage was finally paid for. Fearing lest 
 the fruit of his life-work should be swept away by fire, James 
 took out an insurance policy in one of Dr. S. W. Jacobs' Wild- 
 cat Insurance companies. The house burned down and he was 
 not indemnified. With his wife and six little children James 
 was forced to take shelter in a chicken coop, where they were 
 living when the broken-hearted father came to Chicago as a 
 witness against Dr. S. W. Jacobs. 
 
 Twenty-five thousand dollars was tendered to an attorney 
 to bribe Wooldridge in the case. 
 
 The breaking up of the drug ring, however, was a delicate 
 task. It was strongly backed financially, and it was aided and 
 abetted throughout the United States by political rings galore. 
 Chicago was the headquarters. 
 
 A ten thousand dollar bribe was offered Detective Wooldridge, 
 October 29, 1904, by the spurious medicine concerns to return 
 their goods and stop the prosecution; this failed. Then false 
 and malicious charges were filed with the Civil Service Com- 
 
48 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 missioners against Wooldridge, which was taken up and th«; 
 trial lasted nineteen sessions. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge was exonerated by the entire board 
 of commissioners, and complimented by the press and public- 
 spirited citizens. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge secured four indictments against the 
 above four men, which was returned by the Cook county grand 
 jury May 25, 1905. J. S. Dean turned state's evidence and 
 assisted the prosecution. 
 
 J. H. Carson promoted and run eighteen different matrimonial 
 agencies. He was arrested eighteen times. He offered Woold- 
 ridge a bribe of $100 per month not to arrest him. This failed 
 and he brought suit in the Superior Court against AVooldridge 
 for $5,000 damages, thinking this would stop him. The next 
 day after filing the suit he was arrested again, and was finally 
 driven out of Chicago. 
 
 From $10,000 to $20,000 has been off'ered at a time for his 
 discharge or transfer by these get-rich-quick concerns. Every 
 political pressure was brought to bear, but to no avail. 
 
 Ex-Chief of Police Francis O'Xeill, in his annual report of 
 1905, states that Detective Wooldridge accomplished more work 
 in breaking up the get-rich-quick concerns in Chicago, in the 
 year 1904, than the whole Chicago police department had in 
 its lifetime. He did eqtially as much work, if not more, in the 
 years of 1905, 1906 and 1907. 
 
 The day is never too long nor the night too dark for De- 
 tective Wooldridge to find time to succor or save a young girl 
 who has gone wrong or strayed from the path of rectitude. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge, without fear or favor, for many years 
 inaugurated crusades and waged wars against the liosts of 
 criminal enterprise. Whenever a man or ((nueni could imt 
 show a "clear bill of health'' he lorcrd him to "disinfect, de- 
 part or submit to the quarantine of the ef)iinty jail." 
 
 By vigilance and hard work he succeeded in obtaining good 
 results. Units, scores, and legions of fraudulent concerns have 
 
BIOGKAPHY 49 
 
 been exposed and driven out of existence. Owners of others, 
 anticipating exposure, did not wait, but closed their places and 
 fled. Many headquarters of contraband schemes have been 
 raided and their promoters arrested, fined, and forced to cease 
 operations. During that time retributive justice has been vis- 
 ited upon countless heads that were devoted to devising crim- 
 inal schemes. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge permits no creed, color, religion or 
 politics to interfere with him in his sworn duty. He wants 
 and exacts the truth, and a square deal for himself, and ac- 
 cords the same to his fellow men. He has never been known- 
 to wilfully persecute any man or to lie or strain a point to 
 convict him, neither will' ho suffer the same to be done by any 
 man if he can prevent it. 
 
 Wooldridge's motto is equal justice to all — be sure you are- 
 right, then go ahead. 
 
 James P. AViLsoisr, 
 
What Are YOU Going to Do About It? 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 THE REIGN OF GRAFT. 
 
 Recent Exposures That Show How Strongly It Is 
 Intrenched. 
 
 ARE YOU A GRAFTER? 
 
 Those Shocked at Exposures May Not Be Clean 
 Themselves. 
 
 "A 'grafter' is one who makes his living (and sometimes Ins 
 fortune) by 'grafting/ He may be a political boss, a mayor, 
 a chief of police, a warden of a penitentiary, a municipal con- 
 tractor, a member of a town council, a representative in the 
 legislature, a judge in the courts, and the upper world may 
 know him only in his political capacity; but if the under 
 world has had occasion to approach him for purposes of *graft' 
 and found him corrupt, he is immediately classified as an 
 'unmugged grafter' — one whose photograph is not in the 
 rogues' gallery, but ought to be. The professional thief is the 
 'mugged grafter'; his jDhotograph and Bertillon measurements 
 are known and recorded. 
 
 The world of graft is whereever known and unknown thieves 
 or bribetakers congregate. In the United States it is fovmd 
 mainly in the large cities, but its boundaries take in small 
 county seats and even villages. A correct map of it is im- 
 possible, because in a great many places it is represented by 
 
rrZ (iHAFT XATlU.XS W UKST 1:0E 
 
 au unknown rather than by a known inhabitant, by a dishonest, 
 ofiicial or an unscrupulous and wary politician rather than a 
 confessed thief, and the geographer is helpless until he can 
 collect the facts, which may never come to light. The most 
 that one man can do is to make voyages of discovery, find out 
 what he can and report upon his experiences to the general 
 public. 
 
 Within the last year or two it has become practically a 
 synonym for a thief who filches public money and money of 
 large enterprises. It has been so largely used in the public 
 prints and periodicals, and more recently in books, that it has 
 spread abroad ; and London and Paris and Berlin, in referring 
 to many American disclosures, adopt the word without any 
 translation. So today no American word is better known 
 cither in this country or in Europe. 
 
 When men in office take a bribe and give away what does 
 not belong to them, it is more than the double crime of ex- 
 torting and stealing; it is treason. Graft is the worst form 
 of despotism. It is a usurpation of government by the forces 
 of crime. There have been many virtuous kings and honest 
 feudal lords, but the despotism of graft never founded its rule 
 upon a semblance of the moral law. 
 
 rjraft in its highest personification is the king of the Amer- 
 ican nation in political, commercial and social life. 
 
 Graft is Gveklohd. 
 
 Overlord of 80,000,000 people in the greatest republic of 
 history, commanding his tens of millions of dollars annuallv 
 as tribute to graft in a million of liis impersonations — was Sol- 
 omon in all his glory to be compared with this? 
 
 Nine states in the union of forty-five states recently h.w 
 • b'elared that graft exposures have not been in their cati^gorics 
 nf political publicity for a year. They are Afaine, North Cnro- 
 lina, Afississippi. Town. Michi.LfJin. rujorado. Xrw York. Illinois 
 
GKAFT NATION'S WOKST FOE 
 
 53 
 
5^ GKAFT NATIONS WOKST FOE 
 
 and California. But who shall say what another six months 
 may bring forth? 
 
 In industrial, commercial and social life of the xVmerican 
 people there is not a state in which King Graft has not his 
 court and his following. In the capital of capitals at Wash- 
 ington for generations the powers of government as dreamed 
 of for the republic have been superseded by King Graft time 
 after time, and the impeachment of his princes, grand dukes 
 and courtiers generally have not threatened his reign in future 
 generations. 
 
 Scores of Proud NamUs Smirched. 
 
 Within the last few years names that have stood honored 
 for a generation in financial, political and social life have 
 been dragged down from high places perliaps as never before 
 in America. The court of King Graft has been attacked and 
 threatened as never before, and with greater showing. There 
 is war in the open against this pretender king, and his legions 
 everywhere are retiring behind their breastworks, broken but 
 not defeated. 
 
 Graft in its nakedness, has been exposed and the people are 
 aroused, fearing that the grafter has sucked the life blood of 
 the republic. 
 
 What they have seen is but a glimpse of real conditions — 
 the ulcer spots where the rottenness beneath has broken 
 through — but they have seen enough to realize the peril and 
 attack it. Wliile the conditions revealed are astounding and 
 alarming, they are signs of improvement. 
 
 The nation is better than it was a decade ago, since tens of 
 thousands of grafters have been stamped out, since the leaders 
 of the greatest grafts of the land have been exposed to the 
 withering light of contempt of all decent Americans. 
 
 Life of Natio.v Imperiled. 
 Also, bom of the conditions, there has arisen a little armv 
 
(iiiAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 55 
 
56 OR A FT .VATI()\-S WORST FOK 
 
 of leaders willinp: to engage the enemy and lead the people 
 against the gralteis. They have heen raised up to meet the 
 crisis of the nation's life, and with every blow they strike new 
 recruits are joining them in the war against graft. 
 
 They are still weak, and King Graft and his votaries arc 
 still strong, hut during the last year the leaders have won sonic 
 remarkahle skirmishes and routed the grafters. 
 
 Nation, States axd Cities Aroused. 
 
 Senators and congressmen at the national capital have heen 
 impeached, and indicted, and tried, and convicted of grafting. 
 
 Bureau officials, as in the cotton scandal, the postoffiee 
 frauds, and otlier of the departments, and civil service exposes 
 have heen arraigned by their own democracy for traitor in- 
 trigues with King Graft, and have been beheaded. 
 
 State senators, representatives, treasurers and the innumer- 
 able "small fry" of official life, together with the millionaire 
 briber and his henchmen at state capitals, have been uncovered 
 and convicted of de])auching democracy in l)ehalf of a pre- 
 tender sovereign. 
 
 Great cities have been shaken with the inquisitorial rounds 
 of investigations. Philadelphia of Independence memories has 
 been weighed in the balance and found wanting; in St. TiOuis 
 the prosecutor governor. Folk, has stirred corruption to the 
 depths: New York has been moved as it has not been since 
 the overthrow of Tammany; IMinneapolis has been cleansed: 
 and the spcctftcular "graft hunt" in l\rilwaukee has beiMi a 
 lesson in "how to do it." Perhaps never before in the history 
 of America have so many grafters been scattered to the winds, 
 in hiding or locked behind the bars of prisons. 
 
 President Treads Foes of Graft. 
 
 But King Graft wears the crown of the pretender still, 
 and there are few of his fighting enemies who are disposed i.. 
 rest upon tlieir arms in cither truce or armistice. 
 
UKAF'l' NAT10N\S WOKST FOE • 57 
 
 The war against graft is led by the pref?ident of the United 
 ►States, who .stands as the foremost foe of grafting — 
 political, financial or social — in the world, and behind him is 
 a plialanx led by Folk, Jerome, Riis, Lawson, Hadley, Miss 
 Tarbell, Deneen, Monnctt and others of their type, fighting 
 the nation's most crucial battle. 
 
 The grafters have declared that the objects of some of these 
 men were selfish, but, no matter for what object they fight, 
 they are routing the grafters in many fields and showing to 
 the awakening public the peril of the situation ; revealing to 
 a commonweal til tlio worms gnawing at the vitals of the re- 
 j)ublic. 
 
 Forces of Graft Hard Pressed. 
 
 Never were the forces of money and commercial and in- 
 dustrial power so bewildered and so uncertain of the way to 
 turn as they are now. Graft, to their best interests, is still 
 covertly a necessity to them, but covert graft never was so 
 liard to keep covert, now that briber and the bribed are the 
 common quarry of the law. The time was when the rich man 
 who bought political power to his uses was unnamed, stand- 
 ing apart. The grafter legislator was the cause and the con- 
 sequence. Beginning and ending with the corrupt official whose 
 official place was grafted upon corruption, the official became 
 immune from the consequences. 
 
 "Grafting in this state never has cost the taxpayer a dollar," 
 was one of the slogans of a machine government in its at- 
 tempts to perpetuate that machine for the purposes of King 
 Graft and his court. 
 
 But this false i:)hilosophy slowly was undermined. Not only 
 was it found that graft did cost money to the state, but it 
 became a certainty that it was costing something even more 
 valuable than money. Graft became the one object of the 
 political seeker after office. The impersonal graft-giver was 
 a hanger-on at lawmaking centers, and the political graft- 
 
58 GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 seeker was insisting upon election or appointment to the 
 machine positions. 
 
 Hideous Peril Is Revealed. 
 
 The result, first, was a campaign upon the man who had the 
 gi-aft to dispense. He was sought out, and was found in high 
 places. His lobbyists were more easily marked than was the 
 principal. So the law and the law's executive began also to 
 campaign against the lobbyists. Suddenly the "good fellow" 
 at a state capitol who had with him the perquisites of good 
 fellowship in graft measure found himself facing the interro- 
 gation : 
 
 "What are you doing here?'' 
 
 The scope of the query has grown, and it is still growing, in 
 some quarters even to the point of requiring the man who is 
 elected to office to render the cost figure of his successful cam- 
 paign. All over the country, and touching nearly every rela- 
 tion in official, commercial and financial life, men have been 
 put on the griddle of publicity by courts and commissions, 
 and with backs to the wall have been sitting in the witness 
 chair, holding to the one surly response to an irritating, pene- 
 trating cross-examination : "Decline to answer on advice of 
 counsel." 
 
 But for all purposes of publicity have not these refusals to 
 answer carried light enough? 
 
 "The public be d d !" was the original first utterance of 
 
 the millionaire, designed to stop interrogations which would 
 not down. 
 
 "What are you going to do about it?" was the counter ques- 
 tion of the political grafter who once was cliarged witli 
 grafting. 
 
 "Where did he get it?" came to be a question of the poli- 
 tician for political purposes, and within a year the country has 
 heard non-political bodies asking the same question of the 
 millionaire philanthropist who has been trying to give it 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 THE CAVE OF DESPAIR. 
 
 59 
 
60 GKAFT NATION "8 WUKST FOE 
 
 away. Under the growing interrogations of the time, names 
 have been thrown from pedestals Avithin a year as names never 
 before were juggled by the fates. 
 
 Idols Covered with Slime. 
 
 Depew, once a candidate for nomination for the presidency, 
 a United States senator still by some grace of toleration, and 
 at one time referred to in European royal circles as a "repre- 
 sentative American citizen." 
 
 United States Senator Mitchell became a derelict, politically 
 and socially. 
 
 United States Senator Thomas C. Piatt was wrecked in the 
 wreckage. 
 
 United States Senator Burton became blackened in the 
 charges of graft. 
 
 Depew is a name no longer to conjure with. 
 
 Then followed a long list of the commercially and financially 
 prominent civilians, blackened, and with such blackness as 
 never to be white again by any of the old processes which once 
 sufficed. 
 
 Graft is still king. But, truer than of any other monarch, it 
 may be repeated: "Uneasy lies the head that wears the 
 crown." 
 
 The Unconscious Ghafteh. 
 
 It was a rhetorical and sensational sentence in which a re- 
 cent speaker in this city declared that the worst grafter is 
 the man who does not vote. But there is much more than 
 a kernel of truth in the words. The citizens of a republic 
 need constant stimulus to the fulfillment of the plainest duties 
 of life. The l)etter the working of the machinery of govern- 
 ment, the less the average man is affected. He rarely feels ihr 
 pressure of taxation. TIc^ lives in a. generation from whi(!h no 
 military service is demanded. He is permitted freedom of 
 thought, speech and religion, and altnost insensiblv, as a re- 
 
GKAFT XATiON\S WUPuST FOE 61 
 
 suit, lie loses sight of the supreme obligation which is due 
 his couiitr3\ He forgets that that country, in time of public 
 stress, may demand his time, his property and his life, drafting 
 him for its armies if he does not wish to Tolunteer, governing 
 him under martial law, which sets aside the usual privileges 
 accorded him, and exercising over him, if need be, a tyranny 
 ordinarily associated with despotism among the older peoples. 
 The very fact that the American citizen does not often feel 
 the exercise of the sovereign power, and is not called upon 
 to pay the supreme obligation of service, makes him careless 
 of his civic duties, when, it might be thought, he would feel 
 the utmost gratitude for the privilege of living under such 
 favoring conditions. This carelessness becomes chronic, and 
 there is abundant need for the constant reiterati<jn of the call 
 to duty. If, then, a citizen is content to enjoy the comforts 
 and the quiet of American life without rendering any return 
 therefor, he may justly be called a grafter, and a grafter of 
 that worst sort, who robs his benefactor. For, with duty faith- 
 fully performed by the citizen, public opinion is readily shaped, 
 lawg quickly secure enforcement, and public servants are kept 
 clean and true. It all comes back at last to the individual 
 citizen, upon whom must rest the responsibility for failure or 
 success jot government. It is easy enough to cry out against 
 the grafter in official position who puts his hand into the pub- 
 lic treasury. Perhaps, after all, the worst offender is the 
 citizen who does not vote, who does not take a lively interest in 
 the selection and election of his rulers, who fails to recognize 
 the underlying obligation of service which his country has a 
 just right to demand of him. 
 
 War on Graft Just Beginning. 
 
 But, thus far, only the beginning of the truth has been 
 shown. There remains the senate of the United States, the 
 railway companies, the Standard Oil Company, the great 
 trusts, the multimillionaires, to be investigated. All of them 
 
62 UKAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 now are in the limelight. The courts of law are under sus- 
 picion and must clear themselves by their acts, for undoubt- 
 edly the revelations of the last year have shaken the faith of 
 the people in their judges. 
 
 After these, the huge powers of the land, cleansed states, coun- 
 ties 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 Gilifters. 
 
 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 dis- 
 posed of in different cities by auction and attractive sales, 
 closing up their stores and decamping when tliey had con- 
 verted the credited stock into cash, were swindlers of unusual 
 calibre. 
 
 The police of several cities now liave 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 dar- 
 ing 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 those cormorants calls 
 for constant readjustment of honest persons to the conditions 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WOKST FOE 08 
 
 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 prin- 
 cipally 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 ex- 
 tremely few are started with any idea other than that of sepa- 
 rating a lot of people from their money. Occasionally there 
 is a man who sincerely believes that he has discovered some- 
 thing new and precious in the way of a religion, and estab- 
 lishes a cult with the motive only to help people according to 
 his own lights. But the mass of the new religions, sun wor- 
 shipers, psychists. Brahmins, Hindus, theosophists, mystics, 
 
«4 (tHAI- r NATION S WiHlST l(>K 
 
 etc., are promoted with the same object in view as that of the 
 (ilfl nofirro voodoo doctors — get the money. 
 
 Ftx.\xcial Yield.s Are Large. 
 
 The financial yields of the new religions are incomparably 
 liigher than is the voodoo man's gain. His followers, win* 
 l)flieve in black art an.d other foolish, old-fashioned things, arc 
 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 
 (hibbles not with the poor — neither, it mu.st be confessed, en- 
 tirely 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 ai;o to England to attend school, he returned 
 to hi? 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 bv rote, and, putting this along with a smattering of 
 Buddhism, ])sychology and sun wor.ehip, he managed to ap- 
 pear in America with a new religion, fairly reeking with th«' 
 essentials recpiired by thos(> who want invsticisni served nlou;: 
 with their religions belief-. 
 
 MVSTK IS.\I DlIAWS M.wv CoNVKnTS. 
 
 lie liad a new god, a new heaven and forty different and 
 distinct ways of torturing one's self while worshiping his deity. 
 
GRAFT XATIOX-S WOHST FOK 65 
 
 Mortifyinfc the flef;li tln-o\igh fasting and solf-donial, tortnrinjr 
 (tno's self by standing with the hands above the head, etc., all 
 wore included in the new creed, besides such things as astral 
 bodie-i and the other things that go with a new religion. Ho 
 first held forth in a sumptuously furnished city fiat, whore ho 
 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 fore- 
 gathered under the tutelage of the young oriental. There 
 wore 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 tlie stygian darkness of the old and false 
 dogmas and creeds. 
 
 After those who flocked to his standard had been so thor- 
 oughly imbued with the sincerity of his teachings that his 
 word was law to them, the money question came to the fore. 
 He, the missionary, Avanted 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 dev- 
 otees of the new religion in that countr}^ 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 sub- 
 scribing to the school fund. 
 
 Since the beginning of things, when man first beheld tlie 
 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 ho had boon at all inclined that wav, which he wasn't, and 
 
06 GEAFT XATIOX'S WOKST FOE 
 
 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 
 
GBAFT NATION'S WOEST FOK 
 
 67 
 
 ^ * 
 
 tlO^MHftflf 
 
 Two minds with but a single thought; 
 Two heads that beat us all. 
 
68 GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 that through him, and througli him only, is it possible to 
 obtain eternal salvation. 
 
 In appearance this man is a liuman 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 ar- 
 tificial 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 sin- 
 cere 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 prac- 
 tice the cruelest of religious customs is evidenced by the man- 
 ner 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 intelli- 
 gent, 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 t}'pe 
 of fraud, even without raising the question of religious 
 scruples. 
 
 Pawn Tickfts on DiA:^ioxns. 
 
 •Vnother 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 look- 
 ing for a small loan on valuable family jewelry and diamonds 
 The interest offered is much hi£:her than that allowed bv anv 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 69 
 
 savings bank. Diamonds, as everybody knows, are just as 
 good as money and offer perfect security. In hopes of profit- 
 ing 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 rep- 
 resents 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. 
 
 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 opera- 
 tions. 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 foe Interest. 
 
 The victim naturally considers a further loan on such dia- 
 monds 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 perpe- 
 trators of the fraud, but the prosecution could not succeed. 
 The reasoii is obvious. On the face of the transaction every- 
 
yo GRAFT NATION'IS WORST FOE 
 
 thing seemed to be regular, and the defendants could not be 
 made criminally responsible for an erroneous conclusion ar- 
 rived 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 de- 
 fraud the public? 
 
 New Law Badly Needed. 
 
 On the civil side of legal practice there is the writ of in- 
 junction 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 eharacter 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, ia a elass of people that lea<t ean 
 afford it? 
 
 PosT.voE Stamp CIuaitki;. 
 
 The postage stamj) ^nafter is one of the most pestiferous of 
 tlie "toucher" genus. He bobs up in olliees, ou the streets, 
 
GRAFT NATIONS WORST FOE 71 
 
 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, 
 1)ut, 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 
 cliance that the fellow may be telling the trutli. Anyway, 
 it is only a stamp. You produce the stamp, and may give 
 the "toucher" several stamps so that he can answer more ad- 
 vertisements 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 dis- 
 count — know they have been given, and not stolen. 
 
 "You are the third man that has tadclod me for a stamp 
 today," said a man in the lobby of a do-wmtown 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 con- 
 sensus of opinion being that the average runs higher than 
 
72 GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 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 bom 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 stenog- 
 rapher, clerk, etc., is of pleasing and attractive appearance. 
 The more so the better, though this is not absolutely neces- 
 sary. 
 
 Plays on Tardy Victim. 
 
 In fact, the only condition actually necessary to the suc- 
 cessful prosecution of this new game is that one of the em- 
 ployees come down to work later than others. This must be. 
 The operator picks a morning when said employee is lato 
 in arriving at his or her place of employment. If the em- 
 ploj'ce is a young woman stenographer, so much the better. 
 Operator may be either male or female, but should be of pros- 
 perous 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 in- 
 formed himself as to the individual's Christian name and sur- 
 name, 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 pos- 
 sess more than a human average of suspicion and wariness. 
 
 Fall Guy Takes Bait. 
 "Oh, I'm 80 sorry! Now, I wouldn't have come to deliver 
 
GKAFT NATION S WOKfc>T FOE 73 
 
 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 morn- 
 ing!" 
 
 Sucker Digs Out Coix. 
 
 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 vnth 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 in-, 
 ventor by the throat. It is the letter-copying scheme. Eeal 
 
74 
 
 GRAFT XATIOX'S WORST FOE 
 
 AN ATTEMPT TO CATCH YOUR EYE 
 
 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 con- 
 tribute to their own support and persons whom poverty has 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 75 
 
 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 con- 
 stantl)'' are seen in the newspapers offering employment that 
 will not necessitate canvassing, or peddling, and which can be 
 done in the homo with great profit. Occasionally the "ads."' 
 explain that the work is that of copying letters. 
 
 Write Smooth Letters. 
 
 The victim answers the "ad." and in reply receives this 
 stereotyped letter — the form is the same in every instance: 
 
 Esteemed Feieni\: 
 
 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 receiv- 
 ing 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 Avriters demand, neither is there any can- 
 vassing 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 em- 
 ployes honestly. 
 
 The work is easy ; the letters to be written are the lengjth 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 re- 
 ceived. 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 our- 
 selves 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 
 
?0 GRAFT XATiOiN\S WORST FOK 
 
 reliable ivorkcrs arc needed at once, and we guarantee every- 
 thing 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. Kendali^. 
 
 Rob Bed-Ridden Women. 
 
 Tn their investigation of this sort of swindle the police dis- 
 eovered 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 ofiices 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 con- 
 struction 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 loopholes 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 crip- 
 ple would await the arrival of the "outfit" that was to give 
 him the opportunitv of prolonging existence! The bright 
 
GRAFT KATION^S WORST FOE t7 
 
 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 ever)'' in- 
 stance 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 
 
GKAFT NATIONS WOKST KoK 
 
 money and b\i.*iness 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. 
 
 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 
 
GlIAFT .NATION'S WOKST FOE 79 
 
 merchandise as he sells it. But the first step with the "finan- 
 cial agent" means entering the portals of bankruptcy. 
 
 The loan shark first finds for his victim an industrious, hard- 
 working manufactiu-er or wholesaler, who by his push and per- 
 severance has built a business beyond his capital, and approaches 
 liim. 
 
 "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 
 cis 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. 
 
 "T 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 dis- 
 count, 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 
 tent 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, be- 
 cause your customers do not pay their bills promptly. Thus 
 you lose 2 per cent a month by not buying and selling for 
 cash/' . 
 
 Okt« $S00 for $1,000. 
 
 The manufacturer begins to see a thriving business on a 
 cash basis without exposing his weakness, and agi'ees 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 at- 
 
80 GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 tached. 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 '\nll send you a 
 check for $800, less our commission of 2 per cent a month, 
 just what you are pa3'ing 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 wc 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 entirel}'. Once a month we will send a man 
 over to cheek 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 arrange- 
 ment 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 3 per 
 cent for additional ser\-ice rendered, although the agency has 
 had absolutely nothing to do with the accounts beyond holding 
 fhem 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, tlic cheek called 
 for often is a formidable one. The manufacturer is at his 
 wits' end. He goes to the agency post haste and. after they 
 
GKAFT NAT10.\'« WOKciT FUE 
 
 81 
 
82 GRAFT NATIONS WORST FOE 
 
 find it is impossible to hold him up for a check, they say: 
 
 "Oh, well, never mind, the bank — always the bank — is press- 
 ing 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." 
 
 Loses His W 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 lie 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 
 (he bookkeeper's desk in tlie manufacturer's oflice. In \hv 
 morning the statements go to the office of the loan shark, who 
 says : 
 
 "I'll have the auditor clieck 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 transfen-ed to Killem's Mercantile 
 Company. You arc notified to pay this account to no one else." 
 
GIUFT NATION S WUK«T FOE 83 
 
 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 imder- 
 stand. 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 get- 
 ting 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 manufac- 
 turer 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 Sym- 
 pathy — How Philanthropy is Humbugged — Begging for 
 Money to Reach Home — An Army of Frauds and Vaga- 
 bonds — ^Mastering the Deaf Mute Language for Swin- 
 dling Purposes — The Public Should be Careful in 
 Disbursing Alms. 
 
 vSpeech is so common, eyesight so precious, that he who 
 would appeal for charity needs no better warrant than that ho 
 is dumb or blind. In an age when words are multiplied and 
 golden silence is seldom found, the very fact that lips can 
 
84 GKAFT NATION'^ WOEST FOE 
 
 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 hlind. There is nothing 
 which so draws one to share the burdens of another as the ap- 
 peal 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 arc 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 witli 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 as- 
 siet 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 scries of ])antomimic signs, to 
 enroll his name, together with the sum advanced, in regular 
 
GliAFT NATION'S WOliST FOE 85 
 
 order on a blank list which he tenders with his touching ap- 
 peal. 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 sur- 
 prise 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 con- 
 tinued appeals. This class of beggar never looks like a dissi- 
 pated 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 ques- 
 tion 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 hap- 
 pens and a person be present who can converse wth 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 in- 
 fallibly wring from you the coveted assistance. It is like two 
 minstrels at a Saxon court. You know your oAvn has Been 
 the holy land, though you have not, and as he tells you, this 
 
86 CrEAFT NATION'S WOKST IDE 
 
 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 im- 
 posture by men who pitied a misfortune and gave money at 
 their homes in the morning to sec 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 elo- 
 quent of need. He Mali 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 hesi- 
 tate, 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. 
 
 The public sliould be chary in bestowing charity, and es])c- 
 cially to able-bodied men who appear blind, deaf and dumb, 
 or are still claiming to be victims of some recent disaster. 
 Most any one who has charity to bestow can easily think of 
 some deserving and honest unfortunate in their own neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 rAij.vLVTic \ Bad Actok. 
 
 The most transparent fraud on the streets of the great citie.< 
 is the pscu(lo-i)aralytic. At almost any street corner can W 
 seen what puri)()its to he a trembling wreck of a man. His 
 legs arc twisted into liorribh; shapes. The hand which lie 
 stretches forth for alms is a mere claw, seemingly twisted by 
 pain into all sorts of distorted shapes, trembling and wavering. 
 The arms move back and forth in ])athetie twistings as if the 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 8r 
 
 pains were shootino- up and down the ligaments with all tht> 
 force of sciatica. 
 
 The heaH bobs from side to side as if it were impossible to 
 keep it still. And the words which come from the half-para- 
 lyzed mouth are a mere mumble of inarticulate sounds, as if 
 the tongue, too, were suffering torture. 
 
 A more pitiable sight than this could not be conjured up. 
 And the extended hat of the victim of what seems to be a 
 complication of St. Vitus dance, paralysis, sciatic rheumatism, 
 and the delirium tremens, is always a ready receptacle for 
 the pennies, nickels and dimes of the thoughtless. This is one 
 side of the picture; now look on the other. 
 
 It is dusk. Jiist that time of day when the lights are not 
 yet brightening the streets, and wlion the sun has made the 
 great tunnels between the sky-scrapers, ways of darkness. De- 
 tective Wooldridge is watching. He has been watching two of 
 the deplorable fraternity for two hours. As the dusk deepens 
 he sees them both arise, dart swiftly across the street and board 
 a car. By no mere chance is it that they are both on the same 
 car. The detective follows. Before a low saloon on the West 
 Side the victims of innumerable diseases descend from the 
 car, walking upright as six-year soldiers on parade. They 
 enter the saloon. They seat themselves at a table behind an 
 angle in the back which conceals them from the street. The 
 detective loiters down to the end of the bar and watches. From 
 every pocket, even from the hat rim, pours a pile of coins. 
 
 The two sort out the quarters, the nickels, the pennies. The 
 heaps are very evenly divided over two or three cheap whiskies 
 or a couple of bottles of five-cent beer. 
 
 Then the real finale comes. Detective Wooldridge gets busy, 
 and a goodly portion of the spoil finds its way out of the hands 
 of the sharpers in the way of a fine. 
 
 But for every one of these paralytic frauds caught there are 
 dozens, even scores, who get away unscathed. It is the esti- 
 mate of the best detectives that not one in a thousand of these 
 
88 GJRAFT NATION'S WORST POK 
 
 paralj'tic beggars is genuine. It is one of the most bare-faced 
 oases of deception of the public which comes under the notice 
 of the police. 
 
 Easy Money From Kixd Hearts. 
 
 Charity covers a multitude of sins, almost as many backs, 
 ;ind quite a bit of graft. 
 
 Thoughtless giving is almost a crime. It serve to encourage 
 idleness, and idleness is at the bottom of more crime than any 
 other one thing, unless it is poverty. 
 
 Here is a story, given in the words of the man himself, which 
 shows how the charity graft is worked in a number of ways. 
 It covers several fields, and is so dramatic that it is given as 
 the best example of fdl-round charity grafting: 
 
 "In experience in charitable work last summer I discov- 
 ered some of these truths. It was the first time in all my 
 life that I ever engaged in any charitable enterprise, and the 
 needy that I sought to relieve was myself. 
 
 "Any one will beg, borrow, or steal in the name of charity. 
 They may be as personally honest as a trust magnate — and they 
 would be horrified at the idea of begging or stealing for them- 
 selves, but charity makes them respectable. At least this is 
 the theory I worked on. 
 
 "I was broke and far from home. I decided that I would 
 starve or steal rather than beg. Then a fellow I mot acci- 
 dentally put me on to a way of making a living. 
 For the Benefit of the Heathen. 
 
 "He had a lot of literature either really from a big church, 
 charitable organization, or fraudulently printed, and he ex- 
 plained to me that I was to soil those 25 cents a copy for the 
 benefit of the heathen somewhere, or home missions. I was 
 to get 2~) per cent of the money resulting from such sales. 
 
 "About a week later, when I had received $12 besides a 
 little expense money from him. I discovered that he was keep- 
 ing all the money. T took the rest of the literature and do- 
 
(IRA FT ^NATION'S WORST FOE 89 
 
 stroyed it. Three days later, when I was hungry, I rather re- 
 gretted destroying it. 
 
 "I Joined a circus that was moving toward my home town 
 in Western Iowa, intending to leave it there and quit being a 
 tramp. I was then down in Eastern Pennsylvania. I was a 
 canvas hand. We went west by a tortuous route, and I never 
 could accumulate enough coin to pay my way home, so was 
 forced to stick to the place for many weeks. 
 
 "The second week one of the canvas hands came to me and 
 asked me to circulate a subscription paper among the men for 
 the benefit of one Will Turner, a member of the band, who, 
 he said, had dropped off the train while running over from 
 the last stop, and badly injured himself. 
 
 Gave the Monet to Canvas Boss. 
 
 "I circulated the paper. The man told me he already had 
 collected from the band on another subscription paper, so I 
 needn't go to them. The man subscribed over $40 to help 
 Turner, and I' gave the money and the paper to the canvas 
 boss who asked me to make the collection. 
 
 "He took it, and remarked gratefully that ho would make 
 it all right with me. I didn't catch the significance of the 
 remark then. About a week after that the same canvas boss 
 came again with another subscription paper for the benefit of 
 John Kane, who, he said, was a gasoline lamp tender and had 
 been horribly burned and taken to the hospital. He told me a 
 graphic story of the accident that aroused all my sympathy. I 
 took the paper and worked hard on it during the afternoon 
 and evening performances, and, as it was the day after pay day, 
 T collected nearly $100. 
 
 Worked the GtAme Once a Month. 
 
 "I got a shock when I took the money to the canvas boss. 
 He gave me $50 and said: 
 " 'That's your share. We'll work it again next pay day.' 
 
90 GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 "Then I went at him, and we had quite a fight. We were 
 both arrested, and at the hearing next morning I learned that 
 he had been Avorking the game with that same circus about 
 once a month. There were so many with the outfit and so few 
 of them knew each other by name, and accidents were so numer- 
 ous, that no one suspected him. He had grown afraid to work 
 it for himself and used me for a tool. 
 
 "The show had pulled out and the boss and two others who 
 had been arrested with us took the first train back to it. I 
 used the $50 to pay my fine and get home, where I found work 
 and honesty — and, as soon as possible, I sent to the chief horse- 
 man with the show $50, to be added to the fund for the benefit 
 of the next person really hurt, telling him the entire story. 
 He wrote that he had been among those who helped kick the 
 canvas boss out of the car after he read my letter." 
 
 In Name of Charity. 
 
 There are probably more "touches" perpetrated in Chicago 
 by professionals in the name of charity than under any other 
 guise. In this matter, more of the protection of honest chari- 
 ties than for the protection of the public, the police have taken 
 a hand and done a great deal to weed out and punish the so- 
 licitors for fake charities. An imaginary home for epileptics 
 was one of the favorite plans. There was a home for this class 
 of unfortunates that was honestly run, and the peculiar sym- 
 pathy enlisted by the mention of the word epilepsy was seized 
 upon by dishonest schemers. Professional women solicitors 
 were garbed as "nurses" and sent forth. They were mostly 
 austere-looking women and silent. Their work of nursing 
 epileptics was supposed to produce this austere silence. This 
 supposed charity appealed with uncommon strength to most 
 people because these "nurses" were supposed ^to be performing 
 the most unpleasant work imaginable amidst the most grew- 
 some surroundings. Large sums were collected in this way. 
 
GRAFT NxlTION'S WORST FOE 
 
 91 
 
92 GKAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 the promoter keeping everything above the liberal commissioD 
 paid to solicitors. 
 
 This One Made Fortune, 
 
 Rachel Gorman was the originator of the "nurse for epi- 
 leptics" graft, and raked in thousands of dollars before she 
 finally was rounded up by the police. Not one cent of all the 
 money collected by her and her garbed and hired solicitors ever 
 got past their pockets. In this case the most shining marks 
 were selected. William Jennings Bryan was touched for $100. 
 as was the Governor of Illinois, and many others. This money 
 for imaginary epileptics came so easily that the Gorman woman 
 confessed that it was almost a shame to take it. 
 
 There is little excuse, however, for Chicago men and women 
 allowing themselves to be talked out of money for charity. In 
 no great city are the charity working forces better organized 
 or better known. For virtually every form and case of need 
 there is in Chicago a distinct form of honest, well-organized 
 charity. This condition grew out of necessity, and promiscu- 
 ous giving to "touchers" who plead as qualification charity 
 cases is dying out as the public comes to know more of the 
 comprehensive systems for the help of the worthy and unfor- 
 tunate. 
 
 It took the hotel detectives years to check the "toucher" with 
 the fake bank account that operated largely in the hotel lob- 
 bies. Now he works in other places. He carries a bank book 
 that has all the superficial marks of genuineness. He engage? 
 you in conversation, and at what he considers the right phy- 
 ehological moment, he drops a feeler like this: 
 
 "It's h — to be M'ithout money when you've got plentv. 
 isn't it?" 
 
 If you have mot this type of "toucher" JM^fore, you instantly 
 see it coming and chase off to a most important engagement. 
 If not, you only can agree. Being without money when you 
 have none is bad; being broke when you have money is 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 93 
 
 "Look here," says the ''toucher/' "here is my bank book. 
 Look at this balance?" 
 
 Often Worth the Price. 
 
 A glance seems to show that the bank owes your new ac- 
 quaintance many thousand;:!. He then tells how it happened., 
 how he came to be without a cent when he was so far to the 
 good with his banker. It's a complicated tale, too long to tell 
 here. There are lost letters, the cashing of checks for friends 
 and, confidentially, a touch of the pace that flattens bank 
 accounts. By this time you see your finish. When you seek 
 to escape you find yourself backed up to the wall with no 
 chance to sidestep. The best you can do is to scale the orig- 
 inal touch from $1 to 50 cents, thereby making 50 cents for 
 yourself and 50 cents for the "toucher." 
 
 To "stand for" all the "touches" that are made in Chicago 
 one would require an income far in excess of that enjoyed 
 by most. Those that are responded to are those in cases where 
 the donor generously thinks that the "toucher" really needs 
 the money. Probably in the vast majority of cases there is no 
 delusion as to the fiction woven in order to drag forth the 
 nickel, the dime, the quarter or the dollar. Often it is worth 
 the price to hear the fiction. 
 
 But after all one feels refreshed Avhen a frank but hoarse 
 and trembling hobo says : 
 
 "Say, Mister, me t'roat is baked and me coppers sizzlin'. 
 Gimme de price of a drink. Did you ever feel like jumpin' 
 from de bridge fur lack of a stingy little dime fur booze?" 
 
 Here, you feel, is no misrepresentation. Here you may in- 
 vest a dime without feeling that you have been stung. 
 
 Raffles Bank Robbery. 
 
 One of the most annoying of small grafts is the riaffle, as 
 conducted for gain. It is bad enough to be held up for 35 
 
94 GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 cents or 50 cents for a ticket which entitles 3'ou to a chance 
 on a rug or a clock when you reasonably are sure that the pro- 
 ceeds will go to charity, but no man likes to be fooled out of 
 his small change by a cheap grafter, even if the grafter hap- 
 pens to need the money. 
 
 A story is told of two printers who lived for a month on a 
 cheap silver watch which they ralHed off almost daily until they 
 had "worked" nearly all the printing offices of any size in 
 town. These typographical grafters are unworthy of the noble 
 craft to which they belong. They pretended to be jobless on 
 account of last year's strike, and unable to live with their 
 families on the money furnished by the union. 
 
 How Skix Raffle is Worked. 
 
 During the noon liour, or about closing or opening time, one 
 of the men would saunter into a composing room and put up a 
 hard luck story. He had an old silvcrine watch that he wanted 
 to raffle off, if he could sell twenty tickets at 2o cents each. 
 He usually managed to sell the tickets. 
 
 About the time the drawing was to take place the confed- 
 erate entered and cheerfully took a chance and won the watch 
 without any difficulty. Thus, they had the watch and the $5 
 also. They would split the money, and on the first convenient 
 occasion the raffle would be repeated at another place, and by 
 some trick known to themselves the drawing was manipulated 
 so that the confederate always won the watch. 
 
 A South Side woman recently had 500 raffle tickets printed, 
 to be sold at 10 cents each, the drawing to be on Thanksgiving 
 day, for a "grand parlor clock,'' the proceeds to be for tlu' 
 benefit of a "poor widow." As the woman herself happens to 
 be a grass M-idow, and as the place of the drawing could not be 
 learned, neither could there be obtained a sight of the clock, 
 it is not difficult to guess the final destination of $50 for whirli 
 the tickets were sold. 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 95 
 
 Popular Game in Saloons. 
 
 At many saloons and cigar stores there is a continuous raffle 
 in progress for a "fine gold watch." It is well for those who 
 buy chances to inspect the time piece with a critical eye. One 
 of these watches was submitted to a jeweler by the man who 
 won it. "It's what we call an auction watch," said the expert. 
 "It is worth about 87 cents wholesale. The case is gilded, and 
 the works are of less value than the movement of a 69-cent 
 alarm clock. It was keep time until the brass begins to show 
 through the plate, and it may not. 
 
 One of the attractive forms of the raffle ticket game is valu- 
 ing the tickets at from 1 cent up to as high as desired. The 
 man who buys a chance draws a little envelope containing his 
 number. If he is lucky and draws a small number he is en- 
 couraged to try again. This is a sort of double gamble, and 
 many men cannot resist the temptation to speculate upon the 
 chances, simply in order to have the fun of drawing the little 
 envelopes. 
 
 Of course, many of the raffles are for cases of genuine char- 
 ity, and it is an easy way to raise a fund for some worthy ob- 
 ject. Many a person would not accept an outright gift, even 
 in case of sickness or death, will permit friends to raffle oif a 
 piano or a bicycle for a good round price in order to obtain a 
 fund to tide him over an emergency. To buy tickets for this 
 kind of a raffle is praiseworthy. 
 
 Raffle is Lottery by Law. 
 
 But sharpers are not above getting money by the same means. 
 If a strange man, or a doubtful looking woman, wants to sell 
 you a chance for the benefit of "an old soldier," or a "little 
 orphan girl," or a "striker out of work " it might pay you to 
 investigate. 
 
 But here is where the easy money comes in for the sharper. 
 It is too much trouble to investigate, and the tender-hearted 
 
96 GBAFT NATION'S WORST FO:B 
 
 person would sooner give up the 10, 25 or 50 cents to an un- 
 worthy grafter than to take chances of refusing to aid a case of 
 genuine need. 
 
 Then, too, there is what might be called a sort of legitimate 
 raffle business. Of course, the raffle is a lottery under the 
 law, and, therefore, is a criminal transaction. But in many 
 cases goods of known value, but slow sale, are disposed of 
 through raffles, and the drawings conducted honestly. A North 
 Side man disposed of an automobile in this way. It had been 
 a good wagon in its day, though the type was old. He wanted 
 to get a new one, and as the makers would not allow him any- 
 thing in exchange for the old. He sold raffle tickets to the 
 amount of $500, and the winner got a real bargain — ^the losers 
 paying the bill. 
 
 Raffles That Are Steals. 
 
 A group of young men who wanted to build themselves a 
 little club house in the Fox Lake region, resorted to a raffle 
 that was almost a downright steal. They had the printer make 
 them tickets, and each one went among his friends and or- 
 ganized a "suit club," selling chances for a $30 tailor-made 
 suit. Of course those who invested understood that the suit 
 probably would be worth about $18, but they were satisfied 
 to help build the club house on that basis, and besides they 
 thought they had a fair chance to get the suit. 
 
 It was learned afterward by accident that there were twenty 
 "series'* of tickets sold by these young men, and instead of each 
 series standing for a suit, only one drawing was hold, and only 
 a single suit made for the entire twenty scries of tickets. In 
 other words, tlicy sold $500 worth of tickets for a $30 suit of 
 clothes. They built their club house, however, and laughed 
 at the man who kicked because he thought he did not get a 
 square deal for the half dozen tickets he bought. They thought 
 it was a good joke. 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 97 
 
 Graft of Train Butcher East. 
 
 la these days if anything gets past the up-to-date train 
 butcher it isn't because the public knowns any more than it 
 did in Barnum's time. We get a customer every minute by 
 the birth records. 
 
 For a genuine, all-roimd, dyed-in-the-wool separator of coin 
 from its proud possessor, the train butcher is the limit. Here 
 is a word for word story by a train 'T)utch" of how the thing 
 is done. He excuses his tactics much the same way that the 
 little rogue does who points out that the giant malefactors are 
 doing the same thing, but "getting away with it." Enter Mr. 
 Butch. 
 
 "I got back yesterday from a two days' trip — out and in. 
 I had $29.65 to the good, and the company satisfied, and nary 
 a kick from the railroad. At one little place down the line, 
 though, a railroad detective got aboard and tried to detect. 
 
 " 'Say, young feller,' he said to me, 'I saw you go through 
 here yesterday lookin' pretty spruce, and I thought I'd better 
 take a look through yer grips as you came back. What yer 
 got in there?' 
 
 "He kicked my grip, and I opened her up on the minute. 
 He went through it like an old goat through a cracker barrel, 
 but he didn't find anything — see? If he'd looked under the 
 cushion of a seat in the smoker he might have found a whole 
 lot of stuff that didn't look like a prayer meeting layout. 
 
 What Was Hidden Under Seat. 
 
 "Say, I bet I had fourteen $2 gold watches, twenty gold- 
 rimmed spectacles that cost me 15 cents apiece, one dozen 
 books, tightly sealed in wrappers, that looked mighty inter- 
 esting to the jay who couldn't see into the books, and yet who 
 fiad to do it finally at $8 apiece, and, as a topper of it all, my 
 three-book monte game. Did you ever see the game? 
 
 'Tve got a line of wild west books about two inches thick, 
 
98 GRAFT >fATIOFS WOEST FOE 
 
 each, and costing me 40 cents a volume. They've got some 
 great pictures on the cloth covers, and ma3'be there's some hot 
 stuff inside — I don't know. But here's my unparalleled offer: 
 I pick out my man and lay these three volumes across his knees 
 in the car seat and go after him with some of the warmest kind 
 of air about their interest, the binding, and the illustrations. 
 'TTou pay me $5 for the set," I explain, *T)ut in doing it I 
 give you a chance to get the books for nothing and at the 
 same time double your investment. 
 
 How Three Book ]Monte Is Played. 
 
 "I take out three small, thin spelling books, cloth bound, all 
 alike as the bindery and the presses can make them. Then, 
 careless like, I take a $10 bill out of my pocket, fold it across 
 in a sort of V-shape and slip it into the middle of one of the 
 spelling books, so that just one corner will stick out, probably 
 a quarter of an inch. Of course, I haven't seen it ! Sometimes 
 the man on the cars will try to say something about it, but I 
 cut in and drown him out with easy talk till he gets the idea 
 that he might as well have that ten and the books for five, and 
 let it go at that. 
 
 But one corner all the time is torn off that bill, and about 
 a quarter of an inch of that bill is sticking out of the center 
 of one of the other books. Of course the jay hasn't seen that I 
 
 Shows Corner of Bill. 
 
 "Well, I begin and shuffle the books on the payment of tlie $.■>. 
 As they are shuffled the corner of the bill tliat is still attached 
 gets turned around next to me, while the corner that is torn off 
 gets around next to the passenger, whom I have cornered in 
 the seat in a way that he can't see everything that he really 
 ought to see in order to save his money. When I hold out the 
 three books for the drawing T am in a position where I couldn't 
 possibly see the corner that sticks out, while he is where ho 
 can't see anything else. 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 99 
 
 "And he draws the book with the corner sticking out! 
 
 "I take it from him instantly, and hold it up with the hill 
 corner at the bottom, flipping the leaves through from front 
 to back and forward again. In the act the corner of the bill 
 drops out on the floor, where he doesn't see. 'Not here,' I says. 
 'You made a bad draw. Here's the bill,' I says, taking up the 
 book that holds it and turning to the $10 bill, just where it lies. 
 He doesn't know how it all happened, but I console him that 
 he has the three wild west books for his library when he gets 
 home. 
 
 All Suckers Not in Day Coaches. 
 
 "I don't find all these suckers in the day coaches — ^not on 
 your life. I found two pretty boys in the smoking room of a 
 sleeping car a week ago, and I had $7.50 from one of them and 
 $5 from the other, and they didn't know a line about it till 
 they got together after I had gone. 
 
 "Friends of mine have kicked because I get $2, or $3, or $4 
 apiece for gold-rimmed spectacles that cost me $1.80 a dozen. 
 But where is the kick. I know men who have paid $10 or $15 
 for glasses from an oculist when the glass was cut out of a 
 broken window pane. I save such people money, don't I? 
 
 "I am not out after the old farmer with hayseed in his hair 
 and leaf tobacco in his mouth, chewing. There are a lot of 
 gay chaps traveling these days who think they've got the bulge 
 on the train butcher by a sort of birthright or something. 
 They are after me, sometimes, till I can't go to sleep after I 
 come in from a run. For instance, the other day a chap got 
 into the train out of a little country town, intending to go to 
 another little town twenty miles away without change of cars. 
 He had $2 cash and a guitar when he got on the train, but I 
 had both when he got off. He wasn't mad at all ; he just didn't 
 understand it. For that reason I'll see him again one of these 
 days, and he will buck the game harder than he did the first 
 time. The trouble is he wants to vindicate himself; he's one 
 
liJU <iJ;AF'r NA'J'IONS WOHST FuK - 
 
 of lliese t;mavt alecs Ihat you conldTi't down witli a crowbar — 
 he (lonM think ! 
 
 ("orxTRY Towx "Sport" P]asiest ^Iahk. 
 
 "Just give me the dead-game sport as he comes from the 
 countrv and the conntry town. He's as good as I want. It's a 
 sort of charity to take his money away from him before he gets 
 into real trouble with it. One of them thougiit he had me the 
 other day when I tried to sell him a pair of my famous $4 
 glasses with the gold rims. His had silver, only, Imt he told me 
 mine wouldn't show a full moon after dark. 
 
 "I asked him to let me see his specs and he handed them 
 over. I had a bit of wax out of my ear on the tip of my little 
 finger. I touched each of the glasses with the wax, smearing 
 them a little with it. That fixed his glasses for good, and don't 
 forget it. You can't get ear wax off a pair of spectacles with 
 anything yet invented; it's got a sort of acid that eats into the 
 glass and won't ever clear up again. The fellow got hot about 
 it, but I didn't know anything, of course, and finally sold him 
 a pair of my $1.80 a dozen glasses for $1.50 cash, net. 
 
 "0, some peopk^ are almost too easy — T get ashamed of my 
 calling!" 
 
 WoMKx Victims of Old Toupox Scheme. 
 
 There is another moss-grown swindle, which, like hope, 
 seems to "spring perennial" in the greater cities. 
 
 This is the old-time coupon swindle. A suave young man 
 appears at the door, inserts his foot in the crack, if you try to 
 slam it in his face, and rapidly begins to explain that he has 
 something to offer you for nothing. The housewife sighs with 
 resignation, and admits the suave young man, thinking that 
 she might as well get it over. But let the housewife herself 
 talk. Here is the story of a good woman who was caught by 
 one of these pettifogging grafters: 
 
 "Since my husband died T have partly cMrned my living by 
 
CIKAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 101 
 
 renting furnished rooms. This seems to be the first thing a 
 woman thinks of doing when she is left unprovided for, but it 
 isn't a business of large profits, and few of us ever cut 'melons.' 
 My furniture, of course, represented my 'plant,' and it was 
 growing shabby. 
 
 "That is, perhaps, why the glib agent got a hearing from 
 me. He had a lovely proposition. Opening a catalogue he 
 showed me pictures of beautiful pieces of farniture, made from 
 expensive materials, just the kind that Avould make my rooms 
 attractive and easy to rent. 
 
 ''N'ow," said he, "I am soliciting subscriptions for a weekly' 
 paper. This paper will cost you 10 cents a number, and with 
 each number you get a coupon. When you have accumulated 
 sixty-eight coupons you can bring them to our ware room and 
 select any one of these elegant pieces of furniture. 
 
 "Why," said I, "if these articles are as represented, I couldn't 
 buy them at any store in town for three times what sixty-eight 
 coupons would cost me — $6.80." 
 
 The Old "Wareroom" Tale. 
 
 " 'Call at our wareroom. lady, before you sign the contract, 
 and you will see they are just as described.' 
 
 "Well, I saw the articles, and they were all they were said to 
 ])e. They explained that they were practically giving them away 
 in order to build up the circulation of the paper. Everything 
 appeared to be all right, and I signed a contract. So did my 
 widowed sister; so did some of my neighbors. 
 
 "The paper was wortliless, but I didn't care. Sometimes I 
 would buy several copies of one issue so as to make haste to- 
 ward getting my sixty-eight coupons. The time came when I 
 went around to select my furniture. I selected it, all right — a 
 handsome chiffonier. 
 
 " 'This chiffonier calls for 360 coupons,' said the man. 
 
 " '"Why, your agent told me I could have any of these pieces 
 when I had accumulated sixty-eight coupons,' said I, dismayed. 
 
102 (}RAFT NATION'S WORST FOK 
 
 " 'He couldn't have told 3'on that/' said the man. 'Read yonr 
 contract. You will seQ it says that when yon have sixty-eight 
 coupons you may select any one of these articles, but that 
 means we will then hold the article for you until you have 
 paid the rest. Why, we have goods here that call for GOO and 
 700 coupons.' 
 
 "I saw how I Jiad been swindled, and was furious. I tokl 
 him what I thought of him and his business, and he offered to 
 tear up my contract (which, it turned out, bound me to more 
 than I had dreamed of), if I would pay him an additional $2.oO. 
 I refused. He said he would sue me if I didn't. T told him 
 to go ahead. 
 
 ''Shortly afterward a constable served a summons on me to 
 appear at a justice court at the other end of creation. I didn't 
 go; and I don't know whether the concern got a judgment 
 against me or not. 
 
 "But I do know I haven't anything to show for the money 1 
 paid for those coupons." 
 
 BOOK LOVERS EASY PREY OF FRAUDS. 
 
 Bogus Art Works Fine CI raft. 
 
 Some of our citizeus are paying a high price for education 
 in art and book swindles. People, generally, are becoming ex- 
 perts in detecting small frauds and attacks upon their pocket- 
 books, and are becoming wise to pious dodges that run into 
 spiritualism, clairvoyance and fortune telling, but when a large, 
 smooth scheme is broached, they get caught. It may be that 
 we have concentrated our minds upon so many trifling schemes 
 to part us from our money, that we have laid ourselves bare to 
 big operators in big frauds like that perpetrated \ipon the Pat- 
 ten family of Evanston. The clever fakir reached for $10,000 
 in an "old book" game and came very near gathering in the pot. 
 Ho did get $2,000, which was a very neat job. 
 
GEAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 103 
 
 It appears that there is a wide-spread system under the opera- 
 tions of which Chicago book lovers, and others all over the coun- 
 try, have been bilked out of a sum estimated at hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars. The same system is applied to paintings 
 by the "old masters/' for which some Chicago men have paid 
 fabulous sums, only to find them imitations. The expert 
 frauds are geniuses in their peculiar calling, and would deceive 
 the elect if listened to. A bright, smart, well groomed man 
 with letters of introduction from hi^h quarters, often forged, 
 perhaps with a title, breaks into society and bides his time 'to 
 make a big haul. The vanity and foibles of the high-steppers 
 and nobility worshipers are pandered to with masterly skill, 
 and then a mere suggestion of untold values in books or paint- 
 ings is breathed in secret. Do the big fish bite? Some of 
 them swallow the bait and it has to be cut out of them be- 
 fore they will give it up. It is becoming so easy to gull some 
 people, that the crime should consist in the betrayal of inno- 
 cence rather than in the successful fraud. While guillible 
 people continue to parade their guillibility to the world, there 
 will always be frauds to take advantage of them. If any- 
 body doubts the fact that people can be easily defrauded, let 
 him visit any old book store, 'antique furniture dealer, ori- 
 ental rug concern, even junk shops. He will find an amazing 
 army of faddists, who are willing to pay any exorbitant price 
 for some cheap fraud because a gentlemanly man, or an opium- 
 smoking Chinaman, tells him it is the real thing. WTien busi- 
 ness is dull at the shops, agents visit front doors, back doors, 
 or invade society with some bogus Job of "art" works and rea- 
 lize enormous sums. 
 
 Miserable Little Short Measure Thieves. 
 
 In the Municipal Court in South Chicago three extremely 
 mean swindlers have been fined $25 and costs. It is unfor- 
 tunate that they could not have been sent to the Bridewell 
 without the alternative of paying the fine. 
 
104 GKAFT XATiUN>; WORST FOE 
 
 For these swindlers were coal dealers who robbed the poor 
 that bought coal by the basket. They STOLE money from 
 their customers, just as the short-measure milk trust conspira- 
 tors robl^ed their patrons. We repeat that they ought to be in 
 the Bridewell. 
 
 Giving short measure is the dirtiest, smallest, most cowardly 
 form of commercial rascality. The hold-up man who takes his 
 life in his hand and robs on the public highway is a model of 
 decency and courage as compared with the pitiful rascal who 
 steals the pennies of the poor by selling coal or milk or any 
 other necessity of life by short weight. 
 
 Short weight is larceny. It ought to be treated as larcenv 
 by law. 
 
 Crime a Fixe Ai!t. 
 
 Living by one's wits has become a fine art, and it is a pro- 
 fession that is more liberally patronized than any other by the 
 present generation. One of America's leading detectives re- 
 marked tliat there were about seventy-five thousand people in 
 a city the size of Chicago that would bear watcliing. There 
 isn't a bank, insurance office, dry goods store, restaurant or 
 hotel that does not employ men to watch their customers, and 
 there is hardly a business house in the country that has not 
 some system of watching its employes. Everybody at tliis day 
 seems to be afraid of everybody else. 
 
 Professional criminals pride themselves quite as much upon 
 their ability as men engaged in legitimate occupations. A 
 thief, for instance, is as vain of his superiorit}' over other 
 thieves as a lawyer, politician, or clergyman might be whose 
 talents had elevated him to a conunnuding position in the 
 eyes of the people. And the talented thief is as much courted 
 and sought after as the successful man in the honest walks 
 of life. The other thieves will say: "He is a good man to 
 know; I must make his acquaintance." But the thief who has 
 earned a reputation is particular about the company he keep-, 
 
GKAFT NATION'S WUilST FOK 
 
 105 
 
106 GRAFT XATION'S WORST FOE 
 
 and is seornftil in his demeanor toward another thief whom 
 ho does not consider his professional equal. Caste exists among 
 criminals as well as among other classes. 
 
 Men and women who are not living merely for today must be 
 deeply interested in the efforts which practical philanthropists 
 are making to discover the causes of crime and to remedy the 
 mischievous conditions which now prevail to such an alarming 
 extent. Hidden away to a considerable degree in the great 
 mass of figures which came into being through the operations 
 of the census bureau, are facts that should shock every good 
 citizen. With all the warmth of eulogy the story of wonderful 
 progress has been told again and again, but only a few refer- 
 ences have been made to the abnormal growth of what may be 
 termed by the criminal class. Forty years ago there was but 
 one criminal to 3,500 good or reasonably good citizens. Ac- 
 cording to the last census the proportion was one in 786.5, 
 an increase of 445 per cent in a period during which the popu- 
 lation increased but 170 per cent. Xever in the nation's his- 
 tory has educational work of all descriptions been nearly so 
 active as at present, yet the increase in the number of those 
 who were confined in penitentiaries and jails and reformatory 
 institutions is almost twice as rapid as the growth of popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Cities Breeding Spots of Chime. 
 
 The true explanation of tliis unsatisfactory state of things 
 is not far to seek. It is almost entirely to be attributed to the 
 growing tendency of the community to become concentrated 
 in large cities. A higlily concentrated popuhition fosters law- 
 less and immoral instincts in such a multitude of ways that 
 it is only an expression of literal exactitude to call the great 
 cities of today the nurseries of modern crime. Statistics of 
 all kinds show this, but it can easily be ascertained without 
 the aid of any figures. The aggregation df large multitudes 
 
GRAFT NATION'S WORST FOE 107 
 
 within a very limited area must increase the chances of conflict, 
 and consequently multiply the occasions for crime. 
 
 A population in this crowded condition has also to be re- 
 strained and regulated at every turn by a huge network of 
 laws, and as every new law forbids something which was per- 
 mitted before, a multiplication of laws is inevitably followed 
 by an increase of crime. 
 
 The prevention of crime should be the great object with the 
 philanthropist. The obvious remedy is, if possible, to aid the 
 individual in overcoming the temptation to evil or to crime. 
 The remedy must be general, gradual, and constant. It con- 
 sists in religious, moral, intellectual, and industrial education 
 of the children, especially of the poor and unfortunate and the 
 weakling classes. The most certain preventive is the early in- 
 carnation of good habits in children, which, becoming part and 
 parcel of their nervous organization, are an unconscious force 
 when passion, perplexity, or temptation tend to make them 
 lose self-control. Little can be expected from palliative reme- 
 dies for social diseases so long as this educational remedy is 
 not thoroughly carried out. 
 
 America's Educated Criminal Class. 
 
 The great mass of the American people, aside from those 
 who have had experience in hunting and shadowing criminals, 
 labor under the popular delusion that the most daring crim- 
 inals of today are a lot of tough, ignorant men, with little or 
 no education at all, who would do almost anything else than 
 work honestly for a living. If people would but stop to con- 
 sider the subject a moment they would readily discover their 
 error. There are, it is true, a large number of swindlers, 
 thieves, pickpockets, thugs and criminals of a like class who 
 have but a scant knowledge of books, or literature, but they are 
 only to be found among the lower class of criminals. The most 
 notorious criminals the world has ever produced have been men 
 and women of high culture and refinement, well educated and 
 
3 08 (iHAF'l' NA'IMOXS \\()1{ST KoK 
 
 thoroughly posted on all that is transpiring. It is this class 
 of people who make the most successful, and at the same time 
 7nost dangerous, criminals. It requires men of education to 
 swindle, crack a safe, rob a bank, jewelrj^ store or forge a paper. 
 To be a successful confidence operator requires the man to bo 
 well educated in matters of all "kinds, to be a fluent talker, a 
 person of refinement and polite address, and a good judge of 
 charaoter. 
 
 Kefixed rni-MixAi.s Most Dangerous, 
 
 Criminal history shows that the most successful jobs are 
 always planned and executed by men of education; the details 
 of some of the great forgeries that have taken place, of the 
 numerous bank robberies and burglar's exploits, all go to show 
 the direction of a brain of no ordinary person, being proof 
 j)ositivo that the persons planning the work possessed both 
 education and talent. First class criminals are exceedingly 
 hard to cope with, and are the most dangerous to handle by 
 the officers. They do not generally do things in a rush or by 
 halves. Great care is given to all the minor details of their 
 work, and it often takes weeks and months before they an^ 
 ready to put their plans into operatiou. They study all the 
 |)o«;sibilities of the job; the chances of success, and the way of 
 escape in case of failure; how they can cover all traces of the 
 work and throw the guilt or suspicion upon the more unfor- 
 tunate of their class who have bad reputations and who arr 
 likely to be brought up and possibly convicted on suspicion of 
 being the guilty parties. Educated crooks are always to be 
 feared, not only by the public against whom they are constantly 
 devising ways and means to relieve of their valuables, but by 
 detectives of a lesser grade. Tliis class of crooks do not hesi- 
 tate to sacrifice the d(^t(Y'tive if their desired ends can be 
 suecessfully nceoniplished. uhile the detective finds it a task 
 of no little nionier)t to gain even the fnintest elne to th(>ir 
 operations. 
 
UiiAF'J' .NATIONS VVUIWI' b'(.)K iu;» 
 
 Prison Poor Cure for Crime. 
 
 Locking a man up for oomniitting a crime does not always 
 v?ure him. It is now proven that affixed penalties to certain 
 crimes accomplishes practically nothing, for it is based on a 
 Avrong principle. The length of confinement ought, confessedly, 
 to be adjusted to the needs of the prisoner. He should not be 
 discharged from his moral hospital until there is reasonable 
 assurance that he is cured. He certainly should not be turned 
 loose on society, on the mere expiration of a formal sentence, 
 when it is known he will begin anew on his old life. Protec- 
 tion to society, as well as the reformation of the criminal, call 
 for the retention of thelatter until he can be trusted with his 
 liberty, and affords proof that he is fitted to take his place in 
 the world as a useful, law-abiding citizen. This system alone 
 permits the fullest scope to reformatory methods, and leaves 
 to the court the right of sentencing indefinitely, and to the 
 tribunal which has to do with the prisoner's release, to say 
 when there is reasonable ground for faith that if discharged 
 lie will not prove either a burden or menace to society. Where 
 conduct and character afford no such grounds he shouldtbe in- 
 carcerated for life, just as we would retain hopeless lunatics 
 in asylums. 
 
 Maconochie's Experiment. 
 
 This form of sentence was first put into operation in a modi- 
 fied form by Maconochie, at Norfolk Island, in 1836, with a 
 success in the way of reformatory results from the start which 
 was unequalled. Now the best authorities in penology in all 
 countries not only commend it, but the opinion is fast becom- 
 ing general that it is a necessary feature in every reformatory 
 system of prison discipline. Of course it implies in prison 
 management the highest wisdom and integrity, and especially 
 the banishment of partisan politics therefrom. It makes the 
 dominant idea of prison administration manhood-making, and 
 not money-making. 
 
no (;f{AFT NATION'S VVOKST FOE 
 
 Faces Portray Character. 
 
 Every one knows that men's passions, propensities, and pe- 
 culiarities, as well 'as their calling, are reflected in their faces. 
 
 It is as impossible to disguise a face as a handwriting. 
 \Mien the expert comes the disguise is torn off and the face 
 tells the true story of the spirit inside the body. One only 
 needs to visit the penitentiary to realize how undeniably vice 
 writes its sign manual on the features. It is not the drunkard 
 only whose red nose, flabby cheeks and rheumy eyes betray him : 
 it is the scnualist whose vice is read in his lips, the knave whose, 
 propensity is revealed in the shape of his mouth; the man of 
 violence is surrendered by his eyes. An experienced detective 
 policeman, or a trained jailer seldom needs to ask the crime of 
 which the prisoner was guilty. He can tell it by his face. 
 
 It is quite evident that in the future the study of physiog- 
 nomy is going to be pursued more vigorously than it has been. 
 -\.s a means of preventing crime it may prove invaluable. How 
 constantly do we hear of men "falling from grace," as the 
 phrase goes. Yet these men musi have carried their crime in 
 their faces for a long time. If any one had been able to read 
 their features the mischief might have been averted. It is well 
 known that every man's face is more or less stamped by the 
 pursuit he follows. An experienced observer can generally 
 detect a lawyer, or a doctor, or a merchant, or a clerk, or a 
 mechanic, or a clergyman, by merely studying his face. 
 
 The instinctive criminal is a social parasite. The conclusion 
 is irresistible that he is organically morbid. He will proceed 
 to any extreme, and life and property, separating him from the 
 accomplishment of his wishes, are but barriers to be overcome. 
 The occasional criminal is largely a negafive creature, who 
 yields himself when temptation and the stimulus of opportunity 
 exceed his resistive power. The habitual and ]irofessional crim- 
 inal represents degree rather than kind. Criminality is to him 
 a profession, a fine art, and susceptible of division into special- 
 ties. 
 
GRAFT NATIONS WOKtST FOE 111 
 
 Criminal Heads Not Extraordinary. 
 
 The average heads of criminals and those of ordinaiy people 
 probably do not vary much in size. A large brain does not 
 necessarily indicate great intelligence any more than a small 
 one mental deficiencies, this being true, as little importance 
 can be attached to the weight of brains of criminals. The 
 weight of Oliver Cromwell's brain was 83.29 ounces; Lord 
 Byron's, 79 ounces; Cuvier's, 64 ounces; Ruloff's (a thief and 
 murderer), 59 ounces; adult idiot's, 54.95 ounces; Daniel Web- 
 ster's, 53.50 ounces, and Gambetta's, that of the size of ;' 
 microcephalic idiot. 
 
 A face may either attract or repel; its lines indicate firm 
 ness and decision, or weakness and sensuousness. In physiog- 
 nomy may be traced fineness or brutality, surfeit or privation, 
 gentleness or irascibility: yet from a consideration of the face 
 it is assuming too much to predicate the form of criminal ten- 
 dencies, if any, on the subject. Criminal physiognomy is not 
 yet an exact science. The practical criminologist regards crim- 
 inality as bred in the bone and born in the flesh, and the ethology 
 of crime to be looked for chiefly is in heredity and environment, 
 using the word environment in its most liberal sense, ante and 
 post-natal, and whatever cause, in whatever Avay, that exerts a 
 deleterious influence upon nutrition and the functions of or- 
 ganic life, voluntary and involuntary. 
 
 Little is being done in this country in criminal anthropology 
 that can compare with the studies and researches that are being 
 carried on in Italy, France, and Germany. The student unac- 
 quainted with the language of these countries pursues his 
 studies at a disadvantage, owing to the paucity of literature in 
 English upon the subject. 
 
 The tide of crime is steadily rising. The level of criminality, 
 it is well known, is rising, and has been rising during the 
 whole of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, throughout 
 the civilized world. Its prevention and euro is n jierplexing 
 study, and is engaging the thoughts and energies of the best 
 intellects of the world. 
 
DETECTIVE CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE'S 
 
 "Never=FaiV' System 
 
 THE ONLY SURE WAY TO BEAT: 
 
 TURF FRAUDS. 
 
 WILD CAT INSURANCE. 
 
 BOGUS SECURITIES, CONFIDENCE 
 GAMES. 
 
 CITY-LOT SWINDLES. 
 
 HOME-BUYING SWINDLES. 
 
 DISHONEST DEBENTURE BOND COM- 
 PANIES. 
 
 FRAUDULENT PROMOTERS. 
 
 "SALTED" MINING AND OIL WELLS 
 COMPANIES. 
 
 BUCKET SHOPS. 
 
 BLIND POOLS IN GRAIN AND STOCKS. 
 
 PANEL HOUSES. 
 
 BOGUS MAIL ORDER HOUSES. 
 
 POKER, FARO AND OTHER GAMBLING 
 GAMES. 
 
 MATRIMONIAL BUREAUS. 
 
 COUNTERFEIT UNDERWRITERS. 
 
 FRAUDULENT BOOK CONCERNS. 
 
 DISHONEST COLLECTION AGENCIES. 
 
 ADULTERATED MEDICINE DEALERS. 
 
 WIRE TAPPERS. 
 
 FAKE BROKERS. 
 
 BOGUS CHARITIES. 
 
 SPURIOUS EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES. 
 
 SWINDLE PROMOTERS. 
 
 MUSHROOM BANKS. 
 
 CLAIRVOYANTS. 
 
 FORTUNE TELLERS. ' 
 
 PALMISTS. 
 
 $1,000 REWARD WILL BE PAIDTO ANYONE 
 WHO USES DETECTIVE CLIFTON R. WOOL- 
 DRIDGE'S NEVER-FAIL SYSTEM AND FAILS 
 TO BEAT THE ABOVE SWINDLES. 
 
"NEVEK FAU:' SYSTEM 113 
 
 DO NOT RISK YOUR MONEY WITHOUT HAVING 
 FIRST CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED THE CHARACTER 
 OF THE ENTERPRISE IN WHICH YOU ARE INVITED 
 TO BECOME FINANCIALLY INTERESTED. 
 
 BE CONVINCED BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT 
 THAT THE MEN CONNECTED WITH THE ENTER- 
 PRISE ARE ABOVE SUSPICION. 
 
 IF THEIR PROBITY, INTEGRITY OR RELIABILITY 
 CAN NOT BE ESTABLISHED BY PAST TRANSACTIONS 
 IT IS CERTAIN THEIR HONESTY WILL NOT BE DIS- 
 CLOSED BY FUTURE DEALINGS. 
 
 DO NOT INVEST IN ANY COMPANY, CORPORATION, 
 OR PRIVATE CONCERN UNTIL THE MANAGEMENT 
 HAS FURNISHED INDISPUTABLE PROOF OF ITS ABIL- 
 ITY TO FULFILL EVERY PROMISE. 
 
 LEAVE SPECULATION TO THOSE WHO CAN AF- 
 FORD TO LOSE. 
 
 LARGE GAINS ON SMALL INVESTMENTS USUALLY 
 EXIST ONLY IN THE IMAGINATION OF GULLIBLE 
 INVESTORS AND UNSCRUPULOUS PROMOTERS. 
 
 LARGE RISKS INCUR LARGE LOSSES. 
 
 NO MAN WILL "LET YOU INTO A GOOD THING;" 
 HE WILL KEEP IT FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 PROMOTERS ARE NOT IN BUSINESS TO MAKE 
 MONEY FOR YOU, BUT "OUT OF YOU." 
 
 CONTENT YOURSELF WITH LEGITIMATE INVEST- 
 MENTS AND SMALL BUT SAFE RETURNS. 
 
 RATHER THAN SEEK GREAT PROFITS WITHOUT 
 TOIL STRIVE FOR THE DESERVED FRUITS OF IN- 
 DUSTRY. 
 
 NO MAN WILL GIVE YOU A DOLLAR FOR FIFTY 
 CENTS— UNLESS THE DOLLAR IS COUNTERFEIT. 
 
 DO NOT PAY OUT YOUR OWN GOOD MONEY FOR 
 ANOTHER MAN'S BOGUS DOLLARS. 
 
 IF THE PROMOTER COULD DO ONE-HALF OF WHAT 
 HE CLAIMS, HE WOULD NOT NEED YOUR MONEY, 
 BUT SOON WOULD BE RICH BEYOND THE DREAMS 
 OF AVARICE. 
 
 DO NOT INVEST YOUR HARD-WON SAVINGS IN 
 VANISHING AIR CASTLES. 
 
 PROMISES WHICH PROCEED FROM A DESIRE TO 
 GET YOUR MONEY ALWAYS MERIT SUSPICION. SUB- 
 JECT THEM TO THE MOST CAREFUL AND RIGID EX- 
 AMINATION. 
 
 ADOPT THE BANKER'S RULE THAT: "ALL MEN 
 SHOULD BE REGARDED AS DISHONEST UNTIL THEIR 
 HONESTY IS PROVED," RATHER THAN THE SUCK- 
 ER'S THEORY THAT "ALL MEN ARE HONEST." 
 
114 -NEVER FAIL" SYSTEM 
 
 THE BANKER WILL END LIFE POSSSESED OF 
 WEALTH WHILE THE CREDULOUS OPTIMIST WHOSE 
 FAITH IS UNBOUNDED WILL WIND UP HIS DAYS "A 
 POORER BUT WISER MAN." 
 
 WHEN IN DOUBT DO NOTHING. 
 
 IF A PROMOTER CAN NOT DISPEL YOUR DOUBTS 
 HE IS NOT WORTHY OF YOUR CONFIDENCE. 
 
 DO NOT FOLLOW SIREN CHANCE. SHE WILL LEAD 
 YOU INTO THE ABYSS OF DESPAIR. 
 
 BEWARE OF THE DICE; THERE IS BUT ONE GOOD 
 THROW WITH THEM— THROW THEM AWAY. THEY 
 WERE USED TO CAST LOTS FOR THE BLOOD- 
 STAINED GARMENTS OF JESUS CHRIST; THEY ARE 
 USED TO GAMBLE AWAY THE HONOR OF MEN. 
 
 PLAY NOTHING, INVEST IN NOTHING, BUY NOTH- 
 ING, TRUST NO MAN OR WOMAN UNTIL YOU HAVE 
 REASON TO BELIEVE THE ENTERPRISE IS LEGITI- 
 MATE BEYOND QUESTION. 
 
 AVOID THE MISTAKE OF THAT GREATEST FOOL 
 OF ALL FOOLS, THE MAN WHO THINKS HE IS TOO 
 SMART TO BE FOOLED. 
 
 YOU ARE NOT SHREWD ENOUGH TO BEAT ANY 
 MAN AT HIS OWN GAME; HE HAS STUDIED ITS MA- 
 NIPULATIONS; YOU ARE A NOVICE. 
 
 DON'T LET ANYONE STAMPEDE YOU INTO DOING 
 ANYTHING. THE "RUSH" ACT IS A FAVORITE TRICK 
 OF GRAFTERS, FROM THE CHEAP CADGER WHO BOR- 
 ROWS SMALL CHANGE TO THE INVESTMENT BRO- 
 KER WHO OFFERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RISK A 
 FORTUNE IN "THE CHANCE OF A LIFE-TIME" THAT 
 MUST BE SNAPPED UP IMMEDIATELY OR LOST FOR- 
 EVER. 
 
 WHEN A MAN TRIES TO HURRY YOU INTO SPEND- 
 ING YOUR MONEY PUT IT BACK IN YOUR POCKET 
 AND KEEP YOUR HAND ON IT. 
 
 USE CAUTION, REASON AND COMMON SENSE. 
 
 DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM 
 DO UNTO YOU. MOST OTHERS WILL "DO" YOU IF 
 YOU GIVE THEM A CHANCE. 
 
 IF YOU ARE MARKED AS ONE OF THE GEESE 
 READY FOR PLUCKING BY GET-RICH-QUICK SWIN- 
 DLERS THEY WILL SEND YOU LITERATURE 
 THROUGH THE MAILS. SAVE EVERY CIRCULAR, 
 LETTER OR OTHER COMMUNICATION TOGETHER 
 WITH THE ENVELOPES AND SEND THEM TO THE 
 POSTOFFICE INSPECTOR IN THE TOWN FROM 
 WHICH THEY WERE SENT. 
 
 BE SURE TO SEND THE ENVELOPES WITH THE 
 
'NEVER EAIL" SYSTEM 
 
 115 
 
 LITERATURE AS THE COMMUNICATIONS CANNOT 
 BE ADMITTED AS EVIDENCE UNLESS THE ORIGINAL 
 WRAPPERS OR ENVELOPES IN WHICH THEY WERE 
 MAILED ARE OFERED WITH THEM. THE POST- 
 MASTER WILL INSTRUCT HOW TO FORWARD THE 
 COMPLAINT. 
 
 PROSECUTION OF THE SWINDLERS WILL SURELY 
 FOLLOW. 
 
 IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT THE CHARACTER 
 OF THE CONCERN WHICH INVITES YOU TO INVEST 
 YOUR MONEY, CONSULT A LAWYER. BANKER OR 
 REPUTABLE COMMERCIAL AGENCY. 
 
 Intending investors sinould remember that: 
 
 "SURE TIPS" are sure bait for sure fools. 
 
 Wlien you hear stocks have gone up and men who 
 bought them cheap have sold them at high prices and 
 gained fortunes suspect your informant. If he seeks to 
 induce you to invest be assured he is a GET-RICH- 
 QUICK grafter. 
 
 Many swindlers wear the garb of respectability; they 
 even cloak their rascality with piety. Many men accepted 
 by the world as honorable members of society spend their 
 lives living on the credulity of the ignorant, and when 
 they die go to the grave followed by hordes of dupes who 
 mourn their end. 
 
 These swindlers await you at every turn; on the race- 
 track; in the saloon; with the poker deck and the ivory 
 dice; with watered stock and fraudulent bonds; with 
 prayers on their lips and designs in their minds to defraud 
 you. 
 
 THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN HONEST GAM- 
 BLER. 
 
 Every gambling game is a dishonest scheme. You seek 
 to get the other man's money without giving him anything 
 in return. 
 
 You are not entitled to one penny unless you give value 
 in return. If you are in business you know that every 
 promissory note, to be valid, must bear on its face two 
 words, "value received." 
 
 INDUSTRY, ENERGY, THRIFT! These are the dice 
 that win. The lesson is hard to learn for the young. 
 
 He has anxious days and feverish nights who risks at 
 chance what should be devoted to the nobler ends of life; 
 who "makes throws" on the green cloth; who watches the 
 snake-like tape squirm out of the ticker; or gazes at a 
 bunch of horses running around a ring. 
 
 GIVE IT ALL UP AND ADOPT HONEST MEANS OF 
 PROCURING WEALTH! 
 
The Best Rules for Health, Happiness and Success. 
 
 THEY ARE WORTH THE ATTENTION AND 
 THOUGHT OF ALL READERS. 
 
 1. Never put olT until tomorrow what you can do 
 
 today. 
 
 2. Never trouble another for what you ean do your- 
 
 self. 
 .S. Never speud your money helori' you hnw earnuci 
 
 it. 
 I. Xever buy what you don"t want l)t'causL' it is 
 
 cheaj). 
 0. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold. 
 (). We seldom repent of eating too little. 
 ;. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 
 <s. How much pain the evils have cost us that have 
 
 never happened. 
 !». Take things always by the smooth liandle. 
 
 10. When angry, count ten before you speak ; if very 
 
 angry, count a hundred. 
 
 11. Watch the small things. 
 
 l:i. Laziness is a vice — fight it. 
 
 13. Do your honest best — it pays. 
 
 14. Without self-respect you cannot gain respect. 
 I.-). Trickery's triumph is fleeting. 
 
 16. Remember that opportunity waits only on worth. 
 
 17. Cultivate love, loyalty and respect for work — es- 
 
 pecially your own work. 
 
 15. It is not enough to he honest and lazy. 
 
 1!>. Try to keep your mind clean — evil and success 
 
 will not mix. 
 •.'(I. If responsibility confronts you, seize it. Do not 
 
 throw it aside — resjionsibility represents oppor- 
 
 lunitv. 
 
HEALTH AND iSUCCEyS 117 
 
 Some of these sayings will strike you as very old and lacking 
 in novelty. But, old as these rules are, human beings have not 
 yet learned to follow them. And they won't learn for many a 
 long year. 
 
 We shall not moralize about them all today, only one or two 
 we want to emphasize. 
 
 "■'Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly." 
 
 If you work willingly, if you make yourself realize that will- 
 ing effort is easy, AND THE ONLY^KIND THAT MAKES 
 YOU GEOAV AND SUCCEED, you will solve one of your big 
 working problems. 
 
 Did you ever see a small boy walking ahead of a band, with 
 the music playing? 
 
 x\nd did you ever see the same small boy walking half the dis- 
 tance to get a newspaper for his father? Walking with the 
 band rests him ; it doesn't tire him at all, BECAUSE HE DOES 
 IT WILLINGLY. And the other kind of walking takes the 
 very heart out of him and makes him almost too tired to eat 
 his dinner. 
 
 It is exactly that Avay with all the wbrk we do in this world. 
 When you do things willingly, with the heart and the nerves and 
 the brain acting with one another cheerfully, work is easy AND 
 SUCCESS FOLLOWS. 
 
 A willing FOOL may lag behind an unwilling man of intelli- 
 gence. But even a willing fool is happier in the end than an 
 unwilling one, and, all things being even, the employe working 
 WILLINGLY will cease being an employe and have others 
 working for him sooner thjn the other man. 
 
 PRIDE COSTS MORE THAN HUNGER, THIRST AND 
 COLD. 
 
 This applies to all kinds of foolish vanity. It applies to the 
 young man who never does anything, BECAUSE HE IS TOO 
 PROUD TO DO WHAT HE HAS THE CHANCE TO DO. 
 
118 HEALTH AND SUCCESS 
 
 It applies to men and women wlio scjuander on dress and 
 show the money that they need for more serions purposes. 
 
 It applies to those that in old age have no money saved up, 
 BECAUSE PRIDE SPENT THEIR MONEY AS FAST AS 
 THEY GOT IT. 
 
 The pride that keeps men honest, the pride that makes men 
 truthful, never kept a man hack or hurt him. 
 
 The had kind of pride is the pride which can be described as 
 "the coward's pride.'" ]\Ien «are foolishly and cowardly proud 
 BECAUSE THEY ARE AFRAID OF WHAT OTHER MEN 
 WILL THINK. Money that they cannot afford tliey spend 
 helping other men to drink too much, BECAUSE THEY ARE 
 ASHAMED TO BE THOUGHT STINGY OR MEAN. 
 
 Men squander in keeping up a])iK'arances money that should 
 be saved for another day, for a good business opportunity, be- 
 cause they are too cowardly to be guided by their own judgment, 
 and ignore what others may THINK about them. 
 
 Self-respect is one thing; foolish pride, vanity, moral coward- 
 ice, are very dili'erent. Get rid of them. 
 
 All the advice from these 20 rules is good advice. The man 
 who can keep his temper while he thinks — whether he count ten 
 or a million — is a lucky man. 
 
 A man in a rage is a man whose BRAIN IS NO LONGER 
 WORKING. And the man whose brain isn't working is at tbe 
 mercy of the man whose brain IS working. 
 
 Worry about the FUTURE troubles is a curse with many 
 men. It prevents their working well TODAY. 
 
 Overeating, and especially eating at the wrong lime, is a great 
 evil in this country. If men woidd learn to eat heartily only 
 when their day's work is done, WHEX THEIR MINDS MUST 
 NO LONGER BE CONCENTRATED. THEY WILE SAVE 
 THEIR STOMACHS AND A(X^O^IPLISH TWICE THE 
 AMOUNT OF WOIU\ IN THEIR LIVES. 
 
 Read these rules over, and moralize on tlu'in Wn- yoursolvi's 
 and for vour children. 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES. 
 
 How Matrimonial Agencies Prey on the Public — Their 
 
 Degeneration Into the Worst 
 
 Forms of Crime. 
 
 $1,000,000 Secured by These Get-Rich-Quick Schemers 
 
 Discovered by Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge, 
 
 Chicago's Famous Police Detective. 
 
 125 matrimonial agencies in Chicago raided and closed 
 in the last five years. 
 
 4,500,000 matrimonial letters seized and destroyed. 
 
 1,500,000 matrimonial agencies' stock letters seized and 
 destroyed. 
 
 1,400,000 matrimonial stock photographs seized and de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 500,000 photographs sent to the matrimonial agencies by 
 men and women who were seeking their affinities seized 
 and destroyed. 
 
 40 wagon loads of matrimonial literature seized and 
 destroyed. 
 
 One of the most insidious forms of crime is the Matrimonial 
 Agency. Seemingly harmless, or at most merely foolish, is 
 the Matrimonial Agency at its inception. 
 
 But step by step within the past few years we have seen 
 the Matrimonial Agency turned into a volcano belching forth 
 fraud, swindling, bigamy, desertion, and finally ghastly whole- 
 sale murder. 
 
 We have seen the Matrimonial Agency sweep the whole range 
 of the world of crime from the petty thieving of a Carson to 
 the almost unbelievable horrors of the Gunness Farm. 
 
120 
 
 MAI'KIMOXIAI, .UiBNTS 
 
 THE SORROWS OF CUPID 
 
 "H« Dow Not Stf All the Rocks AJi*»d Whm Hf Ihintr r^^■<^ Yoong People Togcthtr"—Bc»lnr* Fnirfkx, 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 121 
 
 And this monster is hydra-headed. Stamp it out in one 
 place and it immediately reappears in another. Send a ''man- 
 ager" to prison once, twice, ten times, and the minute the 
 prison doors are open he is back at the old stand doing business. 
 
 Something of the tremendous efforts being put forth to 
 stamp out this evil may be gained from the headlines of this 
 story, where the strenuous work of Detective AVooldridge of 
 Chicago is summarized. 
 
 Chicago has been an^ is today infested by a formidable com- 
 munity of matrimonial agencies who invade all ranks of life. 
 They promote many specious schemes to lure the elusive dollar 
 from the pockets of unwary victims. These operatives are 
 sharp, smooth and unscrupulous — the most dangerous of 
 criminal perverts. 
 
 Were the census enumerators of the United States to compile 
 a list of the "sucker" public the gullible ones would aggregate 
 tens of millions. There is not a township in this great nation 
 that does not contain its portion of confiding persons who are 
 ready to believe anything, from the rankest catch-penny ad- 
 vertisement to a fallacy in theological dogma. 
 
 They are Avilling to open up their hearts to unknown matri- 
 monially inclined correspondents; to accept as gospel the in- 
 credible statements of impostors and to pay out money gained 
 by hard toil for something which the reason of a child should 
 tell them it is beyond the power of man to provide. 
 
 They are easy prey alike to religious and political impostor?; 
 and unscrupulous adventurers. Investigations for years past 
 into the innermost secrets of swindlers, and the observations 
 incidental to official experience disclosing how victims are 
 drawn into the net -of the grafter, impel the belief that the 
 faith of many persons passes beyond the bounds of credulity 
 into the domain of imbecility. 
 
 Men and women who are engaged in promoting matrimonial 
 agencies are guilty of crime. It is opposed to the fundamental 
 principles of society. Such a practice should under no circum- 
 
V4'^ MATKIMOMAL A(iE.NT.S 
 
 stances be tolerated. It is inconsistent with the highest ideals 
 of what should constitute the proper marriage relations. 
 
 Human Derelicts Are Dupes. 
 Human derelicts of a low mental caliber are the dupes of 
 these matrimonial agencies. Few people know that such 
 schemes as these are carried out. Few know that advertise- 
 ments bv men of wealth, women of culture and pretty widows 
 who seek matrimonial alliances are merely means by which 
 scoundrels get a revenue. 
 
 Matrimonial Agents' ^Methods. 
 
 To describe adequately the technicalities of the marriage 
 agencies and bureau swindlers' methods would be impossible 
 without presenting actual copies of documents necessary to the 
 system. Early in the investigations the discovery was made 
 that the scores of matrimonial agencies, '"introduction bu- 
 reaux" and "marriage clubs'' were using practically the same 
 literature. Few^ departed from the stereotyped plan for "pull- 
 ing the suckers on." For the most part the prospectuses and 
 "follow-up" letters were identical. 
 
 As often happened, however, when a victim was "landed 
 right" and ventured to Chicago from his distant rural retreat 
 j)repared to carry out in earnest the game that had been worked 
 upon him in a spirit of mercenary recklessness, the methods of 
 handling him were varied in respect to both finesse and ef- 
 fectiveness. 
 
 Any person familiar with the uses of the typewriter easily 
 could have discovered tliat the "personal" letters received from 
 time to time were nothing more than circulars printed by the 
 thousands. So vast was the number of the gullible that seldom, 
 if ever, was an actual, ])ona fide letter sent in reply to those 
 from the victims. 
 
 Space was left at the top of the stock letters for the insertion 
 of the name of the person to whom it was sent. In their haste 
 the swindlers often begrudged the time necessary to change the 
 
COim>s'Ci CIPID'S WILE8 
 
 123 
 
124 
 
 MATiUMONlAL AGENTS 
 
OOININCI CUPID'S AVLLES 125 
 
 "Dear Sir" to "Dear Miss" or "''Dear j\tadam"' when a womau 
 was addressed on stationery intended for male clients. 
 
 Xo Trust Here. 
 
 The general uniformity of the literature was at first thought 
 by me to indicate that the matrimonial agencies were banded 
 together in a gigantic trust. But later I learned that as they 
 increased in number the newcomers exhibited conscienceless 
 audacity in copying the forms used by their predecessors. It 
 was also found in some eases several matrimonial agencies 
 were operated from one address and one or two men, or a man 
 and his wife would represent half a dozen concerns by chang- 
 ing names and locations every thirty or sixty days. Because 
 of these facts and the added fact that whoever compiled the 
 original forms from which the others copied, realized, he was in 
 an allegitimate business, the plagiarists were never prosecuted. 
 Thus the buncombe administered to the suckers became uni- 
 form in phraseology. 
 
 If a person desired to make assurance doubly sure for gain- 
 ing wealth and marital bliss and he applied to several agencies 
 at the same time, the same mail would bring him letters from 
 each matrimonial agency with which he communicated, worded 
 identically. They would be mimeograph copies, and the only 
 difference in their appearance would be in the printed heading 
 indicating the name of the agency. The name of the recipient 
 would often be written at the top in ink different in color from 
 the body of the letter. 
 
 Working the Double Cross. 
 
 The usual beginning is a small subscription fee paid for a 
 '^matrimonial" paper. This paper contains alleged descrip- 
 tions of men afid women, ])rineipally the latter, who are claimed 
 by the publisher to be seeking wives or husbands through, the 
 matrimonial agency. The subscriber who becomes interested 
 in anv of the descriptions is made to pay n fee for more de- 
 
1-4^ MATliiMUMAL AUEM\S 
 
 tailed information and alleged record of the linancial circum- 
 stances of the person. There is sometimes an additional fee 
 for a photograph. This picture may or may not he one of 
 the person described, but that matters little. Almost any old 
 photograph will serve the purpose. In all the raids made on 
 matrimonial agencies collections of photographs have been 
 found. 
 
 That tens of thousands of otherwise intelligent men and 
 women should either entrust pictures of tliemsolves to an 
 agency by which it is to be sent out to unknown persons, or 
 should even begin such negotiations as those carried on through 
 the matrimonial agency, is incomprehensible. 
 
 The money derived in the aggregate from subscriptions to 
 the matrimonial paper, the fees for particulars and those for 
 photographs and miscellaneous "services" amount to large 
 sums. With many of the agencies the services stop at this point, 
 but many others undertake personal introductions of lonesome 
 maids and widows to the invariably "^'honest and affectionate"' 
 Ijjiehelors and widowers, and when this is done tliere are other 
 fees, depending altogether on how much the victims appear 
 to be willing to stand. 
 
 A large number have been found and suppressed in which 
 there was but one lonesome maid or widow and one honest 
 and affectionate bachelor or widower, the former being the 
 woman accomplice of the manager of the agency and the latter 
 the manager himself. They answer love-lorn correspondents 
 of both sexes and select for victims those believed to have the 
 most money. If the assistant to the manager is posing as the 
 possible bride in the case the Avife hunter must make satisfac- 
 tory settlements with the manager for conducting the nego- 
 tiations, and this amount, with that whidi tlie accomplice is 
 able to secure from the victim, amounts often to a considerable 
 sum. After the victim is sej)arated frojii Ins moiH>y something 
 happens to prevent the liap])y conclusion of the marriage 
 negotiations. 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES IJiT 
 
 Two Well-Defined For]\[s. 
 
 Therfi are two well-flefniprl forinp of the "matrimonial agont." 
 The one is the man who openly runs an agency, who advertises 
 "golden-haired young ladies, worth half a million dollars," 
 •'blue-eyed widows of languishing temperaments" and "wealthy 
 farmers." It is through this class of "bureau" that the great 
 crimes of the matrimonial business have been engineered. Hocir, 
 ^Irs. Gunness, Holmes and other arch-criminals made good 
 use of this type. 
 
 The other type is just the plain swindler. The man who 
 works along the secondary lines, as they may be called, would 
 scorn to be a matrimonial agent. He is either a reverend gen- 
 tleman of the cloth, a minister to whom some languishing 
 widow is looking for spiritual direction, and he thinks that she 
 "needs she should get married," to quote the East Side phrase- 
 ology; or he is a lawyer who has a wealthy client, who, not 
 being a business woman, is incapable of running her own af' 
 fairs, and he again thinks of marriage as a solution ; or, again, 
 he is "an employment agency." This secondary type is gener- 
 ally a cheap sort, grafting on the gullible for five or ten dollars, 
 or even as high as $100. 
 
 CONCRETE EXAMPLES. 
 Type No. 1. 
 
 September 8, 1905, John H. Harris, 168 Hamlin avenue, 
 editor and publisher of The Pilot, a marriage agency paper, 
 and manager of a cheap mail order house, was raided and ar- 
 rested by Detective Wooldridge. 
 
 Among the letters seized were complaints from his patrons. 
 They received no returns for money paid him, and averred his 
 paper was being used to blackmail men and women. Com- 
 plaints were also made that many of the names which ap- 
 peared in the paper were not authorized, and other names 
 attached to the order were forgeries. 
 
 The following is the copy of a letter dated September 1, 
 
128 MATKIMONIAJL AGENTS 
 
 1906, and is only one among hundreds of others sent out by 
 the thousands by Harri?;. Many more thousands were sent 
 tlirough the mail to his sub-agents, who worked on a commis- 
 sion. This agent employed other agents, who started an end- 
 less chain by copying the letter and having the friends do 
 likewise. 
 
 Chicago, 111.. Sept. 1. 100."). 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 We have a very recent application from a brown-eyed widow 
 of 41, medium size, musical, has no children. She informs us 
 that she has recently come into possession of a fortune of 
 over FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS, and that 
 she wishes to marry an honest, affectionate {jentleman. We 
 also have a recent application from a pretty, blue-eyed lady of 
 20, who estimates her present means at FORTY THOUSAND 
 DOLLARS, and her inheritance at twenty thousand dollars. 
 Her form is graceful, her education good, her disposition gentle 
 and she desires a steady, honest luisband. We believe she 
 would start her husband in business. And to accommodate 
 those ladies and quicklv find a husband for them we make the 
 following SPECIAL OFFER: 
 
 Fill out the coupon at the bottom, and send it to us with 
 one dollar (and six postage stamps) and enclose a sealed and 
 stamped letter to either or both of the ladies referred to above. 
 We will immediately mail your letter to the lady or ladies, 
 and place your name on our books, and send yo»i a certificate 
 of membership for six months, and send you the full names 
 and addresses of the handsome widow of means, and the hand- 
 some blue-eyed maiden of means, and also send you a list 
 of names and addresses of other ladies of means and other- 
 wise. And until you are married, or until the end of six 
 months, we will, on or about the first of each month, mail you 
 a list of descriptions, names and addresses of ladies of means 
 and otherwise, without application from you or any expense 
 to you. We have good reason to believe that either of the 
 ladies mentioned above would make you a good wife, but if 
 they do not meet your approval you can select one who will 
 from the stream of ladies of means and otherwise who are con- 
 stantly requesting us to secure husbands for them, which en- 
 ables us to introduce you to those whom you would be pleast^l 
 to meet with a view to marriage. Faithfully yours. 
 
 .loiiN H. Harri.s, 
 Pub. of The Pilot. 
 .Ton.N II. Harri.s, 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I heiewith enclose $1.12 as full payment on the above oflfer. 
 
 Name Postottice 
 
 Street, or Rox No State 
 
 United States Inspector of Mails at Chicago PostofTicc H. 
 W. McAfee compolled John H. Harris to furnish him with 
 the names and, addresses of the two women heiress<^s who were 
 
COlNJNli CUPID'S WILES 
 
 12d 
 
 worth $40,000 and $500,000, respectively, who were just dying 
 for the want of a good, kind husband to spend their money 
 for them, and were seeking marriage through his paper and 
 matrimonial agency. 
 
130 MATEIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 Harris gave the name of Mrs. H. E. Adams, at Hunt- 
 ington, Md., as the $40,000 woman and Jennie Ziehler, Law- 
 rence, Mass., as the $500,000 woman. Upon investigation 
 it was found that neither of the women was worth a dollar. 
 The $500,000 woman Avas in the insane asylum. 
 
 This letter, together with The Pilot, marriage paper and its 
 printed advertisements, was plainly intended to draw the un- 
 wary and deprive the ignorant of their savings. 
 
 John H. Harris then appealed to ex-Mayor Edward F. 
 Dunne of Chicago, under the alias of A. Ingird, taxpayer, 
 citizen and reputable business man, to have Detective Wool- 
 dridge stopped from further interfering with him or his busi- 
 ness. Men who operate these frauds pretend to be honest and 
 high-minded; by constant practice of their wiles upon others 
 they develop self-deception and come to believe in their own 
 honesty to such an extent that when questioned they assume a 
 good counterfeit of honest indignation. 
 
 Mayor Dunne upon investigation learned the large mass of 
 evidence gathered, and ordered the investigation to go forward, 
 which, resulted in the arrest and holding over of Jolin H. 
 Harris to the Grand Jury. 
 
 Commits Suicide. 
 
 These complaints and evidence were turned over to Colorcl 
 James Stuart, Chief Inspector of the Mails at the Chicago 
 Postoffice, for further investigation. A fraud order was re- 
 quested. On August 18, 1907, Mr. Harris committed suicide 
 by blowing out his brains at 168 N. Hamlin avenue, Chicago, 
 Hlinois, after the mask had been pulled off and his methods 
 <'xposed. 
 
 One is unable to state whether John H. Harris is opening 
 ji mail order house, paper and marriage agency in the other 
 world. When he left he did not leave word where he would 
 make his next stop, but if he went to the other world, we arc 
 not informed Dial wireless telegrapli or l)alloon companies havo 
 
COmiKG CUPID'S WILES 131 
 
 as yet perfected the lines of transportation or communication. 
 
 Harris is a fairly representative and concrete expression of 
 
 the regulation matrimonial agent. It was through such 
 
 agencies as his that the gfeat crimes eventually were pulled off. 
 
 Secondary Types. 
 
 But in the following letters we have an excellent example of 
 
 the second type, the little grafter who wants anything you can 
 
 give, from $5 to $100. From the text of the letters it will 
 
 be observed that this man Avas operating as a minister, a lawyer 
 
 and an employment agency at one and the same time, as the 
 
 letters are all from one source. 
 
 In the case of the lawyer this scoundrel was trading upon 
 the name of Edward H. Morris, one of the foremost colored 
 attorneys of the United States, a man universally respected 
 and admired by men in all walks of life. When the fact of 
 this trading on his name was brought to the real attorney's 
 attention he was furious, and he cheerfully gave all the as- 
 sistance in his power to Detective Wooldridge. 
 
 This smooth one was afterAvard arrested in New Orleans, 
 convicted and sent to prison for a term. 
 Here follows the text of the letters: 
 Matrimonial Agencies' Stock Letters Under the Guise 
 OF Ministry. 
 Eev. Joseph Spencer, 
 80 Madison Street. 
 Manager of American Book Concern. 
 Dealer in Eeligious Books. 
 
 Chicago, 111., July 26, 1905. 
 Mr. O. W. Zink, 
 Marshall, Mo. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 For many years I have been a MINISTER of the GOSPEL 
 and during that time I have not only performed hundreds of 
 marriages, but have arranged many, and there are at the 
 present time among my acquaintances some half dozen wealthy 
 ladies, ranging in age from twenty to forty or fifty years, one 
 of whom is the handsome widow whose photo I enclose here- 
 with. 
 
 She is worth, in actual cash and negotiable securities, fully 
 
132 MATEIMOXIAL AGENTS 
 
 $50,000. inherited from her worthy husband, who departed 
 this life a year ago and. as she is without friends, relatives 
 or children, her physician, a friend of mine, has on account 
 of her utter loneliness advised her to marry, believing that 
 marriage and change of scene will prove for her a blessing in 
 disguise, and naturally she has turned to me, her spiritual 
 adviser, in whom she has the utmost confidence. I have sev- 
 eral times talked the matter over with her, and, knowing that 
 she is very much averse to advertising, I have undertaken to 
 introduce to her some gentleman who would make her a good 
 husband, and to arrange a marriage for her. 
 
 As her physician thinks it advisable for her to reside else- 
 where than Chicago, I have been somewhat perplexed as to 
 how to secure for her a suitable introduction and in my 
 dilemma consulted a matrimonial agency and, after several 
 conferences with them, I have decided to submit for your kind 
 consideration my proposition and manner of procedure. 1 
 have studied the matter carefully, have gone thoroughly into 
 your description and instructions as filed with the agency of 
 which you are a member, and in my mind there is not the 
 slightest doubt as to you two proving mutually suitable to 
 each other. Of course, you cannot form the proper idea of her 
 from the small photo enclosed, but in age, appearance, circum- 
 stances, etc., she is just what you have been seeking in a wife. 
 
 She is in every respect a* thoroughly good woman, unusually 
 bright and intelligent, but knows nothing of business, and 
 is in absolute need of a husband to look after her affairs, 
 but. TO BE CANDID WITH YOU, I am getting along in 
 years, and have a large family to support and, as I only ar- 
 range a few marriages at intervals, I must necessarily have 
 compensation adequate to the service I render. 
 
 Now, I can, by recommending you personally, cause her to 
 enter into a correspondence with you that will undoubtedly 
 lead to your marriage, if you are still desirous of such a 
 marriage, as I presume you are, from the fact that you are 
 registered with a matrimonial agency. I will, for the con- 
 sideration of $100, introduce you to her by letter and. after 
 you have exchanged three or four letters, will have you visit 
 iier at her expense, as you may mutually agree, if you will 
 follow my simple instructions. 
 
 I am not making you this proposition on the spur of the 
 moment, for I have spent mucli time and thought before de- 
 ciding to write vou. and all I ask is that. AS AN EVIDENCE 
 OF YOUR COOD FAITH and to cover the immediate ex- 
 pense necessary thereto on my part (such as asking her to 
 dinner with me a few times in order that I may during the 
 good cheer tliat abounds at such times dwell at length upon 
 the matter without any unnecessary <lelay). that you enclose 
 me immediatelv ujwn receipt of this letter BANK DRAFT, 
 KECxISTEUED LETTER, or EXPRESS MONEY ORDER. 
 for $10: the balance. $00. you need not pay me until after 
 you have married her and assumed the manngt<nient of her 
 affairs. Upon receipt of this small amount. $10. I will ab- 
 solutely guarantee your marriage to her within sixty days and. 
 if before that time you shoiild feel that you do not care to 
 pursue the matter to a conclusion. I will positively refund 
 vour money upon mv honor as a MINISTER OF THE 
 GOSPEL. 
 
 My standinc in my profession is such thRt T conld not do 
 
I 
 
 OOININU CUPID'^ WILES 133 
 
 otherwise and, as I have stated before, there are several ladies 
 to whom I could introduce you, now that I have really taken 
 the matter up with you, but I consider you two really suited 
 to each other, so will not go into further particulars. Trust- 
 ing to hear from you AT THE VERY EARLIEST POS- 
 SIBLE MOMENT, I am, with assurance of my regards. 
 Very respectfully. 
 
 Wanted a Etch Husband. 
 
 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
 Rev. .Joseph Spencer. July 15. 1905. 
 
 80 Madison Street, 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 You asked me in your letter to give you a description of 
 the man that I would like to become acquainted with. I wish 
 him to be as tall as I am. to have dark hair and a very good 
 disposition. I would like him to be rich. His age to be 
 about 45 years, also have a good education. I want him to 
 be a temperate man, and to have a nice appearance, one who 
 is lovely at home, and does not care for society and likes music. 
 I do not care what his occupation is if he is honest. 
 Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain 
 Y'ours truly. 
 
 Miss Vernie Adams. 
 
 Rev. .Joseph Spencer. Oshkosh, Wis., July 20, 1905. 
 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 You asked me in your letter to give you a description of 
 myself, which I take pleasure in doing: I am a young man 
 26 years of age, 5 feet 6 inches tall, weigh 140 pounds ; blue 
 eyes, red hair ; I am strictly temperate, do not gamble ; kind 
 disposition, a farm hand ; have no means ; income $15 per 
 month. 
 
 I would be delighted to make the acquaintance of several 
 of your prospective rich women who are seeking a husband. 
 Send me a list of those who are worth from $50,000 to $75,000. 
 also their photographs, whereby I can make a selection, and I 
 will send you your fee of $5. I remain. 
 Sincerely yours. 
 
 Thomas Flinn. 
 
 Matrimonial Agency Under the Guise of an Attorney- 
 
 at-Law. 
 
 Edward Morris^ 
 
 Attorney-at-Law. 
 
 82 Madison Street. 
 
 Trusts and Estates a Specialty. 
 
 Me. Geo. Ferlin, Chicago, 111.. Jan. 4, 1905. 
 
 Los Angeles, Cal. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I have during my professional career arranged many mar- 
 riages for ladies of means, and at the present time have 
 
134 MATRIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 among my clients some ten or twelve weathy ladies, ranging 
 in age from twenty-five to fifty years, desirous of marriage, 
 one of whom is the charming widow whose likeness I herewith 
 enclose. 
 
 She is worth $60,000 (.$25,000 in ready cash, the balance in 
 high-class tangible property inherited from her mother, recently 
 deceased). She is alone and childless and her physician, on 
 account of her bereavement, has recommended a marriage and 
 change of scene, and in her dilemma she has consulted me, her 
 legal adviser, and I. in turn, without her knowledge, appealed 
 to a matrimonial agency with which I have for several years 
 had business relations in a professional way. 
 
 Out of the several names submitted to me I have, after 
 much thought and deliberation, selected yours, and I beg that 
 you will consider carefully my proposition and the fact that 
 I am not in business for my health, but for revenue, to- 
 gether with a desire to please my clients and to give them 
 value received. 
 
 This lady, while unusually bright and intelligent, knows 
 little of the ways of the world, and nothing of business, and, 
 to be candid with you, needs a husband to manage her estates, 
 and I can, by recommending you personally, cause her, through 
 me as her attorney, to open negotiations with you for a mar- 
 riage ; so if you desire a wealthy wife, as I presume you do 
 from the fact that you are registered with a matrimonial 
 agency, I will, for the consideration of .$100 introduce you 
 to her, have you visit her at her expense, as you may mutually 
 agree, and will absolutely guarantee your marriage to her 
 within sixty days, if you will follow my instructions to the 
 letter. 
 
 All that I ask is, as an evidence of your good faith and to 
 cover the immediate clerical expenses necessary thereto, you 
 enclose me immediately upon receipt of this letter. BANK 
 DRAFT OR MONEY ORDER for $10, the balance (.$90) 
 to be paid after marriage, and when I have caused her to 
 place in your hands, or under your control, a goodly portion 
 of her worldly possessions. 
 
 Now. if you wish to accept my proposition, enclose me im- 
 mediately the small retaining fee ($10) and promise me that 
 you will follow carefully my instructions ; otherwise do not 
 Avrite me, as I positively will not enter into further corres- 
 pondence until you have engaged me as your attorney upon 
 the lines I have laid down. 
 
 If before the end of sixty days you feel that you do not 
 care to. pursue the matter to a conclusion I will refund your 
 money. My standing as an attorney is ample evidence that 
 I will faithfully carry out my contract. Remember that I 
 have among my clients, as I have stated before, ten or twelve 
 wealthy ladies to my certain knowledge desirous of marriage. 
 
 Awaiting your immediate reply, I am 
 
 Sincerely and professionally yours, 
 
 Edward Morris. 
 
 Edward Morris. Attorney-at-Law. 
 
 Mr. Geo. Fert.tn, Chicago. Til.. .Tan. 11. 1905. 
 
 Los Angeles. Cal. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter in reply to mine received, and I will say, that 
 as a leadinsr attorney, and a prominent member of the bar, 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 
 OH! OH!! OH!!! 
 
 135 
 
 AWful, CUWSTEBUATIOM AT i-iKES CROSSING! DIRECTORY GOV/ K IK TOWN. BY JIMMINEDOVU^ 
 
 I could not act for you until you have first retained me as 
 your attorney in this matter, and sent me the small retaining 
 io.H of $10, as requested. 
 
 Now, my dear sir, if you really mean business and really 
 »vant to marry the charming and wealthy young widow in ques- 
 tion, I see no earthly reason why you should hesitate for a 
 single instant to retain my services in connection with this mat- 
 ter. You may give me good references, and I can give you the 
 
136 .MATKIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 same, but that has no bearing on the ca5?e whatever. I cannot, 
 as stated, do any business with you until j-ou first enclose me 
 this small retaining fee, as I must be in a position to truth- 
 fully state that you are my frieud and client. 
 
 You may have had unfortunate dealings with matrimonial 
 agencies, but as an attorney in high standing, I am not to be 
 compared with such concerns, and on receipt of your small 
 retaining fee, I will guarantee to do my part and arrange a 
 speedy marriage if you adhere strictly to my instructions. 
 
 Trusting to hear favorably from you at once. I am. 
 
 Yours verj- truly. 
 Edward Morris. 
 
 P. S. I do not ask for the balance of the .^100 until after 
 your marriage, and I have caused the lady to place in your 
 hands or under your control a goodly portion of her worldly 
 possessions. 
 
 Edward Morkis, Attorney-at-Law. 
 
 Chicago, 111., Jan. 23, 1905. 
 Mb. Geo. Ferun. 
 
 Los Angelese. Cal. 
 Dear Sir; i 
 
 Your favor at hand with enclosure accepting my proposi- 
 tion. Now, I wish to assure you that everything you write to 
 me will be treated in the strictest confidence, and I will say 
 that it will be necessarj- for you to follow to the letter the in- 
 structions which I will from time to time give you. 
 
 In order to break the ice, I would suggest that you address 
 a letter to Mrs. Lucy Kline, in my care, briefly setting forth 
 the fact that you are a friend and client of mine, and tiiat as 
 you are matrimonially inclined. I have advised you to open a 
 cprrespondence with her. You can say to her that I have fa- 
 vored you with her photograph, and that same meets your ap- 
 proval, and that you would very much desire her acquaintance 
 and what it may lead to. I have already taken up the matter 
 with her. and she is expecting a letter from you, and in reply 
 will send you her private address. 
 
 I would advise you, after receiving her reply, not to write 
 too often or too long letters. In other words, do not aj)pear to 
 be too anxious, for it must devolve upon me to bring you two 
 together. The corrcsj>ondence you may have with her is simply 
 a preliminary introduction leading to the establishment of con- 
 genial relations and eventually, marriage. 
 
 Important business prevents my writing a longer letter to 
 you today, and in order that I may be iirepared to take the 
 matter up. I suggest that you write your letter so that it will 
 reach my office in about one week from today. 
 
 Yours truly. 
 Edward Morris. 
 
 Matrimoniat. Agency Under the Orisi; of E:^fPLOY>rENT 
 
 EXCUANOE. 
 
 Positions for Men and Women. Commercial, Technical, 
 Educational, Professional. Those Hardest to Find and 
 Hardest to Fill. 
 
COINlXd C'(;iMD\S WILES 13^ 
 
 G. H. Cannon^ Manager, 
 Ohio Block. 
 
 Chicajio, 111., Sept. 21, 1905. 
 Mrs. a. a. Bubkows, 
 
 San Fran, Cal. 
 Dear Madam : 
 
 I am directed by a client for whom we transact much busi- 
 ness, to submit you a proposition, which both he and I sin- 
 cerely hope you will accept. He is a bachelor of middle age, of 
 fine appearance, and is the owner of a large manufacturing 
 plant, as well as of a magnificent residence, in which he lived 
 until recently with his aged mother, who, greatly to his re- 
 gret, departed this life some six months ago. Since her death 
 he has felt the need of a woman's guiding hand in the man- 
 agement of his household affairs, and it is to offer you a posi- 
 tion as his housekeeper that I am addressing you personally. 
 
 I beg to state that attached to the position is a salary of $75 
 per month, your board, and an allowance of $25 per month for 
 your clothing, and you will have full charge of his household 
 expenses, including the employment and discharge of servants, 
 consisting of a butler, two housemaids, driver, cook, etc. 
 
 If you accept the position his carriage will be at your dis- 
 posal at all times, and you will be the actual head of his house- 
 hold, with no restrains of any kind upon you. As I have 
 stated, this client is a bachelor, and on account of his mother's 
 determined opposition to his marriage during her lifetime, he 
 has gone little in society, but since her death he has never 
 ceased to feel the need of a woman's hand and presence in his 
 home. 
 
 His first thought was marriage, but after a lengthy talk 
 with me he very cheerfully acquiesced in the suggestion that 
 has led to the writing of this letter, and now to the point. 
 
 I suggested that he allow me to secure for him a house- 
 keeper who might possess the qualities he most desires in a 
 wife, and then I consulted a matrimonial agency with that end 
 in view. Your description seemed to fit so exactly his idea of 
 true womanhood and appealed to him so strongly that his first 
 impulse was to address you directly, but being of a sensitive 
 and retiring disposition, he came to the conclusion that he 
 should become thoroughly acquainted with you, and could not 
 do better than allow me to carry out my original plan to make 
 your acquaintance. 
 
 To be candid with you, this position is a very lucrative one, 
 and will undoubtedly lead to your marriage with this gentle- 
 man, if you see fit to accept the proposition, and for that rea- 
 son I trust you will give it the consideration is deserves. 
 
 As he secures the help necessary to the ininning of his large 
 factory through this firm, of which I happen to be the manager, 
 you cannot but understand that I am thoroughly acquainted 
 with him, and am in a position to arrange this matter to your 
 mutual satisfaction. 
 
 It is a custom to charge a fee of ^5, but in this instance we 
 would make no charge at all, only our client insists that we re- 
 quire our usual fee simply as an evidence of good faith, and 
 that there may be no misunderstanding. If you accept the 
 proposition I have submitted kindly fill out the enclosed fonn 
 and return to us with EXPRESS MONEY ORDER or RANK 
 
138 
 
 MATRIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 OPINIONS DIFFER 
 
 The above are illustrations of the method. Cannon, Rev. 
 Spencer and Attorney Edwards are all one and the same man. 
 We now turn to a few special examples of differences of pro- 
 cedure among the various bureaux. 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 139 
 
 DRAFT for $5. which amount will be returned to you as soon 
 as you have taken charge of his household affairs, as your good 
 faith will have then been proved. 
 
 As soon as you can start for Chicago I will send you expense, 
 free railroad transportation, and if, after your arrival here, 
 you do not care to accept the position, a return ticket, etc., 
 will be furnished you so that you will not be out one dollar of 
 expense. 
 
 This offer is made to you in the strictest confidence, and I 
 sincerely trust you will so regard it, and not discuss it with 
 any one, at least not until all the details have been arranged. 
 
 No matrimonial agency in the world can do this for you, nor 
 do I think such an opportunity will ever occur to you again, 
 so kindly sign the enclosed form and return it to me imme- 
 diately with the small fee necessary, or do not write me at all. 
 No harm will have been done by having submitted the propo- 
 sition to you, but if you cannot take immediate advantage of 
 it, I simply will not correspond further in the matter. Trust- 
 ing that you will see your way clear, and wishing you well, I am. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 G. H. Cannon. 
 
 A Persistent Offender. 
 
 One of the most successful operators who ever invaded Chi- 
 cago with matrimonial schemes was one John Carson, who, on 
 April 8, 1908, was fined $1,000 and costs for misuse of the 
 United States mails after he had plead guilty to the charge, 
 which was preferred by Inspector Ketcham. 
 
 Carson, at one time or another, operated no less than eigh- 
 teen concerns of this nature. He was first discovered in 1903 
 in Chicago by Detective Wooldridge, operating no less than 
 five matrimonial and fake concerns simultaneously. These 
 concerns were: 
 
 The Loretta Matrimonial Publishing Co., 98 Ogden Ave. 
 
 The Unida Matrimonial Publishing Co., 408 Ogden Ave. 
 
 Mr. John's Matrimonial Publishing Co., 565 West Madi- 
 son St. 
 
 Mr. J. C. Hills Matrimonial Agency, 565 West Madison St. 
 
 The Chicago Mutual Securities Co., a Chicago Medicine 
 concern, 567 W. Madison St. 
 
 Carson evaded arrest and fled to St. Louis, where he was 
 shortly afterward arrested by the postal authorities and sen- 
 tenced to eighteen months in the State Penitentiary at Jefferson 
 City, in addition to a fine of $500. 
 
140 MATKIMONIAI. AGENTS 
 
 Bobs Vi> Again, 
 
 In 1904 Carson bobbed up again in Chicago. Since that time 
 his record is best given from a report made to Chief of Police 
 John M. Collins by Detective Wooldridge, who repeatedly 
 broke up Carson's games. The report, in part, is as follows: 
 
 Feb. 9, J. H. Carson Woods' Advertising Agency, 62 Ada 
 St. Goods confiscated ; fined $25. . 
 
 March 9, 1904, J. H. Carson, Mill's Advertisifig Agency, 71 
 W. Lake St. Fined $15. 
 
 May 4, 1904, J. H. Carson, alias J. IT. Hayes, 408 Ogden 
 Ave., raided. Literature seized and destroyed by order of court. 
 
 May 4, 1904, J. H. Carson, alias J. H. Hayes, 255 Madison 
 St., raided. Literature seized and destroyed by order of court. 
 
 Nov. 15, 1^)04, J. H. Carson, alias J. W. Bessie, 480 Ogden 
 Ave., raided. Arrested; released; writ of habeas corpus. 
 
 Nov. 15, 1904, J. H. Carson, alias J. W. Bessie, 67 Flournoy 
 St., raided. Arrested ; released ; writ of habeas corpus. 
 
 Jan. 4, 1905, J. H. Carson and Oscar Wells, promoted and 
 run the J. H. Hunter Matrimonial Agency. 164 East Randolph 
 St. Oscar Wells was arrested and fined $50 hy Justice John K. 
 Prindiville. 
 
 April 19, 1905, J. H. Carson and J. R. Ferguson, conducted 
 the Jesse H. Lee Matrimonial Agency, 84 Wasliington St. Fer- 
 guson was arrested and fined $15 by Caverley. The literature 
 seized and destroyed. 
 
 Turns Clairvoyant. 
 
 May 27, 1905, J. H. Carson conducted the Clay's American 
 Bureau of Correspondence, 62 Ada St. He was arrested and 
 fined $25 by Justice John K. Prindiville. The literature 
 seized and destroyed. 
 
 Aug. 21, 1905, J. H. Carson and J. R. Ferguson conduofed 
 the Ferguson Directory, a Matrimonial agency at 171 Wash- 
 ington St. This place was raided and Jesse R. Ferguson was 
 .1. rested and fined i^25 bv Justice John T\. Prindiville. 
 
(JOINING CUPlD'y VVlLEtS 141 
 
 May 27, 1905, J, H, Carson conducted the Jesse Lee Matri- 
 monial Agency, 84 Washington St. He was arrested and fined 
 $2.5 by Justice John K. Prindiville. 
 
 Aug. 19, 1905, J. H. Carson was arrested for conducting a 
 Chicago Matrimonial Agency at 171 Washington St. and 95 
 Fifth Ave., under the name of Prof. John C. Hall, Astrologist, 
 Occult, Scientist, Clairvoyant, Medium, and Lifereader. 
 
 With this record behind him this rascal actually had the nerve 
 to bring suit for false arrest against Detective Wooldridge, but 
 quite naturally, he failed to appear when the suit came up for 
 trial. 
 
 He has not been heard from since the fine imposed on April 
 S, 1908, by the Federal authorities. 
 
 Agents of the TJndervtoeld a Nest of Pole-Cats. 
 
 But crime is not the only long suit of the Matrimonial 
 Agency. Some of these miserable frauds have descended into 
 the depths and wallowed in the slime of the ultimate shame. 
 
 With unbelievable effrontery they have attempted to trade 
 upon the basest instincts in human nature ; they have attempted 
 to coin the most abominable of the brute passions of men. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the turpitude, the brazen shamelessness 
 of the Matrimonial Agency, when it decides to go the limit. 
 
 Attest the following from the literature of the New Era Ad- 
 vertising Agency and Introduction Bureau, Curtis, Clark & 
 Co., Props., formerly located at 113 Clark street, Chicago. 
 This abomination was raided by Detective Wooldridge and the 
 following sample from one of the circulars seized shows the 
 nature of the concern: 
 
 "If you are willing to give your name and protection to one 
 who has fallen and wishes again to enter the ranks of respecta- 
 bility, we have some young women who have led fast lives 
 and accumulated considerable money, and want to marry some 
 respectable man, settle down in a new place and be respected 
 and respectable. THEY AKE HANDSOME, STYLISH, 
 
U2 ^OATiUMOMAL AGE^NT^ 
 
 LIVELY AXD FULL OF FUN : HAVE MONEY ENOUGH 
 FOR BOTH. They will no doubt make good, loving and true 
 wives for some good-natured fellow who is not particular about 
 their past. Through our efforts several wealthy ladies of the 
 demi-monde have married very poor men in return for their 
 name and protection, given them a life of ease and luxury, and 
 the opportunities are greater today than in the past, consider- 
 ing the fact that the world in general is anxious to lend a 
 helping hand to those wlio have erred and wish to become re- 
 spectable again.*' 
 
 This pole-cat literature was being sent broadcast through 
 the United States mails. In some way it evaded the inspectors 
 until the 23rd of September, 1902, when Detective Clifton R 
 Wooldridge descended upon the nest of pole-cats, seized the lit- 
 erature, chased "Curtis, Clark & Co." out of Chicago, and 
 made further evil-smelling operations impossible. 
 
 These abominations are now practically impossible, thanks 
 to the activity of the great police detective. But the above 
 illustrations shows to what depths the marriage bureaus can 
 descend, once they have become started on their infamous 
 careers. 
 
 November 26, 1902, Detective Wooldridge raided the Climax 
 Matrimonial Agency, located at 418 LaSalle avenue, which is 
 situated on the North Side, in one of the most fashionable 
 places in Chicago. 
 
 It was run not only as a matrimonial agency, but a matri- 
 monial paper and mail order house. Among the literature 
 seized Avas a circular containing a picture of the manager's wife, 
 and of which he sent out over 300,000. which gave the descrijv- 
 tion of her, which read as follows: 
 
 Sheriff l)ri>En — Attempts Role of Lothario. 
 
 "I am 23 years of age, 5 feet 2 inches in height, weigh 120 
 pounds, have a turn-up nose, plain-looking and worth about 
 $147,000. I desire to marrv a good, honest, atfectionate man. 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 
 
 143 
 
 / Cot fAONEV 
 
 IfN OB Bank 
 
 *GOT A OOO-D HOME ALREADY PAID FOR. AN' MONEY 
 IN D^ BANK." 
 
 •«E8 A ^LAfN, LITTLE ONINTERESTIN" FAMBLY ftOW." 
 
144 MATKIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 On our wedding day 1 will give my husband $5,500 in cash, 
 and one year later, ii we are still living together, I will make 
 over to him $25,000 more. Xo milk-and-water man need an- 
 swer." 
 
 One letter from a ^Mississippi sliorif! shows tliat the officer of 
 the law is willing to forsake bachelorhood for a woman who, 
 though plain, advertises that on hor wedding day she will give 
 her husband $5,500. This is the gay Lothario's letter: 
 
 Miss Ot. — I take pleasure in answering your "ad"' in the 
 "Hour at Home.'' You stated in your "ad" you were worth 
 $147,000, and would give the man that married you $5,500 on 
 his wedding day. You say you are plain. 
 
 I am good looking, so the people tell me, and if you corre- 
 spond with me we may come to an understanding. I am will- 
 ing to marry you if you give me proof you have the money, and 
 will do all that you say in the "ad." 
 
 I will do my hest to make vour life happy. Awaiting your 
 replv, I remain. Yours truly, 
 
 \V. ^r. M.. Sherifl'. 
 
 BIGAMY AND THE BUREAU. 
 
 Where the Professional Bigamists Find Wives. 
 
 The matrimonial agencies that have been investigated and 
 suppressed by Detective Wooldridge and the postoffice authori- 
 ties have disclosed an almost incredible pliase of woman's 
 nature. 
 
 There are today in the United States no less than 50,000 
 women who have been married, robbed and deserted by "pro- 
 fessional bigamists."' This fact represents the most serious 
 phase of the matrimonial agency swindle, for it is the history 
 of nearly all noted l)igamists tliat they secured their victims 
 through the matrimonial agencies. Of th(^ thousands who be- 
 come subscribers to these agencies, however, comparatively 
 Few ever proeeed far ennugli to eneount(>r fbe trairie features 
 
UOlNlxVlJ Ci;Pli)\S WILES 
 
 145 
 
 PUTS il SNAFFLE BIT ON THE OLD MAN 
 
 of tEe swindle. It might be inferred from this that women 
 arc much easier to entice into matrimony than men. Prob- 
 ably, however, this is an nntenable conclusion. A\nien a 
 woman does start on marrying bent, mere men fall before her 
 like grain before tlie sickle. Miss Marion Rapp, arrested at 
 Philadelphia, is knnwn to have secured cigld linsl)ands in three 
 
146 MATKIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 years, and is suspected of having captured six or eight more. 
 Miss Rapp is still young, and if her career had not been un- 
 timely cut off she might have made a record that would have 
 done credit (or discredit) to her sex. 
 
 The sad experiences of people who have been victimized by 
 gay deceivers, male or female, perhaps contain a lesson to per- 
 sons who carelessly contemplate matrimony. When a stranger 
 proposes marriage at first sight it may possibly be well to take 
 a look into his or her antecedents. This is not the most ro- 
 mantic way to proceed, but it is a Avay that may have a great 
 practical advantage. It probably would be endorsed by every 
 one of the 50,000 women in this country who are now looking 
 for professional bigamists who married them and ran away 
 with their cash. 
 
 That the matrimonial agency but^iness is not coniined to 
 Chicago and dupes of the system are found elsewhere than in 
 rural communities and among the poor and humble is demon- 
 strated by recent revelations in Europe. During one raid 1 
 .seized a large quantity of literature in the offices of a swindling 
 concern doing business under the name of !Mason, Brown & Co. 
 The ''firm" advertised itself as the largest of its kind in the 
 world and the only one "indorsed by press and public and 
 patronized by royalty/' adding that its "clients and representa- 
 tives were to be found in every land." 
 
 In extra large type (he information was conveyed to the 
 victim that he or she need not be ashamed to resort to tlio 
 agency method in order to secure a life partner, as tlio royalty 
 of Europe used this means exclusively in contracting marriages, 
 especially in cases where American heiresses were sought as 
 wives for titled but impecunious foreigners. 
 
 When it was casually remarked during an examination of a 
 wagon load of Mason, Brown & Company's advertising matter 
 the reference to the titles and heiresses was the only true state- 
 ment it contained, there were smiles of incredulity. American 
 millionaires were said to be too shrewd and level-headed to 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 
 
 u: 
 
 GET A 
 piVORCE 
 ANP SEE 
 
 THF 
 
 ClOODS 
 
 801- S- 
 
 5IV0RCE5] -^ 
 
 [mean-men's 
 
 DIVORCE 6 
 
 ' HOME WITH 
 
 THE WIFE 
 
 
 •=^3 
 
 
 Itake one 
 
 %5-lFYOU GETTME SEEOSjPiANTEpt 
 
148 MATKLMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 enter into deals with marriage brokers when tlie life happiness 
 of their fair and independent daughters is concerned. 
 
 It was but a short time after this conversation, however, that 
 the following cablegram was published : 
 
 The Case of Count Lakisch. 
 
 "Aug. 25th, 1905: The alleged attempt to blackmail Count 
 Franz Joseph Maria Von Larisch Monnich out of 200,000 marks 
 on a pre-nuptial note alleged to have been signed by the count, 
 and the implication of army officers and members of the aristoc- 
 racy in the marriage brokerage business, has caused more talk in 
 high circles than anything which has happened since the elope- 
 ment of Crown Princess Louise of Saxony." 
 
 It is said the Kaiser had to take a hand in the matter, and 
 insists that this business shall be stopped finally and effectively 
 on the ground it is bringing the army and nobility into disrc- 
 ])ute and ridicule. 
 
 The harm done by these agencies is almost incalculable. 
 Foolish women having money at their disposal fall easy vic- 
 tims to the many scheming scoundrels who make a practice 
 of subscribing to the matrimonial agencies for the purpose of 
 securing the addresses of prospective victims. 
 
 As instances of the harm done by these mafrimonial agen- 
 cies the case of Johann Hoch, who married fifty women, and 
 after securing all their money, either poisoned or deserted 
 them. He was captured in New York City, January 30, 1905, 
 after he had married a woman in Chicago, Mary Sehultz, alias 
 Brees, alias Bauman, poisoned her, then made love to her sister, 
 married her, secured what money she had and descried her. 
 Hoch was brought back to Chicago, tried for jnnrdcr, convicted 
 and hung February 23, 1906. This is a glaring example. 
 
 The case of Fredrick Carlton, indicted on two charges of 
 grand larceny in Brooklyn, New York, July, 1905, is another. 
 
 It is stated on what seems to be reliable authority this man 
 made the acquainfnnce of' women in vnrioiis ]i;irls of (he cduii- 
 
IN CUPID'S WORKSHOP. 
 
 •Ten dollare extra, cabpy. 
 mother-in-law.;- 
 
 ■on .ai.h ibe train *vf< \nr She's my 
 
150 MxVTElMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 try through the raedium of matrimonial advertisements, mar- 
 ried them and decamped with their money at the first favorable 
 /)pportunit3\ Still another: 
 
 Dr. George A. Witzhoff, champion bigamist, arrested in 
 Bristol, England, October, 1905, for bigamy and given a long 
 term in prison. He was wanted in many cities in the United 
 States. 
 
 WitzhofE confessed to marrying and robbing thirty-two 
 women. Most all of the women he married lived in the United 
 States, and were secured through the matrimonial agencies. 
 Witzhoff's Confession — Bought Fifteen Wives From One 
 
 Agent — Takes $4,000 From His First "Wife. 
 
 "Then, one night, after indulging in plent}- of wine, she 
 confessed she had a child in Pittsburg. I left her there, tell- 
 ing her I was going to bring her child, which was nine years 
 old. Instead, I went to New York with her money ($4,000), 
 and paid my friend part of his money, and started a practice 
 as a dentist in Fourteenth street as Dr. A. R. Houser. I went 
 to see a matchmaker. He introduced me to a widow of means. 
 We got married in two weeks at the City Hall, Xew York. 
 
 "She had all her money loaned away, so I was compelled to 
 seek another one, as Sig. Badillo Avas hard after his balance of 
 $1,000. 
 
 "I went to Philadelphia and got a Jewish matchmaker again 
 on Fifteenth street and Fairmoimt avenue, and he introduced 
 mc to a Miss Jocker as Dr. A. Houser. 
 
 "I got $800 from her. I yiaid Badillo $500 and left for 
 Springfield, Mass., where a woman answered one of my ads. 
 1 inserted an ^id.' as follows: 
 
 "*A professional gentleman of nice appearance, aged thirty- 
 two, desires the acquaintance of a sincere, affectionate lady, 
 with some means; object, matrimony; triflers ignored. Give 
 particulars in first letter. Address Busy Bee, the Joumal.' 
 
 "I had about twelve answers to this advertisement, and T 
 
COlNlN^d (M'Pri)\s WILES 
 
 151 
 
152 MATRIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 picked out a boarding liouse mistress, and ten days after she 
 was Mrs. Westfield, and as she was a vulgar woman, I left hej- 
 two days after. She had given me .$500 before marriage. 
 
 "I returned to New York to wife No. 2, and a week after I 
 went to St. Louis and inserted an ''ad.' as previously, and got 
 fifteen answers. There I selected a farmer's daughter and mar- 
 ried her as Dr. Doesser. I married and left her all within a 
 week. 
 
 "I came to Detroit, and Avith her mone)% $350, I started a 
 dental practice as A. Houser. In answer to my advertisements 
 in a German paper, Mrs. Piser came. 
 
 "We went to Toledo, 0., five days after our first interview, 
 and we got married. I left her six days after. 
 
 "I came now to Pittsburg, as Dr. Wolfe, got a furnished room 
 in Allegheny. In answer to an ^ad.' in a German paper a 
 sexton's daughter answered, the ugliest I ever had. Three 
 days after we went to the justice of the peace and got married." 
 
 Deserts Wife After the First Day. 
 
 "There I slept the first night, and the next morning I was 
 on my way to Cleveland, and started a nice practice with the 
 $150 I had left. I paid the balance to my friend. Badillo, 
 and inserted an *ad.' in the Plain-Dealer. 
 
 "I had two answers to my *ad.,' and selected a Mrs. Moore, 
 a nurse, and a Mrs. Kreidman. I got from the nurse $100, and 
 was making love to Mrs. Kreidman and Mrs. Moore, when I got 
 a letter from wife No. 3, with whom I corresponded all the 
 time, telling her I traveled for a firm. 
 
 "So I left, and forgot tliat 1 left in Cleveland a paper under 
 the tablecloth wbich had my address in Brooklyn. One morn- 
 ing (ten days after T left Cleveland) two detectives came to 
 the house in Brooklyn and arrested me. As there was no bail 
 for my offense (obtaining money under false pretenses), I re- 
 turned to Cleveland a week later, and there T married a bad 
 woman in iail, ^Irs. Kreidman. 
 
''She gave $200 boiul, hut I left her four (hiys after, as >]h- 
 ^vi\fi a bad woman. I slept one night at lier house, and tlirer 
 days after I went to Chicago and went to see a matrimonial 
 agent at 5r) Washington street. 
 
 Identified ix Chicago; Wedding Stopped. 
 
 "He introduced me to a nice Jewess, and her father gave me 
 $400. I started an office on Fourteenth street, when a man 
 from Philadelphia recognized me, and told her father, a rag 
 dealer, that I was a married man, named Hansen, just in time 
 to prevent the marriage. 
 
 '"T left Chicago as Dr. Weston and went to St. Louis, where 
 T started an office in Olive street as Dr. A. Dresser, and there 
 I advertised and selected from a number of letters that of a 
 farmer's daughter that had $1,000, and married her (Katie). 
 Six days after I left her and left America and went to Eoii- 
 mania, and married a girl, a Jewess, in Pitest, and lived in 
 Roumania as Dr. F. A. Shotz. 
 
 "Happy six months : I got 3,000 francs, and we left for Ger- 
 many. There we had a quarrel, and she returned to her par- 
 ents." 
 
 Dr. Witzhoff further states that the number of all the girls 
 and women he merely promised to marry and secured money 
 from would reach over one hundred. 
 
 One of the women Witzhoff married lived in Chicago, 111. 
 
 May 13, 1903, John J. Marietta (alias Homer C. Reid, Har- 
 old C. Mills, A. S. Anderson, C. H. Huston, C. B. McCoy, H. 
 C. Jones, Harold C. Reed) was arrested through exposure by 
 Laura E. Strickler, a beautiful young girl from Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, who boarded at the Young Women's Association, Chi- 
 cago. She had been lured to the I^ewport Hotel, 73 Monroe 
 street, where he proposed marriage and attempted liberties. 
 Miss Strickler became frightened, jumped from the second stor\'' 
 window and was badly injured. 
 
 Marietta married no less than six women, three of whom. 
 
154 
 
 MATRIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 Sophia Headley, Marie Butler and Flora Renli^. appeared in 
 court to prosecute him September 28, Me was convicted. 
 Judge Brentano's court of bigamy, and given five years in the 
 Joliet penitentiary. 
 
 "Marietta said ho secured most of his wives through the 
 marriage agency. Mills said to Miss Headley, after meeting 
 her the second time: "How anxious are you to marry me? 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 155 
 
 Make me an offer in cash of the sum you are willing to settle 
 on me." "Three thousand dollars/' she answered. "All right," 
 he replied, "but you know I am from Missouri, you will have 
 to show me." She gave him the $3,000 and they were married. 
 At the time of his conviction Marietta had in the bank 
 !t'25,000, said to have been secured in the above manner. 
 
156 MATEIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 BREAKING INTO THE NOBILITY. 
 
 How Titled Kakes Use the Agencies. 
 
 The marriage bureau is not a distinctly American institu- 
 tion. They know the animal in Europe, only there the oper- 
 ators refer to themselves as marriage brokers, and are decid- 
 edly more careful than their American prototypes to steer clear 
 of crime. 
 
 The idea of jnarriage broking has thoroughly permeated the 
 effete nobility of Europe. The broken-down "nobles/"' out at 
 heels and buried under a mountain of debt, look to America 
 for a rich heiress to whom their titles may be sold. For many 
 years thoy looked to the brokers on their own side of the water 
 to provide them with golden girls; but of late years they have 
 been mixing with the American Matrimonial Agencies, some- 
 times to their sorrow, as attest the case of Count Larisch. 
 
 Woes of Count Larisch. 
 
 The story of the attempt on Count Larisch is not an unusuni 
 one. Briefly, the count, who is an Austrian, but who has es- 
 tates in Prussia, was anxious to replenish his treasury by marry- 
 ing an heiress. A syndicate composed of the men now under 
 indictment, it is said, financed him. He set out to marry the 
 daughter of Faber, the multi-millionaire pencil manufacturer 
 of Nuremberg, giving his notes for $50,000, payable upon his 
 marriage to Fraulein Faber. The venture was a failure, for 
 Fraulcin Faber did not care to become Countess Larisch. The 
 noble fortune-hunter then went to America in quest of a bride. 
 Whether it was on his own account, or under the auspices of 
 another marriage syndicate, does not appear, though it is hinted 
 the latter is the case. In any event, he was successful, and 
 married Aliss Satierlce, of Tihisvillo, Pa. 
 
 On his return the momluM-s of tb<' firsl Faber syndicate de- 
 manded payment, and presented a note purporting to have been 
 ijiven bv T>arisfh witlioiil ihc (pialificntion thai it was iiayablc 
 
COINIKG CUPID'S WILES 157 
 
 only after his marriage to the pencil manufacturers daughter. 
 Larisch, regarding the Faber affair a closed incident, and de- 
 claring the note presented a forgery, refused to pay. The 
 matter got before the public prosecutor and the expose re- 
 sulted. 
 
 Lord Bertie Cavendish — Champion Matrimonialist. 
 
 Oct. 24, 1905, Miss Gladys Simmons, Hot Springs, Ark., 
 married Lord Bertie Cavendish after two days' acquaintance. 
 He represented himself to be of noble birth, son of the late 
 Marquis of Queensbury, and to have immense possessions in 
 South Africa and Mexico, which he was unable to obtain on 
 account of his banishment from England for serving against 
 the British in the Boer war, due to the activity of British army 
 officers against him. 
 
 Miss Simmons' mother received information that her son-in- 
 law's name was not Lord Bertie Cavendish, but Douglass. By 
 photographs and further investigation his identity was estab- 
 lished as that of an adventurer. 
 
 Following is a partial list of his wives, several of whom 
 have asked the court to grant them divorces: 
 
 Miss Louisiana Hobbs, Lambert Point. Va., near Norfolk. 
 
 Mrs. Mabel Duncan, Denver, Colo. 
 
 Mrs. Scott, South Bend, Ind. 
 
 Mrs. Beatrice E. Anderson, Fort Worth, Texas. 
 
 Market for American Heiresses. 
 
 There has been more than one similar scandal involving 
 members of the high nobility and rich American girls. 
 
 It Avill be remembered last year there was a stir created by 
 the broadcast announcement that Prince Hugo Von Hohenche- 
 Oehringen, Prince Heinrich Von Hanan and Baron Berhard- 
 Muenhausen, accused an Englishman, O^rien, who was al- 
 leged to be the agent of Berlin marriage brokers, of attempted 
 blackmail. 
 
 Among the Americans whose names are said to be on the 
 
158 
 
 ^T^ r % t ^ 
 
 MATKIMOXIAL AGENTS 
 
 list of this marriage syndicate, without their personal knowl- 
 edge or consent, are the ^Misses Angelica and Mabel Gcrr}', 
 the Misses Nora and Fannie Iselin, the Misses Adeline 
 and Electra Ilavemeyer, Jlrs. Lewis Rutherford Morris, for- 
 merly Miss Katherinc Clark, daughter of Senator Clark, of 
 Montana; ^Irs. Francis Burton Harrison, formerly "Miss Marv 
 
COININCt CUPID^S wiles 159 
 
 Crocker, daughter of Mrs. George W. Crocker; Miss Dorothy 
 Whitney, the Misses Beatrice and Gladys Mills, Miss Gwen- 
 dolyn Burden, and the Misses Florence and Euth Twombly. 
 
 Government Officials Eoused to Many Frauds by the 
 
 Matrimonial Agencies and Bureaux Throughout 
 
 THE Country, "Agencies" to Put Under 
 
 Ban the Swindling Operations. 
 
 Mrs. Jennie Scott, Arrested by Postal Inspectors, Tells 
 Secrets of Her Matrimonial Agency. 
 
 The second blow has been struck against the affinity trust, 
 of Chicago, and the second member of the alleged trust in 
 Chicago, Mrs. Jennie Scott, a woman of many aliases, by 
 Postoffice Inspector James E. Stuart. 
 
 This woman was arrested at her home, at 214 Thirty-second 
 street, her "Cupid shop," where she received thousands of let- 
 ters, descriptions and photographs of affinity seekers from all 
 over the United States and Canada. She received them in the 
 name of "Glinn's International Corresponding Association," to 
 Join which from $2 to $5 was drawn from each affinity. Thou- 
 sands joined. 
 
 Same Literature Used as in Marion Grey Case. 
 
 Postoffice Inspectors A. E. Germer and Frank Sheron worked 
 up the case against the woman and discovered that the same 
 literature was used by this woman as was used by Marion 
 Grey, convicted for the misuse of the mails in operating an 
 affinity matching business at Elgin. 
 
 There were some changes, however, in the method. This is 
 shown in the literature sent out by this woman. Her literature 
 explains to the affinities that the business is absolutely honest 
 and above board, and must be kept so. Under "special re- 
 duced rates," she drew in hundreds of women clients, many 
 of whom sent in their pictures. 
 
](J0 
 
 MATJflAloMAL ACiE.XT,^ 
 
COIN INC ('rPll)"S \YUA<:S 
 
 161 
 
 TYPES OF "AFFINITIES" FOUND BY MARION GRAY, 
 
 SKETCHED IN COURT WHERE BEAUTY IS ON TRIAL 
 
 PCSl»Es'flVl.OWt(l" 
 
 WEALTHY OWN6ff Love Ai.1. RlOKT 
 
 OF OBLeW/>r?C (JorSHENECOS 
 
 THE MONEV 
 
 C.OOUO t.lVE 
 
 l-OVE. 
 
 Mrs. Scott operated also at 3208 Wabash avenue, where she 
 liad a room for receiving mail. She was known not only as 
 Mrs. Scott, but as E. L. Glinn, ]\Irs. Jennie Call. Mrs. A. M. 
 Harvey and Mrs. E. L. Glinn. She lived on Thirty-second 
 street, with her young daughter. 
 
162 MATEIMOXIAL AGENTS 
 
 Clients All Wealthy; Take Their Word for It. 
 
 Almost every client on the books of this marriage-fostering 
 concern claimed to be worth from $5,000 to £1,000,000 ster- 
 ling. 
 
 Many of them were alleged to have large incomes. Some 
 were said to have children and are not to be divorced, but still 
 seek life partners. 
 
 Witnesses Xeed a Shepherd. 
 
 Then, from among the queer little party huddled together 
 on the benches at the rear of the big court room — a helpless, 
 shepherdlcss flock — Mr. Shirer began to call out his witnesses. 
 
 First of the hungering souls who sought life companions 
 through Mrs. Scott came Mrs. Mary Quinn, of Trenton, 111., a 
 short, dumpy little person of about thirty-five or forty, who 
 was chiefly remarkable for the white hat she wore. 
 
 "I saw the ad.,'' she whispered — it was with the greatest 
 difficulty that Judge Bethea induced her to talk so she could 
 be heard ten feet away — "and I answered it. They sent me back 
 a circular and a photograph of a nice-looking fellow who was 
 said to be rich. 
 
 "I sent my $2 and wrote that I would like to get into cor- 
 respondence with him. They sent me back word that he was 
 corresponding with another lady just then, and didn't want 
 any more names at present, but there was another one just as 
 good. 
 
 Nice Letters Lack Eich Tone. 
 
 "I corresponded with him until three weeks before I remar- 
 ried my divorced husband, last December. He wrote very nice 
 letters, but he certainly didn't sound rich." 
 
 "You got what you asked for, didn't you?" asked ^\v. "Mur- 
 phy. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I guess so; I'm not complaining." 
 
 The uncomplainingness of the alleged victims is the odd 
 feature of the case. 
 
COI>^ING CUPID'S WILES 
 
 163 
 
 JAIL FOR CUPID'S AID. 
 
 Marion Grey, Pretty Love Broker, Who 
 Was Sentenced to a Year in Prison ' 
 
IGl .\l.\TJn,\l()MAI, Al.KNTS 
 
 Dr. ^fontgoniory Porter, a graduate of the University of 
 Arkansis, came all the way frojii liis home in Pine Bluff, to 
 say that he had answered one of Mrs. Scott's advertisements 
 hut had not paid the $5 fee, '"which she charged the men mem- 
 hers." 
 
 Porter C. Dyer, a graduate of tlie Ohio State University, who 
 lives in Austin, 0., said that he paid the fee and was disap- 
 pointed, "because the names sent were not those of refinement 
 and culture, as promised in the circulars." 
 
 Airs. Flora Scott, a restaurant keeper at Middleport, 0., tall 
 and not particularly stylish, couldn't recall what any of the 
 circulars said, but she Avas quite sure she hadn't landed a rich 
 husband yet. 
 
 SouTiiKRN Beauty Sends $2. 
 
 The handsomest of the witnesses was ^liss Avis Christen- 
 berry, a stately brunette from ^lemphis, who rather liked the 
 looks of the rich young man's photograph used for bait and sent 
 in $3. 
 
 "They told me ho was corresponding with some one else 
 just then," she testified, "and I corresponded with two sub- 
 stitutes, but they didn't entertain me much." 
 
 Wilson Schufelt, a real estate man, said that he had rentc<l 
 the matrimonial headquarters to "Mrs, A. !M. Harvey" for a 
 mail order house business. !Mrs. Harvey got her mail under 
 the names of Clinn and Hill, and when the postal authorities 
 became interested in her she told Schufelt that her name was 
 Jennie Scott. At her home, 21-1 East I'hirty-second street, she 
 is known as ]\rrs. Jennie Call. 
 
 She was indicted under the nanu- of (Jlinn. It was testified 
 ])y V,. J. Beach, superintendent of the Twenty-second strecM 
 sub-postal station, that the nialrimonial agi'ucy received from 
 oO to 200 letters every day. 
 
 She was arraigned before Judge Betliea and found guilty, 
 on April 25, 1008. and was sentenced to one year in the Ifnuse 
 of Torrection. and was fined .^^OO. 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 166 
 
 THE HORRIBLE GUNNESS FARM. 
 
 The Ripened Fruit of the Matrimonial Agency. 
 
 But the giant ])lossom of tliis plant of hell is not l)igamy, not 
 swindling, not desertion ; it is murder, wholesale, ghastly mur- 
 der. For it is the matrimonial* agency, nothing else, which is 
 directly responsible for the unbelievable horrors of the Gun- 
 ness Murder Farm, at Laporte, Ind., the revelation of the ex- 
 istence of which shocked the entire civilized world as it has not 
 been shocked since the time of the Borgias. 
 
 This wholesale murderess invariably lured her victims to 
 their fate through advertisements in a "matrimonial paper," or 
 through an agency. She would insert the usual stereotyped 
 "ad." of the wealthy widow lady who desired a mate, but al- 
 M'ays a mate with money. 
 
 Always being able to produce proof that she was well-to-do, 
 it was an easy matter for her to persuade her victims to visit 
 her at the Laporte farm. She invariably stipulated that they 
 should bring a substantial sum with them. 
 
 Arriving at the Gunness farm, the prospective suitors were 
 invariably impressed with the evidences of wealth and luxury. 
 After a stay of a few days, during which time the punning 
 murderess would find out how much money her victim had, and 
 whether he could immediately procure more in the form of 
 cash, the victim would be invited to supper and his food 
 drugged. 
 
 He would then be escorted to his room, where he would soon 
 become unconscious. Chloroform was then administered, the 
 body hurled through a chute to the basement, Avhere it would 
 be dismembered and placed in a gunnysack. 
 
 The sack would then be taken out and buried in a conven- 
 ient spot on the farm. It was an inquiry from the brother 
 of one of the victims, Andrew Helgelein, which revealed the 
 whole horrible affair. 
 
166 
 
 .MATHi:\lOXlAJ. AGENTS 
 
 THE DEATH HARVESTER. 
 
 A Crop on the Gunness Farm, 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 167 
 
 It is estimated that this woman, through the aid of the matri- 
 monial agencies, murdered more people than any other human 
 being that ever lived. She exceeded the records of the Bend- 
 ers, Holmes, and even those arch-assassins of the middle ages, 
 the Borgia s. 
 
 LoMBROso Discusses Monster. 
 
 Dr. Cesare Lombroso, of the University of Milan, the world's 
 greatest criminologist, in discussing this woman, said: 
 
 "In general the moral physiognomy of the born female crim- 
 inal approximates strongly to that of the male. The female 
 criminal is exceedingly weak in maternal feeling, inclined to 
 dissipation, astute and audacious, and dominates weaker beings 
 sometimes by suggestion, and at other times by muscular force; 
 while her love of violent exercise, her vices and even her dress, 
 increase her resemblance to the stronger sex. 
 
 "Added to these virile characteristics are often the worst 
 qualities of women; namely, an excessive desire for revenge, 
 cunning cruelty, love of dress and untruthfulness, forming a 
 combination of evil tendencies which often results in a type 
 of extraordinary wdckedness. Needless to say these different 
 characteristics are not found in the same proportion in every- 
 body. One criminal will be deficient in intelligence, but pos- 
 sessed of great strength, while another, who is weak physically, 
 triumphs over this obstacle by the ability with which she lays 
 her plans. 
 
 "But when, by an unfortunate chance, muscular strength 
 and intellectual force meet in the same individual, we have a 
 female delinquent of a terrible type, indeed. 
 
 "In short, we may assume that if female-born criminals are 
 fewer in number than the males; they are usually much more 
 ferocious. 
 
 "What is the explanation? We observe that the normal 
 woman is naturally less sensitive to pain than a man, and 
 compassion is the offspring of sensitiveness. If the one be 
 wanting, so will the other be. 
 
1G« MATKIMONIAL ACIENTS 
 
 -'We also find that women have many traits in common with 
 children; that their moral sense is deficient; that they are re- 
 vengeful, jealous, inclined to vengeances of a refined cruelty. 
 
 "In ordinary cases these defects are neutralized by piet}', 
 maternity, Avant of passion, by weakness and an undeveloped 
 intelligence. But when a morbid activity of the psychical 
 centres intensifies the bad qualities of Avomen, and induces them 
 to seek relief in evil deeds ; when piety and maternal sentiments 
 are wanting, and in tlieir place are strong passions, much mus- 
 cular strength and a superior intelligence for the conception 
 and execution of evil, it is clear that the innocuous semi-crim- 
 inal present in the normal woman must be transformed into the 
 horn criminal more terrible than any man. 
 
 "What terrific criminals would children be if they had strong 
 passions, muscular strength and sufficient intelligence ; and if, 
 moreover, their evil tendencies were exasperated by a morbid 
 intellectual activity! And women are big children; their evil 
 tendencies are much more numerous and more varied than 
 men's, but generally remain latent. When they are awakened 
 and excited they produce results proportionately greater." 
 
 List of thk Victims. 
 
 Below is given a i)artial list of the victims of this inhuman 
 monster, as it appeared in the Chicago American, Sunday, 
 April 2G, 1908: 
 
 Partial Catalogue of IMrs^ CJunnkss' 180 Victims. 
 
 1. Max Sorcnson, ^Frs. Gunness' first husbanil — whom she 
 
 poisoned. 
 
 2. Peter S. Gunness, second Inisband, whom slie kilU'd witli 
 
 a meat axe. 
 -■{. Her infant child, Avhom she strangled to death. 
 4. Miss Justina Loeffler, of Elkhart, Ind., believed to have 
 
 been married to Johann Hoch and sent by him to Mrs. 
 
 Gunness to be murdered and buried. 
 T). Olaf Tiinibo. N'orw(>gian farm hand, 
 
COliVi^U CUPID'S WILES 1(39 
 
 a. Ole Budsberg, a hired man, from lola. Wis. 
 T-9. Three well-known men of Fort Wayne, Ind., who have 
 disajDpeared in the last two years, 
 
 10. A horse trader from Montana. 
 
 11. Jennie Olsen, eighteen years old, adopted daughter of 
 
 Mrs. Gunness. 
 
 12. Henry Gurholt, left Scandinavia, Wis., on March 13, 1906, 
 
 saying he was going to marry Mrs. Gunness. 
 
 13. George Bradley, forty years old, of Tuscola, 111., went to 
 
 La Porte, Ind., October 20 of last year. 
 
 14. Olaf Lindboe, farm laborer, of Chicago, employed by Mrs. 
 
 Gumiess. 
 
 15. Lee Porter, of Bartonville, Okla., quarreled with his wife 
 
 and answered one of Mrs. Gunness' matrimonial "ads.*" 
 IT. Crippled man from Medina, N. D. 
 18-20. Three children of Mrs. Gunness killed or burned in 
 
 house — Myrtle, aged 11 ; Lucy, 9 ; Philip, 5. 
 
 21. Body of unidentified woman found in ruins of burned 
 
 house. 
 
 22. Strange baby left last fall by man and woman, as told 
 
 by Pay Lamphere, arrested as accomplice of Mrs. 
 Gunness. 
 
 23. John 0. Moe went to La Porte from Elbow Lake, Minn., 
 
 day before Christmas, 1906, with $1,000. 
 
 24. x\rmat Hartoonan, wealthy Armenian rug merchant of 
 
 Binghamton, N. Y.. who went to La Porte in 1906 in 
 answer to a matrimonial "ad.*' 
 
 25. Charles Neuberg, of Philadelphia, took $500 and went 
 
 to visit Mrs. Gunness in June, 1906. 
 
 26. George Beny, of Tuscola, 111., went to work for Mrs. 
 
 Gunness July, 1905. He took $1,500, expecting to 
 marry the widow. 
 
 27. John A. Lefgren, aged forty-eight, disappeared from the 
 
 Chicago Club, and is believed to have gone to Mrs, 
 Gunness* farm. 
 
170 MATEIMOXIAL AGEXTS 
 
 28, E. J. Tiefland, retired railroad man, of Minneapolis. 
 29-30. A Los Angeles college professor and wife — names not 
 yet ascertained. 
 
 31. Andrew K. Helgelein, Aberdeen, S. D., ranchman, the 
 
 last victim, whose fate led to the discovery of Mrs. 
 Gunness' crimes. 
 
 32. Charles Edman, farm laborer, from New Carlisle, Ind. 
 
 Took $3,000 in savings to Mrs. Gunness' home. 
 
 33. Frank Riedinger, young German farmer, of Delafield, 
 
 Wis., went to La Porte in February, 1907. 
 3-1. Babe seen by a neighbor, Mrs. William Diesslen, which 
 afterward disappeared. 
 
 35. Unknown young woman visitor, seen to go to Gunness 
 
 house; never accounted for afterward. 
 
 36. Unknown man, a Avidower, and his young son, went to 
 
 Mrs. Gunness' house a year ago — never seen again. One 
 of the bodies found on farm was that of a small boy. 
 37-57. Twenty-one babies entrusted to Mrs. Gunness' care 
 while she was running a "baby fann" on the outskirts 
 of Chicago all disappeared mysteriously. 
 57-180. Other unknown men, women and babies, who went 
 to Chicago and La Porte homes of Mrs. Gunness, and 
 were never seen again, are estimated to bring the grand 
 total of victims up to 180. 
 This, then, is the cro\vning work of the matrimonial agency ; 
 this horrid burying ground of dismembered bodies, this ghastly 
 charnel pit on an Indiana liillside. By their fniits ye shall 
 know them. In the dread Gunness Farm behold the ripened 
 fruit of the matrimonial agency. 
 
OOlNmG CUPID'S WILES 
 
 171 
 
i;--' 
 
 MATIMMOMAI, AC^KNTS 
 
 IN LIGHTER VEIN. 
 
 The Funny Side of the Matrimonial Business. 
 
 TlnTO is. iioce?P:iri]y. the amusing side to all tliis miserablo 
 trading upon the affections of fools. Some of ihe letters sent 
 in to the matrimonial agencies are little less than "screams.*" 
 
 Imagine, if you can, a big, husky farmer, a eollarless, coatless 
 son of the T'tah deserts, gushing forth that he ''could live and 
 die on love." Think of a siaid and sober trained nurse who 
 lias arrived at the ripe age of forty pouring into the ears of 
 the matrimonial agent that she "wants a man who is a flower,"' 
 and also saying confidingly that she believes that she requires 
 a fow more years in which to prepare for the "solemn step." 
 
 nnf> who i? :V.) ;nid dark. l>l\i<hin':lv admifs thai she is a 
 
COININU (JUPlD-fS WILES 17a 
 
 "young girl" of loving disposition, and, since love is the destiny 
 of us all, prays for a husband of fifty or thereabouts. 
 
 One who describes herself as "lively and frolicsome" frankly 
 admits that she is out for the money and can get along without 
 the love end of it at all. It is needless to say that this letter 
 comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch regions. 
 
 Here are a few of the gems: 
 
 Could Live axd Pie ox Love. 
 
 Huntsvillp. Utah. 
 Deo. 27, 1902. 
 Mrs. Ellen Marion. 
 Grant Works. 111. 
 My Dear Lady : 
 
 I wish to heg your pardon if I appear rude in trying to 
 personally introduce myself, but allow me to assure yon that 
 I am sincere in my quest for a kind friend, and it is nothing 
 but the purest and holiest motives of the human heart that 
 prompts the intrusion. 
 
 I saw your advertisement in the Valley Farmer, and in it 
 I seem to behold the image of an ideal lady, who is well 
 worthy of the highest esteem and admiration from a true 
 gentleinan, and how happy and thankful should the man be 
 who is so fortunate as to captivate the love and heart of so 
 noble a prize. Among many others your advertisement to me 
 seemed to be the most suitable and impressive. While it would 
 not be within good taste to express a great love for you at 
 present, yet I believe that I could come as near living and 
 dying on' love as the next one. My object in writing you is 
 to find if there shoudl be a chord within our natures that could 
 be touched mutually to harmonize with the word love. 
 
 I have been married and know of the joy and happiness of 
 a kind and loving companion. Two years ago deatli robbed 
 me of my greatest prize in life. Since then I have been bach- 
 ing it. i am tired of roughing it alone, and if there were only 
 some one to meet me with a kind smile of approval I could work 
 much harder and be a better man for it. and I dd most earnestly 
 and sincerely solicit your correspondence with a view to closer 
 ties should our natures prove congenial. 
 
 Should you feel inclined to favor me I would certainly feel 
 highly flattered. 
 
 Not a Flirt. 
 
 Please do not rank me with the ordinary flirts and adventur- 
 ers, for I assure you that I am honest in my intentions and 
 would not mislead or advise anyone wrongfully. My age is 
 thirty-seven, height five feet nine inches, weight 17.5 pounds. 
 have a good moral character in every respect, honest and indus- 
 trious, without any bad habits, total abstainer from liquor and 
 tobacco, move in the best society, am of a quiet, kind and 
 loving disposition. Home is the dearest place to me on earth 
 and I know how to make it happy. I can appreciate and know 
 tho real value of a kind and loving wife, and the dear lady 
 
K4 
 
 MATIflMOMAL AUHNT8 
 
 AROUND THE CLOCK WITH A "HOME HUSBAND"- 
 
 llial l)00otnos my wifo will find in mo a tnio nnd honest hus- 
 band, a kind and lovinji companion, one whoso proatest aim 
 nnd object will 1)p to make his home and loved ones happj*. 
 
 To you the above may have a smattering of self-praise and 
 flattery, but the facts art> wholly true, which I hope in due 
 time will be fully demonstrated. Should you wish to liear 
 further from me I shall be quite jdeased to furnish any infor- 
 mation desired. 
 
 Anxiously invaitiuf: your acquaintance, I am. 
 
 Yours sincerely. 
 
 Jens Winter. 
 
 With best wishes and (•omi)liments of the season. 
 
OOININCI CUriD'S WILES 175 
 
 LOVELORN WAILS. 
 
 I want a man who is a flower, with love and affection oozing 
 from all its petals. jNIaybe, however, I need a few more years' 
 preparation for the most solemn of steps — matrimony. I ad- 
 mire a man of good physique, kind, gallant, conscientious, of 
 good morals as can be expected nowadays, home-loving, and 
 fond of children. — Application for a husband from Catherine 
 M. Barnes, trained nurse, aged 40, Indianapolis. 
 
 Love is the destiny of us all. At times it seems it is gomg 
 to side-track and pass us. Therefore, I ask you to help me 
 to find a handsome man of 50 or over who has some money 
 and can make more. 
 
 I am a young girl of loving disposition; do not powder, ex- 
 cept on special occasions; can cook, and know how to dress 
 on nothing or little. I want love and fidelity. Do not send me 
 the name of any traveling men. 
 
 I am 39 and dark. — Miss Ella Miller, 837 Spring Garden 
 street, Philadelphia. 
 
 Introduce me to a widow with money who wants a good 
 entertainer and honest man. I have no funds, but don't tell 
 her that. I play, sing and recite well. — Adam Werker, Glen 
 Ellyn, 111. 
 
 Her Ideal Husband. 
 
 •'My ideal must be tall," suggests Miss Mary Hester, from 
 Wayland, N. Y., "and a gentleman in every sense of the word. 
 He must be of good standing socially and mo^all3^ He must 
 be of temperate habits, kind, generous, affectionate, devoted — 
 a man of ability, who would be a companion socially, intellec- 
 tually and morally to a true, pure, devoted wife.'" 
 
 She says she would ask for no more. 
 
76 
 
 -UATIU.UO.N lAL AU Ji-N' Tti 
 
 WEEXCELl/V 
 
 IVIWSBPER 
 
 c 
 
 M D • LOGAN 
 ILLUSTRATING 
 
 COMPANY 
 153 LA SALLE ST 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 % 
 
 -e. 
 
 
 --f-^^ /-^ ^-3^ -A" 
 
 'U'L^^jt,-^*^^ 
 
COlNi.NU CUriD'fS WILES 
 
 177 
 
 M D LOGAN 
 ILLUSTRATING 
 
 COMPANY 
 153 LA SALLE ST 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 (^) 
 
 
 
 
178 
 
 MATKIMO-XIAL AGJi.XT:^ 
 
 M D LOGAN 
 ILLUSTRATING 
 
 COMPANY 
 153 LA SALLI^ ST 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 /V&i.^-S' VL o 
 
 0:r~//-^ 
 
 GL^ /—/^o~^ 
 
 -i_^/ 
 
 A^^ 
 
 r 
 
 
 -.3tL__c 
 
 -^2^ 
 
 .^/A ^y 
 
 ^-^. 
 
 -A^^/^-T^^^ 
 
COINING CUPID'S WILES 
 
 179 
 
 ^'^7;;^..-X^'^ 
 
180 
 
 MATKiMUXlAL Ml ES'r>. 
 
 'read us -bout WHUT UE folks in PITTSBURG AN' NEWPORT IS 
 
 TD RUTHEt^ BE MARRIED TO A WOMAN WHO WAS REFORMIN* 
 THINGS OUTS DE DE HOII<;f riAw im lji-t.i 
 
 NG3 OUTSIDE DE HOUSE DAN IN HIT." 
 
COINING CUPIDS WILES 181 
 
 This Oxe Is Keal Fhank. 
 
 Here is auother letter from Eeading, Pa : 
 
 Dear Sir: I notice by Sunday's paper that you are looking 
 for a wife. Now, strange to relate, I am looking for a hus- 
 band. I don't know what your requirements are, but I do know 
 mine, and the chief ones of them are money, a good home, 
 less work and worry, and happiness. If love comes, too, I 
 shall not- object, although I have lived long enough to realize 
 that there can be a sort of lukewarm happiness without love. 
 
 Be that as it may, I judge my capacity is sufficiently large 
 to satisfy the sort of a man I judge you to be. Now, for the 
 next item of importance — myself. I am tall and slender, five 
 feet six inches high, and quite "figuresque," as one of my girl 
 friends tells me. I am of the Irish- American t}'pe; hair 
 medium in shade and profuse as to cpantity; deep-set, very 
 bright gray eyes; good carriage, on account of which strangers 
 often consider me haughty — an entirely erroneous idea. 
 
 Am of a lively, frolicsome nature. I am full of fun, and no 
 matter how black things are I always find something to laugli 
 at. I am twenty-three years old, and decidedly domestic, that 
 being, in fact, my only accomplishment. I am artistic only 
 along some lines ; have no musical talent and am not an artist, 
 but I love both devotedly. Am very practical, in fact, and a 
 good housekeeper. There is lots more I might tell you, but 
 we will call this enough for the present. Should like to know 
 something about you, and hope you will be as truthful and 
 frank as I have been. Sincerely yours, 
 
 Mary Anderson. 
 
18jJ MATlUMU.NiAL AUE.NTS 
 
 ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES. 
 
 A Matrimonial Agent Captures a Rich Husband and Retires 
 from Business. 
 
 Mamie ]\laric Sclmltz, a matrimonial agent, outwits the 
 police and postal authorities after being raided and broken up, 
 nwves to other quarters, continues business, finds a rich man 
 seeking a wife among her patrons and marries him. 
 
 September 11, the German- American Agency, run by Mamie 
 Marie Sehultz, 3150 Calumet avenue, was raided by Detective 
 Wooldridge, the literature seized and destroyed. Mamie Marie 
 Sehultz was fined $25 by Justice Hurley. The evidence ob- 
 tained was submitted to the postal authorities for action. 
 
 Mamie Marie Sehultz fled to Oak Park, where she continued 
 her matrimonial agency. After she moved to . Oak Park she 
 was notified "by order of the town board" to vacate, but she 
 laughed at the order and enjoyed the newspaper notoriety she 
 attained, for it only increased her business. It is said she 
 made thousands of dollars out of her matrimonial agency. 
 
 With a stealth that is characteristic of his art, Cupid has 
 accomplished what Oak Park officials had been trying to do 
 for two years. He has closed out the Oak Park matrimonial 
 agency by making a victim of his promoter in that vicinity, 
 Marie Sehultz, manager of the matchmakers' concern. 
 
 The postmaster, United States marshal and several of the 
 town officers yesterday received letters signed '*;Mrs. J. D. Ed- 
 wards," announcing that Marie Sehultz "had been caught in 
 her own net" and had deserted the village for a "]ialatiar' home 
 in Seattle, Wash., where her new husband, J. D. Edwards, is 
 a wealthy lumber dealer. 
 
 Swift Cot'htstiip by Edwards. 
 
 Edwards, it is said, arrived in Oak Park on Tuesday, and 
 after a whirlwind courtship this "liOchinvar who came out nf 
 the West" had won the whole matrimonial ngencv. 
 
"Marie,"" the name in whieli all her extensive advertising 
 was done, has defeated the officials of Chicago, Oak Park, and 
 even the United States postoffice inspector, in every effort they 
 made to suppress her enterprise. 
 
 To Postmaster Hutchinson she wrote requesting that all 
 letters addressed to the agency be returned to the writers, as 
 she didn't "want any more of their money/' The postoffice 
 force was luirdened with the task of mailing back to some 500 
 lovelorn men and maidens the letters w^hich had accumulated 
 in ''■j\Iarie's"'' postoffice box. 
 
 But the bleatings of the overgrown calf from Utah, and the 
 wails of the maiden lady W'ho desires a "flower" for a mate are 
 Ixitli eclipsed by the mushy outpourings of a Chicago business 
 man. 
 
 This fellow evidently possesses the artistic temperament. 
 Xot only is he moved to write prose poetry, "to bay the moon 
 of love," but he insists on inserting illustrative sketches of an 
 ardent wooing. 
 
 He has forged the white heat of his passion, which evidently 
 puts Ella Wheeler "Wilcox at her fiercest to shame, into pic- 
 tures. Here we behold him, hand in hand with his beloved, 
 under the kindly stars. There, more prosaic, it is true, bat 
 still quite passionate, is the drawing room scene, with the lady 
 seated on his knee. Behold the works of genius when love 
 impels. 
 
 The Festive Farm Hand Frivols. 
 
 Among the hundreds of applications for a wife Detective 
 Wooldridge fonnd one from Jacob C. Miller, of Martinsville. 
 Pa. Miller filled out the application blank as follows: 
 
 Q. Where born? A. Lancaster, Pa. 
 
 Q. What language do you speak? A. English. 
 
 Q. Nationality? A. "White. 
 
 Q. Weight? A. 130. 
 
 Q. Color of eyes? A. CrAuisli blue. 
 
 Q. Color of hair? A. Brown on a little patch. 
 
184 AEATIUMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 Q. Complexion? A. Fair. 
 
 Q. CircumfGrenco of chest? A. 36 inches. 
 
 <). Circnmfcrenec of waist? A. 30 inches. 
 
 Q. ircinnfcren CO of bend (jnst above oars)? A. 13 
 in oil OS. 
 
 (). C'ircmriforonco of nock? A. Wonr l.")'.. coHar. 
 
 Q. Profession? A. Farm hand. 
 
 Q. Income per year? A. Xothing. 
 
 Q. Extent of education : common, bifrli school or univer- 
 sity? A. Common. 
 
 • }. Do yon use tobacco or liquor? A. 1 use a lililo tobacco. 
 ])iit no liquor. 
 
 Q. How much real estate do you own ? A. Xothing. 
 
 Q. Do any of the ])ictures we have submitted to you suit, 
 and will you marry? A. Yos. the one with tlio turnod-up 
 nose. 
 
 (). If we secured you a wife worth -^^rjO.OOtt wo\ild you bo 
 willing to pay us n small commission for our trouble? A. Y'^s. 
 
 TITF, KAKFTJ A\D TTTF PRESS. 
 
 So:mT' Xew.'^pat'kus Ai;i; lirxcoi-n. Whim-: ()ttiei{s Witjjxolv 
 Assist Pascals. 
 
 Strangely enough, the abomination known as the ''matri- 
 monial agency," bureau or what-not, has succeeded in hood- 
 winking the great American press to a certain extent. 
 
 Advertisements appear in leading journals all over the 
 country. Without this the great fraud could not exist ten 
 minutes. There are numberless instanoes, wc are quite sure, 
 where the publishers have no suspicion that they are further- 
 ing the cause of scoundrels. In others, we regret to say, the 
 motive for accepting these advertisements is traceable to noth- 
 ing more or less than just the jdain greed of the ptiblisher. 
 
 It is impossible for a privnie citizen to pro])hesy whothor 
 
18/ 
 
 ('()lN'lN(i Ci;Pl])\S WJLES 
 
 HOW TO TPAIM A I !USBy\ND 
 
 
 the entire power of the government of the United States can 
 purify the columns of some of our greedy newspapers. 
 
 These matrimonial agencies are frauds. The newspaper man 
 knows this and takes their money for the advertisements, and 
 becomes a messenger of a crime for a paltry sum, and if I 
 were the District Attorney I would get busy and call the 
 attention of the Postmaster General to these alleged news- 
 papers for the purpose of shutting off their distribution through 
 the mails. 
 
 PTerc are a few samples of the arl? appearing in the repu- 
 table flaily press of the enuntrv: 
 
186 
 
 MATKIMO.N J AL AGENT>S 
 
 aVIATRIMONIAL AGENCIES' ADVERTISEMENTS 
 
 FOR RICH WIVES AND HUSBANDS. 
 
 They Appear in All the Leading Newspapers Throughout 
 the Country. 
 
 This is a very select list of ten ladies picked at random from 
 onr books hj one of. the leading newspaper reporters of this 
 city, February 1, 1904: 
 
 Minnesota Maiden — 30 yrs., 5 ft. 2 in., weight 128 lbs.; 
 brown hair, blue eyes; has $10,500. 
 
 Missouri Maiden — 28 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in., 
 blue eyes, German; has $1,800. 
 
 Pennsylvania Maiden — 20 yrs., 5 ft. 
 
 weight 150 lbs.; blonde, 
 weight 132 lbs. ; 
 
 4 m. 
 
 Can a. Ma.n or Womatti Know Ctvch Other Befbre fSstfriat^e^ 
 
 BEF-ORE. 
 
 "When he was wooing her, 
 Romeo devoted his time to 
 thinking of delicate little atten- 
 tions that he conid pay Juliet, 
 and of Ihivigs he coiiU (Jo to 
 make her happy." 
 
 ARTER. 
 
 On Christmas he is liable fd 
 shove a dollar or two at hia 
 wile, remarking; "Grt yourJ 
 self something. I doot know 
 what you want, ami I haven'D 
 time to fool 'with it." 
 
OOINIXG CUPID'S WILES 
 
 187 
 
 "AN- DAT WOMEN'S CLUBS rs DE CAUSE OF ALL OE PO' LlTTLlfiE- 
 CLECTED CHILLEN." 
 
188 MATKIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 light hair, blue eyes; will inherit $80,000, provided she is mar- 
 ried on her 81st birthday. 
 
 Wisconsin Widow — -19 yrs., 5 ft. 3 in., weight 130 lbs. ; black 
 hair, black eyes; no children; worth $15,000. Will marry 
 elderly man. 
 
 Indiana Maiden — 29 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 122 lbs. ; brown 
 liair, blue eyes ; pretty and worth $7,000. Would marry farmer. 
 
 Illinois Maiden — 21 yrs., 5 ft. 8 in., weight 140 lbs. ; chest- 
 nut hair, blue eyes; worth $40,000; is a cripple. Will marry 
 kind man who will overlook her misfortune. 
 
 N'ew Jersey Widow — 28 yrs., 4 ft. 11 in., Aveight 150 lbs.; 
 ])rown hair, blue eyes, one child : worth $35,000. Will marry 
 and assist husband financially. 
 
 Ohio Farmer's Daughter — Orphan, 25 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in. ; brown 
 luiir, gray eyes; has large farm. Alone, will marry immediate- 
 ly, farmer preferred. 
 
 Montana Maiden — Half-breed Indian, age 25, 5 ft. 4 in., 130 
 lbs.; black hair, black eyes; has large rancli. Will marry 
 honest white man. 
 
 Illinois Bachelor Girl — Age 35, 5 ft. 7 in., H^iO lbs.; black 
 hair, brown eyes ; OAvns fine estate, valued at thousands. Would 
 marry gentleman of equal wealth. 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Beautiful maiden lady, refined and well educated: American; 
 ))londe, ago 37 years, height 5 ft. -1 in., weight 10(5 pounds; 
 worth $30,000. 
 
 Nebraska. 
 
 Stylish young brunette, fond of society : American ; age 2S 
 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 135 pounds; Baptist, and worth 
 $25,000 ; income $3,000 a year. 
 
 Otiio. 
 
 Stately widow, age 49 years, hatidsome and remarkably well 
 preserved; height 5 ft. 6 in., weight IfiO lbs.: no childnMi : 
 worth $5,000; wants elderlv husband. 
 
COlNiiNG CUPlD'tt WILES 
 
 189 
 
 Kentucky. 
 Beautiful blonde Southern girl, educated and refined; age 21, 
 height 5 ft. 2 in., weight 115 lbs. ; American, and worth $10,000; 
 wants nice-looking husband. 
 
 Pretty little girl, age 19 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 112 
 lbs.; American; worth $10,000. Says she is very anxious to 
 marry. 
 
 Boston, Ma.ss. 
 
 Fine-looking lady, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 
 140 lbs.; American. Protestant, and worth $20,000. 
 
190 MATEIMONIAL AGENTS 
 
 Yoimg lady, blonde, age 25 years, weight 128 lbs., height 5 
 
 ft.; American, Methodist; income $720 a year; worth $25,000. 
 
 Chicago^ III. 
 
 Maiden, age 26 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 140 lbs. ; 
 
 Scotch, Protestant, Methodist; income $1,200 per year; worth 
 
 $75,000. 
 
 MoNEOE Co.^ Pa. 
 Young lady, age 23 years, very pretty, height 5 ft. 5 in., 
 weight 150 lbs.; German, Methodist; worth $12,000. 
 DovER^ ]Sr. H. 
 Stylish, brown-eyed lady, age 24 years, height 5 ft. 6 in., 
 weight 135 pounds; American, Methodist; worth $50,000. 
 ISTew York City. 
 Young widow, age 32 years, height 5 ft. 5 in., weight 140 
 lbs.; Irish Catholic; worth $40,000. 
 Utah. 
 Maiden lady, age not mentioned, height 5 ft., weight 120 
 lbs.; worth $35,000. 
 
 And all this, ridiculous, murderous and otherwise, is all out- 
 side the pale of the law. The matrimonial agency is a crime 
 per se. It is a criminal institution. It has been pronounced 
 to be such by the best and foremost judges of the United States. 
 Germany and Great Britain. 
 
 Judge Klerbach, sitting in the case of a marriage broker at 
 Goettingen, Germany, in 1903, declared that the marriage 
 l)roker was a criminal in intent, from the very nature of his 
 business. 
 
 In the celebrated case of Alan Murray vs. Jcanie McDonald 
 at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1898, Justice Grahamc pronounced 
 from the judicial scat one of the most scathing arraignments 
 of the marriage bureau ever .delivered. "Leeches upon the 
 body social, blood-suckers, destroyers of womanhood, abomina- 
 tions of the bottomless pit," were some of the phrases used by 
 Justice Grahame in denouncing Murray. 
 
OOIMJXG CUPID'S WILES 191 
 
 In the pett}'' sessions at Tinahely, Ireland, Justice O'Gorman 
 in May, 1905, is reported in the Wieklow People, a newspaper 
 which has a wide circulation in the South of Ireland, as fiercely 
 denouncing the marriage hroker business. The Justice de- 
 clared that the marriage broker was a wolf, "preying upon 
 the weaknesses of humanity, a pander to the lowest instincts" ; 
 that he had no right to demand the interference of the law in 
 his behalf, but rather that the law should always be exercised 
 for the suppression of his nefarious traffic. 
 Same Thing jSTeaeer Home. 
 
 To get nearer home. In the Chicago American, February 12, 
 1903, Judge jSTeely, in the case of the State vs. Hattie Howard, 
 declared from the bench that to "sell men and women in mar- 
 riage is the height of crime." Judge Xeely further said: 
 
 "Men and women who engage in this business of promoting 
 matrimony for money are guilty of crime. It is opposed to 
 the fundamental principles of society. Such a practice should 
 under no circumstances be tolerated. This practice should be 
 stopped. The trade should be killed. The courts should make 
 it their business to discourage this thing in a way that may 
 be easily understood." 
 
 Judge Kohlsaat, of Chicago, has inveighed against the prac- 
 tice in equally vehement terms. Judge Kohlsaat declares that 
 "the Police Department of Chicago is entitled to great credit 
 for what it has done in discouraging this business. I hope it 
 will continue its vigilance until every promoter of marriages 
 of this character has been compelled to leave the city. They 
 should make such criminals give the city a wide berth." 
 
 There, then, is the law. The business is a crime in its very 
 nature. It leads to bigamy and wholesale murder. It is made 
 the instrument of the thief, the swindler and the murderer. 
 How much longer will the American people look with calmness 
 upon these practices, upon these abominations, which make a 
 stench of the very air of the great and free country in which 
 we live? The answer is up to you. 
 
THE GREAT MISTAKE, 
 
 OUR PENAL SYSTEM IS A RELIC OF EARLY 
 SAVAGERY. 
 
 Our whole penal system needs changing. It is a relic of 
 barbarism, and stands a monument to the early savagery of 
 the human race. 
 
 How is it possible for a man or woman to lead an upright, 
 useful life after they once come under the ban of the law? 
 Society combines to hound them down. They are forbidden 
 to place themselves on an equality with others by narrow, 
 human prejudice — the "holier than thou'' attitude of that 
 portion of tbe public which has not yet been ''found guilty." 
 
 We are Pharisees, all, and sit in judgment on our fellow- 
 man, because we do not yet realize the mixture of evil and 
 good that is in every man — none are exempt — only some are 
 caught and punished. 
 
 ]\Ien have come to us, desperate, despairing men, crying: 
 "For God's sake, what are we to do? If we get a job some- 
 one will tell our employers we have 'done time,' and we arc 
 tired. If they find us on the street, we're arrested. Where 
 can Ave go and what can we do?" 
 
 A man may commit murder and not be a criminal, and 
 yet a sneaktbief is always a criminal and every burglar a 
 potential murderer. 
 
 Social conditions produce criminals. As well expect a rose 
 1o l)loom in a swamj) as human nature to flower in the slums. 
 
 All our prisons are hotbeds of tul)erculosis and most prison 
 |)bysicians liold their positions through political pull. 
 
 In our opinion a greater distinction should be made betwecMi 
 the penitentiary and house of correction. Petty misdemean- 
 
UUH PE.NAL SYSTEM 193 
 
 ants should not l)e branded with the prison stigma. We also 
 lavor suspended sentence for first offenders. 
 
 The crime and its punishment should be separated. At 
 present the personal equation does not enter into the case 
 when a judge imposes sentence. The man's environment, what 
 leads him to break the law, and how best to help this par- 
 ticular man, all are questions that should be carefully con- 
 sidered before sentence is pronounced. 
 
 Intelligence in Punishing Crime. 
 
 A student of prison affairs once said that the prison popu- 
 lation consists of two classes — people who never ought to have 
 been sent to prison and people who never ought to be allowed 
 to leave it. It is unfortunate that students interested in either 
 one of these classes are too often apt to forget the importance 
 of the other. 
 
 There are many habitual criminals, weak persons readily giv- 
 ing way to temptation, who should not be classified as pro- 
 fessionals. The professionals are only those who deliberately 
 set about supporting themselves by crime. These are the ones 
 who are among all criminals most unlikely to change their 
 ways, and it was for their control that Detective Wooldridge 
 suggested some years ago that after several convictions such 
 criminals should be given a special trial to decide whether they 
 were true professionals or not, and if they were, they should be 
 imprisoned for life. 
 
 If more attention were given to professional crime and if 
 harsher methods were used in protecting society from it, the 
 result would be merciful in the end — merciful both to the 
 citizens protected from such crime and to the men who, as 
 conditions now are, graduate every year into such careers. 
 
 The "Silent System" is a Crime Against Criminals. 
 
 The penitentiary for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 
 at Philadelphia, in 1907, was the only prison in America con- 
 ducted on what is known as the "silent system." 
 
194 QUE PENAL SYSTEM 
 
 In this grim edifice a man sentenced to twenty years im- 
 prisonment might pass all of that time buried from sight in 
 his cell, seeing only his keeper, the chaplain, the doctor and 
 the schoolmaster, and for twenty minutes in every six weeks 
 he would he allowed to talk with a near relative. 
 
 This man loses his identity the moment he enters the prison 
 gates. A black cap is drawn over his head and he is led to 
 a cell in one of the many corridors that radiate from the 
 central tower like spokes from the hub of a wheel. He is 
 known tliereafter by a number. 
 
 The cell in which he eats and sleeps and works is a little 
 larger than the average prison cell, and more completely fur- 
 nished — as it must hold his bed, his lavatory, his dishes and 
 a place for eating, his work, his every possession, and such 
 books as he may secure from the prison library. 
 
 His front door opens on a corridor and is kept ajar on 
 a heavy chain so the prison guards may watch him. 
 
 His back door opens on a plot of ground about 8x10 feet. 
 It is surrounded and cut off from all communication from 
 every living human being by a brick wall. Only the watch- 
 man in the central tower and the birds that wing their way 
 over the prison can see him in his little yard. Eobinson Crusoe 
 on his deserted island could not be more utterly lonely. 
 
 In this tiny yard is a circular path worn smooth and pressed 
 deep into the soil by the feet of despairing men — ^liis prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 The prisoner is forbidden oven the negative pleasure of going 
 out into this God-forsaken walled plot of bare ground 
 except for one hour a day. 
 
 In his gloomy cell the prisoner drags out the "task" given 
 him to escape insanity. He fears to be idle without the sound 
 of a human voice in his ear or the sight of a human face to 
 relieve his awful loneliness. 
 
 To lengthen these "tasks" the State of Pennsylvania has 
 
OUR PENAL SYSTEM 195 
 
 provided primitive hand-looms, some 100 years old, and other 
 discarded makeshifts of man's industrial infancy. 
 
 Not for him has the world progressed beyond the cave- 
 man's day. Perhaps he is a skilled mechanic, a man accus- 
 tomed to the swift play of machinery, the grip of tool on mate- 
 rial. He is condemned to manufacture by primitive methods 
 the clothes he wears to keep him from quite going mad. 
 
 Extreme Methods Faulty. 
 
 As between the abominable "contract" and "lease" systems 
 and this reversion to blind seclusion, is there no human method 
 to be found of apportioning the convict's labor? 
 
 Yet No. 99, locked away in his solitary cell in the Phila- 
 delphia prison, must toil laboriously, denying his brain and 
 hand their cunning, with a pretense at occupation. He is not 
 sharing in the world's work. He knows this child's play of 
 making something that no one needs on an instrument left 
 over from the twelfth century is futile and foolish. 
 
 How shall he meet and battle with the great world of com- 
 merce and labor after twenty years of this? In what way is 
 this make-believe fitting him for liberty? 
 
 Some few in the Philadelphia prison escape the fate mapped 
 out for them. There are 800 cells, and there are at present 
 about 1,100 prisoners. Naturally, some must "double up." 
 And then the regular domestic work of the institution must 
 be done, tasks at which it would be impossible to keep pris- 
 oners separated or wholly silent. 
 
 And so the "silent system" is not entirely silent. But, we 
 protest, that is not the fault of the prison management, nor 
 is it that of the good citizens who seventy-eight years ago de- 
 vised and built this prison, the only one of its kind in 
 America. 
 
 Men are unfitted for after-life under the "silent system." 
 They come out of prison at the end of their terms with shuf- 
 fling gait and incoherent speech and unskilled hands. 
 
196 CUE PEXAL SYSTEM 
 
 Cut off from all obligation to family or friends, the pris- 
 oner's whole spiritual nature is bound to deteriorate. Will 
 he be a better citizen, a more loving father or husband or son, 
 when he is released? 
 
 The prison at Philadelphia is a model of cleanliness, man- 
 agement, discipline and sanitation. The warden, Charles C. 
 Church, is humane and intelligent; the guards above the av- 
 erage in character. 
 
 And yet Pennsylvania's crime against her criminal popula- 
 tion is appalling. All she does for her unfortunate offender 
 is to guard him securely, shelter him in cleanliness, feed and 
 clothe him — and hold him against the day of his release. 
 
 These are necessary things, but it is more necessary that 
 the state turn back the criminal at least no worse than sihe 
 found him when committed to her care. 
 
 She could turn him out a better man morally, better equipped 
 to gain a livelihood, in fair physical health, and certainly 
 Avithout mental taint or bias due to his imprisonment. 
 
 Jails Make 50,000 Criminals a Year. 
 
 If the jails and lockups in our country — 4,000 or 5,000 in 
 number — are in truth, as they have been often aptly termed, 
 in most cases compulsory schools of crime, maintained at the 
 public expense, we shall have from this quarter alone an ac- 
 cession to the criminal classes in each decade of perhaps 50,000 
 trained experts in crime. Surely, almost any change in deal- 
 ing with the young, with the beginners in lawbrcaking, would 
 be an improvement on the prevailing system. Jails and prisons, 
 so constructed and managed as to keep separate their in- 
 mates, would afford an adequate remedy for the evil. Until 
 this can be done it would be far better to cut down largely 
 the number of arrests and committals of the young. 
 
 "It is absurd to argue that life in the penitentiary is con- 
 ducive to moral betterment, for all the conditions are against 
 this cheerful theory. In Jail a man meets criminals. The 
 
OUR jnal system 
 
 19-: 
 
198 OUii PEiSAL SYSTEM 
 
 whole system makes for greater criminality on the release of 
 the prisoner. He has time to plan fresh onslaughts on so- 
 ciety. His incarceration further embitters him against tlu' 
 world. He looks with malicious envy on those who have es- 
 caped the punishment which he has had to suffer. When he 
 is turned out of prison he is ready for further felonies — only 
 now he has learned msre caution, and for tliis reason ho is 
 inore dangerous than he was when he entered the institution.'^ 
 
 When a man has served two prison sentences without being 
 convinced of the futility of the attempt to live without hon- 
 est work, it is evident that he has abandoned all idea of being 
 a good citizen and has made up his mind to prey upon 
 t^ociety. 
 
 "Then/' says Mr. Wooldridge, '"moderate sentences having 
 produced no good effect upon him, either to deter or reform, 
 why should he not be taken permanently out of society and 
 ])ut where he cannot harm others or wrong himself by com- 
 mitting crime? No objection," he concluded, "can be found 
 to this method.'' 
 
 Crime Based on Suggestion. 
 
 The man who has declared war upon the world, as ever}' 
 man has done who is not reformed by two successive prison 
 sentences, should be seized and ]H'rnianently imprisoned. Mod- 
 ern thought does not sanction the literal translation of this 
 idea, but that does not interfere with the possibility of carry- 
 ing it out for the benefit of secioty. 
 
 The world spends millions of dollars every year in the busi- 
 ness of protecting itself against the criminal and in caring for 
 him. But that is because no serious attempt has ever been 
 made to solve the problem of crime. 
 
 Crime is largely a matter of suggestion and therefore if all 
 the habitual criminals in the country were segregated where 
 their influence would no longer be able to exert itself, crime 
 would not propagate itself so fast. The young men would 
 
OUR PENAL SYSTEM 199 
 
 not have presented to them so often or so forcibly the example 
 which causes most of them to take the crooked path. Thus 
 the expense of prevention would be enormously diminished at 
 once. 
 
 Suggests Great Prison Farm. 
 
 With segregated criminals supporting themselves, as they 
 might be made to do under our plan, the enormous cost of 
 penitentiaries would at one step be done away with, A penal 
 colony such as Mr. Wooldridge proposed Avould be placed in 
 such a situation that the convicts could be compelled to raise 
 every bit of food they put into their mouths and every bit 
 of clothing they put upon their backs. Out in one of the 
 western states or territories a reservation might be made of 
 several thousand acres of land, around the rim of which the 
 convicts could be made to build a great wall shutting them- 
 selves away from the rest of the world. On its surface would 
 be built in the same way habitations for them, and they would 
 live there, tilling the soil and manufacturing their necessities, 
 until death. 
 
 The time will come when this plan will be carried out. The 
 law-abiding citizens of the United States will not continue for- 
 ever to be taxed enormously for the support of a class of 
 persons who are enemies of public order and decency. 
 
 Improving the Public Health. 
 
 Can a nation be said to be civilized that spends billions of 
 dollars every year in the detection and punishment of crime, 
 and not one cent for the prevention and cure of disease, which 
 kills thousands of persons who might otherwise have retained 
 their health and strength? 
 
 Suppose only a billion dollars a year, that now goes to the 
 support of criminals in jails and penitentiaries, were to be 
 saved by the establishment of a national penal colony where 
 criminals would be made to support themselves ; and suppose 
 
200 OUR PENAL SYSTEM 
 
 the billion dollars thus gaved were to be si5ent on free hos- 
 pitals and medical treatment, would the country not be much 
 better off? 
 
 Such a use of the money would result in cutting down the 
 death rate in the United States at least one-half. The de-'th 
 rate in England, through the exercise of care and the assistance 
 of the government, has been reduced from one-half to two- 
 thirds in many diseases, and ten to twelve years have been 
 added to the expectation of life between the ages of one year 
 and forty-five years. A similar state of affairs should exist in 
 this country, where the waste of life and health through pre- 
 ventable diseases is incalculable. 
 
 Our enormous expense on account of criminals, most of 
 which might be avoided if brains were really brought to bear 
 upon the problem, will not always be endured. The future 
 Avill force the criminal to support himself, and the money now 
 expended on him ^^all be devoted to the preservation of health 
 and life among honest men, for the time will certainly come 
 when free hospitals and medical service Avill be provided by 
 the government for every citizen who needs them. 
 
 Road Work for Convicts. 
 
 Criminology, on its humanitarian side, seeks new methods 
 of employment for criminals. It seeks to regenerate convicted 
 criminals morally, as well as care for their physical well-being. 
 
 Indoor prison trades have a deadly monotony. In most cases 
 they are carried on without sunlight, and witli too litth> fresli 
 air. Confinement within walls is alone a lieavy punishment, 
 but when allied with conditions that breed disease and possibly 
 death, society exacts more than just retribution. 
 
 Modern criminology leans toward l)oth moral and physical 
 care in allotting the daily tasks of criminals. It assumes that 
 the state has no right to make the criminal a worse or a 
 weaker member of society than when he entered the prison 
 waUfl. 
 
OUE PENAL SYSTEM ^ 3U1 
 
 This explains why most experts in criminology are strongly 
 in favor of putting criminals to work at road-making. Here 
 is employment in God's sunlight and air, where criminals can 
 do useful work, and still be under watchful guard. They will 
 be giving the state better highways, and at the same time es- 
 cape the deadly indoor prison grind. 
 
 Criminologists are studying a hundred speculative methods 
 of benefiting the criminal. They all agree on one point- 
 namely, that useful work in the open air is beneficial to the 
 average criminal, morally and physically. 
 
 If there can be a large benefit to the state, at the same 
 time that the state is benefiting the criminal, there is a double 
 advance along the lines of rational, humane treatment of 
 criminals. 
 
 The sordid idea that criminals should pay the cost of their 
 o^vn incarceration is secondary. And yet, in applying con- 
 vict labor to the solution of the good roads problem in the 
 United States, the public would get back at least a portion of 
 the enormous drain on public revenues for the support of 
 criminals. 
 
 Solves "Good Eoads" Problem. 
 
 This is the only complete solution of the good roads prob- 
 lem. It is one that all farmers or other rural residents should 
 insist upon. It is the one practical way of gridironing the 
 states, old and new, with good roads. It is especially vital in 
 the newer states, where the absence of good roads is the heaviest 
 tax on industry that individual communities must suffer. 
 
 It is far better for the criminals themselves that they should 
 be employed in this useful outdoor labor. The greatest clog 
 on the science of criminology is the aversion to breaking away 
 from traditions. The housing of criminals in penitentiaries, 
 where expensive idleness alternates with desultory forms of 
 industry, has ceased to be a method abreast of the times. There 
 is enormous waste in the orthodox prison systems. 
 
202 OIJE PEXAL SYSTEM 
 
 Get all able-bodied convicts into road-making for a single 
 generation, and what would result? The productiveness of 
 agricultural states would be vastly increased. Markets, for the 
 average farmer, would be easier of access. Instead of virtual 
 isolation for three or four months of the year, agricultural life 
 would be more evenly balanced. 
 
 The actual financial benefits to farmers would aggregate a 
 vast total. 
 
 In European countries, it took several generations to solve 
 the good-roads problem. But they have solved it. The rural 
 roads in the average European state or principality are a na- 
 tional blessing. They are not only a Joy to transient travel- 
 ers, but form the bulwark of agricultural industries. Euro- 
 pean governments have wisely considered no cost too great 
 for good roads. 
 
 As distances are immeasurably greater in America than in 
 thickly settled European states, the good roads problem takes 
 on a different aspect here. American roads are, on the aver- 
 age, worse than in any other civilized country. Therefore, 
 they must be built up, slowly and patiently, perhaps, but with 
 increasing energy as population grows denser. 
 
 With European methods it would take a hundred years to 
 give the western states good roads. With the convict labor, the 
 problem would be solved in twenty years or less. This would 
 suffice, at least, for a great national system of highways. 
 
 Extend the Parole System. 
 
 The fear is expressed that an extension of the parole sys- 
 tem as regards adults would open a velvet path for criminals 
 to continue preying upon society. There was a loud hue and 
 cry raised against the idea as administered recently by one of 
 our Municipal Court Judges. Still, there is no denying that 
 there is a great deal of good resultant from this plan. It is a 
 safe, sane and conservative one, especially so when in the 
 
OUR PENAL SYSTEM I ::u;: 
 
 hands of judges who can feel for the man who has committed 
 his first offense. 
 
 Chicago has some peculiar problems to contend with. It is 
 the stopping off place for all traveling from south to north, and 
 from north to south, and from west to east. Many of these 
 transient visitors live a hand-to-mouth life. Oftentimes they 
 are driven to crime by sheer force of necessity. Again, the 
 father or son may be out of work, and chance may place in 
 his way the opportunity to commit some petty theft, tempting 
 him on to his first crime. If such offenders show signs of 
 desiring to do better and are susceptible of reformation, they 
 ought to be given another chance. On the other hand, those 
 who are unmistakably guilty and evidence no signs of re- 
 pentance should be punislied without any undue delay. 
 
 Many families have been driven to disgrace and ruin when 
 their lieads were sent to prison. Surely among these there 
 were some who had manifested repentance and shown indica- 
 tions of a desire to be given another opportunity to start anew ; 
 surel}'' had they but been shown lenience they might have proved 
 good citizens and worthy of the confidence reposed in them. 
 
 Of course, there are a lot of drawbacks to the parole sys- 
 tem as it applies to juveniles in Chicago. But free from poli- 
 tics and in the hands of fair-minded, square-leading men it 
 would prove a splendid scheme worthy of the highest praise. 
 In its infancy it might look like a failure, but as time passed 
 it would be perfected, so that in the long run it would prove a 
 godsend to humanity. 
 
 When a criminal returns from penitentiary or prison he is 
 shunned by society; he is under the eternal vigilance of our 
 police force — ^he is walked upon and pushed down. Finally, 
 tired with trying to earn an honest living, he again resorts to 
 crime. Probably had he been paroled he might have turned 
 out a deserving citizen and the father of a happy family. 
 
VAGRANTS; WHO AND WHY. 
 
 WHAT WILL WE DO WITH THE VAGRANT AND 
 TRAMP? 
 
VAdKANTS; WHO AMD WHY -^05 
 
 The vagrant is the most elusive man among us. He is 
 always with us, yet we can never locate him. No one wants him, 
 yet we always send him to someone else. We make laws to 
 get rid of him, but succeed only in keeping him a little longer 
 in custody at our own expense. Most of us laugh at him and 
 some of us cry over him by turns. We draw funny pictures 
 of him in our newspapers and in our billboard advertisements, 
 but we are really afraid of him. We blame the police for not 
 keeping him off the streets, or at least out of sight, and yet 
 we feed him at our own doors. We fear to meet him after 
 dark, and nevertheless we give him a nickel or a dime to 
 keep him in town over night. He is an object of charity, or 
 a criminal, just as we happen to feel. He is sometimes the 
 hero of our melodrama at the theater, who gets our tearful 
 applause. At the same time he stands for all that we brand 
 as mean and vile. Wc spend money lavishly to support him 
 without work by charity, or imprison him in idleness by law. 
 
 The problem is to understand vagrancy so well that We can 
 deal with it on a large enough scale both to restore the vagrant 
 to the working world or to keep him in custody, and to prevent 
 the accidental or occasional vagrant from becoming a habitual 
 mendicant. The English and European governments have dealt 
 with their problems of vagrancy more effectively than we have. 
 This is due to the fact that they have investigated the causes 
 and conditions of vagrancy more widely than we, and dealt 
 with it on a larger scale by uniform legislation and by more 
 persistently following up the measures in which the public 
 and private resources combine to treat the evil. 
 
 Tramp a Eailroad Problem. 
 
 Thus the tramp cuts no figure as a railroad problem, much 
 less menace, abroad. But with us it is the fact that railroads 
 representing more than half the total mileage operated in the 
 United States and Canada testify almost without exception to 
 depredation, thieving, injuries, deaths, accidents to passengers 
 
306 \^\(iKANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 or rolling stock, enormous aggregate costs to railroads or soci- 
 ety, caused by the habitual illegal use of the railroads by 
 vagrants. The number of "trespassers," from one-half to three- 
 quarters of whom were vagrants, who are killed annually on 
 American railroads exceeds the combined total of passenger? 
 and trainmen killed annually. Within four years 23,964 tres- 
 passers were killed and 25,236 injured, thus furnishing the 
 enormous total of 49,200 casualties, wath all the cost they in- 
 volve. 
 
 Only by the co-operation of the railroads with one another 
 and of towns and cities with the railroads can this waste of 
 life and property and this increasing peril to the safety of 
 the traveling public be prevented. Much more stringent laws 
 will have to be both enacted and enforced to prevent the tres- 
 passing, which puts a premium on vagrancy. 
 
 One of the best effects of the strict prevention of free riding 
 on railroads would be to keep boys from going "on the road" 
 and becoming tramps. It is simply amazing to find little 
 fellows of from 12 to 17 years of age, who have never been 
 farther away from home than to some outlying freight yards, 
 disappearing for several weeks and returning from Kansas 
 City, or Cleveland, Omaha or New York, having all alone, 
 or with a companion or two, beaten their way and lived by 
 their wits while traveling half way across the continent. Odcc 
 the excitement of the adventure is enjoyed, the hardsliip it 
 costs does not seem so hard to them as the monotony of home 
 or shop. The discipline of the United States navy has been 
 the only regulation of this wandering habit which the writer 
 has known to be successful. But the habit is more easily pre- 
 vented than regulated. Massachusetts has taken the most ad- 
 vanced legislative action of all the states to this end. The 
 Waba.=h and the New York Central railways suggest fine and 
 imprisonment for trespassing upon railway tracks or rolling 
 stock. 
 
VAGKANTS ; WHO A>^D WHY 207 
 
 Better Lodgings for Homeless Men. 
 
 Far better provision for lodging homeless men must be made 
 by cities in municipal lodging houses of their own, such as 
 Chicago elTectively conducts, and by far stricter public regu- 
 lation and supervision of lodging houses maintained for profit 
 or for charity. The anti-tuberculosis crusade shows that this 
 supervision and regulation should be shared by the health au- 
 thorities with the police. Within a period of five years 679 
 consumptives were taken from only a portion of Chicago's 
 lodging house district to the Cook County Hospital, most of 
 them in the most dangerously infectious stages of the disease. 
 An investigator of Chicago's 165 cheap lodging houses and 
 their 19,000 beds declares that "the unfortunate man forced 
 to sojourn in them for a while may enter sound and strong 
 and come out condemned to death." 
 
 The New York City Charity Organization Society and the 
 i^ssociation for Improving the Condition of the Poor have ren- 
 dered a country-wide public service in furnishing the report 
 on "Vagrancy in the United States" by their joint agent, Or- 
 lando F. Lewis. It may well be the basis for better public 
 policy here and everywhere. ) 
 
 Startling figures and facts were presented at the State Con- 
 ference of Charities and Corrections at Albany by x\rthur W. 
 Towne, secretary of the Illinois State Probation Commission, 
 regarding the extent of vagrancy and the habits of tramps in 
 this state. 
 
 More than 31,000 persons, mainly vagrants, received free 
 lodgings in I^ew York State, in town and city lockups, during 
 1906, and the number in, 1907 was larger. Seventy-five cities 
 and towns thus provide for their wandering visitors. Half of 
 these towns and cities also feed the wanderers free of charge. 
 
 A large number of places give lodgings also to boys, many 
 of them as young as 10 or 12 years, thus encouraging the 
 wandering spirit that makes the later tramp. With only one 
 slight exception, not a single town or city required any work 
 
:iUcS VAUKANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 iit all from the lodgers in retura for the lodging or the food 
 provided, thus giving absolutely no incentive to the wanderer 
 to work for his board or meals. 
 
 It is urged that the system of allowing the police author- 
 ities to give these free lodgings, as well as the similar practice 
 in some jails and almshouses, be abolished as a most direct 
 encouragement to vagrancy, and that in their stead such free 
 lodgings a? are necessary should be furnished by the overseer 
 of the poor, but only when repaid by some fonn of work, 
 such as chopping wood or breaking stone. 
 
 Tramps Like Jail. 
 
 Mr. Towne also brought out the fact tliat tramps like to go 
 to jail in winter. Instead of considering a jail sentence for 
 that part of the year as a form of punishment, they welcome 
 it as a chance to keep warm and loaf at the public expense. 
 Forty-three per cent of the commitment of tramps^ occurs be- 
 tween November 1 and February 1. In short, the jail or the 
 penitentiary becomes a sort of winter vacation resort for tramps. 
 Many chiefs of police with whom Mr. Tovntic communicated 
 said that tramps in winter would ask to be sent to jail, and 
 that if this were not done thoy would sometimes commit of- 
 fenses for the express purpose of being arrested and sent there. 
 
 It is declared to be significant that in tlie tramp's slang the 
 word "dump" is applied to both lodging houses and jails. 
 
 With a cold winter the number of vagrants in penitentiaries 
 and jails increases. In 190(i there were more than lo.ooo 
 tramps and vagrants in penitentiaries and jails, while in l!HH. 
 which was a very cold winter, there were more than 1 l.ooo. 
 On the average, about one-third of the prisoners arc tramps 
 and vagrants. This means that the public is annually paying 
 several hundred thousand dollars for the avowed purpose of 
 punishing men for vagrancy, but in reality it amounts only 
 to furnishing a free place of winter rest, ^fost of the chiefs 
 of police believe that jails and penitentiaries do little good, 
 
YALHIANT^: WHO AND WHY 
 
 209 
 
310 VAGBANTS; WHO AXD AVHY 
 
 if any, in their treatment of tramps. Another fact is that the 
 sentences for this class of offenders are too short to accomplish 
 any results. About 85 per cent of the sentences are from only 
 one to sixty days. 
 
 Hobos Classified by Races. 
 
 In a vague way tlio veteran hobos, classified by the various 
 nationalities, are fairly representative of the make-up of the 
 whole American nation, in accordance with the number of 
 hobos each nationality turns out. After taking into cousidera- 
 tion the fact that certain parts of the United States are 
 dominated by people of one nationality, and the bulk of tramps 
 in that part of the country would necessarily come from that 
 nationality, the following classification was given as doing 
 justice to all : 
 
 The Irish and British elements lead in tlie number of hobos. 
 They are closely followed, however, by the German element. 
 The nations of Eastern Europe, Poles, Bohemians, Hungarians 
 and others, are next in line. Then follow, in smaller numbers, 
 Scandinavians, French, Italians and Jews. The French come 
 mostly from Canada, the Scandinavians from the northwest 
 and the Italians from the largest cities in the country, like 
 Xcw York and Chicago, and also from the southern states. 
 Here and there one finds a stray Servian or Bulgarian who 
 drifted into trampdom and has never been able or has never 
 cared to drift out of it again. 
 
 Greeks are seldom found among tramps becausie they have 
 not yet a "second generation" of Greeks to any extent in the 
 United States. Chinese and Japanese likewise are not found 
 in the hobo class. Of the negro race, many would not be 
 averse to becoming professional tramps were it not for the 
 risk which a negro tramp generally runs. A "stray uogro," 
 according to the hobos intorviowed, is regarded with n]iprohen- 
 sion and is apt to I)e shot on mere suspicion. 
 
VAGEANTS; WHO AND WHY 311 
 
 New Foreigner Not a Hobo, 
 
 You will hardly ever find a foreigner in. the first five or 
 ten years of his American life among tramps and hobos. He 
 may be near tramp, he may be apparently 'down and out/ 
 but he is not a genuine hobo/' said one of the men. "You 
 will find plenty of foreigners in the lodging houses, plenty 
 of them who starve and suffer, but they are not hobos. They 
 have had hard luck, and now in their old age they live by 
 doing two or three and some even one day's work a week. 
 But they work more or less. They have not the parasitic philos- 
 ophy of one who is a full-fledged hobo. They fall more in the 
 class of European vagabonds, such as one finds in Germany 
 or Russia. They work now and then; they have some trade, 
 or know a smattering about a number of trades. 
 
 The American hobo falls in an entirely different category 
 from these. Work with him is said to be a disgrace. Neither 
 does he relish crime much if he can get along without it. He 
 will beg from door to door and will commit a crime only as a 
 last resort. The hobo primarily has no will power, or rather, 
 he destroys it. 
 
 The majority of hobos became such because of their false 
 conception of freedom and of wrong inter-relations between 
 parents and children. Their parents have been held in many 
 cases in semi-savage conditions by their landlords in the old 
 world. When they come to America they naturally appreciate 
 their freedom. They speak of it to their children. They are 
 lax with them, and this spoils them. 
 
 Jew Recruit in Trampdom. 
 
 Polish tramps and tramps from other nations of Eastern 
 and Southern Europe were declared to be more apt to turn 
 to petty crimes when pressed to it by want. They are, how- 
 ever, according to statements of tramps, easily found out. 
 They somehow are hasty in their actions, a»d just as they 
 
•^1;^ \AGliAXTS; WilU AM» WHY 
 
 l)randish their knives and pistols thoughtlessly they fall into 
 the hands of the police simply and easily. 
 
 The Jewish tramp was a rarity until recently. However, 
 the large jiumber of Jews which poured into this country from 
 oppressed countries in Europe since 1881 have also furnished 
 a "first generation,'*' many of whose members have found 
 their way to the barrel houses and slums of all large cities. 
 The Jewish tramp, however, was declared to be entirely of 
 the class of the petty criminal. Out of the penitentiary for 
 some petty crime committed, or having been a go-between foi- 
 thieves and the person who buys the goods stolen, the Jewish 
 youth for the time being takes to trampdom. 
 
 His commercial instinct, however, together with the wide 
 system of charity which the Jews maintain in every city where 
 Ihey are found, soon enables him to get out of the hobo class. 
 He becomes a trader of some sort and soon leaves the barrel 
 house and his hobo companions behind him. 
 
 Talks of the Til\.mp — Why Dilapidated Gentleman Does 
 Not Give Up Wandering and Settle Down — Likes the 
 Care-Free Life — Mingles Among the People and Gets 
 TO Know Them Well — Changes in Community. 
 
 "Why don't I give it up and settle down in city or village 
 and become a respectable member of the community?" echoed 
 the dilapidated gentleman as he pocketed his usual fee. "T 
 have been asked that question a thousand times, it seems to 
 me, and my answer has always been the same. I tramp as a 
 profession, and T stand at the head of it. I like it. There's 
 a good living in it. I come in contact with liuman nature 
 at every turn. I am respectable as it is. The cities and vil- 
 lages are overcrowded, and the man who butts in has little 
 chance of snccoss. I have less to worry about and sleep more 
 soundly than any business man in America. You newspaper 
 fellers think you know it all. but vou'd take a drop to your- 
 
VAOHAXTS: WHO AND WHY 
 
 313 
 
 ]4IU OWU, git! 
 
 ..=i"r »ni 5b>7S;."-.'"" "' '»^'"' '■" ■ "*••"" "'■ 
 
214 YAGilA^sTS; WilU A.XD WHY 
 
 selves if you were on the tramp for a month. You'd see more 
 human nature with the bark on in that time than you can find 
 on the East Side in New York in five years. 
 
 "Say, now/' continued the man, "can you name me one 
 single newspaper in the state of New York that felt sure of 
 Eoosevelt's election as governor No, you can't. I hit his ma- 
 jority within 2,000. Why? Because I was among the people 
 and knew how they talked. Plenty of politicians and news- 
 papers said he'd be elected as president when he ran, but no 
 man or no newspaper came within a thousand miles of the 
 popular majority. I don't say that I hit it, but I could have 
 given pointers to a hundred editors. 
 
 Get Out Among the People. 
 "Before the next national convention of either party meets 
 I'll have tramped over three or four states, and I'll be ready to 
 wager my life ag'in a nickel that I can name the victorious 
 candidate. I'll wager that I can predict it far closer than 
 any newspaper in the land. If you want to know what this 
 country is thinking about, my boy, don't box yourself up in 
 a sanctum and read a few exchanges. Get out and rub elbows 
 with the people. It isn't the few big cities that settle the 
 great political questions. It's the farmer and the villager, and 
 they come pretty near being dead right every time. When I 
 had tramped across seven counties of New Y''ork state I shouted 
 for Hughes. A politician in Syracuse who heard me had me 
 thrown out of a meeting and wanted the police to arrest me. 
 I heard that he had a bet of $5,000 on another candidate and 
 was predicting Hughes' defeat by 50,000. But enough of this. 
 I'll switch off and tell you something that has hurt me for 
 the last three or four years. 
 
 Barns Now Locked. 
 "Do you know tbat a few men, comparatively, have almost 
 changed the nature of the country and village populatiou ? 
 No. you don't, but you'll learn of it some day tb rough some 
 
VAGKAJSTS; WHO A.ND WHY ^15 
 
 magazine writer who gathers up his points in the way I have. 
 Time was when not one farmer in ten in the land locked his 
 house or barn at night. Now ninety out of a hundred do it. 
 When a stranger came along they w^elcomed him. When a 
 man talked with them they accepted his statement. What they 
 saw in the newspapers they believed without cavil. Well, they 
 have got over all this. The patent medicine faker, the mine 
 exploiter, the bucketshop man and the hundreds of other 
 swindlers have destroyed the confidence of the farmer and 
 villager in human nature. They have been bitten so often 
 and so hard that they come to doubt if such a thing as honesty 
 exists. They won't take a stranger's word for anything. They 
 have got through believing that there is an honest advertiser. 
 They have even become distrustful of each other. It has be- 
 come the hardest kind of work to sell a windmill, piano or 
 other articles direct. 
 
 ViCTi^is OF Fakers. 
 
 "You can't get out into the countrj'^ and walk five miles with- 
 out finding a victim of the fakers. The farmer has invested 
 in bogus mines, bogus oil wells, bogus stock and bogus other 
 things, and not only lost his money, but come to know that 
 he was as good as robbed of it. The villager has been, trapped 
 the same w^ay. It has hardened their hearts and given them 
 the worst view of mankind. You can know nothing of this 
 by telling, nor of the rain wrought until you get among the 
 people. 
 
 "Up to a year or so ago it was seldom that a farmer turned 
 me down. If he had nothing for me to do to earn a meal 
 or lodging he would not turn me away. He most always took 
 me on trust and had no fear that I was a rascal in disguise. 
 It's all changed now. This last summer I was paddling the 
 hoof in Connecticut and Massachusetts, making a sort of grand 
 farewell tour, and it was hard work for me to even get a 
 few apples of the farmers. They used to bo full of 'chin' and 
 
216 A^AUKANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 gossip. They used to hold me for an hour in order to hear 
 all the news. I found them last summer sullen and sulky 
 and calling to me from the fields to move on. In other years 
 the village landlord would set me at work in the stables or 
 with a pail of whitewash in some of the rooms, and in that 
 way I'd pay for my stay. I found a change there. 
 
 Hardened by Losses ix "Prosperity" Times. 
 
 "Three years ago, if you had started out for a day's tramp 
 with me along a country road every farmer we met would 
 have had a 'Howdy' for us, and perhaps stopped for a chin. 
 You'd have heard whistling or singing from every man at 
 work, and the farmer's wife would have called to you that she 
 had some fresh buttermilk. Take such a tramp today and 
 you'll find a tremendous change. I can't estimate the sum 
 the farmers and villagers have been robbed of during the past 
 years of prosperity, but it is something appalling for the whole 
 country. As much and more has been taken out of victims in 
 the cities, but the case is different. The man in the city 
 doesn't pin his faith to an advertisement. He speculates on 
 chance. He is where he can use the law, if needs be. If he 
 loses here he goes at it to get even there. With the other 
 class it is a dead loss, and the swindler can give them the 
 laugh. Take almost any highway you will, leading through 
 almost any state, and eight farmer.^ out of ten have been made 
 victims. Even the man Avho has not lost above $10 has been 
 hardened by it. 
 
 His Feelings Hurt. 
 
 "I said that this change hurt me, and so it does. You may 
 be surprised to hear that anytliing can hurt the feelings of a 
 tramp, but that is because you don't know him. He is looked 
 upon as an outlaw in the cities, but ever since he took the road 
 there has been a sort of bond between him and the dwellers 
 outside. He has paid his way or been willing to. He has 
 asked for little and done little harm. The newspapers have made 
 
VAGKANTS; WHO AND W ilY Ji: 
 
 thousands of farmers tell hard stories about the tramp, lint 
 it has heeii in the newspapers alone. The two liave worked 
 together harmoniously. 
 
 "Have you got any idea of how the professional conducts 
 himself on the road? No? Well, it won't happen once in a 
 week that you will find one without a little money. It has 
 heen earned hy hard work. When he stops at a farmhouse 
 he offers to work for a meal. If there is no work he pays cash 
 for what he gets. If he has heen padding along for three 
 or four days he ^^^ll stop and work for half a week if the 
 chance is offered him. In his work he keeps up with the hired 
 man. He washes before he eats. He knows what forks are 
 made for. He carries a clean handkerchief oftcner than the 
 man he works for. Tlie average tramp can dress a chicken. 
 kill a pig;, empty and fill a straw bed, whitewash a kitchen, 
 paint the house or fence, hoe corn, dig potatoes, run a culti- 
 vator, drive a team, split fence rails, dig a well, shingle a 
 roof or rebuild a chimney. He is a handy man. He eats 
 what he gets, sleeps Avhcre he is told to and brings the farmer 
 a higger budget of news than any two of his county papers. 
 When his work is finished he slings his hook and. is told to stop 
 again. That's the tramp and that's the farmer just as they 
 have heen for the last forty years, and that's the reason T 
 bemoan this change in the farmer. He has been victimized by 
 men he thought were honest, he has heen robbed where he 
 trusted, and in changing his feelings toward mankind he must 
 include the tramp, who has never wronged him. 
 
 Driven to the Cities. 
 
 "Take a walk and you will find those same green meadows, 
 those same brooks, those same lambs, but you won't find Uncle 
 Josh and Aunt Mary any more. A city like this seems a hard- 
 hearted and cruel place, and you shiver at the idea of heing dead 
 broke. Let me just tell you that tramps are driven into the cities 
 to recuperate. All the clothing T have had for the Inst five 
 
218 
 
 VAGKx\NTSi WHO AND WHY 
 
 Mftvid Mullor on a sumiAor'a day 
 ]vaked tho njeado\v3 awoot with hay; 
 Thla honvy work, apon tho Tiirm 
 Utrvn Maud ti very siratfg right ttrm; 
 
 In Chlcaffo Just tho other day 
 Bho rakQd tUo muck bunp^ wltbout pay. 
 ■'Nosr rood" and "curealla" went up la smoker 
 Maua acservBRcreCUt, and ih»tB no joko. 
 
VAGRANTS; WHO AND WHY .219 
 
 years has been begged in the city. All the money I have had 
 has come from the dwellers therein. The only kind words I 
 have heard have come from the hurly-burly. Makes you open 
 your eyes, doesn't it? You are still clinging to the old-fash- 
 ioned ideas of the country. 
 
 "My friend, let me tell you something. There isn't today 
 a harder man to deal with than the average farmer. There 
 isn't a woman with less sentiment than his wife. There's been 
 a mighty change in the last twenty years. Indeed, it is a 
 change that was forced on the farmer to protect himself. In 
 years gone by, in tramping over the highways, I have met 
 lightning-rod men, windmill men, piano men, hay-fork men, 
 commission men, peddlers, chicken buyers and horse traders. 
 All were after the farmer. Each and every one intended to 
 beat him, and did beat him. He was beaten when he «old his 
 produce and he was beaten when he bought his goods. He 
 was considered fair game all around. It was argued that his 
 peaceful surroundings made him gullible, and I guess they 
 did. 
 
 Things Are Changed Now. 
 
 '^ell. Uncle Josh and Aunt Mary died twenty years ago, 
 and their children took hold. The babbling brook babbles for 
 cash now. The green meadows mean greenbacks. The lamb- 
 kins frisk, but they frisk for the dough. The watchdog at 
 the gate can size up a swindler as well as a man. The 
 farmer holds on until he gets the highest price, and the mer- 
 chant who sells him shoddy has got to get up early in the 
 morning. Say, now, but I'd rather start out to beat ten 
 men in a city than one farmer. I'd rather be dead broke here 
 than to have a dollar in my pocket out in the country. If 
 taken ill here I'm sent to a free hospital; if taken sick in the 
 country, the Lord help me. 
 
 '"I'm not blaming the farmer in the least. For a hundred 
 years he was the prey for swindlers and was taken for a fool. 
 If he's got his eyes opened at last and is taking care of him- 
 
320 VAGRANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 self, and I assure 3'ou that such is the case, then so much the 
 better for him. It is the dilapidated gentleman who suffers 
 most from this change. 
 
 "Why is a sailor a sailor? Nineteen times out of twenty 
 it is because he wants to rove the seas. Why is a tramp a 
 tramp? Nineteen times out of twenty it is because he wants 
 to rove the land. It is a nervous, restless feeling that he can- 
 not withstand. He wants to get somewhere, and he is no sooner 
 there than he wants to get somewhere else. The majority of 
 them are sober men. They are as honest as the average. Nol 
 one in twenty will refuse to work for a meal or for pa3^ Not 
 one in twenty commits a crime for which he should be jailed. 
 You can't make statistics talk any other way. The whining, 
 lying, vicious tramp has his home in the city and stays there. 
 
 Farmers Down on Tramps. 
 
 "It is the press of the country that has got the farmer down 
 on the tramp. You may drive for fifty miles and interview 
 each farmer as you come to him and j'ou won't find five to 
 say that a tramp ever caused them any trouble. In summer 
 the tramp may steal a few apples or turnips. An3^one driving 
 along the highway is free to do that. Should he steal an ax, 
 shovel, plow, sheep, calf or break into the house and steal 
 a watch or clothes, what is he going to do with his plunder? 
 The instant he tries to realize on it he is nabbed. The tramji 
 \Aho enterefl a house and stole $50 in cash would be worse ofT 
 than if he hadn't a cent. 
 
 "I can walk into that bakery over there and say that I am 
 hungry and the woman will give me a stale loaf. I can tackle 
 most any man passing here for a dime for lodgings and get 
 it. I can wander down most any residence street and raise a 
 hat, a coat or a pnir of shoes. How is it out in tlie country? 
 We'll say I've hoofed it all day, making about fifteen miles. 
 I've stopped to rest now and then and view the scenery. Don't 
 von make anv mistake about that scenerv feature. Tf anv 
 
vagrants; ; WHO AND WHY 
 
 231 
 
222 VAORANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 art company wanted to publish a thousand views it couldn't 
 do better than to ask the tramps where to find the best ones. 
 For lunch I pull two turnips from a field. My drink is 
 from a brook. Along about 6 o'clock I hunger for cooked 
 victuals, and as it looks. like rain I would like to get lodgings 
 in a barn. I turn aside to a farmhouse. The farmer is wash- 
 ing his hands at the well to go in to supper. Out of the tail 
 of his eye he sees me approaching, but he pays no heed until 
 I stand before him and say: 
 
 " 'Mister, I can milk a cow, chop wood, mow weeds or hoe 
 in the garden. If you will give me supper and lodgings on 
 the haymow I will work an hour at anything you wish.' 
 
 Suspicious of Caller. 
 
 "*When did you get out of jail?' he asks. 
 
 "'I have never been in jail.' 
 
 "'But you look like a durned skunk who stole a pitchfork 
 from me last year.' 
 
 " 'Last year I was in California.' 
 
 " 'Want to set my barn afire with your old pipe, do you ?' 
 
 " 'I don't snoke.' 
 
 "He stands and thinks a moment and then grudgingly tells 
 me to take a seat on the kitchen doorsteps. The wife brings 
 me out a stingy supper. There's an abundance on the table 
 and part of it will go to the hogs, but she cuts me short, think- 
 ing to get ahead of mc. I have cleared my plate in ten minutes 
 and then I am set to work and buckle in until too dark to see 
 longer. My bed is on the hay, and twice during the night 
 the farmer comes out to see if I haven't stolen the shingles off 
 the roof. In the morning if I want a meager breakfast 1 
 must put in a good hour's work for it. That means an hour 
 and a half, and when I thank the farmer for his generosity 
 «nd get ready to go on, he says: 
 
 "'Goin'. eh? Well, that's the wav with vou durned critters. 
 
VAGRANTS: WHO AND WHY 233 
 
 Fve filled you up and lodged you, and now you want to play 
 the sneak on me.' 
 
 "My friend, don't look for much sentiment in humanity these 
 days, and don't look for a bit of it out in the country. You 
 won't find it. The farmer can't afford it. He has been beaten 
 l)y sharpers and squeezed by trusts until he has lost faith in 
 everyone. He has buttermilk, but it's for sale, and before 
 selling it to you he wants a certificate that you have never 
 stolen a haystack or run away with a field of buckwheat." 
 
 It was hard to suspect that the clean-cut, energetic and 
 rapid-fire talker was a tramp, but when he produced creden- 
 tials from one end of the country to the other, and promised 
 and threatened to produce them from Brazil, Hungary, New 
 Zealand and the Klondike regions to prove his statement, it 
 had to be credited. 
 
 "I'm A No. 1, the well-known hobo, tramp, author and 
 traveler," he said, in a speed of diction that would have made 
 the late lamented Pete Daily or Junie McCree green with envy. 
 "Everywhere you've seen the marks 'A. No. 1,' on railroad 
 fences, in railroad yards, or anywhere else, and you must have 
 seen them if you've been over this country much; you'll know 
 I've been there." 
 
 Hobo Looks Like Business Man. 
 
 A No. 1 had uttered this sentence in almost one breath, and 
 was proceeding with such rapidity that it was impossible to 
 follow his flow of ideas* He was a medium-sized but lithe 
 and powerfully built man, attired in a neat tailor-made brown 
 suit, with highly polished shoes, and looking something like 
 a prosperous business man in a small way. Under his arm he 
 carried a pair of blue overalls, and as he laid them on the 
 table he remarked: "My traveling rig." 
 
 "Maybe I don't look like a tramp to you," he continued, 
 "but I'm the genuine article, not the tomato-can or barrel- 
 house bum type, but a real, up-to-date, twentieth-century tramp 
 
224 
 
 VAGliANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 "Say, Jock, have some more nice hot coffee." 
 
 "Gee, Bill, I was jus' thinkin' o' that myself. Talk about great 
 minds — " 
 
 "Come on, Jack, be game Please have some moi'e o" this nice 
 turkey." 
 
 "Turkey I Great Scott! When have I heard that word before? 
 Hain't it a country out in Asia some place?" 
 
 "No. Jack, turkey is vittles. You get it if you love your teacher. 
 Better let me give you a few nice slivers off the breast." 
 
 "Say, Bill, on the dead, you're sure generous, all right, all right. 
 Here you are, sharin' your last turkey.'' 
 
 "Old man. don't you know it's Thanksgivin* day? Don't you hear 
 the bells ringin'? Do you reckon I'd dine alone on a day like this? 
 No, siree, not much. Pass your plate fer some more o' this nice hot 
 turkey, and some nice hot scolloped oysters, an' some o' these nice 
 hot biscuits, an' some nice cranberry sauce, an' — " 
 
 "There you go. Bill, robbin' yourself. You won't hav-e any left." 
 
 "O, there's plenty here. I like to see a man eat till he's plum foun- 
 dered. . When I used to go home fer Thanksgivin' mother 
 wasn't happy unless I et enough to stall a hired hand. If I didn't 
 eat four helpin's of everything she thought I didn't like her cookin'. 
 Had to tiy ever'thing — choc'late cake, turkey, sage dressin', hot gravy, 
 mince pie. an' — " 
 
 "Say. Bill, you might gimme a piece o' that mince pie while you're 
 about it. I got a nice, cozy little place fer a piece o' mince pie." 
 
 "Sure, Jack. I'll give you a whole quarter section. How do you 
 like this celery? Awful hard to get good celery these days." 
 
 "Yep, celery and servants. One's hard to get an' the other's hard 
 to keep." 
 
 "Say. Jack." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Shall we have our cigars and coffee here or in th' drawin' room? 
 
 •Q, lot's have James bring 'em In th' drawin' room." 
 
VAUKANTS; WHO A^:D WHY '>25 
 
 who respects his profession. Why am I a tramp? Because 1 
 like it. When did [ start? When 1 was 11 years old. What 
 is my name ? None but myself knows it. I call myself A ISTo. 1 
 because Tm an A. ISTo. 1 tramp." 
 
 He had a most convincing way with him and proceeded to 
 spin off a tale of his adventures which differed somewhat froin 
 the ordinary story that the average tramp will tell you; how 
 he had been hounded by the police, or released from jail and 
 
 couldn't get work, or had bad luck in business, being crushed 
 out by the heartless trusts until he had to tramp or starve, end- 
 ing up with an appeal for the "price of a bed, mister." 
 
 "I've kept a record of the towns I've been in ever since I've 
 been on the road," continued A. No. 1. "and up to date I've 
 traveled 445,405 miles, and it's cost me just $7.61. Out of that 
 distance there's been 92,000 miles of it by water. In 1906 
 I traveled 19,335 miles for 26 cents, and in the year 1907 I 
 traveled between Stamford and West Haven, Conn. I jumped 
 a street car and the conductor made me pay my fare. Oh, I 
 
226 
 
 VAGRANTS; WHO AND WHY 
 
 "DeBo awnjnss "W o fa 
 
 ts handy t'inos. matter wli' 
 
 one up on 
 
 "It would be a "An" If a cop '•Vousa could 
 
 good umbrcl- bothered ycr let de water oK 
 
 ler. fle lop. 
 
 always have a little money, and I'm honest, too, and that's 
 saying a good deal for a tramp. Of course, once in a while 
 I go hungry, but that's when I can't get a potato." 
 
 "Is that your staple article of diet?" 
 
 "No, I don't eat them except in restaurants," said A. No. 1, 
 seriously. "Here is what I do with them." He pulled a good- 
 sized tuber from his pocket, opened a large clasp knife and 
 speedily had it peeled. Then he proceeded to cut and carve, 
 and in about three minutes had fashioned a grotesque human 
 
VAGRANTS; WHO AND WHY 227 
 
 face on the potato, the lines coarse, to be sure, but nevertheless 
 well outlined. 
 
 Tramp An Artist. 
 
 "I make these and can carve anyone's face, and I can sell 
 them anywhere from 25 cents to $2," said the tramp. "I'm the 
 only man in this country who can do such work, and there's 
 a demand for it everywhere I stop long enough to do it. I 
 only stop to do it when I have to, so that I can get a little 
 money for a meal and pay little expenses, although my living 
 doesn't cost me much. Then, again, I never drink or smoke, 
 so that item is cut off. They don't know so much about me 
 in Chicago as in other places, because I never stopped here 
 long enough to get acquainted ; but they know me back East, all 
 right, and out in the West." 
 
 Then A. No. 1 paused long enough to draw his breath and 
 showed a medal certifying that in 1894 he had hoboed his 
 way across the continent in eleven days and six hours in com- 
 pany with the representative of an Eastern paper and had 
 been given $1,000 for doing it. 
 
 "That's how I first became famous," he said, "but I took 
 good care of the money. I went and bought myself a lot in a 
 graveyard at Cambridge Springs, Pa., so I could be buried 
 respectably when I die, and I paid part of the premium on a 
 ^ick benefit so that I can be taken care of in case I fall sick 
 suddenly. I'm a member of the Chamber of Commerce of 
 that town, too. I believe in looking out for A. No. 1, and that's 
 why I've been so prosperous in the tramping way." 
 
 Then A. No. 1 launched into a long and picturesque descrip- 
 tion of the ways of tramps in general and himself in partic- 
 ular. 
 
 "I've always been particular about some things," said he, 
 "and one is to keep clean. I find that in asking for a handout 
 the man who looks up-to-date is the man who gets it. I always 
 wear a suit of overalls when I'm tramping, for I find that 
 
'^2S YAGiiAM\S; ^VHO ASD WHY 
 
 it prevents me from being annoyed by watchmen in railroad 
 yards. I am generally taken for an engineer. While I was 
 down in a yard here in Chicago one man came and asked if 1 
 had a car lock, thinking I was a railroad man. I told him 
 I did not have one and walked off. I have prevented a number 
 of train wrecks, tramping about, probably at least one every 
 year. The last one, as you see by this letter, was a few months 
 ngoi I saw a freight running along with a broken truck drag- 
 ging. I jumped aboard and gave the warning, as you can sec 
 by this clipping. I have also been in a number of wrecks my- 
 self, and have never been injured. I always carry a little 
 bottle of cyanide of potassium in my pocket so that in ease 1 
 am ever fatally injured and in great agony I can take it and 
 end all my trouble in about 20 seconds." 
 
 COLONIES FOR TRAMPS. 
 
 Teaching Vagrants a Trade. 
 
 The vagrancy problem, growing so great in every part of 
 tlie country, has caused the authorities of Massachusetts to 
 make a trial of the German plan of farm colonies for quasi - 
 criminals. Vagrants are sent to such farms under indetermi- 
 juite sentences, forced to support themselves by honest labor and 
 made to stay there until they give evidence that upon release 
 they Avill become useful and self-respecting citizens. 
 
 This is a modification of the penal colony idea, which is 
 to send confirmed criminals to such a place for life. It is 
 a great advance upon the j^lan in use in Chicago, which is 
 to send vagrants to the Bridewell for a stipulated time and 
 let them out again. AVhile they are confined they are an ex- 
 pense to honest citizens, they acquire more extensive knowledge 
 of crime, and when released they are less likely than they wen^ 
 beforehand to go to work and support themselves. 
 
 The Massachusetts scheme promises well, so far ns it goes. 
 
VAGKANTS; WHO AND WHY 229 
 
 The trouble with it is that in this climate a farm provides 
 work for only a small part of the year. From November to 
 March other work would have to be found for inmates, and 
 up to this time society has failed to agree upon any that would 
 ])e satisfactory. 
 
 Persons interested in charities and prison reforms are in- 
 dorsing a plan for *^tramp colonies/' "forced colonies" and 
 "free colonies." Into the one put criminals, or incurable 
 tramps who are unwilling to work. The other would contain 
 tramps who are unable to find work, neuropaths, cripples and 
 those who are judged to be curable. Both kinds of colonic? 
 would be strictly agricultural, and their products would pay 
 all expenses of operation and relieve the country of the enor- 
 mous sums now required to be spent. 
 
 But why confine this plan, admirable and satisfactory as it 
 is, to tramps? Why not extend it so as to include criminals? 
 Criminals cost honest taxpayers millions of dollars every year. 
 Why not reorganize a system of confinement in such a way 
 as to compel criminals to support themselves? 
 ■ But financial relief is not the only advantage. If habitual 
 criminals — ^that is to say, criminals who have served two terms 
 in the penitentiary, and then have committed another crime — 
 were placed in a penal colony, remote from society and kept 
 there for life, the moral tone of the country would at once 
 be raised. The bad example of such men, which leads youths 
 into crime, would be removed. The knowledge that there was 
 no escape, that return was impossible, once an offender was 
 sent to the penal colony, would deter many would-be crim- 
 inals. The possibility that hardened criminals might propa- 
 gate themselves would end. 
 
 Th» penal colony is the one rational solution of the crime 
 problem, which becomes more difficult and menacing each year. 
 It will be adopted, sooner or later. 
 
THE YOUNG CRIMINAL 
 
 HOW HE IS BRED IN CHICAGO. 
 
 Chicago Raises Its Own Criminals. 
 
 There is material in this subject for earnest thought. Men 
 under twenty-five are responsible for 75 per cent of crimes 
 committed in Chicago, and 50 per cent of robberies and 
 burglaries are done by boys under nineteen. 
 
 If that is true, then the idea many people have had that 
 crimes in this city are mostly committed by a roving army 
 of criminals, alien to Chicago and attracted hither by one 
 fiause or another, must be abandoned. If it is true, then Chi- 
 cago itself is responsible for most crimes committed here. The 
 men who are guilty have grown up in this environment, which 
 has given them -the evil impetus under which they act. 
 
 The thought that Chicago boys are the criminals who ter- 
 rorize the city, rob houses and flats, hold up citizens on the 
 streets and assault women is distressing. It was much pleas- 
 anter to attribute these crimes to desperate men from else- 
 where, descending upon Chicago like raiders and leaving the 
 city again as soon as possible. But that is a misconception. 
 A\'^e ourselves have reared most of our criminals. They are a 
 Chicago product. They have received their notions of riglit 
 and wrong here among us. We are responsible for them. 
 
 What is the matter with Chicago? What are the elements in 
 its life that breed criminals? AVhat causes thousands of young 
 ])oys to take up a criminal life? What must wo do to change 
 conditions? 
 
 These are questions that should engage every good citizen 
 in anxious endeavor to find answers to them. If we are to 
 reform criminals and lessen crime, we must first learn liow to 
 reform our own city. 
 
THE YOIT^^G CEIMINAL 231 
 
 Preventing Crime Better Than Cure, 
 
 Instead of attempting to prevent crime, we wait until after 
 the crime is committed, then burden ourselves with the ex- 
 pense of apprehending, trying, convicting and imprisoning the 
 criminal. 
 
 Our first duty is to adopt those measures that will prevent 
 the further commission of crime. 
 
 Among the problems of Chicago there is no one, perhaps, 
 that is more bafiP.ing than that of the vicious boy. 
 
 His years protect him from the rigors of the law, and it is 
 a difficult matter to know just what to do with him. 
 
 There are all sorts of organizations formed for his aid and 
 his reformation. There is the Juvenile Court, for instance, 
 and there are innumerable homes and shelters, and still the 
 problem is not solved. The boy looms large in the public eye 
 these days, when he is sent to prison for life for murder and 
 spends long years in durance for burglary and other serious 
 crimes. 
 
 The story of the car-barn bandits and their tragic end is too 
 recent to need 'more than a passing reference. 
 
 The car-barn bandits met an ignominious death on the 
 gallows. Eudolph Gamof will spend the remainder of his 
 years behind prison bars and it is quite likely Alfred Lafferty 
 will know what hard work means in Pontiae or some other 
 such institution before he is once more at liberty. 
 The End op the Gamin. 
 
 It will be remembered that little Gavroche, the gamin in 
 "Les Miserables,'' came to his death on a barricade in the 
 streets of Paris. It was during the fatal insurrection of 1830. 
 The lad allied himself with the insurrectionists and found he 
 was in his element. He did prodigies of valor and was rob- 
 bing the dead bodies of the enemy of cartridges when he was 
 shot. Even after he had been shot once and had fallen to the 
 earth he raised himself to a sitting posture and began to sing 
 a revolutionary sonsr. 
 
333 THE YOUNG CRIMINAL 
 
 "He did not finish/' says Hugo. "A second bullet from the 
 same marksman stopped him short. This time he fell face 
 downward on the pavement and moved no more. This gi-and 
 little soul had taken flight." 
 
 Thus it is to be seen that Hugo has made a hero of this 
 lad. But what of the little gamins that throng Chicago's 
 streets? Will they find any such glorious end? It is not 
 likely. 
 
 Jacob Leib is but 17 years old, and Alfred Lafferty, accused 
 of twenty-three burglaries, is only 16. The John Worthy 
 School is full of boys who have been gathered in by the police ; 
 the Junior Business Club, another reform organization, has 
 a big membership, and the Juvenile Protective League is hard 
 at work trying to do something to arrest the boy in his mad 
 race to the reform school, prison and the penitentiary. 
 
 In looking about for the causes of crime among boys I 
 found that poverty, liquor, divorce, yellow newspapers, cigarettes 
 and bad company played important parts. Certain streets of 
 Chicago are schools of crime, where boys are taught the rudi- 
 ments of larceny and soon become adepts. 
 
 Hardened criminals use the more agile youths they find 
 idle to do work they are unable to do. Certain sections of 
 the city swarm with boys who are steeped in vice and crime 
 and are in embryo the murderers, the burglars and the forgers 
 of tomorrow. 
 
 Chicago Has Her Children. 
 
 Turning again to the pages of "Les Miserables," the story 
 of Gavroche, the gamin of Paris, may easily be found, and 
 the tale of this youth is not far different from that of the 
 "kid" of Chicago. Here is what Victor Hugo says of Gavroche 
 in that section of his great novel called "^Marius": "This 
 child was muffled up in a pair of man's trousers, but he did 
 not get them from his father, and a woman's chemise, but he 
 did not get it from his mother. 
 
THE YOUING CKIMINAL 233 
 
 "Some people or other had clothed him in rags out of char- 
 itj. Still he had a father and a mother. But his father did 
 not think of him and his mother did not love him. 
 
 "He was one of those children most deserving of pity, among 
 all; one of those who have father and mother and who are 
 orphans nevertheless. 
 
 "This child never felt so well as when he was in the street. 
 The pavements were less hard to him than his mother's heart. 
 
 "His parents had dispatched him into life witji a kick. Ho 
 simply took flight. 
 
 "He was a hoisterous, pallid, nimhle, wideawake. Jeering 
 lad, with a vicious but sickly air. He went and came, sang, 
 played, scraped the gutters, stole a little, hut like cats and 
 sparrows. He had no shelter, no bread, no fire, no love. When 
 these poor creatures grow to be men the millstones of the 
 social order meet them and crush them, but so long as they 
 are children they escape because of their smallness.'' 
 
 This is a true picture of the urchin of Chicago. These 
 tiny atoms of humanity are sponges that absorb all the filth, 
 the vice, the sin and the crime of the streets. They pick 
 up all that is evil and nothing that is good. They are nur- 
 tured at the breast of poverty and vieiousness, and are reared 
 on a diet of depravity and degradation. There is nothing 
 they do not know of crime and of wickedness. They are 
 thoroughly saturated with everything that is evil, unprincipled 
 and debased. 
 
 Is it any wonder, then, that the city brings forth an appalling 
 annual crop of criminals? There may be heroes among the 
 gamins in Chicago, but most of them are only heroes so long 
 as they remain uncaught. 
 
 When they fall into the hands of the police and are taken 
 io jail they are sorry-looking heroes. 
 
 And in ihe meantime the problem of the boy is still un- 
 ^^olved. 
 
234 THE YOUXG CRIMINAL 
 
 Graduate of the Streets. 
 
 This, then, is a good specimen of the kind of hoy the schools 
 of the street graduate. From these petty classes of crime they 
 go to the high school, the prison, where they are further 
 grounded in the knowledge of wickedness, and as like as not 
 return to Chicago once more, full-fledged criminals, ready for 
 anything. But this is only one of hundreds of such cases 
 that are brought to the attention of the police and the public 
 every year. 
 
 Most of the boys who come here are either orphans or half 
 orphans. Drink has wrecked their homes, perhaps, and they 
 are thrown out on the world to shift for themselves. If they 
 get into bad company they soon make their appearance in 
 the Juvenile Court or in jail, 
 
 10,000 Boys Worse Than Homeless. 
 
 A charitable worker who has come in touch with the young 
 of the poorer districts, whence comes the tough lad, estimates 
 that there are over 10,000 boys in Chicago who are worse than 
 homeless. In other words, they are in direct line of becoming 
 criminals or public charges, under the teaching of the trained 
 criminal who makes the city his refuge. 
 
 Anderson, the sticlaip youth who operated extensively on the 
 north side, choosing women for his victims, is but 33 years 
 old. The men who relieved Alderman C. M. Foell at the point 
 of a gun are less than 20, and thus it goes down the line. 
 
 They laugh at the efforts of the police to catch them. For 
 the most part they live at home or with relatives, and in 
 the neighborhoods are known as dissipated and tough boys, but 
 not as holdup men. With companions they sally out at night 
 to isolated sections of the city where they know the police 
 protection to be inadequate. They choose sechided spots of- 
 fering the protection of darkness and lay in wait. 
 
 Then, with plenty of time deliberately to stop the victim 
 and take from him valuables, they operate until it is time 
 
THE YOUNG CRIMINAL 235 
 
 for the policeman to be in the vicinity, or until the profits 
 of the expedition are sufficient to satisfy their spirit of revelry 
 and riot. 
 
 Schools for Pickpockets. 
 
 There are numerous places in Chicago where boys are taught 
 to become pickpockets. Poolrooms are gathering places for 
 such young criminals and certain saloons of a low order harbor 
 others. There is one saloon in West Madison street, for in- 
 stance, not far from Canal street, where a lot of pickpockets 
 are in the habit of congregating. They are young fellows for 
 the most part and adepts in their particular field. 
 
 They find a sort of home in this saloon, where they can 
 get a big glass of beer and a generous free lunch for 5 cents. 
 They are in and out of this place day and night and manage 
 to keep out of the clutches of the law through their sleekness 
 and cleverness. There is one young man in there at least 
 who has made a good living by forging orders for goods. So 
 far he has escaped detection. 
 
 His method is to forge an order on some big business house 
 and get certain goods. One day he got a lot of belting from 
 a well-known firm on a forged, order. He sold this later and 
 realized $4.50 on the deal. This he spent freely in the saloon 
 mentioned and made no bones of how he got the money. Others 
 run out, snatch a pocketbook and make for cover. Later on 
 they look up their cronies at the saloon and spend the money 
 for beer and cheap whisky, and eat free lunch provided by 
 the management. 
 
 There are numerous other such places, more especially on 
 South Clark near Van Buren street. Some of the saloons in 
 that section are alive with young fellows who prey upon the 
 public for a living. They do not always beg their way, either, 
 for they often take a run out and stick up somebody, filch a 
 purse or break into a store. When one of them has been up 
 to some devilment his companions can usually detect it, for 
 lie will come back and be very flush for a few hours, or a 
 
23(1 
 
 THE YOUNG CRIMINAL 
 
 few (layp. all depending, of course, upon how much he was 
 a])lo to steal. 
 
 Modern Boys Are Gamblers. 
 
 But it is not only in the slums that the tendencies of the 
 modern boy may be studied. In the more respectable parts 
 of town, in the vicinity of schools and in the neighborhood 
 of churches nuvv be seen evidences of what the youth of today 
 think play. 
 
 Time was when boys were content to play marbles. Some 
 of then\, of course, had the temerity to play for keeps. Others 
 
THE YOUNG CEIMINAL Ji3r 
 
 were taught it was wicked, and even at the risk of being 
 (■ailed "sissy" refrained fron> disobeying their mothers. But 
 now marbles are a thing of tjie past. As soon as spring comes 
 boys want to shoot '-'craps." They want to play for money. 
 They want to gamble. 
 
 A visit to almost any school playground during recess or 
 the noon hour will convince any person that the modern boy 
 is a very wise youth. His conversation is not a well of English 
 pure and undefiled by any manner of means. In the first 
 place, his profanity is something shocking, and, in the next 
 place, his knowledge of the world and its wickedness is 
 thorough. 
 
 There is nothing the modern schoolboy does not know. Ho 
 is conversant with all sorts of vice and crime, even if he does 
 not take an actual part in it. If this sort of thing obtains 
 among schoolboys and youths of that class it is little wonder, 
 then, that the boys of ■ the slums are what they are. And thf ■ 
 pictures is not overdrawn. The conversation of boys of ten 
 and a dozen years will bring the blush of shame even to a 
 gr^wn man. 
 
 Just how to cure all this is a question that is bothering a 
 good many people. Societies are being organized right and 
 left. Homes for boys are being established, schools are be- 
 ing started and other efforts are being made to reclaim the 
 delinquents. It has been found that good playgrounds in 
 the tenement districts have been beneficial. The boy is ex- 
 uberant. He must let out some of his animal spirits. If 
 he has a good place in which to play he will not be half as 
 apt to get into mischief. 
 
 Remedies Suggested by Some. 
 
 There are some who insist that moral suasion should bo 
 used at all times in an attempt to reform the juvenile. Bui 
 this has been found to fall short in many instances in Chi- 
 cago. Even the Juvenile Court, with all its benefits, is found 
 
238 THE YOUNCt CRIMINAL 
 
 to come somewhat short of doing everything for the vicious 
 lad. It is found that boys whp are herded together in penal 
 institutions are inclined to leave such places much worse than 
 when they entered. The bad boys dominate. The evil spreads 
 and the good is suppressed. One bad boy is able to do much, 
 while the influence of one good boy amounts to almost noth- 
 ing. 
 
 Those who have made a study of the matter aver that the 
 only true solution of the boy problem is individual work. The 
 lad's characteristics must be studied, the conditions under 
 which he has been living must be scrutinized and all the in- 
 fl.uences that have been brought to bear upon his particular 
 case must be looked into. Under these circumstances it would 
 take a reformer for every dozen boys, and so far the money 
 has not been forthcoming to support so many reformers, for 
 even a reformer must live. A good many of the delinquent 
 youths of Chicago have been reared in squalid surroundings 
 and have been nurtured in filth and unloveliness. They have 
 been surrounded from babyhood by poverty, drunkenness and 
 depravity. These boys take to crime as naturally as a duck 
 does to water. 
 
 ■ In order to reach boys and try to help them individually 
 a movement is now on foot to form juvenile protective leagues 
 in all parts of the city. One organization is now working in 
 the vicinity of Halsted and Twenty-second streets to put a 
 stop to race wars between school children. It is thought by 
 some that this new movement will fill a long-needed want. It 
 i«, admitted by those who have given the matter close study 
 that something must be done. 
 
 The records of the Juvenile Court and the books of the 
 John Worthy School emphatically bear out this contention. 
 
 Failure to Rule Children Makes Criminals. 
 
 What are you doing with your child's sense of right and 
 wrong? Are you certain that you are not training a criminal, 
 
THE YOUNG CRIMINAL 331) 
 
 beginning with him at two years old ? What is your boy at six 
 years of age? Is he liar, thief — perhaps of insane ego as ho 
 was when he first toddled from his mother's arms? Infereu- 
 tially President Roosevelt may have complimented you on the 
 acquisition of a large family, but rather than this, has it 
 occurred to you that the father and mother of one child, brought 
 up in the light of wisdom, may be deliverers of mankind 
 against the numerical inroads of the other type of parent? 
 
 Insanity is the mental condition out of which it is im- 
 possible for the person of any age to recognize the rights of 
 others in any form. This insanity may be due wholly to the 
 overdevelopment of the primary ego in the child. At one year 
 old the infant may be a potential criminal of the worst type. 
 It lies to the mother by screaming as if in pain in order that 
 she may be brought to its bedside. If the adult should steal 
 personal property as this babe steals food wilfully, the peniten- 
 tiary would be his end. Angered, this same babe might at- 
 tempt murder in babyhood, the spirit fostered by the same 
 selfish intolerance that is filling jails and crowding gallows 
 traps. 
 
 Respect Rights of Others. 
 
 Ego in the community life is the basis of all ill or all good, 
 even to the dream of Utopia. The basis of all ill is the pri- 
 mary ego which is inseparable from the child until teaching 
 has eliminated it. The basis of all good is that secondary ego 
 which recognizes the rights of others. 
 
 Morality — good — virtue — all that is considered desirable in 
 the best type of citizenship develop out of the community life. 
 Even in the lower orders of animals a greater intelligence 
 marks the creatures that live community existences than is 
 to be seen in the isolated creatures. And this is from the 
 development of the secondary ego which exacts rights for 
 others. 
 
 The child has no knowledge of this secondary virtue save 
 as it is taught it. The mother who, by responiding out of a. 
 
340 THE YOUNG CRIMINAL 
 
 mistaken affection to every wail of the infant, encouraging 
 all, no longer is susceptible to home influences in teaching 
 the lesson. If this youth shall become entangled in the toils 
 of the law and the mistaken parents intercede for him, gain- 
 ing their ends in saving him from all punishment for his 
 misdeeds, the boy receives through it only another selfish im- 
 petus toward more and greater offenses against society. 
 Reformatory After First Crime. 
 
 Here in this first offense of magnitude sufficient to call for 
 the intervention of the law the parents have their opportunity, 
 if only they would see. The place for such a youth at this 
 period is a reformatory in which are sufficient educational facil- 
 ities and the strictest discipline, which in justice visits tht- 
 full penalty of community transgressions upon the head of tlie 
 offender. In this reformatory environment the offending one 
 finds none of the intercessions that may have been made for 
 him in his home. In sterner fashion than he ever dreamed 
 before he discovers that as he transgresses the community laws 
 he receives a full penalty for the offense. Young enough, he 
 may be led to discover that his transgressions are not worth 
 while. Too old for these teachings, he becomes the persistent 
 lawbreaker, or, on the other hand, degenerates to the asylum 
 for the insane. 
 
 How intimately some of the fundamentals of training are 
 associated with everyday lives in the home, and yet not rec- 
 ognized, is shown in the college life of the country. "Sopho- 
 more" is a class term in schools which needs interpreting. As 
 a word, it is from the Greek, meaning "wise fool." Its appli- 
 cation in the higher education is to the second-year "men" — 
 to those students who are in that period of mental and physical 
 stress after the age of fifteen is reached. In school parlance 
 the word associates itself with the flamboyant youth who prates, 
 and preaches, and struts, and lays down the law of all things 
 as he sees it. Until twenty-five years old. indeed, the "Sophn- 
 moric" period is not fully passed. 
 
THE YOUNG CRIMIISFAL 341 
 
 Broadly stated for all men, it may be reiterated that in the 
 parents' failure to enforce the subjection of the selfish first 
 ]iature in the child lies the seed of his destruction. Encour- 
 aging the infant to wail again when nothing ails it is already 
 (,'atering to this criminal ego. Later, when a parent humors 
 its every whim, he is stunting its growth toward good citizen- 
 ship. And later still, in that crisis in physical life, between 
 the ages of fifteen and twenty-five years, such a parent may 
 awaken suddenly to a realization of the criminal which he 
 has made. 
 
 Ego in the child mind prompts it to take instantly anything 
 which it desires and which it can take. Unchecked by train- 
 ing, this primary ego grows with that upon which it feeds. At 
 two years old the child should have had its lessons in the rights 
 of others administered in any way in which it can be reached, 
 ])ut always in all justice. Justice in this lesson should be the 
 first consideration. At six years of age these lessons are of 
 special significance. It is an age in the development of the 
 child when they may be taught with especial emphasis, with 
 lasting results. 
 
 Guide Child of Fifteen Carefully. 
 
 At fifteen years old a new condition arises in the life of the 
 child. At this time the race condition and the individual con- 
 dition arc at war. It is at the beginning of this period that 
 an unbridled, untrained youth may take his first step toward 
 crime, simply because the primary ego in him has not been 
 >Mi toward the background by the lessons of his duty toward 
 the rights of others. Here it is that the heedless, ignorant 
 parents may come to the first realization of what his own sins 
 of omission have been. 
 
 If for any of the reasons suggested a youth's parents have 
 not given him this necessary training in recognition of the 
 rights of others, the age brings with it a condition making it 
 impossible in ordinary cases for the parental conscience and 
 home environment to avail. 
 
24t> 
 
 THE YOL^XG CELMINAL 
 
 For example, the fact that the boy becomes a thief, or 
 burglar, indicates in any or many things that disregard for 
 the rights of others which is destructive to all law and order. 
 Properly handled in the home he would have been amenable 
 to all of these conditions. 
 
 Raise the child like a plant, care for it as you do for the 
 rarest specimen of vegetation, bring it up in an atmosphere 
 of love. Child raising and plant development are akin. 
 
 If the child has but the smallest trace of some characteristic 
 you desire to develop, take hold of it, care for it, surround 
 it with proper conditions and it mil chang6 more certainly 
 and readily than any plant quality. 
 
 Child Like a Plant. 
 
 The child in nature and processes of growth is essentially 
 the same as the plant, only the child has a thousand strings 
 instead of but a few, as has the plnnt. 
 
 Where one can produce one change for tlie betterment of 
 
THE YOUNG OlilMINAL 343 
 
 the plant one can produce a thousand changes for the hetter- 
 ment of the child. 
 
 Surround the child with the proper environment to brinfr 
 out certain qualities and the result is inevitable. 
 
 Working in the same way as one does with the plant, the 
 development of the individual is practically unlimited. 
 
 Take the common daisy and train it and cultivate it by 
 proper selection and environment until it has been increased 
 in size, beauty and productiveness at least four hundred fold. 
 
 Do our educational methods do as much for our children? 
 If not, where is the weakness? 
 
 Hear Child in Love. 
 
 Have the child reared for the first ten j^ears of its life in 
 the open, in close touch with nature, a barefoot- boy with all 
 that implies for physical stamina, but have him reared in love. 
 
 Take the little yellow California poppy and by selecting 
 over and over again the qualities you wish to develop you 
 have brought forth an orange poppy, a crimson poppy, a blue 
 poppy. Cannot the same results be accomplished with the 
 human being? Is not the child as responsive? 
 
 The Greatest Eeform Movement of the Day Is the 
 Chicago Juvenile Court. 
 
 The statistics show conclusively that the operation of the 
 Juvenile Court is an advance step in the treatment of the 
 young and helpless. It shows that not only are the depend- 
 ents helpless, but that the delinquents are helpless to extricate 
 themselves from a life of idleness and crime, for most crim- 
 inals are made, not born, and the sooner tiriie is devoted to 
 changing the environments of the young, the sooner will be 
 solved the problem of criminology. 
 
 Illinois in the Lead. 
 
 Various claims have been put forth from time to time as to 
 the State which was the first to inaugurate the Juvenile Court 
 idea. 
 
24:4: THE iUL-\U CKiMl.NAL 
 
 The Juvenile Court Law went into effect July 1, 1899, and 
 immediately the Juvenile Court was established. The Judges 
 of the Circuit Court assigned one of their members to pre- 
 side in the Juvenile Court. 
 
 The law gave the court jurisdiction of all dependent and 
 delinquent children who are under seventeen and eighteen years 
 of age, and defines dependents and delinquents. The word 
 "dependent" shall mean any child who for any reason is desti- 
 tute or hoineless or abandoned, or dependent upon the public 
 for support, or has not proper parental care or guardianship, 
 or who habitually begs or receives alms, or who is found living 
 in any house of ill-fame or with any vicious or disreputable 
 persons, or whose home, by reason of neglect, cruelty or de- 
 pravity on the part of its parents, guardian or other persons 
 whose care it may be, is an unfit place for said child, and any 
 child under the age of ten years who is found begging, peddling 
 or selling any article, or singing or playing any musical in- 
 strument upon the street, or giving any public entertainment, 
 or who accompanies or is used in aid of any person so 
 doing. 
 
 The word "delinquent" shall mean any boy under seventeen 
 or any girl under eighteen years of age who violates any law 
 of this State or any city or village ordinance, or who is in- 
 corrigible, or who knowingly associates with thieves, vicious or 
 immoral persons, or who is growing up in idleness or crime, or 
 who knowingly frequents a house of ill-fame, or who know- 
 ingly patronizes any policy shop or place where any gaming 
 device is or shall be operated. 
 
 A boy of seventeen is at a period of life where he is neither 
 a boy nor a man. In many cases he has the mind of the boy 
 and the impulses of the savage; his ideals are force, and his 
 ambitions that of the wild, erratic western rover. Why the 
 wise head and steady hand of the court and probation officer 
 should be withdrawn at this period is not explainable on any 
 reasonable theorv. 
 
THE YDITNG CEIMINAL 245 
 
 It may be contended that a boy of seventeen years is too 
 advanced in the knowledge of crime,- but it can also be con- 
 tended that the boy of fifteen years is too old in crime. Just 
 what standard can be used to find the responsibility of a boy 
 when measured by his age and physical proportions I am un- 
 able to discover. The only just standard is mental capacity. 
 The Judge and probation officers, who are familiar with the 
 l)oy, know his parents or guardians and his environments, 
 should be allowed to exercise their judgment as to the moral 
 responsibility of the boy, for there are many boys at fifteen 
 who are more responsible for their acts than others at eighteen. 
 
 In many cases where children were committed to an insti- 
 tution the parents were placed under the care of a probation 
 officer and the number of failures to reform the parent are 
 few. 
 
 In cases where the parents are responsible for the depend- 
 ency of existence those parents mean well, but they are un- 
 fitted for the duties they have assumed/ The father thinks he 
 has fulfilled his whole duty to his family when he provides 
 food, shelter and clothing; the mother thinks she has ful- 
 filled her whole duty when she does her house work and at- 
 tends to the mending and washing. The children are masters 
 of both parents before the parents take cognizance of the 
 actual mental state of the child. 
 
 What should be done when the boy^s home is the case 
 of his delinquency is to provide for him a place where every 
 home impulse would be developed and where industry and 
 economy would be practiced. He should live in this home, 
 under the jurisdiction of the court until he has reached his 
 eighteenth year. 
 
 What is said of the boys is equally true of the girls, and, 
 in many cases, more important. Where the father is directly 
 responsible for the downfall of the girl, the girl should not 
 be allowed to return to her parental home. 
 
WILES OF FORTUNE TELLING. 
 
 FORTUNE TELLERS HAVE EXISTED SINCE 
 
 RECORDS OF EVENTS BEGAN TO BE KEPT. 
 
 Some of Their Methods — Charlatans Have a Great Hold 
 on the Poorer Classes of Big Cities, Much Alike — 
 Schools of Crime Run Full Blast — Silly and Ignorant 
 People Undone by Vicious and Wide-Open Fraud. 
 
 War against the swindlers, impostors and blackmailers who 
 operate in Chicago under the guise of clairvoyants, trance me- 
 diums, astro-psychics, palmists, magicians and fortune tellers, 
 of whom there are about 1,500 in Chicago, should be driven 
 out of the city and never allowed to return. 
 
 There exist in Chicago a horde of these brazen frauds, who 
 ply their trade in the most open and unjjlusliing manner. Few 
 of them are other than organized schools for the propagation 
 of crime, injustice and indecencies that would make an un- 
 jailed denizen of the red light district blush to even mention. 
 We particularly refer to the army of fortune tellers, clairvoy- 
 ants, Hindoo fakers, mediums, palmists, hypnotists and other 
 skillful artists, whose sole occupation is to rob and mislead 
 ihe superstitious, foolish and ignorant. The business is a pay- 
 ing industry, realizing, it is said, an enormous sum of money 
 every month in Chicago, all of which is obtained by false pre- 
 tenses. 
 
 Here is a very large field for police investigation. The prac- 
 tices of these people are < of the most demoralizing tendency. 
 Can there be anything worse than holding out love potions to 
 married women to compel other women's husbands to love thera? 
 
WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 347 
 
 fa-tnou^ Arti6i'6 Explanation oj §denti|ic Ghoat 
 Upper KovO«tr)R<2.atl Ghost. Cri^ht) /larxs Imitation- 
 Lov&r Rov/ (l«^t)ra.Ke,G-host*dra.win^s by vonHa.TX ^tiowm^ MaICC Ug 
 
248 WILES OF FOKTUNE TELLERS 
 
 These ilens oi iniquity offer their services and even aelually aid 
 in the procuring of abortions, and in showing how and where 
 a good haul can be made by robbery or burglary. They brin.ii 
 together the depraved of both sexes. Many of them are p\ir- 
 \eyors to our brothels and stews. 
 
 They flaunt their profession, their "spiritual mysteries," 
 brazenly in public in our busy thoroughfares, even invading 
 >:ome of our hotels. They are the hotbeds of vice and crime, 
 from the robbing of orphans to the deflowering of innocent 
 girls. They fall into "trances" and call up spirits from tlic 
 vaults of heaven, or elsewhere, to testify to their truth, and in 
 the turn-up of an ace of spades they see a "dark lady" or *a 
 "dark gentleman" who is pining for you, and furnish the ad- 
 dress of either. 
 
 Panderees to Depravity. 
 
 Why these panderers to depravity in all its most hideous 
 forms are permitted to continue their depredations among 
 every rank of society without attracting the attention of "re- 
 formers" or the grand jury is something beyond the ken of 
 human knowledge. And as a block is a small cityful in some 
 parts of the town, the reading of palms, the casting of horo- 
 scopes and the looking into seeds of time through the backs 
 of a greasy pack of thumb-marked, tear-stained cards is m 
 profitable calling. Perhaps it should be explained that tlie 
 tears are not shed by the prophets of the tenements, but by 
 the patrons who go to the oracle to learn if they are to be 
 dispossessed next month or if their ambitious children will 
 sometime learn a little Yiddish, so that they may talk with their 
 own parents in their own homes, are sources of information 
 for the settlement workers and others who try to learn the 
 hopes and fears and ambitions, the real life of such places. 
 Rut the fortune tellers are the real custodians of the Ghetto's 
 secrets. Tn their little back rooms, some of which are elut- 
 tered with the trash that suggests the occult to the believer, some 
 
WiLi:S Ui' FOiiTUxNE TELLEES 
 
 249 
 
 eJuppoficci "Nediuro"^Jttin$ inth&Cheiv 
 
350 WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 as hare as the room of a lodger who has pawned the last stick 
 of furniture, the}^ hear confessions that court interpreters never 
 have a chance to translate, and listen to tales of hard luck that 
 are never told to the rabbis. 
 
 Prognostications Are Vague. 
 
 But they don't use the mails to drum up trade, and they 
 have no barkers at the doorsteps to cajole the credulous to stej) 
 inside to learn what the future has in store for them. And 
 so, in a legal sense, they are guilty of no fraud. They are not 
 very serious frauds in any sense, for their tricks are harmless 
 and their prognostications are vague as the weather predic- 
 tions of an almanac and as probable as the sayings of the cart- 
 tail orators who hold forth at the street corners in campaign 
 time. 
 
 "About this time, look for cold winds, with some snow," 
 sagely remarks the almanac writer, stringing the ten words 
 of his prediction down the entire column of the month. 
 
 "In a few years," says the fortune teller, solemnly, "you will 
 have good friends and more money than you have now." 
 
 "If you vote for this man," shrieks the cart-tail orator, 
 "rents will be lower and the street cleaner and you will get 
 jol)s. The other ticket stands for graft and greed. Vote for 
 it if you want your children to run in the streets, because 
 there is no room for them in the schools." 
 
 Predicts Like a Spellbinder. 
 
 Like the spellbinder, the oracle frequently builds on the look- 
 on-this-picture-and-then-on-that plan. 
 
 "This is a strong line," mumbles the palmist. "You will 
 meet a man with blue eyes who will help you, but beware of 
 a man with dark hair." 
 
 Sometimes the helper has light hair and the man to lie 
 avoided black eyes. But invariably Die good friend of the 
 future is blond and the devil is brimette. No seer would any 
 
WILES OF FOETUNE TELLEES 351 
 
 more think of changing that color scheme than the writer of 
 a melodrama would dare stage a villain who didn't have hair 
 and mustache as black as night. That prediction is one of 
 the traditions of the art, and no future has ever been com.- 
 plete without the dark and the light men or the dark and 
 the light woman, as the case might be. 
 
 One of the most famous of fortune tellers, a woman, died 
 suddenly. She had been reading cards in the same house for 
 forty years, and on the day of her funeral her house was 
 crowded with mourners, whose future she had foreseen with 
 so much shrewdness that not one of the 200 or more men and 
 women who filed by the coffin, to view the body had any fault 
 to find with the services she had rendered. On the contrary, 
 they compared notes, each trying to pay the best tribute to 
 the dead by telling the most wonderful story of her predictions. 
 
 Warned of the Enemy. 
 
 "I was sitting right in this room at that table where the 
 flowers are today," said one mourner, "and she said to me : 
 'You have an enemy. It is here on this card where you can 
 see it plainly. But here is a friend, a tall, light man, who 
 will come between you and your enemy. Put your trust in the 
 tall, light man, but keep away from a dark man. There is a 
 dark-haired woman who pretends to be your friend, but lies 
 about you.' " 
 
 Compare that prediction of the oracle with this forecast of 
 Daniel Defoe's famous deaf and dumb predictor, Duncan 
 Campbell. 
 
 "To Mme. S h W d; I see but one misfortune after 
 
 the year of 1725. A black man, pretty tall and fat, seems 
 to wish you no good. Xever tell your secrets to any such 
 persons, and their malice cannot hurt you." 
 
 And that warning wasn't original when Mme. S ^h 
 
 W d called at Duncan Campbell's lodging in London to 
 
 learn what was what. Xo doubt it could be traced beyond 
 
25^ WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 Delphi. That's almost as safe a guess as to assume that Mme. 
 
 S h W d -was a Sarah Wood. She might have been a 
 
 Wedd or a Weld, but that is doubtful. 
 
 Predictions Change Little. 
 
 So, although the seer of Randolph street and all the rest 
 probably never heard of Duncan Campbell or Nostradamus, or 
 of their predecessors at Delphi, they have kept the profession 
 of forecasting remarkably free of innovations. 
 
 "This art of prediction," reads Defoe's Life and Adventures 
 of Duncan Campbell, "is not attainable any otherwise than 
 by these three ways. 1. It is done by the company of familiar 
 spirits and genii, which are of two sorts (soine good and 
 some bad), who tell the gifted person the things, of which he 
 informs other people. 2. It is performed by the second sight, 
 which is very various 'and differs in most of the possessors, it 
 being only a very little in some, very extensive and constant in 
 others; beginning with some in their infancy and leaving them 
 before they come to years, happening to others in a middle 
 age, to others again in an old age that never had it before, 
 and lasting only for a term of years, and now and then for a 
 very short period of time; and in some intermitting, like fits, 
 as it were, of vision that leave them for a time, and then return 
 to be strong in them as ever; and it being in a manner heredi- 
 tary in some families, whose children have it from their in- 
 fancy (witliout intermission) to a great old age, and even to 
 the time of their death, which they even foretell befoi-e it 
 comes to pass, to a day — na)'', even to an hour. ;i. It is at- 
 tained by the diligent study qf the lawful part of the art of 
 magic." 
 
 Make Enough to Retihk. 
 
 Nowadays the prophets see to it that their miraculous power 
 does not depart from them for any cause whatsoever until 
 their own palms have been crossed with enough silver to en- 
 
WILES OF FOKTUxNTE TELLEKS 253 
 
 able them to retire in comfort. A certain Fatima who told 
 fortunes on Madison street for years removed her card from 
 the front window and disappeared altogether. She had bought 
 a farm np the state, where she is now living and raising- 
 fancy breeds of poultry. There is no mortgage on the farm, 
 and the hens have grain three times a day. 
 
 Just which one of Duncan Campbell's three methods a cer- 
 tain practitioner uses is not apparent, but he was one of the 
 most noted and successful fortune tellers, and his men patrons 
 set more store by what he said than in the promises of the 
 district leaders. 
 
 Answers Questions for a Dollar. 
 
 He has reduced his business to a fine system, and all the 
 questions that anybody could possibly think of are set down 
 in a book with numbers opposite them. And these books^i 
 printed in Yiddish, English and German, anticipate all the 
 hopes and fears of the tenements. The questions, all of a 
 strong local flavor, are all answered by the fortune teller off- 
 liand for $1, notwithstanding the fact that they present some 
 of the toughest problems that the philanthropists Avho support 
 the Educational Alliance and the settlement houses have Ijoen 
 trying for years to solve. To illustrate, take this group of 
 questions under the general classifications "Home and Chil^ 
 dren" : 
 
 ^Tan I learn English?" 
 
 "Can I make my son or daughter learn Yiddish?" 
 
 "Shall my children play with Christians?" 
 
 The book printed in Yiddish shows the most wear. It h 
 divided under these heads: "Travel and Letters," "Love and 
 Marriage," "Home and Children," "Business," "Work," "Luck 
 and Losses." 
 
 Some of the questions make interesting reading and supple- 
 mentary to the reports and papers of the various Hebrew 
 
254 WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 charity organizations. One of the more recent of these reports 
 gave statistics of desertions of wives, and "other women" was 
 put down as the cause in a large number of cases. 
 
 Married Two Wives; What Will Happen? 
 
 The first question in the fortune teller's book under "Travel 
 and Letters" is, "Where did my husband elope to ?" The iden- 
 tity of the other woman in the case seems to be secondary in 
 importance to the whereabouts of the deserter. 
 
 Under "Love and Marriage" arc 'these questions, among 
 many others: 
 
 "Is my bride's dowry as big as she says it is?" 
 
 "I have married two wives; what will happen?" 
 
 "Shall I be married in court?" 
 
 Those who are in doubt about work have many questions 
 to select from, the list starting off like this: 
 
 "Shall I be a letter carrier?" 
 
 "Shall I be a conductor?" 
 
 "Shall I be a street cleaner?" 
 
 "Shall I be an actor?" 
 
 "Shall I be a lady-figure?" 
 
 A lady-figure is undoubtedly a cloak model. 
 
 Under "Business" some of the questions are: 
 
 "Shall r remain a peddler or keep a store?" 
 
 "Shall I sue my partner?" 
 
 "Will my partner sue me?" 
 
 "Shall I take my wife into the store as a partner?" 
 
 "Shall I take my husband into the store as a partner?" 
 
 "Shall I buy the goods?" 
 
 "Will the bank fail?" 
 
 Under "Luck and Losses" arc: 
 
 "Was T robbed, by friends or stranjffrs?" 
 
 "Does anybody look in my pockets nights?" 
 
 "Will the landlord ]mi mo oiii ?" 
 
WILES OP^ FOKTUNE TELLERS 255 
 
 Roomful of Patrons. 
 
 The deviser of these books keeps Ids office in a rear tenement 
 open from early morning till late at night, and there is gen- 
 erally a roomful of anxious patrons awaiting their turns. 
 
 At a single sitting, price $1, the man or woman who wants 
 to know may select three questions. She puts the number 
 corresponding to the questions on a slip of paper. The num- 
 bers do not run in regular order through the book or through 
 any section of it. 
 
 The slip of paper is kept concealed by the questioner, and 
 later on, when she is in the actual presence of the oracle, she 
 writes those numbers again on another slip of paper, hidden 
 from the fortune teller by a book cover. She also writes her 
 name on two pieces of paper, which she places in two Bibles, 
 opened at random by the fortune teller after she has named 
 any three words she happens to see on the page. 
 
 Gets Pointers from Customer. 
 
 Then the books are closed, the soothsayer tells his customer 
 what her name is (he is not often absolutely accurate in that 
 part of the game), and then he begins to talk about the past 
 and future in such a rambling, comprehensive way that he 
 is almost sure to hit upon, directly or indirectly, the questions 
 she has in mind. If he is too far off the trail he asks the 
 woman from time to time if she understands him, and from 
 her replies and questions gets a further clew as to just which 
 three questions she had selected from the lists. Then the rest 
 is simple. 
 
266 WILES OF FOETUS E TELLERS 
 
 SPOOKS RAIDED. 
 
 DETECTIVES WOOLDRIDGE AND BARRY DE- 
 SCEND ON A WEST SIDE MEDIUM'S PLACE. 
 
 Lively Fight Before the Officers Succeed in Making Ar- 
 rests — One of the Number Set Upon and Severely 
 Beaten Before Aided — Spectators at the Seance Take 
 Part and the Row Becomes General — Search of the 
 Premises Reveals a Systematic Plan to Deceive — 
 Anger of the Dupes Turns to Chagrin at the Revela- 
 tions Made by the Police. 
 
 September 2, 1906, Catherine Nichols, Sarah Nichols and 
 Jennie Nichols, 186 Sebor street, fake exponents of materiali- 
 zation of spirits and general "spook" grafters, were arrested, 
 the seances raided and the game closed, by Detectives Woold- 
 ridge and Barry. 
 
 The scene of the raid was a brick building at 184 Sebor 
 street, which is ju?t east of Halstcd and a block south of Harri- 
 son street. ' 
 
 The medium arrested was Miss Jennie Nichols, who, with 
 her mother, Mrs. Catherine Nichols, and her sister, Sarah, had 
 been gleaning a harvest of dollars from guillible residents, 
 mostly of the West Side of the city, during the last two years. 
 The establishment of the Nichols family occupies parts of two 
 buildings, the mother and her two daughters living at 186 
 Sebor street, next door to 184. On the second floor of the latter 
 address was located the hall which they used for their public 
 seances. 
 
 Plans Are Well Laid. 
 
 The raid was made on the authority of a warrant which was 
 applied for by Miss INfuriel Miller, a young woman who was 
 induced by the blandishments of other mediums to come to 
 
WILE8 OF FOKTUNE TELLERS 
 
 "SPIRIT PICTURES" OF WO MEN HELD AS BOGUS MEDIUMS, AND SCENE SHOW- 
 iririfi if i'^¥^i ^^'^^^^'^1 ffi^i^Hyng SPQQ^^S AND DETECTIVES. 
 
 Chicago from her home in Portland, Ore. Miss Miller, who is 
 omployed in a barber shop in Clark street, is slightly deaf. She 
 t)ecame interested in Spiritualism, and thus came in touch with 
 tlie Nichols' outfit. 
 
 She had written to another Chicago medium, and received 
 letters in answer signed "Professor Venazo." 
 
 It was explained to Miss Miller that the wonderful cures 
 which the medium professed to be able to make were brought 
 about while the patient was in a trance. In a letter which had 
 been turned over to the police, "Professor Venazo," which is 
 
258 WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 the name with which an accomplice of certain Chicago mediums 
 signed such communications, explained that because of stress 
 of business it would be impossible to undertake to cure Miss 
 Miller of her deafness unless she was prepared to put up at 
 least $50 in cash. 
 
 The letter stated that if she would send to "Professor 
 Venazo" $100 the medium would undertake to go to her homo 
 and cure her there. If she did not wish to pay that much money 
 she could come to Chicago, pay the medium $50, and be cured 
 "while in a trance." 
 
 Detectives Barry and David Carroll were detailed to assist 
 Wooldridge in serving the warrants and making the raid. 
 
 Detectives Attend Service. 
 
 Barry and Carroll planned to effect an entrance to the 
 "seance." Inspector Revere was informed and asked to give 
 a detail of six officers, who, headed by Detective "Wooldridge, 
 went to the hall on Sebor street. Barry and Carroll had pre- 
 ceded them and succeeded in convincing Jennie Nichols, who 
 was the master of ceremonies, that they were interested in 
 spiritualism and desired to witness the materializations. 
 
 When they went to the hall. Detective Barry walked in and 
 found twenty-eight or thirty others there before him. Jennie 
 Nichols was busy arranging the spectators in seats. She took 
 a great deal of care about placing them. Carroll and Barry 
 entered and signed their names on the register. This was a 
 book in which everyone who is admitted to a seance is re- 
 quested to place his name and place of residence. Barry signed 
 as "John Woods"; address, 142 Ashland boulevard. 
 
 Calling Up the Spirits. 
 When the seance opened Jennie Nichols conducted those 
 who were in the hall through the main room and the one at 
 the rear, before which the curtain was placed. Ever^'thing 
 was all right, so far as Detectives Barry and Carroll could see. 
 The cabinet from which the spirits were to come stood across 
 
WILES OF FOETUNE TELLERS 259 
 
 one corner, and opposite it was a door leading into one of the 
 two rooms in the rear of the hall. 
 
 They examined the cabinet and the rooms carefully, but 
 found everything all right. After they had been through every- 
 thing the doors were locked and they returned to their seats, 
 Miss Nichols making some other changes in the arrangements 
 of the seats, and then the place was darkened. 
 
 When the place had been made almost entirely dark, Jennie 
 Nichols, the medium, began pacing back and forth in front of 
 the curtain. She rubbed her hands over her head and eyes a 
 number of times, and began to chant: "Come, queen, 
 queen." 
 
 When she began to call on the "queen" the spectators began 
 to get excited. Most of them appeared to be thoroughly fa- 
 miliar with the proceedings, and several of them said: "Oh, 
 I hope it's the king." 
 
 Then the medium pulled a cord which was attached to a light 
 enclosed in a sheet-iron case, the one small opening of which 
 was covered with- several thicknesses of green tissue paper. 
 When she pulled the string the room became darker than ever. 
 
 Spirits Begin" to Move. 
 
 Before she began her incantations the medium had requested 
 everyone present not to cross their feet, and to try to assist 
 her to bring the spirits before them. She said that it would 
 probably not be possible to bring a spirit for everybody, but 
 that if all helped her, the spirits wanted by many in the audi- 
 ence would surely appear. 
 
 Then she asked them all to sing "Nearer, My God, to Thee," 
 which they did, and after a few more passes over her temples 
 and in front of her eyes the spirit began to move. The de- 
 tectives could see it, and they began to think they had been 
 wrong in thinking there was nothing in spiritualism. It cer- 
 tainly appeared real. First one form would glide back and 
 forth in front of the curtain, then an entirelv different one 
 
260 WIJ.ES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 would appear. Altogether there were spirits of about ten men 
 and children materialized. 
 
 As the apparitions moved slowly in front of the curtain, in 
 the spectral light which made it impossiMe to detect more than 
 a faint outline of the form, women rushed forward crying out 
 that it was their husband, or their child, that they saw. They 
 stretched out their hands to clasp the forms of their departed, 
 but Jennie Nichols and her male assistant would take them by 
 their hands and tell them they must not touch the spirit or 
 it would fade away. You could get within six inches of the 
 figures, and peer into the faces as they passed to and fro, but 
 everyone was restrained from attempting to touch them. In 
 the ghostly light of the room the closest inspection could not 
 determine that the figures were frauds, so clever were they dis- 
 guised. 
 
 Keys Up the Spectators. 
 
 While the detectives were Avaiting for the materialization, a 
 woman they knew entered the room. Barry put his handker- 
 chief up to his face for fear she would recognize him. They 
 wanted to know what was the matter with him, and Barry said 
 that he guessed lie had something in his eye. They Avanted to 
 take it out, and he had to put his handkerchief away. He 
 thought he was discovered, but the woman, Mrs. Ella Hooblor. 
 319 West Madison street, said nothing about him. After they 
 had arrested the Nichols woman, j\Irs. Hool)ler told Barry she 
 had recognized him when she first entered the room, but she 
 thought he was "bug" in the game, and said nothing. 
 
 After about ten materializations of husbands and children 
 had keyed the spectators up to a high pitch, Mrs. Hoobler asked 
 for the spirit of her daughter, Helen. In a few minutes the 
 figure of a young girl, clad in white from head to foot, aj)- 
 peared before the curtain. 
 
 "Oh, Helen, ^y Helen !*' Mrs. Hoobler exclaimed, rusliing 
 to the apparition. "Oh, mamma!" came the answer in a slirill 
 falsetto voice. 
 
WILES OK FOKTUNK TELLERS 361 
 
 Medium s ParaoKernaira SelzeJ b y Police in Raid. 
 
262 WILES OF FOKTUNE TELLEKS 
 
 Jennie Nichols and the big assistant seized Mrs. Hoobler's 
 hands just as she was about to clasp what she believed to be 
 the spirit of her daughter in her arms. 
 
 "You must not touch it/' Jennie Nichols told her, "or the 
 spirit will go away/* 
 
 The poor, almost frantic woman kneeled before the appari- 
 tion. Barry thought it was time to get busy, and he whispered 
 softly to Carroll: "Watch out, there's going to be a pinch." 
 Then he threw on the flashlight and whistled for the squad 
 outside to come in. 
 
 Just as he did this the "spook" in front of him looked so 
 realistic that for the life of him he couldn't decide whether 
 he was going up against a real spirit or not. But he took a 
 chance and grabbed for it. Even when he had hold of it and 
 knew it must be flesh and blood, it seemed so slimy, with the 
 white stuff rubbed over it, that he felt his hair rising. 
 
 Just about that time the medium outfit got busy. The big 
 man who had been helping Jennie Nichols hold the hands of the 
 people who were trying to grab the spirits of their dead hit 
 Barry over the head with some sort of a club that knocked him 
 to the floor. Jennie Nichols put out the light entirely, grabbed 
 Barry's flashlight and began pounding him over the head with 
 it. They went to the floor in a rough and tumble scrimmage, 
 the crowd on top of them, yelling and screaming. 
 
 In the next room Carroll was busy, too. He got hold of Mrs. 
 Catherine Nichols, the mother, who had been helping with the 
 show, and he was beset by spectators who were incensed be- 
 cause the seance had been broken up. 
 
 WOOLDRIDGE TaKES A HaND. 
 
 When Detective Wooldridge and his detail broke down the 
 doors of the hall and made their entrance into the place it was 
 pitch dark, and they had to strike matches before they could 
 separate the combatants. 
 
 After a semblance of order had been restored in the place 
 
WILES OF FOETUNE TELLERS 363 
 
 the premises were searched, and a most astounding outfit of 
 disguises discovered. Before this development the spectators, 
 who had been held in the place, were very angry with the 
 officers, saying that they had been attending the seances for 
 the last two years ; that they knew Jennie Kichols as a medium 
 had shown them the spirits of their dead. When the officers 
 produced Sarah Nichols, to whom Detective Barry had held 
 when he seized the "spook," they discovered that she had been 
 wearing a pair of sandal slippers with felt five inches thick 
 for soles; a pair of men's black trousers and the white shroud 
 and painted picture face of a young girl. 
 
 Attached to a pole in front of her was a paper head, around 
 which was a white shroud four feet in length. Those in at- 
 tendance believed this image to be the spirit of a believer's dead 
 relative. The "medium" had "spook" images of men, women 
 and children, and could produce them as circumstances de- 
 manded. The light was turned up, and the contemptible im- 
 position on credulity was exposed to twenty-six dupes, who had 
 been paying $1 apiece for the privilege of attending meetings 
 of the "spook" grafters for years. It was the greatest expose 
 of "spooks" that has been made in many years. A wagon load 
 of masks, wigs, false whiskers, tin horns, gowns with safety 
 pins in them, skulls and skeletons with cross-bones to match, 
 were seized. 
 
 Women Refuse to Talk. 
 
 At the station the women refused to talk. Sarah Nichols, 
 the "spook," had donned a house dress before she was taken 
 to the station. Jennie Nichols, the "medium," was dressed in 
 a neat black gown of rich material. The mother appeared 
 in a black skirt and a white shirtwaist. The latter is a gray- 
 haired woman apparently about 50 years old. She wept copi- 
 ously. Sarah Nichols also wept. In the scrimmage after the 
 arrest her ear had been injured, and it was bleeding when the 
 trio was booked at the station. 
 
 Jennie Nichols was the most composed of all. She held a, 
 
364 WILES OF FOETUNE TELLEKS 
 
 palm leaf fan in front of her face and above it twinkled a pair 
 of shrewd blue eyes. As she and her relatives were led from 
 the private room at Harrison street she even laughed, although 
 her mother and her sister were in tears, and her victims were 
 denouncing her for having robbed them, through their credu- 
 lity, of hundreds of dollars, which many of them could ill af- 
 ford to lose. 
 
 WOOLDRIDGE MAKES GhOST WaLK IN POLICE CoURT. 
 
 A "spook" sat on the bench with Justice Prindiville. He 
 made ghosts walk and graveyards yawn. 
 
 The "spook" was Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge. 
 
 When Miss Sarah Nichols, "the ghost," Miss Jennie Nich- 
 ols, "the trance medium," and Mrs, Catherine Nichols, mother 
 of the other two known as the "overseer," appeared in court to 
 answer to charges of obtaining money by false pretenses through 
 spiritualistic seances. Detective Wooldridge crowded to the 
 center of the stage. 
 
 He bore a great board, on which were tacked white shrouds, 
 grinning skulls and cross-bones, the costume of an Indian, and 
 other instruments of the medium's trade. 
 
 "For the benefit of the public at large," he said, addressing 
 the court, "I ask permission to expose the methods of these 
 fake spiritualists." 
 
 The permission was given, and "Spook" Wooldridge took 
 the wool sack. 
 
 "Spook" Wooldridge Demonstrates. 
 
 He lit the punk with wliich the mediums wore wont to light 
 up the skull. He burned incense. He put on a white gown. 
 
 "This is Carrie's garment," he said, pointing to where "Gbost" 
 Carrie, twenty-four years old and Inixom, stood. 
 
 He went through the whole performance, save the grease 
 paint. He started to daub his face with the stuiV. wliiih gave a 
 ghostly hue. when the justice interrupted : 
 
WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 365 
 
 "You needn't dirty your face, Friend Spook. You've scored 
 your points already." The "Spook" had, indeed. 
 
 Despite the exposures, many women and a few men who 
 had come to hear the cases, expressed their devotion to the 
 persons arrested and to the "cause." 
 
 They finally became so demonstrative that Justice Prindi- 
 ville ordered the court room cleared of the "devotees." 
 
 "This is not a matinee, a spiritualists' meeting or a circus," 
 said the Justice. "Let the devotees meet in the outer hall." 
 
 Fifty women, of all ages and many conditions of life, stood 
 with mouths wide open and eyes bulging as Wooldridge went 
 through his performance. They were the victims of the Nich- 
 ols women. 
 
 Jennie Nichols and Sarah Nichols were fined $100 each. 
 
 Aerest South Side Mediums. 
 
 To conclude the record of the day. Detectives Wooldridge 
 and Barry, accompanied by two officers from the Cottage Grove 
 station, visited a seance given by Clarence A. Beverly and Mrs. 
 M. Dixon at iVrlington hall, Thirty-first street and Indiana 
 avenue. The officers bought tickets and awaited the perform- 
 ance. After a lecture on psychic problems by "Dr." Beverly 
 and a programme of music rendered by children, "Dr." Dixon 
 took the rostrum and went through a series of clairvoyant dis- 
 coveries. 
 
 Among the things which she professed to predict while in 
 her "trance" was a prognostication which had not a little to do 
 with the developments of the evening. After she had pointed 
 out a number of persons in the audience and told what they 
 had done or should do, she discovered Wooldridge and singled 
 him out. 
 
 "I see a man with glasses who has his hands crossed over 
 his knees," she said. "I am governed by the spirit of John 
 Googan, an Irishman. He gives you a message," pointing to 
 
366 WILES OF FORTUNE TELLERS 
 
 Wooldridge, '^'^and says that whatever John orders must be 
 done.'^ 
 
 At this Wooldridge, arising from his seat, advanced to the 
 rostrum. 
 
 Officer Serves Papers, 
 
 "John Collins, chief of police, says, Mrs. Dixon, that I am 
 to put you under arrest under a state warrant charging you 
 with receiving money by a confidence game. I also have a 
 warrant charging the same offense against Clarence A. Beverly. 
 Dr. Beverly, please come forth." 
 
 Dr. Beverly presented himself, and both he and Mrs. Dixon 
 were taken to Harrison street, where strenuous efforts on their 
 behalf on the part of "Dr." Harry H. Tobias, spiritual mental 
 healer, with offices at 118 East Thirty-third street, and others, 
 failed to procure them bonds. 
 
 The arrest of Beverly and Mrs. Dixon was made on a warrant 
 signed by Miss Miller, who had entered into correspondence 
 with them from her home in Portland, Ore. The fee in Chi- 
 cago was to have been $50, according to the letters she received 
 from the mediums, as in the preceding instance. She borrowed 
 money to come to Chicago, and had but $25 to pay the 'Tiealers." 
 When she received no benefit from their treatment she made 
 complaint and was threatened with violence, she alleges. There- 
 upon she laid her case before Chief Collins, resulting in the 
 raid and the closing up of this place. 
 
 Thus did the sleuth a-sleuthing vanquish the ubiquitous 
 "spook," the "ghost," the "spirit," the re-incarnation, the Ma- 
 hatma, the "sending," and all the hosts of the immaterial 
 world, whose immaterialism was being converted into good hard 
 material cash by the producers of the evanescent shapes from 
 beyond the veil. 
 
 Thus did Clifton R. Wooldridge and his able assistants make 
 "spooking" a dangerous business in Chicago. 
 
WIFE OR GALLOWS? 
 
 PREFERS HANGING TO LIVING WITH HIS WIFE. 
 
 Hugo Devel prefers being hauged to living with his wife. 
 
 Unable to escape her in any other way, lacking the courage 
 or nerve to kill himself, and shuddering at the idea of life 
 imprisonment with the woman he had promised to love and 
 cherish, he confessed to a murder he did not commit, and 
 was ready to go upon the gallows or to penal servitude for life 
 in the stead of the real murderer. ' 
 
 He'd %ther^e hanged 
 than live with his wipe. 
 
 Now he is free, and miserable, and in his home at Lubeck, 
 in Germany. He is envying Franz Holz, who is awaiting the 
 gallows. 
 
 Devel admits sadly that he had a double purpose in wanting 
 to die on the gallows. First, that he would escape his wife; 
 and, second, that, by being hanged he would make it improb- 
 able that any other man should meet his fate — not his fate 
 on the gallows, but his fate in having wedded Frau Devel. 
 
268 WJFPJ OR GALLOWS? 
 
 The ease, whicli was cleared up by the Hamburg police, fur- 
 nished a problem that would have defied the cunning of Sher- 
 lock Holmes and all his kindred analysts. Briefly stated, the 
 facts in the case, which is the strangest one ever given to a 
 detective department to solve, are these: 
 
 Woman Was Robbed and Murdered. 
 
 A few months ago a certain Frau Gimble, of Munich, was 
 cruelly murdered by a man. The evident motive of the deed 
 was robbery, and that the crime was planned and premedi- 
 tated there was sufficient evidence. Every clew and circum- 
 stance pointed to Franz Holz, He was known to have been at 
 or near the scene of the murder shortly before its commission. 
 He knew the woman, and had knowledge that she kept a con- 
 siderable sum of money in her home. He was known to have 
 been without money for days prior to the murder, and imme- 
 diately after the deed, and before the body was discovered, he 
 had appeared with a quantity of mone}', made some purchases, 
 bought drinks for acquaintances, and then disappeared. 
 
 The police were on his trail within a short time after the 
 finding of the body of the murdered woman. Holz had fled 
 toward Berlin, and a warning was sent in all directions, con- 
 taining descriptions of the fugitive. 
 
 The awfulness of the deed attracted the more attention be- 
 cause of the locality and the ruthless and cruel manner of its 
 commission. While the police were making a rapid search for 
 the fugitive Holz, Hugo Devel, a well-to-do tradesman in 
 Lubeck, surrendered himself to the police of his home town and 
 confessed that he, and not Holz, had committed the crime. 
 Devel had been in Hamburg at the time the crime was com- 
 mitted. His confession, which destroyed all the evidence and 
 all the theories implicating Holz, staggered the detectives. 
 
 Devel Confesses to the Crime. 
 Although apparently saved from a remarkable network of 
 circumstantial evidence, and no longer wanted for the murder 
 
WIFE Oii UALLUWS? 369 
 
 of the Gimble woman, the German police reasoned that Holz, 
 if he had not fled because of that crime, must have fled be- 
 cause of some other crime. So the department, which has a 
 name a couple of feet long, which in English would mean, 
 "the department for finding out everything about everybody," 
 kept on the trail. 
 
 Meantime the police of Hamburg got possession of Devel 
 and examined him. From the first they were uneasy. He con- 
 fessed that he murdered the woman to get her money, and be- 
 yond that would not tell anything. It is not customary for 
 the police to insist that a man who confesses that he is guilty 
 of murder shall prove it, but there were facts known to the 
 police which made them wonder how it was possible for Devel 
 to have killed the woman. They used the common police 
 methods, and made the prisoner talk. The more he talked 
 the more apparent it became to the police that he was inno- 
 cent, although he still claimed vehemently that he, and he 
 alone, killed the Gimble woman. 
 
 Police I.earn He is ISTot Guilty, 
 
 Some of his statements were ridiculous. For instance, he 
 did not know what quarter of the city the woman lived in. He 
 did not know how she had been murdered. He said he climbed 
 through a window and killed the woman. When pressed, he 
 said the window was the dining-room window. In view of the 
 fact that she was killed while working in a little open, out-door 
 kitchen when murdered, the police became satisfied that Devel 
 was not the man, and ordered the pursuit of Holz resumed by 
 all departments. 
 
 The case even then was a remarkable one, and one which 
 would have defied any theoretical detective. The police proved 
 that it was impossible that Devel should be confessing in order 
 to shield Holz — first, because he never knew Holz; and sec- 
 ond, because the police had informed him that the real mur- 
 derer was in custody, in order to discover a reason for his con- 
 fession. It was suspected that Devel was partly insane and 
 
270 WIFE OR GALLOWS V 
 
 seeking notoriety. Everything in his life refuted that idea. 
 He was a quiet, orderly citizen, who seldom read newspapers, 
 and who neither was interested in crime or criminals. He 
 owned a small business in Lubeck, attended to it strictly, drank 
 little, and apparently was as sane as any one. 
 
 Searching for Motive of Confession. 
 
 The ease worried the police officials. The absolute lack of 
 reason for Devel's confession stimulated their curiosity. He 
 was held in custody for weeks, and then the police gave up in 
 despair, and, as Holz had been arrested and had confessed to 
 everything, the release of Devel was ordered. The order of 
 release proved the move that revealed the truth. When he was 
 told that he was free to return home, Devel broke down and 
 begged the police to keep him in prison, to hang him, to poison 
 him, but not to send him home. 
 
 In his agony he confessed that the only reason he confessed 
 the murder was that he desired to get hanged, and that he 
 preferred hanging to life with his wife. 
 
 The hard-hearted police set him free — literally threw him 
 out of the prison, and he returned to his wife in Lubeck. The 
 following day he resumed charge of his business. 
 
 An English correspondent visited Devel in his shop and made 
 certain inquiries of him regarding the case. As the hanging 
 editor would say, "the condemned man was nervous." He was 
 afraid his wife would read what he said, but the correspond- 
 ent finally got him to tell. 
 
 "I desired to be hung," said Devel, mournfully. "Life is 
 not worth the living, and with my wife it is worse than death. 
 If I had been hanged no other man would marry my wife, and 
 I would save them from my fate. Many times have I planned 
 to kill myself to escape her. That is sin, and I lack the brav- 
 ery to kill myself, besides. If they will not hang me I must 
 continue to live with my wife." 
 
 Devel states, among other things, that these are the chief 
 grievances against married life in general, and his wife in 
 particular : 
 
WIFE OR GALLOWS? 'iHi 
 
 She was slender, and became fat and strong. 
 
 She was beautiful, and became ugly and coarse. 
 
 She was tender, and grew hard. 
 
 She was loving, and grew virulent. 
 
 She grew whiskers on her chin. 
 
 She called him "pig." 
 
 She wore untidy clothes, and her hair was unkempt. 
 
 She refused to give him beer. 
 
 Her breath smelled of onions and of garlic. 
 
 She threw hot soup upon him. 
 
 She continually upbraided him because there were no chil- 
 dren. 
 
 She scolded him in the presence of neighbors. 
 
 She refused to permit him to bring his friends home. 
 
 She came into his store and scolded him. 
 
 She accused him of infidelity. 
 
 She disturbed him when he slept in the garden on Sundays. 
 
 She made him cook his own dinners. 
 
 She spilled his beer when he drank quietly with friends. 
 
 She told tales about him among the neighbors, and injured 
 his business. 
 
 She served his sausages and his soup cold, and sometimes 
 did not have his meals for him when he came home. 
 
 She did not make the beds nor clean the house. 
 
 She took cards out of his skat deck. 
 
 She talked continually, and scolded him for everything or 
 nothing. 
 
 She opened the windows when he closed them, and closed 
 them when he opened them. 
 
 She poured water into his shoes while he slept. 
 
 She cut off his dachshund's tail. 
 
 These things, he said, made him prefer to be hanged to 
 living with her. 
 
 Incidentally Holz, who is awaiting execution, expresses an 
 earnest desire to trade places with Herr Devel. 
 
 There is no accounting for tastes. 
 
A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER. 
 
 DETECTIVE WOOLDRIDGE FINDS A FAIR 
 CRIMINAL. 
 
 While passing through the Fair, one of the largest retail 
 dry goods establishments in Chicago, Detective Wooldridge 
 noticed one of the cleverest shoplifters that ever operated in 
 Chicago, Bertha Lebecke, known as "Fainting Bertha." 
 
 She was standing in front of the handkerchief counter, 
 where her actions attracted Wooldridge's attention, and he 
 concluded to watch her. She called the girl's attention to 
 something on the shelf and as she turned to get it Bertha's 
 hand reached out and took a half dozen expensive lace hand- 
 kerchiefs, which disappeared in the folds of her skirt. 
 
 The act was performed so quickly and with such cleverness 
 that it would have gone unnoticed unless one were looking right 
 at her and saw her take the handkerchiefs. 
 
 From the handkerchief counter she went to the drug de- 
 partment, where she secured several bottles of perfume. As 
 she was leaving this counter she met a Central detective who 
 had arrested her before for the same offense. He stopped a 
 few yards from her to make some trifling purchases. She. 
 thinking he was watching her, left the store. 
 
 From the Fair she went to Siegel-Cooper's, anotlier large 
 dry goods store several blocks away. Detective Wooldridge fol- 
 lowed her. She was seen to go from counter to counter, and 
 from each one she succeeded in getting some article. 
 
 As she was leaving the store she was placed under arrest 
 by Detective Wooldridge and taken to the Police Station. 
 
 When she was arrested she fainted, and a great crowd gath- 
 ered around her, and many of the women cried and implored 
 Detective Wooldridge not to arrest her, but he would not lie 
 moved by any of them to let her go free. 
 
'A CLEVEJ! SHOPLIFTER »r.3 
 
 Minting 3Bmm' 
 
274 A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER 
 
 When she arrived at the Police Station she was searched, and 
 beneath the folds of her skirt was found a strong waist pocket 
 which looked like a petticoat. It consisted of two pieces of 
 material gathered full at the top with a strong cord or pucker- 
 ing string run through, and sewed together around the edges. 
 In front of this great bag was a slit two feet long opening from 
 the top to within a few inches of the bottom. This petticoat was 
 worn under the dress skirt. On each side of the outside skirt 
 was a long slit concealed by the folds of the skirt, and with 
 one hand she could slip the stolen articles in through the slit 
 in the inside of her dress and into the petticoat bag to the 
 opening in front. The capacity of the bag was enormous. She 
 had stolen some $40 or $50 worth of goods when arrested. The 
 following morning she was arraigned in the Police Court and 
 heavily fined, and the goods were restored to the merchants. 
 
 Bertha Lebecke, 27 years old, is conceded by Illinois state 
 authorities to be the most troublesome person who ever crossed 
 the state line from any direction at any time. 
 
 Just how large a cash bonus the state treasury today might 
 be willing to advance could it be assured of Bertha's deporta- 
 tion forever beyond the confines of Illinois is something dif- 
 ficult to estimate, but it is certain that in the asylums for the 
 insane at Kankakee, Elgin and Bartonville, and in the state 
 penitentiary at Joliet there are attendants on salaries wlio 
 would make personal contributions to help swell the possible 
 fund. 
 
 Yet "Fainting Bertha" Lebecke is one of the prettiest, 
 blondest, most delicate handed little bits of well-developed 
 femininity that ever made a marked success in deceiving people 
 of both sexes and all conditions in public, afterwards deceiv- 
 ing officials of jails, asylums and penitentiaries until bars and 
 gates and frowning walls were as cobwebs before her. 
 Sleeps All Day; Makes Fight Hideous. 
 
 Gates of steel never have held her in jail or asylum. In 
 tlie mightier penitentiaries she has made herself such an nn- 
 
A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER 275 
 
 controlled fury by night — sleeping calmly all day long and 
 resting for the next seance — that penitentiary gates have 
 opened for her in the hope of having her maintained as an 
 asylnm ward. After which "Fainting Bertha" has secured keys 
 to asylum doors and gone htr untrammeled way straight back 
 to a police record which for years has shown her to be one of 
 the most remarkable pickpockets, diamond snatchers and shop- 
 lifters of her time. 
 
 Making such a nuisance of herself in the penitentiary as no 
 longer to be tolerated in a refined convict community, she 
 proves her madness. In the locked, barred, asylum she proves 
 ber cunning at escape. And, once more at liberty, the aban- 
 don with which she goes after personal property in any form, 
 at any time and under any circumstances, proves her skill 
 as a thief and her unbalance in the "get away." 
 
 There is her escape from the qsylum at Elgin on the night 
 of December 25, 1904. Christmas eve she had fainted in the 
 arms of an attendant and in the scurrying which followed 
 had secured the ke5^s to the gates. On the night of Christmas 
 she went out of the Elgin asylum, boarded an electric car for 
 Aurora and bought a railroad ticket to Peoria. 
 
 Stole $1,000 Worth of Goods in Two Days. 
 
 On the way to Peoria she relieved the conductor of $30 in 
 bills, secreting them in her hat. In Peoria, within forty-eight 
 hours, she had stolen a thousand dollars' worth of goods from 
 stores, registered at three hotels under assumed names, and 
 was in a chair car with a ticket for Omaha when the Peoria 
 police had followed her easy tracks through the city. Perhaps 
 the broadest, most easily identified track was that which she 
 left in a barber shop in the National Hotel, where she ap- 
 peared for an egg shampoo. Two eggs had been broken into 
 her shiny hair when Bertha promptly fainted and rolled out 
 of the chair. As a count of shop equipment showed nothing 
 missing an hour later, the barber shop proprietor was at a 
 loss as to the purpose of the faint. 
 
376 A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER 
 
 This girlish young woman, with the baby dimples and skin 
 of peach and cream, the innocent blue eyes, and the smiles 
 tlmt play so easily over her face as she talks vivaciously and 
 with keen sense of both wit and humor, is a study for the 
 psychologist. There is no affeetedness of speech — for the mo- 
 ment it is childishly genuine. She could sit in a drawing room 
 and have half a dozen admirers in her train. 
 
 But reform schools, asylums and penitentiaries are institu- 
 tions through which this young woman has graduated up to 
 that pinnacle of notorious accomplishment which today is cen- 
 tering upon "Fainting Bertha" Lebecke the official attentions 
 of a great state. What to do with her is the question. 
 Kept at South Bartonville Without Locks. 
 
 Dr. George A. Zeller, superintendent of the asylum for the 
 incurable insane at South Bartonville, having fought for the 
 care of Bertha in his institution, purposes to make her a tract- 
 able patient and willing to remain. He has the history of his 
 institution back of him, from whose doors and windows he 
 lias torn away $6,000 worth of steel netting and steel bars. 
 
 In the first place, "Fainting Bertha" will have nothing to 
 gain by fainting at Bartonville; she is promised merely a 
 drowning dash of cold water when she falls. She can secure 
 no keys by fainting, for the reason that there are no keys to 
 doors. A nurse, wideawake for her eight-hour nursing duty, 
 is always at hand and always watchful. 
 
 "Take away the show of restraint if you would have a patient 
 cease fighting against restraint," is the philosophy of Dr. 
 Zeller. "Human vigilance always was and always will be the 
 greatest safeguard for the insane." 
 
 If "Fainting Bertha" Lebecke were a grizzled amazon, even, 
 she might be a simpler proposition for the state. She is too 
 pretty and plump, however, to think of restraining by the 
 harsher methods, if harsh methods are employed. She can 
 pass out of a storm of hysterical tears in an instant and smiU> 
 through them like a stream of sunshine. Or as (piickly sbo 
 
A CLEVEK SHOPLIFTEE 3?? 
 
 can throw off the pretty little witticism and airy conceit of 
 Jier baby hands and become a vixen fury with blazing blue 
 eyes that are a warning to her antagonist. 
 
 And at large, exercising her charms, she can become the 
 ''good fellow" to the everlasting disappearance of half a dozen 
 different valuables in one's tie or pockets. 
 
 History of "Fainting Bertha." 
 
 Bertha Lebecke says she was born in Council Bluffs, la., in 
 1880. Save for the trick of raising her brows while animated, 
 thus wrinkling her forehead before her time, she might pass 
 easily for twenty-three years of age. In these twenty-seven 
 years, however, Bertha Lebecke has kept the institutions of 
 four states guessing — to some extent experimenting. 
 
 Her father was a cobbler, and there were five children, only 
 one other of them living. The father is dead. The mother, 
 with the one sister, is living in Council Bluffs. Seven asylums 
 and one state's prison have held her — for a time; Kankakee 
 three times and Elgin twice, with two escapes from each place 
 credited to her childish cunning. But today the face of Bertha 
 I^ebecke in trouble anywhere in Christian civilization would 
 draw helping funds for less than her asking. 
 
 "Don't write that I am the awful creature that the papers 
 have pictured me," she exclaimed, with a tragic movement of 
 her little hands. "Oh, I have been a bad girl — I know that — 
 but not as bad as they accuse me of being," burying her face 
 in her arm. 
 
 But in a moment she was sitting up, dry eyed, stitching on 
 the bit of linen "drawn work" which she said was intended for 
 Gov. Deneen at Springfield. 
 
 Criticises the Linen Purchased by the State. 
 "But what awful linen!" she exclaimed, holding it out to 
 Dr. Zeller as she sat in a ward with twenty other women in- 
 mates regarded as among the hardest to watch and control 
 
278 A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER 
 
 among the 1,900 inmates of the great institution. "I'm sur- 
 prised at you! Can't you buy better linen than that?" 
 
 But while she talked and the doctor smiled, a small key fit- 
 ting nothing in particular was laid by Dr. Zeller close at 
 hand and it disappeared in ten seconds. Likewise a pencil 
 from the doctor's pocket found its way almost unnoticed into 
 "Fainting Bertha's" blonde hair. Her smiling face all turned 
 to frowns when finally, one at a time, he took the key from 
 her waist and the pencil from its hiding place in her hair. 
 
 "Did you ever know a man named Gunther?" asked Dr. 
 Zeller suddenly. 
 
 "Yes — what of it?" she asked quickly, with a show of nerv- 
 ousness. 
 
 "He is in the penitentiary." 
 
 "Good ! Good !" exclaimed the girl. "I'm delighted to hear 
 it. He ought to have been there long ago, and he ought to 
 stay there the rest of his life!" 
 
 This was the man whom Bertha charged with responsibility 
 for her first wrong step as a girl, sending her first to the Glen- 
 wood (la.) Home for the Feebleminded. Later she charges 
 that this man taught her the fainting trick, by which she 
 faints in the arms of a man or woman wearing jewelry or 
 carrying money and in the confusion biting the stone from a 
 pin and swallowing it, or with small, supple hand taking a 
 purse from a pocket or a watch from its fob, perhaps with 
 innocent eyes and dimpled face assisting the loser in the search 
 for the missing valuable. 
 
 Bertha Says Gunther Promised to Marry Her. 
 
 "That man Gunther promised to marry me," she said, low- 
 ering her voice. "He sent me out to steal and when I wouldn't 
 do it he used to beat me when I came home. Do you wonder 
 I'm what I am?" 
 
 There was a burst of what might have been tears. Her 
 face was buried and her figure shook with sobs. But in five 
 seconds the di.npled face appeared again, clry eyed, and at 
 
A CLEVEB SHOPLIFTER 379 
 
 a remark on the moment she turned toward her auditors, wink- 
 ing an eyelid slyly. 
 
 ""Fainting Bertha" Lebeeke has almost lost consecutive track 
 of the asylums and prisons in which she has been locked. 
 
 From this Glenwood home for the feebleminded she was re- 
 leased. She got into trouble again and was sent to the Clarinda 
 State Hospital for the Insane. Here, in the words of the 
 superintendent, she was looked upon as a ease of "moral im- 
 becility, with some maniacal complications." Here an opera- 
 tion was performed, and, in the opinion of the superintend- 
 ont, she was eligible to discharge soon afterwards as improved. 
 
 St. Bernard's Asylum at Council Bluffs cared for her for a 
 time, but she succeeded in escaping from it and was not re- 
 turned. 
 
 In Asylum No. 3 at Nevada, Mo., in spite of the close watch 
 kept upon her, "Fainting Bertha" escaped several times, but 
 was caught soon after and returned to the institution. On 
 December 21, 1901, she was discharged as not insane and re- 
 turned to Omaha, where she had lived for a time. Here Bertha 
 remained about two years, acting as a maid of all work in 
 households. Her experience in Chicago and Illinois is stranger 
 than any fiction. 
 
 Most Unruly Prisoner in Jolibt. 
 
 On a charge of shoplifting she was given an indeterminate 
 sentence of one to ten years in the penitentiary at Joliet. 
 
 Eecords of Joliet prison show her to have been the most un- 
 ruly prisoner ever confined in that institution. Her conduct 
 was such that Prison Physician Fletcher declared that she was 
 insane and she was sent to the asylum at Kankakee. 
 
 Twice she escaped from Kankakee, once, she says, with the 
 aid of an employee of the institution, whom she refuses to 
 name. This first escape was made within four months of 
 her arrival at the institution; the second after a year. On 
 her return to that institution for criminals her actions were 
 
380 A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER 
 
 such that the hospital authorities decided that she was not in- 
 sane and sent her back to Joliet prison. 
 
 On this second imprisonment "Painting Bertha" showed 
 what she could do in making herself impossible even in a 
 prison. Her cell was in the north wing of the building, over- 
 looking the street. She w'ould appear in the window wath her 
 clothing torn to ribbons, shrieking that she was being mur- 
 dered. According to prison officials, there was no language too 
 impossible for her glib tongue. Her furies of temper caused 
 her to heap unspeakable abuse upon matrons and guards alike. 
 Deputy Warden Sims, responsible for order and discipline, sa}'^: 
 he has been abused by her beyond belief. Her plan was to 
 sleep in daylight and make the whole night hideous with her 
 screams and cries and unspeakable language. 
 
 Penitentiary Glad to Be Rid of Her. 
 
 As a last resort the tortured prison officials at Joliet, taking 
 the diagnosis of Physician Fletcher, sent her to the care of 
 Supt. Podstata at the Elgin asylum. There, after consulta- 
 tion of the asylum physicians, it was found that she should 
 have been confined in an asylum for the feebleminded when 
 she was younger; that, lacking this treatment, she had grown 
 and developed such destructive tendencies that a hospital for 
 the insane w^as the only haven for her. 
 
 But Bertha escaped from the asylum, which has for its safe- 
 guards the lock and the steel bar. Locks and bars are nothing 
 to "Fainting Bertha" ! She was recaptured and returned, only 
 that she might escape again on Christmas night, finding her 
 way to Peoria, where her escapades in going through the iowa 
 were marvels to the Peoria police. The conductor on the 
 Peoria train from whom she took $30 has not claimed his 
 money. But half a dozen stores in which she operated and the 
 salesman from whose samples in the Fey Hotel she took hun- 
 dreds of dollars worth of silks, jewelry, clothing and per- 
 fumes got back some of the plunder, which detectives found 
 piled around her in a chair car in an Omaha train. 
 
A CliEVER SHOPLIFTER 381 
 
 The Peoria police locked her up, and while the charges 
 i-ested Dr. Zeller, of the asylum for the incurable insane at 
 South Bartonville, asked of Dr. Podstata and the penitentiary 
 authorities tlie custody of ''Fainting Bertha." Warden Murphy 
 at Joliet was delighted at the idea. Supt. Podstata at Elgin 
 was as greatly pleased. Dr. Zeller at South Bartonville Asylum 
 for the Incurable Insane, receiving the young woman, was 
 conscious of having a unique addition to the 1,929 other in- 
 mates of his barless cottages of detention. In the history of 
 the South Bartonville asylum only one female inmate has 
 escaped, and she was found dead soon afterwards in a ravine 
 into which she had fallen. 
 
 Pale Blue Color Scheme of Bertha's Ward. 
 
 "If Bertha escapes here it will be *the test of vigilance as 
 opposed to locks and steel bars," is the summing up of the 
 situation by Dr. Zeller. Bertha is not wholly satisfied where 
 she is. The food is not all she desires. She refers to her 
 ward and its environment as "the dump." Yet her particular 
 "dump" is decorated in pale blue — part of the color scheme of 
 the asylum management, — the color scheme of her ward being 
 adapted to her particular temperamental degree of insanity. 
 But while Bertha has been gnawing diamonds from tie pins, 
 one of her fraternity in ward classification has a record of 
 gnawing the woodwork from at least a dozen other insane 
 wards in as many institutions for the insane. 
 
 How subtly conscious of her position "Fainting Bertha" may 
 be on occasion was demonstrated the other day when it was 
 arranged with Dr. Zeller that she shoukl go with two nurses 
 and the staff member in Peoria in order that her picture 
 might be taken in a local gallery. 
 
 Delighted at Chance op Going to Town. 
 With $9 to her credit in the asylum's system of personal 
 accounts, Bertha wanted some of this sum for "shopping," 
 but when it was refused she accepted the situation without par- 
 
282 A CLEVER SHOPLIFTER 
 
 ticular protest. The idea of going uptown, five miles from 
 South Bartonville, was delightful. Her spirits rose high at 
 the idea, and when her nurses had brought her over to the ad- 
 ministration building she dropped into the office chair occu- 
 pied by Dr. Zeller, and in mock seriousness turned to the little 
 group, asking what she could do for them. 
 
 On the Pekin and Peoria electric road she was banked in 
 next the window by her escorts, and was the pink of propriety 
 until Peoria was reached, save as occasionally she turned back- 
 ward toward the conductor and smiled. And invariably the 
 conductor smiled in return ! 
 
 "Honey" was her designation of Nurse Quick. "I'm a per- 
 fect lady, ain't I, Honey ?'' she repeated a score of times on the 
 trip. In the photographer's gallery the snap of the camera 
 shutter brought a start from the object of the lens, and the 
 first picture in six years, save as the police authority of the 
 state had insisted that she pose for it. 
 
 But after the ordeal at the photographer's Bertha wanted 
 most of all a "square meal." Miss Quick knew of a restaurant 
 where quiet prevailed and where there would be little incen- 
 tive to Bertha to faint, and there the little party adjourned 
 for the "square meal." Pie — apple or mince — was the dessert. 
 Took Pie and Candy Back "Home." 
 
 "You won't mind, honey, if I take a pie home, will you?"" 
 
 Miss Quick didn't mind at all. And not minding the pie. 
 Miss Bertha promptly buttered four rolls liberally and in- 
 cluded in the package a bunch of celery which had been left 
 over after she had passed it around insistently, time and again. 
 At the candy counter just outside the dining room Bertha 
 balked amiably. 
 
 "I don't like to presume on your good nature, but I know 
 you won't object to a small box of candy?" she purred. 
 
 The nurse didn't object to the 25-cent box; which was an 
 inspiration to "Fainting Bertha." 
 
 "But don't vou think this is ever so much nicer?" 
 
A CLEVEE SHOPLIFTER 283 
 
 The nurse had to admit that it was. It was a half-dollar 
 box of mixed candies ! 
 
 "But I'm afraid it looks like imposing on your good nature 
 just a little?" she smiled, as the cashier proceeded to wrap it 
 up. "And you don't mind, honey ?" to Miss Quick, who smiled 
 indulgently, and with the pie, rolls, and celery in one hand 
 and the box of candy in the other. Bertha started back to the 
 Asylum for the Incurable Insane at South Bartonville, five 
 miles away. 
 
 Detention Record of "Fainting Bertha." 
 
 Asylum for the Feeble Minded, Glenwood, la. Discharged. 
 
 Insane asylum, Glenwood, la. Discharged. 
 
 Insane asylum, Nevada, Mo. Dicharged after several es- 
 capes. 
 
 St. Bernard's asylum. Council Bluffs, la. Discharged. 
 
 Indeterminate sentence at Joliet penitentiary. 
 
 Kankakee, 111., Asylum for the Insane. Escaped. 
 
 Kankakee, 111., Asylum for the Insane. Escaped. 
 
 Kankakee, 111., Asylum for the Insane. Returned to Joliet 
 penitentiary. 
 
 Elgin, 111., Asylum for the Insane. Escaped. 
 
 Elgin, 111., Asylum for the Insane. Escaped. 
 
 Present address. Asylum for the Incurable Insane, South 
 Bartonville, 111. 
 
 But even the genial Dr. Zeller and his barless windows and 
 lockless prison proved in time to be enervating to such a rest- 
 less being as "Fainting Bertha." So, during June, 1908, she 
 made no less than three attempts to escape. She was, how- 
 ever, apprehended in each case before she reached Peoria, and 
 returned to the asylum. The authorities declare that she was 
 really playing for theatrical effect rather than from any de- 
 sire to get away from Bartonville. Be that as it may, the fact 
 remains that if she desires to get out of Bartonville she prob- 
 ably will, as she is the most resourceful criminal of her sex 
 known to the authorities. 
 
FRONT. 
 
 A good front is a distinct asset. A good front is made up 
 of neat, clean clothes, on a clean body, the whole housing a 
 clean mind. A man with clean clothes on a dirty body, or dirty 
 clothes on a clean body, is not wanted anywhere in the busi- 
 ness world; and there is no place in the heavens above or the 
 earth beneath, or the waters under the earth, that has room 
 for the man with the dirty mind. 
 
 But with the clean mind inside the clean body, and neat, 
 simple, clean clothes on the outside of it, the young man has 
 all the essentials of a good front. Anything more is super- 
 fluous and tends to make him ridiculous. Simplicity is the 
 keynote. 
 
 This moralizing on the value of front is suggested by observa- 
 tions and comparisons of the habits of certain Chicago million- 
 aires, and the ways of some of their cheap clerks, the latter 
 having exaggerated ideas of putting up a false appearance of 
 prosperity. 
 
 These comparisons were so striking that they attracted the 
 attention of Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge, and during the 
 course of his regular work he found time to tabulate a little, 
 with startling results. 
 
 The detective found that there are in Chicago many young 
 men living on very meager salaries, who have such exaggerated 
 notions of the value of a prosperous appearance that they over- 
 shoot the mark, and frequently, as result of trying, as they 
 think, to "look like a millionaire," they often succeed in look- 
 ing very much like the famous animal with very long ears and a 
 loiul voice which one spoke to the prophet Baalam. 
 
FRONT 
 
 285 
 
 "It is easy to distinguish the real millionaire," said the great 
 detective, in discussing this subject. "If he wants to get any- 
 where in a great city and his automobile happens to be engaged, 
 he takes the same means of getting there as does the toiler in 
 the mills or factoiy; he walks, or he rubs elbows on the street 
 cars with the laboring men, many of whom never know that 
 they are brushing against the owner of millions," 
 
386 FRONT 
 
 Stanley Field's Buggy. 
 
 "Stanley Field runs around town in a crazy old country 
 buggy, Just like a farmer. He took this method of going about 
 when the great teamsters' strike was on, and he was a member 
 of the Merchants' committee. 
 
 "But I will bet you a good cigar that there are any num- 
 ber of little snippety ten-dollar clerks in the great establish- 
 ment of which Stanley Field is the head, who would feel them- 
 selves eternally disgraced if they were seen in that buggy. 
 
 "Not for little mister-ten-dollar clerk ! No, sir. He must 
 go out and spend three dollars for a cab if he wants to get 
 down town to a theatre. It is just this silly pride that makes 
 forgers and embezzlers. 
 
 "My advice to young men would be, 'Keep your mind clean, 
 your body clean and your clothes neat and clean. Never mind 
 about fancy show. Men will respect you more if you follow 
 this advice than they will if you squander money foolishly in 
 the effort to put up a false front which deceives no one.' " 
 
 Out of hundreds of cases which Wooldridge has run down, 
 where embezzlement, forgery and theft, even of the pettiest 
 sort, was at the bottom of the crime, the great detective declares 
 that fully half of the cases had their origin in this silly attempt 
 to appear something more than the real thing. Silly pride is a 
 teacher of crime, and a sure school mistress she is. 
 
 And the absurdity, the bally foolishness of it all, is that 
 these pitiful attempts deceive no one. Every one knows solidity 
 when they see it, just as they know sham when they see it. A 
 self-respecting young man cannot afford to make of himself a 
 sham, even by taking a cab when the millionaires walk or take 
 the street car. 
 
 Fake Pride Leads to Crime. 
 On the other hand, many young men have plunged into a 
 life of crime through over-spending their salaries, in the effort 
 to convince every one who looked at them that they were on the 
 
FRONT ^87 
 
 idirectorate of the Standard Oil Company. Where the million- 
 aire walks these silly young jackasses take a cab, and pay half 
 a day's salary in order to ride two or three blocks. 
 
 ^'I have seen John J. Mitchell, the president of the Illinois 
 Trust and Savings Bank, and one of our foremost financiers, 
 walk from the Northwestern station to the bank building, while 
 right behind him a young donkey, who was working for $25 a 
 week in that very bank, would pay a cabby a dollar to drive him 
 the seven short blocks from that same station to the bank. 
 
 "It is just such young pinheads as that who afterwards turn 
 Out to be our embezzlers, forgers and financial criminals." 
 
 The man who has made a name which is known in every 
 corner of the United States as an authority on all kinds of 
 frauds, snorted his indignation as he thought of the silly bank 
 clerk. Then he continued: 
 
 "Does anybody ever see Arthur Meeker take a cab to ride a 
 few blocks? Not on your life. He walks. So does Cyrus Mc- 
 Cormiek, Harold McCormick, R. Hall McCormick, Frank Low- 
 den, and any number of the other men whose names stand at the 
 top of Chicago finance. I see Frank Lowden on the Indiana 
 avenue cars, the line I take myself, time after time. He is one 
 of the most democratic of men. 
 
LAST CHANCE GONE. 
 
 IDENTIFICATION BUREAU AIDED BY NATURE. 
 
 The Criminal and the Crooked Members of the Human Race 
 
 Have a New and Dangerous Enemy in the 
 
 Finger Print Method of Identification. 
 
 The last hope cf the enemies of society, the habitual criminals, 
 is gone. The Bertillon system sounded the death knell of tlie 
 criminal so far as capture was concerned. The finger print 
 system, as first set forth by Sir Francis Galton and elaborated 
 by Sir Edward Henry, has made possible the absolute identi- 
 fication after capture. 
 
 One of the first men to see the tremendous possibilities of 
 the finger print system, as applied to the identification of sus- 
 pects, Avas Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge of Chicago. Through 
 his efforts and that of others equally interested in the exact 
 identification of criminals, the Chicago Police Department es- 
 tablished the finger print method of identification in 1905, as 
 a suppleinent to the Bertillon system which was established in 
 1887. 
 
 The Bertillon system catches the suspect. The finger print 
 system makes sure that he is the criminal. The Bertillon system, 
 while a splendid thing for catching the thief, still left some 
 loop-holes which needed strongthoning. This was supplied by 
 the finger print system. I.ikc the man and woman referred to 
 in Longfellow's Hiawatha it is a case of "useless each without 
 the other." When the two systems are worked together there 
 is absolutely no possible escape for the apprehended suspect. 
 
 The Chicago Police Bureau of Identification is the second 
 largest in the world, and contains over 70,000 pictures. 
 
 By combining the Bertillon measurements with the finger- 
 print system the police department has woven a network of 
 
LAST OHANOE GONE 
 
 389 
 
 Measurement of the Stretch and the Left Foot. 
 The Bertillon System of Identification by Measurement. 
 
290 
 
 LAST CHANCE GONE 
 
 f . P. Noll 
 
 .rO^ 
 
 '<Hr- 
 
 CLASSIFICATION- 
 
 / T 
 
 I n 
 
 R.ICHT HAMO 
 
 ....... ^^t^oZZ 
 
 ¥^ 
 
 tmcco 'J^^dL/ / .»0/? 
 
 identification around tlie criminal which makes it practically 
 an impossibility for him ever to disguise himself should he at 
 any future time fall into the hands of the officials of the law. 
 The finger print method was discovered about forty years 
 ago by Sir William Herschell, then an English official in India. 
 Sir Francis Galton, a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, was the 
 first to systematize it, and the first to establish the fact that 
 the papillary ridges of the fingers did not change through life. 
 This was nearly twenty years ago. Sir Francis Galton made 
 the calculation that the chance of any two sets of finger prints 
 being the same is one in 16,400,000,000, and as an article from 
 
LAST CHANCE GONE 291 
 
 which the writer quotes states, "there are only 1,600,000,000 
 people in the world," its population would have to be increased 
 ten times before two people were identical and means that a 
 finger print as a mark of identification is practically infallible. 
 
 Perfected in London. 
 
 Sir Edward Henry, Chief Police Commissioner, London, 
 England, is the man who perfected the system, as it is now 
 used, classifying finger prints by signs and numerals, so that 
 it is now considered perfect. 
 
 The finger prints of women are the same as men, except in 
 size, while the prints of negroes are the clearest and strongest, 
 owing to the thickness of skin and moisture from perspiration, 
 and it has not yet been demonstrated that finger prints are any 
 indication of character. 
 
 While quite a large number of cities and penal institutions 
 in the United States have adopted and are now using the Ber- 
 tillon system of criminal identification, it is to be regretted 
 that it has not been more generally adopted by all cities of a 
 population not less than 5,000, and by all penitentiaries, re- 
 formatories and county jails. Universally applied under com- 
 petent instructors, nearly every professional criminal would, 
 in a few years, be recorded, so that it would only become neces- 
 Bary to keep up with the new additions to the ranks of the 
 criminal classes. 
 
 It has been thoroughly established that the papillary ridges 
 of fingers never change during life. From infancy to senility 
 and until long after death no change ensues in the fingers. 
 Though partially destroyed by injury, the original lines retain 
 their pristine characteristics when healed. 
 
 This is nature's method of identification, and no record can 
 be found of the digits of two persons having exactly the same 
 characteristics. Numerous instances could be cited of t^vins 
 and triplets whose finger prints afforded the only means of dis- 
 tinguishing one from the other. 
 
J92 
 
 LAST CHAXCE GONE 
 
 MAGNIFIED FINGER PRINT 
 
 The above is an onlarped print of a riglit index finser. which we 
 classify as an Ulnar Loop. Loops on different fingerf; are not all alike, 
 but vary in many important oliaracteristios, so it is a very easy 
 mattPT to distinguish one from tinollier. 
 
LAST I'HAXCE GONE 
 
 •^93 
 
 FINGER PRINT OUTFIT 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS FOR TAKING FINOER PRINTS, 
 
 Instruments rcqnired : A piece of tin, ordinary printer's ink, 
 and a. 10-eent rubber roller are all the tools necessary for get- 
 ting- the impression. It requires no special training to take 
 finger impression, and any rural constable can, with ten min- 
 utes' practice, take a set of good finger prints in five minutes. 
 After having a week's practice he could take them in three 
 minutes. 
 
 ScoTT.AXD Yard Method. 
 
 At Scotland Yard a metallic lirace is in use for the purpose 
 of forcing refractory prisoners to leave correct impressions upon 
 liie records. One application of this brace is persuasive enough 
 to cause the culprit to hasten to comply with a request for his 
 signature. 
 
 A small slab stone is covered with ink, which is distributed 
 witli a sprayer, and the prisoner is compelled to place hia 
 fingers in the ink and then firmly implant them upon paper. 
 
 On a regular prescribed form impressions are taken so that 
 the flexure of the last joint shall be at a given point on the 
 record. 
 
2U LA«T CHANCE GONE 
 
 The digits are taken singly and then an imprint is made of 
 all of them simultaneously. 
 
 When the prisoner has finished imprinting the record he is 
 called upon for his signature, and immediately underneath the 
 name, as written by himself, an imprint is left of the right fore- 
 finger. 
 
 For the edification of American police, !Mr. Ferrier demon- 
 strates that upon a sheet of paper you may sprinkle some char- 
 coal dust and press it upon the paper with your thumb and then 
 blow the dust of! and the imprint of tlie digit will remain. 
 
 Most Positive Identificatiox. 
 
 But this thumb print possibility in commercial papers has 
 its greatest future in the positive identification which either 
 thumb or finger print carries with it. Criminologists all over 
 the world have satisfied themselves of the absolute accuracy of 
 the finger print indentification. It would be hard to figure just 
 how many Constantines were arrested or kept under surveillance 
 following the horrible murder in Chicago, the suspicions aroused 
 by personal resemblances to the criminal's photograph and 
 especially by the prominent gold tooth of the man. But in a 
 criminal's finger print the merest novice anywhere in the world 
 may take an ink impression of the fingers of the suspected 
 criminal, and if these prints should be in the bureau of identi- 
 fication at Scotland Yard, with its 100,000 records of in- 
 dividuals, the man would be identified positively within half an 
 hour— identified not only by the experts of the bureau, but an 
 ordinary citizen would be an authority in attesting the proof. 
 
 This is a suggestion of the absolute accuracy of identifica- 
 tions on commercial paper. At the present time traveling 
 salesmen who spend much money and who wish to carry as 
 little as possible of cash with them, have an organized system 
 by which their bankable paper may be cashed at hotels and 
 business houses over the country. 
 
LAST CHANCE GONE 295 
 
 Applied to Immigrants, 
 
 Major E. W. McClaughry, warden of the federal prison at 
 Leavenworth, sees in the finger print system a possibility which 
 might be taken cognizance of by the government at Ellis 
 Lsland. With the millions of immigrants who have come and 
 who still are to come to these shores, the finger print require- 
 ment would simplify many of the tangles of many kinds which 
 result from this inrush of foreign population. 
 
 Aside from the fact that many of this country's criminals 
 are foreign born, it remains that civil identifications of such 
 people are matters of great moment. Titles and estates have 
 hung in. the balance of incomplete identifications of persons who 
 are claimants in the United States. Fifty years after a finger 
 print is registered that same finger, or group of fingers, will 
 prove the personality of the one registering. In case of acci- 
 dents of many kinds one hand or the other is most likely to 
 escape mutilation, and a post-mortem imprint of the fingers 
 still is proof of identity. 
 
 The finger print system is being taken up more rapidly than 
 was the Bertillon, largely owing to the fact that police depart- 
 ments, recognizing that a scientific system gives far greater re- 
 sults and can in no way be compared with the old method of 
 describing criminals, by color, age, height, weight, eyes, hair, 
 etc., are more willing than formerly to intelligently investigate 
 and test new methods. 
 
 Lender the Bertillon system it is contended that the bones of 
 the human anatomy stop growing after the age of twenty-one 
 years. In consequence measurements taken of juvenile of- 
 fenders under that age are practically of little use, as they 
 show too wide a variance with measurements taken in after 
 3'ears, and are not a certain source of identification. 
 
 The identification from imprint taken from the finger tips 
 of both hands can be recorded as soon as the child is born, and 
 no matter at what time of life a record is again taken of the 
 subject, absolute identification can bo had, as the papillary 
 
296 LAST CHANCE GOXE 
 
 ridges of the palmer surface of the finger tips present the same 
 formation until death, and even though some of the fingers 
 become mutilated, amputated or lost, sufficient prints would 
 remain on the other fingers to produce identification. 
 
 While it is claimed that the finger print system is sufficient 
 unto itself for all identification, after working each system side 
 by side for a number of }ears, I believe that both systems should 
 be installed in all cities, penitentiaries, etc., especially as they 
 both Avill be given an impartial and thorough test here, with 
 the result that it will be the survival of both, or of the fittest. 
 
 Keep Bad Men Out of Service. 
 
 In these government dei')artments it is expected that the 
 finger print records will serve to keep undesirable people out 
 of the service, as well as to afford a complete method of identi- 
 fying every member, or past member, in years to come. 
 
 Both branches of the War Department, the army and nav}^ 
 had first installed the Bertillon system, and Avithin the last 
 year the finger print system, thereby recognizing both, but ap- 
 parently giving t:.e finger print system the preference; owing 
 to the many Avays it can be applied in the service, and espe- 
 cially as to recording all enlisted men and to the identification 
 of those who might be maimed or killed in battle, AA'hose iden- 
 tity might be sought afterward, or to identify deserters : or if 
 a soldier or sailor has lot his honorable discharge paper, he can 
 go to any enlisting office, have his finger prints taken, his iden- 
 tity established, and new papers issued, thereby avoiding rod 
 tape or having about one dozen affida^ats from different people 
 to substantiate his claim. 
 
 Not only as a means of detecting and identifying criminnN 
 may the finger print be used, but its usefulness in various way^ 
 is easily demonstrated. 
 
 It is clearly within the range of possibility thai the traveler 
 a few years hence may be called upon to imprint an identifying' 
 finger mark upon his letter of credit or certified cheek. 
 
LAIST CHA^sCE GO^K 2'r, 
 
 r^^/^::^:^^^A'^MK J€i^^^..^^ 
 
 -^FimstKoiosm. iBank or €hi 
 
 PAYTOTHE ORDER OF 
 
 
 i^<-<^-€<^-. 
 
 As a means of preventing* fraud or securing the signatures of 
 lliose who cannot write, the finger print system is invaluable, as 
 the mark may be easily forged, but the finger's impress can be 
 o]ily made by the proper party and cannot be duplicated by 
 others. 
 
 The thumb or finger tips will leave an imprint upon glass, 
 ])olished metal or wood, owing to the moisture and natural oil 
 (lozing from the cuticle. It is a simple matter to procure such 
 imprints when wanted, and they can be turned over to the au- 
 tliorities for identification of a suspect. 
 
 Secure Prints of All Criminals. 
 
 Tf peace officers throughout the country would secure finger 
 prints of all criminals passing through their hands and for- 
 ward them to a central bureau it would facilitate the apprehen- 
 sion and identification of malefactors. ' 
 
 As a preventive of repeating at elections, the finger print 
 identification would serve an admirable purpose. When an 
 elector registered he could leave an imprint of his fingers upon 
 the registration book, and when he went to vote a glance at the 
 7'egistration list and comparison of the imprint made at the 
 jtolls would readily establish his identity if the prints tallied. 
 
 The natives of India decline to recognize the validity of any 
 document beneath the signature of which is not imprinted a 
 
298 LAST CHAXCE GONE 
 
 reproduction of the whorls or loops of the thumb of the 
 signer, alleging that a person might deny his own signature, 
 but that the finger prints afford incontrovertible evidence, as 
 no two people can make the same impression with their thumbs 
 upon paper. 
 
 Upon opening an account with a bank in India the depositor 
 leaves the impress of his right thumb upon the roll of depos- 
 itors and none of his paper will be honored unless checks are 
 thus imprinted. 
 
 In the same country pensioners are compelled to imprint 
 their thumbs upon receipts for pension money, and thus ob- 
 viate the likelihood of other persons drawing the stipend right- 
 fully belonging to the veteran. 
 
 The best test of a system is its practical use and the results 
 derived, and one of the most important matters is uniformity 
 in all branches of work, classification, filing, size of cards, etc., 
 60 that, as the system becomes universal, it will be operated 
 on identical lines in all countries. From my observation of 
 the practical workings of the system, I believe that at New 
 Scotland Yard, London, to be the best. 
 
 Finger Print System Furnishes Complete Identification. 
 
 In Paris a public house or saloon was broken into one morn- 
 ing, and it was found that the owner had been murdered and 
 that apparently there was no clew to the murderer. 
 
 On arriving at the saloon they found a table on which drinks 
 had been served, and on which were found a number of glasses. 
 On close investigation finger prints were discovered on each. 
 Finger prints were also found on a knife by the side of the 
 body and on a decanter. On comparison it was found that the 
 prints were made by the same person. On causing the arrest 
 of the different people who had been seen to visit the saloon 
 they were finger-printed and a comparison made, with the re- 
 sult that the murderer was arrested and a confession obtained 
 within ten days, followed by conviction. 
 
LAST CHANCE CxONE 299 
 
 At New Scotland Yard, London, a little boy was brought 
 in and two sets of his finger prints taken and filed away in 
 separate steel deposit vaults. The boy was an orphan and an 
 heir to a very large fortune in Africa. His finger prints were 
 taken as a protection, so that if anything happened to him, or 
 he disappeared, or he had to prove his identity to claim his 
 estate, or provided he died and proof of the identity of the 
 body was required, such proof could be shown with absolute 
 certainty. 
 
 An interesting case nearer home is that of a recent arrest in 
 Chicago of a man that the authorities were convinced was a 
 professional criminal, and from his accent and other indica- 
 tions they believed him to be an English professional crook. 
 
 His Bertillon measurements and finger prints were taken at 
 the Bureau of Identification by Captain M. P. Evans, superin- 
 tendent of the bureau, and a copy of the photograph and finger 
 prints given to Mr. William A. Pinkerton, of the Pinkerton 
 National Detective Agency. 
 
 Mr. Pinkerton, who is a personal friend of Frank C, Froest, 
 superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department of 
 New Scotland Yard, London, mailed the finger prints to him 
 without any other memorandum, data or the picture, simply 
 making the test on the finger prints. He received a reply from 
 Inspector Frank C. Froest, giving the name of the criminal, 
 and a long record of some fourteen arrests and the picture, so 
 as to authenticate the identification, and also a statement from 
 Superintendent Froest that the identification was made inside 
 of three minutes from a collection of over 70,000 records. 
 
 The identification was absolutely correct. The prisoner, on 
 being shown the letter, admitted his guilt. 
 
 If a clerk handles papers or letters on Kis employer's desk, 
 it is a very easy matter of detection. By means of a little 
 syringe filled with a powder blown on the paper, the finger 
 prints are reproduced with startling clearness. 
 
;;o() LAST ('1[AX(.'I'; COXE 
 
 Broken Glass Provks (tUilt. 
 
 Some pic'fcs of broken glass had boen taken to Scotland 
 Yard, four day? previous to the A\'ard, Lock t^' Co. burglary. 
 Thoi^c fragments of gla?s had been picked np at the London 
 City ^iFission, where a burglar ha^ broken through a window 
 and carried off a clock and other articles. Xo one could be 
 connected with the crime after a most thorough detective hunt. 
 
 The one remaining source was a bit of glass on which finger 
 prints had l)een noticed. These were photographed and com- 
 pared with tlie finger prints of all the recent records. Sur- 
 prisingly enough, they corresponded exactly with those of the. 
 young clerk wlio had been found stealing books from the pub- 
 lishers' warehouse. Instead of being a^clerk, he was a very 
 adept young burglar. On this new evidence the prisoner was 
 sentenced to twelve months at hard la])or. 
 
 About a month before this a similar case occurred in London. 
 A man Avas arrested on Tower Hill carrying a pair of boots 
 wrapped up in a l^rown paper. He said he had been employed 
 to carry the parcel to Fenchurch Street Station. Ho was held 
 on suspicion. Later in the day it was discovered that the boots 
 liad been stolen from a neighboring store, and that on the tran- 
 som, which had been broken, there was a perfect imprint of a 
 man's finger. 
 
 Inspector Collins, superintendent of the finger print depart- 
 ment at Xew Scotland Yard, examined the print and found 
 it corresponded to the mark of the suspected man's left fore- 
 finger made on the brown paper parcel in which the boots were 
 wrapped. The evidence was conclusive, the man pleaded 
 Lmiltv. and was sentenced to nine months at hard labor. 
 
 About tlie same time another interesting case occurred in 
 Staffordshire. England. There liad been a wholesale burglary 
 of a large jeweler's sho]i. The perpetrator had left distinct 
 finger marks on a plate glass slielf in a window. These marks 
 were photographed and sent to Xew Scotland Yard. They were 
 
I. AS'!' ( IIA.NCK tloM-; ;;(M 
 
 identiiied as belonging to William Davis, a notorious l^urglar 
 who had boon confined at Wakefield prison in 1901. 
 
 'i'ho man -was hunted np. He was found living near the 
 ])lace of the recent robbery under the name of John McXally. 
 He at first denied the recent offense, but afterward made a 
 full confession. But for these tell-tale finger marks, he might 
 have continued to ply his trade unsuspected under his new 
 name, in a district where the local police did not know him. 
 
 In one of the largo banks where the finger print system 
 was introduced, they make it a rule that when a depositor can- 
 not read or write, he shall, in addition to making his mark 
 in the old way on checks or documents, place the finger print 
 of the thumb or inrlox finger on them. 
 
 Important ix Will Contests. 
 
 Finger prints are also used in the making of wills, so that 
 while the signature of the testator may be contested, it is al- 
 most impossible to contest the signature of the fingers, for so 
 long as the skin of the fingers of the dead person can be taken 
 up, just so long can the finger print impression be obtained to 
 verify the living imprint. 
 
 .It is only a question of time before all large transportation 
 companies, like express and railways, whose emplo}TS handle 
 packages of money or other valuables, will be required to place 
 their finger prints on file, so that when money or valuables are 
 missing the cover of th6 package will indicate who handled or 
 tampered with it. 
 
 How TO Detect a Forger. 
 
 How to detect a forger as one of the cleverest of operating 
 ciiminals has been solved by the "thumb print" method of 
 identification now spreading through the rougues' galleries of 
 th3 world. 
 
 It is quite as interesting as the suggestion that through the 
 >ame thumb print method in commercial and banking houses 
 
302 LAST l^HANCE CtOXK 
 
 the forger is likely to become a creature without occupation and 
 r-hirographical or other means of support. 
 
 The system is not only a great aid in preventing the for- 
 geries of commercial brigands, but the easiest of all means 
 for a person in a strange city to identify himself as the lawful 
 possessor of check, or note, or bank draft which he may wish 
 to turn into cash at a banker's window. 
 
 Used in Ancient Times. 
 
 A thousand years ago the Chinese were using the thumb 
 print signatures in commercial business. Its practical adapta- 
 tion today is explained at a glance in the check reproduced 
 here, as it was filled out by Mr. McClaughry himself. In this 
 check the design is that the maker of the check, before leaving 
 home for a distant city, shall draw the check for the needed 
 sum and, in the presence of the cashier of his bank, place one 
 thumb print in ink somewhere over the amount of the check 
 as written in figures. Thereupon the cashier of the bank will 
 accept the check as certified by his institution. With this paper 
 in his possession the drawer of the check may go from his home 
 in New York to San' Francisco, stranger to every person in 
 the city, but at the window of any bank in that city, present- 
 ing his certified check to a teller who has a reading glass at 
 his hand, the stranger may satisfy the most careful of banks 
 by a mere imprint of his thumb somewhere else upon the face 
 of the check. 
 
 Had this simple thumb print been used in the Stensland 
 bank, no handwriting expert Avould have been needed to es- 
 tablish the genuineness of any note under question. 
 
 With the ink thumb print of the cashier of a bank placed 
 on a bank draft over his signature and over the written amount 
 of the draft, chemical papers and the dangers of "raising" or 
 counterfeiting the draft would be an impossibility. The 
 thumb prints of the secretary of the United States treasury, 
 reproduced on the face of greenback, silver certificate and bank 
 
LAST CHANCE GONE 303 
 
 note of any series, woiikl discourage counterfeiting as nothing 
 else ever has done. 
 
 Safeguard on Seals of Letters and Money Packages. 
 
 As an aid in the transmission of sealed packages, the 'thumb 
 print is invaluable. The print will determine absolutely 
 wliothcr the wax has been broken in transit, and it will also 
 establish the identity of tlie person putting on the seal. 
 
 Packages so protected have been "left Ijy train rol)l)cr.- whert' 
 all other packages in the safe were taken. The thumb print 
 was t(30 suggestive of danger to make tampering with such 
 packages safe. 
 
 In the ordinary usage of tlie thunil^ print on bankable paper, 
 the city bank having its country correspondents everywhere, 
 often is called upon to cash a draft drawn by the country bank 
 in favor of that liank's customer, Avho may be a stranger in 
 the city. The city bank desires to accommodate the countiy 
 correspondent as a first proposition. 
 
 The unidentified bearer of the draft in the city, may have no 
 acquaintance able to identify him. If he presents the draft at 
 the window of the big bank, hoping to satisfy the institution 
 and is turned away, he feels hurt. By the thumb print method 
 he might have his money in a moment. 
 
 Identifying Strangers. 
 
 In the first place, even the signature of the cashier of the 
 country bank will be enough to satisfy its coiTespondent in 
 the city of the genuineness of the draft. Before the country 
 purchaser of the draft has left the bank issuing the paper he 
 will be required to make the ink thumb print in a space for 
 that purpose. Without this imprint the draft will have no 
 value. If the system should be in use, the cashier signing 
 the draft will not affix his signature to the paper until this 
 imprint has been made in his presence. 
 
 Then, with his attested finger print on the face of the draft 
 
304 LAST CHANCE GONE 
 
 the stranger in the city may go to the city banlv, appearing at 
 the window of the newest teller, if need be. This teller Avill 
 1iave at hand his ink pad, faced with a sheet of smooth tin. Ho 
 never may have seen the customer before. He never may see 
 ]rim again. But under the magnifying influences of an ordi- 
 nary reading glass he may know, past the possibility of doubt, 
 that in the hands of the proper person named in the draft, the 
 inijirint which is made before him has been made by the first 
 purchaser of the draft. 
 
 Signing Bonds and Stocks. 
 
 In the more important and complicated transactions in bank 
 paper one bank may forward from the bank itself the finger 
 print proofs of identity. The whole field of such necessities 
 is open to adapted uses of the method. Notes given by one 
 bank to another in high figures may be protected in every way 
 by these imprints. Stock issues and institution bonds would 
 be worthy of the thumb print precautions, as would be every 
 other form of i)aper which might tempt either the forger or 
 the counterfeiter. In any case, where the authenticity of ilie 
 paper might be questioned the finger print would serve as ab- 
 solute guarantee. In stenographic correspondence, where there 
 might be inducements to write unauthorized letters on the pari 
 of some person with wrong intent, the imprint of finger or 
 thumb would make the pQssibility of fraud too remote for 
 fears. For, in addition to the security of signatures in real 
 documents, the danger in attempting frauds of this kind is in- 
 creased. 
 
 The beauty of the finger print system is that there is 
 absolutely no chance for error. The finger prints of the child 
 of eighteen months will be the same as the finger prints of the 
 man of eighty. No laceration, Avound, or mutilation can 
 disturb the essentials of the outline of the finger print. The onlv 
 escape for the criminal is to cut off all of his fingers, and 
 even then the toe prints Avonld be as effectivo. 
 
LAST CHANCE GONE 
 
 305 
 
 As- to the physical necessities in regii^tering finger prints, 
 I hey are simple and inexpensive. A block of -wood faced with 
 s-mooth tin or zinc the size of an octavo volume, a small ink 
 roller, and a tube of black ink are all that is required. For 
 removing the ink on the thumb or finger a towel and alcohol 
 cleanser are sufficient. A tip impression or a "rolled" finger 
 signature may be used. Only a few seconds are required for 
 the operation. 
 
 Objects to Having Finger Impressions Recorded. 
 
 In one of our prisons recently, a man who had Just been 
 sentenced was brought up, and while he made no opposition 
 to being measured by the Bertillon system, he objected strongly 
 to having his finger impressions recorded. This caused the 
 identification expert to be suspicious, and he submitted a dupli- 
 cate record to the Scotland T'ard police, in London, with the 
 result that the man was at once identified as a murderer who 
 
 
 The Bertillon System of Identification 
 
 I 
 •^ - 
 
 Instruments used in the measurement of criminals by tlie Bertil 
 Ion system of measurements. ' 
 
Sm LAST CHANCE GONE 
 
 had escaped from a prison in England, and was taken back 
 there. When confronted with the English record, the convict 
 at once admitted his identity. 
 
 An express company lost a large sum of money which was 
 being sent from one point to another in a sealed package. 
 During transmission the seals were broken, the money ab- 
 stracted and the package resealed with wax. At first the ex- 
 press company Avere absolutely unable to locate the thief, but 
 later on it was discovered that in resealing the package, the 
 thief had wet his finger and pressed it on the warm wax. 
 leaving a distinct imprint. The finger impressions of all the 
 agents through whose hands the package passed, were taken, 
 with the result that the thief was easily identified, a confes- 
 sion obtained and the money recovered. 
 
 A jewelry store was' entered and valuable diamonds that 
 were on display on glass trays in the windows were stolen. In 
 doing this the thieves left the imprints of their fingers on the 
 glass. An expert, on making investigation with a powerful 
 magnifier, discovered the imprints and by a careful photo- 
 graphic process was able to reproduce them on paper. A re- 
 search being made among a collection of 20,000 finger-print 
 records revealed the fact that the prints left on the glass tray 
 were those of a well-known professional burglar, whose record 
 liad been taken some two years previously, while undergoing 
 sentence in State prison. As a result the man was arrested 
 and, through him, his partner in the crime, resulting in a 
 conviction and the recovery of most of the goods. 
 
 The London police in investigating a burglary discovered 
 in the pantry of a house a partly empty bottle of ale, which 
 had been full the previous day. There were finger prints on 
 the bottle, which was protected by a cardboard shield and 
 taken to Scotland Yard, where the prints of tlie photograph, 
 afterwards, were found to correspond with those of McAllister, 
 who had just previously been released from jail. McAllister, 
 on his arrest, in some way learned that they had his finger 
 
LAST CHAXCE GONE 3ur 
 
 prints, and, realizing their value as evidence, made a circum- 
 stantial admission which led to the recovery of the goods and 
 the conviction of his partner, Alexander Harley, on whose 
 premises the property was found. 
 
 A half-empty hottle of wine was discovered in the room of 
 an old woman at Asnieres, France, she having been murdered. 
 A close examination of the bottle revealed finger prints, which 
 were submitted to M. Bertillon, the great identification ex- 
 pert, who caused large photographs to be made, and who, after 
 research, declared they were the imprints of a hospital at- 
 tendant named Gales, who has since been arrested, charged 
 with the murder, and convicted. 
 
 MUEDER EeVEALED BY FlNGER PeINTS. 
 
 Recently in London a murder was committed, and in order 
 to destroy any chance of detection, the murderer took the tin 
 of his shoe lace and cut the tips of his fingers in all directions. 
 He was suspected of the crime and arrested. The officers 
 found blood prints on the furniture and other things in the 
 house w^here the murder was committed, and when the man's 
 fingers healed his prints were taken and corresponded exactly 
 with those discovered by the officers; conviction followed. 
 
 Where large bodies of Chinese or negroes are employed on 
 government or public work it is often difficult to stop men 
 from representing themselves as being other men and signing 
 the pay roll to obtain the wages due others. Nowadays the 
 thumb print of each employee is taken and when he comes 
 up to draw his money and there is any doubt as to his identity 
 he makes a fresh imprint, which easily disposes of the matter. 
 Eich men disposing of their property by will, in addition to 
 their regular signature, also place the finger prints of both 
 hands on the paper, thereby insuring the authenticity of the 
 document. An easy way to protect a check is to put the thumb 
 print where the figures are w^ritten in. 
 
 Among the most noted of these is the case of Thomas Wilson, 
 
308 LAST CHAXCE GO^^E 
 
 ^\■\\o a few years ago committed a burglary and most atrocious 
 murder near Windsor^ England. 
 
 Besides the bludgeon with which he felled his unsuspecting 
 victim, Wilson carried a lantern which was blackened by 
 smoke, and, after accomplishing his design of robbery, the 
 fiend took his departure. 
 
 As he made his escape after the foul murder, Wilson picked 
 up the smoke-begrimed lantern and left upon it an imprint 
 of a thumb wet with the blood of his victim. 
 
 ►Sent to Gallows by Bloody Thumb Print. 
 
 With the cunning of the criminal he covered his tracks, and 
 as a last resort Chief Henry of Scotland Yard secured the 
 lantern bearing the tell-tale print and resolved to try the ef- 
 ficiency of the ancient Chinese method of fixing responsibility 
 by finger tracks. 
 
 This astute detective had paid some attention to tlie fact 
 that no two hands would leave a similar imprint, and, working 
 upon this theory, he pursued a still hunt until. he found a 
 man whose right thumb made an imprint identical with thai 
 upon the lantern. When found, vigorous denial followed ac- 
 cusation, but measurements were drawn to such a fine point 
 that the culprit finally confessed and expiated his heinous 
 crime upon the gallows. 
 
 Recently the perpetrator of an extensive burglary in tlu' 
 jewelry shop of ]\Ir. Bickley, Lord Mayor of Staffordshire. 
 England, left the imprint of his fingers upon a plate glass 
 shelf. The shelf was sent to Scotland Yard and the finger- 
 print record disclosed a duplicate in the records left by ihe 
 digits of William Davis, well known to the authorities. When 
 confronted with the mute evidences of guilt the culprit con- 
 fessed. 
 
 In a police court at London a few months ago a man aji- 
 pearcd who declined to give any name or address. A detective 
 thought he rer-ognizod him as .Tolm Wliite. wanted for a jewel 
 
LAST CHANCE GONE 309 
 
 I'obbery some time before, though his facial appearance had 
 changed and did not tally with photographs held by the police. 
 However, the imprint left by his fingers when in custody before 
 had not changed a particle and his identity was established. 
 
 After the success attained in numerous instances the author- 
 ities at Scotland Yard decided to adopt the system and have 
 now so perfected it that no malefactor who leaves a finger 
 print can hope to escape ultimate punishment. 
 
 Mr. Wm. A. Pinkerton, of the famous Pinkerton's Na- 
 tional Detective Agency, and without doubt one of the greatest ■ 
 criminal experts, on his return from Europe, in an interview 
 jniblished recently^ says: "During my visit at New Scotland 
 Yard, London, I was greatly interested in the high state of 
 efficiency which the finger print system of identification has 
 reached in the police service of London. The Bureau of Fin- 
 ger Prints there is one of the most marvelous departments I 
 ever examined. Identification of criminals has been reduced 
 practically to a matter of bookkeeping. You get the finger 
 print and then simply turn up your indexes, and you know 
 your man at once. A criminal may shave or grow his beard, be- 
 come stout or thin, alter his appearance to a considerable ex- 
 tent, but the one constant feature of his makeup is his finger 
 prints. 
 
 The only safe way for criminals nowadays is to wear gloves 
 when they go out on a job, for the impressions they leave of 
 the fingers are found by detectives on glasses, newspapers, dusty 
 tables, and the slightest impression of the fingers on a damp 
 table or paper can, by the process in use at the Yard, serve 
 as an adequate means of identification." 
 
 Government to Keep Watch on Criminals. 
 
 The United States government at Washington, D. C, has 
 established a criminal identification bureau, or what may be 
 called an "Habitual Criminal Registry,'' for keeping the record.'^ 
 of all men convicted of crimes against the federal laws, and 
 
310 LAST CHANC ]•: (^()XE 
 
 also all indicted by grand jnries of the United States courts. 
 The bureau is to be under the supervision of the department 
 of justice, and all prisons in the United States where govern- 
 ment prisoners are or have been confined have been directed 
 to send tlieir records, consisting of photographs, Bertillon 
 measurement cards and finger-print identification sheets im- 
 mediately to the department of justice. 
 
 This bureau is intended to be used for the identification of 
 federal lawbreakers. It has been urged for some time by crim- 
 inologists. Heretofore each prison in the United States has 
 kept its own records, and a federal lawbreaker could serve a 
 term in one prison and be freed Avithout the fact ever becom- 
 ing known that he had served a previous term for a similar 
 offense in another penitentiary. 
 
 Now all records are to be classified in Washington, and not 
 in any of the federal jails or prisons. The Bertillon meas- 
 urements, photographs ami finger prints of the convicts are 
 to be taken and sent to the central bureau. 
 
 Also, the records of all men suspected of being j-eggmen, train 
 or postoffice rol)bers are to be taken. Those held in federal 
 jails under indictment, etc., are to be sent there. 
 
 This bureau will ascertain the record of each man from 
 the date he has, and if one noi> yet given trial proves to be an 
 habitual criminal, this fact will be made known to the prose- 
 cuting attorney and the judge previous to the hearing, and 
 if the man is convicted it will mean that he will be given the 
 limit- sentence. 
 
 x\t the present time there are about 8,000 known criminals 
 who violate the government laws, and a close tab is to be kept 
 upon these in the future. It will go hard on a known crim- 
 inal convicted in a United States court hereafter. 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE. 
 
 Up-To-Date Professional Burglar Must Be Skilled in 
 Latest Methods. 
 
 ELECTRICITY NOW A FACTOR. 
 
 It Has Taken the Place of Dynamite and the Jimmy in 
 Advanced Safe Looting. 
 
 Scientific Equipment of Burglar Includes High-Class 
 Automobile. 
 
 Jobs at Country Houses Usually Planned Far in Advance, 
 and With Intimate Knowledge of Loot 
 To Be Gained. 
 
 HOW BURGLAR UNLOCKS DOORS. 
 
 Unlocking a dtor is ore of thp easiest rssUs of ihe professional burglar. His 
 ingenuity defies the eiforts of locksmiths to invfiU safety devices. The picture 
 Shows how an expert turns a key in the lock, and also a simple devisee to prevent 
 this. 
 
313 BURGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 The up-to-date burglar must have a motor car, the use of 
 which is only a part of his scientific equipment. That the mod- 
 ern burglar does not consider that he is properly equipped unless 
 he possesses a motor car is an incontrovertible fact. House- 
 breaking nowadays has been reduced to a science. The use 
 of gloves renders detection by finger prints impossible. Be- 
 sides, the modern burglar's tools are most scientifically made. 
 The men who make it their business to manufacture these 
 tools are first-class • workmen. 
 
 The majority of large country burglaries are planned for 
 days in advance, and. every detail is most carefully arranged 
 In some mysterious manner the word is conveyed to the gang" 
 that a visit will be made on a certain day, by a member of 
 the household which it is intended to rob, to a jeweler's shop. 
 The train is met at the terminus and the person followed to 
 the jeweler's or wherever they go. 
 
 When they enter the shop a man strolls in casually and 
 makes some inquiries. While an assistant is attending to his 
 supposed wants it is very easy for him to see Avhat the person 
 at the same counter is purchasing and, having obtained all 
 the necessary information, the man leaves and imparts all his 
 information to his confederates. 
 
 Before a county ball or such function a visit to the jeweler's 
 is often necessary to get the family diamonds, and the fact 
 that this visit is going to be made is either communicated 
 or anticipated, and the same system of following is put in 
 operation. Equipped with all the desired information, the 
 modern burglar then brings his motor car into operation. 
 There is no tedious waiting for trains; he simply drives down 
 to the "crib" and avoids the old-fashioned way of taking a 
 train at a small wayside station, with the chances of being 
 arrested on his arrival in the metropolis. 
 
 If he is noticed on the road he is taken for a rich man 
 touring in his car, and if a great social function is in prog- 
 ress he is regarded a^ n belated guest. The oar is carefullv 
 
BUKGLAIJY A SCIENCE 313 
 
 stalled in an obscure place while the robbery takes place. Tlie 
 liooty is subsequently placed in it and a quick trip back to town 
 is made. The police are left practically without a single 
 clew. 
 
 Those members of the community who make a business, or 
 a profession, rather, of burglary keep up with the march of 
 science quite as closely as de people in a more legitimate 
 calling. 
 
 The burglar of today is a vastly differently equipped indi- 
 vidual from the one of a generation ago. He must of neces- 
 ,«ity be an enterprising and daring man, and in addition to 
 that if he Avould make a success of safe cracking in t1iis 
 twentieth century he must be something of a scientist as woU. 
 The great progress made in the manufacture of safes for 
 the storage of valuables has brought about this revolution in 
 the burglar's methods, and it is a regrettable fact to note that 
 no matter how strong and secure safes may be made, the in- 
 genuity of the scientific burglar is pretty sure to devise some 
 method to overcome their security. 
 
 The most recent development in the burglar's advancemeni 
 is the use of electricity to open safes in place of the old-time 
 jimmy and the more recent dynamite. 
 
 Old-Time Strong Box. 
 
 Years ago the old-fashioned strong box was considered quite 
 an adecpiate protection for hoarded wealth and was the legiti- 
 mate successor of the stocking in which the gold pieces were 
 carefully stored and hidden away. The strong box of wood 
 bound with iron and with ponderous locks proved but child',< 
 play for the burglar thoroughly intent upon obtaining its 
 contents. Then came the more modern iron and steel safe, 
 with its thick plates of highly tempered metal and ingeniously 
 complicated time locks. 
 
 Safe breakers have more than kept pace with improvement 
 in safes, including time. locks, chilled steel chests of eight or 
 
314 BL^EGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 nine inches thicknesses and electric i^rotective attachments. Their 
 tools are made by some of the finest mechanics and inventive 
 geniuses of the world. A full kit of the most approved modern 
 safe workers' tools costs about $5,000. 
 
 The modern burglar is like love in one respect; he ''laughs'" 
 at locksmiths." Yet he is not much of an artist, although he 
 is rapidly improving. The simple tools of the burglars' trade 
 indicate how easily the contrivances made to bar his progress 
 are overcome. Y'et these tools give no mark of great me- 
 chanical genius. They are as crude as the average burglar 
 is. They are in keeping with his practices of force and brutal- 
 ity. The destructive power of the best pieces of handiwork is 
 their main advantage, and doubtless an illustration of the 
 house-breaker's stunted idea, that the best way to overcome 
 obstacles is in all cases to break them down. 
 
 The tools used by the burglar are supplied to him. They are 
 made by men after his own heart, and who make for him 
 what is most effective in his hands. No doubt there are smart 
 men engaged in the business of defying law and setting the 
 rights of honest people at naught. Some of the methods they 
 employ might be used to their credit in a commendable in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Jimmy Is Necessary. 
 
 There are places where the jimmy is absolutely indispensable 
 to the burglar. Front doors, which a house proprietor usually 
 has doubly bolted and barred and supplied with improved 
 locks, are the last apertures in the world a night marauder 
 would seek to enter. 
 
 . It must be an amusing thing to the burglar, after noting 
 the precautions taken to prevent his entrance by the street 
 door, when he has walked through the skylight on the roof 
 without the slightest resistance, or dropped through the coal- 
 hole leading to the cellar from the sidewalk, to find that no 
 doors bar his passage from there to the rooms above. 
 
 These arc the popular ways of getting into many banks 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE 315 
 
 and business houses. The basement door, at the rear, if there 
 is one, is another. In such case the jimmy is the magic wand 
 that opens the way. It is more useful to the burglar than any 
 half dozen of his other implements, and is the first thing he 
 purchases when getting an outfit. 
 
 How do safe burglars get their tools? Why, every man 
 of any account in that line has what he calls "his man," 
 who is a practical mechanic, and makes everything in the 
 shape of jimmies, punches, etc., that the burglar uses. 
 A safe blower's outfit consists of many curious tools, some 
 of them being of special design for some particular class 
 of work of which the owner is the originator. Scarcely any 
 two men work alike, and some of the clever ones invent in- 
 struments to do a certain part of their work. When a well- 
 known notorious crook was arrested several years ago in his 
 room, the officers found one of the finest kits of burglars' tools 
 that was ever brought into police headquarters. Talk about 
 ingenuity — if that man had applied but one-third of the intel- 
 ligence to a legitimate business that he had spent in devising 
 tools for robbery, he would have been a millionaire today. 
 
 Twenty years ago when burglars started out to rob a safe 
 they filled a carpet sack with highly tempered drills, copper 
 sledges, sectijjnal jimmies, dark lanterns, powder and a fuse. 
 On the way they stole a horse and Avagon, filling the latter 
 with the greater portion of the tools of a country blacksmith 
 shop. They Avould work on the safe from four to six hours, 
 and finally blow it open with a fine grade of ducking powder. 
 Usually the shock would break all the glass in the building, 
 arouse the town, and the burglars would often have to fight 
 for their lives. In those days the men had to be big and 
 powerful, because the work was extremely laborious. If the 
 burglar was an ex-prize fighter or noted tough, so much the 
 better, for he could make a desperate resistance in case he 
 was caught in the act, or immediately after it. 
 
 With the modern safe burglar it is almost totally different. 
 
31b BUEGLAEY A SCIEXCE 
 
 Although much more skillful and .sueees>sful than his predeces- 
 sor, he is more conservative. He seldom runs his own head 
 into danger, and therefore seldom endangers the head of a 
 law-abiding citizen by permitting his head to come into contact 
 with him or the job while it is under way. Every precaution 
 is taken against being surprised, and it is seldom the robbery 
 is discovered until the cashier's appearance the next morning. 
 The modern safe burglar is an exceedingly keen, intelligent 
 man. He can open a safe having all modern improvements in 
 from ten minutes to two hours Avithout tlie aid of explosives 
 jind by only slightly defacing the safe. Sometimes he leaves 
 scarcely a mark. 
 
 A first-class modern safe, Avhether large or small, generally 
 has double outside and inside doors, with a steel chest in the 
 bottom, forming really a safe within a safe, the inside being 
 the stronger. The outside door is usually either "stuffed" or 
 "skeleton.'' The inside one is made of eight or nine sheets, of 
 different temper, of the finest steel. These sheets are bolted 
 together with conical bolts having left-hand tlireads, after 
 v.'liicli the heads of the bolts are cut off. leaving what is vir- 
 tually a solid piece of steel, which no drill can penetrate. The 
 l)(';;t locks are of the combination type, with time lock aitacli- 
 ment. In many cities and town safes containing the valuables 
 have an electric alarm attached. Any tampering with it will 
 communicate the fact to the owners or the safe's guardian, 
 which in cities is either an electric protective bureau or a cen- 
 tral police station. A recent invention in France is a photo- 
 graphic attachment. As soon as the safe is touched this device 
 will light an electric lamp, photograph the intruder and give 
 tlie alarm at the electric protective company's office. As a con- 
 sec[uence safe-breaking is going out of date in 1^^-ance, as tlie 
 cleverest criminals have so far failed to find a way to cinnni- 
 vent the camera. 
 
 The first thing considered by a gang of the finest experts, 
 is a desirable bank's location and the chances foi- getting safely 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 «1Y 
 
!18 
 
 BURGLAEY A SCIEiYCE 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 319 
 
320 
 
 BUKGLAKY A 8CiEx\CE 
 
13URGLAKY A SCIENCE 
 
 321 
 
32?. 
 
 BURGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 PEaiNiS A B/INAN4 
 OR, AN ONION, OWE 
 SAF€ tKSJOt 1HC 
 
BUKGLAEY A SCIENCE 333 
 
 away with, the plunder. Every transportation facility is care- 
 fully considered. As the work is almost invariably done at 
 the -"season of the year when wagon roads are impassible, rail- 
 road time tables are carefully considered. In these days of 
 the telegraph and telephone the gang must be under cover 
 in a large city or concealed with friends by the time the crime 
 is discovered, which, at the utmost, is about six hours after 
 the crime has been committed. 
 
 From November 1 to March 1 is the safe burglar's harvest 
 time, because then the nights are longest and the chances of 
 detection less, as fewer people are on the streets and houses 
 adjoining, being tightly closed to exclude the cold, exclude 
 noises also. A man can, furthermore, carry tools in an over- 
 coat without attracting attention, that he could not wear with 
 a summer suit. The remainder of the year is spent in "mark- 
 ing'^ the most desirable banks for future operations. Four 
 men, who compose the ordinary safe mob, will put up from 
 thirty to forty '"jobs" for a winter's work, allowing for all 
 contingencies. From six to ten of these will be carried out. 
 A bank safe will be broken into in a small town in Maine, and 
 in ten days the gang will be operating in Texas. 
 
 Having decided on a bank, the habits of the cashier and 
 other chief employees are carefully studied; but, above all, of 
 those who visit the bank after working hours, chief of Avhom 
 is the watchman, if the bank has one. If the watchman drinks, 
 or spends time visiting women when he should be at the bank, 
 the bank is an easy prey. Weeks, and sometimes even months, 
 are spent in putting up a job of magnitude, and a number 
 of smaller jobs are done to carry out one where the proceeds 
 may run into the tens of thousands of dollars. 
 
 Men visit the town who have a legitimate business as a 
 "blind." They make all preliminary preparations. The great- 
 est ingenuity is employed to obtain exact information, such 
 as the evenings the cashier or teller is likely to visit the bank 
 and the exact time. 
 
324 BURGLAKY A SCIENCE 
 
 Scientific Burglary. 
 
 Burglars whose chief qiialifieation is the mechanical ability 
 to open bank vaults and safes and steal thousands of dollars 
 in bonds or cash cannot be classed with those who break open 
 a store door and filch a lot of buckets, brooms or dry goods. 
 
 The man who makes the defects of a combination lock, safe 
 or vault a study must have intelligence and mechanical knowl- 
 edge equal to that of a man who draws a big salar}^ for what 
 he knows. Whenever any new combination lock is brought 
 in the market for vault or safe use the scientific burglar ob- 
 tains one, and by patient study discovers its weakness or defect, 
 something which every safe or vault has. 
 
 The combination of a safe or vault has often been learned 
 by these burglars by obtaining an entrance to the banking 
 house after banking hours, removing the dial of the combina- 
 tion and placing a sheet of tin foil behind it. Then, replacing 
 the dial, the turning of the combination in opening or closing 
 makes the impression of letters or numbers on the soft foil, 
 which is removed by the burglar at the first chance he has 
 to get into the banking house. Having the combination im- 
 pressed on the tin foil, he and his accomplices open the vault 
 or safe, secure the contents, and then often change or put out 
 of order the combination, so the doors of the vault or safe 
 cannot be opened for some hours after the regular time for 
 opening, and then only by an expert of that particular safe 
 company. This, of course, gives the thieves several hours of 
 valuable time in which to effect their escape. 
 
 The tools required by the mechanical burglar who forces 
 open safes are the air pump, putty, powder, fuse, sectional 
 jimmy, steel drills, diamond drills, copper sledges, steel-faced 
 sledges (leather covered), lamp and blow pipe, jack screw, 
 wedges, dynamite and syringe, brace with box slide, feed screw 
 drills, steel punches, small bellows, blank steel keys, skeleton 
 keys, nippers, dark lantern, twine and screw exes. The latest. 
 
BUKULAKY A ^^CIE^SUE 
 
 3^1 
 
 most dangerous set of tools manufactiired is the second power 
 in mechanics — the screw. 
 
 The method of <\'ork with the screw is to first rig a l)race, 
 and then drill a hole in the safe, cut a thread in the hole and 
 then insert a female screw. Then, with a long steel screw 
 with a handle so long that two men can turn it, the screw is 
 inserted in the female screw, and by turning it goes in until it 
 strikes the hack of the safe. Then either the back or the front 
 must give way. In nearly all cases it is the latter, as that is 
 the weakest, and it gives enough to insert the sectional jimmy, 
 which the screw handle is part of. The jimmy is then in- 
 serted in the part forced out, and the safe is then torn asunder 
 and its contents easily appropriated. This work is accom- 
 i:)lished without much noise. 
 
 Invent New Devices. 
 
 However, these new one-piece safes have not discouraged the 
 malefactors. They have only suggested to them the creation 
 of special appliances which enable them, without stopping to 
 pick the lock, to remove from the side wall of the safe a 
 circle of the metal large enough to allow of an arm to be put 
 inside. 
 
 One of the most important of these new devices for assist- 
 ing the safe-crackers in their crime is formed of an iron hoop 
 furnished with well-tempered steel teeth, which is fixed by 
 means of a simple pivot on the safe after a screw worm has 
 been previously driven in. The instrument is then turned 
 on its pivot and plows a groove in the safe wall each time it 
 revolves. 
 
 Science has not left the burglar weaponless, however. The 
 progress accomplished has merely compelled him to obtain 
 higher qualifications, and in the continuous strife between the 
 armor plate and the desperado who would pierce it the thieves 
 have had hitherto the last word. For many years dynamite 
 was their chief reliance, and then a product was discovered 
 
326 BURGLAKY A SCIENCE 
 
 some years ago by a chemist, who gave it the name of "thermit/* 
 hy Yv'hieh the craeksmarj was ahle to melt sheet metal, inches 
 thick, with comparatively little trouble. - 
 
 Melts Hardest Steel. 
 
 This substance known as "thermit" is in. current use for 
 repairing, heating or soldering^ large pieces of metal and con- 
 sists of a mixture of aluminum and oxide of iron, the latter 
 being replaced, according to the requirement, by oxide of lead, 
 peroxide of sodium or peroxide of barium. This composition 
 is thoroughly mixed together, or is used in the form of cart- 
 ridges or tablets, which ignite by means of a piece of mag- 
 nesium fixed in the substance like a wick. The heat developed 
 is more than sufficient to cause the hardest steel to melt. 
 
 Although this process is rapid and silent and really mar- 
 velous from the point of view of the result obtained, it is not 
 without much danger to those using it, for at the high tempera- 
 ture produced by it an inexperienced operator runs the risk 
 of being seriously burned. In consequence the prudent and 
 careful burglar uses accessories which render him secure against 
 such accidents. He protects his eyes by means of heavy dark 
 glasses, wears shields of aluminum over his hands and applies 
 the mixture through a small hole in the bottom of a crucible. 
 When the reaction takes place it lasts long enough to allow 
 the operator to charge the crucible again and again in pro- 
 portion as the melting of the metal plate is effected, thus 
 making an opening of the desired size in the safe. It is a 
 simple enough operation for a skilled burglar, but a very dan- 
 gerous one for an amateur. 
 
 Tests with Electricity. 
 But even this has been discounted by an experiment before 
 a United States government . commission, showing that elec- 
 tricity can be so applied as to give the scientific cracksman n 
 gTeater field for operation than ever before. The experiment 
 was made by an expert burglar, who, having retired from 
 
BUEGLAKY A .SCIENCE 337 
 
 business after amassing a sufficient competency, was requested 
 to favor the commission by contributing the light of his knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 He demonstrated that by the aid of electricity he could, 
 within a short time, reduce safes of the highest repute to old 
 iron. For this purpose he took out of his pocket a style in the 
 form of retort carbon, similar to those used for arc lamps; a 
 few yards of electric wire, black eyeglasses and a plate pierced 
 in the middle. It was with this simple outfit he pierced in 
 less than three minutes a circle of holes in a cast steel safe 
 with walls one and a half inches thick. 
 
 His method of procedure was simplicity itself. To the 
 electric supply current of the chandelier overhead he connected 
 two wires, one of which he fixed on the safe, and the other at 
 the extreme of his carbon style. It. was suitably insulated by 
 a wooden handle. Then, having inserted this pencil in the 
 hole of the plate, whose purpose was to protect him against 
 the heat and light, he produced a voltaic arc of immense power 
 between the point of his style and the wall of the safe, thus 
 melting the metal with the greatest ease. 
 
 Some Concrete Examples. 
 BuiiGLAEs Use Acetylene Flame to Open Safe Door. 
 
 In Paris, January 4, 1908, burglars broke into the premises 
 of Martin and Baume, colonial traders, at Marseilles, and stole 
 money and goods to the value of $20,000. Most of their booty 
 they took from a safe, the door of which they burnt through 
 with an apparatus giving an acetylene flame of sufficient heat 
 to melt the metal. 
 
 The case recalls one at Antwerp recenth^, when the thieves 
 melted a safe with a combined oxygen and acetylene flame. 
 
 The police believe that the Marseilles burglars are past 
 masters of the art, and that probably not more than a dozen 
 possess such apparatus for melting safes. One or more of 
 
328 BURGLAEY A .SCIENCE 
 
 the burglars may probably have been employed at a motor 
 factory, where acetylene lamps are in frequent use. 
 
 In any case, even the finest lock or the best steel safe can't 
 resist, if burglars take to using oxygen and acetylene lamps 
 with blow-pipes. Safe manufacturers have a new problem to 
 solve. 
 
 The Bank Sneak. 
 
 The bank sneaks of the country were formerly among the 
 most troublesome criminals with whom the police had to deal. 
 The money and jewelry stolen by them aggregated hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars annually. 
 
 The bank sneak is the cleverest of crooks, and as bold and 
 daring as any of them. But modern police methods, the sys- 
 tem of exchanging Bertillon photographs, and the organiza- 
 tion of bankers' and jewelers' associations, together with per- 
 fect burglar alarm equipment, have combined to put him out 
 of business, and his work nowadays is on a limited scale. 
 
 During the past ten years not more than five good bank 
 sneak games have been pulled oflF, Avhile there has been a sim- 
 ilar reduction in the raids on jewelry shops. 
 
 The Bertillon photographs facilitate the identification of 
 the sneak and the bankers' and jewelers' organization put up 
 the money with Avhich to pursue him remorselessly, and soon 
 catch him. Concerning the bank sneak and his mode of oper- 
 ating: 
 
 An expert professional bank "sneak" thief and his asso- 
 ciates study the habits of all employes to determine when 
 the greatest number are absent (which generally happens at 
 the noon hour), decide how many confederates will be neces- 
 sary to engage the attention of the remaining employes, while 
 Ihe sneak thief noiselessly enters a vault, teller's cage, or goes 
 to a safe, and commits the robbery. 
 
 Confederates are usually of good appearance, understand 
 business methods, can discuss loans, mortgages, sale of securi- 
 ties, etc., long enough to allow the "sneak" to operate with- 
 
BUKGLARY A SCIENCE 329 
 
 out discovery. A ''sneak'^ thief, wearing rubber-soled shoes, 
 will frequently pass within a few feet of the official or clerk 
 in charge, enter a vault or teller's cage, or rob a safe or money 
 drawer, without creating the slightest noise. 
 
 A ruse to make the way clear for the "sneak" is for a con- 
 federate to drive in a carriage to the bank or store to be robbed, 
 as a pretext exhibiting a crutch, or accompanied by a female, 
 requesting some passer-by to ask the cashier or some other 
 official to step out to the carriage, which usually occurs when 
 few of the employes are in the place. 
 
 Another device is to hold a large blue print of some prop- 
 erty on which is pretended a loan is desirable, or a bundle of 
 maps offered for sale, in such position that the view of the 
 official being interviewed is obstructed, thereby covering the 
 "sneak" and giving him opportunity to operate. 
 
 Another more recent artifice is the telephone; the confed- 
 erate of the "sneak" at an appointed minute "calls up" the 
 bank and requests that the paying teller be sent to the 'phone, 
 and there detains him in conversation while the "sneak" thief 
 operates; confederates, as may be necessary, engaging the at- 
 tention of other employes. 
 
 Circus Day Brings a Harvest. 
 
 Many sneak robberies were formerly committed in medium- 
 sized towns on circus days, while most of the employes were 
 at windows or doors watching the circus parade. This offered 
 "sneak" thieves the opportunity to enter the building by some 
 unguarded door or window, or having, prior to the parade, 
 concealed themselves in the bank or store, to commit the rob- 
 bery while the parade is passing, virtually behind the backs of 
 the employes. 
 
 A favorite scheme, especially in savings banks, is for one 
 fhief to attract the attention of a customer who is counting 
 money, to have a bill purposely dropped in front of him on 
 the floor by the thief and, wliile he stoops down to pick it up, 
 believing it part of his money, another thief steals the then un- 
 
330 BURGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 protected money he, the customer, was counting. Often pro- 
 fessional "sneak" thieves have posed as bank clerks or porters, 
 wearing office coats or porter's uniforms and, when the op- 
 portunity presents itself, committed robberies of considerable 
 magnitude. 
 
 Some of the old-time "sneaks" used specially made steel in- 
 struments of various shapes to move packages of money from 
 one section of the teller's cage to a point nearer the teller's 
 window, so that it could be more readily extracted. This prac- 
 tice, while the utmost caution is necessary to avoid suspicion, 
 has been quite successful. 
 
 At times thieves have used large satchels or dress-suit cases 
 to stand upon and, with a long wire hook, extracted money by 
 reaching over the wire screen surrounding a paying teller's 
 cage. 
 
 A method sometimes used to commit money drawer or "till" 
 robberies in stores is to select some innocent-appearing store- 
 keeper, usually a foreigner, whom one of the thieves wearing a 
 silk hat would approach, informing him that they had just made 
 a wager that the hat would not hold more than a gallon of mo- 
 lasses, and requesting that the storekeeper measure a gallon 
 of molasses into the hat at their expense, to decide the wager. 
 Blinding Victim v^^ith Molasses. 
 
 Seeing the prospect of a sale, even if the wager was a pecu- 
 liar one, the groceryman would concede to this request. The 
 hat being partly filled, one of the thieves would place it quickly 
 on the merchant's head, blinding him with the molasses, while 
 they stole the contents of the money drawer. 
 
 The "sneak" who commits the robbery, to be successful, 
 usually is of small stature, active, alert and noiseless, as upon 
 him mainly depends the success or failure of the venture. He 
 must judge from the operations of his associates when the op- 
 portunity to commit the robbery has arrived. There are no 
 signals or conversations between the confederates and the 
 "sneak" designating the moment for him to act. He must 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE 331 
 
 decide this from observation of what his confederates have 
 accomplished in preparing a safe way for him. If there is a 
 suspicion or a discovery by employes, it devolves upon his con- 
 federates to do their utmost to confuse and obstruct the pur- 
 suers. 
 
 I once asked an old-time professional "sneak" thief how he 
 was first introduced into a band of first-class bank "sneaks." 
 He explained that he was raised in a small village having a 
 general store presided over by a widow ; that she at times would 
 go to the cellar for certain merchandise, leaving the store un- 
 g-uarded. This suggested to him how easy it would be to rob 
 the money drawer during her absence in the cellar, which he 
 afterward did, and which was his first successful "sneak" rob- 
 bery. Afterward he stole from a small window in the same 
 store, packages of chewing tobacco, pipes, etc., also occasion- 
 ally again robbing a baker}'' of pies and cakes, and occasion- 
 ally again robbing the "till." But one afternoon, before a 
 Fourth of July, in attempting to steal some packages of fire- 
 crackers and some loose torpedoes, a couple of the torpedoes 
 dropped to the floor, causing an explosion and resulting iifliis 
 discovery and arrest and final imprisonment. In jail he met 
 with other criminals, and finally became one of them, joining 
 with the first-class "sneak" band of professional criminals. 
 This man for years was a most successful leader of "sneak" 
 thieves, stealing fortunes, finally dying in prison and leaving a 
 family in actual want. 
 
 Raeely Use Pistols. 
 
 Among the old-timers were some of the most remarkable 
 criminals operating in any part of the world; their thefts re- 
 quiring, in almost every instance, dexterity and great presence 
 of mind, a quick eye and unflinching courage, yet few of these 
 "sneaks" used fire-arms or weapons of any kind in the com- 
 mission of their crimes. 
 
 Among the younger element appear the names of the clever- 
 
332 BUKGLARY A 8C1EXCE 
 
 est thieves of today, some of whom have operated e:!cten?iYely 
 in this country and abroad. 
 
 The Lord Bond Eobbery. 
 
 One of tlie hirge?t ".sneak'' robberies ever committed in the 
 United States occurred hite in the sixties, and has always been 
 referred to as the "Lord bond robbery." Lord was a wealthy 
 man, and had an office at 23 Broad street, Xew York City. 
 He had invested $1,200,000 in 7-30 TTnited States bonds, all 
 being coupon bonds, payable to bearer, which any one with a 
 knowledge of finance could easily dispose of at this time. A 
 band of "sneak" thieves, consisting of "Hod" Ennis, Charlie 
 Eoss, Jimraie Griffin and "Piano" Charlie Bullard, planned to 
 steal these bonds. 
 
 Awaiting their opportunity until a morning arrived when 
 Mr. Lord was absent from his office, they entered it when it 
 was in charge of only two clerks. 
 
 Bullard and Ross engaged these clerks in conversation, while 
 Ennis "sneaked" into the vault, seized the tin box containing 
 the bonds, and Avalked out with it. While these thieves were 
 ex^rt in their particular line, they did not fully understand 
 the negotiating of the bonds, and for this called in George 
 Bidwell, since renowned as the Bank of England forger, who 
 went to England and disposed of a large part of them. The 
 thieves were at the time suspected, and Ennis fled to Canada, 
 but Avas subsequently extradited to the United States and con- 
 victed of a crime committed some time before. He was sen- 
 tenced to a long term of imprisonment. Charlie Bullard set- 
 tled in Paris, but afterward returned to the Ignited States, and 
 with Adam Worth, successfully committed the Boylston Bank 
 robbery, after which both returned to Paris and opened the 
 celebrated American bar under the Grand Hotel, 2 Rue Scribe, 
 which flourished for many years. Bullard afterward was arrest- 
 ed for an attempted bank burglary in Belgium, and was sen- 
 tenced to prison for a long term. Bullard, Ross, Ennis and 
 Worth all stole millions of dollars in their day and died poor. 
 
BUKULARY A yOlENCE 
 BLIND. 
 
 o^o 
 
 justice—" i can't see it." 
 
 One Man's Bold Operations. 
 Another celebrated robbery was on January 7, 1878, of 
 $500,000 in bonds and securities from the office of James H. 
 Young, a banker and broker at 44 Nassau street, New York 
 City, by "sneak" thieyes headed by "Rufe" Minor, alias "Little 
 Rufe/' exceptionally cleyer in his line, and who had with him 
 George Carson, Horace Hovan and "Billy" Marr. They Avere 
 located at Petersburg, Va., on March 23, 1878, and found 
 
334 iU JIULAKV A SCIENCE 
 
 all of the stolen property in Minor's trunk. .Minor was a 
 Brooklyn-raised boy, small of stature, of good appearance and 
 engaging manners, a most expert "sneak" leader, and was in 
 liis lifetime concerned in many great "sneak" robberies, among 
 them being: $80,000 from the Commercial Xatioual Bank, 
 Cleveland, Ohio, 1881; $12,000 in bonds from the Bank of 
 Baltimore, Md. ; $111,000 m bonds from the Erie County Sav- 
 ings Bank, in 1882; $73,000 from the ]\Iiddletown Bank, Mid- 
 dletown. Conn.; $33,000 from the Detroit Bank, Detroit, 
 Mich.; $70,000 from the Boston Safe Deposit Co.. and $71,000 
 from the Guarantee Safe & Safety Deposit Co.'s; vaults^. Phila- 
 delphia, Pa. 
 
 In Chicago, many years ago, a band of professional bank 
 "sneaks"' planned to rob the Subtreasury, then located in the 
 Arcade Court. Philip A.' Hoyne, a leading republican poli- 
 tician in those days, had an office in this building. He was 
 also a candidate on the republican ticket for some local office. 
 At a ball game "Joe" Parrish, a professional pickpocket and 
 bank sneak, picked the pocket of a clerk. Among otlier articles 
 found in the pocketbook was a key and the personal card of 
 the clerk, which showed he was employed in the Subtreasury. 
 
 Parrish imparted this information to Walter BroAni, Sam 
 Perry, Little Joe McCluskoy and Jimmy Carroll, all members 
 of a noted bank "sneak" band, then operating. 
 Hire a Band to Help Them. 
 
 After several visits to the Arcade Court and trying the key 
 in different doors, it was finally found to open a rear door to 
 the Subtreasury office. On the day the robbery M'as planned to 
 l)e committed, the thieves hired a brass band to play in the 
 Arcade Court as a serenade to Candidate Hoyne, the plan of 
 the thieves being to start cheering for Mr. Hoyne, expecting 
 that the band and the cheering would attract the attention of 
 the Subtreasury clerks from their desks to the windows, giving 
 Little Joe McCluskoy, the "sneak," an opportunity of using 
 the key to the bank entrance, passing into the office at the 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE 335 
 
 back of the clerks and stealing as much money as he could 
 carry. About the time the plans of the thieves were completed 
 Mr. Pinkerton learned of them, and communicated with Elmer 
 Washburn, then chief of the United States Secret Service at 
 Washington. 
 
 On the day the robbery was to occur the band appeared as 
 arranged, the Arcade soon filled with people, and there was 
 prolonged cheering for Mr. Hoyne. Xot one clerk left his 
 desk, and when McCluskey tried to open the door with the key 
 he found it would not fit. Through precautions taken by Mr. 
 AYashburn, the lock had been changed and instructions given 
 to all clerks to remain at their desks when the band played, 
 which prevented what would have been a very heavy loss to 
 the government. Owing to the way the information had been 
 obtained, and not wishing to expose the source, no arrests were 
 made. 
 
 Walter Sheridan, known under many aliases, an accomplished 
 '"sneak" thief, was a Southerner by birth and of gentlemanly, 
 dignified appearance. In addition to being a sneak, he was 
 also a general all-round thief, counterfeiter and forger. 
 Importance of Being on Guard. 
 
 One night in 1873, at Chicago, while Mr. Pinkerton was on 
 liis way home, he recalls seeing Walter Sheridan, "Philly"' 
 Pearson and Charlie Hicks on a street car. He followed them 
 to the Chicago & Alton Railroad station, where he saw them 
 purchase tickets for Springfield, 111. The following day the 
 vault of the First National Bank of Springfield Avas robbed of 
 $35,000 by Pearson, Avhile Sheridan engaged the attention of 
 the bank otficials, and Hicks remained on guard outside. Later 
 Hicks was arrested, taken to Springfield, convicted and sen- 
 tenced to eight years in Joliet prison. Pearson fled to Europe. 
 Later Sheridan was arrested at Toledo, 0., for this robbery, 
 at which time Mr. Pinkerton identified him, and $22,000 of 
 the stolen money was recovered. Sheridan was mixed up in a 
 great many crimes, but in the last vears of his life was looked. 
 
;33G BUEGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 upon as being cleverer as a first class bank '^^sneak'^ than in 
 any other line, although he has been a successful leader of bands 
 of note counterfeiters. 
 
 "Billy" Coleman, undoubtedly one of the most expert 
 "sneaks" of modern times, who, between 1869 and 190-1 was 
 arrested thirteen times, and who spent almost half of his life- 
 time in prisons, is now serving in the Auburn, New York, state 
 prison, a four and one-half-year term for the theft of $30,000 
 worth of jewelry from a safe in the Clark Estate building at 
 Cooperstown. The stolen jewelry belonged to Mrs. Ambrose 
 Clark, a daughter-in-law of Mrs. Potter, wife of Bishop Potter. 
 
 Looked Like Coleman's "Work. 
 
 Mrs. Clark arrived at Cooperstown to spend the summer only 
 a few days before the robbery, and placed the jewelry in a safe 
 in the Clark Estate building for safety. Investigation showed 
 the thief had entered this building, which in many respects 
 resembles a bank, at the noon hour, when all the employes 
 were absent, opened the vault, the lock of which had been left 
 on the half-turn, taking therefrom a tin box, which he carried 
 to the cellar of the building and pried open with tools found 
 on the premises, taking therefrom, all the jewelry and also valu- 
 able papers. From descriptions of the thief we obtained from 
 witnesses who had seen him loitering in the vicinity of the 
 Estate office, and from the manner in which the robbery was 
 committed, we believed it bore the earmarks of Coleman's 
 work. Subsequent developments satisfied us that our conclu- 
 sions were correct, and we caused Coleman's arrest, two weeks 
 after the robbery, in New York, by Police Headquarters' de- 
 tectives. 
 
 The tin box left by the thief in the cellar was covered with 
 blood. From this an incorrect inference was drawn, that 
 the thief had cut his hands with one of the instruments 
 used to open the box. A careful examination of Coleman showed 
 no cuts or bruises of any kind, on any part of his person, from 
 
BURGLARY A SCIENCE 337 
 
 which blood would have flowed. The grand jury refused to in- 
 dict him for the crime. 
 
 On his release, knowing that Coleman had most mysteriou,-: 
 ways of hiding the proceeds of his robberies, he was placed 
 under surveillance, which continued for some time without re- 
 sult, but eventually he was traced and found quite early one 
 morning, digging at the side of a building through the snow 
 into the ground, whereupon he was re-arrested and, in uncov- 
 ering the spot where he had been digging, most of the stolen 
 jewelry was found in an ordinary fruit jar, buried in the 
 ground about two feet. 
 
 Diamonds Buried in Jar. 
 
 In the jar were found several settings from which some of 
 the diamonds were missing; sixty-nine of these were found in 
 Coleman's home, hidden in a small pasteboard box in the earth 
 at the bottom of a rubber plant jar, and one of the largest 
 diamonds removed from the ring was found sewn in a ready- 
 made four-in-hand necktie. After his second arrest Coleman 
 acknowledged committing the robbery, and explained that a 
 year previous he had made a tour through several New York 
 State counties to locate a bank which would not be difficult to 
 "sneak" in the daytime. He found the Clark Estate building 
 in Cooperstown, which he believed was a bank. He visited it at 
 that time, while the employes were absent, but did not obtain 
 anything, although he made a note of it as an easy place to 
 rob some time in the future. 
 
 When he did commit the robbery, and did not find any 
 money in sight, he picked up the tin box, little suspecting it 
 contained a fortune in valuable jewelry. When Coleman Avas 
 (luestioned about the blood stains on the tin box, he explained 
 that, as the day of the robbery was very hot, and he had to work 
 quick, in his great excitement his nose bled freely, covering 
 the tin box as it was found. Coleman has been a professional 
 ])ank "sneak" all his life, and in times past was renowned for 
 entering bank vaults and paying-tellers' cages in the day time 
 
338 BURGLARY A SCIENCE 
 
 without being observed. He never used firearms, and there i« 
 no record of his having shed blood of anyone in the com- 
 mission of a crime. After all of his years of successful steal- 
 ing, he is again in Auburn (N. Y.) prison, without means. 
 Joe Killoran's Smooth Work. 
 
 "Joe" Killoran, alias "Joe" Howard, a rather picturesque 
 type of criminal, came from good old New York stock, was a 
 rather brainy planner of bank robberies, and was usually the 
 one of a band to engage an employe in conversation while the 
 "sneak" committed the robbery. Killoran had the appearance 
 of a well-to-do business man, such as might negotiate a loan 
 from the bank, representing himself as from some firm of 
 brokers. He has frequently played the part of the sick man 
 seated in the carriage with a crutch, and not able to go into 
 the bank. He is notorious as escaping from the Ludlow Street 
 jail, July 4, 1895, with Harry Russell and Charles Allen, then 
 ITnited States prisoners. He was in many "sneak" robberies in 
 the United States, and one which I especially recall was the 
 theft of $22,000 by him from the First National Bank, Plain- 
 field, N. J7, on July 2, 1895. He was accompanied by George 
 Carson, "Sid" Yennie and Little Patsy Flaunigan. Yennie, 
 Carson and Killoran held the attention of the employes while 
 Flannigan committed the robbery. x4fter Killoran's escape 
 from Ludlow Street jail he fled to Europe, and, strangely 
 enough, met with an accident which necessitated the amputa- 
 tion of one of his legs, which made him in reality carry a 
 crutch until those he operated with supplied him with a wooden 
 leg. 
 
 He was arrested about two years ago in New York City, de- 
 cidedly broken in health, and was sent to Illinois to serve a 
 term for robbing the government postoffice at Springfield. 
 After his release he returned to Europe, and was, in September, 
 1905, arrested at Vienna for stealing $100,000 from a depositor 
 in front of the paying teller's window in the bank in that city, 
 and was, on March 19, 1906, sentenced to six years in an Aus- 
 
BURGLAEY A SCIENCE 339 
 
 trian prison. It looks as though he had committed his last 
 robbery, and that this crime will cause him to end his days in 
 prison. 
 
 The Hotel Sneak. 
 The Use of False Keys. 
 
 "Hod" Bacon is an illustration of the professional "sneak"' 
 who confines his operations more particularl}^ to the rooms of 
 hotel guests. He works systematically and prepares his plans 
 as the skilled detective works to capture the expert criminal. 
 This thief frequently would follow a victim thousands of miles 
 to commit a successful robbery. He would watch hotel guests 
 continuously for several days, until he observed them purchase 
 theater tickets or going out for the evening, first determining 
 how many (if a family) occupied the apartment, and how many 
 servants they had, and assuring himself before committing the 
 robbery they were all absent. He enters the rooms with false 
 keys, locks himself in, and works at his leisure; also unlocks, 
 with false keys, the trunks, bureau drawers, etc., abstracting from 
 them such valuables as he considers worth taking. He in- 
 variably takes from the ladies' trunks some ladies' wearing 
 apparel, endeavoring to cast the suspicion that the theft was 
 committed by a chambermaid or other employes in the hotel 
 having access to the apartment. On one occasion Bacon robbed 
 a t]-aveling jewelry salesman's trunk in a Chicago hotel, l^ot 
 satisfied with the valuable loot of jewelry he obtained, he stole 
 the salesman's overcoat, after which he secured sleeping car 
 passage from Chicago to Pittsburg via Pennsylvania railroad. 
 On the same evening's train, it so happened that the salesman 
 he robbed was then enroute east, and, peculiarly enough, had 
 been assigned a berth opposite the thief, in the same car. 
 After the train left Chicago, observing his stolen overcoat 
 hanging in the thief's section, he telegraphed to Pittsburg, 
 and on arrival of the train the thief was arrested, and identified 
 as "Hod" Bacon. 
 
340 
 
 BURGLAKY A SCIENCE 
 
 @»«<1 
 
 CASE OF TOOLS AND RELICS COLLECTED BY DBTEOTTTir W0OLT7BISQB 
 
 CAPTURED BURGLARY IMPLEMENTS AT .CENTRAL POLICE SIATIfiH 
 
CELL TERMS FOR '^CON" MEN. 
 
 FOUR ARE SENTENCED FOR 
 
 LONG "GRAFT" RECORDS. 
 
 P. L, Tuohy, Philip Bulfer and L. E. Burnett Are Found 
 Guilty of Systematic Fraud by Means of "Fake" Con- 
 tracts — Their Clerk Is Fined $250 — Many Poor People 
 Appear As Witnesses on Fraudulent Employment 
 Bureau Also Operated. 
 
 June 11, 1907, one of the most persistent and systematic 
 "confidence" gangs that ever operated in Chicago was broken 
 np for a few years at least, when Patrick L. Tuohy, Philip 
 Bulfer, L. E. Burnett, and J. C. Daubach were found guilty 
 of ol)taining money under false pretenses by a jury in Judge 
 Ball's court. 
 
 These men were organizers and managers of the Chicago 
 Mercantile and Reporting Agency, with offices at 171 Wash- 
 ington Street. It was a "fake" employment agency Avith a 
 side line of swindling by means of getting contracts on carbon 
 paper. Bulfer, Tuohy and- Burnett were sentenced to the peni- 
 tentiary, while Daubach, who was only a clerk, was fined $250. 
 The sentence in prison is from one to five years. 
 
 Triumph for Wooldridge. 
 
 The conviction was a triumph for Detective Clifton R. 
 Wooldridge who has followed the men for years. The raid 
 which resulted in the present trial was made by Wooldridge 
 and his men on February 1], 1906. 
 
343 CELL TEEMS FOK *-COX"' MEX 
 
 Philip Bulfer. Bulfcr's pedigree from his home town is in- 
 teresting. Philip Bulfer was born and raised at Marshalltown, 
 Iowa. His parents live there and have for fort}' years. The 
 young man was educated, and when still a j'oung man left 
 for Omaha, Neb. There he started in business with his brother, 
 and in a short course of time they were doing a good business, 
 but finally broke up in a dispute with his brother, resulting 
 in a "skin." 
 
 Later on he became a messenger for some express compan\. 
 operating on B. 7 ^l. in Nebraska, and he ran through tlu' 
 State of Iowa for a good many years. He left that job or was 
 discharged. 
 
 He left there anyway and finally came to Chicago and mar- 
 ried a school teacher by the name of Mrs. Crar}^, from Goshen, 
 Tnd. x\fter marriage he moved to Chicago Heights and edited 
 a paper there for some time. Moved back to Chicago and be- 
 came a reporter on the Chicago Times, and finally started in 
 a loan shark business, loaning money at reduced rates and 
 making it a business to fight loan sharks, loaning money on 
 personal property, afterward going into court and enjoining 
 them. 
 
 He finally was arrested on many charges before Justice of 
 the Peace Fred E. Eldred, at Logan Square, on charges of 
 obtaining money by false pretenses, embezzlement, larceny and 
 on many other counts. 
 
 Was held to the grand jury and indicted in the case of 
 Detrich, which was finally nolle prossed before Judge Stein, 
 after making a settlement with Detrich, who promised not to 
 prosecute and was taken care of so he could not be com- 
 ])elled to appear as a witness in the Criminal Court. This 
 occurred about 1897 or 1898. 
 
 He was also indicted one time for assault or attempt to 
 kill Oscar or Frank Arnold. Another compromise was made. 
 Many times he was arrested before difFerent justices: Under- 
 wood, Wolff, Hogland, Woods, Prindiville, Cavcrly and manv 
 
CELL TEKM.S FOK '"CON" MEN U3 
 
 others. Cages were disposed of in some way. He was held 
 to the grand jur}- many times, and finally was arrested charged 
 •with conspiracy to cheat and defraud a school teacher. Was 
 indicted and had an accomplice — Theodore D, Courtney. 
 
 He was convicted and sentenced for three years. Was taken 
 to the penitentiary and there served as hookkeeper and tally- 
 man for about five months. Later was released from the 
 penitentiary on a writ of habeas corpus by Judge Farlin Q. 
 Ball, Was taken to the county jail, his case being continued 
 from time to time, meanwhile was obliged to remain in jail 
 for about a year. Arrangements were made that if he gave 
 evidence to indict John W, Eonksle}^ Thomas D, Courtney and 
 Isaac A, Hartman, the State's x4ttomey's office would in some 
 way be lenient with him, and this he did. He gave evidence 
 that caused the indictment of the aforesaid persons. 
 
 They were afterwards placed on trial. Eonksley was fined 
 $100 and sentenced to six months in the county jail by Judge 
 Horton. 
 
 Hartman was indicted several times in the same proceed- 
 ing and placed on trial before Judge Horton and was ac- 
 quitted. Many indictments against Bulfer have been nolle 
 prossed, due to a settlement of some kind. 
 
 The records will show that they have been nolle prossed. 
 The Detrich case will show dismissal for want of prosecution, 
 but it was really on account of settlement having been made. 
 After these defendants were convicted he was released without 
 ever having a hearing on the habeas corpus matter and gained 
 his liberty on account of the state losing jurisdiction. Since 
 organizing the Landlords' Protective Association he was ar- 
 rested on complaint of A. D, Smeyer before either Caverly or 
 Prindiville at the Harrison Street Police Station and there 
 discharged on account of no prosecution. It was brought 
 about by a settlement. 
 
 The arrest was made on account of his taking $3 appearance 
 fee, which he should have paid and filed appearance in the 
 
344 CELL TERMS FOR "CON" MEK 
 
 Circuit Court in the cape of Chicago Preps, R. D. Smeyers 
 vs. Barry Transportation Co. He was arrested a great many 
 times for obtaining money by false pretenses from poor and 
 ignorant people, who gave him $3 to get them a job. but he 
 failed to do so. 
 
 Patrick L. Tuohy was born in Ireland ; came to Chicago 
 about forty years ago and located in Rogers Park. 
 
 He was a member of the School r>oard at one time. He is 
 a politician. He is a professional bondsman and is manager 
 of the Chicago Mercantile & Reporting Agency, also an em- 
 ployment and collection agency and professional bond agency 
 at 171 Washington street. They take a fee of from $2 to $3 
 and agree to get employment, Init few are ever employed. This 
 money is put into his pocket. 
 
 He has been engaged in many questionable concerns. Among 
 them he and his pals secured a charter for the U^nited States 
 Express Company and tried to shake down the company and 
 prohibit them from doing business in the State of Hlinois. 
 Tlie matter was taken into court and a Federal injunction 
 issued against them. 
 
 ' They have a habit of looking up firms, for instance, say 
 the Blackenberg Express Company, and get someone to do 
 business with them, then they will go in and see if they 
 use a corporate title and force them to settle in some way. 
 
 Bulfer and Tuohy were proprietors of the Chicago ^ler- 
 cantile & Reporting Agency ; Daubach was a clerk in the office 
 and Burnett was a solicitor for the company. 
 
 Bulfer Avas the apparent head of the concern — in fact the 
 !)rains and dominating spirit. 
 
 Tuohy's name a])peared as manager on the lotterhoads of 
 the company aiul lie was ])laintifT in all suits brought upon 
 alleged contracts. 
 
 Burnett, as solicitor, called upon small merchants and so- 
 licited accounts for collection upon representation that the 
 
CELL TERMS FOR '-COX" MEN" 345 
 
 Chicago Mercantile & Reporting Agency wonld deduct 25 per 
 cent in ease of collection. 
 
 If a merchant gave Burnett some bills to collect he (Bur- 
 nett) would ask the merchant to sign his name on a piece of 
 paper "giving authority to the Chicago Mercantile & Reporting 
 Agency to collect. Or if a merchant upon Avhom Burnett 
 called would say he had no bills, Bnrnett would secure his 
 signature upon representation that he must show his com- 
 pany that he had called upon him and solicited. 
 
 Each witness with but one exception testified that no con- 
 tract was shown him and that he Avas not told by Birnett 
 that in signing his name he was putting it to a contract to 
 furnish the company with at least 25 valid claims during the 
 next thirty days following and to pay the company a fee of 
 $20. 
 
 Louis Perlman, the complainant-witness in the case tried, 
 testified that he gave Burnett a claim for $2 to collect and 
 at the solicitation of Burnett signed his name to a paper 
 giving authority (as explained by Burnett) to the company to 
 collect. Nothing was said to him about a contract, but at 
 the expiration of 30 days he received a letter from the Chi- 
 cago Mercantile & Reporting Agency, signed P. L. Tuohy, 
 manager, that he was indebted to the company in the sum 
 of $20. ITpon calling at their offices to ascertain the cause of 
 such indebtedness he was shown a contract signed by himself, 
 agreeing to furnish the company 25 claims and obligating 
 himself to pay $20 on that day. The victims were all men 
 and women of the poorer classes, mostly small shopkeepers, 
 and such tradesmen in the outlying districts. 
 
 Perlman said that was the first time he had ever seen the 
 contract, for when he signed his name at the request of 
 Burnett there was no printing in sight and nothing was said 
 about a contract. Although Perlman had given but one claim 
 to the agent of the company, and that for the sum of $2, 
 which had never been collected, he was threatened with suit by 
 
346 CELL TERMS FOIJ ■COS" MEN 
 
 Bulfcr when lie called at the office of the company, and finally 
 compromised by the payment of $5, Xo service had been ren- 
 dered him whatever and yet he was compelled to give up $5 
 to have the alleged contract canceled. 
 
 The state called about 17 witnesses, all of whom had similar 
 experiences to that of Perlman. Several testified that they 
 told Burnett they had no bills to give him, but at his request 
 signed their names so that the company could know how- 
 many people he had called upon in the course of a day, and 
 yet each was notified at the expiration of 30 days that he or 
 she was indebted to the Chicago ^fercantile & Reporting 
 Agency in the sum of $20, and each was compelled to pay 
 from $5 to $12 to have the alleged contract canceled, although 
 no service had been rendered to any of them. 
 
 One witness testified that he had refused to compromise 
 and he was sued before a justice of the peace friendly to the 
 company and judgment was rendered against him for $20 and 
 costs, amounting in all to $2G.50, for which no services were 
 performed and for which he got not the slightest return. 
 
 Daubach was merely a clerk in the office, but when a victim 
 called at the office in response to a letter signed by Tuohy, 
 Daubach would tell him the amount must be paid, although 
 the victim would declare to him no service had been rendered 
 to him and that he had no knowledge that he had signed a 
 contract. The victim would then ask to see ^Ir. Tuohy and 
 Daubach would take him to Bulfer's desk and say, "This is 
 ^rr. Tuohy," and the victim would have to settle or submit to 
 !i judgment on the alleged contract at the hands of the justice 
 of the peace friendly to the company. 
 
 Although the indictment charged a conspiracy to obtain the 
 signature of one Louis Perlman to a written instrument, the 
 state introduced evidence, and righl fully so, to show similar 
 nets of the conspirators. 
 
 It was demonstrated clearly by the evidence that Bulfer was 
 the leading spirit of the conspiracy; that Tuohy's name ap- 
 
CELL TERMS FOR "CON" MEN 347 
 
 peared on the letterheads as manager and all letters sent to 
 victims bore his signature; that Burnett got signatures by 
 means of false pretenses, for each witness claimed that the 
 '^contract was covered up and they were shown just the part 
 of the paper on which was the space for signature; and Dau- 
 bach performed many acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. 
 
 Bulfer and Tuohy did not go upon the witness stand. Bur- 
 nett testified that he always showed the full contract to pros- 
 pective clients, but was not called upon to explain its con- 
 tents; he testified further that he received from the Chicago 
 Mercantile & Reporting Agency $2.50 for each contract he 
 brought in and he secured as high as six a day. 
 
 Daubach testified that when the objectors came into the 
 office and complained he would tell them they could com- 
 promise and get off cheaper and admitted, turning them over 
 to Bulfer when they asked for Tuohy. 
 
 So that it appeared conclusively that each in his turn per- 
 formed some act in furtherance of the conspiracy. 
 
 The case was called for trial on the 6th of May, 1907, and 
 was concluded on the 8th of May, 1907. The jury returned » 
 verdict of guilty as to each and fixed the punishment of 
 Bulfer, Tuohy and Burnett at imprisonmnent in the peniten- 
 tiary, and fixed the punishment of Daubach at a fine of $250. 
 
PANEL HOUSE THIEVES. 
 
 Among the many dangerous and curious characters who live 
 by their wits in a great city none is more interesting to the 
 outsider than the blackmailer. To the reader of sensational 
 literature the ideal is a person who holds some great family 
 secret which he turns into money at rapidly narrowing inter- 
 vals. Although this character is generally overdrawn, no one 
 familiar with city life pretends to doubt his existence. The 
 blackmailer is a well known character in all large cities, and 
 certainly the arch swindler of the day. 
 
 Blackmailers are ever on the alert to learn anything detri- 
 mental to a person's character, and let them once obtain this, 
 they fatten on it. Men's passions are taken advantage of by 
 that particular class of thieves known as "badgers,*' and their 
 operations are very rarely followed by exposure or punishment. 
 A pretty woman is the bait used by these thoughtful rascals, 
 who know full well that where a hundred men ^vill resist a 
 burglar, scarcely one will resist a robbery where disgraceful 
 publicity must surely follow. 
 
 Briefly the mode of procedure is as follows: A house is 
 rented in a quiet side street, not far from the principal thor- 
 oughfare. One man, occasionally two men, run the house — that 
 is, they do the actual stealing, while they have from three and 
 often as high as a dozen women out on the street picking up 
 the victims. 
 
 Must Have I^ijetty Woman. 
 
 The qualifications necessary for the woman to have is to bo 
 pretty, plump, wear good clothes, and understand the art of 
 making herself attractive. It is an understood thing that she 
 shares one-third the proceeds of the robbery. The house is 
 arranged especially for the purpose. Tlie rooms on each floor 
 are fixed so that the door separating thorn has the panels cut out 
 and put in again on hinges, and fastened with a small button 
 not notiooablo. Tho binges aro well oilod. and a small Imlr is 
 
PANEL HOUSE THIEVES 349 
 
 bored through the door, so that the thief can see into the room, 
 or hear any slight signal given by the woman. The house 
 rented has a front and rear entrance, the latter for the thief 
 or thieves, who always station themselves on a corner of the 
 street near the house, by which the woman will always bring 
 the victim, so her pal can see him. 
 
 The woman goes out in the evening past the principal hotels 
 and through the principal streets, never speaking to a man, but 
 if she notices one who looks like a stranger and well-to-do, she 
 will give him a coquettish glance and pass on, looking sideways 
 to see if she is followed. If so, she will continue slowly, turning 
 the first quiet street, until the man who follows her has a 
 chance to overtake her. The chances are ten to one that he 
 will address her. She will appear shy at first, and not in- 
 clined to speak, but after a short time she will talk, and after 
 some conversation she will convey the idea to the man that 
 she is a married woman; that her husband is out of town 
 and no one is at home. If he will be discreet he may accom- 
 pany her home, she says, and have a talk. The pair then 
 walk to the house, passing the corner where the male accom- 
 plice is lying in wait, and the woman, pulling out her latch- 
 key, will open the door; and the fly is in the parlor of the 
 spider. 
 
 The male thief waits a few moments, and then makes his 
 way into the house through the rear. As soon as he enters 
 he takes off his shoes and in his stocking feet stations himself 
 in the adjoining room, and there bides his time. The woman 
 is all smiles and affection. She betrays an affected nervous- 
 ness, which makes her all the more attractive. She talks about 
 the sudden fancy she took to the gentleman who was weak 
 enough to be inveigled, and in a thousand and one ways man- 
 ages to give the idea that he is, above all others, the very man 
 she could love. All this time she is gradually disrobing, and 
 at the expiration of about ten minutes she is ready to do her 
 part in the robbery. 
 
350 PAN-KL HOUSE THIEVES 
 
 Male AccoisrPLiCEs Get Busy. 
 
 Meantime her male accomplice has put on his shoes. He 
 goes around to the front of the house, opens the front door 
 noisily, and, walking heavily, he knocks loudly at the room 
 door, and calls out, "Mary !" or any name that may suggest 
 itself. The woman will at once exclaim, '"Oh, that is my hus- 
 band ! Dress yourself quickly, and be ready to go out as soon 
 as I get him away from the room door." 
 
 The victim will hastily put on his clothes, and as soon as 
 the woman slips out and gives him the signal he escapes, only 
 too glad not to be caught. Before he goes, however, and while 
 he is talking to the woman, her pal has opened the panel, put 
 his hand in all the victim's pockets — (his clothes having been 
 put in front of the door), and nearly all his money is taken. 
 A portion is left, so that he may not immediately discover his 
 loss. Jewelry is never disturbed, as it would be missed at once. 
 The favorite motliods is to take out the middle of a roll of 
 notes, if in a roll, or if in a pocket book, the bottom notes arc 
 removed, so that when the victim examines his purse hurriedly 
 he will not discover that he has been robbed. If the amount 
 ttolen is large the house is vacated, and the woman skips the 
 town for a time. 
 
 The women who Avork for these badger houses work in one 
 city for a liTm-. llien go to the next large city with a note to 
 the chief who runs llie house there. The women generally 
 wear wigs, so in ease the man reports his loss to the police he 
 will, perhaps, describe a fair-haired woman, when i)erhaps her 
 hair is black. A blonde wig is, discarded, the case is fixed. 
 
 A female badger and her lover may be poor and unable to 
 rent a house. In this event they will rent a furnished room 
 in a furnished-room house. The bolt on the door is fixed by 
 simply taking out the screws from the no.«e of the bolt, and 
 the screw holes are enlarged. The screws arc well greased and 
 then put back, the key taken out of the lock, so when the time 
 come*^ for the Ilii<'f to <ro in. ns jirevions^lv de^eribrd, bo pushes 
 
PANEL HOUSE THIEVES 351 
 
 in the d'oor easily and quietly, as the hinges are well oiled, and 
 the victim is robbed while he is making violent love to the sup- 
 posed "married woman." 
 
 The Phot:octRAPhic Catch. 
 
 Only a downright fool or egotist can become the victim of 
 this scheme. He deserves to lose whatever he has if he is 
 foolish enough to be taken in. The only way to protect your- 
 selves against the work of these thieves is to mind your own 
 business. 
 
 The new panel and blackmail swindle called the "Photo- 
 graphic Catch" is one by which dupes are frightened into pay- 
 ing hush-money, and otherwise putting themselves in the hands 
 of unscrupulous and designing people. 
 
 The old panel game has been brought up to date and is being 
 worked vigorously. This new swindle is one of the coolest 
 "bluffs" ever attempted to be worked upon an unsuspecting 
 person. 
 
 The victim selected by the coterie of choice spirits who work 
 this fraud is always a married man. The blackmailers learn 
 about his habits, and if his wife and family have removed to 
 the country they immediately set about landing him in their 
 net. If the family remains in town the swindlers spot their 
 man and wait until his wife and children go to the country or 
 seashore, leaving him to "work himself to death" in the bad, 
 wicked city. 
 
 The bait used is a handsome young woman. She soon iinds 
 an opportunity to attract the attention of the victim, who is 
 always a business man, generally of middle age and wealthy, for 
 upon handsome but penniless clerks they do not waste a moment 
 of their time. 
 
 As soon as the intended victim has taken the bait he is en- 
 ticed to some luxuriously furnished apartment. It makes not 
 the slighest difference how long he may stay there, and it is 
 not even important what he may do there. 
 
 In the course of a day or two the victim is called upon at 
 
35"^ i'AALL iluLsE TH1E\E>) 
 
 his place of business by a tall, well-dressed young man of gen- 
 tlemanly manners, but with much firmness. This is one of th.' 
 conspirators. He secures a ^jrivate intei-view with his unsus- 
 pecting victim, and as soon as the door is closed he proceeds to 
 outline his little game. 
 
 He pulls from his pocket an alleged instantaneous photo- 
 graph showing the victim in a compromising position, and for 
 the sake of appearances, make some broad hints about his out- 
 raged feelings as a husband. It very soon develops that these 
 outraged feelings can be assuaged by the payment of money, 
 and the sum mentioned is always a large one. 
 
 Scare Money Out of Victim. 
 
 The victim is thrown into a state of fright by threats of 
 exposure liberally made by the conspirators, and freely "gives 
 up'' in order to put a stop to the matter. He gets a consid- 
 erable reduction upon the original sum demanded by paying 
 down the cash. 
 
 Now, while this game is nearly always successful, it require^ 
 but a moment's reflection on the part of any intelligent man to 
 see that it is a swindle, pure and simple, the exposure of which 
 would put a stop to it. The payment of the money is compelled 
 by displaying a photograph, with threats of sending it to the 
 victim's wife. 
 
 Anybody who knows anything about photogra])hy will see 
 at once that such a photograph must })e fraudulent. It is im- 
 possible to take an instantaneous photograph in a room without 
 a flashlight. It is likewise impossible to ]ihotograph the in- 
 terior of a room lighted by gas without a very long exposure, 
 and generally extending over hours. No court of law would 
 place any reliance upon an alleged instantaneous photograph, 
 of the inside of a house professing to show people who were 
 unconscious that thoy were being photographed. If any such 
 picture were to be used as a means of establishing evidence in 
 court it is not unlikely that the person so producing it would get 
 into prison as an impudent impostor. 
 
PANEL HO USE THIEVES 353 
 
 The photograph which is used by the gang working this new- 
 panel game is, of course, a fraud made up by the conspirators. 
 It is an easy enough thing for them to secure a picture of the 
 interior of the room, showing another person. But in order to 
 get the victim into the picture it is necessary that a photograph 
 be taken of him elsewhere ; probably in the street. 
 
 Then his features are pasted on the photograph of the room, 
 which is again placed before the camera and reproduced com- 
 plete. No matter how skillfully such piecing is done, it always 
 shows to the practiced eye, and any professional photographer 
 can detect the fraud. 
 
 With the guilty knowledge of such swindling in mind, 
 the conspirators who impudently produce such pictures can 
 easily be "turned down" by a brief explanation of their crim- 
 inal proceedings and a threat to turn them over to the police. 
 They confine their operations to gentlemen who have been in- 
 discreet and who can be easily frightened into paying money 
 to prevent a scandal. 
 
 Blackmail the Wife as Well. 
 
 Blackmailing the wives of business men is carried on to quite 
 an extent, and it is astonishing how many of them will pay 
 blackmailers to hush up something that really amounts to noth- 
 ing if the game were exposed. If you refuse to pay blackmail, 
 that usually ends it. They want money, and when they fail to 
 get it, the matter drops. 
 
 The blackmailer operates on women in this manner : A man 
 has an accomplice, a woman who passes as, and probably is, his 
 wife. She is well educated, of refined appearance, and dresses 
 fashionably and well. The two work together. As the summer 
 season comes on the wives of business men, who cannot leave 
 business themselves, start for eastern resorts and watering 
 places, the woman blackmailer joins the exodus. She knows 
 the people who are wealthy, and these she spots. She watches 
 their every movement, and if the slightest indiscretion is com- 
 mitted it does not escape her eye. She knows the names, busi- 
 
354 PANEL HOUSE THIEVES 
 
 ness, and homes of all the gentlemen they meet, and when and 
 where they meet them. 
 
 The season ended, the facts she has obtained are in the hands 
 of the male partner, and he studies them. Selecting his victim, 
 he arranges to meet her, as if by chance, usually in one of the 
 loading retail establishments of the city where she resides. He 
 approaches and addresses her with the greatest cordiality, ex- 
 pressing surprise at the unexpected meeting. She is generally 
 surprised, and, of course, fails to recognize him. Then he uses 
 the name of one of the gentlemen she has met in the east, re- 
 calls w'ho introduced them, where tlie meeting occurred, and, 
 in fact, all about it. Then she recalls it, or thinks she does, 
 and it ends in her inviting him to call at her home. Here is 
 the web quite complete. 
 
 He calls, and, of course, when her husband is out, and may 
 repeat the call several times. Then he springs the trap. Dur- 
 ing one of his visits a note arrives for the lady ihreatening dis- 
 closures unless paid, sa}', $100. Even if innocent of any wrong, 
 the woman is alarmed and shows the blackmailer the note. He 
 appears greatly alarmed also, declares that he is a married man, 
 and that to have his visits known would ruin him. He argues 
 that the money would better be paid. He has only $40 about 
 him, but if the hostess will advance the balance of course she 
 shall lose nothing. She does it, and is thereafter in the power 
 of the blackmailer. 
 
 "Bogus Detective" Game. 
 A scamp, claiming to be a detective, often visits a reputabl& 
 business man, having gained knowledge of indiscretion early 
 in life. To hush it up they will demand from time to time 
 money, under threats of exposure, thus causing the person to 
 .' commit crime after crime to satisfy the heartless leech, who 
 never stops until his victim is ruined. 
 
 \ In a similar manner does the alleged detective blackmail a 
 !man who has committed a crime and who has been imprisoned 
 nor it. Upon his release the man may feel like reforming and be- 
 
PANEL HOUSE THIEVES 355 
 
 coming a good citizen if given the chance, but this the detective 
 will not permit, for as soon as he notices the ex-convict he will 
 say, "Look here, young fellow, you know my name and ad- 
 dress, and when I am in of an evening I want you to come and 
 see me or I'll have you run in." The fear of being "run in" 
 forces the man who has a desire to do right to steal to satisfy 
 the blackmailing demands of this corrupt class of people. If 
 the ex-convict obtains employment he is worked in a similar 
 manner, under threats of exposure to his employer, and so forced 
 to steal, and then the smart detective will exclaim, "There is 
 no reformation in that fellow; I kneAV he would steal. He 
 will never stop." 
 
 Storekeeper Scamps. 
 
 One of the most contemptible of creatures is the storekeeper 
 who has caught some one (who has the appearance of having 
 money), stealing some trifling article, and will exclaim, "Here, 
 here ! I have had stolen three hundred dollars' worth of goods 
 by some one, and if you will settle for all I have had stolen, I 
 will let up on you, and not prosecute." 
 
 These cowardly methods are simply mentioned to show to 
 what depths of meanness some men will descend, and are not 
 to be classed with the professional thief, with whom stealing is 
 a trade. As to how the female blackmailer can be foiled, the 
 remedy is obvious, and no man who possesses proper self-respect 
 will ever become a victim. 
 
 HoAv Fake "Journalists" Work. 
 The blackmailer first obtains some information about the 
 early life of the person he intends to approach, and there are 
 very few men who have not, in their youthful days, committed 
 some indiscretion which might be brought against them after 
 reaching maturer years. An escapade with a woman, or a 
 mischievous boyish prank which proved "more serious than was 
 intended, are the usual indiscretions selected, and there can al- 
 ways be found plenty of gossips who are only too willing to 
 
856 PANEL HOUSE THIEVES 
 
 relate full particular?. The information thu? obtained is writ- 
 ten up in a sensational style, and is taken to a cheap printing 
 office, where it is put in type for a trifling cost. 
 
 A slip, or what is known in a printing office as a "proof," 
 is then printed, and armed with this the blackmailer pays a 
 visit to the person he intends to fleece. He represents himself 
 as being connected with a reputable newspaper, and says that 
 he has been sent to get the "other side of the story," at the 
 same time producing the slip on which is printed the startling 
 tale, which, if made public, would in all probability seriously 
 effect the social standing and the commercial integrity of the 
 intended victim. In the majority of cases the person ap- 
 proached will at once inquire how much the newspaper would 
 pay for such an article, and the reply usually is, "From twenty 
 to twenty-five dollars." "Suppose I pay for the article instead 
 of the newspaper?" says the victim, "and I give you fifty dol- 
 lars, wouldn't that repay you for your troul)le in writing the 
 article ?" This is just Avhat the blackmailer has been waiting for. 
 He hems and haws for awhile, so as not to appear too anxious, 
 or for the purpose of getting a higher bid, but the interview 
 usually winds up in his securing a sum of money to suppress 
 the information. 
 
 As he is leaving the house it may occur to the victim that as 
 long as the story is known to the editor of the paper there may 
 be a publication anyhow, and on this point he makes inquiry. 
 "Oh," says the blackmailer, "there will be no danger of that. 
 I will report that I have fully investigated the story, and that 
 there is not a word of truth in it, and, of course, they will not 
 dare to nm the risk of being sued for heavy damages for print- 
 ing it." 
 
 Few "Beats" Among Reporters. 
 
 There is no necessity for any man being victimized by the 
 "newspaper beat." In the first place, no reputable newspaper 
 ever puts a damaging story in type before every side of it has 
 been thoroughly investigated. The very fact of a man e\'- 
 
PANEL HOUSE THIEVES 357 
 
 hibiting a "proof" is evidence that he is a fraud and has no 
 7iewspaper connection. It can be said with truth that the 
 repertorial profession of America has fewer 'T)eats'* in it than 
 any other profession or Ijusiness that can be mentioned. The 
 majority of reporters arc ambitious to gain higher positions, 
 and it is a rare thing to find a man regularly connected with, 
 a newspaper descending to such trickery. If he is a genuine 
 reporter he will exhibit his credentials, and should he be as- 
 signed to investigate a story that effects the standing of a re- 
 spectable citizen, and be offered a bribe, he would imdoubtedly 
 publish that fact as an additional proof of the truth of what 
 he has written. The treatment for this kind of a blackmailer 
 is to kick him out of the house, and bid him do his worse. 
 Depend upon it, the "scandal" will never become public. 
 The New York "Way. 
 
 They watch some disreputable resort of the higher order until 
 they see some respectable looking man or woman coming out 
 of it. Suppose it is a woman, who may or may not have gone 
 there for an improper purpose. The blackmailer follows her 
 home, thus ascertaining her place of residence. The next day 
 he calls upon her. He puts on an air of deep solemnity. 
 
 "I am an agent," says he, "employed by a society to ascer- 
 tain the character of certain suspected houses. I saw you enter 
 one of them yesterday and know that you remained there more 
 than an hour. You know its character, and I shall, therefore,, 
 subpoena you as a witness." Then he puts his hand in his in- 
 side pocket, as if to get the subpoena. 
 
 Of course he hasn't any, but the woman usually faints about 
 this time, and on her. recovering is usually willing to take the 
 jewels off her wrists and fingers, if she has no money, to buy 
 her immunity from the subpoena. Once she makes a payment 
 she is lost and has to continue it month after month, and year 
 after year, till some kind of a scandal breaks out and she finds, 
 with shame and sorrow, that her previous payments have only: 
 put off the evil day. 
 
GAMBLING AND CRIME. 
 
 BEST CURE FOR GAMBLING: TEACH 
 
 PUPILS IN SCHOOL LAWS OF CHANCE. 
 
 Gambling Device Swindle Is Exposed in the Army and 
 Navy — The Scope of Fraud Is World-Wide. 
 
 There Is No Such Thing As An Honest Gambler — Suicides 
 Are Common — Gambling Kings Go Broke, and Often 
 Die in the Poorhouse — It Is a Hard, Cold, Brutal Road 
 the Gambler Travels— It Ends Badly. 
 
 We do not believe that many young men DELIBERATELY 
 take np the gambler's career. They drift into it through weak- 
 ness, temptation or accident. If any young man DOES imag- 
 ine that in the gambler's life he can find more money, less 
 work and more happiness than in honest living and honest 
 work, he is the victim of a dangerous delusion. 
 
 A most miserable creature is the gambler. He knows him- 
 self, and therefore he hates himself. 
 
 No man can gamble and be honest, even with his friends, 
 oven with his family. The idea of the gambler is to get from 
 another man what he has not earned from that man, giving 
 nothing in exchange. And when a man spends his time trying 
 to get away the money of others with no return he soon drifts 
 into throwing aside ALL honesty, even tlie gambler's brand. 
 
 The unsuccessful gambler is one of the worst of wrecks. He 
 runs his little course of dissipation, dishonesty, cheating and 
 swindling. He is over-matched and eliminated by the bigger, 
 keener, self -controlled gambler, who eats him up as the big 
 spider eats up the little spider. Hanging around saloons, 
 
GAMBLING AND CEIME 
 
 359 
 
360 GAMBLING AND L'BIME 
 
 begging for a little money with whicli to bet, doing the dirty 
 work of the bigger gamblers — ^that is the fate of the little 
 gambling cast-off. He is not worth talking al)out. 
 
 The gambler's life is simply the life of a criminal. And, 
 like every other suecessfiil criminal, the successful gambler 
 has got to work very hard. What the burglar gets, what the 
 pickpocket gets, what the gambler gets, is money painfully ac- 
 cumulated. The successful burglar, or pickpocket, or gambler 
 must work hard and be forever on the alert. He must be 
 remorselessly cruel in taking money from those that cannot 
 stand the loss. He must be indifferent to all sense of decency, 
 for he knows that he is robbing women and children. 
 
 The criminal in AXY line, gambler or other, cannot be a 
 self-indulgent man if he is to be successful. Tlie young man 
 who imagines that the gambler's life is a gay and easy one is 
 badly mistaken. If he tries it he will live to envy ANY hon- 
 est man who has a right to look other men in the face. 
 
 Why Gambling Makes Mex Commit Crimes. 
 
 The statistics of crime prove beyond all cavil that gambling 
 is the king's highway to fraud and theft. This is not merely 
 because is loosens general morality and in particular saps the 
 rationale of property, but because cheating is inseparably as- 
 sociated with most actual modes of gambling. Tbis does not 
 imply that most persons who bet are actually cheats or thieves ; 
 but persons who continue to be cheated or robbed, half con- 
 scious of the nature of the operations, are fitting themselves 
 for the other and more profitable part if they are thro^^^l in 
 the way of acquiring a sufficient quantity of evil skill or op- 
 portunity. The "lienor" of a confirmed gambler, even in high 
 life, is known to be hollow commodity, and where there is 
 less to lose in social esteem even this slender substitute for 
 virtue is absent. What percentage of "men who bet" would 
 refuse to utilize a secret tip of a "scratched" favorite or tlu» 
 contents of an illegally disclosed sporting telegram? The bar- 
 
GAMBLING A AD t'KlME 
 
 361 
 
362 GAMBLIXG AND CRIME 
 
 rier between fraud and smartness does not exist for most of 
 them. 
 
 No Basis for Livelihood. 
 
 Serious investigation of the gambling process discloses the 
 fact that pure gambling does not afford any economic basis of 
 livelihood, save in a few cases where, as at the roulette tal)le or 
 in a lottery, those who gamble know and willingly accept the 
 chances against them. And even in the case of the roulette 
 table the profits to the bank come largely from the advantage 
 which a large fund possesses in play against a smaller fund; 
 in the fluctuations of the game the smaller fund which plays 
 against the bank is more than likely at some point in the game 
 to be absorbed so as to disable the player from continuing his 
 play. 
 
 If a man with $5,000 were to play "pitch and toss" for $5 
 gold pieces with a number of men, each of Avhom carried only 
 $50, he must, if they played long enough, win all their money. 
 So, even where skill and fraud arc absent, economic force is a 
 large factor in success. 
 
 Te:\[ptatiox to Embezzle. 
 Since professional gambling in a stock broker, a croupier, a 
 bookmaker, or any other species involves so'inc use of superior 
 knowledge, trickery, or force, which in its effect on the "chance'' 
 amounts to "loading" the dice, the non-professional gambler 
 necessarily finds himself a loser on any long series of events. 
 These losses are found, in fact, to be a fruitful cause of crime, 
 especially among the men employed in business where sums 
 of money belonging to the firm are passing through their hands. 
 It is not difficult for a man who constantly has in his possession 
 considerable funds which he has collected for the employer to 
 persuade himself that a temporary use of these funds, which 
 otherwise lie idle, io help him over a brief emergency, is not 
 an act of real dishonesty. He is commonly right in his plea 
 that he had no direct intention to defriiud liis employer. He 
 
GAMBLiM^; A.\D CKiME 363 
 
 expected to be able to replace the sum before its withdrawal 
 was discovered. But since legally a person must be presumed 
 to "intend" that which is a natural or reasonable result of 
 his action, an indirect intention to defraud must be ascribed 
 to him. He is aware that his act is criminal as well as illegal 
 in using the firm's money for any private purpose of his own. 
 But in understanding and assessing the quality of guilt in- 
 volved in such action, two circumstances which extenuate his 
 act, though not the gambling habit which has induced it, must 
 be taken into account. A poor man who frequently bets must 
 sooner or later be cleared out and unable, out of his own re- 
 sources, to meet his obligations. He is induced to yield to 
 the temptation the more readily for two reasons. First, there 
 is a genuine probability (not so large, however, as he thinks) 
 that he can replace the money before any "harm is done." 
 So long as he does replace it no harm appears to him to have 
 been done; the firm has lost nothing by his action. 
 
 How Commerce Condones Crime. 
 
 This narrower circumstance of extenuation is supported by 
 a broader one. The whole theory of modern commercial en- 
 terprise involves using other people's money, getting the ad- 
 vantage of this use for one's self and paying to the owner as 
 little as one can. 
 
 A bank or a finance company is intrusted with sums of money 
 belonging to outsiders on condition that when required, or upon 
 agreed notice, they shall be repaid. Any intelligent clerk in 
 such a firm may be well aware that the profits of the firm are 
 earned by a doubly speculative use of this money which be- 
 longs to other people; it is employed by the firm in speculative 
 investments which do not essentially differ from betting on the 
 turf, and the cash in hand or other available assets are kept 
 at a minimum on the speculative chance that depositors will 
 not seek to withdraw their money, as they are legally entitled 
 to do. In a firm which thus lives by speculating with other 
 
364 
 
 ClAMBLiXU AXL) CKLME 
 
 people's money, is it surprising tlial a clerk slioiikl pursue what 
 seems to him substantially the same policy on a smaller scale? 
 It may doubtless be objected that a vital difference exists in the 
 two cases: the investor who puts his money into the hands of 
 
(iA.MBLlNi; ANJ) CI^JME ;3G5 
 
 a speculative eompaiiv does .'^o knowingly, and for some ex- 
 pected profit; the clerk Avho speculates with the firm's money 
 does so secretly, and no possible gain to the firm balances the 
 chance of loss. But even to this objection it is possible to reply 
 that recent revelations of modern finance show that real knowl- 
 edge of the use to which money will be put cannot be imputed 
 to the investor in such companies, and that, though some gain 
 may j)Ossibly accrue to him, such gain is essentially subsidiary 
 to the prospects of the promoters and managers of these com- 
 panies. 
 
 Wherein Speculatiox Differs. 
 
 It is true that these are not normal types of modern busi- 
 ness ; they are commonly designated gambling companies, some 
 of them actually criminal in their methods. But they only 
 difi"er in degree, not in kind, from a large body of modern busi- 
 nesses, whose operations are so highly speculative, their risks 
 so little imderstood by the investing public, and their profits 
 apportioned with so little regard to the body of shareholders, 
 as fairly to bring them under the same- category. In a word, 
 secret gambling with other people's money, on the general line 
 of "heads I win, tails you lose," is so largely prevalent in 
 modern commerce as perceptibly to taint the whole commercial 
 atmosphere. Most of these larger gambling operations are 
 either not illegal or cannot easily be reached by law, whereas 
 the minor delinquencies of fraudulent clerks and other em- 
 ployes are more easily detected and punished. 
 
 But living in an atmosphere where secret speculation with 
 other people's money is so rife, where deceit or force plays 
 so large a part in determining profitable coups, it is easy to 
 understand how an employe, whose conduct in most matters is 
 determined by imitation, falls into lax ways of regarding other 
 people's money and comes in an hour of emergency to '^borrow" 
 the firm's money. This docs not excuse hi.*? crime, but it does 
 throw light upon its natural history. 
 
366 GAMBLING AND CWME 
 
 When it Will Cease. 
 
 Publicity and cdiu-ation are, of course, the chief instruments 
 for converting illegitimate into legitimate speculation, for 
 changing commercial gambling into commercial foresight. 
 This intelligent movement toward a restoration of discernible 
 order and rationality in business jDrocesses, by eliminating 
 "chances" and placing the transfer of property and the earn- 
 ing of industrial gains on a more rational foundation, must, 
 of course, go with other movements of social and industrial 
 reforms which aim simultaneously at the basis of reformation 
 of the economic environment. Every stop whicli places the 
 attainment of property upon a sane rational basis, associating 
 it with proportionate personal productive effort, every step which 
 enables men and women to find orderly interests in work and 
 leisure by gaining opportunities to express themselves in art 
 or play under conditions which stimulate new human wants 
 and supply means of satisfying them, will make for the de- 
 struction of gambling. 
 
 ()a:mblixg Don't Pay. 
 
 Two-fiftlis of all tlie crimes committed every year are esti- 
 mated to be attributable to race tracks. Five men have been 
 convicted this year of stealing money from the United States 
 postoffice, and every one of them confessed he lost tlie money 
 at race traces. The luania for gambling is growing stronger, 
 and as it grows the defenses of honesty crumble away. 
 
 What may be called gambling thieves are not. so numerous 
 in Chicago as in some other cities, for the reason that no race 
 tracTvs are permitted to exist in Cook county. 7-?nt tliere are 
 many gambling swindlers in this city. A large proportion of 
 flio men in the county jail are there ])ecause gambling wrecked 
 morals in them, and hardly a week passes that does not find 
 at least one person before the conrts cliarged with r()l)l)ery bo- 
 cause money was wanted to bet. 
 
 This is not all of the injury that gambling does to the com- 
 
GAMBLING AND ("RIME 3GT 
 
 iniinity. Because the state's attornej^'s office and the police 
 ]\avo not suppressed gambling the city is full of sharpers who 
 make their living out of men foolish enough to think that they 
 can get rich by betting on horse races, faro or roulette. These 
 sharpers are an organized band of law breakers, preying on 
 society, disorganizing it as far as is possible, their whole exis- 
 tence a menace to decency and order. 
 
 The passion for gambling can probably never bo eradicated 
 from human nature. But civilization should be able to pre- 
 vent rogues and rascals from profiting by it in the way usual 
 in Chicago. Professional gamblers — professional swindlers, 
 should be sent to the penitentiary and kept there. There 
 should be some means under the law to send all such to the 
 penitentiary and keep them there. 
 
 How TO ExD Eace-Track Gambling. 
 
 Race-track gambling has unexpectedly become an issue of 
 importance in New A'ork, and widespread discussion of means 
 k) rid the city of its race tracks is taking place. 
 
 Discussion, however, is unnecessary. The way to end the 
 plague of betting on races is plain. Let the grand jury indict 
 officials of the Western Union Telegraph Company for com- 
 plicity in bookmaking and send them to jail. Without gam- 
 bling race tracks would be deserted. Without the aid of the 
 Western Union there would be no gambling worth mention- 
 ing. Strike at the Western ITnion and the race tracks would 
 go out of existence. 
 
 The Western Union Company is the one great eneourager of 
 gambling in this country. But for its reports of races, hun- 
 dreds of thousands of young men would be saved from ruin 
 every year. Tt is in partnership with sharpers who fleece the 
 foolish. It shares their gains in pa3anent for the use of its 
 wires. The money that flows into its coffers from that source 
 is taken by trickery from the public. The race track swindlers 
 rob a man and hand over a part of their loot to the Western 
 
368 
 
 GAMBLING AND CRIME 
 
 ■L_^->^:^^p^^.C^ 
 
 "^SS^&M^^ -:^ 
 
 
 'C=Sj 
 
 Do they tliiiik about us at lioine? We air having such a good time 
 liear a lone. 
 
 Union, because withom the Western Union's assistance they 
 could not have robbed him. 
 
 But for the Western Union Telegraph Company not a single 
 race track would be in operation in the United States, for 
 without the Western Union's aid race tracks would not be 
 ])rofi table. 
 
I 
 
 GAMBLING AND CRIME 369 
 
 The way to stop race tracks gambling and drive race courses 
 out of existence is to compel the AVestern Union to observe the 
 law which forbids just such practices as those of which it is 
 guilty every day. That can be done only by sending a few 
 Western Union officials to jail and keeping them there until 
 their company concludes to dissolve partnership with crooks. 
 
 Learn Early Not to Gamble; Teach Pupils Law of 
 Chance. 
 Mere driftwood on a restless wave; 
 
 A shuttlecock that's tossed by Fate; 
 Year follows year into the grave, 
 
 Whilst thou dost cry, "Too late ! Too late !"' 
 
 A life that's but a wintry day, 
 
 Whilst chilling storms blow thee about; 
 
 A tempter thou durst not say nay ; 
 A conscience long since put to rout. 
 
 Who gets by play a loser is; 
 
 The gambler stakes his very heart; 
 What's prodigally won's not his; '■ 
 
 Who Avagers takes the knave's foul part. 
 
 Thou shouldst not steal nor covet Avhat 
 
 Another hath by labor earned; 
 No man who hath with wisdom wrought 
 
 But this base sport hath ever spurned. 
 
 Why haggard thus thy fair, young fncr 
 With vigils, passions, aimed at gain? 
 
 Is this thy mission in this place — 
 This idleness which brings disdain? 
 
 Be not a weakling, nor of Avax ; 
 
 Let mind be master over thee ; 
 See that its shaping of thy acts 
 
 Prepares thee for eternity ! 
 
370 GAMBLl^NiG A2s"D ClUME 
 
 xVrt thou thy brother's keeper? 
 
 Most emphatically, yes, if he he not sufficiently strong to re- 
 frain from doing that which is injurious to himself and those 
 dependent upon him. 
 
 Public Lax; Gamblers Active. 
 
 When the law declares against gambling, and advertisement 
 and sale of even "fair" gambling paraphernalia, why is it that 
 the righteous majority, which would not stoop to this form of 
 speculation, sits inertly by, allows crooked devices to be adver- 
 tised and sold, permits hundreds of men to waste their time and 
 substance, and dozens to blow out their brains as a conse- 
 quence ? 
 
 Why do "good" men prate on "personal liberty," which is 
 merely their way of washing their hands of the responsibility 
 for good government. 
 
 Does it eradicate the evil to say a man is a free moral agent 
 and need not lose his money gambling unless he wants to; 
 that "virtue is its own reward;" that "honesty is the best 
 policy," or that taking without giving return is a sin? 
 
 Would it not be better for this inactive majority of talkers 
 to elect incorruptible men who can do something besides talk — 
 men who would enforce the laws and provide heavy punish- 
 ments for concerns whicli make gambling machines in which 
 the unsuspecting have absolutely no chance to win? 
 
 Are We Following Rome to the Pit? 
 
 Are we going the way of Greece and Rome? Is there a 
 menace in the rapid increase of wealth in the United States? 
 Are we allowing the moral tone of society to sink? 
 
 The present tendency is toward speculation, even from cikl- 
 hood. In most cities the child barely able to walk can find slot 
 machines in candy stores and drug stores from which he is 
 made to believe ho can get something for nothing. Is this the 
 proper training to give eliildren? Is it right to get something 
 for which no return of money or labor is given ? And is it right 
 
GAMBLING AND CRIME 371 
 
 to thus lure eliildren when adults know that their pennies more 
 than pay for what they get — premiums and all? 
 
 Children in school should he taught to calculate probahilities 
 as a part of their course in elementary arithmetic. Then they 
 would know better than to play slot machines or buy prize 
 packages. And when they grew up they would shun the book- 
 maker, the lottery, and the roulette wheel. 
 
 The ordinary gambler speculates partly because he loves the 
 excitement and thrill of the game, but mainly, he will assure 
 you, as he assures himself, he is buoyed up by the hope of 
 winning. He does not stop to figure out his chances. If he 
 sees a hundred to one shot he will play it, seeing only that by 
 risking a dollar he has a chance to win a hundred. If he had 
 been taught in school to see that really the chances were 200 
 to 1 against him, and that he was betting a dollar against 
 fifty cents, he would keep his money in his pockets. Of course 
 the man who plays the races knows the odds of the book are 
 against him. He prides himself, however, that he is a wise 
 reader of the "dope sheet," and that can overcome the odds by 
 a superior cunning. 
 
 He knows that he can't win on his luck, for this "breaks 
 even" in the long run. 
 
 Fate's Cards Always Stacked. 
 
 But the man who plays against a machine, if he has taken 
 the elementary course in the law of probabilities, can suffer 
 under no delusions and cannot give himself any reasonable 
 excuse. He is bound to lose. The odds on the machine are 
 against him. And even if they were not, it is entirely likely 
 that the machine would win. An old gambler contends that if 
 a man matched pennies all day every day for a month against 
 a purely mechanical device he would quit a heavy loser. The 
 only way he could keep even would be to start out with "heads" 
 or "tails," and then go away and leave the machine at work, 
 never changing his bet. If he remained to watch the operation 
 
Sr^ GAMBLlXei AXD VHUIE 
 
 he would be sure to lose his head and begin to •"guess"" against 
 the relentless mechanism, and then he would lose. 
 
 In the ordinary coin-paying slot machine, the dial r^liows 
 alternate reds and blacks, interspersed here and there with 
 quarters, halves and, perhaps, $1. The player wins 5 cents 
 on the black, 20 cents on the quarter, 45 cents on the half, 
 and 95 cents on the dollar. The dials differ, but suppose 
 there are thirty reds, thirty blacks, ten quarters, five halves, 
 and one dollar. The chances are against you, then, on the red 
 or black, 46 to 30; on the quarter, GQ to 24; on the half, 71 
 to 24, and on the dollar, ')o to 19. Most players,, it is said, prefer 
 the larger sums as a hazard in the coin machines, although the 
 ])r()babilities against them are much greater. Again, they are 
 (hizzled by the chance of winning a large sum at a small risk. 
 Ideally, they are betting their nickel against 3 cents on the 
 red or black, and against 2 cents or less on the larger sums. 
 
 Children Throw Away Money. 
 
 If the children knew this they would not fool away their 
 money in the machines when they go for a boat ride on the 
 lake, and it is reasonable to suppose that grown men and women 
 would beware of them if they had learned to figure chances 
 M'lien they were in school. In the penny machines in the cigar 
 h^tores the probabilities are harder to figure. You play a cent 
 in the machine, and if you get two pairs from a revolving 
 pack of cards, always exposing the faces of five, you win a 
 5-cent cigar. In most of the machines you must get "jacks 
 up or better" in order to win. Any poker player will bet you 
 a chip on any deal that you will not have as good as a pair of 
 trays, and the chances that you will have two pairs as good as 
 jacks up must be at least twenty to one. 
 
 Some of the machines consist of wheels of fortune whiili 
 7-evolve from the weight of the penny dropped in the slot. In 
 any event the child gets a penny's worth of goods, and there .iic 
 chances to got two or five cents' worth. Cum uiiicliincs siivc ;in 
 
GAMBLlN(i AXI) CBUIE 
 
 3r;3 
 
 alleged ceiifs worth of gum, with a ehaueo for a coupon, which 
 is good for a nickle's worth without extra charge. 
 
 How many steps is this apparently harmless form of amuse- 
 ment removed from the deceptive slot machines in cigar stores ? 
 And, in turn, how many steps are these cigar machines re- 
 
374 GAMBLING AND CEIME 
 
 moved from those in the saloons ? The boy who wins five cents 
 worth in the candy store will take cigarette tobacco or a cigar, 
 if the dealer be unprincipled. Next he tries for a cigar in a 
 cigar store, and then for a cigar in a saloon. If he is lucky 
 in the last named, he is asked to a friendly game of poker. 
 Be3'ond asking if it is a pleasure to either lose to or win from 
 a friend, and to express the opinion that even though the game 
 be perfectly square, and there be no rake-off, it still remains 
 true that the time lost, and money spent for drinks and cigars, 
 far outAveigh in value any pleasure that may be experienced. 
 
 Confederates Used. 
 
 Men who m.ake a business of conducting and playing poker 
 game^ stop at nothing to get the money. The expenses of run- 
 ning the place, and the free lunches, drinks and cigars dis- 
 pensed must be paid for by some one, and the proprietor is not 
 in business to lose money. The game in which there is no 
 rake-off cannot possibly be square, and where there is a rake- 
 off the odds against you are prohibitive, if you play fair. Witli 
 seven men in a game of "draw," three of whom are '^louse"' 
 men, the amount which goes into the "kitty" nightly is usually 
 about equal to the losses of the other cheat who dares not be 
 found out. 
 
 Cheating Device in a Slot ^Iachine, 
 
 Ordinarily Ihe owners and saloonkeepers divide the win- . 
 nings of all slot machines. In a fair machine the winnings 
 fall into the receptacle A. Most of the money gambled by 
 players found its way into this depository. It did not please 
 the owner of this machine to share his profits equally with 
 the saloonkeeper. The winning player was paid from the 
 nickels which lined a zig-zag chute ending at C. The owner 
 changed this scheme by inserting the secret bag B. Then he 
 cut a hole in the chute at D and arranged a spring which 
 diverted one out of three nickels into B. As long as flic 
 
GAMBLING AND CKIME 
 
 Slot Machine Proves a Fraud, 
 
376 GAMBLIXU AXD CKIME 
 
 chute was ompty below the i^oint of ontraneo of A the nickels 
 kept on filling the zig-zag runway. 
 
 When the machine was seized, in the l)ox where all the 
 gains were supposed to be, $60.20 was found. These two 
 sums represented the total proceeds of a day. 
 
 Confederates, mirrors, ^words, signs and hold-outs are used. 
 A player dealing from a stacked deck will inform his confed- 
 erate how many cards to draw by uttering a sentence contain- 
 ing that number of words. Men lounging behind a player will 
 "tip off'"' his hand. Cards are marked in a manner impercep- 
 tible to the eye of the novice, and sometimes liquid refresh- 
 ment is spilled on the table in front of the dealer, so that his 
 opposite can read the reflections of the cards as they are dealt 
 face doA^mward across the board. The last-named scheme is 
 used where the table has no covering. 
 
 There are many who belie-s-e that talks of crookedness at card 
 tables are only sermons by "goody-goodies,"' who know not 
 whereof they speak. Let the following advertisement, recently 
 sent broadcast over the country by a large concern located in 
 the business center of one of America's largest cities, refute 
 such claims: 
 
 HOLD OT'TS. 
 
 "CoRRESPO^-l) WITH Us Before Buying of Others." 
 We have the lincst line in the c-ountry. and every machine 
 
 is made to set the money — not for ornament, and accuracy. 
 
 Is as perfect as a watch. Works with a knee movement, and 
 
 l)y a slight movement everything disappears. If they have 
 
 plavcd cards all their lives they will stand it. 
 Our price only .'S125.0O. 
 
 . The circular also mentioned dozens of other crooked devices 
 at lesser prices, and contained illustrations showing how the 
 machines work. Can there be any doubt these are used when 
 concerns devote their entire time to manufacturing them and 
 can get such high prices? 
 
 The sleeve hold-out above mentioned, is made of a hair 
 cloth sidewav, about the same size as a deck of cards, with its 
 narrow sides laid in fine, plaited folds, so that it will either lie 
 
GAMBLING AiNi) CKiAEK 
 
 37'i 
 
 Fig. 27.— .Showing card 
 held under the arm. 
 
 Fig 28 —Ring Holdout. 
 'Table-reflector. — Fastens by pressing steel spurs into 
 
 Fig. 20. 
 under side of table. A fine glass comes to the edge of 
 table -to read the cards. as you deal them off/ You can 
 set the glass at any angle or turn it back out of sight in 
 an instant,' 
 
378 GAMBLIXG AXD CRIME 
 
 fiat or expand. This is sewed in tlie sleeve of the coat or shirt 
 and reaches from the cuff to the elbow joint. One of the wide 
 sides is sewn or pasted to the cuff, both ends being open. At 
 the elbow a strap fits around the arm, to which is attached a 
 metal tube that reaches down to the near end of the sleeve, 
 with a pulley attached to the end. A short wide elastic is also 
 attached to the strap, and to the elastic is fastened a metal 
 clamp that holds the cards. A cord is attached to this clamp, 
 which runs down and over the pulley, then back to the elbow 
 through the metal tube, thence to the shoulder, through the 
 clothing to the body, thence down through the loop at the 
 heel, with a hook attached to the end. The cord passes through 
 a flexible tulje from the elbow to the ankle. This tube will 
 bend easil}^, but will not flatten, and is attached to the cloth- 
 ing with string ties to keep it in line with the body. Its use is 
 to prevent the cord from ticking or binding. 
 
 To work this hold out the hook at the end of the cord is 
 fastened to the loop of the shoe on the opposite foot. When 
 the feet are spread apart the act causes the cord to draw the 
 clamp referred to down through the sideway and to the near 
 end of the sleeve. Any cards that are in it will reach into 
 the palm of the hand, where they can be taken out or placed 
 back into the clamp. By drawing the feet together again the 
 ■cord relaxes, and the elastic will draw the clamp and the cards 
 it contains back up the slideway to its place near the elbow. 
 There are other similar hold-outs. Don't let them hold you up. 
 
 ^Iarked Cards. 
 
 Marked cards are known among gamblers as "Paper,"' and 
 are considered an article of utility in draw poker. The dealer, 
 should he be a second dealer, will deal second to himself in- 
 stead of reading the hand of his opponent's, thus giving 
 himself a pair, two pair, threes or whatever he wishes. ^larked 
 cards are used by those who are not second dealers, as they are 
 often able to fill a hand bv holding a card in the hand to cor^ 
 
GAMBLING AND CRIME 
 
 379 
 
 Caught Working the Sleeve Hold- out 
 
380 
 
 GAMBLING AXD CRIME 
 
GAMBLING AND CRIME 381 
 
 respond to the card on the top of the pack, and in any case 
 enabled to read opponent's hands and play accordingly. They 
 are perhaps the greatest advantage to a professional second 
 dealer, as by drawing a bob-tail card of any kind he can spoil 
 the chances of an honest player, however, skillful. People at 
 large are becoming aware of many of the schemes used in 
 swindling, but so fast as the public becomes acquainted with a 
 scheme, the shark invents something to take its place or practices 
 the old one until he has it so fmo under his manipulation it 
 is hardly recognizable. A professional gambler is soon known. 
 Even if he is never detected cheating, he is given credit for it. 
 
 Cards Marked With Fixger Nails. 
 
 This is a mark put on the cards during the progress of the 
 game, with finger nail or thumb nail. It is put on so that the 
 gambler may know just what his opponent holds. The ace 
 is marked with a straight line or mark in upper right hand 
 corner. The king, is a straight line about one-half inch long 
 in the center of the card. The queen is a straight line a half 
 inch longer than the king. The jack is a straight line about 
 the center of the card. The ten spot is designated by a straight 
 line or mark in the same position as the ace. The nine spot 
 is a slanting line in position of king. The eight is a 
 slanting line in position of queen. Seven is a slanting line in 
 position of jack. The six is denoted by a straight line in posi- 
 tion of ace, running across the card at right angles to the aco 
 mark. The five is same as six in position of king. The four is 
 the same as five and six in position of queen. The tray is same 
 mark in position of jack. Deuce is a cross below the jack sign. 
 The mark denoting the suit of the card is placed in the center 
 of the top of the card. Hearts are designated by a perpendicular 
 line at the center end of the card. Clubs are shown by a horiz- 
 ontal line in the same position. Diamonds are shown by a 
 slanting line in the same position. And of course, as hearts, 
 clubs and diamonds are marked, a card without a mark would 
 
883 GAMBLING AXD CRIME 
 
 be a spade. This is one of the most dangerous tricks, as it is 
 done during the progress of the game, and unless some one 
 knows something about it, it would never be detected. 
 
 The Doublt: Discard. 
 
 This is used b}' many of the gamblers, and is done tlirough 
 the neglect of the players. The man doing this will always 
 draw three cards, no matter what he may hold in his liand. 
 It is done by placing the cards he wishes to keep on top of the 
 ones he wishes to discard, and laying tli^m down beside him, 
 ostensibly discarding them. As he is given his three cards lie 
 looks them over and has eight cards out of which to pick his 
 hand. Suppose in his original hand he held three diamonds 
 and a club; he places the three diamonds beside him and calls 
 for three cards, holding one diamond and the club in his hand. 
 When his cards are dealt him he has five cards out of which to 
 pick two diamonds. He selects two cards and discards three 
 cards; at the same time he picks up the three cards that he 
 discarded first. Very few are expert enough to this trick with- 
 out detection. 
 
 Check Signs. 
 
 This is a set of signs made with the use of checks. In mak- 
 ing these signs a white check counts one, a piece of silver or a 
 colored check counts five; often when colored chocks or silver 
 are not handy, matches are used instead. The count of checks 
 corresponds to the size of the cards. One colored check would 
 denote a pair of fives, or three fives, when used in a certain way, 
 which I Avill endeavor to explain fully. Of course, all these 
 different signs are used between two men, Avho are in league 
 with each other in order to cheat a game. The first sign in 
 this set is the sorting of cards, which means that the hand is 
 no good. Should this sign not be given, the partner will look 
 for the sign denoting what is hold. When one man wishes to 
 show that he hns a pair, he holds the check or cards in the 
 right hand, slightly to the left of his body. For instance, a 
 
UAMBLINU AND CKIME 383 
 
 white check held in the right hand, nearly in front of the heart, 
 would denote that a pair of aces were held. Two checks, a pair 
 of deuces, and so on to eleven, which signifies jacks; twelve, 
 (jueens, and thirteen, kings. For two pair, the head pair is 
 shown, the checks being held squarely in front. For instance, 
 aces up would be shown by holding one white check up in front 
 of the body. For three of a kind, the same sign is used, merely 
 the*check is held a little to the right of the body. Three colored 
 and one ■white Avonld signify that a straight was held; four 
 colored and one white would signify that a flush was held ; five 
 colored and one white cheek would signify that a full house was 
 held; six colored and one white would mean four of a kind; 
 two colored checks, together in the palm of the hand, means a 
 straight flush. 
 
 Uses to Which a Pack of Caeds May be Put. 
 
 A pack of cards may be used as a Bible, a prayer book, and 
 an almanac. As a Bible and prayer book, the ace should re- 
 mind you that there is one God ; the deuce, of the Father and 
 Son; the tra}^, of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; the four, 
 of the four evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; the 
 five of the five virgins, who had filled and trimmed their 
 lamps; the six, of the command to labor six days a week; the 
 seven, of the seventh day, which God blessed and hallowed; 
 the eight, of the eight righteous persons who were saved in the 
 ark, Noah, his wife and three sons and their wives; the nine, 
 of the nine lepers who were cleansed by our Savior and never 
 thanked Him for it; the ten, of the ten commandments; the 
 king, of the Great King Almighty; the queen, of Sheba, who 
 visited Solomon; Solomon was the wisest man living, and she 
 was as wise a woman as he was a man; the knave, of Judas 
 Tscariot, who betrayed our Savior. 
 
 As an almanac, count the spots, and 3?6n have three hundred 
 and sixty-five, the number of days in a 5^ear. Count the cards, 
 and you have fifty-two, the number of weeks in a year. Count 
 
384 GA^IBIJNG A^'D CRIME 
 
 the i?uit.s, and \ou luive four, the number of weeks in a month. 
 Count the face cards, and you have twelve, the number of 
 months in a year. Count the trickf?, and you have thirteen, and 
 you have the number of ^^eeks in a quarter. 
 The Bill Hanr 
 
 You have often seen a lot of poker players playing witli a 
 lot of checks stacked up in front of them and a few bills or 
 greenbacks spread out in front of them, between checks and 
 themselves. A player having his checks in this manner needs 
 watching, for it is easy to slide a full hand or four of a kind 
 under those bills whenever an opportunity occurs. Whenever 
 a good fat pot appears he can use this hand which he has 
 under the hills by simply putting his hand on top of the bills 
 and turning tliem over, which brings the good hand on top and 
 poor ones under the bills. He always makes a practice of lay- 
 ing his cards down on the bills, and other players see it at 
 different times and will think nothing of it. The only way 
 to detect this is hy missing the five cards out of the pack, and 
 one has to he a expert to miss five cards out of fifty-two without 
 counting them, and after playing a good hand in this way he 
 must get rid of the deal hand, which is under the bills, in 
 order to get ready to collect another hand for the next play. The 
 principal thing about this work is to do it at the right time and 
 with the right people. 
 
 Toothpick or Cigar Signs. 
 
 A gambler will use a set of signs made with a cigar, pipe or 
 toothpick to show his partner what he holds in his hand. The 
 signs are as follows: The cigar, pipe or toothpick placed in 
 the left side of the mouth signifies a pair. On the right side 
 two pair; in the center of the moutli means threes. To signify 
 that a straight is hold the cigar is moved up and do^\^l witli 
 the fore finger. Working in the same manner with the first and 
 second finger denotes a flush. With the third finger denotes 
 a full house. With fourth finger means four of a kind. To 
 
GAMBIJNG AND CHIME 385 
 
 show the size of the liand the fingers are placed on the cigar, 
 ])ipe or toothpick in the following manner: Suppose a pair of 
 aces are held, the cigar is placed in the left hand corner of 
 the mouth and touched with the first finger of the right hand. 
 Aces up or three aces can be shown in the same way. Tlio 
 first finger denoting aces, the second kings, the third queens 
 and the fourth jacks. 
 
 GAMBLING DEVICE SWINDLE IN ARMY 
 AND NAVY. 
 
 Scope of Fraud World-Wide — Soldiers and Sailors Victims 
 of Contrivances. 
 
 On May 19, 1906, Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge, with ten 
 men, swooped down on: H. C. Evans, 125 South Clark street; 
 George De Shone, 402 Xorth Clark street; Barr & Co., E. 
 Manning Stockton, 56 Fifth avenue. The offices were raided 
 and sure-thing gambling devices valued at $5,000 seized and 
 destroyed. H. C. Evans was arrested and fined $200; George 
 De Shone was arrested and fined $100, and E. Manning Stock- 
 ton arrested and fined $25. Afterwards E. Manning Stockton 
 was indicted, arrested and gave bonds, which he forfeited and 
 then fled. 
 
 Disclosure of conditions which so seriously threatened the 
 discipline of the Fnited States army and navy that the secre- 
 taries of the two departments, and even President Roosevelt 
 himself, were called upon to aid in their suppression, were 
 made in the Harrison Street police court following this arrest. 
 
 It was charged that a coterie of Chicago men engaged in 
 making and selling these devices had formed a "trust," and 
 had for years robbed, swindled, and corrupted the enlisted men 
 of the army and navy through loaded dice, "hold-outs," mag- 
 netized roulette Avheels, and other crooked gambling appar- 
 atus. 
 
380 
 
 GAMBLING AND CRIME 
 
 j^/ec/f/c D/ce 
 
 The Way Some Cards Are Marked, 
 
GAMBLING AND CRIME 387 
 
 The "crooked" gambling "trust" in Chicago spread over 
 the civilized world, had its clutches on nearly every United 
 States battleship, army post, and military prison ; caused whole- 
 sale desertions, and in general corrupted the entire defense of 
 the nation. 
 
 Try to Corrupt School Boys. 
 
 Besides the corruption of the army, these companies are 
 said to have aimed a blow at the foundation of the nation, 
 by offering, through a mail order plan, for six cents, loaded 
 dice to school boys, provided they sent the names of likely 
 gamblers among their playmates. 
 
 This plan had not reached its full growth when nipped. 
 But the disruption of the army and navy had been under way 
 for several years, and had reached such gigantic proportions 
 that the military service was in danger of complete disorgani- 
 zation. 
 
 Thousands of men were mulcted of their pay monthly. 
 
 Desertions followed these wholesale robberies. The War 
 Department could not find the specific trouble. Post command- 
 ers and battleship commanders were instructed to investigate. 
 
 The army investigation, confirmed after the raid and arrests, 
 showed that the whole army had been honey-combed with cor- 
 ruption by these companies. Express books and registered 
 mail return cards showed that most of the goods were sold to 
 soldiers and Sailers. 
 
 Forts Infected by Evil. 
 
 Fort Eiley, Cavite, P. I., Manila, P. I., Honolulu, the Alas- 
 kan army posts. Fort Leavenworth, Fort Eeno, Fort Logan, 
 Columbus Barracks, Fort McPherson, were among the posts 
 where hundreds of dollars worth of equipment was sent, and 
 where thousands upon thousands of dollars a month was the 
 booty obtained by the Chicago trust on a commission basis. 
 
 Battleships in every squadron, the naval stations of this na- 
 
n.s8 
 
 CAMliLlNH AM) cm ME 
 
GAMBLING AM) CHIME ;^89 
 
 tion all through the world, navy yards, and other points where 
 marines are stationed, have been loaded with the devices. 
 
 It was found, upon investigation, that '^'cappers" were se- 
 lected from the enlisted men. Agents, who ran the games on 
 commission, were also found. These men, dazzled by financial 
 prospects, deserted in droves. 
 
 Many Victims Suicides. 
 
 The men wlio were fleeced and had their small pay taken 
 from them month after month, became reckless. Some ended 
 as suicides. Hundreds became xmruly and were subjected to 
 guard-house sentences. They deserted in their despair. The 
 conditions in the navy were even worse. Scores of the battle- 
 ship crews would be in irons at a time. 
 
 To the honor of the service, it was found that no officers had 
 ever participated in the corrupting vocation. It was the rank 
 and file who "fell for it,^' as the gamblers said. They became 
 either tools or victims, to the extent, it was estimated, of fiO 
 per cent. 
 
 KING DEATH. 
 
 -Vn Average of 200 Suicides a Year at Monte Carlo — 
 Many Bodies Are Secretly Thrown Into Sea by 
 Authorities of This, the World's Greatest 
 Gambling House. 
 Paris, jSTov. 20. — Three thousand known suicides and mur- 
 ders have been committed in Monte Carlo in the space of 
 fifteen years. The known suicides average fully 200 a year, 
 and some weeks there have been as many as three a day. The 
 Casino authorities do everything to hush up scandals and news 
 of tragedies. A large force of plain-clothes men are engaged 
 to either prevent suicides or to hurry the body of the dead im- 
 fortunate out of the way. It is estimated that more than one- 
 half of the tragedies of Monte Carlo are never heard of except 
 by the Casino staff. The corpse is rushed quietly to the morgue 
 
390 
 
 GAMBLL\(.i AND CRIME 
 
 THE END OF THE ROAD 
 
GAMBLING AKD CEIME 391 
 
 — a secret morgue. Here it is kept some time to see whether 
 relatives or friends are going to interfere or kick up a row. 
 
 Bodies Thrown" in" Ocean, 
 Every once in a while a small steamer slips out of the har- 
 bor at dead of night. Its cargo is secured at the secret morgue. 
 At sea the bodies are thrown overboard, duly weighted, without 
 toll of bell or muttered prayer. There are countless graves of 
 unknown dead in the Monte Carlo cemetery. But these are 
 only those whose death has become known to the public. The 
 Casino authorities have a special bureau, whose duties are to 
 relieve persons ruined at the tables. The ruined gambler can 
 get from this bureau enough money to take him to his home, 
 or to some spot far from Monaco. Few know of this, perhaps, 
 or there would not be so many deaths. The "dead-broke" gam- 
 bler is taken through many inner chambers and before stern- 
 faced men, to whom he has to tell his history in detail. He is 
 also confronted with the different croupiers, who testify as to 
 whether he really lost as much as he may claim. 
 
 Banish the Dead Broke. 
 Then the wretched man has to sign a docuftient banishing 
 himself forever from Monaco. His name and particulars are 
 written in the 'Tblack book," his photograph is taken and given 
 to the doorkeepers and other officials to study, and then the 
 man is taken to the r&ilway station, a ticket bought, a few 
 dollars given him, and an official escorts him as far as the 
 frontier. Should he return it would not avail him. The 
 police would turn him back again into France or Italyo It is 
 related that an American who was "^TDroke" and anxious to get 
 back to the United States heard of this feature of Monte Carlo. 
 He had not gambled there because he had no money, but he 
 managed to make his way to Monte Carlo and demanded to 
 see the authorities. He coolly asked for a steamer ticket to 
 ISTew York. Inquiries revealed that he had only just arrived 
 in Monaco, and had never put a foot inside the Casino, bul 
 
39^ GAMBLING AND CRIME 
 
 despite this the authorities gave him a steerage ticket to Isevr 
 York and saw him on his way. 
 
 BoxAPARTES Big Stockholders. 
 
 There is also the case of an important Indian arm}^ officer 
 who went broke. The authorities gave him first-class passage 
 to Calcutta, and $250 expense money. He had lost several 
 thousands. As much as $3,500 has been paid out to a big loser 
 so that ho could settle up his hotel bill and take himself and 
 family home. Should such money be paid back the Casino 
 might again welcome the man. The sums usually paid range 
 from $25 to $200, and an average of 1,000 people a year apply 
 for this relief. The profits of the Casino are immense. Last 
 year they were $7,500,000, an increase of $760,000 over the 
 previous year. Seventy per cent was paid to the shareholders. 
 The majority of the shares are held by the Blanc family, the 
 leading member of which is the Princess Marie Bonaparte, 
 whose father was Prince Roland Bonaparte, and mother the 
 daughter of M. Blanc, the founder of Monte Carlo. She is the 
 wealthiest princess in the world, and was lately married to 
 Prince George of Greece, who is an impecunious princeling and 
 needs the money. 
 
 Prince Owns no Stock. 
 
 The prince of Monaco has not a single share in the enter- 
 prise. But he derives his entire income from the sum paid 
 him by the Gamblers' Company for the lease of Monaco. The 
 prince is of especial interest to Americans, because of his Amer- 
 ican wife. She was Miss Alice Heine of Xew Orleans. When 
 she married the prince she was a widow, the Dowager Duchess 
 of Richelieu. The prince is a "divorced" man. He first mar- 
 ried Lady Mary, the daughter of the Duke of Hamilton and 
 Brandon, and a son and heir was born. But eleven yeai-s after 
 the marriage the pair were so unhappy that an appeal was 
 nlade to the pope. The Catholic church, of course, does not 
 recognize divorces, but the pope issued a special pronounce- 
 
GAMBLING AND CRIME 393 
 
 ment declaring his 11-year-old marriage invalid, for the reason 
 
 that the Lady Mary's mother "over-persuaded her to marry." 
 
 Receives Enormous Income. 
 
 The prince, in return for the gambling concession, has been 
 getting an annual income of a quarter of a million dollars and 
 all the expenses of running the State of Monaco, including the 
 maintenance of the army and the royal palace. He recently 
 granted a further contract to the "Monaco Sea-Bathing Com- 
 pany," or to give the gambling concerns the full title "La 
 Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et Cercle des Strangers 
 a Monaco." 
 
 This concession now extends to 1947, and the annual in- 
 come of the prince has been raised $100,000. Every ten years 
 it will be raised an additional $50,000. In six years time the 
 Casino will also have to pay him a lump sum down of $3,000,- 
 000. It is stated that the prince of Monaco is by no means in 
 favor of the Casino, and that he abhors the gambling and the 
 consequent scandal in his state, and that could he do so, he 
 would at once stop it. But in the old original contract it was 
 agreed that the concession should be extended to 1947, and the 
 prince is not rich enough to break this contract and pay the 
 indemnity which the law would quickly assess. 
 Gambling Kings Go Broke; Often Die in the Poorhouse. 
 
 Some one has advanced the statement that every human 
 being is a gambler at heart. Yet for a man to go into tbe 
 business of establishing a card gambling house under modern 
 conditions is to attempt one of the riskiest businesses in the 
 world. Recently one of the most noted gaming-house keepers 
 in the country seems to have suggested a further anomaly in 
 the situation in his utterance in a court of record : 
 
 "When I conduct a house on a 10 per cent basis of profit it 
 is only a matter of time until my steady patron ''goes broke.' " 
 
 In the face of this statement, however, the innocent layman 
 may be still further at sea when it is recalled by old habitues 
 of the gaming table that nearly every gambling king of mod- 
 
394 GAMBLING AND CRIME 
 
 ern history has finished close to the poorhouse and the potter's 
 field! How is it possible that the gambler with the insidious, 
 certain 10 per cent which inevitably wrecks the man who goes 
 often enough to the green table almost invariably dies in pov- 
 erty ? 
 
 Must Have Fortune to Invest. 
 
 Today it is the gambler king who at least has an ephemeral 
 show to gain fleeting riches. But in order that these riches 
 shall approach riches as they are measured in other businesses, 
 the man who opens the gambling house must have a fortune 
 for the investment. His outlawed business itself will make it 
 certain that he pays the maximum rental or the highest price 
 for the property which he chooses for occupancy. To sustain 
 this he will need to seek out the wealthy patron who not only 
 has money to lose, but who may have a certain influence which 
 may tend toward immunity for keeper and player alike. The 
 "establishment" will need to have the best cuisine and the 
 best cellars, with palatial furnishings and a retinue of serv- 
 ants in full keeping. 
 
 And somewhere money will be necessary in blinding officials 
 to the existence of an institution which is visible to the merest 
 tyro in ^passing along the street. 
 
 A constitution of iron, the absence of a nervous system, the 
 discrimination of a King Solomon and the tact of a diplomat 
 are requisites for the successful gambling king. Considering 
 the qualification of the man for such a place and the final 
 ending of tlie gambling king's career, it might be a sociological 
 study worth while to determine Avhere, on a more worthy bent, 
 such capacities in a man might land him. 
 
 In real life, however, it must be admitted iliat the gambler 
 king is looked upon in exaggerated light. Almost without ex- 
 ception the big gambler is posing always. Conventionality 
 has demanded it of him. But for more than this, in order to 
 command the following which he desires, he must have a cer- 
 tain social side which is not too prominent, but which with 
 
GAAIBLING AND CEIME 395 
 
 tact and judgment he may bring otit on dress parade. To the 
 layman the gambler is the dark, sinister figure pictured in 
 melodrama. He bears the same relation to gambling that 
 Simon Legree bore to the institution of slavery of fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 Story of. One Gambler King. 
 
 One of the noted gamblers of his time in this country passed 
 from laboring on the docks into the j)rize ring. When his ring 
 work was ended the gambling house was an easy step onward 
 in illegitimate fields. On the docks his reputation was not 
 above a bit of "strong arm" work in separating a man from 
 the money which the dock walloper wanted. Naturally, under 
 the Queen sherry rules, there were things in the ring which he 
 could not do in overcoming an antagonist, and he learned to 
 make concessions to fairness — which was education. 
 
 Opening a gambling house that was adapted to the wants 
 of a rich clientele, it was a necessity that he preserve this edu- 
 cational regard for his patrons, and that he should add to it. 
 Soon he was in a position where it was imperative that his 
 reputation for fair dealing be kept intact. He became the 
 "gentleman gambler" whose "word" carried all the accepted 
 concomitants of his gentleman's business. In the course of 
 events he attained a high legislative office under the govern- 
 ment. But it may be said for those who knew the man as a 
 man, not one ever ceased to regard him at heart as the dock 
 walloper, with the inherent and unreconstructed disposition 
 to regard other men as legitimate prey. Had other conditions 
 and circumstances made a card sharp of him, he would have 
 held to the promptings of his nature. 
 
 In the conduct of a gambling house of the first class, the 
 gambling king needs for himself and for his patrons the as- 
 surance of uninterrupted play. Men of money and position 
 will not go to a house where there is menace of a police raid. 
 The small gambler may subsidize the policeman on the beat 
 in which his house stands, but he cannot placate the whole 
 
;j9n 
 
 GAMBLING AND CRIME 
 
GAMBLING AiND CHIME 
 
 39T, 
 
Police Department. And even when it is thought that the 
 gambler king is impregnable in his castle someone may break 
 over the barriers and raid the place in tlie name of the law 
 and order. 
 
 Witliin a few years Xew York lias given to the world somr 
 of the inside Avorking of the gambling business. When Jerome 
 raided the place of places which had been considered immune, 
 the proprietor of the house was considered worth a million 
 dollars. Before the litigation was done and the fine paid the 
 gambler king was out $600,000, his "club-houses" were closed, 
 and he had been branded officially as a common gambler, pur- 
 sued in the courts for payment of lawyers' fees, which he 
 designated as outrageous and a "shrieking scandal." Yet this 
 man was of the type whose word had been declared as good 
 as his bond. 
 
 Dice, Faro and Roulette. 
 
 Dice, faro and roulette are the principal games of the 
 gambling house and, considering these, the experienced player 
 will tell you that he is suspicious of a "petey" in the dice box, 
 a "high layout" in faro, and a "squeezed wheel" in roulette, in 
 just the proportion that the gambling house keeper has not 
 recognized that he cannot indulge them because of the fear of 
 detection. The gambler holds to the gambler's view of the 
 gambler — and it is not complimentary to the profession. 
 
 That the gentleman gambler is justified in his attitude to- 
 ward the gentleman player, too, has been shown in the New 
 York revelations. There one gentleman player, loser to the 
 extent of $300,000, compromised with the "bank" for 130 
 bills of $1,000 denomination. There a gentleman player who 
 had lost $G9,000 to the bank tried to compromise on $*30,000, 
 but was in a position where the bank could hold him. IIow 
 mucli the gambler king may loan and lose in the course of 
 a year scarcely can be approximated. The gambling debt is 
 "a debt of honor," and even in business not all such debts are 
 paid. Whether a borrowed debt or a debt of loss to the bank. 
 
aAMBLlNir ANJJ UKiME ay9 
 
 this honor is the security, unless in emergency the gambler king 
 discovers that he can blackmail with safety to his interests 
 as a whole. 
 
 In general, the gambler who is "on the square" operates on 
 a 10 per cent basis for his bank. In addition there is the 
 '^mknown per cent*' which is his at the end of the year. The 
 roulette wheel, for example, presents to the player just one 
 chance in thirty-seven of winning on a single play, while the 
 winning on that play is paid in the proportion of only 
 34 to 1. 
 
 More Nerve to Win Thax Lose. 
 
 The one great characteristic in human nature on which the 
 gambler counts is the fact that it requires more nerve in a 
 man to win than is required of him to lose ! It is startling for 
 the layman to be told that $5,000 in a night is a big winning 
 for a plaj^er, while $5,000 is only an ordinary loss in a big 
 establishment. 
 
 This fact is based on subtle psychology. There are two 
 types of players, one of which gambles when it is in a state 
 of elation and the other when in a state of depression. With 
 either, of these types winning, it is a gambler's observation 
 that the man who will play until ho has lost $35,000 Avhen 
 luck hopelessly is against him cannot hold himself to the chair 
 after he is $5,000 winner. 
 
 Gamblers have made money — fortunes— in times past, only 
 to be buried in the potter's field. There are several reasons 
 assignable for this end. Extravagant living appeals to the 
 gambler, and when he has left his own special line of gamifig 
 it does not appeal to him strongly as either pastime or means 
 for recouping his fortune. If he turns to gaming at all it is 
 likely to be in fields where he docs not know the game. Some- 
 times he goes to the Board of Trade — sometimes to the stock 
 market. Playing there he is without system and without 
 knowledge of conditions. He is likely to bull the grain mar- 
 
'400 (^AMBLINU AND CRIME 
 
 ket two daj's after the weather conditions have assured the 
 greatest grain crop in history. 
 
 Once a gambler, always a gambler, is his condition; and it 
 is only a matter of time until someone has a game which beats 
 him out. 
 
 IT'S UP TO YOU, YOUNG MAN. 
 
 There are two trails in life, young man. 
 
 One leads to height and fame. 
 To honor, glory, peace and joy. 
 
 And one to depths of shame; 
 And you can reach that glorious huight- 
 
 Its honors can be won — 
 Or you can grope in shame's dark nigiit. 
 
 It's up to j^ou, young man. 
 
 Stern duty guards the \ipper trail — 
 
 Exact obedience, too — 
 And he who treads it cannot fail 
 
 To win if he be true. 
 But fickle folly, gay with smiles. 
 
 Rules o'er the other one. 
 And leads to ruin with her wiles. 
 
 It's up to you, young man. 
 
 At parting of the trails you stand. 
 
 At early manhood's gate; 
 Your future lies in your own hand — 
 
 Will it be low or great? 
 If now you choose the trail of Rigbl. 
 
 When you the height have won, 
 You'll bask in Honor's fadeless light — 
 
 It's up lo you, young num. 
 
A HEARTLESS FRAUD. 
 
 SCHOOLS TO TEACH SHOW-CARD WRITING 
 
 CATCH MANY VICTIMS AMONG 
 
 THE POOR GIRLS. 
 
 "December o, 1905, J. H. Bell, the proprietor of a SHOW- 
 CARD COLLEGE at "21 Quincv St., was arrested and the 
 place closed. Bell advertised for students to learn to write 
 show-cards and signs. He is said to charge $1 for a course 
 and to promise positions at large salaries as soon as the 
 course is completed. 
 
 . After the course has been finished and the tuition paid 
 Bell is declared to have refused to give the graduates em- 
 ployment on the ground that their work is unsatisfactory. 
 
 A great many girls are attracted to the scheme, and sign 
 contracts to pay Bell for the instruction in the belief that 
 they will be benefited. Bell tells them that he has customers 
 who will purchase all the cards they can make. They are 
 to receive a few cents for each card as soon as they learn 
 the business, but they are required to ]xiy a fine of 2 cents 
 for each card they spoil. 
 
 'They are set to work painting gold borders such as are seen 
 in the windows of the department stores, but the task is so 
 difficult that only a finished artist can do the work. Bell has 
 a woman accom}ili(T wlio hustU's into the office when it is 
 filled with women and girls and tells how she makes from $2-') 
 to $30 a week painting cards. Her talk encourages the girls 
 to keep on spoiling Bell's cards and increasing his income. 
 
 Swindler Ji'iips Bail. 
 "When taken before the court, Bell made a hard fight for 
 freedom, but be was held to the Criminal Court on five charges 
 
402 A HEx^RTLESS FRAUD 
 
 of obtaining money under false pretenses. Bonds were placed 
 at $300 in each case by Justice Prindiville. 
 
 "He was unable to do the work he was requiring the girls 
 to do;, so when the grand jury saw through his scheme the five 
 indictments were promptly returned. 
 
 "J. H. Bell jumped his bail, fled to Minneapolis, where he 
 conducted the same business. Here he was again arrested, 
 fined and given so many hours to leave the city." 
 
 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the next place Bell opened his 
 Show-Card College. On the 28th of September, 1906, he 
 Avas again arrested for operating a confidence game and 
 fined $80. 
 
 He then went to fSt. Louis, Mo., and opened an office in 
 the Century Building, under the name of the Clark Institute. 
 Charges of swindling women who applied to learn card-writing 
 were made against him and he was arrested, but later released 
 through some technicalities set up in the warrant of his arrest : 
 also lack of evidence to support the charges made in the 
 warrant. 
 
 The newspapers published his swindling operations and on 
 this account Bell threatened to sue both the publishers and 
 the police officials. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge located him through an article which 
 appeared in, the St. Louis paper, Avhich gave a description of 
 his Show-Card College, Avhich Avas being carried on there. 
 
 John M. Collins, General Superintendent of Police, sent 
 Bell's picture and his Bertillon system of measurements to 
 the Chief of Police in St. Louis, and requested him to make 
 the arrest. On the folloAving day John M. Collins, Superin- 
 tendent of Police, Chicago, Illinois, received the following 
 letter from E. P. Creecy, Chief of Police, St. Louis, Mo. : 
 
 St. Louis. Mp.. 
 John M. Com-ins. Esq. Dec. 22. 1900. 
 
 Superinteuclont of Polico. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Replying to your letter of Dec. 21, relative to J. H. Bell. 
 
A HEAETLESS FEAUD 403 
 
 wanted in your city for obtaining money by means of a confi- 
 dence game, will say that W. H. Clark, office 354 Century 
 Building, this city, was in the Court of Criminal Correction 
 this morning charged with larceny by trick, and a nolle prosequi 
 was entered by the prosecuting attorney. He answers the 
 description of Bell and is undoubtedly the same person, but I 
 would suggest that you send someone to identify him before 
 the arrest is made, as he is making a fight here on his case. 
 Clark is carrying on the same kind of business here as he did 
 in your city. Very respectfully, 
 
 E. P. Creecy. 
 
 Chief of Police. 
 
 Detective Harry Harris of Chicago was sent to St. Louis 
 to identify Bell, and swore that in his belief Clark was Bell. 
 The detective department wanted the ease continued until 
 Friday, but Clark insisted upon immediate trial. Judge Sale 
 held that the detective had not been positive enough in his 
 identification. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge arrived on the scene as Bell was leav- 
 ing the court room after being discharged the second time 
 by the court. Detective Wooldridge seized Bell and turned 
 him over to a St. Louis police officer and filed a new affidavit 
 of positive identification that Clark was Bell. 
 
 His lawyer demanded an immediate trial, but Detective 
 Wooldridge secured a two-day continuance to bring witnesses 
 from Chicago to prove the identity of Bell. This so enraged 
 the attorney that he turned upon Wooldridge and informed 
 him that he would again free Bell and even offered to bet 
 $200. 
 
 He further stated that he had asked Governor Folk not to 
 grant requisition papers for his client. Detective Wooldridge 
 replied, "Do you remember Admiral George Dewey at Manila 
 Bay Avho told Captain Gridley to fire when he got ready ?" 
 
 Wooldridge further told him he didn't care any more for 
 him than the dew that dropped on the jackass' mane. Wool- 
 dridge told the attorney that Bell had defrauded over two 
 hundred working girls in Chicago, Illinois, and that the Cook 
 County grand jury had investigated the matter, and returned 
 five indictments against Bell, and the Honorable Charles S. 
 
404 A HEAHTLESS EKAXJD 
 
 Deneen, Governor of the State of Illinois, had caused to be 
 issued requisition papers for the arrest and apprehension of 
 J. H. Bell, and he had made Detective Wooldridge a special 
 messenger to go to St. Louis, Mo., and bring Bell to Chicago 
 where he could be placed on trial to answer to the indictments 
 that had been brought against him. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge stated that he had come three hundred 
 miles to perform that mission and he intended that Bell 
 should return to Chicago with him. 
 
 The attorney replied "he hardly thought the Honorable 
 Governor Folk of Missouri would grant requisition papers on 
 Bell." 
 
 Detective Wooldridge told the attorney that he came for J. 
 H. Bell and was fully determined to take him back to Illinois 
 to stand trial and that he would cross the bridges as he came 
 to them and burn them behind him. He told Bell's attorney 
 if the Honorable Governor Folk refused to grant the first 
 requisition papers, he would try on each of the other indict- 
 ments asking for requisition papers. 
 
 If this failed there was five forfeited bonds by which Bell 
 could be brought back to the State of Illinois on extradition 
 papers. 
 
 If all this failed he had made arrangements to liave him 
 brought back by the strong arm of the United States Gov- 
 ernment, through an Inspector of Mails and United States 
 Deputy Marshal for using the mails for fraudulent purposes. 
 
 Wooldridge called up John M. Collins, General Superin- 
 tendent of Police, Chicago, 111., by the long distance telephone 
 and requested the second set of requisition papers, certified 
 copies of the five forfeited bonds, and that the bondsman be 
 sent to St. Louis at once, which was done. 
 
 Thirty minutes after he left Bell's angry attorney, Wool- 
 tlridge was aboard a Missouri Pacific fast train, bounr" for 
 Jefferson City, Mo., to see Honorable Jos. Folk and lay before 
 him the reason why requisition papers should be granted. 
 
A HEARTLESS FRAUD 405 
 
 Arriving at Jefferson City at 10 P. M., the following morn- 
 ing (which was Sunday morning) he made a demand upon 
 Jailer Dawson for the body of Bell. Jailer Dawson referred 
 liim to Judge Sale. Wooldridge found Judge Sale at his home, 
 who, after examining his papers, found them all right and 
 ordered the jailer to turn over Bell to Detective Clifton R. 
 Wooldridge. 
 
 Bell was again brought to the office of the Chief of Police 
 and confronted by Wooldridge and Harris who arrested him. 
 
 When J. H. Bell was arrested in Chicago December 5, 1905, 
 ^Ir. Turner defended him and afterwards went on Bell's bond 
 for $1,500. Bell was turned over to Wooldridge who slipped 
 a pair of handcuffs on him as he was boarding a street car, 
 landed him in East St. Louis, 111., none too soon, as Bellas 
 attorney had sent out a writ of liaheas corpus and would 
 Avatch all trains and stop the detective from taking Bell from 
 the State of Missouri, 
 
 Wooldridge requested the Chief of Detectives to inform 
 Bell's lawyer that both he and Bell were now in the State of 
 Illinois and their address would be in Chicago, 111., if he 
 wished to see either of them. 
 
 One of the police officers at East St. Louis overheard Bell 
 I ell his cell-mate he would make his escape before he reached 
 Chicago, and told him to watch the newspapers the next day. 
 
 This information was given to Wooldridge. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge had tickets over the Chicago and East- 
 <;rn Illinois Railroad. 
 
 This train left at 11 P. M. at night and the first stop it 
 made was twenty miles north on the Missouri side of the river. 
 
 Wooldridge could not take his prisoner and board the train 
 rhere on account of liaheas corpus writs for Bell. Officers were 
 watching all trains expecting him to leave St. Louis. Wool- 
 •Iridge outwitted them by taking interurban street ear, trav- 
 eling some twenty-five miles in company with two officers whom 
 fhe Chief of Police had sent along with him. Upon arriv- 
 
406 A HEARTLESS FRAUD 
 
 iug at the station in a heavy rainstorm he found the agent 
 had deserted his post and gone home. 
 
 The headlight on the Eastern Illinois fast express train 
 showed up in the distance. What was to be done to bring 
 the train to a stop so that they could board it? At this im- 
 portant inoment Wooldridge's eye rested upon a switch lamp 
 under a switch only a few yards from him; with one leap 
 across the track he secured the lamp and began to swing it 
 across the track to and fro with a red light pointed towards 
 the approaching train. This was a signal for the engineer to 
 stop. But would the engineer see the signal in time, or would 
 the rain which was beating down in torents prevent the en- 
 gineer from seeing the signal ? It was an exciting few seconds 
 to pass through. But the engineer did see the signal to stop, 
 he blew one long blast of his whistle, reversed his engine, 
 applied the air-brakes which brought the train to a stand-^till 
 right at the station door. 
 
 A conductor and brakeman had alighted and run forward on 
 the sudden stop of the train as they thought some accident had 
 liappened, inquired of Wooldridge what was the trouble. lie 
 replied, "Nothing but two passengers for Chicago.'' At this 
 time he and Bell were aboard the train. The conductor told 
 Wooldridge that he had no right to flag the train. Wooldridge 
 told him that he had purchased two tickets to Chicago with the 
 understanding that the train stopped there to let on and off 
 passengers, furthermore the card stated that this train stopped 
 there, and arriving there he found that the agent had aban- 
 doned his post and gone home, and he had taken it upon iiini- 
 self to act as station agent for the time being and stopping a 
 train. He told the conductor that he had to be in Chicago tlie 
 following morning as his business was urgent, furthermore 
 he could not afford to stand there all night in the rain with- 
 out shelter because the station agent had neglected to dc 
 his duty. • 
 
 On gaining admission to the car Bell was made comforlnitlc: 
 
A HEARTLESS FRAUD 407 
 
 By turning two seats together he had two big pillows on which 
 he might rest his head, 
 
 Wooldridge then stooped down and unlaced Bell's shoes 
 so he conld rest his tired feet, he then called the portsr and 
 gave Bell's shoes to him with orders to shine them up and 
 keep them until the detective called for them next morning. 
 
 Wooldridge then reached down, into his traveling bag, took 
 out a pair of leg-irons which he placed around Bell's legs, 
 and locked them securely. Bell made a protest and assured 
 the detective that he would not give him any trouble or make 
 any attempt to get away. Wooldridge told him the first law 
 of human nature was self-protection and he was exercising that 
 precaution in this case. 
 
 Only a few weeks prior to this time an officer was returning 
 from N'ew York with a prisoner and neglected to take these 
 precautions, dosed off into a little sleep, the train had just 
 then stopped to take on coal, the prisoner only had handcuffs 
 on, and in the twinkling of an eye passed the officer who was 
 asleep and succeeded in getting off the train just as it started. 
 His escape was not noticed by the officer until they had gone 
 several miles; it was then too late, the bird had flown, and 
 having money in his pocket found a man who filed the shackles 
 off his hands. He made good his escape and the officer lost 
 his job. 
 
 After Bell had been securely shackled and made as com- 
 fortable as possible, Wooldridge turned two seats together on 
 the opposite side of the car, never closed his eyes until they 
 reached Chicago the following morning, taking Bell to the 
 Bureau of Identification, had his measure and picture taken. 
 He Avas then turned over to Cook County Sheriff. 
 
 A few months later J. H. Bell was arraigned for trial and 
 confronted by over thirty angry women, Avhom he had robbed, 
 as witnesses. After a long trial he was found guilty of ob- 
 taining money under the confidence game. He asked for a 
 new trial which was denied and on March the 9th, 1907, he 
 
408 A HEARTLESS EKAUB 
 
 was sentenced to Joliet Penitentiary for an indefinite time by 
 Judge Brentano. llis counsel asked for the arrest of judg- 
 ment so ho might have time to write up the record and present 
 it to the 
 
 Then the Bell luck, which could beat even detectives, broke 
 Bell's way. Also the Bell honesty suifercd a recrudescence. It 
 so happened that while Bell was in the County Jail a ])lot was 
 set on foot to make a big jail delivery. 
 
 It was planned, and the plans seemed to have been well 
 arranged, to smuggle enough dynamite into the jail to wreck 
 even that formidable building. The plot was hatched by 
 Gleorge Smith, Eugene Sullivan, ^lorris Fitzgerald and Alfred 
 Thompson. 
 
 On March 2, 1907, this precious crew had been arrested for 
 robbing a mail \^gon. They were apprehended and taken t< 
 the County Jail. There they hatched the plot for the introduc- 
 tion of the dynamite. Many other prisoners were admitted 
 to their secret, among them Bell. 
 
 Smith, who was as 1)ig and powerful as Bell was litth> .-ind 
 insignificant, threatened to choke Bell to death in his cell if 
 he told of the dynamite plot. 
 
 Bell's spirit appeared to be as big as the other man's body. 
 This may have been due to the fact that he saw that "peach- 
 ing"' on his confederates was the only method of escape. Any- 
 way Bell "peached." He told of the dynamite plot and the 
 dynamite was seized. Dr. J. A. Wesener afterward declared 
 that there was enough of it to have destroyed the whole 
 l)uilding. 
 
 It was so undoubtedly true that Bell had been of service to 
 I he state in revealing this plot that a plea for clemency was 
 made for him and so he escaped the penalty for his crimes. 
 
 But the experiences of Bell, and the fear of Detective Clifton 
 1'. Wooldridge had the salutary effect of putting a stop to tlie 
 •'Show-Card Writing" fraud in Chicago. 
 
THE BOGUS MINE, 
 
 $100,000,000 EACH YEAR LOST BY INVESTMENTS 
 
 IN FAKE MINING 
 
 SCHEMES. 
 
 To what extent investment swindlers have operated in Illi- 
 nois will never be known, for some of them have so thoroughly 
 covered up their transactions that it will be impossible to dis- 
 close them. This is especiall}^ true of a class of mining com- 
 panies, the promoters of which remained in the background 
 wliile their dupes were gathered in by seemingly respectable 
 residents. These concerns operated by giving blocks of stock 
 into the hands of unscrupulous men with good or fairly good 
 reputations, and the latter disposed of it to such unsophisticated 
 acquaintances as could be easily gulled. 
 
 Gold and silver mines in Colorado, N"evada and Utah fur- 
 nished the basis for most of these swindles. Sometimes the 
 company really had an old mine or claim that had been aban- 
 doned, sometimes it had a lease on some worthless piece of 
 property that was "about io be developed,^' but frequently it 
 liad nothing more than its gaudy prospects and its highly dec- 
 orated shares of stock to give in return for the money it re- 
 ceived. Money-grasping church deacons were the favorite 
 .ngents for these swindles and widowed women without busi- 
 ness judgment their most common victims. 
 
 It is estimated that in this country every year nearly $100,- 
 000,000 are taken out of tlie savings of people of limited means 
 by financial fakers, especially mining and oil fakers. During 
 the last five years Detective Wooldridge has observed the 
 "financiering" of several thousand fake companies, each of 
 which secured a great deal of money from ignorant people. 
 
 Bands of swindlers repair to mining camps and establish 
 
410 THE BOGUS MINE 
 
 branches there. They expend a few hundred dollars for shreds 
 and patches of ground void of present or prospective value. 
 
 They then form a mining corporation, place its capital stock 
 at some enormous figure — a million, two or three million dol- 
 lars — appoint themselves or some of their confederates, or even 
 their dupes, directors, and sell the worthless claims to the 
 company for a large proportion, or perhaps, all of the capital 
 stock of the company. 
 
 The stock must be disposed of with a rush. It must all go 
 within a year or shorter time. When it is gone the suckers 
 who get the stock for good money may take the property of the 
 company. They always find an empty treasury, worthless 
 claims, and the rosy pictures that led them astray, smothered 
 in the fog. 
 
 During the last five years the advertising columns of lead- 
 ing newspapers have been full of offers of mining stocks as 
 ■^^sure roads to fortune.'' N"early all of these mining compan- 
 ies, into whose treasuries the public has paid millions, have 
 cither been abandoned or the properties have been sold for 
 debts, and invariably they bring very little. The major por- 
 tion of receipts of these companies from the sales of stock is 
 stolen by their promoters. 
 
 Official statistics of the mining industry show that out of 
 each one hundred mines, only one has become a success from a 
 dividend-paying point of view. About five earn a bare exis- 
 tence, while the balance turn out utter failures. 
 
 Promoter's Word Valueless. 
 
 Investors will do well to consider that stocks of mines which 
 are only prospective are the most risky form of gambling. In 
 buying stocks of the undeveloped mines offered to the public 
 on the strength of statements the only substance of which is 
 the imagination of promoters, one runs up against a sure- 
 thing brace game. 
 
 Don't take the promoter's word for it. Wlien you wish tO 
 
THE BOGUS MINE 411 
 
 place money where it can work for you, don't bite at the first 
 ■^'good thing" you see advertised. It is to the interest of the 
 man who wants to sell you stock to place it before you in the 
 rosiest light. Otherwise he knows you would not buy it. If 
 you want to buy stock, don't rely upon what the seller says, 
 but consult others. 
 
 Before consulting persons whom you think may be able to 
 express an honest and intelligent opinion, ask the promoter 
 to furnish you a statement of the condition of the compan)', 
 showing its assets and liabilities, profits and losses, and an ac- 
 curate description of its property. 
 
 You will then be able to judge whether the company is over- 
 capitalized; whether it is incumbered with debts (for debts 
 may lead to a receivership), and if its earnings may lead to 
 permanent dividends. 
 
 Also ask for a copy of the by-laws of the company. If, with 
 such information at your disposal, you cannot get a correct idea 
 as to whether the stock is desirable or not, consult your banker 
 or somebody else in your community who may be able to ad- 
 vise you. 
 
 If some one offered you a mortgage on a certain piece of 
 property, common sense would tell you to ascertain whether 
 the property is sufficient surety for the loan, or if the title to 
 the property is good and there are not prior incumbrances 
 on it. 
 
 The man who would buy a mortgage without ascertaining 
 the value and condition of the surety, would be considered an 
 idiot. 
 
 'Why not use the same precaution when buying stock ? Don't 
 believe what the promoter tells you about the value and pros- 
 pects of the stock he wants to unload on you. Don't take it 
 for granted the stock offered you will turn out a great money- 
 maker and dividend-payer because the promoter tells you so. 
 
 The promoter, generally a person from another city and en- 
 tirely unknown to you, has no interest in you, but is prompted 
 
4r<! THE BOGUS MINE 
 
 l)y his own selfish interest to sell you something which, in many 
 cases, he himself would not buy. He may ftffer you a good 
 thing, but it is up to you to find it out. 
 
 Investigation Necessary. 
 
 In most cases, an intelligent investigation will prompt you 
 to let alluring offers of great wealth for little money severely 
 alone. The observation of the common-sense rules outlined 
 above will save investors bitter disappointments and heavy 
 losses. 
 
 It is safe to say seventy-five per cent of the so-called "Min- 
 ing, Plantation and Air Line'' schemes and "Security" com- 
 panies now paraded before the public in flaring advertisements 
 in the daily papers, and through glittering prospectuses sent 
 through the mails, are vicious swindles. Men who operate 
 these frauds pretend to be honest and high-minded. By con- 
 stant practice of their wiles upon others they develop self- 
 deception and come to believe in their honesty to such an ex- 
 tent that Avhen c|uestioned, they assume a good counterfeit of 
 honest indignation. 
 
 Most of them do not own the furniture in the offices they 
 occupy while swindling the public. It is a common practice 
 for them to rent offices in national bank buildings and to fur- 
 nish them with rich furniture bought on the installment plan, 
 to make the necessary "front." They spend their cash capital 
 for flaring advertisements, sell as much stock as they can in- 
 duce the gullible public to buy, and then decamp, leaving un- 
 paid bills for advertising, if they can get credit after their 
 cash is exhausted, and their furniture bill unpaid. The al)- 
 seonding swindler is usually succeeded by an "agent" or "man- 
 ager," who repudiates the bills against his rascally predecessor 
 and continues th(> work of fleecing the gnllible under som(> new 
 title or by means of some new trick. 
 
 Keep Lists of Suckers. 
 Kvcrv well-equipped fraudulent eoneern actpnres the munes 
 
THE BOUlJiS MINE AVd 
 
 and addresses of susceptible persons. Painstaking revisions of 
 the lists made up of these names and addresses form an im- 
 portant part of the labor of the principals or employes. The 
 lists grow as each advertisement brings inquiries from persons 
 who, either through curiosity or desire to invest, write for par- 
 ticulars. Affiliated swindles operated in succession by a gang 
 of "fakers" use the same list of "suckers." 
 
 In aflfiliated swindles if the "sucker" does not succumb and 
 remit his money on the inducements offered by one concern, 
 his name is transferred to the lists of another, and he is then 
 bombarded with different literature. Thus a man must pass 
 through the ordeal of having dozens of tempting offers made 
 him before he demonstrates that he is not a "sucker," or has 
 not got the money. His name is then stricken from the list. 
 
 There are so many "get-rich-quick" operators at present 
 that competition between them has become strenuous. They 
 are now infesting the entire country with local solicitors, who 
 frequent saloons, hotels, and even residence districts, where 
 victims are found in foreigners, ignorant servant girls and in- 
 experienced widows. 
 
 These solicitors get 50 per cent commission on all sales of 
 stock. This fact in itself is evidence that the propositions are 
 rank swindles. When the swindling operator finds things get- 
 ting too hot he disappears from his office and bobs up in some 
 new place with a new proposition. 
 
 Pecksniffian Tears Delude. 
 
 A few attempts have been made to prosecute the swindlers, 
 but for the most part the local officials have failed. In but few 
 instances have the victims been able to give anything like in- 
 telligent statements of the representations made to them. 
 Where the right sort of agents have been used the people who 
 have lost their money have not awakened to the fraud passed 
 upon them. A few Pecksniffian tears have deluded them into 
 the belief that the swindlers as well as themselves were vie- 
 
414 THE BOGUS MINE 
 
 tims of some third party who is in another state and out of 
 reach. 
 
 Where cases have heen brought to trial it has been a difficult 
 matter for juries to understand how the persons aggrieved could 
 ' have been caught with the sort of chaff thrown to them, and 
 there has been little disposition to show charity for the victims. 
 Then, too, the men hauled before the courts have always made 
 it appear they were in the same boat with the complaining 
 witness, and that the culprit was many, many miles away. So, 
 usually, they have escaped. 
 
 Difficult to Convict. 
 
 Even in the most flagrant cases and where every advantage 
 was taken of the ignorance, inexperience or trustfulness of the 
 person deluded it has been difficult to bring the offense under 
 the state statutes. It requires more than ordinary misrepre- 
 sentation and lying to make out a criminal case, and under the 
 rules of evidence which prevail it is almost impossible to over- 
 take a cheat who has not put his misrepresentation into writ- 
 ing or made them in the presence of third parties. 
 
 Where the swindlers have used the mails, however, it is not 
 such a difficult matter to convict. The United States is scrupu- 
 lously jealous of its postal service, and under its statutes every 
 fellow wlio undertakes to utilize it for improper purposes can 
 *be brought to book. lie can not hide behind some one in an- 
 other state, for the federal jurisdiction is general and the other 
 man can be brought in. Nor can he plead that the business was 
 legally licensed in another state, or that its incorporation was 
 regular. If it was a cheat and the mails were used in further- 
 ance of its design, no corporate cloak thrown around it by any 
 of the commonwealths can save the promoters. 
 Power of Uncle Sam. 
 
 An example of llie power of the federal authorities was given 
 when Secretary of State Rose of Illinois was trying to keep the 
 swindling investment companies out of the state. This was 
 
THE BOGUS MINE 415 
 
 before the enactment of the present law regulating the licens- 
 ing of corporations. A number of concerns had been formed 
 in southern states, and they were insolently demanding 
 licenses to do business in Illinois. The secretary of state was 
 po^\erless under the Illinois statutes, but when the matter was 
 called to the attention of the federal authorities they wiped 
 out tlie whole lot of companies with a postal fraud order. 
 
 WOOLDRIDGE FiNDS SMOOTH SCHEME. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge, in looking into many of these mining 
 frauds, discovered one or two which proved quite a revelation 
 even to the United States authorities. This was a system of 
 "kiting" stocks, just as other fraud concerns have been known 
 to kite checks. The method is very simple. 
 
 James Johnson, of Indiana, is "roped in" by one of the 
 smooth young men who operate for the schemers. James buys 
 500 or 1,000 shares in the Holy Moses mine, located in or near 
 Goldfield, Eeno, Rawhide, Cripple Creek, or some other well 
 known mining camp. The "Holy Moses" is a hole dug in the 
 .side of a hill, and all that will ever come out of it is soil. 
 But that part does not matter. Under certain strict laws now 
 prevailing only so much stock can be issued even by the schem- 
 ers. 
 
 James Johnson holds his thousand shares for three months. 
 By this time all the stock has run out and the firm is at the 
 end of the rope, apparently; but no, they have found a way to 
 stretch that rope. 
 
 William Wilson, of Michigan, is clamoring for a thousand 
 shares of the "Holy Moses." There is no stock to sell him, and 
 if any more is printed and issued the waiting detectives will 
 swoop doAvn at once, for word has gone forth that the "Holy 
 Moses" is a non-producer. How to get that thousand shares 
 for Wilson is the problem. 
 
 "Holt Moses" Rises? 
 Aha; it is easy. A letter is drafted to James Johnson, bear- 
 
4ie THE BOGUS MINE 
 
 ing to him the gladsome news that *'Holy Moses" has gone 
 up, away up, and that the stock is mounting by leaps and 
 bounds. Does James Johnson wish to sell his stock at a sub- 
 stantial advance? James Johnson does. 
 
 Well, the philanthropic owners of the "Holy Moses" will 
 put that stock on the market for him at once and send him the 
 proceeds, if he will kindly send in his stock with authority for 
 transfer in blank. 
 
 The Indiana sucker bites at the bait and sends in his thou- 
 sand shares to be sold. Xo sooner do they reach the office than 
 I hey are immediately started off to Michigan to Wilson, after 
 the precaution has been taken to remove Johnson's name from 
 the face of the stock and substitute Wilson's. The authority 
 for transfor in blank, and the fact that the transaction is a 
 transfer of stock, is thus kept from Wilson. 
 
 In due course of time a fat check from Wilson finds its way 
 into the coffers of the "Holy Moses" promoters. And also, in 
 due course of time, Johnson wants to know something about 
 that sale. 
 
 "Holy Moses" Falls. 
 
 He is met with the doleful news that while his stock was 
 on the way to Chicago, or elsewhere, the stock in "Holy Closes" 
 had experienced such a decided slump that it was impossible 
 for them to sell it at a profit. If he desires, they will hold the 
 stock for a raise, which they expect as soon as the present un- 
 fortunate financial panic has passed, or until industrials begin 
 to go up. The drop in "Holy Moses" is not due to any slump 
 in the production of the mine : far from it. It is only the un- 
 fortunate financial depression which is to blame, and there is 
 no doubt but that "Holy Moses" will go up a-whooping very 
 soon. 
 
 Naturally Johnson bites again, and says hold the stock for 
 that raise, ^loanwhile the stock has been procured again from 
 Wilson and sent to Baker, in Kentucky. And so on, indefinitely. 
 It 19 only when some of the swindled ones become particularly 
 
THE BOdUS MINE 417 
 
 savage that their stock is returned "to them. And then it is not 
 their original stock at all, but a new thousand shares which 
 some sucker has sent in. 
 
 One block of stock in one company was sold in this way in 
 1907 by a Chicago mining company, no less than twelve 
 times. 
 
 The activities of Detective Wooldridge afterward put this 
 firm out of business, and the head promoter was arrested in the 
 West by the federal authorities. 
 
 It is well that all these facts should be taken into consid- 
 oration by the public before investing in mining shares. 
 
 First Principles in Mining Purchases. 
 Here are a few good leads to follow in buying mining stock. 
 First make sure that there is a producing mine. Then make 
 sure that the stock you get is not kited stock. But, above all, 
 make sure of the responsibility, respectability and solidity of 
 the firm from which you make the purchase. 
 
A GIANT SWINDLE, 
 
 BANKS IN CHICAGO, NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 BADLY FLEECED. 
 
 Bogus Notes and Stock — Many Firms Are Victims — Pris- 
 oners Said to Have Practiced Frauds Under Titles of 
 Corporations — Chicago, September 14, 1906, Detectives 
 Wooldridge and John Hill Uncover the Fraud — Five 
 Men Arrested. 
 
 A remarkable story of swindling which, extended to many 
 cities in America and to England, was disclosed, uncovering a 
 gigantic forgery and check kiting plot as well as several fraudu- 
 lent stock selling schemes. 
 
 Chicago Concerns Are Victims. 
 Banks and business concerns, especially in Chicago, suffered 
 through the operations of the men. Their methods came to 
 the attention of John Hill, Jr., connected with the Board of 
 Trade, and Detective Wooldridge learned enough to convince 
 them and the men behind institutions the objects of which were 
 to obtain money fraudulently. 
 
 Some of tlie places which have been mulcted are: 
 Commercial National Bank, August 15 ; bogus note for 
 $1,078. Stromberg, Allen & Co., printers, 302 Clark street; 
 bogus note for $206. E. B. Padgham & Co., packing boxes, 59 
 Dearborn street ; bogus note for $300. Matthew Hallohan, 42 
 River street, September 12; bogus note for $190. 
 
 Loses All of Savings. 
 ' Julius Kadisch, 2509 South Halsted street, a German who 
 ; lost $700 in the wreck of the National Fireproofing Company, 
 I told the police of the unique methods used by Johnston in 
 I selling him the stock. He asserts that Johnston told him that 
 the stock would pay at least 8 per cent dividends, and as proof 
 
A GIANT SWINDLE 
 
 419 
 
 FORGED NOTES CAUSE FIVE ARRESTS 
 
 mm STOLEN mf\ banks 
 
 THRQUGh PLOT OF SWINDLERS 
 
 Prisoner accused as principal in mammonth swindling plot in which 
 many banks are victims, and a fac-simj"Ie of one of the notes by which 
 money was obtained. 
 
 '^fj^}^y^d&}^M 
 
 SQMPMSJea mTM£:.ywcnP££K^ 
 
430 A <IJAN1^ S\\'JNDLE 
 
 of the prosperity of the company took him to the downtown dis- 
 trict and showed ])\in several skyscrapers which he claimed 
 were owned by the corporation. Radisch also says that John- 
 ston also pointed out a bank where he said the company had 
 immense snms on deposit. The story told by Radisch is pecu- 
 liarly a sad one, as the money lost by him in tlie crash of the 
 Fireproofing company represented the savings of a lifetime of 
 hard labor. Shortly after the discovery that his money was lost 
 his wife died. 
 
 One Capitalized at $1,000,000. 
 
 The concerns most frequently used by the men in their trans- 
 actions, the police sa}', were known as National Fire Proofing 
 Company of New York and the Federal Trust Company of 
 South Dakota. The fire proofing company was stated to be 
 capitalized at $1,000,000 and the trust company at $100,000. 
 
 Offices for each concern were at 1138 Broadway, New York. 
 From there, it is charged, circulars and pamphlets were sent 
 out to investors in all parts of the country, and it was also 
 a practice of these concerns, it is alleged, to open accounts with 
 banks and exchange bogus notes for good ones. 
 Sheriff in Charge of Affairs. 
 
 About one week before the arrest the concerns were placed 
 in the hands of the .sheriff of New York County, and, follow- 
 ing this, it is declared, disclosures were made which hastened 
 the arrest of the men involved. 
 
 Banks and firms in Chicago. New York, Philadelphia and 
 London, it is declared, are known to have suffered tlirough the 
 alleged operations of the men. who Avere aided by companions 
 in the different cities. 
 
 Most of the concerns, of which there are at least twelve, all 
 declared to be fraudulent, are in Chicago. 
 List of Bogus Firms. 
 
 The following is a list of the concerns, the names of which 
 have been learned bv the police: 
 
A (ilAWV SWINDLE 421 
 
 National Fire Proofing Company, New York and Chicago. 
 
 Federal Trust Company, New York and Chicago. 
 
 Keystone Structure Cleaning Company, Philadelphia. 
 
 McGuire, Johnston & Co., New York and Chicago. 
 
 Hessley, Johnston & Co. 
 
 Hessley & Johnston, Chicago. 
 
 A. A. Hessley, Chicago. 
 
 Ceorge F. Johnston, Chicago. 
 
 C. F. McGuire, Chicago. 
 
 F. L. Cunningham, Chicago. 
 
 Chester E. Broughn, Chicago. 
 
 Lincoln Gas Light & Coke Company, Lincoln, Neb. 
 
 Another concern dealing with alleged spurious bonds of 
 Custer County, Idaho, the police declare, was under the direc- 
 tion of these men. 
 
 It was the old-time favorite method of kiting checks and 
 drafts among the banks and private individuals of the city 
 and country that was used, and there is no doubt that it proved 
 successful in this instance. Although it is believed the men did 
 not obtain great riches in their operations in Chicago, it would 
 have been only a question of time when they would have be- 
 come wealthy, so apparently easy was it for them to get funds. 
 Opened Many Bank Accounts. 
 
 Accounts in banks in Chicago and other cities were opened 
 and then exchanges of checks were made among them. Only 
 the over-boldness of their operations caused their downfall. 
 
 An instance of their methods would be the following: The 
 Federal Trust Company, one of their "paper" concerns, would 
 deposit a check in a Chicago bank made by the Keystone Struc- 
 ture Cleaning Company of Philadelphia, another of their al- 
 leged firms. The check would be sent east for collection, and 
 in a few days it would be returned marked "No funds." 
 Offer Bond in a Settlement. 
 
 Meanwhile the trust company had checked against its ac- 
 count, to which the Keystone Structure Cleaning Company's 
 
423 A GlAxNT SWINDLE 
 
 check had been credited. When the check was returned from 
 the eastern bank the Chicago bank would notify the Federa! 
 Trust Company of the non-payment of it. The Chicago firm 
 would then offer explanation and apologies and give a 5 per 
 cent to concerns that cashed the checks. 
 
 When they came back, the men who got the money were 
 
 shocked beyond measure and at once offered stock and bonds 
 
 of twice the face A-aluo of the money involved as security. This 
 
 quieted the fears and enabled the schemers to go on. 
 
 Five Mek Are Arrested by Detectives W^ooldridge and 
 
 Barry. 
 
 Five men were arrested by Detectives Wooldridge and Barry, 
 charged with operating twelve concerns. The Commercial 
 J^ational Bank was one of the victims. The men arrested are 
 as follows: 
 
 Chester A. Brouglm, broker, 218 La Salle street. 
 
 S. L. Cunningham. ^^G years old, 1009 ^Vest Jackson boule- 
 vard. 
 
 C. F. McGuire, 40 years old, arrested at the Great Northern 
 Hotel. 
 
 George F. Johnston, 36 years old, arrested at 185 Dearborn >St. 
 
 Alvin A. Hessley, 48 years old, arrested at 185 Dearborn St. 
 Tool Tells Truth — Usher of Church in Crime Cloud. 
 
 At the age of 50 years, S. L. Cunningham, vestryman anfl 
 Sunday School teacher and chief usher in the Jackson Boule- 
 vard Christian Church, has come to the conclusion that he is 
 "just an old fool, after all."" 
 
 Mr. Cunningham was arrested recently on the charge of 
 being one of a gang of forgers and "get-rich-quick*' men who 
 bave been swindling Chicago and New York business houses 
 and banks during the last few months. He says his only con- 
 nection with the gang was in selling stock until a short time 
 ago for the National Fireproof Paint Company, one of tbi* 
 concerns raided, and lending his bank accoimt to George F. 
 
A GIANT SWINDLE 123 
 
 Johnston, said to have been one of the prime movers in the 
 gang. 
 
 Mr. Cunningham looks like a bishop. His hair is white and 
 his appearance distinguished. His story is an illustration of 
 the manner in which swindling concerns procure one or two 
 men of weight and respectability in a community to act as 
 their advance agents and establish confidence. 
 
 As he sat on the white-pillared porch of his residence, sur- 
 rounded by his wife and sympathetic neighbors and church 
 members, his face in the gaslight showed the marks of grief 
 through which he has passed since his arrest. 
 Cunningham Tells the Story. 
 
 '^Yes," he said, "we of the fold often go astra}^, but I am 
 innocent. I have a Sunday School class of young girls that I 
 am going to take out into Lincoln Park tomorrow. I hardly 
 know what to say to them. I can't bear to think of taking my 
 place as head usher on Sunday, although my pastor tells me to 
 march down the aisle with my head erect. I am getting to 
 be an old man, you see, and I have never wilfully wronged 
 a person in my life." His voice trembled, but his wife laid 
 her hand on his arm and he straightened up. 
 
 "I know nothing of these 'men except Mr. Johnston," he 
 said. "I was introduced to him by a friend of mine three 
 months ago. I have sold stock and insurance for the last 
 twenty years, and I thought he had a good thing in the Na- 
 tional Fireproof Paint CompanA^ so I started selling stock 
 for him. I could not sell the stock, as I could not show enough 
 assets, so I quit two weeks ago. I was a fool, and a dupe, all 
 right. 
 
 Bank Account Overdrawn. 
 
 '•Johnston, a young man, told me he was hard up and asked 
 to use my bank account at the Commercial National. I let 
 him and endorsed his checks. My wife told me not to do it, 
 but I thought he was all right then. Well, he overdrew the 
 account, the check was protested, and when my name was found 
 
424 A GIANT SWINDLE 
 
 they arrested me. I never knew any of the other men, al- 
 though I saw them aronnd the office. They did too much whis- 
 pering, and I thought it did not look well." 
 
 Then, in a simple wa}', he went on to tell of his wife and 
 his work in the church. He produced a letter from the pastor 
 of his church, the Rev. Parker Stockdale: 
 
 "This introduces Mr. Cunningham, a member of my church. 
 He enjoys among us the reputation of a thorough gentleman 
 and a conscientious business man. He is a highly respected 
 and useful citizen. His honesty is beyond question." 
 
 He also had a letter from Col. Jonathan Merriam, formei- 
 United States pension agent, which was along the same lines. 
 Offer of Bribe Alleged. 
 
 Broughn, the broker, is a man of a different stripe, accord- 
 ing to Detective Barry, who arrested him. When he was in- 
 formed of his arrest he is said by the detective to have replied : 
 
 "Come down to the saloon next door. I will settle the case 
 at once. Name your price." 
 
 When arraigned before Justice Cochrane the cases were con- 
 tinued until September 24. All the men were released on 
 $1,200 bonds each, with the exception of Broughn, whose bail 
 was fixed at $800. The bonds were signed by a professional 
 bondsman at the Harrison Street Police Station. 
 
 C. F. McGuire forfeited his bond and fled to New York City, 
 where he was apprehended and arrested by New York author- 
 ities at the request of John j\[. Collins, the Chief of Police. 
 The information which led to his arrest was secured by Detec- 
 tive Wooldridge, who was made a special messenger by 
 Charles S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois. 
 
 C. F. McGuire was a powerfully built man, weighing 240 
 pounds and standing over 6 feet tall. He was turned over by 
 the New York authorities to Detective Wooldridge, who slipped 
 on him a pair of handcuffs and crossed over to Jersey City on 
 a ferry, and from there took a section in a Pullman car on 
 a fast train on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
 
A GIANT SWliNDLE i2o 
 
 McGuire was put to bed in the upper berth, after he un- 
 (b'ossed. Detective Wooldridge told him he was bringing him 
 back like a gentleman, but the first law of nature was self- 
 protection. The detective then requested him to turn over all 
 his clothes except his night shirt, which was done. Wooldridge 
 then placed the clothes under the mattress in the berth below, 
 which he was to occupy. He then took out a pair of leg irons, 
 tied a strong cord to them, placed the leg irons on McGuire, 
 threw the cord back behind the berth below, and this was 
 tied to his hands after he had buttoned the berth curtains and 
 pinned them with safety pins all the way down. The curtains 
 were then stuffed in under his mattress. After all this was 
 done Wooldridge then laid down with his clothes on and laid 
 awake until morning, but managed to get some rest by laying 
 down. 
 
 Chicago was reached in safety. After taking McGuire to 
 the bureau, where Bertillon measurements were taken and his 
 finger prints recorded, he was turned over to the sheriff of 
 Cook County. 
 
 The trial was set, which lasted five days. Witnesses were 
 brought from the banks in N^ew York City and Philadelphia 
 which had been victimized. 
 
 February 7, 1908, found guilty. 
 Check "Kiters" Heavily Fixed— George F. Johnston and 
 C. F. McGuire Assessed $2,000 Each. 
 
 A jury in Judge Kersten's court later returned a verdict 
 finding George F. Johnston and C. F. McGuire guilty of 
 swindling and im.posed a fine of $3,000 each. If the fine be 
 not paid the defendants will be compelled to serve the amount 
 at the rate of $1.50 a day in the Bridewell. Chester A. Broughn 
 and A. H. Hessley entered pleas of guilty at the last minute 
 and their cases Mill be disposed of later by Judge Kersten. 
 State's Attorney John J. Healy and Assistant State's Attorney 
 Barbour expressed themselves as pleased over the outcome of 
 the trial. 
 
QUACKS. 
 
 RASCALS WHO PREY UPON THE IGNORANT. 
 
 The "Specialist," the ^'Optician," the "Doctors' College"; 
 All Frauds. 
 
 Blackmail Helps Medical Scamps — Poor Girls Victims of 
 "Doctor" Thieves. 
 
 The history of quacks and quackery includes some of the 
 most glaring frauds ever perpetrated on a credulous people. In 
 all ages of the world's history down to the present day, these 
 humbugs have cut an important figure in their day and gen- 
 eration. They are numerous in almost every line of business, 
 serving God when it pays them to do it, and assisting the devil 
 when their interests demand it. In these pages I propose to 
 deal with medical quacks only. 
 
 The advent of every discovery in medicine, slight though it 
 may be, has brought to the front a ring of pretenders in the 
 healing art. These fellows catch the multitude. The poor, 
 the ignorant and the credulous are their followers. It has 
 been so in every age of the world's history. The man or woman 
 with broken health will catch at every straw that offers hope 
 of recovery, and so they drift from one quack to another, until 
 ruined in fortime and oftentimes made worse iii their physical 
 ills, they at last pass to the silent home where the pain and 
 joy the cunning and simplicity of the world are alike of in- 
 significance. 
 
 The desire to live lurks in the heart of nearly every human 
 being. And no matter how wretched they may be, how poor 
 in pocket, broken in spirit, whether suffering from real or 
 imaginary ills, thirsting for relief, they have gone from quack 
 to quack, giving of their meager savings for some vaunted 
 
QUACKS 427 
 
 elixir which in all probability only hastens their journey to the 
 grave. 
 
 One reason why quackery flourishes is the fact that medicine 
 is not a science. Ask any honest physician and he will tell you 
 the same. A drug that will help one person will have no 
 effect on another. There are in the realm of medicine no such 
 things as "cures." People who are sick recover, but they would 
 do so whether they took '^'^dope" or not. All disease is self- 
 limited. The doctor Avho talks of curing smallpox, measles, 
 typhoid fever, is a fool. Natures cures, not the doctor. People 
 get well of these complaints, and many others who take no 
 medicines and employ no physicians. 
 
 Physic to the Dogs. 
 
 Followers of the late "Elijah Dowie" relegated physic to the 
 dogs, where it properly belongs, and yet enjoyed good health. 
 Mrs. Eddy's converts take no drugs, not even simple household 
 remedies. 
 
 Here is a body of people numbering millions, entirely repudi- 
 ating physicians, yet their health is as good, if not better, than 
 those who continually take drugs. Doctors make war on them. 
 Why? It interferes with the medical graft. 
 
 Don't think for a minute that advertising doctors are the 
 only grafters in the medical profession. Many of them are 
 l)ad, very bad, hut there are men right here in Chicago, as 
 well as other big cities, who never advertise in papers, yet they 
 are as notorious swindlers, and will as quickly take advantage 
 of the ignorant and credulous, as the man who flaunts his skill 
 in the daily press. To fall into the hands of these fellows is 
 to be despoiled in pocket and ruined in health. Operations 
 that are uncalled for and not needed are performed almost 
 daily. 
 
 Only a short time ago I heard a doctor boast of having re- 
 moved the ovaries of two thousand women. How many of these 
 operations were actually necessary ? Probably very few, but each 
 case enriched him to the extent of several hundred dollars. 
 
428 QUA0K8 
 
 Women more frequently than men are the victims of un- 
 scrupulous .^loetor^^. People do not often question the skill or 
 ihe opinion of the fashionable physician; they take for granted 
 the truth of all he may say, forgetting for the time that he 
 has a pecuniary interest in the work that may possibly result in 
 the death of the patient. 
 
 TTnnecessary Operations. 
 
 How many people die from wholly unnecessary operations? 
 Only the hospital records and the immediate friends of the 
 patient can tell. 
 
 These words are written to put people on their guard. Dis- 
 honest doctors are everywhere, especially in big cities. Chi- 
 cago is full of them. They may be strictly ethical and affect 
 to despise the advertiser. They do so, however, only from a 
 business standpoint. They hate opposition, and somehow the 
 advertising doctor manages to get a goodly share of the busi- 
 ness, and is oftentimes the superior in skill in his particular 
 line or specialty to his ethical brother. 
 
 There are good doctors and bad ones, just as there are good 
 and bad men in every walk and business of life. 
 
 In my experience as a detective I have met with both kinds. 
 In these pages I Avill deal Avith the advertising doctor only. T 
 will do, and have done, what I can to drive the dishonest ones 
 out of the business. 
 
 The eye doctor, professing to cure blindness or other dis- 
 eases of the eye without the knife, is one of the most dangerou> 
 and dishonest men in the medical profession. Chicago has its 
 full quota of this form of quackery. There are two men in this 
 
 city — Dr. M and Dr. , who are national ad- 
 
 -^ertisers. 
 
 Both have been exposed in a recent Xew York weekly paper 
 at the instigation of the American Medical Association. It is 
 noteworthy, however, that this same paper accepted a full-page 
 
 advertisement from Dr. only a few months before 
 
 the expose, thus deluding thousands of its readers. The price 
 
QUACKS 429 
 
 paid for one page and one issue was fifteen hundred dollars. 
 This sum, paid to but one paper, will give the reader some idea 
 of the vast expense to which the quack is put to place his name 
 before the public in his effort to rob the blind. This same Dr. 
 O pays out annually sixty thousand dollars for ad- 
 vertising alone. He employs twenty typewriters — mostly girls. 
 The correspondence is handled entirely by the clerks, the doctor 
 rarely ever seeing a letter. 
 
 He employs but one assistant, a young man. fresh from col- 
 lege. jSTo personal interviews with patients are asked for or 
 desired. It is a mail order business almost exclusively. Occa- 
 sionally a patient comes to the city to see this great oculist. 
 
 Dr. himself is hardly ever in evidence. He spends 
 
 most of his time in summer resorts and European capitals. 
 
 The only medicine used is a solution of boric acid in water. 
 The same can be bought at any drug store for a few cents. 
 His charges are ten dollars per month. 
 
 This man's mail is enormous. I have known him to take in 
 twenty thousand dollars a month. One of the catchy lines in 
 liis advertisement says he cures crossed eyes without the use 
 of the knife. This is true, but he uses scissors instead. Cross- 
 eye can only be straightened by severing the muscles of the eye. 
 All physicians know this, but the people do not; hence the 
 success of this robber of the blind. 
 
 Dr. is a devout church member. He is one of the 
 
 largest contributors to the Christian Church, to which he be- 
 longs. .^NTearly all church papers carry his advertisements, 
 tliough they must know him to be a fraud of the first water. 
 Sleek and Unctuous Church Member. 
 
 Personally he is sleek and unctuous, is always found among 
 the godly, takes more interest in foreign missions than the 
 over5^-day affairs of life, and fully expects to occupy a seat in 
 the parquet of the New Jerusalem. 
 
 The money wrung by the basest of false pretenses from his 
 poor unfortunate blind victims, does not disturb his slumbers. 
 
430 QUACKS 
 
 If he has any conscience at all he fortifies himself with the 
 thought that "Jesus will bear it all/' and lets it go at that. 
 
 Blind people, or those with failing eyesight, beware. 
 
 A close second to the above-named grafter, and in the same 
 nefarious business, is Dr. M . 
 
 This man's advertisements read very much like those of 
 others in the same line of work. He also cures without the 
 knife, but uses the scissors. His treatment is the same — boric 
 acid and water. 
 
 This can do no possible good except in slight inflammations. 
 It cannot cure cataract. It may be set down as a truth (ask 
 any honest physician) that cataract is incurable except by sur- 
 gical operations. Yet these men continue to advertise its cure, 
 claiming to have a specific remedy that will absorb it. Dr. 
 
 ^I is wealthy, all made out of the blind. While other 
 
 men are giving of their wealth to ease the lives of these poor 
 unfortunates, they are being systematically robbed in the most 
 heartless and shame-faced manner. 
 
 Priceless is sight. A man or woman threatened with loss of 
 it will give up their last , dollar for a prospective cure. Tu 
 this way these so-called "eye doctors" fatten on the credulity 
 of their victims, doing them absolutely no good and quite often 
 a serious injury. 
 
 Dr. M is also a devout church member. He can 
 
 be seen hanging over the pew of a fashionable West Side churcli 
 every Sunday. There he is hailed as a good brother by his 
 fellow members, many of whom are as great, if not as suc- 
 cessful, a grafter as he is. They use the cloak of religion in 
 which to serve the devil. 
 
 The "Otticiax" Fake. 
 
 In connection with this subject let me warn you of the ex- 
 istence of an army of "Opticians." These men are often swind- 
 lers of the first water. Their misrepresentations as to the money 
 value of glasses amounts to grand larceny. They charsre all the 
 way from ion to soventy-fivc dollars for n pair of lenses tba"i 
 
(QUACKS 131 
 
 usually cost seventy-five cents each. There ;ire hoiiesi men 
 in the business, but beware of the grafter. 
 
 There are many lesser lights engaged in the ej^e business, but 
 the examples given above will serve to place you on your guard. 
 Take no treatment by mail. Less can be done for the eye than 
 any other organ of the body, unless it is the ear. Both are so 
 complex in their anatomy and the symptoms so obscure that it 
 is an impossibility to make a correct diagnosis without seeing 
 the patient and using the best instruments that science can 
 bring to the aid of the physician. 
 
 Consumption Cures. 
 
 A few years ago Dr. Koch, of Berlin, Germany, announced 
 that he had discovered a cure for consumption. The same an- 
 nouncement has been made thousands of times before by more 
 or less illustrious physicians. 
 
 Dr. Koch's cure was a gas, requiring more or less elaborate 
 apparatus. Several years' trial of this supposed cure con- 
 vinced the medical profession, and Dr. Kocli himself, that he 
 was mistaken. 
 
 He retracted his statements and acknowledged he had 'been 
 in error. Yet in every large city of the country, Chicago, of 
 course, included, there are established "Koch Institutes" for 
 the cure of consumption. 
 
 A more brazen fraud was never perpetrated on an ignorant 
 public than the claims which these so-called institutes adver- 
 tise. They are patronized chiefly by the poor — those who hsw 
 been told by honest physicians that they are incurable. Having 
 no means with which to take trips to the mountain or sea 
 shore, they grasp at every quack medicine or institute that offers 
 hope of recovery. 
 
 I have visited the Chicago branch of this miserable fraud. 
 Invalids who can scarcely walk are to be seen there daily in- 
 haling mixtures of nauseous gases that have no more effect on 
 the germ of consumption than a popgmi on one of Uncle 
 Sam's ironclads. By means of paid-for testimonials and a 
 
43-^ QUACKS 
 
 couple of "cappers," people from all parts of the country are 
 brought here, oftentimes taking the last dollar of the family 
 exchequer to pay for the so-called treatment. These frauds 
 have been exposed time and again. However, a new crop of 
 victims are gathered in every day and the game goes merrily 
 on. 
 
 Human Ghouls. 
 
 The human ghouls in the guise of doctors are meantime living 
 in luxury, and fattening on the misfortunes of their already 
 half-dead victims. You might ask why does not the law step in 
 and protect the sick. If you had seen as much of the law as 
 I have you would discover that it too frequently protects thr 
 doctors and not the patients. 
 
 The men running this and other similar frauds are all li- 
 censed physicians, and have the authority of the great State of 
 Hlinois to pursue their calling. If you have consumption spend 
 your money in getting good air, not dope. Drugs never yet 
 cured consumption. That is the testimony of all honest doctors, 
 and there are still a few of them left. 
 
 The Morphine Cure. 
 
 Forty years ago Dr. C , of I.aporte, Indiana, ti 
 
 bricklayer by profession, conceived the idea of selling morphine 
 as a cure for the opium habit. Morphine is the essence of 
 opium, just as cocaine is the essence of the coca leaf. It was a 
 
 brilliant idea and brought Dr. C (he afterward 
 
 bought diplomas galore) a mint of money. C con- 
 structed himself a mansion in Laporte, which stands today, a 
 splendid specimen of the builders' art. He was the first man 
 to put on the market an opium cure. 
 
 The poor wretches who are addicted to this habit would make 
 any kind of a sacrifice for a cure. The whiskey habit is not a 
 circumstance to the opium or morphine fiend. There is no 
 habit which so enslaves the victim as the drug habit, and they 
 are seldom cured. C ran along for many years with 
 
QUACKS 433 
 
 but few imitators. The luaiiy victims of morphine whom he 
 has gathered into his net were pouring in their wealth until it 
 amounted to thousands daily. As long as they took the 
 
 C remedy they had no desire for morphine. The 
 
 "remedy" contained morphine — more, usually, than they had 
 been taking before. 
 
 "Dr." C had thousands under treatment, but made no 
 
 cures. x\t last the so-called remedy was analyzed and its true 
 nature discovered. 
 
 At once an army of imitators sprang into existence in all 
 parts of the country, and morphine cure became as common as 
 other cures. They all had and have as a basis opium or some 
 of its salts. The extent of these drug addictions is hardly 
 realized. Chicago alone has thirty thousand of these unfortu- 
 nates, and the trade in opium and allied drugs is immense. 
 Encouraging the Morphine Habit. 
 
 Many of these victims date their downfall from some sickness 
 in which a physician prescribed the drug — perhaps to allay 
 pain or produce sleep. When they recovered they found they 
 still had to have it. The habit grew and finally fastened itself 
 with such a deathlike grip that they were unable to shake it 
 off, and so they totter through life, unfitted for anything ex- 
 cept to beg, borrow or lend some of the dope. Men and women 
 once high in the business and social world are frequently found 
 in the police dock accused of some petty theft in order to satisf v 
 their craving for these destructive drugs. 
 
 Chicago has its quota of doctors who "cure" the morphine 
 
 habit, but always in the way that "Dr." C did. Most of 
 
 them are "fiends" themselves who eke out a living selling the 
 drug to other victims in the form of a "cure." If by any 
 chance you have contracted the habit steer clear of all so-called 
 cures. The remedy is worse than the disease. 
 The Cancer Cure. 
 
 One can hardly pick up a paper or magazine that does not 
 carry the advertisement of Dr. B , of Indianapolis, Ind., 
 
434 QUACKS 
 
 iwith branch institutes at Kansas City and other places. Dr. 
 B 's remedy is an oil for which he claims wonderful prop- 
 erties. 
 
 In reply to an inquiry the doctor sends out a little book, 
 filled with testimonials from grateful patients, dependent 
 preachers and his fellow church members. The book tells you 
 that the doctor has even built a church all by himself and 
 maintains it at his own expense, even paying the salary of 
 the pastor out of his own pocket. 
 
 It will be noticed that all successful quacks appeal to the 
 religious element of the community. A man who is really 
 religious is honest; having no tinge of dishonesty himself, he 
 suspects none in others. He therefore falls easily into the net 
 of the charlatan. 
 
 The quack knows this, hence his use of the religious press 
 in which to exploit the virtues of his medicines. 
 
 Does Dr. B cure cancer? Yes. There are seven vari- 
 eties of cancer; two malignant, which all physicians agree are 
 incurable, and five non-malignant, of which the wart and wen 
 are good examples. Dr. B cures the non-malignant vari- 
 eties only, and you can do the same yourself by the application 
 of a few drops of glacial acetic acid to the growth once a day. 
 
 This is the Avhole secret of the so-called cures wrought by 
 
 these men. Dr. B never cured a genuine malignant cancer 
 
 in his life, and never will until a specific is discovered that will 
 combat it. He has grown very rich, is known as a public-spirited 
 gentleman and to say aught against him in his native town is 
 to bring down on one's head the wrath of the business com- 
 munHy. Why ? 
 
 Patients fro:\i Everywhere. 
 
 Dr. B has patients coming from all parts of the coun- 
 try. They bring and spend money at his sanitariums. It is 
 ''business," and I am only sorry to say that what is known as 
 business is too often larceny. If you liave a growth you do 
 not understand, trust it to your family physician, if he is an 
 
QUACKS 435 
 
 honest man, rather than to one of the many cancer sharks tliat 
 infest the country. 
 
 The Rupture Cure. 
 
 This, when offered hy mail, as it is in almost every maga- 
 zine that accepts medical advertisements, is also a glaring fraud 
 upon a most helpless class of people. While it is true that a 
 well fitted truss will retain and often cure a rupture, yet the 
 quacks who advertise the rupture cure propose to cure you by 
 mail, then by application of a wonderful oil which they sell 
 at ten dollars per bottle, they propose to close up the open- 
 ing through which the rupture descends and effect a perma- 
 nent cure. A few years back the surgical treatment of rupture 
 was not always a success, hence people so afflicted had reason 
 to avoid operations. 
 
 Today thg cure of rupture is not attended by any danger. 
 Surgery has made many advances in the past few years. Peo- 
 ple who are ruptured should avoid any other means of cure 
 than the operations. 
 
 There are not less than twenty-five advertising specialists 
 in Chicago w^ho profess to cure rupture Avithout operation. 
 
 They only succeed in separating you from your money. My 
 advice is not to go near them, lest you regret it. 
 Female Diseases. 
 
 It is well known among the readers of the daily press that 
 all the advertisements of a medical nature addressed to women 
 are meant to cover the nefarious business of the abortionist. 
 
 The commissioner of health in a recent interview stated that 
 not less than fifty thousand abortions are committed yearly 
 in Chicago. It is well to state that only a small number of 
 these are performed by the advertising abortionists. Most of 
 them are the work of regular physicians. 
 
 Indeed, in no other way could this immense destruction of 
 infant life take place. I know of physicians here in Chicago 
 who have and do no other business. I have in mind one pala- 
 tial residence on Michigan avenue patronized exclusively by 
 
436 (,)UACK« 
 
 the rich. It is presided over by a strictly ethical physician. 
 This man's fee is from one thousand to five thousand dollars. 
 
 The poor content themselves with less pretentious places and 
 prices. I know of physicians on the north side and the west 
 side who do this work for five and ten dollars. They have as 
 many as ten and twelve cases a day. 
 
 Up to a few weeks ago all of the Chicago papers contained 
 a list of advertisements under the classification of medical, 
 about as follows: 
 
 "Maternity Hospital — Ladies taken care of before and after 
 confinement.'"' 
 
 "Mrs. Dr. B , licensed midwife, takes ladies for confine- 
 ment, etc." 
 
 "Dr. Anna B Elegant home for ladies expecting con- 
 finement,- etc." 
 
 The above are only samples of a long list of advertisements 
 of similar tenor which appeared daily in the Chicago press for 
 twenty-five years. These advertisements attracted the atten- 
 tion of people in the country. They Avere not designed to at- 
 tract city people. People residing here seldom patronize them 
 on account of the high prices usually charged. They know 
 cheaper doctors. Girls from the smaller towns and the farms 
 are the ones sought. 
 
 The girl applying for relief at any of these places was usual- 
 ly told that abortions Avere unlawful and dangerous to life. She 
 Avas strongly advised to stay in the hospital, Avhich offered per- 
 fect seclusion, until the full period when the child Avould be 
 naturally born and Avithout danger to either of them. This 
 advice Avas generally accepted and the price agreed upon paid. 
 This was always all the girl had Avith her, and the promise 
 of more. The amount ranged from one hundred to Aa'c hun- 
 dred dollars. 
 
 The money paid over, the girl Avas shoAvn to a pleasant room, 
 and invited to make herself at home. There Avere always other 
 girls there, usually under -issumed names. They kept coming 
 
QUACKS 437 
 
 and going every few days. None remained longer than ten 
 days. 
 
 After the girl had been there a couple of days the madam 
 announced that the doctor would call on her that day and 
 make an examination, so as to approximate the time of baby's 
 arrival. 
 
 With a very small instrument the abortion was produced 
 while making the examination, the patient knowing nothing of 
 it. This is done so deftly that labor pains do not come on for 
 sometimes two days afterwards. 
 
 In ten days the patient is ready to leave the hospital. The 
 fee having been paid, both parties are usually satisfied, and 
 the girl, if she is wise, makes her misfortvme a stepping stone 
 to something better. 
 
 If the amount paid has been too small to satisfy hospital 
 funds, an effort is made to collect more, but usually not from 
 the girl. 
 
 The madam gets the patient's confidence and discovers, if 
 she can, the man responsible for the girl's condition. A bill 
 is then sent him for several hundred dollars. Should he 
 ignore it or refuse to pay, he is politely told that the account 
 will be placed in the hands of a lawyer in the town where 
 he resides and the matter can be adjusted by a "jury of his 
 fellow citizens." 
 
 Imagine the consternation of some business man or church 
 deacon in a small community over the receipt of such a letter. 
 
 If guilty, and they are as a general thing, they take the 
 next train for Chicago and pay the bill. Parties running these 
 establishments are money makers. I know of one on West 
 Adams street whose owner has made a fortune of two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars, all accumulated in twenty 
 years. 
 
 The Electric Belt Fraud. 
 
 This is another one of the many humbugs that seem to 
 have fastened themselves on the country. Chicago is the cen- 
 
438 QUACKS 
 
 ter for this as well a;^ every oilier fake of a medical char- 
 acter. 
 
 These belts are of the cheapest construction and are made 
 at a cost of twelve and one-half cents each. They sell for 
 anything, up to three hundred and even five hundred dollars. 
 There may he virtue in electricitA^ properly applied, but there 
 certainly is none in the belt. 
 
 Dr. McL is located in Chicago, and has branch offices in 
 
 almost every state in the union. He takes pages in the daily 
 press to tell of the virtues of his belt. It cures everything 
 from lumbago to corns. He usually pictures a man in a half- 
 stooping position, holding his back with one hand, while with 
 the other he is getting a belt from a sympathizing doctor. 
 
 Dr. McL has made big money duping his fellow men. Ee- 
 
 cently he opened an office in the City of Mexico. There the 
 government protects people somewhat from their own folly. 
 
 A Mexican bought a belt, guaranteed to cure his disease; 
 it failed. The doctor was promptly arrested for obtaining 
 money under false i^retenses. He was sent to jail, where he 
 remained sixteen months. 
 
 The offices were closed and have not since been reopened. 
 The best evidence that electric belts are a useless article is 
 to be found in the fact that physicians neither use nor pre- 
 scribe them. They are an adjunct to quackery. 
 The Varicocele Cure. 
 
 To begin with, varicocele is a surgical disease and is only 
 cured by an operation. Yet the daily papers teem with ad- 
 vertisements offering cures by drugs, appliances and external 
 washes. 
 
 It is needless to say that all of these arc fakers. Chicago 
 has more than twenty specialists who profess to cure varico- 
 cele. Only two of them fulfill their promises. The rest take 
 your money and rendey you no service. 
 
 Xearly every paper advertises these men, such headlines as 
 "Cured in Five Davs," "Cured Without Pain." 
 
QUACKS 439 
 
 ^•^Five-day varicocele cure" meets the eye of the reader oc 
 nearly every page. It is true that varicocele can be cured 
 in five days; it can and is cured in one treatment, but always 
 by surgical means. The headlines above are simply baits for 
 the afflicted. 
 
 The main idea of the so-called specialist is to get the victim 
 into his oflfice. Here he will tell him that "he has two methods 
 of cure. One is an operation, which necessitates the patient 
 going to a hospital, remaining there for five days in order 
 to effect the cure. The other is a suspensory and a liniment 
 which, applied daily, will do just as well, but it requires 
 three or four months to get the cure. 
 
 The patient wishes, of course, to avoid an operation. He 
 is always told there is some danger from the chloroform. He 
 usually takes the "slow cure,'' parting at the same time with 
 a good, fat fee, usually a good deal more than he would have 
 had to pay a reputable man for an operation. At the end of 
 the period fixed for the cure the patient finds himself no bet- 
 ter and finally in disgust places himself in the hands of a 
 man who does operate and is promptly cured. 
 
 Am-ong the many men engaged in the cure of varicocele is 
 Dr. Mark K , of Cincinnati and Denver. This man's ad- 
 vertisements adorn every page of papers that will take them. 
 His fee is $2.00 ; his remedy a suspensory and a wash. Both 
 are utterly useless. After you have paid your money your 
 name or original letter is sold to someone in the same business. 
 
 In a little while you are surprised to receive mail from all 
 parts of the country — all wanting you to purchase a varicocele 
 cure. This applies to vacuum pumps, the superior system, the 
 Parisian system and other fakes of a like nature. They are 
 all frauds. In the past few years I have raided their places 
 many times, seized their literature, which is always obscene 
 and indecent, and arrested the proprietors. The game, how- 
 ever, still goes on. 
 
UU QUACKS 
 
 The "Nervous Debility Specialist." 
 
 "Lost Manhood Rostored*" is probably the greatest of all 
 medical grafts. These men succeed simply because of the 
 total ignorance of the people on matters pertaining to the 
 sexual system. 
 
 If sexual physiology was a part of the studies in the public 
 schools for pupils at the age of fourteen there would be no 
 cases of nervous debility, and the "lost manhood" physician 
 woiild have to seek other fields for the display of his talents. 
 
 One of the saddest of all the habits that young men drop 
 into at some period of their lives is the secret vice. Until 
 quite lately prudery has prevented its proper discussion and 
 about the only literature on the subject was to be found in 
 that issued by advertising doctors who treat the effects. 
 
 One thing is certain — ^no one ever acquired the habit by 
 reading one of these "scare" or quack books. John Stuart 
 Mill, in speaking of this vice, says: "The diseases of society 
 can be no more checked or healed without publicly speaking 
 of them than can those of the body." To ignore or deny the 
 prevalence of the evil is sometimes honest ignorance, but is more 
 often hypocrisy. 
 
 A little scientific discussion on this subject is not out of 
 place here. It will put young men on their guard against 
 themselves, and cut off in some degree the income of that class 
 of doctors who live on their credulity. 
 
 So far as I have been able to trace its origin it has always 
 been with ns. According to Ovid, Horace and Aristophanes, 
 it was a curse in ancient Greece and Rome. Even Hippocrates, 
 the father of medicine 380 years before Christ, considered it 
 a subject worthy of his pen. Of modern writers the greatest 
 was Tissot, in ITfiO, who issued a classic on this subject whose 
 object was to stay, if possible, the abuses and vices which threat- 
 ened the ruin of tlie French people. Lurid as the little book 
 distributed by specialists usually is. the effects of this vice 
 depicted by Tissot ])ut« thorn all into the shade. If not exactly 
 
QUACKS 441 
 
 scientific, it at least exerted a large moral influence which was 
 beneficial in the then state of public and private morals. 
 
 In the discussion of secret sin let us make it plain that 
 the evil effects are not immediate, as is often thought and fre- 
 quently taught by school tcacliers and writers. The brain is not 
 palsied at once. Dementia, palsy and sudden death are not 
 likely to occur. The erroneous idea that it does, accounts in 
 a great measure for the terror, the bashfulness and the love 
 of solitude exhibited by this class of sufferers. 
 
 It is enough for the purpose of this article that in the course 
 of physical decay, gray hair, baldness and enfeebled gait, weak- 
 ness of the muscular and nervous system, in fact, a general 
 lowering of the tone of the bodily health, appear. Life has 
 been lived out with abandon, its energies have been overdrawn 
 and its wheels have run down like the mainspring of a clock 
 whose regulator has been lost. 
 
 The sporty and fast life led by reckless youth is making him 
 pay the penalty. And what is the penalty? Look at the daily 
 papers, see the brazen medical advertisements, "Manhood Re- 
 stored," staring at you from every page. These advertisements 
 are costly. They run up into the thousands of dollars a month. 
 One man, a doctor of Chicago, formerly paid the daily press 
 eight thousand dollars a month for advertising ; his "Lost 
 Manhood, Varicocele and Hydrocele Cured" appeared in al- 
 most ever}^ paper in this city. 
 
 And the people who needed the treatment paid the bills. So 
 powerful was this man's influence that he was enabled to 
 stave off undesirable legislation at Springfield. In this he was 
 aided by the newspapers, who did not wish to lose this princely 
 revenue from quack doctors. 
 
 This doctor is still in business, but on a small scale com- 
 pared to former times. Competition and the advent of more 
 mendacious liars have reduced his income to more modest 
 proportions than it once was. 
 
U2 QUACKS 
 
 A Monumental Swindle. 
 
 MEN who need treatment or advice concerning their 
 health or any weakness or private disease should, before 
 taking any treatment whatever, go to Dr. S. for consulta- 
 tion, examination and advice; free. 
 
 DE. S. — Longest Established, Most Successful and 
 Eeliable Specialist in Diseases of Men, as Medical 
 Diplomas, Licenses and Newspaper Eecords Show. 
 
 Dr. S. first came to Chicago about the time of the World's 
 Fair. His home office was supposed to be in Philadelphia. 
 While Philadelphia has the reputation of being slow, yet the 
 methods of Dr. S. were decidedly swift, so much so that he 
 almost took the breath away from the Chicago specialists. 
 
 He was the first to charge for medicine in addition to his 
 fees. It is a well-known fact that a man having been under 
 the treatment of Dr. S. for a week or a mouth never seeks 
 the aid of another one. 
 
 He has been cured? Not on your life. He has been robbed. 
 I have known this "Doctor" to charge as much as one hundred 
 dollars for two small bottles of dope. This is in addition to 
 a fee of twenty-five to five hundred dollars. He always oper- 
 ates a "drug store" in connection with his office. 
 
 The patient, having undergone an examination and having 
 been thoroughly frightened, is told what the fee will be. Tbis 
 being paid, he is given a prescription and sent to the "drug 
 store." 
 
 This is so written that no other drug store can fill it. In a 
 short time he is handed two or three small bottles, and on 
 asking "how much" is told a sum varying from ten to one 
 hundred and fifty dollars. Surprised and indignant, he hastens 
 back to the "Doctor" and complains. He is told that the medi- 
 cines are cheap at that price ; that they arc expensive drugs and 
 very necessary in his case. 
 
 If the patient lias the money he pays it, resolving that he 
 
QUACKS 443 
 
 will have no more to do with Dr. S. If he lives in the country 
 he is surprised the following week hy getting notice from the 
 express company that a C. 0. D. package awaits him at the 
 office. 
 
 It is the second week's supply of medicine. Charges from 
 twenty-five to ninety-eight dollars. He at once writes to the 
 "Doctor" and says he doesn't want the stuff. 
 
 The first supply has done him no good. It's too expensive 
 and he can't afford to continue it. 
 
 The "Doctor" writes back and says that he must pay for it. 
 It will require three months to effect a cure, and the whole 
 treatment has been prepared. If he does not take it the office 
 will be subject to a loss of many hundreds of dollars. They 
 also threaten him with a suit for the recovery of the amount. 
 Blackmail an Adjunct. 
 
 The poor victim, almost frightened to death at the prospect 
 of exposure, usually compromises and pays all the money he 
 can raise, taking the three months' "treatment" which he is 
 assured has been specially prepared for his case. 
 
 It is not an uncommon thing for Dr. S. to get several thou- 
 sand dollars out of one patient. Men have been known to 
 mortgage their farms to get out of the clutches of these cormo- 
 rants. They never let go until the last dollar has been ex- 
 tracted from the poor patient. After his experience with Dr. S. 
 he wants no more. He thinks that they are all alike and care- 
 fully avoids them in the future. 
 
 Dr. S. himself is not in Chicago. He is said to live in Phila- 
 delphia. He operates offices in this city and several other 
 places. Three men comprise the office staff — one man who 
 "takes" the case, another a physician, usually a dummy en- 
 gaged at a salary of fifteen to twenty dollars a week, and a 
 druggist. 
 
 The main guy of every medical quack office is the "case 
 taker." He is always a "confidence man" skilled in the busi- 
 ness. He plays upon the fears and credulity of his victims. 
 
444 (.^UAUKS 
 
 He pictures the most dreadful fate awaiting the unfortunate 
 patient. If a ease of private disease, he knows that the patient 
 will rot on his feet and become a charnel house of infection. 
 
 If a "Lost Manhood" ease, he pictures the horrors of nn- 
 potency, a trusting girl deceived, a divorce, together with the 
 scandals that precede and follow. 
 
 The old Keliable B Doctors Cure Men— Men only. 
 
 NO PAY UNTIL CUEED. $5 FEE FOR CURE, $5. 
 NEWLY CONTRACTED SPECIAL DISEASES. 
 Consultation and Examination Free Whether You Take Treat- 
 ment or not. Come to Expert Specialists. 
 
 We cure Varicocele, Nervous Debility, Urethral Troubles, Blood 
 Poison, Private Diseases, Phimosis, Piles, Skin Diseases, Rupture and 
 other Wasting Diseases of Men. 
 
 Call or send for free question list. Hours— Daily. 9 to 8 ; Sundays, 
 10 to 2. J. B. McG , M. D., Medical Director. 
 
 B MEDICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 The above advertisement appears right along in the Chicago 
 
 dailies. If Dr. S is the "Prince of swindlers" the 
 
 B Medical Institute" is a good second. 
 
 It is owned and run by a Bohemian, who changed his name 
 from an almost unpronounceable one to that of Hansen. He 
 employs cheap doctors — mostly dope fiends — men who couhl 
 not get employment elsewhere. His pay is about fifteen dol- 
 lars per week. This man also runs a "dental" Institute when^ 
 equally cheap dentists are employed. Both institutes rob the 
 unsuspecting. 
 
 Hansen was sued by a former patient and nearly four hun- 
 dred dollars recovered, quite recently. The man was absolutely 
 free from any disease, but was frightened into paying thai 
 amount to get rid of an imaginary one. 
 
 He is a common, cheap, medical swindler. 
 
These are Positive Facts. 
 MEN $10. 
 CURES YOU. 
 "DON'T PAY MORE." 
 
 Under scientific treatment all diseases peculiar to men are 
 thoroughly cured. 
 
 Nervous Debility, Blood Poisoning, Lost Vitality, Prostatic, 
 Bladder and Kidney Troubles, Varicocele, Hydrocele, Con- 
 tracted Diseases, Urethral Obstruction, Male Weakness. 
 
 Dr. C 's Medical Offices are the most reliable and 
 
 permanently established specialists in Chicago. See them be- 
 fore commencing treatment elsewhere. Advice, consultation 
 and examination FREE. 
 
 Dr. C MEDICAL OFFICES, 
 
 Hours: 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. 
 Sunday, 10 to 3 only. 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 Swindler a "Dope" Fiend. 
 
 The above advertisement is that of Dr. C . C him- 
 self is out of the game. He is a dope fiend. A few montli?; 
 ago he narrowly escaped the penitentiary for taking $225 from 
 a sixteen-year-old child. He was fined $200 in the Municipal 
 Court, paid it and quit the business. 
 
 Previously, however, he had sold the use of his name to 
 Dick Williams, owner of several of the so-called medical of- 
 fices along State street. Williams changes his doctors every 
 few days, so that a patient hardly ever sees the same man twice. 
 Each man makes an effort to "re-fee" the patient — that is, 
 they try to extract more money in the way of fees, claiming 
 that the other "doctor" did not grasp the severity of the ease. 
 It is not unusual for a patient to pay half a dozen fees in the 
 same office before he drops onto the fact that he is being sys- 
 tematically robbed. 
 
 The main object of advertising cheap is to get the people 
 into the office and started on the treatment. Money is de- 
 manded at every visit and new "diseases" discovered as long 
 as the credulity of the patient lasts. 
 
446 (QUACKS 
 
 CONSULT DR. R- 
 
 A graduate and Regular Licensed Physician. Dr. R- 
 
 is qualified through twenty-one years of practical experience 
 to give you the best medical advice and treatment in 
 " All Diseases and Weaknesses Peculiar to Men. 
 
 The oldest established and most reliable specialist, who sees 
 and treats patients personally. Dr. R 's Home Treat- 
 ment Cures Weak Men. If you have Varicocele, Hydrocele, 
 Weakness, Drains, Lost Vigor, Losses, Blood Poison, Kidney, 
 Bladder or Any Chronic Nervous, Private or Urinary Disease, 
 consult the reliable specialist, who will cure you quickly, per- 
 manentlv and cheaply. 
 
 CONSULTATION FREE AND STRICTLY CONFIDEN- 
 TIAL, as the doctor never makes a professional charge unless 
 you desire him to treat your case until cured. Remember, you 
 
 see Dr. R personally. If you cannot call, write a 
 
 description of your case and he will send you symptom blank 
 and book, "VITAL FACTS FOR MEN," FREE. 
 
 Dr. R is no better and no worse than others who 
 
 have similar advertisements. They all practice the same game. 
 
 He is not, however, on very friendly terms with other spe- 
 cialists. A few years ago when some adverse legislation was 
 threatened at Springfield it was necessary to raise a fund to 
 check it. R = subscribed one hundred dollars, but never 
 
 : I CURE IN FIVE DAYS VARICOCELE 
 ': AND HYDROCELE without Knife or Pain. 
 : I want to cure every man suffering with Vari- 
 : cocele. Stricture, Contagious Blood Poison, 
 : Nervous Debility, Hydrocele or a disease peculiar 
 : to men. 
 * 
 
 This liberal offer is open to all who have spent large sums 
 of money on doctors and medicines without any success, and 
 my aim is to prove to all those people who were being treated 
 
 CONSULT DR. R 
 
 by a dozen or more doctors, also without any success, that 1 
 possess the only method, by means of which I will cure you 
 permanently. 
 
 DON'T PAY FOR UNSUCCESSFUL TREATMENT, ONLY 
 FOR PERMANENT CURE. 
 
 I will positively cure diseases of the stomach, lungs, liver 
 and kidneys, even though very chronic. 
 
QUACKS 447 
 
 PRIVATE DISEASES OF MEN cured quickly, perman- 
 ently and with absolute secrecy. Nervous Debility, Weakness. 
 Lost Vigor. Strains. Losses. Urinary Losses. 
 
 DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN— Pains in the Back. 
 White Discharge and other ailments cured permanently. 
 
 BLOOD POISON— And all kinds of skin diseases, like Pim- 
 ples, Swollen Glands. Wasting Diseases, Lingering Diseases. 
 CONSULTATION AND EXAMINATION FREE. 
 CURE ONCE FOR ALL. 
 
 DR. L. E. Z , Chicago. 
 
 Office Hours : 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. 
 Sundays : 9 a . m. to 4 p. m. 
 
 "I cure in five days." So says Dr. Z and several others 
 
 in the same business. However, when you offer to take the 
 five-day cure you are told it is an operation. "I have a slow 
 cure," say the oily "doctors/' "Just as good, which requires 
 three months." As the one operation itself is a little alarming, 
 most men take the "slow cure." 
 
 At the end of three or six months they find they have been 
 victimized. They are no better, and often worse. 
 
 Just Plain Fraud. 
 
 Among other advertisers are Dr. L. E. W , Dr. H. J. 
 
 T — and Dr. D . The last named was recently arrested 
 
 and held to the grand jury on the charge of defrauding a 
 patient. It might be asked in the light of the above exposes 
 of so-called specialists, are there no honest ones? Detective 
 Wooldridge says yes, there are several in Chicago who deliver 
 the goods. To any earnest seekers after the truth he will be 
 glad to give the names of several men of whom he can say, 
 "They do not misrepresent." 
 
FABULOUS LOSSES IN BIG 
 TURF FRAUDS. 
 
 "INVESTMENT" COMPANIES OF LAST FEW 
 YEARS NETTED $10,162,000. 
 
 This is a sad, sad story, because it is an obituary, the death 
 notice of one of the meanest and most abominable frauds that 
 has ever taken the hoarded pennies of children and working 
 girls, the "late lamented" "turf syndicate." 
 
 Several years ago the turf syndicate was in its glory. A 
 poor girl, fresh from the old country, would scrub floors for 
 
 a week or take in washing for a month in order to pour money 
 into the pockets of these swindlers. Thanks to the efforts of 
 Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge, of Chicago, and others, this 
 particular fraud is now a thing of the past. 
 
 But the enormity of this tremendous crime against the poor 
 may be appreciated from a study of the following figures. 
 
 Turf "investment" companies that have failed, absconded 
 or have been driven to the wall by prosecutions during the last 
 few years and the amount of money estimated to have been 
 lost in the swindles give the following astonishing record: 
 
FAIU Lol S LOSSES IN TURF FRAUDS 449 
 
 E. J. Arnold & Co $ 4,000,000 
 
 John J, Ryan & Co., St. Louis, Mo 1,500,000 
 
 Brolaski & Co., Chicago 200,000 
 
 Benedict: & Co., Chicago 200,000 
 
 The Mid-Continent Investment Company, Chicago . . 150,000 
 
 The Mason-Teller Company, Chicago 50,000 
 
 The Douglas-Ualv Company, R. S. Daly and N. C. 
 
 Clark, Chicago 125,000 
 
 The Armstrong-Baldwin Turf Commission, J. P. 
 
 McCann and O. L. Wells, Chicago 100,000 
 
 The Money-Maker, C. A. Pollock, manager, Chicago. 15,000 
 Gulf Pacitic Trust Co., F, Lehman and R. G. Hern- 
 don, Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco. 50,000 
 Investors' Profit-Sharing and Protective Association, 
 
 Chicago 12,000 
 
 J. J. Shea & Company, . Chicago 10.000 
 
 Standard Investment Bureau, Chicago and San 
 
 Francisco 25.000 
 
 The Security Savings Society. W. R. Bennett. 
 
 Chicago 1,500,000 
 
 The Investors' Protective Association, Frank E. 
 
 Stone, Chicago 200,000 
 
 D. W. Moodey & Co., Chicago 50,000 
 
 Co-Operative Trust Co.. L. M. Morrison. Chicago . . 150,000 
 
 Edward L. Farley & Co., Chicago 75,000 
 
 Inter-Ocean Commission Co.. J. T. Mitchell. Chicago 75,000 
 
 Hugo Morris & Co.. Chicago 50,000 
 
 A! Fetzer & Co., Co-Operative Turf Pools. Ham- 
 mond, Ind 500,000 
 
 Co-Operative Investment Association, L. H. Myers, 
 
 New York 150,000 
 
 American Stock Co., W. M. Nicliols. New York... 100,000 
 
 Mutual Security Co., C. Dudrey. New York 100,000 
 
 Henshall, Bronner & Co.. New York 75,000 
 
 W. W. O'Hara & Co.. Cincinnati . . - 50,000 
 
 Crawford & Co., New York 35,000 
 
 Paul Prv's Investments 70,000 
 
 The Belt Company. N. S. (ioodsill. Hammond. Ind. 150,000 
 
 Drake, Allison & Co., Hammond, Ind 175,000 
 
 McClellan & Co., John McClellan and John Murphy, 
 
 proprietors. New Orleans, absconded .50,000 
 
 New York Co-Operative Company, New Y'ork 20,000 
 
 W. J. Keating Company. New York 20,000 
 
 The Fidelity Trust, Wm. J. Young, San Francisco 25,000 
 
 C. E. Cooper & Co.. Cincinnati 15,000 
 
 C. E. Cooper & Co., Covington, Ky 10,000 
 
 C. E. Collins & Co., George D. Jones and Charles 
 
 Thompson, New York . . . ; 30,000 
 
 Total $10,162,000 
 
 Gigantic Turf Swindle. 
 
 Among the first of the get-rich-quick schemes into which 
 
 the public poured millions was the "turf investment" concern. 
 
 The "literature" of probably no other class of swindle was 
 
 so plausible as this. The promise was to pay 5 and in some 
 
450 FABULOUS LOSSES IN TUEF FKAUDS 
 
 cases 10 per cent on the investment each week. The method 
 hy which the promise was to be fulfilled was this : The money 
 invested was to be placed in a pool and used as capital in 
 playing the races. A standard bet of a certain amount was to 
 be made. If this wager was lost, enough money out of the 
 pool was to be bet on the horse picked by the managers of the 
 concern in the next race, to recoup the loss on the first race, 
 win the amount set out to win on the first race, together with 
 a like amount on the second race. If this wager was lost, the 
 process was to be repeated on the next race, and so on until a 
 wager was won. Each time there was a winning, a large 
 enough sum would have been bet to recoup all losses on previous 
 races and win a fixed amount on each of the races played. 
 Some concerns claimed to play the favorite horses in the bet- 
 ting, others the second choices to win and others to bet accord- 
 ing to "inside information" derived from horse owners and 
 jockeys. 
 
 Eegardless of the variations of the scheme, the general plan 
 was the same. The prospectuses, in a most plausible way, set 
 forth the claim that "T3eating the races" was merely a matter 
 of having a large enough capital at hand to continue the pro- 
 gressive betting plan. 
 
 By the claim that horse racing was as legitimate a calling 
 as dealing on the Board of Trade or Stock Exchange and pos- 
 sessed the additional advantage of being open to persons of 
 small means, a strong appeal was made to the poor. 
 
 Of course, none of the money that poured in ever was bet. 
 Had 5 per cent a week on all the millions contributed by the 
 public to this form of swindle been actually derived from the 
 bookmakers, every pcnciler in the country would have been 
 bankrupted in a month. The remarkable feature of the "turf" 
 investment scheme is that this phase of the matter seem.cd 
 never to occur to investors, and the other palpably impossible 
 j phases of the operators' claims were also overlooked in the 
 effort to secure 2fiO per cent a year on the investment made. 
 
FABULOUS L0S-5ES IN TURF FRAUDS 461 
 
 Get-Rich-Quick Schemes. 
 
 As in the horse swindles, the older investors were paid their 
 dividends from funds sent in by new ones. No attempt was 
 made to win dividends in the market. As the gullibility of 
 the "suckers" became a little dulled, innovations to increase 
 the plausibility of the schemes were made and new forms of 
 bait devised. 
 
 "Turf swindles'- have flourished, while the victims, who 
 number tens of thousands, dare not raise their voices in protest 
 or complaint, well knowing that they would not only be the 
 butt of ridicule in their community, but also that the world 
 at large would rather rejoice at their losses, and courts and 
 juries would probably waste little sympathy on them. Conse- 
 quently the safest swindles operated today are those having 
 race-track betting for their basis. 
 
 In the latter part of 1903 there were upwards of twenty-five 
 of these schemes in operation in the United States. New York 
 City was the headquarters for about ten, and the balance were 
 located in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, 
 Cincinnati and Brooklyn. 
 
 Their prosperity was evidenced by the ability of managers 
 to buy advertising space in the leading newspapers, to pay 
 the printers for the most elaborate booklets, circulars, etc., 
 and Uncle Sam for postage stamps, with which they were 
 extremely liberal, usually sending a stamped envelope, for 
 reply, to prospective investors. 
 
 Extracts which I give below from the literature of five of 
 these concerns offer a fair criterion for the whole mass which 
 I have before me, and demonstrate the turf swindlers' method 
 of extracting money from the unsophisticated. Fully 25 per 
 cent of their "investors" are women, while the whole number 
 who contribute to their scheme is made up of persons who 
 would not be seen betting at a race track or pool room, but 
 who have consciences that will permit them to make money 
 "honestlv or otherwise." 
 
453 FABULOUS LOSSES LY TURF FRAUDS 
 
FABULOUS Lus^JO;S J^ TLKK Ki:£AU.DS 458 
 
 Here Are Plausible Arguments. 
 
 I'his is one argument oj' a firm of so-called '"'Expert Hanrti- 
 cappers" of New York City, wlio bet on the races: 
 
 "There has never been a week since we started in business 
 when we did not pay a dividend. The smallest dividend we 
 liave ever paid for any one week was $6.50 for every $100 
 invested. We average about $9.50 per week on each $100. 
 
 "An investment with us is safer and brings better returns 
 than bookmaking or any other form of speculation." 
 
 Here is an argument of a firm of so-called "Turf Commis- 
 sioners" of San Francisco, which claimed to be betting on 
 the races, guaranteeing 4 per cent weekly: 
 
 "There is no kind of speculation that affords so great an 
 opportunity for making money rapidly on a small capital as 
 playing the races on a business-like and "systematic basis. Our 
 average weekly profits usually range from 4 to 8 per cent." 
 
 Another argument, that of a so-called "Bookmaker" of St. 
 Louis, who guarantees 5 per cent weekly dividends to investors: 
 
 "We make books and allow the betting public to place the 
 money. The man who bets has one horse running for him — 
 the bookmaker has the rest. For this reason the odds are all 
 in favor of the bookmaker and if he understands his business 
 he is certain to make money." 
 
 Argument of a firm of so-called "Turf Commissioners" of 
 Cliicago, who claim to make books on the races: 
 
 "'Our plan insures a steady income on a small capital, such 
 as no other company offers, and far eclipses any mining, oil, 
 or other stock investment." 
 
 Argument of so-called racing stable concern of St. Louis, 
 guaranteeing 3 per cent ,per week to investors of $50 and up- 
 ward : 
 
 "We have a large stable of race horses, which we run at all 
 tracks, winter and summer; we make books wherever racing is 
 conducted, and the proposition we manage pays so well be- 
 cause we know how to run it to that end." 
 
454 FABULOUS LOSSES IN TURF FRAUDS 
 
 One of the variants of the old turf scheme is the venerable 
 '"Two-Horse Special/' a fraud that is so old that its whiskers 
 drag about its knees. Here is a sample of the two-horse litera- 
 ture: 
 
 "MY TWO-HORSE SPECIAL PLAN." 
 
 (Send this slip with remittance.) 
 
 No Account Received of Less Than $50. 
 
 George F. Stone, 
 Turf Specialist, 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 I hand you Dollars to be used by you 
 
 in speculating for me, according to your TWO-HORSE WIRE 
 plan of Turf Speculation. You are to play one-fifth of the 
 amount of capital on each special, placing the money to win 
 and also for place. You are to mail for me your selections 
 each day. mailing the same NOT LATER than 1 P. M. You 
 agree to operate the account. MAKING NO CHARGE until 
 winnings equal capital invested. After that 20 per cent of all 
 winnings you are to deduct, and send me the balance by money 
 order, with statement, each week. I can close my account 
 and withdraw any balance due me on demand. My liability 
 is strictly limited to above amount. 
 
 TiTE Police, Aroused by Turf Swindlers, Raid and Close 
 Up Their Places. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge led the officers on February 23, 1900. 
 wlien the following concerns were raided and closed up: 
 
 Co-Operative Trust Company, 80 and 84 Adam street. 
 
 Turf Investment Company, 84 Adams street. 
 
 fnter-Ocean Commission Company, 66 Wabash avenue. 
 
 Security Savings Company, Madison street and Fifth avenue. 
 
 Investors' Protective Association, 510 Realty Building. 
 
 D. W. Moody, 182 and 184 Dearborn street. 
 
 Tlie papers, books and "big-dividend" circulars of these con- 
 (crns filled several wagons. The police estimated that over 
 $.'500,000 had been lost by the investors in these concerns, which, 
 notwithstanding some of the high-sounding names adopted by 
 them, were all turf swindlers. Raid after raid has resulted in 
 practically ridding Chicago of these vampires, but they seem 
 to thrive wherever they are permitted to exist. 
 
FABULOUS LOSSES IN TURF FRAUDS 455 
 
 FAKE TURFMEN INDICTED. 
 
 Gambling and Bookmaking Charged Against the "Get- 
 Rich-Quick" Syndicates, Including Bennett's. 
 
 True bills were voted against proprietors of "get-rich-quick" 
 turf concerns by the grand Jury. Indictments were returned in 
 court, and capiasps for the arrest of the accused persons placed 
 in the hands of the sheriff. Those against whom bills were 
 voted are: 
 
 Frank E. Stone, alias Eddie Dunne, Security Savings Soci- 
 ety, for bookmaking. W. R. Bennett, Security Savings Society, 
 for bookmaking. W. I. Bennett, Security Savings Society, 
 for bookmaking. D. W. Moody, Security Savings Society, for 
 bookmaking. Louis Morrison, alias L. M. Morrison, Co-Opera- 
 tive Trust Company, for bookmaking. Edwin E. Farley, for 
 keeping a common gaming house and poolroom. Charles Car- 
 roll, for keeping a common gaming house and poolroom. J. W. 
 Turner, alias J. W. Taylor, for keeping a common gaming house 
 and poolroom. Miss S. Beck, stenographer for W. R. Bennett, 
 for bookmaking. 
 
 One puzzling feature of the prosecution of the turf people 
 is that although the bills accuse them of keeping common 
 gaming houses and operating poolrooms, officers and lawyers 
 interested in the cases say the promoters of the concerns never 
 really attempted to win their advertised profits by betting on 
 the races. It has been alleged that not one of them speculated 
 with deposits, but simply sent dividends back to investors out 
 of their own money. It is now suggested that the accused 
 persons will either have to admit they were gambling or con- 
 fess that their alluring statements about winnings on the 
 race tracks were glittering frauds. 
 
 The turf swindle was prosperous until February, 1903, when 
 the crash among the St. Louis contingent precipitated a "run" 
 on all of the concerns then in operation. As it was not the 
 
456 FABULOUS LOSSES IN TUKF FRAUDS 
 
 policy of the swindlers to pa}-, they either closed their doors 
 and fled or the police conveniently interfered with their busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Prior to the crash at St. Louis there were several notable 
 failures and disappearances. On July 9, 1902, the Al Fetzer 
 Co., of Hammond, Ind., "failed/' and about a week prior Turf 
 Commissioner ^Y. W. O'Hara, of Cincinnati, absconded. Both 
 of these events shattered many dreams of riches. In the Fetzer 
 case heavy rains were said to have broken the sure-thing com- 
 bination by which the company Avas to win fortunes from 
 bookmakers on the race tracks. 
 
 The amounts lost by the credulous investors in Fetzer's 
 scheme, which, it was declared, "could not lose,'' reached into 
 the hundreds of thousands. The towns that suffered the most 
 were Hammond, Ind., and Appleton, Wis. It was reported 
 that the people of the latter town had suffered to the extent 
 of $50,000, and dozens of small cities are believed to have 
 fared almost as badly. 
 
 The clients of the concern in Appleton included a number of 
 well-known business men and people of all classes. They lost 
 from $25 to $200 each. A poor widow who had put in all 
 her savings was left penniless and was obliged to seek aid from 
 the city authorities. 
 
 Fetzer conducted a large part of his business through the 
 mails. He advertised extensively in the newspapers and found 
 many who were willing to "play the game." Dividends of $5 
 a week for $100 invested were promised and were paid punc- 
 tually up to about July 1, 1902. He said he had a system of 
 playing the races that could not be beaten, and the success 
 of the early investors convinced the doubting ones that his 
 system was all right. The information of the "snap" spread 
 rapidly and Fetzer's business increased accordingly. No one 
 thought that dividends of 260 per cent were improbable when 
 they read of the "long shots" that won race.« on the Chicago 
 tracks. 
 
FABULOTJS LOfSSE.S IN TUKF ivHAlDS 45 T 
 
 Fetzer attributed the downfall of his business to the rainy 
 weather and said that he had been unsuccessful in picking 
 "mudders." His system of betting, which was to make every- 
 one rich by the end of the summer, went to pieces with each 
 succeeding thunder shower, and the investors received the 
 doleful information that the company had lost its own capital, 
 as well as the money entrusted to it. 
 
 An investigation into the affairs of O'Hara at Cincinnati 
 revealed a state of affairs almost beyond belief. More than 
 4,000 letters which were received within a week after O'Hara's 
 disajipearance were opened. They were from every state in the 
 country, and many were from Canada. Amounts from $5 to 
 $500 in checks and mail and express orders were enclosed.. The 
 total amount of the money in the letters opened was $5,518, 
 and Inspector Holmes stated that O'Hara got away with $7,500 
 which came in the mail the same week, making a total of 
 over $13,000 for one week's business. O'Hara's books showed 
 that from July, 1900, when he commenced operations, until 
 he skipped out in June, 1903, he had received from credulous 
 "investors" the enormous sum of $465,000. 
 
 The inevitable crash came early in February, 1903, and 
 the police and grand juries at Chicago, St. Louis, New York 
 and other cities got busy, but the money had been transferred 
 to the pockets of the swindlers, who had the choice of paying 
 lawyers and possible fines or traveling in foreign climes until 
 the excitement blew over. 
 
 February. 1903, Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge raided and 
 closed the following named turf investment companies in 
 Chicago : 
 
 H. B. Blackstone, E. J. Arnold, 95 Dearborn street. 
 
 Harry Brolaski, "Brolaski & Co.," 356 Dearborn street. 
 
 Henry Thompson, "Brolaski & Co.," 356 Dearborn street. 
 
 Mattie Woodin, "Benedict & Co.," 335 Dearborn street. 
 
 M. J. Beck, "Benedict & Co./* 335 Dearborn street. 
 
458 FABULOUS LOSSES IN TURF FRAUDS 
 
 W. J. Mason, "Benedict & Co./' 225 Dearborn street. 
 
 "Mid-Continent/' 185 Dearborn street. 
 
 Prey on Chicago Teachers. 
 
 From papers found in the Mid-Continent offices it appears 
 this company had been doing a loan as well as an investment 
 business. A letter addressed to Chicago school teachers invited 
 deposits for^ investment on which 2J^ per cent monthly interest 
 was guaranteed. 
 
 If the teachers needed money it was offered them at 3 per 
 cent a month. The company's methods and those of the banks 
 were compared in the letter, to the disadvantage of the banks. 
 
 Medical students, stenographers, maids in hotels, women of 
 various classes, farmers in many sections of the country and 
 hundreds of men in different employments in the city were 
 disclosed as the dupes. 
 
 The following telegram from St. Louis to a Chicago 
 paper briefly outlines the situation on the second day of the 
 raiding there: 
 
 St. Louis. Mo., Feb. 11, 1903.— Runs were made on the E. J. 
 Arnold Turf Investment Company, the International Investment 
 Company, The Christie Investment Company and .lohn J. Ryan 
 & Co. yesterday by hundreds of men and women who during the 
 last six months have invested their savings with these co-opera- 
 tive bookmaking concerns in the hope of enormous profits. The 
 International and Christie companies paid all the stockholders 
 who appeared, at first. Then they decamped. 
 
 Arnold <& Co., in accordance with their announcement which 
 caused the panic among the "turf speculators" yesterday, refused 
 to pay back any stock certificates, although still claiming to be 
 perfectly solvent, and determined to pay the usual weekly divi- 
 dends until affairs of the company are wound up. 
 
 At the offices of John J. Ryan, owner of the Newport (Ky.) 
 Race Track, a riot was averted by the presence of the police ; 
 and the excited investors, who were reminded that their stock 
 certificates are payable only on thirty days' notice, went off in 
 a state of rage and anxiety at once amusing and pitiful. 
 
 How Arnold Inspired Confidence. 
 
 Arnold was a wise one. He knew how to work the game. 
 
 First he sent to New York and bought the famous race horse 
 
 Gold Heels. This horse had won many of the great Eastern 
 
 classics. He broke a tendon and was useless, but Arnold's 
 
FABULOUS LOSSES IN TURF FRAUDS 459 
 
 investors did not know that. They would swear by Gold Heels. 
 Then he caused his "bank" to issue a letter along the following 
 lines : 
 
 American Central Trust Company. 
 
 Capital— $1,000,000. Surplus— $500,000. 
 
 S. Schnurmacher, President. 
 Wm. S. Simpson, First Vice-President. 
 Joseph Wachtel. Second Vice-President. 
 Franklin P. Hunkins, Third Vice-President. 
 Edward Bauder, Secretai'y and Treasurer. 
 Directors. 
 Shepard Barclay, Franklin P. Hunkins, 
 
 Edward Bauder, John D. Manley, 
 
 G. A. Bauder, H. I. Mills, 
 
 John N. Drummond, Jr., John A. Nies, 
 
 Henry W. Gehner, H. F. Powitzhy, 
 
 Morris Glaser, Leo S. Rassieur, 
 
 Frank Griesedieck, B. Schnurmacher, 
 
 G. A. Gurner, Wm. S. Simpson, 
 
 Joseph Wachtel. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., May 15, 1902. 
 To Whom It May Concern : 
 
 The firm of E. .7. Arnold Cz Company, of this city, is one of 
 our largest depositors, and we consider them amply responsible 
 for every obligation they may assume. 
 
 American Central Trust Company, 
 By Edward Bauder, 
 
 Sec'y & Treas. 
 
 The disaster was brought about by the appointment of 
 a committee by the Missouri legislature to investigate the 
 ^^get-rich-quiek" sifuation. St. Louis had become the haven 
 of every conceivable class of swindlers, who swarmed there 
 in such numbers that the legislature deemed it wise to look 
 into the matter. "What motive inspired it to take this action 
 was a mystery. Sufficient, however, to observe that when it 
 came to following out its own recommendation to pass laws 
 that would drive the "get-rich-quick" companies of all kinds 
 out of the state something. stopped the legislation. 
 
 The investigation of the "get-rich-quick" concerns in Mis- 
 souri by the State Senate Committee resulted in an elaborate 
 report, which was presented March 3, 1903. This report had 
 the following to say of the turf investment companies: 
 
 "These institutions are of modern origin. The pioneer in 
 this field, especially in this state, seems to have been E. J. 
 
460 FABlLurs LOSSES IX TURF FBAUDS 
 
 Arnold & Co. Then followed Ryan & Co., the International. 
 The Christian Syndicate, Brolaski, Thomas Walsh, Maxim-Gay 
 and others. 
 
 "These concerns were presumably prosperous until the ex- 
 amination which was begun by the grand jury, instigated by' 
 the circuit attorney of St. Louis, Hon. Joseph \Y. Folk, and 
 your present committee. When the crash came, company after 
 company closed its doors or refused to pay back to depositors 
 on demand, and upon examination of these companies, we 
 found them to 1ic mere shells, with little or no money or avail- 
 able assets on hand, and the millions of dollars handled by 
 them either paid out in dividends, squandered and gambled 
 away on race tracks, or absorbed by the officers and managers 
 of the said companies. 
 
 "The evidence discloses the fact that E. J. Arnold is sup- 
 posed to be in Mexico, the books of said company being in the 
 hands of the grand jury. So far as the search under legal 
 process has developed, no assets of Arnold & Co., except a stock 
 farm and stock thereon, office furniture and fixtures, and a 
 few hundred dollars in cash, were found. 
 
 "Ryan & Company claim that they have on hand $200,00{). 
 which has been attached and garnishecd, in the hands of the 
 depositories, and the same process has been used to take pos- 
 session of the real estate holdings and other personal property. 
 
 "George A. Dice, inspector of the postoffice. in charge of 
 Ihe St. Louis department, testified that he had made an ex- 
 amination of E, J. Arnold & Co. and John J. Ryan & Co., 
 and that on their showing Arnold & Co. had on hand $1G0,000 
 more assets than their liabilities; that two different examina- 
 tions of these concerns were made by him and his deputies, 
 and that in the last report of November and December, 1902, 
 his report to the department recommended that they be cited 
 to appear before the department and answer as to their liabilily 
 for criminal use of the mails, and that so far as his report 
 wont they Avore notified that there was a case pending against 
 
FABULOUS LO>58ES 1 X TTRF FRAUDS 461 
 
 them; that the mling- of the- departinent was not in aceorcl- 
 ance with his recoramenclatioii ; that from the evidence it ap- 
 pears that the department at Washington, hv some process or 
 other unknown to your committee, overruled the recommenda- 
 tions of the inspector, dismissed the cases pending against these 
 companies, and they were allowed, to proceed with their proc- 
 ess of absorbing the people's money. Had the department at 
 Washington acted promptly and properly upon the recommen- 
 dation of the inspector, millions of dollars wonld have been 
 saved to the people of the State of Missouri and other states. 
 
 '"'In order to protect the people who are attracted by the 
 iiiiv promises and the payment -ot extraordinary profits or 
 dividends, and to prohibit the improper and vicious mis- 
 application and absorption of the money of the people who 
 confide in the representation of investment companies, your 
 committee recommends that a law be passed which will pro- 
 hibit the doing of business by said turf investment companies 
 or other like institutions in this state." 
 
 If one should moralize on the turf swindles it would only be 
 to repeat the old story — avarice. Xothing else explains why 
 they are permitted to flourish and rob, and then a newspaper 
 story and no more. 
 
 Justice, blind and decrepit, is unable to scale the insurmount- 
 able barrier of the swindlers' "bank roll." But there is still 
 hope, for from Washington we hear from day to day that an- 
 other boodler has been landed in the grand jury net — thanks 
 to President Eoosevelt, who, if he knew all, would do more. 
 
 When the last paragraph was written the finale had not been 
 reached. But the strong arm of the federal government has 
 at last been felt and the turf investment companies are no 
 more. It is impossible for even the veriest sucker to be taken 
 in by them any more, and their literature would be barred 
 from the mails in an instant. It is all over with the turf 
 investment companies. "Requiescat in pace." May they rest 
 in peace. 
 
FAKE DRUG VENDORS. 
 
 A MOST DANGEROUS FORM OF RASCALITY. 
 
 Drugs Worth $30,000 Seized. 
 
 War on Makers of Imitations of Medicines Begun by the 
 
 Chicago Police jn Charge of Detective 
 
 Clifton R. Wooldridge. 
 
 In all the history of fraud, imposture and graft, there is no 
 story to parallel that of the "fake drug clique.-' There is no 
 means of. finding out how many thousands of lives are annu- 
 ally sacrificed in consequence of its nefarious practices, and 
 the strong arm of the law while it can reach out and prevent 
 further crime, can not call back to life those who have been 
 offered up on the altar of greed. 
 
 Sensational raids made in the effort to clear Chicago of its 
 numerious "Fake" patent medicine concerns, occurred on the 
 morning of Nov. 29, 1904. 
 
 The raids followed a long conference between Chief of Police 
 Francis O'Neill and Col. James E. Stuart, Chief Inspector of 
 Chicago Postal Department, and for the first time in the his- 
 tory of the city, the Federal and City forces worked in unison. 
 They decided that Chicago should be cleared of "Fake" Patent 
 Medicine Concerns which for years had been using the mails 
 to defraud hundreds of thousands of sick and weak persons. 
 
 George G. Kimball, U. S. Inspector of Mails, and Detective 
 Clifton R. Wooldridge M'ere assigned to gather the evidence and 
 prepare the cases for prosecution. The work was no easy 
 task. Both officers went about the work of gathering the evi- 
 dence in a thoroughly systematic manner. 
 
 I 
 
FAKE DRU(i VENDOES 4(33 
 
 Inspector Kimball discovered the mails were employed ex- 
 tensively by the agents in disposing of their spurious drugs. 
 Investigation proved that large orders were sent to small sub- 
 urban towns and cities weekly. The correspondence, circulars 
 and goods were secured. 
 
 The breaking up of the drug ring, however, was . a delicate 
 task. It was strongly backed financially, and it was aided and 
 abetted, throughout the United States, by political rings ga- 
 lore. Chicago was the headquarters, and it was natural that to 
 the police department of this city, ever-famed for its hatred 
 of "grafts'^ big and little, should fall the lot of exterminating 
 the traffic. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge gathered the information in Chicago, 
 the names of the firms, location and the men who owned them. 
 
 The men are charged with making and selling a spurious 
 preparation of aristol, a product made in Germany, and valued 
 as a substitute for iodoform. Their products were represented 
 as genuine, were said to differ from those handled by the whole- 
 sale drug trade, only in the fact that they were imported from 
 Canada and England instead of from Germany. 
 
 Here are a few of the things discovered in the course of the 
 investigation by Detective C. R. Wooldridge. The statements are 
 printed from an interview with the great detective. 
 
 "As we have progressed the work has broadened and grown 
 to proportions never anticipated at the start. Among the 
 goods seized were found boxes, the labels of which bore the 
 chemical name and formula of trional, and which gave an 
 exact description of the chemical and physical properties of 
 trional and the medicinal indications of this drug. 
 
 "On examination it was found that these boxes contained 
 pure acetanilid. The dosage of drugs recommended upon the 
 label was fifteen to twenty grains, and it was stated 'that night 
 sweats of phthisis are promptly arrested by eight grains." 
 
 "I am informed that it is within the professional knowledge 
 of every druggist as well as every physician that the substitu- 
 
464 FAKE imVG A'ENDORS 
 
 tion, grain for grain, of acetanilid, for trional, is a most 
 reprehensible fraud, which might cause the death of the patient 
 to whom the drug Avas administered. 
 
 "As indicating the commercial fraud connected with this 
 substitution, it should be stated that the price charged for 
 this drug by the defendants in this case, as shown by the price 
 list, was 95 cents per ounce, commercial value of acetanilid 
 is one and one half cents per ounce. 
 
 "But by far the largest fraud found was in the counterfeit 
 label business. There were 2,400 metal caps for bottles stamped 
 vvitli the name of a Swiss manufacturer. There were also 
 labels purporting to be German or Swiss labels. A number 
 of half filled bottles, waiting for the adulterants, showed con- 
 clusively the use to which these labels were to be put. 
 
 "We were fortunate enough to find certain cards and bills 
 in this i)laee indicating that the makers of these metal caps 
 and labels had never been nearer Switzerland or Germany than 
 Clark and Harrison streets. Acting upon this information we 
 secured evidence that these articles were made in Chicago and 
 never imported. 
 
 "These entire preparations including the mixing, boxing, 
 labeling and placing upon the market was done by these par- 
 ties here in Chicago, and the goods, much of it undoubtedly, 
 placed in the hands of innocent purchasers, who were deceived 
 by the external appearance of genuineness, into purchasing the 
 adulterated and fraudulent goods, without analysis or investi- 
 gation of any kind. 
 
 The great public, the individuals who use these drugs when 
 prescribed by their physician, arc themselves in total ignorance 
 of the fact, not only that they have defrauded and cheated, but 
 perhaps placed in jeopardy of their lives. 
 
 "There were found among these boxes seized, certain recep- 
 tacles which bore labels stating that aristol was contained there- 
 in. On cxaminatioji by reputable chemists at the Columbus 
 Laboratories, the powder in these boxes was found to be fullers 
 
FAKE DllUG YENDOKS 465 
 
 earth, colored with oxide of iron, not containing a single trace 
 uf aristol. The aristol, which was quoted on the price lists 
 as "equal to Ba3^er's" was sold at 80 cents per ounce, at which 
 almost a ton of fullers earth and oxide of iron could be 
 purchased. 
 
 "The evidence was procured and chemical tests made which 
 ])roved the presence of alien matter in the prescriptions which 
 called for pure drugs. In nearly 20 per cent of the samples 
 obtained there was not even a trace of the drug called for in 
 the prescription; Acetanilid as a substitute for trional-aristol, 
 which is an antiseptic wash much used by surgeons. 
 
 "Prescriptions w^ere sent to 139' druggists signed by Dr. J. 
 Scott Brown, calling for pure aristol. Dr. J. A. Wesener of the 
 Columbus Lavatories conducted the tests. 
 
 WHAT THE TEST SHOWED. 
 
 (The results) Dr. Wesener showed the following: 
 
 23 prescriptions No trace of aristol 
 
 66 prescriptions 80 per cent impurity 
 
 10 prescriptions 20 per cent impurity 
 
 9 prescriptions 10 per cent impurity 
 
 31 prescriptions pure 
 
 "Druggists have been misled into purchasing this substitute 
 for aristol by unscrupulous salesmen, who have palmed off on 
 them a substance which in many cases is nothing more than 
 "fuller's earth," said Dr. Wesener. This stuff was sold to 
 them cheap. 
 
 "The druggist can have no excuse for selling this stuff, which 
 is injurious, because it is an easy matter for him to test it 
 to find out whether it is aristol or not. Aristol is soluble iji 
 either, and makes a dark brown solution. Some of the powder 
 which we have obtained on these prescriptions is not soluble at 
 all. We have not completed the chemical analysis of all the 
 precipitates, but those which we have tried consist of chalk 
 mixed with an iron oxide to give it the color, or some other 
 mineral substance." 
 
4:66 FAKE DEUG VENDORS 
 
 The two leading imitations are as follows: Spurious prep- 
 aration of aristol. and an imitation of trietliylate which is a 
 substitute for trional. 
 
 Aristol sells at $1.85 an ounce and trietliylate retails at $1.50 
 an ounce. The cost of manufacturing the two imitations is 
 about 2 cents an ounce. 
 
 DANGER TO THE PATIENT. 
 
 ^The adulteration of aristol is liable to be fraught with 
 serious consequences to the patient. It is extremely dangerous 
 to introduce a mineral substance into an open wound, and many 
 surgeons who have used this adulterated antiseptic, having 
 bought it in good faith for the pure drug, have been at a loss 
 to know why the wounds have suppurated. It is possible this 
 adulterated drug may have caused numberless cases of blood 
 poison with consequent loss of life.'' 
 
 HASTENED McKINLEY'S DEATH. 
 
 It is even whispered that one of the products sold by this 
 gang as a counterfeit of a standard article hastened the death 
 of President William McKinley. The story goes that Avhen 
 the physicians sent to the nearest drug store for a certain kind 
 of medicine they were given a substance which resembled it in 
 every way but which was spurious. It is said the drug had 
 exactly the opposite effect upon the president from what the 
 doctors had reason to suppose it would have. Some there are 
 who even declare that the application of the genuine article 
 at that critical time would have saved the life of William 
 McKinley. 
 
 Otta G. Stoltz, druggist at 00 Rush street, Chicago, 111., 
 assisted by his porter, manufactured the spurious drugs in his 
 basement for E. A. Kuehmsted. 
 
 In manufacturing the standard remedy of aristol, he used 
 fifty per cent of various ingredients, and fifty per cent of 
 rosin. It was called "Thymistol, manufactured by the Mexi- 
 can Chemical Company," and substituted for aristol. There 
 
FAKE DRUG VENDOES 467 
 
 was no such a company in Mexico. The goods, boxes and 
 labels were made in Chicago, Illinois, and the stuff was sold 
 to the druggists for one half the price of the genuine aristol. 
 The gang was ostensibly engaged in selling to the retail drug 
 i rade infringements of a large number of patented drugs, marfu- 
 faetured in Germany. Their ' products were represented to be 
 genuine, differing from those handled by the legitimate whole- 
 sale drug trade only in the fact that they were imported by 
 iJiem direct from Canada and England, thereby evading pay- 
 ment of royalty to the American patentees. As a matter of fact, 
 the peddlers used the cry of monopoly under the patents merely 
 iis a pretext for ingratiating themselves with the retail drug- 
 gists, and then foisted upon them many adulterated and spui*- 
 ious imitations of the imported preparations. The drugs imi- 
 tated are standard medical preparations, dispensed on phys- 
 ician's prescription by every retail pharmacist. These remedies 
 are in so general use that at least one-half the prescriptions 
 Avritten by physicians call for one or other of them. 
 
 LETTEE FEOM EDWAED A. KUEHMSTED, THE PEIN- 
 
 CIPAL DEALEE IN SPUEIOUS DEUGS ; 
 
 IT IS SELF-EXPLANATOEY. 
 
 Chicago, 111.. 
 Mr. M. R. Zaegel. July 24, 1902. 
 
 Sheboygan, Wis. 
 My Dear Mr. Zaegel: 
 
 •Although I have been selling bogus Pheuacetiue and a lot 
 of other bogus goods for orer three years. I have never had 
 the pleasure of selling you any of them. I should very much 
 like to do so, and feel that I can give you satisfaction both 
 in goods and prices. 
 
 Some time ago I perfected arrangements to get my supplies 
 direct from Europe, where the supply is not so limited as in 
 Canada, and I can do much better in price. 
 
 The enclosed list gives my complete line. All items with 
 prices attached I have in stock and can sppply without delay. 
 Other items are continually arriving. 
 
 The prices I have made you are, I think, exceptionally low, 
 and I trust they will induce you to give me a trial. Express 
 charges I prepay. Trusting T may be favored with your valued 
 orders, I am, Very respectfully, 
 
 Edward A. Kuehmsted. 
 6.523 Tngleside Ave.. 
 Chicago. 111. 
 
468 FAKE DItUG VEXDOIife 
 
 THE STATE LAWS COVEEING THE FEAUDULENT 
 ADULTEEATION OF DEUGS AND MEDI- 
 CINES FOE THE PUEPOSE OF SALE, 
 EEADS AS FOLLOWS. 
 
 "Section 10, Chapter 38 of Kurd's Eevised Statutes of Illi- 
 nois for 1903. Whoever fraudulently adulterates, for the pur- 
 pose of sale, any drug or medicine, or sells or offers or keeps 
 for sale any fraudulently adulterated drug or medicine, know- 
 ing the same to be adulterated, shall be confined in the County 
 Jail not exceeding one year, or fined not exceeding $1,000, and 
 such adulterated drugs and medicines shall be forfeited and 
 destroyed/' 
 
 After the great mass of evidence had been gathered it was 
 submittec to the Chief of Police, Francis O'Neill, who instruc- 
 ted Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge to lay the matter before 
 John K. Prindiville, Justice of Peace, and if he would issue 
 warrants to go ahead and search the premises and make arrest. 
 
 Desk Sargeant Mike White looked upon as an expert by the 
 police Department drew the complaints and warrants which 
 Avere duly signed and a detail of 20 picked men was assigned to 
 Detective Wooldridge with instructions to go ahead, and on 
 Oct. 29, 1904, they were divided into four squads and they 
 swooped down on the five Medicine concerns at one time with- 
 out giving them any warning. 
 
 The following is a list of the parties arrested : 
 
 W. G. Nay, alias S. B. Soper, 1452 Fulton street; over 
 $2,000 worth of spurious stuff seized. Nay and wife arrested. 
 
 Burtis B. M'Cann, alias George A. Barton, 0113 Madison 
 avenue, $2,500 Avorth of stuff seized. McCann arrested. 
 
 J. J. Dean, 6123 Ellis avenue; $5,000 worth of spurious 
 medicines seized; Dean and wife arrested. 
 
 J. N. Levy, 359 Dearborn street ; $500 worth seized. 
 
 Edward A. Kuehmsted, 0323 luglcsido avenue, and Isabella 
 Kuehmsted were arrested ; over $12,000 v^orth of spurious drug!? 
 
FAKE DRUG VENDORS 469 
 
 were seized by Detective Clifton E. Wooldridge, Sergeant Will- 
 iam M. McGrrath, Sergeant Thomas Fitzpatrick, Officers Ter- 
 ence N. Kelly, Mathew J. Reilly, Michael O'Neill, Thomas 
 Ready, Michael McGuire, August C. Dolan, Patrick Quinn, 
 Thomas Daly, Bernard Conwa^'. 
 
 V. Goldberg, a partner of Edward Kuehmsted, appeared 
 on the scene and tried to prevent the officers from taking 
 the goods. He was locked up on the charge of disorderly 
 conduct and on the following morning entered a plea of guilty 
 before Justice John R. Caverly and was fined $1 and cost. 
 John G. Campbell, alleged attorney for Edward A. Kuehm- 
 sted, appeared upon the scene and tried to force his way into 
 the house while the drug was being removed. He also tried 
 to prevent the officers from taking the drugs and threatened to 
 whip them, pulled his coat off and assaulted Detective Wool- 
 dridge. He too was sent to the Harrison Street Station and 
 locked up. 
 
 The prisoners arrested in the raid were sent to the Harrison 
 Street Police Station together with eleven wagonloads of drugs 
 seized, which were valued at $30,000. 
 
 Upon the arrival of the prisoners and the drugs, a United 
 States warrant was served upon them, charging the defendants 
 with using the mails to defraud, also a duces tecum subpoena 
 was served for the drugs seized in the raid to be brought into 
 the United States court forthwith, was served upon Detective 
 Wooldridge, and other officers by United States Marshal. 
 
 The two ex-convicts were Levy, who was also known under 
 the aliases of Charles Movers, R. Waldron, and R. Cassat and 
 George Edwards. Under the latter name he served a year in 
 Joliet. Hass was the other ex-convict. His Sing Sing num- 
 ber was B 5574. Yet under the administration of the law under 
 the justice shop system these men, who sold chalk and water 
 mixed with idorn oxides for an antiseptic, finally managed 
 to get out of the clutches of the law on a compromise adjudi^ 
 
•iiO FAKE DPiUG VEXDOES 
 
 cation, concerning which the State's Attorney alone knew the 
 details. 
 
 Then the insolent vendors of fake drags thought they saw a 
 chance to get back at the officers of the law. They found a nice 
 little loop-hole in the fact that when the raids were made a 
 few chemicals, which were not contraband had been seized, in 
 the rush and scurry of the raid. 
 
 Therefore a suit was brought against Detective Clifton E. 
 Wooldridge, Charles M. Carr, editor of the X. A. E. D. Notes, 
 a police publication, Henry I). Morton, Chief of Police Francis 
 O'Xeill, the Farbenfabriken Co. and Wooten. The suit called 
 for heavy damages. After going over the evidence the court 
 of first resort awarded damages of $1.00. Eather than be put; 
 to the cost of an appeal this $1.00 was paid by the defendants. 
 
 But the business of vending fake drugs in the city of Chicago 
 had been broken up and the city made unsafe for this most de- 
 testable class of swindlers, who prey upon the sick and wounded 
 and endanger human life by the sale of their nostrums. "It was 
 ■worth $1.00 to put the rascally crew out of business," said De- 
 tective Wooldridge afterward in discussing the matter. "It 
 is surely worth a dollar to a man to know that he has been in- 
 strumental in saving thousands of human lives." And there 
 the matter rested. 
 
BUCKET-SHOP, 
 
 Every day the American people squander $100,000 in ficti- 
 tious speculation in grain. 
 
 There are 1,000 bucket shops operating in the United States 
 at this time, their geographical distribution marked by the 
 boundaries of the country. 
 
 For each of these 1,000 shops an average of $100 a day gross 
 income is necessary to meet its expenses, chief of which are 
 for wire and ticker service and blackboard writers. 
 
 Thus, in order that. 1,000 of these shops may live and remain 
 open, they mu^t liave $100 a day each, which, in a year of 300 
 da3'S, means an income of $300,000,000 annually. Many of 
 tliese ])ucket shops fail for lack of money, while others "fail" 
 in order that tliey may keep the money of the investor. While 
 $100,000 a day as the losses of the people in the illegitimate 
 speculation in grain is very conservative, one must add an- 
 other $100,000 a day as tribute which the gullible pay to the 
 fake "get-rich-quick*' and kindred sharper concerns of the 
 country. 
 
 ' "Speculation"' an Unmeaning Term. 
 
 Yet with this $100,000 a day going into the hopper of fren- 
 zied speculation of all kinds, Bradstreet's for the year 1907 
 showed business failures from speculation as one-eighth of 1 
 per cent of the total failures of the country. 
 
 Whatever may be Bradstreet's definition of the word "specu- 
 lation," as used in his lists, the word to the average business 
 man who knows whereof he talks is as unmeaning as any other 
 in the business dictionary. Suppose a man somewhere in a 
 country town loses money in any speculative venture anywhere 
 under the sun. If it is a few dollars only, he may not speak of 
 it at all. If it is enough to embarrass him, perhaps he may 
 have to speak. Under these circumstances the best possible 
 thing to do is to explain that he lost it "on the Chicago Board 
 
472 BUCKET-SHOP 
 
 of Trade." If lie lias no crodit at stake in the matter, and is 
 sore;, lie may yell murder over his losses "on the board." But 
 hundreds of such men have lost their money in bucket shops, 
 and scores of them have lost it at poker or some other gramblinp^ 
 game. 
 
 "Board of Trade" Falsely Bla^ied. 
 
 Every little while a banker somewhere goes wrong with funds 
 that are intrusted to him, and in the telling of the story the 
 "Chicago Board of Trade" is the secret of his undoing. 
 
 One of the marked cases of the kind was that of the x\urora 
 banker who defalcated with $90,000, "lost on the Board of 
 Trade." 
 
 But when the story was run down it was discovered that his 
 money was lost in a bucket shop in Hammond, Ind., which had 
 been driven out of Chicago through the efforts of the Chicago 
 Board. 
 
 When $100,000, at a conservative estimate, every day, is lost 
 by the American public in bucket shops, just the thing that 
 such a shop is "in being" should be of economic interest and 
 consideration. 
 
 Within the knowledge of tens of thousands of citizens some 
 acquaintance or person of whom they have had personal knowl- 
 edge has gone 'Taroke" in grain speculation. 
 
 Yet to find a man who has lost his fortune on the race tracks 
 or in a gambling den is not at all an easy task. 
 
 AVithout a question the gambling losses in the bucket shoD 
 are more serious in consequences the country over than the 
 losses in any other one kind of gaming, for the reason that the 
 man who could afford to confess losses at horse racing or at 
 cards may retain his character as a business man to a far greater 
 extent by having lost at a "little flyer in grain," 
 
 What is a Bucket Shop. 
 I have frequently been requested to define bucket shops — a 
 most difficult task, owing to the variety of disguises which thev 
 
BUOKET-SHUr 473 
 
 assume and the outward similarity vvhieli tliej' ))ear to legiti- 
 mate Ijrokerage. The following definition covers the essential 
 features of bucket shops from the standpoint of an expert. 
 
 A bucket shop is an establishment conducted nominally and 
 ostensibly for the transaction of a grain, cotton or stock exchange 
 business. 
 
 The proprietor, with or without the consent of the patron, 
 takes one side of every deal that is made in his place, the patron 
 taking the other, no article being bought or sold in any public 
 market. 
 
 Bucket shops counterfeit the speculative trading on exchanges. 
 
 Continuous market quotations of an exchange are the es- 
 sence, the very sinew of the gambling business carried on in a 
 bucket shop, being used as dice are used, to determine the re- 
 sult of a bet. 
 
 The market quotations posted in a ])ucket shop are exactly 
 similar to those posted in a legitimate broker's office, but they 
 are displayed for a different purpose. The broker posts the 
 quotations for the purpose of showing what the market has been 
 on the exchange as a matter of news. 
 
 The bucket shop posts them as the terms upon which its pa- 
 trons may make bets with the keeper. A bucket shop is de- 
 stroyed if it loses its supply of quotations. 
 
 Margins deposited with the bucket shop proprietor by the 
 patrons are nothing but the patrons' stakes to the wager, and 
 are appropriated by the proprietor when the fluctuations of the 
 price on the exchange whose quotations are the basis of the bet, 
 reach the limit of the deposit, one party (the proprietor) to the 
 bet acting as stakeholder. The commissions charged by the 
 bucket shopkeepers are odds in its favor, and necessary in order 
 to maintain their pretense of being legitimate brokers making 
 the transaction on an exchange. 
 
 Ready to Make All Deals. 
 
 The bucket shop proprietor is ready to make all deals offered 
 in any commodity that fluctuates in price. He may call him- 
 
474 buckp:t-shop 
 
 self banker and broker, or commission mercbant, or disguise his 
 business under the form of an incori^orated enterprise or ex- 
 change. But he is still a common gambler. The interest of 
 the proprietor of a bucket shop is at all times opposed to that 
 of his patrons, as the profits of the shop are measured by the 
 losses of the patrons. 
 
 Bucket shops should not be confounded with tlie great pulilic 
 markets of the world, where buyer and seller, producer and con- 
 sumer, investor and speculator meet in legitimate trade; for 
 the pretended buying of millions of bushels of grain in bucket 
 shops will not add a fraction of a cent to the price of the 
 product of the farm, nor will the pretended selling of as much 
 increase the supplies of the consumer or lessen the cost of his 
 loaf a farthing. Nor should they be confounded with the offices 
 of legitimate brokers which they endeavor to imitate in ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 Xame Coined in London, 
 
 The term "bucket shop," as noAv applied in the United 
 States, was first used in the late '70s. It was coined in London 
 fifty years ago, when it had absolutely no reference to any 
 species .of speculation or gambling. Beer swillers from the 
 East Side (London) went from street to street -with buckets, 
 draining every keg they came across and picking up cast-off 
 cigar butts. Arriving at a den they gathered for social amuse- 
 ment around a table and passed the bucket as a loving cup. 
 each taking a "pull" as it came his way. 
 
 In the interval were smoking and rough jokes. The den came 
 to be called a bucket shop. Later the term was applied, botli 
 in England and the United States, as a byword of reproach tr 
 small places where grain and stock deals were counterfeited. 
 
 Yet the bucket shop is a gambling den par excellence, with 
 all the paraphernalia necessary for the deception of the unsus- 
 pecting. One may place a $10 bet in the bucket shop, pay a 
 commission of 25 per cent to the "bucket shopper," who may 
 
BUCKET-SHOP 475 
 
 so shuffle the "cards" that the bettor may have to lose, even 
 after he has won. As an example : 
 
 Game Neatly Fixed. 
 
 The one thing absolutely necessary to the bucket shop are 
 quotations, never from a legitimate board of trade, but through 
 leased wires, or wire tappings, or from some other fake source. 
 For the instant that the "quotations" cannot be written upon 
 the blackboards the betting must cease. The bet of the cus- 
 tomer is that before a certain grain drops off a point against 
 him, it will advance a point or more in his favor, and the bucket 
 shopper takes the bet, holding the stake himself. Frequently 
 the bettor may realize that he has won a point, or two, or three, 
 and may insist upon the bucket shop selling for him. Perhaps 
 the victim lives at a distance from the shop and must write or 
 Avire his 'T^roker." He wires for the "broker" to sell, and 
 perhaps gets a message in reply to the effect that the market 
 must go much better than that ; that he refuses to sacrifice his 
 patron's best interests in that way, and will hold on for the 
 certain rise. In most cases this patron is immensely flattered, 
 until within a few days the market is "off" again, wiping out 
 not only his profits, bui> his original margins as well. 
 How THE Suckers Aee Skinned. 
 
 Or if on a certain day the customer takes advantage of a 
 rise in the commodity bet upon, and insists upon closing out 
 the deal, it is most frequently settled by the bucket shop upon 
 the lowest figure for the day. Occasionally, indeed, where a 
 bucket shop keeper has allowed one or more customers to "win" 
 a considerable figure from it through some untoward turn in 
 figures, the whole shop closes up and disappears, leaving the 
 victims no redress at law for the reason that they have left the 
 money voluntarily in the hands of the sharpers. Occasionally 
 the country branch office of one of these central bucket shops 
 may clean out a town of its currency until the scarcity of money 
 in the place may demoralize the every-day business of the 
 town. 
 
476 BUCKET-SHOP 
 
 That the man who tries to beat the bucket shop has an im- 
 possible task in front of him in investigating the $10 bet, the 
 commonest in the shop. The man with the bill steps up to the 
 window and asks to buy ten shares of American Sugar at $110 
 a share, paying 25 per' cent out of the $10 as commission. 
 Then, counting that the bucket shop might be as nearly straight 
 as such an institution can be, remember that the decline of 
 Sugar three-quarters of a point will wipe out the bettor's $10, 
 while for him to win another $10, Sugar will have to advance 
 to $111.25. In short, the customer is betting against a propo- 
 sition which will lose him $10 if Sugar declines 75 cents, while 
 to win $10 it must advance $1.25, in either ease the bucket shop 
 holding his money and taking 25 cents ip tolls. 
 
 Other "Fakes" "Boost"' the Game. 
 
 In the machinations of the bucket shop interests and those 
 of kindred concerns that are garnering this $100,000 a day from 
 the American people, the fake trade journal has had much to 
 do: the fake mercantile agency, reporting extravagantly upon 
 the responsibility and wealth of the schemers, has played ex- 
 tensively upon the credulity of men and women ; fake banks 
 and bankers have come into existence for the completion of the 
 work of the others, and have been by no means the least in the 
 category of rascality; the whole aggregation has been lending 
 back and forth the "sucker lists," which is an interchangeable 
 lists of names and addresses of men and women who have 
 "bitten" at one scheme and may be promising of a rise to an- 
 other of different type under a new title. 
 
 On file in the office of a Chicago man of affairs at the pres- 
 ent moment is a series of interesting letters, which he shows 
 occasionally to a friend. These letters are especially eloquent 
 of a spirit of investment which is in the country today and 
 whicli prompts the "biting" at almost any sort of flaunting an- 
 nouncement of quick riches. The letters arc from a young man 
 holding an official job under the government at Washington. 
 
BUCKET-SHOP 477 
 
 Big Dividend Promises False. 
 
 The first letter is apologetic for reminding the addressee 
 that he is an old friend of the writer's family; but it recites 
 that the young man has about $200 in bank which he has saved 
 from his salary, and which he is disposed to invest with a 
 certain company if his friend in Chicago thinks the prospects 
 are in line with good business and responsibility. 
 
 Evidently the Chicago man does not regard the concern as 
 dependable, for the next letter expresses thanks for saving the 
 writer loss, but asks a further question of a concern that prom- 
 ises 20 per cent a month on cash investments in grain. 
 
 The third letter, recognizing all that the old friend from 
 Chicago has done, explains that he has only a fair salary from 
 which it is hard to save much money, and this fact has led him 
 to the necessity of considering an investment of his savings 
 that promise large returns, and yet at the same time promise 
 the maximum of safety. Having established his reasons for 
 such ventures, he suggests to the friend: "Perhaps you can 
 answer all I want to know in a single reply. 'Are any of these 
 concerns promising dividends of 50 per cent and such to be 
 depended on'?" 
 
 xA.nd the Chicago man's letter, in substance, reads : "No !" 
 "Outsider" Has Xo Chance. 
 
 Speculation, for the most part, as in the case of this young 
 man, means for the average intelligence a possibility for plac- 
 ing money in a side line where quick and profitable returns 
 may be expected, wholly independent of the person's occupa- 
 tion. To the man who knows what the best of the speculative 
 market is, the necessity for all of the time and attention and 
 best judgment of the speculator is imperative. It is a business 
 in which only the best business methods succeed. 
 
 On the boards of trade the commission merchants may be 
 wholly apart from any risk in even the legitimate trading, tak- 
 ing the commission of one-eighth of a cent a bushel in buying 
 and selling. On the Board of Trade of Chicago the designated 
 
478 BUCKET-SHOP 
 
 leading speculative articles, in their order, are wheat, corn, 
 oats, rye, barley, mess pork, lard, short ribs, live hogs and 
 cotton. ' 
 
 A year's grain crop may be 650,000,000 bushels of wheat, 
 2,500,000,000 bushels of corn, 900,000,000 bushels of oats, 
 150,000,000 bushels of barley, and 30,000,000 bushels of rye. 
 
 Bucket shops have been condemned by statutes as criminal 
 and pernicious in many states in the Union, but anti-bucket 
 shop laws are rarely enforced by public servants whose duty it 
 is to enforce them. Prosecutions thus far, except in Illinois, 
 have been left to private citizens or associations for the sup- 
 pression of gambling. 
 
 The "bucket shop" has, within a few years past, sprung from 
 comparative inconsequence into an institution of formidable 
 wealth and threatening proportions. There are nearly a thou- 
 sand in the United States. Every large city in the west has at 
 least one. Having banded together in a strong combination 
 they sneer at legislation. Opulent and powerful they scoff at 
 antagonistic public opinion. 
 
 On Level with Lottery and Faro Bank. 
 
 The "bucket shop," like the lottery and the faro bank, finds 
 its profits in its customers' losses. If its patrons "buy" wheat 
 and wheat goes up, the "bucket shop" loses. 
 
 Many a bucket shop commission merchant Avould hardly 
 know wheat from oats, and none of their grain and produce 
 "exchanges" ever had a sample bag on its counters. Their 
 transactions are wagers and their existence is an incitement to 
 gambling under the guise of commercial" transactions. The 
 pernicious influences of the gaming house are, in the bucket 
 shop, surrounded by the allurement of a cloak of respectability 
 and the assumption of business methods. 
 
 The legitimate exchange is a huge time and labor saving ma- 
 (•hine. Its benefits are universal. While its privileges are val- 
 uable they have been rendered so only by hard work, and its 
 members are entitled to the protection of the state against 
 
BUCKET-SHOP 479 
 
 thieves. The "bucket shop" is a thief. The quotations upon 
 which the '^loucket shop"' trades are the product of the labor 
 and iniielligenee and information of the exchange. The ex- 
 change gathers its news at great cost from all over the globe 
 and disseminates it for public advantage. But its quotations 
 sliould be its own property. They are the direct product of its 
 energy, its foresight and its business sagacity. 
 
 The "bucket shop," at no parallel cost, usurps the functions 
 of the exchange and endeavors to secure for itself the returns 
 for a labor performed by others. "Were it to use honorable 
 methods Avith its patrons it would be a dishonorable institu- 
 tion. Using the methods it does, the "bucket shop" is twice 
 dishonored. 
 
 As a matter of fact, all other forms of gambling or swind- 
 ling are commonplace and comparatively innocent when com- 
 pared to the "Inicket shop" which has caused more moral 
 wrecks, more dismantled fortunes and made more of the inno- 
 cent suffer than any other agency of diabolism. Just why so 
 brazen an iniquity in the guise of speculation should be allowed 
 to exist it is difficult to explain. 
 
 Opex Gamblin^g Under Ban. 
 
 Open gambling has been placed under the ban of civic re- 
 form. While the policy sh6p, the lottery and other less dan- 
 gerous methods of swindling have been effectively stamped out 
 of most cities, the "bucket shop tiger" continues to rend the 
 ambitions of young and old, dragging them dovm to forgery, 
 'embezzlement, suicide, — or that which is quite as bad, — ^broken 
 spirit for legitimate endeavor. Under the circumstances the 
 sympathy of the public should be with the movement to drive 
 "bucket shops" out of business, to close them along with all 
 other gambling institutions. 
 
 It is time that something was done to check the growing evil 
 of gambling on produce, cotton and stock exchange quotations. 
 A beginning has been made, but the movement has not gone far 
 enough. These excrescences on the body politic have multiplied 
 
480 
 
 BTH'KEI^-SPfOr 
 
liiCKbyr-siiur 4s,i 
 
 rapidly and so dangerously near do they come to being popular 
 that the mercantile community owes it to itself to apply the 
 knife at once. 
 
 Moreover, there is no form of gambling more disastrous to 
 the player than "bucket shop" gambling. Its semi-respecta- 
 bility and likeness in many outward features to regular and 
 reputable commission houses makes it the most insidious of all 
 temptations to the young speculator and aspirant for wealth. 
 It is the open door to ruin. 
 
 Open Door to Ruin. 
 
 Men do not blush at being seen in a "bucket shop" as they 
 would if caught in a faro bank or poker room though they are 
 drawn thither by the same passion for gambling that takes 
 them to the regular gambling den. The "bucket shop" success- 
 fully carries on a worse swindling game than the "blacklegs." 
 The wealth the chief "l)ucket shop" men of the country have 
 acquired proves this. l\Ien can be pointed out in Chicago, New 
 York and other cities of the country who have amassed fortunes 
 at the business while their thousands of victims are impover- 
 ished and ruined. 
 
 Persons desiring to speculate or invest can avoid "bucket 
 shops" and "fake" brokers by making a preliminary and inde- 
 pendent investigation into the character of the broker and the 
 merits of the enterprise. If they accept the statements and 
 references of ]iro7noters of schemes without making such in- 
 vestigations they are iiot entitled to sympathy if they are robbed. 
 
 Legitimate brokers do not resort to sensational advertising : 
 they do not guarantee profits ; nor do they solicit funds to in- 
 vest on their JTidgment. The functions of a broker or com- 
 mission merchant are to receive and execute the order of his 
 customers. When he offers to do more (except in the way of 
 giving market news, advice or conservative opinions) he should 
 be avoided. Promoters of pools and syndicates and dissemina- 
 tors of advance information should be carefullv avoided. 
 
ON ^^SURE THINGS." 
 
 HOW TO LEARN THEIR REAL CHARACTER. 
 
 The cleverness and boldness with which the up-to-date in- 
 vestment swindler plies liis craft are almost incredible. Wher- 
 ever yon find a fraudulent scheme you will find both of these 
 elements present in- some degree — but the comparative propor- 
 tion of one to the other is generally determined by tlie element 
 of time of operation. 
 
 For example, if the projectors of a scheme are old hands at 
 the game and have established records of the wrong sort, then 
 the idea of quick results is not only attractive, but often im- 
 perative. There are many "old ofPenders" in the profession of 
 investment swindling wlio have been convicted and have "done 
 time"' in jails and penitentiaries, but have not yet learned to 
 prefer straight to crooked finance. 
 
 Men of this character realize that a "quick getaway" is a 
 cardinal essential of success; they must complete the transac- 
 tion and get in the harvest before there is time for tbe public 
 to wake up and do any investigating. 
 
 The length to which tlie 1)older spirits in this class will go 
 almost surpasses credibility. Here is an example, discovered 
 by Detective Wooldridge of Chicago, of the tricks to which 
 they Mall resort' in order to create the impression of having 
 the backing of men or institutions of strength and character: 
 
 Through introduction by social friends, the local representa- 
 tive of an investment scheme was able to open a checking ac- 
 count with a banking and trust company in a big city — a com- 
 pany of such high standing that it is very widely known out- 
 side of financial circles and among people of small means. Its 
 endorsement was worth "ready money" to any enterprise, and 
 
HOW TO LEAKN THEIK REAL CHARACTER 483 
 
 the fact was keenly aiDpreeiated by the "fiscal agents" of the 
 Brite & Fair Bonanza Company. 
 
 After the opening of his personal checking account the fiscal 
 agent lost no time in cultivating the acquaintance of the trust 
 officer of the banking institution, which did a very large busi- 
 ness in the discharge of trusts. One day the depositor came to 
 this officer and explained that he had a very simple little trust 
 which he wished to have executed. Finding it necessary to 
 leave the city for a few days, he wished to provide for the de- 
 livery of a sealed package, containing "valuable papers," to a 
 man whose name and personal description was given. The 
 person to call for the package would leave a certified check, 
 in the amount of $1,000, which was to be placed to the credit 
 of the "fiscal agent" of the Brite & Fair Bonanza Company, 
 whose business connections were unknown to the trust officer 
 of the banking and trust company. 
 
 All "Brite & Fair."'' 
 
 Weeks later the trust officer was astonished to receive from 
 an old personal friend, who was knocking about in the west, a 
 circular of the Brite & Fair Bonanza Company, in which the 
 big trust company was designated as "trustee" for the "B. & F." 
 stocks. As the friend who forwarded the circular knew some- 
 thing of the wildcat nature of the Brite & Fair enterprise, his 
 comments on the folly of the bank's accepting such a "trust" 
 had an edge on them. 
 
 When the matter was investigated it was found that the 
 whole plot had been carefully concocted and worked up; that 
 the circulars had been printed and put in directed envelopes 
 ready for mailing in advance of the placing of the so-called 
 "trust," and that when the trust officer of the solid financial 
 institution had given his receipt for the "sealed package said 
 to contain valuable papers," a telegram had been sent by the 
 *'fiscal agent" to "mail out trustee circulars." The man in 
 this scheme, of course, believed that, as the circulars were 
 
484 HOW TO LEAHN THEIR KEAL OHAKAQTER 
 
 being mailed out into a territory about a thousand miles from 
 the city in which the banking and trust company was located, 
 the trust officer who had been imposed upon would never hear 
 of the misuse of his receipt for a "dummy" package which 
 actually contained certificates of the mining company's stock. 
 Wliy did the men who worked this scheme to steal the moral 
 support of the big trust company go to so great pains to get it ? 
 Because fake investment operators have found it profitable to 
 take every precaution to give the color of legality to their acts, 
 they have found it profitable to hire shrewd legal pilots to tell 
 them just how far they may go in a given direction without 
 running upon the reefs of the United States postoffice's "fraud 
 order" or upon the rocks of a "conspiracy" prosecution. 
 
 Dodge Uncle Sam and Conspiracy Laws. 
 
 Take it in the incident above related: Had these men 
 been prosecuted for falsely using the name of the trust com- 
 pany or for obtaining money by misrepresentation (the claim 
 that the trust company was acting as trustee for the Brite & 
 Fair securities), an able lawyer could have made out of the 
 "trust" to transfer a package of unknown contents a very 
 plausible defense. Again, the mining company was able to 
 make valuable use of the trust company's receipt for the pack- 
 age by having fac similes of the receipt printed and distributed 
 among solicitors for the stock who were canvassing persons not 
 at all familiar with legal documents — and who, under the state- 
 ments and arguments of the agent, would see in the receipt an 
 acknowledgment that this great trust company and its millions 
 were behind the securities of the Brite & Fair Company. 
 
 This brings us straight to the practical point in the matter. 
 Never go into an investment until you first find out for your- 
 self, by direct and first-hand investigation, what the "refer- 
 ences" named in the literature or advertising matter of the 
 company have to say about it, and hov>' much ilic references 
 them«'^'lvf'<5 nmonnt to. 
 
HOW TO LEAEN THEIE REAL CHARACTER 485 
 
 Wildcats Give Good Reference. 
 
 Promoters of wildcat investment enterprises have used hun- 
 dreds of names as references which they had not the shadow 
 of right to use — calculating that persons credulous enough to 
 be interested in the proposition would also be credulous enough 
 to say, "These references will speak well enough for the enter- 
 prise, else their names would not be given out for this pur- 
 pose," and to act without making any inquiries of them. 
 
 Again, some man of prominence and great faith may have 
 been, at the start, a believer in the enterprise and willing to 
 say, within certain limitations, that he believed the venture 
 could be made a success if conducted according to certain plans 
 and under given restrictions. This does not signify that he 
 will continue to retain that confidence or that he is willing to 
 be understood as giving the venture his unqualified endorse- 
 ment, or to say to the public which respects his name and posi- 
 tion: 
 
 "Come and share this enterprise with me ; put your money 
 into it, for it's a good thing.'' 
 
 Detective Wooldridge, who has examined many of these con- 
 cerns, desires to place special emphasis upon the crafty use 
 which these companies make of the names and services of 
 reputable "trust" companies. He uses the word "services" 
 because a trust company may execute a "trust" in connection 
 with bonds, stocks, property or securities without really assum- 
 ing any general financial or moral responsibility for those se- 
 curities or without becoming a sponsor for them. In a word, 
 the trust company may engage to act as an escrow agent to see 
 that a certain technical transaction is completed, and nothing 
 more. That means this: The trust company consents to hold 
 the stakes between two parties, but without the slightest re- 
 sponsibility as to the value of those stakes or what may be done 
 with them after the stipulations as to the conditions precedent 
 to' deliverv have been fulfilled. 
 
4bO HOW TO LEAKNT THEIB EEAL CHARACTER 
 
 Because a trust company acts as the trustee of a certain bond 
 issued there is no warrant for a prospective investor to feel 
 that the resources of the trust company are in any sense behind 
 these deeds as a guarantee of values. 
 
 Another word of caution : Whenever you see the name of an 
 educator, a pastor or a popular politician, or any other leader 
 having a hold on the sentiment of a community used in con- 
 nection with an investment offering, look into it carefully and 
 take no step until the person mentioned has been questioned 
 directly by you. 
 
HUGE SWINDLES BARED. 
 
 Officers of Four Underwriting and Guarantee Companies 
 Arrested by Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge. 
 
 Charges Are Bogus Underwriting and Fraudulent Inspec- 
 tion of Properties. 
 
 All the officers of the four biggest underwriting and guar- 
 antee companies in the west, with headquarters in Chicago, 
 
 were arrested. They were charged with having engineered the 
 boldest and most comprehensive swindle ever exposed in this 
 country. 
 
 The following are the names of the men arrested for running 
 
488 HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BAKED 
 
 The Central State Underwriting and Guarantee corporation 
 room 1306, Tribune building: 
 
 W. H. Hulbert, H. B. Hudson, Francis Owings, M. J. 
 Roughen, W. H. Todd, were arrested for running a confidence 
 game. W. H. Todd jumped his bond and fled to St. Louis, 
 Mo., where he was apprehended and brought back by Detec- 
 tive Wooldridge. 
 
 $300,000,000 Capital. 
 
 The book of the Central State Underwriting and Guarantee 
 corporation had promoted 300 corporations and companies 
 which were capitalized at $300,000,000. Stock bonds were 
 issued which was guaranteed by this company. This company 
 further agreed to sell these bonds and stocks to raise the money 
 to financier these companies. 
 
 The complaint was made by the Compensating Pipe Organ 
 Company, through C. V. Wisner. The firm is located at Battle 
 Creek, ]\Iich. 
 
 W. H. Todd & Co. was employed by the Pipe Organ Com- 
 pany to make a bond issue of $150,000. The brokerage firm, 
 he said, demanded a 1 per cent deposit, amounting to $1,500. 
 
 This was paid, according to Wisner's complaint, and Todd 
 & Company undertook to deposit the money with another 
 underwriting company. 
 
 Then, he asserts, the bond issue was never made, and Todd 
 & Company failed to repay the $l,50Cr 
 
 The firm conducts a banking, brokerage and underwriting 
 business at room 803, 112 Dearborn street. 
 
 Did Heavy Business. 
 
 Rare oriental rugs, the most costly tables and chairs, and 
 elaborate grandfather clocks, together with an amazing amount 
 of polished brass work and plate glass, were found in each (if 
 the imposing offices raided by the deputy marshals. 
 
 The Central States Underwriting & Guarantee Company did 
 a business commensurate with the costly environment. Th(? 
 
HIU}E (llICAf^O SWINDLES BARED 489 
 
 AT LAST! 
 
 books of the concern show that from February 1, 1903, to 
 August 5, 1906, 643 corporations throughout the TJnited States 
 paid money to the Central State? concern, and the aggregate 
 amount paid was $340,000. 
 
490 HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED 
 
 Advertisements were placed in all the leading papers througli- 
 out the country, circulars were distributed broadcast with propo- 
 sitions that capital could be obtained for corporations and 
 manufacturing enterprises by addressing this company. 
 
 The officers of corporations replying to these advertisements 
 would be asked to call at the Chicago offices of the companies. 
 
 The brokers acquainted with the scheme would then intro- 
 duce the corporation officials to alleged capitalists who repre- 
 sented they had available capital to finance business proposi- 
 tions, and would buy the underwritten stock, provided the cor- 
 poration officers would have them underwritten by responsible 
 guarantee companies. 
 
 It is asserted that these alleged capitalists would then ad- 
 vise that the work be done by the Central States Underwriting 
 & Guarantee Company, the American Corporation & Securi- 
 ties Company, or the National Stock & Guarantee Company of 
 San Francisco. 
 
 Scheme of the Company. 
 
 The brokers in the alleged fraudulent transactions would 
 represent to the proposed victim that they would get no re- 
 turns for their work unless they actually sold the stocks, and 
 that they would be content with a commission of from one-half to 
 1 per cent on such stock as they sold. They assured the victims 
 that there could be no doubt that the stock underwritten would 
 be sold, as the capitalists to whom the victims had been intro- 
 duced would be certain to buy them. 
 
 The brokers would then take the men seeking -tlie under- 
 writing to the offices of the guarantee companies and arrange 
 for guaranteeing the bonds on payment of a fee of 1 per cent 
 of the amount of underwriting. 
 
 The men arrested never entered into a proposition on which 
 less than $100,000 was involved, and that they, in some cases, 
 obtained $5,000,000 worth of stock to underwrite. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge secured proof that the application fee 
 which was paid by the officers of the corporations to the under- 
 
HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED 4.91 
 
 writing companies was always divided among those companies 
 and the fraudulent brokers who had sent the corporation's 
 officers to the supposed underwriters. 
 
 The Guarantee Co. Methods. 
 
 The Guarantee Company system is a new phase of "promo- 
 tion'^ that has come to the surface during the past two years, 
 but which, through police and legal investigation, has about 
 reached its limit. 
 
 A strictly legitimate guarantee company is modeled much 
 after the Fidelity and Insurance Bond corporations. They issue 
 secured bonds for all necessary business purposes, and are repu- 
 table and responsible. About 1903 a promotion gang in Chi- 
 cago stole the name "Guarantee," and half a dozen fake guar- 
 antee companies were started. 
 
 In all the phraseology of tricky finance there is no word so 
 overworked as "guarantee." And this means that experience 
 has proved it to be highly effective in the hooking of "suckers." 
 Depend upon it, that no word or phrase achieves marked popu- 
 larity in the literature of the "small investments" appeal which 
 has not demonstrated its rare effectiveness as an agency of de- 
 ception; the phrase that does not draw the money is promptly 
 thrown out by these shrewd fishers of men, who check up their 
 returns as accurately and systematically as the most legitimate 
 mail order business. 
 
 If the small investors of this country could reach anything 
 like a fair knowledge of just how much and how little there 
 is in each of these appealing "catch words" in each phrase, 
 the plausibility of which has been scientifically tested, they 
 Avould be well on the way toward being able to protect them- 
 selves against the cleverest and most convincing of these ap- 
 peals. Perhaps the writer can do the public more service in 
 analyzing a few of these "star phrases" than by any amount 
 of denunciation of the wildcat schemes and schemers which 
 deserve as harsh a characterization as any man can frame. 
 
4y> HUUE CHICxVGO SWINDLES BAKED 
 
 RURAL RESIDENTS CANNOT BE TOO PROMPT IN TYING DOWN THEIR PROPERTY. 
 
 But, to return to the word "guarantee," Avhich has attained 
 first rank in the terminology of the investment trickster, there is 
 scarcely a circular, folder or advertisement, or any other piece 
 of literature put out by the pot hunters of small savings which 
 does not display the word "guarantee" in big type, and with 
 reiterated emphasis. If this institution chances to be of a 
 financial character itself, rather than a mining, oil or indus- 
 trial concern, the word "guarantee," or its twin, "security," 
 will be found incorporated in the name chosen for the com- 
 pany. 
 
HUGE CHICAUO SWINDLES BAEED 493 
 
 Get a list of 100 wildcat investment schemes which are dead 
 beyond hope of resurrection, and it is a safe prediction that 
 one-half the names will contain the word "guarantee" or "se- 
 curity." These two words are as common to the eye in the 
 graveyard of fake investment schemes as is that of Smith, Jones 
 or Brown in any country cemetery ; they adorn practically every 
 other tombstone in the last resting place of defunct financial 
 frauds. 
 
 The question of the value of either of these words in the title 
 of a corporation or concern is disposed of by the statement 
 that there is no legal restriction in the choice of names of 
 companies; the organizers are as free to name their flimsy 
 creation "The Rock of Gi1)raltar Guarantee Security Company" 
 as the parent is to saddle a weak, under-sized male child with 
 the name of Samson. And, as a rule, there is as much license 
 or propriety in giving the name of the mighty enemy of the 
 Philistines to a stunted boy as there is for applying the name 
 "guarantee" or "security" to a company which is brought into 
 being for the purpose of going out after the savings of the 
 "small investor." 
 
 Why? Because the companies which are really warranted in 
 making either of these words a part of their corporate name 
 do not have to go into the highways and hedges and beat the 
 bushes for their business ; it comes to them by force of their 
 "financial strength." They have no need to drum it up. 
 
 Good Advice on "Guarantee." 
 
 However, scores of oil, mining and investment companies 
 which do not use either of these clever catchwords in their cor- 
 porate titles cannot be charged with undervaluing the "pulling 
 power" of such phrases; in their literature this kind of bait 
 is employed with the greatest skill and plausibility. 
 
 One of the most common ways in which this idea is dressed 
 is this: "We guarantee you, under all conditions and at all 
 times, to get you, without cost to yourself, the highest market 
 
494 HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BAEED 
 
 price for your holdings." This sounds very assuring; it carries 
 with it a protective and almost paternal atmosphere and sel- 
 dom fails to inspire in the trusting investor the felling that 
 there is a strong hand always ready to take the investment 
 off his shoulders the moment it threatens to become a burden. 
 
 This particular phrase is especially fortunate and typical, 
 by way of illustration, for the reason that it couples with the 
 word "guarantee" another term which is a warm favorite with 
 the word artists of the get-rich-quick studies. I allude to the 
 phrase, "highest market value.'" 
 
 Wherever either of these clever signals to credulit}- is dis- 
 played the possible investor should invariably remember these 
 points : 
 
 First — A guarantee is never stronger than the guarantor. 
 
 Second — A security only has a "market value" in the 
 fair and true sense of the term where a large demand for 
 it meets a large supply; there, and there only, exists an 
 active market and a genuine "market value." 
 
 Let these two propositions (which any reputable banker oi 
 broker will tell you are axiomatic) be considered separately. 
 There is no virtue in the M-ord "guarantee." If this simple fact 
 could have been firmly fixed in the minds of the small investors 
 of this country they would have been saved tlie loss of millions 
 of dollars since our present period of wonderful prosperity 
 began. In these days of highly perfected business organization 
 the process of finding out the responsibility of any financial or 
 business concern has been reduced to an exact science and made 
 available to all. Is it reasonable to suppose, under these con- 
 ditions, that any coinpany or corporation which cannot stand 
 on its own feet can get any responsible concern to guarantee it? 
 bonds or other so-called securities? Never! Such a supposi- 
 tion is absurd on the face of it, and an instance where it has 
 been done is not. so far as is known, to be found in actual 
 practice. 
 
 Dig down under tlio "guarantee" of the company which asks 
 
HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED i95 
 
 you to invest your savings and wliat do you find ? That if you 
 do invest you and your fellow victims are really your own 
 guarantors; that the financial strength of the concern is really 
 the money which you and your associates pour into it ; that its 
 only financial life blood comes from the purses of the small 
 investors, and that when the stream of vitality from this source 
 begins to dry up, the sendees of the financial undertaker are in 
 near and inevitable demand. 
 
 Reduced to its last analysis, the blacktype declaration of a 
 "guarantee" in the literature of the "get-rich-quick" concern 
 simply means that it has something to sell you. Generally, it 
 is also an invitation to you to pay in advance for the flowers to 
 adorn your own financial funeral. 
 
 As to the other pet phrase, "highest market value," or mar- 
 ket value of any kind, for that matter, a very few words will 
 suggest the situation: 
 
 Excepting where a very large demand meets an insufficient 
 supply in a free, open and comparatively unmanipulated mir- 
 ket, where sales are regularly made of record and those records 
 command the respect and confidence of the legitimate financial 
 public, there is no "market value" save that which is arbi- 
 trarily made by the broker. He is the market; he makes the 
 price by the simple process of "thumbs np" or "thumbs down."' 
 
 The man who is on the "sucker" list of a wildcat concern 
 receives an announcement that "all indications point to the 
 conclusion that next week the stock of the Honor Bright Com- 
 pany Mdll sell at not less than five points advance of the present 
 price.'' 
 
 The next week he gets notice that the prediction of an ad- 
 vance had proved true. If he is unsophisticated enough he re- 
 ceives the announcement with solemn credulity and credits the 
 author of the promotion literature with great acumen and 
 shrewd prophetic powers. He figures up the profits he would 
 have made on the advance and condemns himself for not heed- 
 ing the "confidentiar' advice to "buy quick." 
 
U)6 
 
 HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED 
 
 What He does not consider is the fact that he is dealing with 
 a fictitious market, where the seller simply makes up his mind 
 how much he Avill advance the stock in question and then, 
 when the time comes, marks it up and makes the announcement 
 of the "sharp advance." This trick is turned not only for the 
 purpose of getting a larger price per share, but mainly to 
 tickle the cupidity of hesitating investors and making sale? 
 which otherwise could not have been made. 
 
 In order to understand how these companies operate, the 
 actual experience of one victim will serve to explain the whole 
 system. 
 
 A country manufacturer, rated at $50,000, read an advertise- 
 ment in a financial Journal about as follows: 
 
 "Capital Supplied— We have the means of furnishing any 
 amount of capital for any meritorious industrial proposition. 
 Address Lock Box XX, Chicago." 
 
 The manufacturer wrote he wanted to raise $100,000 to in- 
 crease his business, and offered to put in all his effects, stock 
 and good will. He received a letter asking him to come to 
 Chicago and visit the firm, which, for convenience, shall be de- 
 scribed as "Cold Cash & Co." He did so. Cash received him 
 in an elegant office with open arms. The manufacturer there 
 re-stated his necessities. The affable broker informed him his 
 proposition was a fine one, and said he could have the desired 
 $100,000 within thirty days. 
 
 "What would be the broker's fee?" he inquired. Only 5 per 
 cent when $100,000 was in the hands of the manufacturer. 
 Certainly an alluring prospect. But how was the money to be 
 raised? The manufacturer was to incorporate his business for 
 $200,000, and the broker would sell half of its capital stock 
 
 at par. 
 
 As the delighted "sucker" was about to leave the broker's 
 office the latter, in the most off-hand manner, said : "Oh, by 
 the way, Mr. Manufacturer, what arrangements have you made 
 
HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED 407 
 
 to guarantee your capital stock?'' "Guarantee it? I don't 
 understand you/' replied the victim. 
 
 "Bless you !"' said the broker, "modern methods demand that 
 all stock bo guaranteed — quite the new order of things. We 
 couldn't sell a share of stock nowadays unless it was guar- 
 anteed." 
 
 "Explain !" 
 
 "I will. You go to some guarantee company and have them 
 agree to guarantee the payment of the principal of each share 
 of stock sold at thirty years. Don't you see that makes your 
 stock as solid as a government bond? 
 
 "The guarantee company takes a certain portion of the pro- 
 ceeds of the stock, invests it for thirty years. With interest 
 and compound interest, in 1935 the stock has accumulated its 
 par sum. It is a beautiful system." 
 
 Do Booming Business. 
 
 "Very plausible, but where are these guarantee companies?" 
 
 "Why, there are The National, The States, and The Indus- 
 trial. We hear The States is doing a booming business. Go 
 and see them. They are at such a number." 
 
 The victim went to the richly furnished suite of offices Decu- 
 pled by the guarantee company and met its dignified "presi- 
 deut," to whom he explained the purpose of his visit. 
 
 "Very good," said that official. "We will accept your risk. 
 We will issue you an option agreeing within one year to issue 
 you bonds against your stock as sold, you to pay us an advance 
 iee of $1,000." 
 
 The "sucker" demurred. He had only $500 spare cash. The 
 president suggested that as the broker would make a liberal 
 commission out of the deal he might put up the other $500. 
 The manufacturer 'phoned the broker, who promptly agreed to 
 pay one-half of the fee. The broker gave the victim a worth- 
 less check for $500, which he gave, together with $500 of his 
 own good money, into the hands of tlie "guarantee" company^ 
 
498 HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED 
 
 The company thereupon issued a certificate, or option, for bonds 
 that were never called for because the broker never sold any 
 of the stock. 
 
 The victim went home loaded down with promises. The 
 broker "strung" him along for a month or two, but sold no 
 stock. Finally the manufacturer realized he was buncoed. The 
 broker and the "guarantee" company divided the $500, and 
 proceeded to find other suckers. 
 
 March 17, 1906, E. C. Talmage, who conducted the Na- 
 tional Underwriting & Bond Co., of San Francisco, Cal. ; the 
 Pacific Underwriting & Trust Co., of San Francisco, Cal. ; the 
 Imperial Bond & Trust Co., of New Jersey City, New Jersey; 
 the International Trust Co., of Philadelphia; the Chicago Na- 
 tional Bonding Co., of Chicago, at 52 Dearborn street; E. C. 
 Talmage; E. S. Barnum, 103 Randolph street; and M. J. 
 Carpenter, of the First National bank, were arrested. 
 
 George D. Talmage, another member of the firm located at 
 Kansas City, Mo., was afterwards arrested and brought to 
 Chicago, charged with obtaining money under the confidence 
 game. The warrants on which they were arrested were taken 
 out by E. J. Denison and Rev. Peter A. Baart, a Methodist 
 minister of Marshall, Mich., who were officers of the La Vaca 
 mines and mills, of Joplin, Mo. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Baart first went to E. C. Talmage. 
 Talmage sent him to E. S. Barnum to have the stock guar- 
 anteed. Barnum charged him a fee of $500 and agreed to sell 
 the bonds, which he failed to do. They just simply divided 
 this fee between them and made no effort to float the bonds. 
 
 Among the persons alleged to have suffered losses are the 
 following : 
 
 Victoria A. Toole, 396 55th street $ 500 
 
 Dr. C. J. Grey, 103 State street 250 
 
 Miss Frances Mason, sister of Hon. W. E. Mason 1,000 
 
 A. C. Nelson, 1057 Addison avenue 150 
 
 J. W. Wilson, Opera House block 100 
 
HUGE CHICAGO SWINDLES BARED 499 
 
 G. G. Eustis, Melrose, la 100 
 
 Lalorena Gold and Copper Mining Company. . 100 
 
 Wortham Bros. Company 150 
 
 Golden Ranch Sugar and Cattle Company 9,000 
 
 Frank McCuddy, Clinton, la ". 7,500 
 
 Dr. E. Hall and J. Brown 125 
 
 E. C. Talmage, S. D. Talmage and E. S. Barnum were in- 
 dicted by the Cook county grand jury. 
 
 George D. Talmage fled to Kansas City, Mo., where he con- 
 flucted a branch office in the same business. He was arrested 
 ;it Kansas City, Mo., on request of the chief of police of Chi- 
 cago, for operating the confidence game. Extradition papers 
 were secured and Detective Wooldridge brought him back. 
 When his fathers office was raided, at 52 Dearborn street, a 
 number of letters was seized, among them were several writ- 
 ten from George D. Talmage, at Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 The following extracts are taken from George D. Talmage's 
 letter to his father : 
 
 "Saw old Blank today. He was easy. Inclosed find his 
 check for $1,000" ; and, "When I mentioned bonds to old Tight- 
 wad he fell over backwards and swallowed a set of false teeth." 
 
 One from a town in Kansas is said to have read : "Nothing 
 doing in this joint. The people here wouldn't buy gold dollars 
 for 90 cents." 
 
 One letter which reflected particularly upon the cupidity of 
 our K. C, IT. S. A. citizens, runs: "I am giving it to these 
 little Kansas City suckers strong. I expect to be able to send 
 you $1,000 the last of the week." 
 
 E. C. Talmage, George D. Talmage and E. S. Barnum were 
 placed on trial before Judge Brentano for swindling the Rev. 
 Peter A. Baart, Marshall, Mo., out of $500. 
 
 E. S. Barnum was discharged and the Talmages found 
 guilty. 
 
 A new trial was secured for George D. Talmage. His father, 
 E. C. Talmage, on May 10, 1907, was sentenced to an indefinite 
 term in the Joliet penitentiary. 
 
THE SOCIAL EVIL, 
 
 The treatment of the social evil is one of the most difficult 
 problems with Avhieh society has ever been confronted. Until 
 society is thoroughly regenerated and the consequent purity, 
 both of manhood and womanhood, has become, a permanent 
 fact, illicit relationship between man and woman will exist. 
 
 The attraction of the sexes is as mighty as it is mysterious. 
 Xo legislation will weaken its inherent force. 
 
 The man who can come forward with a cure for this great 
 curse is, I fear, yet to be born. 
 
 In common with other vices the so-called "social evil" is as 
 old as mankind, and it will probably remain as long as vice and 
 
 O'^ 
 
THE ."SOCIAL EVIL 501 
 
 sin are found in the human heart. Its complete eradication 
 will, perhaps, never be accomplished solely through the process 
 of law, yet it seems to me that the law and its administrators 
 should not lessen their efforts to destroy this evil. 
 
 In JSTorway, and in Switzerland, are the conditions most 
 favorable to virtue and independence, the absence of extreme 
 wealth and poverty. Both countries are comparatively isolated 
 from the rest of the world. In Switzerland, as well as Nor- 
 way, there is an absence of large masses pent up together in 
 cities, the population being distributed in small numbers about 
 the country. Sir John Bowring, sent from England to investi- 
 gate Swiss society, found that "a drunkard is seldom seen, and 
 illegitimate children are rare." As a people these Swiss are a 
 testimonial to the doctrine of equal distribution of wealth and 
 temperate habits as preventive of immorality. 
 America Follows Old Lines. 
 
 The history of the United States is the history of all coun- 
 tries as regards prostitution. The population is made up of all 
 nations, civilized and semi-civilized. In the majority of cases 
 poverty is the greatest incentive to prostitution. Permanent 
 prostitution has a numerical relation to the means of occupation. 
 
 At the present time in all parts of the United States the 
 lower strata of men and women are deprived of the results of 
 their labor except in quantities barely sufficient to retain life 
 in their bodies. They are huddled together indiscriminately 
 as to sex, in close, crowded quarters, so that the ordinary deli- 
 cacies of life cannot be practiced even if there should be a desire. 
 
 The chiefest and often the only form of pleasure within 
 their reach is that given by nature for the purest and best use 
 in life, but which comes to be the veriest debauchery. Children 
 and youth growing up among adults, depraved because no ray 
 of light was shed to show the way for moral and physical up- 
 lifting, must naturally imbibe the miasma of social impurity. 
 From the very cradle through life their influence is to further 
 degrade themselves. 
 
oO:4 THE SOCIAL EVIL 
 
 On the other hand are the extreme rich, who, not being com- 
 pelled to labor for sustenance, spend their time and money in 
 selfish enjoyment. In contrast with the extreme poor, they 
 have every possibility to cultivate the good in themselves, but 
 will not, and it grows pale and sickly among the rank weeds 
 of their selfishness. 
 
 Chiefly, among self-gratifications, are social evil habits, es- 
 pecially on part of the men of M'ealth. Their manner of life, 
 the food they eat, creates a fictitious force which must expend 
 itself. They may have a chivalrous regard for the women of 
 their class, but consider all women' below them to be legitimate 
 prey. 
 
 Eelying on their wealth to insinuate themselves into the 
 good graces of young women by supplying them with such 
 things as Avill gratify vanity, the offspring of rich parentage 
 find fascination in pursuit of their object. When she is at last 
 won, and her virtuous scruples overcome, she is thrown aside 
 like the wilted flower which has yielded all its perfume. The 
 brothel is open to receive all such, particularly if she be hand- 
 some of face or form. 
 
 Only Burned Orphan Asylum. 
 
 Xew York, Chicago, St. Louis, any great city will furnish 
 examples by the thousands. Where one girl enters this life 
 from choice (through sensuality inherited from the lust of her 
 father, no doubt), ninety-nine are sucked into its whirlpool by 
 force of circumstances. The young woman who is a clerk is 
 paid an amount which will barely cover the cost of living. She 
 is expected to dress well, and if she protests that she can not, 
 is told to rely on some "gentleman friend" for other expenses. 
 Likewise in factories and shops. Only she who is protected 
 by home associations, and whose labor is done to add to the 
 general home comfort, can hope to escape, and then not always. 
 
 The grim, irrefutable facts in connection with the thrusting 
 of the working girl into prostitution by the wealthy owners of 
 
THE SOCIAL EVIL oU3 
 
 department stores, was never better expressed than in a recent 
 s-tory by 0. Henry, in McClure's Magazine. 
 
 Henry dreamed that he had been dead a long while, and 
 that he had finally arrived at the Judgment Day. An Angel 
 policeman was haling him before the Great Court of Last Eesort. 
 As he was forced into the waiting room the Angel policeman 
 asked him kindly if he belonged with a certain crowd which he 
 saw near him. The members of this coterie were dressed in 
 frock coats, gray trousers, spats, patent leather shoes, and all 
 of them boasted of high silk hats. 
 
 "Who are they?" asked the trembling Henry. "Oh, they 
 are the men who ran big department stores and paid their poor 
 girls five dollars a week in order that they themselves might 
 belong to clubs, go to Europe and own fine residences and auto- 
 mobiles," replied the angel. 
 
 "ISTot on your life," replied Henry. "I'm only the feller 
 that murdered a blind man for his pennies and burned down 
 the orphan asylum. I don't belong with that bunch." 
 
 With the present system of government, each year tends to 
 
 annihilate the middle class, in which lies a nation's strength. 
 
 "Ill fares the Hand, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates, and men decay." 
 
 While extreme poverty exists on the one hand, and extreme 
 wealth on the other, it would be as plausible to dam up Niagara 
 Falls as to stop prostitution by legislating against it. The cur- 
 rent, checked in one course, is bound to break out in another, 
 and with all its pent-up force. Human life, like the river, is 
 bound to flow in the channel of the least resistance. 
 
 Nature planned the association of the sexes as surely and as 
 inevitably as an}'' other of her laws. Whenever her laws are 
 trespassed upon in any way there is suffering. The wretched 
 conditions of the poor and the perverted natures of the wealthy 
 turn sex association into social evil. 
 
 Give All Honest Chance. 
 
 Giving to all young men and women honest means of livelihood 
 
304 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVIL 
 
THE SOCIAL EVIL 505 
 
 with extra times and resources for the cultivation of their 
 (alents and their better selves, honorable marriage would be 
 preferred to prostitution in nearl}^ every case. 
 
 There is no hope for moral purification among the wealthy 
 until such time as they will use their time and talents in use- 
 ful work. An enormous field for missionary work would be 
 for some one of aliility to convert the wealthy world to the 
 religion of useful work. As a self-evident truth, no able-bodied 
 person has the right to live off the labor of another person. In- 
 stead of the many working to the last notch of human endur- 
 ance that the few may live in luxury and idleness, there should 
 be labor for all, and enough for all. Money, however, is with- 
 out love, or patriotism, or kindness — is all-powerful, and is 
 fawned upon, and catered to by those possessing it in limited 
 quantities. 
 
 The remedy for prostitution, as well as other evils, lies in the 
 hands of the American people themselves, if they only knew it. 
 Just a few years of intelligent voting and legislating for better 
 conditions for the many, instead of for the few extremely 
 wealthy, would tend to overcome all injustice and inequality. 
 The social evil would be weeded out because people would then 
 have time to obey the injunction, "Know Thyself." 
 Average Evil Life Very Short. 
 
 According to statistics the average life of a prostitute is four 
 years after entering the maelstrom of such a career. The life 
 is never such as to be recommended even by its followers. It 
 is moral as well as physical death when followed, and is well- 
 nigh impossible to escape once having bowed to its seeming 
 fascination. 
 
 As to the libertine, he "sells himself for what he buys." He 
 may enjoy pleasure, but not happiness. Happiness comes from 
 within, in the consciousness of doing right. Pleasures come 
 from without, in the gratification of self. In addition to the 
 hollowness of the enjoyment in the lives of prostitute and liber- 
 tine, is always the danger of loathsome disease which tortures 
 
506 THE SOCIAL EVIL 
 
 body and brain, lowering them in their own minds. It is 
 about the only ill in the category that does not command sym- 
 pathy, but it should. 
 
 The evils of drunkenness, theft, or prostitution are on the 
 same basis as far as the "necessity" for their existence. All are 
 more or less the result of a badly adjusted economic condition 
 of whatever nation. They can be reduced to a minimum, if 
 not eradicated, by removing the cause. 
 
 Argument Against Segregation. 
 
 The first and most convincing argument against the segrega- 
 tion of vice is found in the fact that the law expressly con- 
 demns crime of all kinds and requires its relentless prosecution 
 in order to effect its destruction. Besides, vice districts would 
 shortly become breeding spots for the propagation of crime 
 of every kind. Here would be attracted the criminal classes 
 from all parts of the country, because here they would be pro- 
 tected by the very law Avhich they violate. 
 
 Not only would the inhabitants of such districts regard them- 
 selves within the law, but others, who now fear to enter these 
 resorts because of the probability of arrest and public exposure, 
 would patronize the district, armed with the knowledge that 
 non-arrest was a certainty and exposure highly improbable. 
 The locality and extent of such districts would soon become a 
 matter of common information, and young men would thus 
 find easy access to disreputable resorts which otherwise they 
 might never find. 
 
 Evil Not Necessary. 
 
 ]\Iany advance the argument that the evil is a necessary one 
 and must be tolerated, else the safety of virtuous women upon 
 our streets would be seriously threatened and imperiled. The 
 fallacy and absurdity of this contention is proved by the con- 
 ditions which exist in many of the large cities of Great Britain 
 and Canada, where houses of ill-fame are practically unknown, 
 and where women are as safe as in cities where the segrega- 
 tion of vice prevails. This result has been obtained by per- 
 sistent effort on the part of officials whose duty it is to sup- 
 
THE SOCIAL EVIL 507 
 
 press and punish crime. Sucli a condition can never be se- 
 cured here if districts are established where this particular 
 form of vice may flourish with the tacit approval of our public 
 officers. Surely we in Chicago are not willing to admit that 
 which has been done clsewlioro cannot be done here. 
 
 Chicago could not legally license or regulate this evil, for 
 our state law forbids license. The moral sentiment of our 
 people is also against it. Several years or so ago, when a resolu- 
 tion was introduced into the city council looking toward segre- 
 gation, medical examination and license, a vigorous protest was 
 made by the Chicago Woman's Club, the Evanston Woman's 
 Club, and other such organizations. The good women of Chi- 
 cago will not tamely submit to such additional degradation of 
 their wronged sisters. 
 
 ISToBLER Womanhood the Goal. 
 
 Chicago women are working hard to protect innocent women 
 from lives of infamy and to help the repentant to a nobler 
 womanhood. If there were men working among their own sex 
 with equal devotions there would be a lessening of the social 
 evil. If physicians would teach men the safety of chastity and 
 the horrors of licentiousness, if preachers would train their guns 
 against impurity, if popular clubs would expel licentious men, 
 if the mayor woiild order the arrest of every person, man or 
 woman, found in these houses, apparently so well known to 
 the police, and have such arrests continued night after night, 
 these methods would cause a marked lessening of the social evil. 
 
 The police of Chicago have done much in recent 3'ears to 
 make it a better city. To them is due the credit more than to 
 anyone else for better conditions in our moral life. If they are 
 encouraged and allowed to work out these problems in their 
 own practical way they will do more for our city's good than 
 all the theoretical reformers combined. 
 
 Many conditions ought not to exist, but they must and will 
 remain for the present. Your reformer, so-called, writes and 
 pleads for the ideal. The police force deals with what is and 
 knows best what can be done. 
 
SUPPRESS riANUFACTURE AND SALE OF 
 DANGEROUS WEAPONS==THEY ARE A 
 CONSTANT MENACE TO LIFE AND GOOD 
 ORDER. 
 
 MADE SOLELY FOR UNLAWFUL USE == ENGENDER 
 CRIME, INCREASE ACCIDENTS AND MAKE SUICIDE 
 EASY-CARRYING CONCEALED WEAPONS A VICIOUS 
 AND INEXCUSABLE HABIT. 
 
SALE OF DANGEKOUS WEAPOiS^S 509 
 
 The '^lid'' should be put upon deadly weapons — pistols, re- 
 volvers, dirk knives, brass knuckles — not merely to hide thenu 
 but to prevent their manufacture and sale. 
 
 While serving as police officer I could not fail to observe 
 that substantially all of the crimes committed with the pistol 
 or revolver resulted from the practice of carrying the weapon 
 upon the person. There would be a controversy in a bar- 
 room, on the street or elsewhere, followed by a fight and 
 ending with a shooting by someone present who had the weapon 
 conveniently concealed upon his person. But for the presence 
 of the weapon on the scene there would have been no shooting. 
 
 I recall but one case where the defendant left the scene of the 
 controversy to procure a weapon. Murder committed by lying 
 in wait or with premeditation for any length of time is ex- 
 tremely rare. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the crime 
 is committed on the spur of the moment. 
 
 Statistics furnished by the police department show startling 
 facts. Citizens do not realize the number of persons who are 
 cither v\^ounded or killed every year by shooting with the re- 
 volver. One can hardly pick up a metropolitan paper without 
 findiug an account of a shooting, either by accident or design. 
 "We have laws forbidding the carrying of concealed weapons, 
 which are to a certain extent effective, but to a very small ex- 
 tent, because it is practically impossible to search every man 
 un the street — and keep him searched. The law, no matter how 
 rigidly enforced, can do but little substantial good. 
 
 AVe must also consider other deadly weapons, such as dirk 
 laiiAos and brass knuckles. So far as these are concerned, they 
 ;ire manufactured solely to be used as instruments of crime. 
 The brass knuckle is never used as a weapon of defense, but 
 always as one of offense. The dirk knife has no use other than 
 as a weapon to be used against human beings. It is not used 
 either in war or for any domestic purpose. 
 
 So far as the revolver is concerned, it has no proper use any- 
 where in the world. It is carried either as a weapon of offense 
 
510 SUPPRESS MANUFAOTUKE AND 
 
 or defense ; but as a weapon of defense it is only possibly effect- 
 ive when there is a revolver in the hands of the antagonist. If 
 he has none, none is needed for defense. 
 
 An attack made upon a man at close quarters by the use 
 of a sandbag or any other weapon in the hands cannot be met 
 practically with a revolver. There is no time or opportunity 
 for its use. 
 
 The proposition is therefore sound that, if no one carried a 
 pistol for offense, none would be needed for defense. 
 
 Shotguns and rifles are used in hunting, but not the revolver. 
 The ordinary revolver of commerce, the one which a man can 
 carry concealed, has no use in modern warfare. There is no 
 legitimate use anywhere for such a weapon. 
 
 September, 1907, officials of the New York police department, 
 acting under Commissioner Bingham's orders, took 5,000 re- 
 volvers out to sea beyond Sandy Hook and threw them over- 
 board. The literary secretary of the commissioner said it re- 
 minded him of the Doges who used to wed the sea with rings. 
 If the New York ceremony was not so richly symbolical it cer- 
 tainly was vastly more sensible. 
 
 These revolvers Avere the results of eighteen months of police 
 seizures. Some of them were automatic weapons in the $2S 
 class, and others were of the common variety used by small 
 boy initiates in crime. Together they were worth at least $15,- 
 000. Not so very long ago New York City held an auction 
 sale every year just before the Fourth of July at which all con- 
 fiscated weapons were sold. Tlioroby Fourth of July killings 
 were made easy and cheap, and crime at all other times of tlio 
 year was encouraged, for most of the weapons went to pawn- 
 brokers and second-hand dealers, who put them back in the 
 hands tliat woukl use them Avorst. Tlie police have one instance 
 of a revolver that to their knowledge came back into their pos- 
 session four times in this way. 
 
 It is wise to destroy these weapons, but consider how little 
 good is accomplished compared with what miglit bo aceom- 
 
SALE OF DANGEKOUS WEAPONS 511 
 
 plished by original control of the sale of weapons. The city 
 saerificeg the $15,000 or something less which it might have got 
 for tliei^c weapons, but if it would take $15,000 and spend it 
 vigorously in regulating the sale of weapons, in licensing and 
 perhaps heavily taxing all dealers, in requiring the keeping of 
 complete records of sales and in prosecuting all persons carrying 
 concealed weapons, it would accomplish very much more to the 
 same end. 
 
 Chicago is a city in which unlimited laxity is allowed dealers 
 in pistols. The way is made easy for the criminal who wants to 
 arm himself. Despite the successful experience of other cities 
 in regulating the sales of weapons, the council is reluctant 
 to give the city a stronger ordinance. 
 
 Suicide with the revolver is a favorite method of self-destruc- 
 tion with men. Press the muzzle against the head or heart, a 
 slight pressure of the forefinger — instant oblivion follows. 
 
 The bandit who holds up the railroad train and robs the 
 passengers almost invariably uses a revolver. With this small 
 weapon he terrorizes and robs an entire trainload of travelers. 
 
 The vicious carry pistols with criminal intent, but there is 
 also a very large class, which might be designated as a "weak" 
 class, which carries the pistol without any criminal intent, but 
 under the influence of a fascination for the handling of deadly 
 weapons. Among certain classes of negroes it is the habit to 
 carry pistols or other deadly weapons to balls, parties or other 
 places where they congregate, and they carry them, apparently, 
 to a certain extent, as a matter of ornament, something on the 
 principle of our gentlemanly forefathers of a few hundred years 
 ago, who considered no full-dress equipment complete without 
 the rapier. The very fact that these weapons are present leads 
 to brawls and quarrels, which result only too frequently in kill- 
 ing, or an attempt to kill. 
 
 It is dangerous to. put into the hands of a weak person a 
 weapon which may carry death and destruction by the small 
 pressure of the finger. The very handling of such weapons 
 
51-^ SUPPKEfSS MANUFAOTUKE AiND 
 
 seems to breed the desire to use them. The situation is some- 
 thing similar to tMt of a man who gazes over the brink of a 
 precipice and to whom there comes an almost irresistible desire 
 to throw himself over. 
 
 There would he some force in the argument that the law- 
 abiding citizen has the right to carry a revolver to protect him- 
 self from thugs if his pistol were any real protection; but it is 
 noL. The attack from the thug on the highway comes so sud- 
 denly and unexpectedly that there is rarely an opportunity to use 
 a weapon in defense ; and, even if it should occasionally happen 
 that a mail would be at a disadvantage because he had no pistol, 
 tills loss to the community is outweighed a thousand to one by 
 the evils which follow its use. 
 
 Why should we permit men to manufacture and sell instru- 
 ments of crime — weapons which are designed for no other pur- 
 pose ? We do have laws which prevent the free sale of poisons, 
 based upon the fact that poisons may be used as a means of self- 
 destruction or in the destruction of others. But we have no 
 safeguards against the purchase and use of these other deadly 
 agencies. 
 
 A brilliant display of deadly weapons may be found in any 
 first-class hardware store, one which is peculiarly tempting to 
 the young, the weak and the vicious. Pawnshops are heavily 
 stocked with weapons of this character. 
 
 There are a hundred places on the streets of Chicago, par- 
 ticularly on Clark and State streets, where may be found in 
 cases standing in front of stores a display of brass knuckles, 
 dirks and revolvers, which can be purchased at a very small 
 price — and without restrictions of any kind. Yet they are 
 purchased, almost exclusively, to be used as instruments of 
 crime. 
 
 Experience has demonstrated that the laws which forbid the 
 carrying of concealed weapons are not effective; and it is not 
 possible that, in the very nature of things, they can he entirely 
 so. There is onlv one sure and effective wav of preventing the 
 
SALE ()V DANUEKOIS WEAPON'S 513 
 
 criminal use of these deadly weapons -that is, to make it im- 
 possihlo for men to get hold of them. This can he done onlv 
 by forljidding their mannfactnre and sale. The State, in the 
 exercise of its police power, has authority to pass laws of this 
 character. 
 
 1 submit that it is the duty of the community to demand 
 the i^assage of such laws. There seems to be no answer to this 
 ju'oposition when you consider that these articles are not manu- 
 factured to sell for any legitimate purpose, and that to deprive 
 men of the privilege of manufacturing and selling deadly weap- 
 ons does not, in any degree, deprive the community of anything 
 which may be of any real use or benefit. 
 
 It is the duty of the State to prevent as well as to punish 
 crime and to protect its weak and vicious citizens, so far as it 
 can, from the temptation to do wrong. We would not tempt 
 men to steal by affording them easy opportunities for theft, 
 especially if we knew that they were either weak or wicked. 
 And yet, we make absolutely no effort to keep deadly weapons 
 out of dangerous hands. We do attempt to forbid their con- 
 cealment. Practically this attempt is a failure and, in effect, 
 we permit men to carry deadly weapons which may be success- 
 fully concealed until the very moment they are brought into use. 
 
 A great deal of the lurid literature has grown up around the 
 pistol. The cowboy with his gun play has always been an 
 attractive character in fiction. No doubt there is a time in the 
 pioneer life of a community when there seems to be some excuse 
 for the use of the revolver. But a dispassionate view of this 
 subject, having in mind the welfare of a settled, organized State, 
 every part of which is pervaded by law and within its restrain- 
 ing influence, points to the conclusion that the time has come to 
 legislate revolvers, dirks and brass knuckles out of existence. 
 
 QUEEKS THE TOWN. 
 
 The elaborate display of revolvers, dirks and brass knuckles 
 in shop Avindows creates a most unfavorable impression on vis- 
 
514 SUPPKESS MANUFACTURE AND 
 
 itors. Many travelers like to walk to their hotels for the exercise 
 after the long journey from the east. 
 
 They get their first impression of Chicago from a walk up 
 Clark or State street. 
 
 On all sides they see revolvers, bludgeons, sandbags and slung- 
 shots. "Ah ! This is the West at last," say many. "Now look 
 out for Indians and grizzy bears." 
 
 Upon Chieagoans who witness these exhibitions of criminal 
 tools daily the effect is most depressing. It makes them think 
 that civilization is still far off. In New York there is an ordi- 
 nance forbidding pawnshops to display such weapons in the win- 
 dow. 
 
 The accidental shootings, alone, caused by the careless hand- 
 ling of pistols, would justif}^ a law preventing their manufac- 
 ture and sale. What possible benefit can be suggested to offset 
 the evils which we have spoken of ? Certainly the idea of indi- 
 vidual liberty cannot be carried to the extent of making it the 
 duty of a State to afford a man the facilities for the commission 
 of crime. There is no right involved in the matter which is 
 worthy of respect. Let me give you a few illustrations : 
 
 A negro carried his revolver with him to a ball. This was 
 customary. During a lull in the dance, while talking with his 
 companions — men and women — he pulls out this revolver and 
 shows it around for the admiration of his friends. He is under 
 the impression that it is not loaded. He places it playfully at 
 the head of his sweetheart, pulls the trigger, and she drops dead. 
 
 That chamber happened to be loaded. It was determined to 
 be a case of wanton carelessness on his part and he was sentenced 
 to tM'o years in the penitentiary. Why should a man like that 
 be allowed to carry a pistol at all? Under what possible cir- 
 cumstances could he use it in any legitimate way ? 
 
 A few months ago the cashier in a bank, a valuable citizen, 
 in a neighboring town, sat down at his desk in a despondent 
 moment. He opened the drawer, saw the revolver lying there, 
 and, overcome by an irresistible impulse, he placed the muzzle 
 
SALE OF DANGEROUS WEAPONS 515 
 
 to his head, pulled the trigger and — he is a dead man ! There 
 is not one chance in a thousand that this man would either 
 have taken poison, with its lingering agonies, cut his throat, 
 hung himself or jumped off the bridge. 
 
 The other day, in the country near by, a man with his hands 
 in his pockets stepped up to a wagon standing in front of his 
 door and said to the driver: "You made an insulting remark 
 about me to my wife a few weeks ago. Will you apologize?" 
 The driver replied : "I do not know that I made such a remark." 
 "Well," the man replied, "your time has come." He pulled out 
 his pistol, which he had held concealed all the time in his hand, 
 and fired the shot; the driver of the wagon fell over the dash- 
 board — dead. Here, without warning, without the slightest 
 ground to expect such an act, the man, who might, under any 
 other circumstances, have had some possible chance for defense, 
 was hurled into eternity, apparently, to gratify the mere desire 
 to kill. 
 
 A few nights ago a lone robber boarded a railroad train and 
 with a revolver compelled the conductor and porter to walk 
 through the car in front of him and demanded of the passen- 
 gers that they surrender their money and. jewels — which the 
 passengers promptly proceeded to do. The entire train was held, 
 up by a single pistol, a thing which would be absolutely impos- 
 sible with any other weapon. A revolver enables the highway- 
 man to use one of his hands free, which he could not if he had 
 either a shotgun or a rifle. 
 
 And so it goes. Instance after instance is within the recollec- 
 tion of everyone where crime is made possible by the easy pos- 
 session of this deadly weapon — the revolver. The point I wish to 
 emphasize is, that there is no legitimate u'se for the revolver 
 anywhere in the world ; no reason for its existence ; no legitimate 
 use for the dirk knife or the brass knuckles. 
 
 All these things are manufactured and sold as instruments 
 of crime. And, although their deadly use is familiar to every- 
 body, yet we seem to take it for granted that the right to manu- 
 
51G .SL'PrKKSS MAM'FAC'J'rKE A^'D 
 
 factiire nnd pell them nntl the right to own them are rights 
 Avhich the law is bound to protect. We !^eek oiilv tn impose a 
 restriction that i:; vaiu and ineffective. 
 
 Pistol earr^dng is an American habit; one which is compara- 
 tively infrequent abroad, and there is in Europe — particularly 
 in England — compared Avitli us, a proportionately small fraction 
 of shooting affairs. Even policemen in London do not carry 
 revolvers. 
 
 It is time for us to take this evil seriously in hand and effect 
 a cure, which, to be effective, must be radical. 
 
 I favor a law restricting the display and sale of firearms. 
 Carrying a loaded revolver concealed ought to be made a felony. 
 For carrying a concealed weapon — firearm, dirk, brass knucks, 
 razor, knife, etc. — the penalty cannot be too severe. I would 
 cut out the tine and make the penalty for carrying a con- 
 cealed weapon three to twelve months in the Workhouse and 
 from two to five years in the penitentiary. 
 
 A severe penalty would help the police to break up this crim- 
 inal habit. It would help to tame the ex-convict who returns 
 to a life of crime. It Avould aid in overcoming the influence 
 of the cheap novel among light-minded youth. Sale of weap- 
 ons which can be concealed on the person ought to be restricted 
 to officeBS of the law. If permits are issued at all, they ought to 
 be given by a responsible officer of the law. 
 
 Concealed weapons are the cause of a large per cent of the 
 crimes committed in which weapons are used. There were 
 many arrests for carrying concealed weapons in the last official 
 year. Thousands of people carry them. Every man with a con- 
 cealed weapon, unless he has a right to carry it to serve the pub- 
 lic peace, is a danger to the citizens of Chicago. Men who carry 
 concealed weapons imagine they would protect themselves with 
 them; often they would, but more often the weapons serve no 
 good purpose. !Make the law against promiscuous sale and car- 
 rying of concealed Aveapons so severe that it will be necessary 
 for the officers of tlio IfiAv onlv to carrv 1hom. 
 
GETTING SOMETHING FOR 
 NOTHING. 
 
 HOW THE WORTHLESS CERTIFICATE WORKS. 
 
 Stock Transfers From Worthless Stock to Worthless Stock 
 a Game That Fools the Uninitiated. 
 
 How the Rhodus Boys Worked the Old "Come-On." 
 
 One of the most open frauds, one which should not for a 
 minute have deceived any investor in "securities" and things, 
 was unearthed by Detective Clifton E. ^Yoold^idge, and the 
 results of his work were shown in Chicago when Thomas Eho- 
 dus and Birch F. Rhodus were indicted by the federal grand 
 
 The Central Life Securities Company in Chicago was ap- 
 parently a sound concern. The managers were always care- 
 ful to keep money in the bank and any insinuation that this 
 was not a sound company was immediately refuted by bank- 
 ers who were handling the Ehodus money. 
 
 But Detective Wooldridge had seen so much of "guaranty" 
 and "security" that he was suspicious of all companies which 
 made this name a rallying point in their literature. 
 
 Also the Ehodus brothers seemed to be using the same old 
 catch- words which had beguiled men into the fake underwrit- 
 ing schemes. So the detective was not impressed by "secur- 
 ity" or "guarantee." He proceeded to investigate the record 
 of the Ehodus brothers. 
 
 And ere the great scandal began to open out and assert it- 
 self, Wooldridge found that the Ehodus brothers had been 
 in the lottery business in Denver in 1889 and 1890. Now it 
 does not conduce to belief in the soundness of a firm to find 
 
518 GETTING SOMETHING FOE NOTHING 
 
 that its managers have been common, cheap lottery workers. 
 So Wooldridge went into the record. 
 
 In the course of his examinations he discovered that the 
 Chicago Independent in January, 1899, contained the follow- 
 ing notice : 
 
 In 1889 and 1890, Thos. Ehodus and Birch F. Rhodus wer<' 
 operating the Denver Lottery Company, later called the Den- 
 ver State Lottery. The following are extracts from the Chi- 
 cago Independent, January, 1899, number: "The attention of 
 ihe postoflfice authorities was attracted to this scheme by seeing 
 circulars of the Denver Lottery Company about August 20, 
 1890, sajdng, 'All remittances to be addressed to A. C. Ross 
 & Co./ who were none other than Thomas F. Rhodus, Jr. 
 Ross, or Rhodus, Jr., was arrested by postoffice authorities 
 October 5, 1889, fined $100 and costs, which was paid No- 
 vember, 1889. A. C. Johnson, alias A. C. Ross, alias Thomas 
 F. Rhodus, Jr., was arrested March, 1890, and was at that 
 time running what was called the Denver State Lottery Com- 
 pany, having changed its name from Denver Lottery Company. 
 They kept arresting him daily for over forty days. The 
 federal grand jury found five indictments, with over one hun- 
 dred counts, against A. C. Johnson, alias Thomas Rhodus, Jr., 
 for fraudulent use of the United States mails. He then 
 changed his business to the name of Bank of Commerce. Was 
 arrested several times, and then sold out, or pretended to do 
 so, to Birch F. Rhodus. 
 
 • Trying Their Hand at Life Insurance. 
 
 "The Western Mutual Life Association of this city has 
 been weighed in the balance by the Missouri and Michigan 
 State Insurance Commissioners and found wanting. An ex- 
 amination of the concern by these officials, made as of August 
 .31, 1898, has recently been reported upon. On that date a 
 deficiency of assets under the most favorable showing of 
 $55,635.36 was shown to exist. In other words, the associa- 
 tion was impaired that amount. 
 
GETTING SOMETHING FOR NOTHING 519 
 
 "President Thomas F. Rhodus and Vice-President Birch F. 
 llhodus each received a salary of $10,000 a year, and there 
 seems to have been a handsome expense allowance besides. Sec- 
 retary Charles S. Johnson received $7,000 annually; Second 
 Vice-President John B. Kirk, of James S. Kirk & Co., and 
 Treasurer J. V. Clarke, President of the Hibernian Bank, 
 under an arrangement, the annual sum of $27,000." 
 
 The facts here cited were disclosed by the investigation made 
 by the Insurance Commissioners mentioned above. The asso- 
 ciation did not long survive this incident, and its assets were 
 soon taken over by the Illinois Life Insurance Company. 
 
 When the records of these men are considered, it is believed 
 that the boldness of their operations, the ease with which they 
 have obtained the endorsement of representative business men 
 in Chicago and elsewhere for their various schemes, and the 
 way in which, unchecked, they have personally profited from 
 their operations in the name of legitimate business, are abso- 
 lutely without a parallel in the history of this city. 
 
 Any number of stockholders in the different companies stand 
 ready to testify to the correctness of the foregoing. Every 
 company started and operated by these men appears to have 
 been exploited for the sole benefit of themselves. The stock- 
 holders have, with a few insignificant exceptions, lost every 
 dollar invested. 
 
 This was the opening gun in the Rhodus campaign. When 
 Detective Woold ridge began boring in he found that in addi- 
 tion to the Central Life Securities Company (whatever that 
 might mean), the Rhodus brothers were promoting the moss- 
 grown mining proposition, and that the Mina Grande Mining 
 Company, with certain holes in the ground located in the 
 State of Sonora, Mexico, was also a Rhodus Company. 
 
 The Mercantile Finance Company, which was capitalized at 
 the sum of $1,000 in the State of Maine, Maine being almost 
 as easy as New Jersey as a corporation state, was the basis 
 for the manipulation of all the other companies. Even Maine 
 
520 UETTINa SOMETHING FOK NOTHING 
 
 would not stand for a big capitalization of penniless adven- 
 turers, so to make the capitalization bug the services of the 
 Mina Grande and the State of Sonora, where things are still 
 easier than in Maine, were called in and the capitalization of 
 the Mina Grande was rated at $2,000,000. 
 
 This did not look nice to the detective. There was too much 
 hunting of easy ground. He bored in further. Then he dis- 
 covered the true inwardness of the situation. Around Joplin, 
 Webb City, Carterville and other cities in Southwest Missouri, 
 are certain very fine lead and zinc mines. Joplin is the first 
 zinc producing city in the world. It has been known as such 
 for a number of years. The lead from this district is second 
 only in output to that of Leadville, Colo. Here was another 
 easy chance. 
 
 Of course any one who knew anything at all about the lay 
 of the land in Jasper County, Mo., knew that all the possible 
 lead and zinc lands had been snapped up years ago; that 
 "Pat" Sullivan of Joplin had been a political boss on the 
 strength of his turning monopolist of the very districts which 
 produced the lead and zinc. But the public did not know it. 
 .\t lead not the great, gullible public. They only knew that 
 Jasper County was full of lead and zinc and they in some 
 v.ay formed the conclusion that the whole county was under- 
 laid with the precious metals. 
 
 Therefore it was easy for the Rhodus ''companies*' to start 
 tho "Independent Zinc Securities Company," bore a few holes 
 in the grc rxl which would produce fish-worms and black ants 
 and nothing else, and "transfer the stock of the 'Mina Grande' 
 to the 'Independent Zinc'." This only was used as a safe- 
 guard where a stockholder of ]\Iina Grande began to get peevish 
 because the holes in the hillsides of Sonora produced nothing. 
 
 But the Rhodus game was not yet complete. The Mercan- 
 tile Finance Company, with its thousand-dollar capitalization 
 in the State of Maine, might get into difficulties transferring 
 stock to the "Independent Zinc," because somebody might 
 
GETTING SOxMETHI>v'G FOK NOTHING 521 
 
 ImoAV enough about Jasper County to realize tliat there was 
 not enough lead in that county outside the control of the 
 lead trust to make a small-sized pea. 
 
 Therefore it needed another company to "transfer" the 
 peevish stockholder to. So the Mexican Development Com- 
 pany was formed by the Mercantile, the capital of the new com- 
 pany being $1,000,000, and its assets 90,000 shares of the 
 "Mina Grande" stock, the par value of which would not buy 
 a cigarette paper. 
 
 The literature of the new company also carried the literature 
 of the "Mina Grande," with a glowing account of how the 
 new company was going to turn Mexico upside down and en- 
 rich the whole world from the scorpion holes in the Sonora 
 hillsides. 
 
 The stockholders in the Mexican Development are still wait- 
 ing for returns on their investment. But the American people 
 Y.-ere getting wise to the mining game, even when the magic 
 name of Jasper County was used. So to supplement Mexico 
 and Jasper County the Mercantile Finance Company, the old 
 reliable thousand-dollar concern, organized in rapid succession 
 tlie Boise King Placers Company, which was going to wash 
 fortunes out of the inoffensive mud of Idaho rivers, the Moose 
 Creek Placer Company, which had the same end in view, the 
 American Fibre Company, which had about as much fibre about 
 it as a paper candy box, The Illinois Finance Company (fren- 
 zied finance, all right). The Indiana Securities Company, which 
 "secured" the money of the investor, but secured nothing else. 
 The Minnesota Securities Company, and then with a great 
 play to the galleries. The Finance Company of America. 
 
 From one to another of these absolutely bankrupt and worth- 
 less concerns the investor was thrown back and forth like a 
 shuttlecock. If he was sore on Independent Zinc he got 
 American Finance. If he became convinced that American 
 Finance was worthless paper he got Idaho mud in the shape 
 of "Moose Creek Placers." 
 
523 GETTING SOMETHING FOR NOTHING 
 
 Interest-bearing bonds with coupons attached were floated 
 on a number of these companies and sold largely through the 
 mails. 
 
 Just here Uncle Sam, urged on by reports made to the 
 Chicago Postoffice Inspectors by Wooldridge, took a hand. 
 When Wooldridge began boring in the bankers and other in- 
 fluential friends of the Ehodus people, who had been wise 
 enough to get good political affiliations as an adjunct to their 
 business, became extremely busy and influences were brought to 
 bear to call Wooldridge off the case, because he was the most 
 feared man in America on a fraud game. 
 
 Wooldridge accepted the recall gracefully, but immediately 
 stepped over the way to the Federal Building, and called upon 
 Postoffice Inspector William Ketcham, who is acknowledged 
 by everyone in the secret service of the United States and the 
 general public to be the shrewdest, most astute, and most in- 
 defatigable man in the service of the United States Government. 
 Wooldridge convinced the great inspector that there was some- 
 thing doing in the "Rhodus" line. Ketcham complimented 
 Wooldridge highly on the manner in which he had gathered 
 the data together. Then Ketcham got busy Jiimself. When 
 two such men as Wooldridge and Ketcham get busy it is not 
 long until the explosion comes. 
 
 Nor was it long coming in the Ehodus case. First came the 
 receivership of the Central Life Securities Company. And 
 here another big man and an incorruptible one got into the 
 game — none other than John C. Fetzer, founder of the "Fetzer 
 System" of receiverships that receive for the victims of de- 
 funct concerns, in place of and for the receiver. This man was 
 fresh from the great Stensland Bank fraud, where as re- 
 ceiver he had paid 72 cents on the dollar and wound up a 
 record receivership in less than one year, whereas the usual 
 time taken in such eases was ten years. 
 
 When Fctzer's name appeared as receiver there was dismay 
 in the Ehodus camp. The triple combination was enough to 
 
GETTING SOMETHING FOR NOTHING 523 
 
 frighten anyone, especially where the guilty conscience was a 
 factor. Fetzer immediately went to work. He called in his 
 fighting aids. He told Ketcham and Wooldridge to "keep it 
 up." When the Ehodns people began to give evasive answers 
 before the Referee in Bankruptc}^, it was a short step, with 
 the information which^had been gathered, to bring the matter 
 
rm (iETTlNC SOMETHING FOK NOTHINU 
 
 before the Federal (-iraiKl Jury. And the indictments of the 
 Rhoduses folloAved. 
 
 The investigation of the Rhodiis manner of doing busi- 
 ness showed that the shrewd manipulators of fish-worm holes 
 and scorpion nests had not neglected the feminine element. 
 The treasurer of the old thousand-dollar stand by hailing from 
 the pine tree state, the Mercantile Finance Company, was 
 Mary C. Scully, who had been with the Rhodus gang since 
 1894. Katherine T. Scully, a very young w^oman, who had 
 recently appeared on the scene, was listed as treasurer of the 
 good old "thousand-dollar" medium. She came into the sec- 
 retaryship as a result of a shuffle of officers of the Ehodus com- 
 panies, the shuffle of officials being found to be as necessary as 
 that of the shuffled stock. 
 
 It w^as also found that the Ehoduses came to Chicago about 
 1894 and organized the Western Mutual Life Association. This 
 company had a stormy career and was finally merged into the 
 Illinois Life Insurance Co. The methods of the Ehoduses were 
 severely criticised in connection with this company and all 
 confidence in it was destroyed. 
 
 Prior to coming to Chicago, Thomas and Birch F. Ehodus 
 operated a lottery at Denver, Colo., and in 1889 came in con- 
 flict with the Federal authorities. Indictments are on record 
 against them and it is claimed that they used various aliases. 
 Thomas Ehodus was convicted at Denver in Xovember, 1889. 
 and fined. 
 
 During the past four or five years the Mercantile Finance 
 Co. has offered the stock of numerous mining schemes, none 
 of which has shown any merit, but were officered and owned 
 by the Ehoduses and their associates. The methods employed 
 to sell stock in these enterprises were (according to bills filed 
 in court by the persons victimized) those of the ordinary swin- 
 dler, and a close study of the schemes and the manner in which 
 they are floated leads to the conclusion that the Ehoduses are 
 not entitled to anv confidence. 
 
i;ETTiX(.^ SOMETHING FOli NOTHiiNG o2^ 
 
 At the time of going to press the Ehodus brothers are still 
 under indictment. The tangle in their affairs seems to show 
 conclusivel)^ that the matter will be long and bitterly fought, 
 but the facts that have come to light make matters look very 
 dark for the manipulators of the moss-grown stock-kiting game. 
 
 Samples of the literature secured by Wooldridge and Ketcham 
 prove very enlightening to the general public as to the methods 
 of the Ehodus' and kindred concerns. Here are a few of them : 
 
 "It is a rule of this company/' one pamphlet of the com- 
 pany reads, "not to act as fiscal agent for any corporation un- 
 less this company is prominently represented in the manage- 
 ment, so as to be able to protect the interests of our clients." 
 
 Assurance Given Investors. 
 
 The cover of the pamphlet bears the assurance: 
 
 "Are your interests protected? They are if made through 
 the ilercantile FinaiTce Company. Avoid risk of loss; make 
 certain of gain." 
 
 On another page is a list of high-class railroad stocks to the 
 amount of $100,000 which the company is declared to be the 
 possessor of in addition to assets in stocks, mortgage loans, 
 cash on hand and other collateral. Careful reading of the 
 pamphlet, however, shows that these stocks are not a part of 
 the exchange list. 
 
 An explanation of the system, which probably will be a part 
 of the testimony submitted to the grand jury in conjunction 
 with the tales of luckless investors, as printed, is: 
 
 "Its plan is to create profits for its customers by aiding in 
 the intelligent development and working of legitimate mining 
 enterprises. Through this system its customers become careful 
 and conservative investors. Furthermore, they are given an op- 
 portunity to participate in the vast wealth created in these in- 
 dustries, having at the same time such assurance against loss 
 as would not otherwise be possible. It is a rule of this com- 
 pany never to handle as a fiscal agent stock in any property 
 
.v>(i (GETTING .SOMETHING FOK NOTHING 
 
 until after a careful and thorough examination has been made. 
 It rejects those properties which do not come np to the high 
 standard required. This accomplishes for the customers what 
 the individual investor by himself, unaided, cannot afford to 
 do, for his own investment is usually too small to Justify h}>^ 
 having this done on his own account. 
 
 Purchases "Guaranteed.'' 
 
 "The Mercantile Finance Company positively guarantees to 
 allow its customers the privilege of exchanging any stock pur- 
 chased from it for stock of any other company which may he 
 in the said guarantee fund. Such exchange may be made and 
 repeated as often as desired during a period of five years fol- 
 lowing the date of the original purchase.*' 
 
 The tremendous activity of Inspector Ketcham, ably as- 
 sisted by AYooldridge, has been at the bottom of the exposure 
 of tliis whole abominable swindle. But this is by no means 
 the first case in which these two men have joined hands and 
 caused an npheaval in pseudo-financial circles. 
 
 These two men first began to work together in the famous 
 AVild Cat Insurance raids. These raids furnish one of the most 
 dramatic chapters in the financial history of the United States 
 if not of the world. The Wild Cats had stolen millions of 
 dollars. Their methods involved brutal filchings from the 
 ])oor, heartless commercial brigandage and finally the running 
 to earth and conviction of the ringleaders and promoters of 
 the concerns. The work was all done by Wooldridge and 
 Ketcham. 
 
 It would bo improper to close the story of tlie great Rhodus 
 frauds without some mention of Attorney Patrick II. O'Donnell, 
 who, by his wise counsel and careful review of the matters sub- 
 mitted in evidence, materially assisted the two men who had 
 most to do with the unearthing of the frauds. 
 
WANT AD. FAKERS. 
 
 THE PETTY DOLLAR SWINDLERS PUT OUT OF 
 
 BUSINESS IN CHICAGO BY DETECTIVE 
 
 CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE. 
 
 The cheap little grafter who takes dollars, dimes, nickels and 
 pennies from the poor, while not exactly a great fiiiancier, is 
 one of the smoothest propositions with which secret service men 
 and federal inspectors are confronted. His main hold is on 
 the public press, because he operates through the seemingly 
 innocuous want advertisement. 
 
 The statements of some advertisers may be taken literally; 
 some should be taken with caution, and some should not be 
 taken at all. In the postoffice department at Washington, in 
 the files of the assistant attorney general, one may study the 
 methods of the black sheep of the advertising fold against 
 whom fraud orders have been issued. A fraud order is an 
 order directed to a postmaster forbidding him to deliver letters 
 to a certain person or concern or to cash money orders for 
 them. 
 
 If a man swindles his neighbor without using the mails th;^ 
 postolfiee de]5artment will not interfere with liim. although 
 the police may, but if he attempts to make Uncle Sam a party 
 to the swindle, the old gentleman lets loose on him a horde 
 of postoffice inspectors, who not only put a stop to the busi- 
 ness, but frequently put the swindler himself behind the bars. 
 The department issues year in and year out an average of one 
 fraud order a day, and an examination of the reports of the 
 inspectors who have investigated these cases is apt to con- 
 vince one that the long-accepted estimate that there is a sucker 
 
52S WANT AD. FAKEK.S 
 
 born every minute is much too low. The schemes most com- 
 monly employed are here set forth. 
 
 Home Work Scheme Catches Many. 
 
 The chance to earn a few dollars a week without leaving 
 home appeals to many women whose household duties occupy 
 tlie greater part of their daylight hours. Unfortunately the 
 work-at-home scheme catches not only the woman whose ob- 
 ject is merely to earn a little pin monev and who in many 
 cases can afford to lose a dollar or two without suffering any 
 hardship as a consequence, but it gathers in as well the work- 
 ing girl eager to add to her scanty earnings by engaging in 
 some remunerative M^ork at home. 
 
 The work-at-home scheme is operated in a variety of ways, 
 but the underlying principle is the same in all cases. Some- 
 times the work to be done consists in embroidering doilies or 
 in making lace, and in other cases it consists in filling in 
 with gilt paint price tickets printed in outline. In all cases 
 the work is described as easy, the advertisements assuring the 
 reader that experience is unnecessary. In all cases, too, the 
 victim is obliged to buy, from the promoters of the scheme, 
 "materials" or a lace-making machine or some other object 
 before she is given any work. The following description of a 
 scheme against which a fraud order was issued last May will 
 make clear the methods pursued by all fakers of the work-at- 
 home class. The advertisement in this case reads as follows : 
 
 Home Work, $9 to $15; No Canvassing. 
 $5 to $6 weekly working evenings; experience unneces- 
 sary. Inclose stamps for instructions, sample, etc. Ad- 
 dress B, Wilson & Co., 603 Walnut street, Philadelphia, 
 Pa. 
 
 Money Charged for Fake "Outfits." 
 
 To those who reply to this advertisement a circular letter is 
 
 sent stating that the work required consists in filling in with 
 
 bronze paint store-window price tickets printed in outline, one 
 
 of M'hich, partly filled in, is inclosed as a sample. 
 
WAlN'T AD. FAKEES 
 
 529 
 
 If you don't know Jast where lo SO 
 Or ho\\ »o <!o fill- thin;jr that yon 
 Wny bav*' in tiilnd— or If you find 
 That yoQ can't rise— then advertise. 
 A "Business Cliances" ad udvancea 
 ^our desire* to rnnny bayers— 
 And our Want ^d>. if you <j$e th«m. 
 Dilng ao many— you can ctiuo^C tbOR) 
 
 The circular states that the work is easily done, requires 
 no previous experience, and that all that is necessary, is to 
 d« the work in a neat manner. Two dollars and a half a 
 hundred is offered for tickets filled in as described, and the 
 prospective victim is assured that she can easily gild at least 
 100 tickets a day. She will require an ^''outfit/' of course, 
 
'530 WANT AD. FAKEKS 
 
 the cost of which is generously put at the remarkably low 
 price of $1.10. 
 
 In return for her $1.10 the victim receives a handful of 
 window tickets, a small bottle of bronze paint, and a brush 
 for applying it — the actual value of the articles furnished, 
 including postage, being fully covered by the extra 10 cents. 
 
 The worst is yet to come. When the woman, having parted 
 with her money and having spent her time in filling in the 
 handful of tickets sent her, returns them, at hyr own expense, 
 she receives, not a check in payment for the work done, but 
 a circular letter stating that her work is "unsatisfactory." She 
 may possess the talent of a Eosa Bonheur and a department 
 store ticket writer rolled into one, but she will never succeed 
 in selling a cent's worth of bronzed price tickets to the fakers 
 who sold her the "outfit." Their business is not to buy but to 
 sell, and her fate is not to sell but to be sold. Similar to 
 the work-at-homc scheme is what may be described as the 
 letter-writing dodge. The following is a typical advertisement 
 of its class: 
 
 LADIES — Earn $20 per hundred writing short letters. 
 Stamped envelope for particulars. Gem Manufacturing 
 Company, Cassopolis, Mich. 
 
 When the M-oman anxious to earn an honest penny replies 
 to this ad. she receives the following letter: 
 
 Dear Madam : 
 
 We pay at the rate of .$20 per luindred or 20 cents for 
 each letter sent ns in accordanco with our printed circular 
 of instructions, and make remittances to you of all money 
 earned by you at the end of each week. The letter which we 
 send you to copy contains only eighty words, and can be 
 written either with typewriter or with pen and ink, as you 
 prefer, and you can readily see that you can write a number 
 of letters during your leisure time each day. 
 
 You do not pay us one penny for anything, except .$1 for 
 the instructions and for packing and mailing the Ideal Hood- 
 winkem which we sn'nd you. 
 
 There is no canvassing connected with the work, and if you 
 follow our instructions you can earn good wages from the 
 start. 
 
 When the victim sends her dollar for the instructions and 
 
WANT AD, FAKEKS 531 
 
 for the Ideal Hoodwinkem (or whatever the name of the article 
 the fakers are selling happens to be), she discovers that tlic 
 20 cents is not to be paid merely for writing a letter. Oh, no 1 
 The 20 cents will be paid only for such letters as induce some 
 other woman to part with a dollar for one of "Our Ideal Hood- 
 winkeras/' The following letter, which is sent after the un- 
 suspecting one's dollar has been safely salted down, lays bare 
 the true inwardness of the scheme: 
 
 Dear Madam : 
 
 We herewith haud you trial blanks, also copy of letter which 
 you are to write. You are to send these letters out to ladies, 
 and for every letter which you write and send out and which 
 is returned to us with $1 inclosed for one of our Ideal Hood- 
 winkems, with your number on the letter, we will send you a 
 cash commission of 20 cents. 4 
 
 It is needless to say that the fakers do not expect their 
 victim to be so stupid as to send out the letters on the terms 
 indicated. The object of the plan is accomplished when "dear 
 madam" parts with her dollar for the letter of instructions 
 and the Hoodwinkem, which would be dear at 10 cents. 
 
 A Smooth Scheme. 
 
 One of the simplest and most effective schemes for hooking 
 new "suckers'' was adopted by a Dearborn street "investment" 
 concern. This consisted in sending to a prospective victim a 
 check for $100, made payable to some other man, and accom- 
 panied by a brief letter telling that recipient would find in- 
 closed his weekly dividend on his investment of $1,000. Of 
 course the marked "sucker" knew nothing of the deal, and, 
 believing a mistake had been made would return the check 
 and letter. He at once received in reply an apologetic letter, 
 stating that the first letter and check had been inserted in the 
 wrong envelope through the carelessness of a clerk, it having 
 been the intention to mail to the recipient a circular instead 
 of another man's check for dividends. It was enough. Ten per 
 cent a week was not to be resisted. The "sucker" almost in- 
 
532 WANT AD. FAKERS 
 
 variably opened negotiations on his own initiative and was 
 landed. 
 
 Financial "Journal" Frauds. 
 
 The multiplicity of these schemes led to the establishment 
 of the "financial paper," designed, according to the publisher's 
 statement, to guard investors against get-rich-quick frauds. To 
 the police these papers are known as "special form papers." 
 The editor comprises the staff. The contents consist of finan- 
 cial matter usually stolen from reputable journals, a formida- 
 ble array of financial advertising, and, most important, "re- 
 ports" on investment concerns. For a consideration the "spe- 
 cial form" paper tells its readers that the "Cotton Mutual 
 Investment Company" is sound and reliable. The manager 
 of the "Cotton Mutual" buys as many copies of the paper as 
 he wants, as it has no regular time of publication, and can 
 be run off in any quantity at any time with the article boost- 
 ing the "Cotton Mutual." The get-rich-quick manager then 
 sees to it that the paper finds its way into the hands 5f his 
 "sucker list," or list of names of persons whom he hopes to be 
 able to induce to "invest." 
 
 Therefore, when reading want ads. in the newspapers, con- 
 sider carefully the nature of the promises made. If they are 
 too rosy, too high-flown, have nothing to do with that ad. or 
 the man who inserted it. You may depend upon it that it is 
 a fake. There are no great armies of persons walking about 
 this country seeking to give away something for nothing. 
 
MILLIONAIRE BANKER AND 
 BROKER ARRESTED. 
 
 Ramifications of the Bucket Shop System Revealed by 
 Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge. 
 
 George T. Sullivan, the millionaire stock, bond, grain and 
 cotton broker at 159-161 LaSalle street, Chicago. Illinois, was 
 arrested May 23, 1906, with 60 inmates. Twelve patrol wagon 
 loads of books, records and papers were seized and carted off to 
 the Harrison Street Police Station. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan at the time had one of the finest, best-equipped 
 offices in Chicago, which was located in the Traders' Build- 
 ing, opposite the • Chicago Board of Trade. He occupied sev- 
 eral floors, and they were very elaborately furnished. Part of 
 the third floor was used as a telegraph office, where forty men 
 were constantly at work at the telegraph keys: His private 
 telegraph wires reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, 
 and from the Gulf of Mexico to the British possessions in the 
 north. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan paid to the Western Union Telegraph Com- 
 pany for the privilege of using their wires and services $150,000 
 per year. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan had 111 branch offices, located in the principal 
 cities of the United States. Each of these branch offices 
 evidently was equipped with all the paraphernalia used in the 
 bucketshop, and was in charge of one of Mr. Sullivan's repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan owned the entire equipments of the offices and 
 dictated the policy and work to each manager, which had to 
 be carried out to tHe letter. The following is a list of the 
 
-.34 AIILLIONAIIM-: 1^AXKI:H AI{KESTl-:i) 
 
 OFFICES OF GEORGE T. SULLIVAN AFTER THE RAID 
 
MILLIONAIRE BAMKEK ARRESTED 535 
 
 branch offices and locations which were operated by Mr. Sul- 
 livan : 
 
 List of Biianx'h Offices. 
 
 The Sullivan letterhead gives branch offices in the following 
 cities: Altoona, Pa., Areola, 111,; Aurora, 111.; Avoca, la.; 
 Boston, Mass. ; Buda, III. ; Burlington, la. ; Cambridge, 111. ; 
 Chicago, 111. ; Cleveland, 0. ; Davenport, la. ; Decatur, 111. ; 
 Des Moines, la. ; Detroit, Mich. ; Earlville, 111. ; Effingham, 111. ; 
 Elkhart, Ind.; Fairfield, Ind. ; Fostoria, 0.; Fort Madison, 
 la. ; Galesburg, 111. ; Geneseo, 111. ; Gibson City, 111. ; Goshen, 
 Ind. ; Grand Rapids, Mich. ; Greenville, 111. ; Grinnell, la. ; 
 Iowa Cit}^ la. ; Ivesdale, 111. ; Johnstown, Pa. ; Kalamazoo, 
 Mich. ; Keokuk, la. ; Kewanee, 111. ; Lancaster, Pa. ; Mansfield, 
 III. ; Mattoon, 111. ; Michigan City, Ind. ; Milwaukee, Wis. ; 
 Monmouth, 111. ; Monticello, 111. ; Morris, 111. ; Mount Pleasant, 
 la. ; New Castle, Pa. ; New York, N. Y. ; Xiles, 0. ; Omaha, 
 Neb.; Peoria, 111.; Pittsburg, Pa.; Piano, 111.; Princeton, 111.; 
 Racine, Wis. ; Roberts, 111. ; Saybrook, 111. ; South Bend, Ind. ; 
 Sheffield, 111.; St. Louis, Mo. : Tolouo, 111.; Tiffin, 0.; Toledo, 
 0.; Tuscola, 111.; Waukegan. 111.: Wyanet, 111. 
 
 Exclusive Offices for Lady Speculators. 
 
 Chicago — 225 Dearborn street, National Life Building, 16 
 Imperial Building, 51 Dexter Building, 84 Adams street. 
 South Chicago — 9138 Commercial avenue. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan had his correspondents and solicitors in all of 
 the leading stock, bond, grain and cotton markets of most of 
 the foreign countries. On May 23, 1903, he was doing a busi- 
 ness of from $300,000 to $500,000 per year. His weekly ex- 
 penses ran from $15,000 to $20,000. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan advertised extensively in the leading news- 
 papers throughout the United States and in foreign countries. 
 Many of his advertisements would cover an entire page. These 
 advertisements brought him many inquiries from persons 
 
536 MTLLIOXAIKK BAXlvKIJ AHKESTED 
 
MILLIONAIRE BANKER ARRESTED 537 
 
 either through curiosity or desire to invest, saying nothing of 
 the cash cnstomors secured. 
 
 Mr. Sullivan made special effort to buy or acquire every 
 mailing list to be found in the entire country which had been 
 used by other fraudulent and get-rich-quick concerns. 
 
 It is said that he had secured over 20,000 names, which he 
 had on his mailing list. These men Avere bombarded from 
 day to day with his literature and his red-letters, giving the 
 forecast of the market. These letters were very ingeniously 
 gotten up by himself and a clairvoyant fortune teller named 
 Madame Dunbar. 
 
 His methods were absolutely devoid of even a pretense of 
 sound business ethics, sensationalism and red ink being his 
 only stock in trade. 
 
 The class of literature and telegrams he sent broadcast and 
 regardless of expense is well illustrated by the following: 
 
 Telegram sent January 1, 1903, to hundreds of persons 
 
 throughout the country: 
 
 "Am going to run three-cent turn in May wheat. Let me 
 act for you heavy. I will take loss if any. Mail three-cent 
 margin. George T. Sullivan." 
 
 In his "Red Letter" of May 18 he makes the following state- 
 ment : 
 
 "There is only one thong about this wheat, and that is, a 
 bull market is at hand ; and those who buy cannot lose, and if 
 they buy on my advice and buy quickly, I will' pay the loss if 
 there should be any." 
 
 He had four offices in Chicago aside from his main office, 
 these being designated by him as "Exclusive Offices for Lady 
 Speculators." When about to open one of these offices he 
 addressed a circular letter to the wives of many prominent 
 citizens announcing the opening of same. The first para- 
 graph of this letter reads as follows: 
 
 "I have opened superbly appointed offices on the ground floor 
 of the National Life Building. Room 120, where I accept ac- 
 counts from ladies of $100 or upwards for marginal speculation 
 in stocks, bonds, grain and cotton. 
 
 "George T. Sullivan." 
 
538 MILLIONAIRE BANKER ARRESTED 
 
 George T. Sullivan, who frequently signs himself "Red Let- 
 ter Sullivan/' is by occupation a telegraph operator. He was 
 first heard of in Boston during the year 1899 and the early 
 part of 1900. 
 
 On the "Oil Exchange." 
 
 On May 17, 1900, Sullivan was admitted as a member of 
 the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange of Xew York 
 and under the firm name of Sullivan & Sullivan advertised 
 extensively and had a system of wires through New England. 
 It was noticed that his business on the exchange was very 
 small and upon the complaint of a customer his trading meth- 
 ods were investigated, with the result that on the 11th of 
 October he was adjudged guilty of obvious fraud or false pre- 
 tenses and expelled from membership in the exchange. He 
 made some threats of a suit against the exchange, but the firm 
 of Sullivan & Sullivan failed in November and nothing was 
 heard of him in New York. His customers and correspondents 
 never received any statements of their accounts and Sullivan 
 fled the state. 
 
 He seems to have come direct to Chicago, arid was employed 
 for several months by bucketshops and private-wire houses as 
 a telegraph operator. 
 
 In the fall of 1901 he associated himself with E. F. Rowland, 
 ostensibly to do & commission business in stocks, grain and cot- 
 ton. His methods of advertising were extremely lurid, and 
 he flooded the country with literature and letters printed in 
 red ink. The employee, Sullivan, soon forced Rowland out 
 of business and continued under the name of Rowland until 
 the first of January, 1903, when by degrees he had worked the 
 name of Sullivan into prominence and the name of Rowland 
 had gradually been eliminated from his signs and literature. 
 Reasons Which Caused Investigation, Raid and Arrest. 
 
 The raid by Detective C. R. Wooldridge on the Lincoln 
 Commission Company, a race track scheme, in the Portland 
 
MILLIONAIEE BANKER ARRESTED 539 
 
 Block, 115 Dearborn street. May 14, 1903, developed the pe- 
 culiar relations between this concern and Sullivan, and the 
 police department was somewhat astounded to find among the 
 papers of the Lincoln Commission Company conclusive evi- 
 dence, in the shape of telegrams and correspondence, proving 
 that Sullivan's agents on his private wires were acting as 
 the agents of the turf scheme, and that the employees and 
 private wires of the Sullivan concern were used in common 
 by the Lincoln Commission Company with the consent and 
 approval of Sullivan. 
 
 More than twenty of Sullivan's agents were posting in his 
 various offices the tips sent out by the Lincoln Commission 
 Company and accepting bets which were transmitted over Sul- 
 livan's wires to be placed ostensibly by the Lincoln Commis- 
 sion Company on the horses which they tipped off as sure 
 winners. 
 
 The mixing up of a turf scheme with a so-called grain and 
 stock business was something new to the police, and Detective 
 Wooldridge prosecuted the investigation, and, upon becoming 
 fully acquainted with Sullivan's methods, concluded that he 
 was not only running a bucketshop, but was interested in the 
 turf scheme to a greater extent. 
 
 The evidence gathered in the raid on the Lincoln Commis- 
 sion Company fully established the fact. The Cook County 
 Grand Jury was in session at the time and the evidence was 
 presented to them. Detective Wooldridge was ordered to make 
 a full investigation and report to them, which he did. 
 
 The Grand Jury instructed Wooldridge to lay the matter 
 before the General Superintendent of Police, Francis O'Neill, 
 and say: "The Grand Jury requested immediate action should 
 be taken by the police to enforce the state law, which was 
 being violated." 
 
 Wooldridge submitted the case to Chief O'lSTeill. He asked 
 if Wooldridge had secured the necessary evidence to prove that 
 
040 MILLIONAIRE BANKEK ARRESTED ^ 
 
 Sullivan was conducting an illegitimate businet-s. He was an- 
 swered in the affirmative. 
 
 Wooldridge's Raid. 
 
 On the morning of May 23, 1903, ten picked deteciive.s 
 were secured from the Detective Bureau to accompany Wool- 
 dridge in the raid on George T. Sullivan, which turned out to 
 be one of the largest as well as one of the most sensational 
 raids and arrests that had occurred in Chicago for years. 
 
 Sullivan did an extensive business. The offices of the com- 
 l»aiiy which were raided were elaborately furnished, and then- 
 was a complete assortment of tickers, ))lackboards and likf 
 paraphernalia. At the time of the raid the offices were crowded, 
 tlie operations on the open board and the Board of Trade be- 
 ing remarkably exciting. The officers who assisted Wooldridgc 
 in the raid were Detective Sergeants Howe, Mullen, Quinn. 
 Qualoy. ^[iskel, McLaughlin, Weber, Flint and McLane. 
 
 Offices Filled with Patrons. 
 
 It was at 10 o'clock in the morning, when the largest throng 
 of speculators can be found in the offices at 259-261 LaSallc 
 street, opposite the Board of Trade, that Wooldridgc and his 
 men swooped down on the place and proclaimed "every one 
 there a patron of a bucketshop and under arrest." 
 
 The wildest excitement prevailed. Telegraph operators, 
 messenger boys, pit men and persons of every station in life 
 were caught. Some of the traders, thinking of their wives and 
 children, pleaded frantically for their freedom. Some at- 
 tempted to force tlu'ir way from the betting rooms, but. meet- 
 ing with armed resistance, they desisted. 
 
 "I don't belong here," said one man, indignantly. "I onlv 
 dropped in here to see a friend." His plea was unavailing. 
 
 Anotlier man, attired in a frock coat and a silk hat, attempted 
 to bribe one of the detectives. "I can't have it get out that 
 T was arrested," said he. "State your price and T will ;rive 
 it to you gladly." 
 
P«n) b«»» to »(;» t»t>ft. or •»in«l>od> wlU slip bmmn hUi (iDg»r«. 
 
543 MILLION AIKE BANKEK AKKESTED 
 
 The only i)ersons allowed to escape were three women stenog- 
 raphers, who fled through a rear window. 
 
 Advertising matter, private correspondence, telephones, tick- 
 «ers; telegraph instruments and everything of consequence was 
 seized and loaded into twelve patrol wagons and taken to the 
 Harrison Street Police Station. 
 
 Four hundred and twenty telegraph wires were cut which 
 connected Sullivan's bucketshops in Chicago and through the 
 country. It took the Western Union Telegraph Company two 
 weeks to get the wires in working order. 
 
 Xaales of Pfjsoneus Akkesteu. 
 
 At the Harrison Street Police Station those arrested in the 
 raid gave their names as follows: 
 
 G. T. Sullivan, W. D. Hart, John Conway, L. J. Hotf, 
 Charles Barth, William Wilson, E. E. Matwell, J. A. Hoga- 
 dorn, E. L. Wilson, T. X. Lamb, E. J. Brennan, Kalph Cun- 
 ningham, Fred Boiler, John Whitmar, E. F. Black, John A. 
 IManley, Ernest Gerard, John Lawson, J. K. West, George 
 Eodger, Henry Miller, J. A. Crandall, Y. E. Pearson, George 
 Wilson, Harry Van Camp, George T. Kelly, J. P. Morgan, 
 Joseph Cohen, Butler Coleman, Arthur McLane, George Fred- 
 erick, A. L. Kramer, ]M. J. Franklin, Edward O'Connell, Oren 
 Mills, W. H. Kelley, 0. S. Eeed, F. Foley, I. J. Kennedy, 
 Eobert Delaney, Joseph Bowers, John Black, L. Frederick, B. 
 C. Cover, George Johnson, G. Weightman, H. C. Boder, Samuel 
 E. Brown, Joseph Smith, C. E. Tracy, W. Jones, J. W. Ken- 
 nedy, John P. Garrison, Al. Dewes, Elmer C. Huntley, T. A. 
 Duey. 
 
 Crowd Gathers. 
 
 The fact that a raid was being made became kno^\^l outside 
 the offices and in a short time several thousand persons gathered. 
 Crowds peered through the windows and doors. The Chicago 
 Open Board of Trade is directly across the alley in the rear 
 of Sullivan's offices, and business there was at a standstill for 
 
MlLLiUiNAliiE BAiNKER AKRESTEi) 543 
 
 a time. The traders gathered about Sullivan's offices and re- 
 mained until the last prisoner had been taken away in the 
 patrol wagon. 
 
 Sullivan himself was in his private office when the raid was 
 made. Wooldridge broke open the door and faced the man at 
 the desk. 
 
 "You are under arrest, Mr. Sullivan/' said the detective. 
 Sullivan grew pale and then reached his hand to the telegraph 
 instrument which stood on the table. He started to work it. 
 
 "Stop that!" ordered Wooldridge. But Sullivan continued. 
 Wooldridge made a leap for the trader and forced him away 
 from the instrument. But the trader was not to be thwarted. 
 He reached over the detective's shoulder, and again the click 
 began. Wooldridge then seized the instrument and hurled it 
 into the desk. 
 
 "Cut all telephone and telegraph wires," was the order given 
 by Wooldridge, and the frenzied occupants of the place were 
 thrown into terror. There was a mad rush for the door, but 
 the detectives stood in the way. Every inducement was of- 
 fered the policemen, but efforts failed. 
 
 Then Sullivan claimed that he had an injunction issued by 
 Judge Elbridge Hanecy forbidding the police from raiding his 
 place. 
 
 "I have an injunction from Judge Hanecy to stop you !" 
 yelled Sullivan. "ShoAv me the injunction, then," replied 
 Wooldridge, "and I will obey it. If not, I am an officer of the 
 court and have warrants here charging you with keeping a 
 bucketshop and gambling house." 
 
 The injunction which Sullivan claimed to have was found 
 
 by the police in one of his drawers in blank form, without any 
 
 signature, together with the following letter to one of his 
 
 managers : 
 
 May 19, 1903. 
 Mr. Charles A. Warren. 
 
 New York. 
 Dear Mr. Warren : 
 
 Your friend Wooldridge was in all day Monday. We had 
 
544 MILLION AiKE IL^XKEK AHKESTED . 
 
 four detectives here all day investigating my guarantee plan, 
 and they showed up again today and held several conversa- 
 tions with Miss Lorentzen before we realized who they were. 
 It looks like they were trying to make a case. 
 
 In looking up the injunction papers, find you neglected to 
 change them to read The George T. Sullivan Company and 
 The George T. Sullivan Elevator & Grain Co. I took them 
 to Morris and he rehearsed them, patched them, etc.. and they 
 are now ready to play ball with. 
 
 Morris is very busy and it looks as if we might need someone 
 else on the scene of action to watch things. 
 
 Hope you arrived O. K.. and with best wishes, I remain. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 George T. Sullh'an. 
 
 However, it was not until 11 o'clock and more than an hour 
 after the raid had been made that Attorney Edwiird Morris 
 filed the injunction bill in the Circuit Court. 
 
 The injunction was finally issued by Judge Abner Smith at 
 12:30 o'clock. It restrained Chief O'Neill and Detectives 
 Hertz and Wooldridge from interfering in any way with the 
 property contained in the offices occupied by the concern or 
 cutting the telegraph wires leading to them. It is represented 
 in the bill that the company has offices at 259 LaSalle street. 
 Bush Temple of Music, 60 LaSalle street, 16 Imperial Build- 
 ing and 84 Adams street; but the damage had already been 
 done. 
 
 Sullivan was practically out of business, and was being bom- 
 barded and seized by a horde of infuriated patrons who de- 
 manded their money, entrusted to him to invest. Sullivan 
 could not retuni the money, as he had spent it and was 
 bankrupt. 
 
 "Red Letter" Well Kxown. 
 
 Patrons Told They Would Xot Lose If Advice Was 
 
 follo"wed. 
 
 In Sullivan's office the detectives found great quantities of 
 advertising matter. This matter was thoroughly gone over in 
 the search for evidence against the grain and stock broker. 
 Pile after pile of Sullivan's "red letter" circulars were found. 
 
 Sullivan's "red letter" was issued daily, and printed iu red 
 
AULLlONAiiiE BANKEK AHRESTEl) 545 
 
 ink. The circulars were written in a manner characteristic 
 of all the advertisements, printed matter and correspondence 
 to patrons. 
 
 In telegrams to patrons and the "red letters" Sullivan often 
 made the proposition that he would make good all loss sus- 
 tained by patrons while they were making purchases upon his 
 advice. 
 
 Tlie detectives were somewhat surprised when they saw at 
 the top of the circular in hold, red type that "four exclusive 
 offices for lady speculators" were being operated in Chicago, 
 one in South Chicago and one in St. Louis. The addresses 
 given for the Chicago offices were 235 Dearborn street, 159 
 LaSalle street, 260 Clark street and 84 Adams street. Women 
 speculators of South Chicago had the opportunity of making 
 their purchases at 9138 Commercial avenue. 
 
 Wooldridge was asked by the press what justification he 
 had in making the raids, and by whose orders they were made. 
 He said that he raided the Lincoln Commission Company at 
 115 Dearborn street, May 14, 1903, which was conducting a 
 turf investment company, and found that George T. Sullivan 
 was operating the same in connection with his bucketshop; 
 that George T. Sullivan and 60 inmates were arrested, and 
 eleven wagon loads of books, letters, papers and records taken 
 to the Harrison Street Police Station. Wooldridge said that 
 he had evidence to indict them on 50 charges, and he intended 
 to deliver the goods, and he would not be pulled off by any 
 man in the State of Illinois. 
 
 Wooldridge immediately took steps to get his evidence in 
 shape. He called on John Hill, Jr., who had charge of the 
 Board of Trade quotations and who was an expert on bucket- 
 shop methods. 
 
 • Wooldridge, Hill and two clerks went to work gathering 
 evidence for the trial; eleven wagon loads of books, papers, 
 letters and records had to be gone through, which was done 
 in the most careful, systematic manner. 
 
d4(> millionaire banker arrested 
 
 They worked from 2 p. m. until 12 o'clock and the evidenro 
 gathered was placed in a vault. 
 
 After they had secured something to eat in a nearhy restau- 
 rant and taken two hours' sleep, they resumed their work, 
 which was carried on until 7 o'clock Sunday morning. This 
 evidence which was secured was locked up in another vault 
 for safe keeping. After they had eaten their breakfast they 
 resumed work again and worked until 6 p. m. This evidence 
 gathered was placed in another vault. After they had eaten 
 their supper they resumed work again and worked until 1 
 o'clock Sunday night, when they succeeded in going through 
 every scrap of paper which was seized in the raid. This evi- 
 dence gathered was placed in another vault. 
 
 The placing of this evidence in different vaults was for the 
 purpose of preventing George T. Sullivan or any of his friends 
 from securing it on a writ of replevin. 
 
 Wooldridge slept until 5 o'clock, then went to the residence 
 of Charles S. Deneen, State's Attorney. Arriving at his house 
 and finding that he had not arisen from bed, Wooldridge 
 pulled up a settee which he found on the veranda and placed it 
 in front of his door where it would be impossible for him to 
 get out of his house without first awaking Wooldridge. 
 
 Wooldridge laid down and went fast asleep and was found 
 there when State's Attorney Deneen was making his departure 
 next morning for his office. Wooldridge, upon being aroused 
 from his sleep, told Mr. Deneen of the raid made and the 
 evidence gathered and showed him some 10 or 15 telegrams from 
 reputable Board of Trade men who were worth over $20,000,000 
 collectively. The substance of the telegrams was as follows: 
 
 "Officer Clifton R. Wooldridge: We are informed that you 
 raided George T. Sullivan's bucketsliop. You have done your 
 duty and been criticised and assailed for doing it. My name 
 
 is and my attorneys name 
 
 is and we are at your service 
 
 night or day, without any expense to you." 
 
 Mr. Deneen asked Wooldridge how soon he would be ready 
 
MILLIONAIRE BANKER ARRESTED 547 
 
 to present his evidence to the Grand Jury. Wooldridge replied 
 that he had two cases already prepared before he made the 
 raid and would be ready in six hours with a number of addi- 
 tional cases. 
 
 Mr. Deneen told Wooldridge to accompany him to his office, 
 which was done. He called Assistant State's Attorneys Albert 
 C. Barnes, F. L. Barnett and Howard 0. Sprogle and in- 
 structed them to assist Wooldridge in preparing the cases for 
 the Grand Jury and give him a clean road just the minute he 
 was ready. They were further instructed to give him all the 
 assistance and advice he should need in the matter. 
 
 The special complaints were drawn, the telegraph wires be- 
 came busy and at 10 o'clock Wooldridge and witnesses went 
 before the Grand Jury and George T. Sullivan was indicted for 
 keeping a bucketshop and common gaming house. 
 
 George T. Sullivan was also active from Saturday imtil 
 Monday morning. He had prepared writs of replevin and 
 Avarrants for larceny for Wooldridge and officers who were with 
 him. ^ 
 
 Wooldridge was called up over the telephone by Sullivan's 
 friends and offered a bribe of $5,000 if he would release and 
 turn over the books, letters and records which were seized in 
 the raid, so Sullivan could resume business. This offer was 
 refused by Wooldridge and the matter reported to the State's 
 Attorney. 
 
 Sullivan then resorted to sending various friends and power- 
 ful politicians for the paraphernalia seized. Still Wooldridge 
 turned a deaf ear to their requests and entreaties. 
 
 Wooldridge was a very busy man at the County Court Build- 
 ing on Monday, o Before the George T. Sullivan bucketshop 
 raid and the indictment before the Grand Jury, Wooldridge 
 had the case of J. J. Jacobs, manager of the Montana Mining, 
 Loan & Investment Company, which was a lottery, on trial 
 before Judge Chetlain. 
 
 While in the courtroom he was informed by officers that they 
 
548 MILLIONAIKE V.AXKEH AIJRESTED 
 
 had a writ of replevin for the goods seized in Sullivan's biiekel- 
 sliop; that they also held warrants for Wooldridge and the 
 officers who were with him, but if he would surrender the goods 
 seized they declared the warrants would not be served and 
 there would be no trouble. 
 
 Wooldridge called on the State's Attorney and informed him 
 of tlie demand made upon him. State's Attorney Deneen 
 called the officers in his office and told them ihat Wooldridge 
 was there in attendance in the court and he would not permit 
 the warrants to be served on him until after court adjourned. 
 Further, he had instructed Wooldridge not to turn over any 
 of the property. 
 
 Sullivan during the meantime had learned that there was 
 an indictment against him by the Grand Jury and withdrew 
 the order for serving of the warrants. He Avas indicted, con- 
 victed and paid a $500 fine. 
 
 After the police had secured the evidence, his l)Ooks, letters 
 and records were returned to him. He tried to start up in 
 business again; also to get other parties interested with him 
 who had money, but in this he failed. He was forced to 
 refund $150,000 to his patrons who had advanced money to 
 him to speculate in grain and stock. He expected financial 
 assistance and hoped to resume business, but nothing ma- 
 terialized. 
 
 There were thousands of other creditors throughout tli(^ 
 country who were not so fortunate in obtaining a settlement. 
 These creditors combined and forced him into bankruptcy. 
 
 He was then cited in the United States Court for violating 
 a federal injunction. 
 
 He quietly folded his tent at night and left Oliicago with- 
 out leaving his address. He was next heard of in England 
 six months later. All traces of him were lost until, in August. 
 1907, at Pittsburg. Vn.. ho was arrested for running a bucket- 
 shop. 
 
 OoorL'"'' T. Sullivan, of Cronrs[o T. Snllivan (!(• (^o.. brokers. 
 
MILLION AIKE BxVNKEK AKEESTED o4M 
 
 with offices in the Bijou Building, Pittsburg, and was ar- 
 raigned before Magistrate F. J. Brady at Central Police Sta- 
 tion, charged with a misdemeanor and violating a city ordi- 
 nance. 
 
 Sullivan Has Eecord. 
 
 The misdemeanor was based on Sullivan's doing business 
 without being properly registered at Harrisburg, and he was 
 charged with violating a city ordinance for running a brok- 
 erage office without taking out a city license. He was held for 
 court in $1,000 bail on the misdemeanor charge and was fino.d 
 $35 on the other. 
 
 George T. Sullivan, the Napoleon of frenzied finance, cut 
 a large figure in Chicago, From a telegraph operator in the 
 pool rooms and bucketshops at a salary of $18 per week, he ac- 
 quired enough in the short space of two years to owai and 
 operate the largest bucketshop in the United States. 
 
 He soared high in the money circles, but at last was brought 
 crashing to the earth, a financial wreck. He was convicted 
 of keeping a bucketshop and gambling house. He went bank- 
 rupt, hounded to death by his creditors, many of whom he 
 had wrecked. 
 
 He was cited to appear in the United States Court for vio- 
 lating an injunction, and warrants had been sworn out by the 
 postal authorities for using the mails to defraud the public. 
 
 He took his freight from Chicago to new fields of pasture. 
 Wine, women and high financing brought his downfall. 
 
DORA McDonald. 
 
DORA McDonald. 
 
 MILLION-DOLLAR GAMBLER'S WIFE 
 
 ARRESTED FOR MURDER. 
 
 Webster Guerin Murdered February 21, igo6 — The Arrest 
 
 of Dora McDonald for the Murder by Detective 
 
 Clifton R. Wooldridge and J. F. Daugherty 
 
 a Few Minutes After the Tragedy. 
 
 Spectacular Case — Battle Bitterly Waged. 
 
 Important Dates in Mrs. McDonald's Life Tragedy. 
 Important dates in the trial of Mrs. Dora McDonald: 
 
 February 21, 1907 — Webster Guerin shot to death in 
 room 703, Omaha Building, where he was closeted with 
 Mrs. Dora McDonald. 
 
 March 5, 1907 — The Coroner's jury returned an open 
 verdict, failing to find Mrs. McDonald responsible for 
 Guerin's death. 
 
 March 30, 1907 — Mrs. McDonald released from the 
 County Jail under bonds of $50,000. 
 
 August 9, 1907 — Michael McDonald died, reconciled to 
 his first wife through the efforts of the church. 
 
 August 12, 1907 — "Mike" McDonald's funeral, one of 
 the largest ever known, held. 
 
 January 20, 1908 — Mrs. McDonald placed on trial before 
 Judge Brentano. 
 
 January 25, 1908 — Jury completed and sworn. 
 
 February 11, 1908 — The jury returned a verdict of not 
 guilty. 
 
553 DORA McDOXALD. THE MILLIOX-DOLLAK 
 
 Webster S. Guevin 
 Assistant State's Attorneys 
 Edwin S. Day and 
 William A. Rittenhouso 
 Sam Berkley 
 
 Judge Theodore Kreutano 
 
 Detective Clifton K. VVooldridge 
 
 James Hamilton I^ewis 
 and P. H. O'Donnell 
 ^riohnol r. McDonald 
 
 Uora McDonald 
 
GAMBLEK'S WIFE AKKESTED FOJi MUKDEK 553 
 
 The murder of Webster Guerin occurred on the morning 
 of February 21, 190fi. at his office, room 703 Omaha Building, 
 134 Van Bur^n street. 
 
 Detectives Clifton K. Wooklridge and J. P. Daugherty were 
 on their way to see Guerin about a complaint made against 
 him when they ]'an into the shooting. They had been there 
 before, but wej-e not able to find the man. Under the name 
 of Fisher, Guerin had another office in the same building. The 
 .omplaint was from Mrs. G. Boynton, 903 East Fifty-fifth 
 street, who said she had been forced into buying a picture 
 frame through the promise of the managers of the Harrison 
 Art Studio that they would enlarge the picture free of charge. 
 . Upon reaching the building Detectives Wooldridge and 
 Daugherty heard a pistol shot ring out which sounded as if 
 coming from the upper story of the building. Springing into 
 the elevator, they soon reached the top floor, where they were 
 directed to room 703, where a number of the tenants of the 
 building had already gathered. Stretched upon the floor lay 
 the body of Webster Guerin with the blood oozing from his 
 mouth and a bullet wound from a 32-caliber revolver on the 
 left side, just above the heart : the bullet had passed through 
 his lungs and caused a hemorrhage ; from his mouth came 
 nearly one-half gallon of blood. 
 
 When Wooldridge and Daugherty reached the side of Guerin 
 he was past human aid. 
 
 Xo Witnesses of Killing. 
 
 There were no witnesses of the killing of Guerin. He was 
 in his office with Mrs. Dora McDonald. Several persons heard a 
 shot;, and a moment later the glass door was broken and the 
 head of Mrs. McDonald came out. 
 
 The condition of the studio, in room 703 of the Omaha 
 Building, shows that a violent quarrel took place between 
 Guerin and Mrs. McDonald. Mrs. McDonald left her resi- 
 dence shortly after breakfast. She arrived at the building 
 
554 DOEA McDOXALD, THE MILLION-DOLLAK 
 
 Persons and Places Involved in the Killing 
 
 of Crayon Artist Guerm by Mrs. "Mike" McDonald. 
 
 
 
 about 11:45 o'clock. Gueriu expected her, for he told his 
 office boy, Thomas Hanson, who lives at 265 West Ohio street, 
 to leave the room and not come back until 1 o'clock. Before 
 the boy left the room Mrs. ^IcDonald entered and the two im- 
 niv^diately began quarreling, it is said. Guerin shouted to 
 Hanson to leave and nothing more was heard until the shooting 
 at 11:50 o'clock. 
 
GAMBLEE'S WIFE AlUiESTED FOE MURDER 555 
 
 Lorenzo Blasi, who lives at 73 West Ohio street, and who is 
 employed in room 608 of the same building, heard the shot and 
 the sound of breaking glass. He was in the corridor on the 
 seventh floor. He hurried to the scene and on the way heard 
 the glass breaking again and a woman screaming: "He shot 
 himself ! He shot himself !" 
 
 Woman Cut by Broken Glass. 
 
 When Blasi reached the studio he found Mrs. McDonald with 
 her head partly thrust through the broken glass. Her face 
 was bleeding from cuts. In her hand she held a revolver. She 
 was trying to break more of the glass with her revolver and 
 escape. 
 
 A moment later Eric Allert and Charles B. Williams, who 
 work across the corridor, rushed out to Blasi's aid. 
 
 Mrs. McDonald was pulled through the door and the revolver 
 was secured. In the office, men found Guerin lying dead in 
 the room leading off from the main part of the office. 
 
 A torn picture and some hatpins were on the floor. There 
 were finger marks on her throat. 
 
 When Dora ]\IcDonald recovered consciousness she shrieked : 
 ''Oh, God! Get a doctor; he has shot himself." 
 
 AVhere the revolver may have been at that time it was dif- 
 ficult to say. Several witnesses said that it was lying at the 
 right side of Guerin, who was dying. Others said that the 
 woman held it in her hand, -waving it above her head as she 
 screamed out: "He has shot himself." 
 
 Who this strong, handsomely garbed woman was who had 
 either witnessed a suicide, committed a murder or participated 
 in an accident no one knew, but she was hurried off to the 
 police station by Detective Wooldridge. 
 
 "Daddy, oh, daddy, forgive me !" she kept screaming out. 
 She was recognized, however, and it was found that "Daddy" 
 could be none other than the big gambler and political boss, 
 Mike McDonald. So they sent for Mike, and he gathered into 
 
556 DOHA McDonald, the million -dollak 
 
 his arms the woman who in that moment broke his heart and 
 sent him to his grave in sorrow. 
 
 An inquest was begun before Coroner Peter J. Hoffman in 
 the Harrison Street Station on March 1, 1906. After five 
 days an open verdict was returned, in which the jurors de- 
 clared themselves unable to determine the cause .of the death 
 of Guerin. 
 
 The Coroner's jury consisted of the following named persons : 
 
 Joseph Willis, 43 Cass street ; Frank 0. Borhyar, 6142 Mad- 
 ison avenue; William Merker, 263 Seminary avenue; William 
 C. Hollens, 6418 Ehodes avenue; David A. Smith, 3843 Cali- 
 fornia avenue; George F. Cram, 4166 Drexel boulevard. 
 
 On March 16, Municipal Judge Kewcomer went to the jail 
 hospital, where Dora McDonald, still in bed, was formally ar- 
 raigned and held on a charge of murder. Two weeks later 
 she was indicted by the Grand Jury. 
 
 All of the evidence so gathered Avas embodied in the report 
 of the Coroner, and the names of the witnesses were thereto 
 attached, all of which were made public at the time. The 
 State and the defense secured a copy of the same. 
 
 Mystery Too Much for Coroner. 
 
 x\ll the additional evidence and the preparation of the case 
 was made by the State's attorneys, William H. Eittenhouse. 
 Edwin S. Day, Frank Comerford, City Police Attorney, ai'<l 
 other officers. All the names of new witnesses (some twelve 
 or fifteen in number) and the evidence were concealed from 
 Detective Wooldridge, and at no time was he present, or tli.l 
 he hear to what the witnesses would testify. Therefore, lie 
 had no knowledge of any new facts when the case was called 
 for trial. 
 
 The mystery of Guerin's death proved too much for a Cor- 
 oner's jury. More than two weeks after the artist was shiin 
 the Coroner's panel returned an open verdict. Tl merely 
 found that Guerin had died from a bullet wound in ;i manner 
 
GAMBLEKVS WIFE ARRESTED FOR MURDER 557 
 
 which tlie jury was unable to determine. This same verdict 
 Colonel Lewis sought to introduce at the trial in Judge Bren- 
 tano's court. Such a move was new in criminal annals, and 
 it was some time before the court decided that it should he 
 ruled out. 
 
 Mrs. McDonald was meantime transferred to the County 
 Jail from the Harrison Street Station. She was broken in 
 health and a confirmed invalid. Two persons, however, were 
 faithful to her, Mike McDonald and Miss Amanda Beck, her 
 nurse. 
 
 Friends Get Busy Quickly. 
 
 A few hours after the tragedy of Webster Guerin all the 
 influences and machinery at the command of Mike McDonald 
 were brought to bear to save the life of Dora McDonald. A. S. 
 Trude, one of the greatest criminal attorneys in Chicago, was 
 employed, besides several other noted lawyers, to defend Dora 
 McDonald. IMiko McDonald's political friends soon became 
 active. Everything was done to gather evidence in Dora Mc- 
 Donald's case, and everything was done that could be done to 
 suppress any evidence that was injurious to her. 
 
 There was one witness who was greatly feared, and that 
 was Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge, who made the arrest. 
 
 Several days after the shooting A. S. Trude, Mike McDon- 
 ald's attorney, met Wooldridge in the Criminal Court and 
 shook hands with him. He said that he was very glad that 
 Wooldridge was interested in the case for one reason, for he 
 knew he Avould get a square deal. He also stated that there 
 wd:s another reason why he was sorry that Wooldridge was in 
 the* case, because he had too many eyes and too many feet to be 
 on" the opposite side of any case in which he (Trude) was 
 interested. This view was shared by Mike McDonald and his 
 friends, who became active to get Wooldridge out of the way. 
 
 Mike McDonald first paid a visit to John M. Collins, then 
 General Superintendent of Police, and one of his warm per- 
 
508 DOiiA McJJONALl}, THE MlLLiON-DOLLAK 
 
 soiial friends, and Frank Comerford, City Police Attorney; 
 What occurred in that office will never be known, unless Collins 
 chooses to make a statement, as McDonald has since died. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge was called to the office of John M. 
 Collins, General Superintendent of Police, and told not to 
 talk to any newspaper men or anyone else about the McDonald 
 case. He was further told not to make himself too officious, 
 and not to be too active in the case. 
 
 Several days later he was again called to Chief Collins' office 
 and told that Frank Comerford, then acting as City Police 
 Attorney, and a warm friend of Mike McDonald's, was to 
 take charge of the case, so that he need not bother himself 
 further with the matter. 
 
 Mr. Comerford became very active, securing the names of 
 all the witnesses and all evidence to which they would testify, 
 together with otlier facts. All this matter eventually found 
 its way into tlio hands of the defense long before the trial. 
 
 Mike McDonald and his friends thought that Wooldridge 
 would become active again in the case. Therefore Mike pro- 
 ceeded to get busy himself. No one seems to know the ins and 
 outs of the case, Ijut it is nevertheless a fact that soon after 
 the election of April, 1907, Wooldridge was transferred from 
 the office of the General Superintendent of Police, where he 
 had served since 1889, to the Cottage Grove Avenue Station. 
 No reason was assigned for this transfer. 
 
 Gueein's Life Story. 
 
 Webster Guerin, who lived at 655 West Harrison street,^»\vas 
 well known on the West Side, where he was born thirty years 
 ago. He kept a haberdashery on West Madison street i' iew 
 years before the murder, but left it to go to California. On 
 his return he went into the picture business. Guerin was a 
 tall, splendid-looking follow more than six feet in height. 
 
 Gnorin was known at the offices in the Omaha Building as 
 
GAMBLER'S WIFE ARRESTED FOR MURDER 559 
 
 Louis Fisher, and it was under that name that he operated the 
 Harrison Art Compan}^ 
 
 Dora McDonald Divorced Wife of "Sam" Barclay. 
 
 Dora McDonald, 35 years old, was the divorced wife of "Sam" 
 Barclay, a former professional ball player and Chicago saloon- 
 keeper. They had one son, Harold Barclay, who was later 
 legally adopted by "Mike" McDonald, and who was at school 
 in Florida at the time of the murder. He was 15 years old. 
 
 She had separated from Barclay shortly prior to her divorce 
 and had been on the stage for a short time under the name 
 of Mme. Alberta. She was married to Mike McDonald a week 
 after her divorce and was taken by him to his home at Harrison 
 street and Ashland avenue. 
 
 Beauty of West Side. 
 
 Dora ]\IcDonald was one of the beauties of the West Side 
 in her day, and many admirers hovered about her threshold. 
 The lights of the midnight hours charmed her then, and she 
 dashed off to marry Sam Barclay, a professional baseball 
 player. 
 
 Into that home came Michael Cassius McDonald, He was 
 a gambler and a politician and a man of great wealth. 
 
 For the second time his wife had left him ; run away, people 
 said, with a man who had been a guest at their home. 
 
 Mike was lonesome. He saw the bride of Sam Barclay and 
 loved her. He dined with her, and perhaps he paid for her 
 divorce trial. At least she separated from Barclay and when 
 Mike went a-wooing again he won this pretty woman. 
 
 In a west side home of some pretensions Mike established 
 his new wife. He thought so much of her that he sent his 
 sons away when she 'could not agree with them. He gave her! 
 money and. finery and servants and carriages, and thought that 
 she ought to be happy. 
 
 Boy of 14 Enters. 
 
 Webster Guerin lived across the street. He was a bov of 
 
m DOEA Mcdonald, the million-dollar 
 
 attractive manners and he won the affection of Dora McDonald. 
 Slander gives one reason for that affection; the woman gixt-.-i 
 another. 
 
 Stole Him as a Boy, Slew Him as a Man, Says Archie 
 
 GUERIN. 
 
 Archie Guerin, Webster Guerin's brother, told how Mrs. 
 Dora McDonald had taken a violent fancy to Webster when he 
 was a boy of 14, and Archie 13, or thereabouts ; how she would 
 meet them on their way home from school and whisk Webster 
 into the mansion, keeping him two, three or four hours; how 
 she used to waylay Webster on his way home from church ; how 
 she followed him through the years until she got the notion 
 that he was falling in love with Avis Dargan; how she put 
 detectives on the boy's trail and sat for hours in a cab opposite 
 the Omaha Building to see whether Miss Dargan entered ; how- 
 she threatened to shoot him; how she would break out into 
 wild and vehement declarations of her love, wailing that she 
 "worshiped every hair of his head," and that she would kill 
 him before she would lose him. 
 
 How she came into the studio on the day Webster was shot, 
 asserting that she had "told that old slob everything" (meaning 
 her husband), and said she was going to New York; how Web- 
 ster had replied that he was "through with her," to which she 
 retorted, "I am not through with you; do you think I would 
 kill myself without first putting a bullet into your head?" 
 How Mrs. McDonald had requested him to leave the studio, 
 and how he had refused to do so until Webster joined his re- 
 quest to hers; how Archie and the two boys employed in the 
 studio had gone away and left them to act out the tragedy liy 
 themselves behind doors that were closed and locked ; how 
 Archie had gone to the Windsor Clifton Hotel to meet Harry 
 Feldman, with whom he had a business appointment; how 
 Feldman had become alarmed when he heard that Mrs. Mc- 
 Donald and Webster were alone in the studio, urging Archie 
 
l,o call Wfebster on the telephone; how he and Archie c-teppeil 
 to the 'phone, called up the studio, and after a gruff "hello" 
 from a policeman got back the staggering news : "Your brother 
 has been murdered." 
 
 Mike McDonald Deluded by Wife. 
 
 "Mike" seemingly was deluded. He may have had suspicions 
 of his wife, but his suspicions seem to have been quieted by 
 the woman. 
 
 Even when Guerin followed her to California she dared to 
 wire Mike: "Web Guerin is coming: fear I shall be compro- 
 mised; shall I come back?" 
 
 It was such a frank admission that the gambler urged her 
 to have mettle. "Stick," he sent back word. "Don't let anyone 
 bluff you." 
 
 Things went on this way until the morning of February 31, 
 1906. Then something happened, the climax occurred and 
 Guerin was shot. 
 
 Provides for the Defense. 
 
 After the arrest of his wife, "Mike" McDonald announced 
 that he believed in her integrity and declared he would spend 
 every cent of his fortune to save her. The former gambling 
 dictator was almost 70 years old and his health was failing 
 rapidly. Four months after the event he was taken to the 
 St. Anthony de Padua Hospital, where he remained until his 
 death. August 9, 1907. 
 
 McDonald was still passing to his death when there crept 
 into his room a little, white-haired woman who had come from 
 N"ewark, N. J. There she was known as Mrs. Grashoff and a 
 great charity worker, especially in the interest of fallen girls 
 in the Crittenden homes. Years before Mike McDonald had 
 called her his first wife. 
 
 Dramatic Meeting op McDonald and First Wife. 
 
 By the laws of the church she was still his wife, no matter 
 what the years had brought forth. So Mike took her hand 
 
563 DOKA McDonald, the MILLIOX-DOLLAR 
 
 and held it and spoke softly to her in a breath of full forgive- 
 ness and passed away. Without the door sat the woman whom 
 he had called his wife — Dora, whom he had won from a hus- 
 band and to whom he had been faithful until he stepped to 
 the brink of his grave. 
 
 This was the last straw that crushed the spirit of Dora 
 McDonald. 
 
 The body of Webster Guerin was removed to McISTally & 
 Duffy's undertaking rooms at 516 AVabash avenue. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge took up the work of gathering tlu» 
 evidence and prepared the case for the Coroner and Grand 
 Jury. 
 
 The Grand Jury indictment- placed Dora McDonald seemingly 
 beyond the pale of bail, but Mike worked assiduously and 
 finally secured her release from prison on $50,000 bonds. Then 
 Mike became ill and died in St. Anthony's Hospital. 
 
 Before he gave way to his broken heart McDonald drew up 
 a will. He set aside a defense fund with which the woman 
 might be given adequate chance for freedom in the court, and 
 left her "such rights and only such rights as she may be en- 
 titled to as widow." 
 
 Trial Begins. 
 
 Mrs. McDonald was put on trial January 20. The jury was 
 completed January 25 and the taking of testimony began at 
 once. The case of the State was made as complete as possible 
 and the defense began an exhaustive array of testimony. The 
 defense, however, came to a surprisingly sudden end. It had 
 been feared that Mrs. McDonald might not live through the 
 trial and there was every desire to have a verdict before she 
 might give way to heart trouble. 
 
 The case was heard before Judge Theodore Brentano, and it 
 lasted twenty-one days. 
 
 Dora McDonald was represented by Colonel James Hamilton 
 Lewis, Chief Assistant Patrick H. O'Donnell, Attorneys Ben- 
 
GAMBLER'S WIFE ARRESTED FUR MURDER r-(i:; 
 
 ^ a 
 
 
 
 
 4"*' '"f ntiiiljilim^^iiM 
 
 L^y§ 
 
 ■;..:', .. ■, \- ,^.s;:i^i|;,4:|swv:. 
 
 
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 ..,;^s'^.«! 
 
 iS^^:J^*^Rii^^..3 
 
 
 '»:»•: 
 
 JOHN C. ANDERSON 
 
 FUtTON. GEORGE 
 
 ROLAMD F. GRAHAM. JAMES J. 
 
 I. OTTO H. NbLSOM. 
 
 LOVE TRAGEDY JURY 
 
 Jamin M. Shaftncr, Frank R. Cain, Gabriel Nordeu, Clarence 
 Shaffner and Forest G. Smith. 
 
 The State was represented by Assistant State's Attorneys 
 William K. Rittenhouse and Edward S. Day. 
 Names of the Jury. 
 
 Harry Corcoran, Joseph Koehy, Arne Peterson, Hugh H. 
 Fulton, George W. Miller, Roland F. Graham, James J. 
 Noonan, Otto H. Nelson, Charles R. Johnson, Herbert R. Garn. 
 Charles McGrath, John C. Anderson. 
 
 Packed Courtroom. 
 
 With the courtroom packed to the doors and several hundred 
 
564 DOEA ^IcDONALD. THE MILLION-DOLLAK 
 
 men and women struggling to gain admission, the actual trial 
 of Mrs. Dora McDonald, widow of ^Mike McDonald, com- 
 menced. Assistant State's Attorney Edward S. Day made an 
 opening statement of the case. Trembling and his eyes flash- 
 ing, he pointed a finger at Mrs. Dora McDonald and in a ring- 
 ing voice denounced her as the murderess of Guerin. 
 
 "Dora McDonald became acquainted with Guerin. who was 
 about 14 years old. His parents lived a short distance from 
 the McDonald home. 
 
 "A friendship between Mrs. McDonald and the boy began, 
 which his mother and other relatives later tried to end. Three 
 years later the McDonalds removed to the Drexel boulevard 
 V.ome, but the intimacy of Webster Guerin and Mrs. McDonald 
 continued. 
 
 "At any event, as time passed on, dealing meantime gently 
 with th& woman and developing Web into a young man of more 
 than six feet in height, the two were seen frequently together. 
 Relatives of both testified that the two kissed each other: that 
 at times Mrs. McDonald grew jealous, in all apparent intent, 
 over him ; that she wrote poems and set them to music to show 
 what seemed to be the very depths of a despairing heart. 
 
 "The woman was insanely jealous over him." "He had Avan- 
 dered out from her love into the light of other women's eyes. 
 Driven to distraction by the thought that the boy she had 
 taught to love had grown up to love another, she murdered 
 him." 
 
 "No," said the defense. "This woman was the victim of 
 blackmail. First she had been hounded until she gave way 
 to the big youth, and then she had paid him money from her 
 hoard in the hope that she might free herself of him." 
 
 Testimony on the blackmail ])oint was clouded by the maze 
 of recrimination, but the State? could not deny that Mrs. Mc- 
 Donald had on several occasions given the young man money 
 with which to leave the city, but that each time he had re- 
 turned "broke" within a few days. 
 
UAMBLEK'S WIFE AKltE.STED VOH .MUKDEK r,b5 
 
 Mr. Day*!; deimneiatiou of Mrs. Dora McDonald was bit- 
 ter, but the defendant appeared to take no notice of what the 
 lawjer was saying. 
 
 Dora McDonald sat quietly as if in a trance ; the bitterness 
 of failure, the weariness of defeat, was expressed in ever}'^ 
 flutter of her purple-shadowed eyelids as she came before the 
 bar to answr for the murder of Webster Guerin, January 20, 
 1907. 
 
 Dora McDonald jiresented a pathetic appearance before the 
 jury. 
 
 She was dressed all in black. Not a single bit of lace or 
 white relieved the somber effect of her funereal widow's garb. 
 In arranging her hair Mrs. McDonald exhibited a novel idea. 
 The long, deep-auburn strands were braided into one plait and 
 this was wound over her temples in a single coil and fastened 
 wqth coral pins. 
 
 In its unaffected artlessness Mrs. McDonald's entry into the 
 courtroom and her removal of her hat as she sank into her 
 chair was an act of almost girlish grace. Her long black cloak, 
 satin lined, was thrown carelessly on a chair. 
 
 When she had removed her hat and cloak she looked squarely 
 into the faces of the jury. ^ 
 
 Dramatic Scene ix Courtroom. 
 
 The face that was turned piteously toward the jury was 
 deeply lined with the furrows of physical and mental suf- 
 fering. 
 
 The eyes drooped constantly, and there were times when 
 she closed them for a full minute. 
 
 Every movement of the lips or eyelids, every arrangement 
 of dress and costume, was either studiously planned or pathet- 
 ically dramatic. 
 
 The WTariness and bitterness were marked in the droop of 
 her mouth, in the perplexed Avrinkling of her forehead, in 
 
566 DORA McDOXALD, THE MILLION-DOLLAR 
 
 the stoop of lier shoulders^, in the rehixatiou of her handc, 
 lyiug heavily on the table before her. 
 
 A long, long line of battles t:he has behind her, with her 
 good name torn to shreds in tli£ fight ; and nobody can guess at 
 the scars and open wounds in her sonl. No matter how great 
 may have been her fault, how untrammeled her impulses and 
 wishes, how wild and defiant her spirit toward tlie law and 
 society, now she is a tired, broken woman, who has lost the 
 day. 
 
 Bloom Goxe fhom Cheek. 
 
 There are many who say that the beauty of which Dora Mc- 
 Donald was once so proud has departed entirely. The eyes 
 were heavy, the skin no longer showed the pink of health, 
 but was a dead white, her figure had fallen away until she 
 was almost emaciated, but there was a beauty in her sadness 
 and despair that the triumphant woman never possessed. 
 
 She seldom looked at the veniremen, nor did she appear 
 to be following the questions put to them. Occasionally she 
 glanced at a possible juror as he stepped up to be sworn, but 
 for the most part she sat with her head resting on her hand, 
 or looking ahead at some mental vision. Is it the face of 
 young Webster Guerin ^he sees, as he lay dead, or the face of 
 old "Mike" McDonald as he smoothed her hair and loaded 
 her with caresses? Is it remorse for a crime, or longing and 
 grief for a dead admirer? Or is it despair for a wasted life, a 
 hopeless future, a thousand lost opportunities? 
 
 N"o Madness in Her Eyes. 
 
 If the defense expected to utilize the plea of insanity it 
 would have had some difficulty in inducing a jury to believe 
 that Mrs. McDonald was greatly deranged. There \<"as no 
 gleam of madness in her eyes. They were dark-circled and 
 languid, but not at all staring or strange. She seemed un- 
 usually self-poised and collected. 
 
 Without anv arlificcs (^f dross or cosmetics, without anv 
 
GAMBLER'S WIFE AEKESTED FOR MURDER 567 
 
 gleam of gaiety or vivacity, it was not impossible to understand 
 why this woman wielded the great inflnenee in the lives of 
 tliree men that she did. In the first place, her features were 
 regular and fine. Her eyebrows Avere delicately penciled and 
 her eyes large and dark. 
 
 Traces of >Siren Left. 
 . The contour of her cheeks was soft and round. But one 
 can imagine, in happier days, that there was a captivating play 
 of expression, an esprit, a beaute de diable, that would be 
 particularly fascinating to a man like old "Mike" McDonald. 
 And upon such a woman would the self-made man, the gam- 
 liler, uncultivated and rough, fast approaching old age, delight 
 to heap luxury and adoration, as there is no doubt "Mike" 
 McDonald did. 
 
 And is it not easy to imagine that such a woman would have 
 a powerful attraction for a young man, with her sophistication 
 and experience matched against his ignorance? And now one 
 of the men is dead of a broken heart, and the other struck 
 down in the very first flush of his youth, and the instrument 
 of pleasure and destruction stands at the end of a shattered 
 life. 
 
 Until a jury should decide, in so far as human fallibility 
 may decide, just whether or how Dora McDonald shot down 
 Webster Guerin, that victim of tangled love and jealousy, a 
 waiting city hung expectant on every incident bared since the 
 day that the artist toppled before a pistol ball in his studio 
 with a woman of furs and furbelows standing sobbing above 
 him. 
 
 A "SArPHo''' AND "Saiome."' 
 
 A "Sappho" in a grimy city she M-as called because her heart 
 was touched by the strength of youth ; a "Salome" because she 
 ])lanted a kiss on his dying lips, but whether she was victim 
 or vampire, sinner or sinned against, was solely for the jury 
 to sav. 
 
.■)H,s DOHA McDonald, thk milijon-dollae 
 
 (rios of blackmail, of bribery, of frenzied jealousy, of shame- 
 less love and daring intrigue, rang around the courtroom for 
 the long days of the trial, but for the jury it was only to look- 
 behind the locked door of the artist's studio and see whether 
 the revolver Avith which Guerin was shot down was held bv 
 the woman or the young man- whether there was malice or 
 accident or self-destruction, and what the motive for either 
 might be. 
 
 The shot that sounded his death was the climax to an at- 
 tachment — guilty or not, as th^ case might be — that began 
 when Dora McDonald was a wonderfully beautiful and younger 
 women, the wife of a wealthy gambler, and the lady of a 
 mansion, and AYebster Guerin was a mere lad, just old enough 
 to doff short trousers for manly attire. 
 
 Affection, money and attention were lavished on the young 
 man by this woman. At banquet board and in the theater 
 box they passed their hours together. Of this there was no 
 dispute. The sole question was whether the woman gave way 
 lo the lure of a boy, or whether the boy was importuned by tlie 
 woman ; whether in after years that boy blackmailed that same 
 woman, or whether she loved him to a distraction that brought 
 the madness of jealousy and the revolver. 
 
 And what of the love attachment? the police wondered. But 
 as they delved a little they unearthed strange and tender 
 things, but nothing more strange than poems written by the 
 woman and apparently dedicated to the youth. 
 
 The tragedy of a soul was bared when Assistant State's At- 
 torney Day read to the jury poems of passion found in the 
 reticule taken from Mrs. McDonald on her arrest. 
 
 The State regarded the declarations contained in the verse 
 MS disclosing a dual motive of murder and suicide, and intro- 
 duced them as circumstantial evidence. One entitled "Alis- 
 takes" was written on the day of the Guerin love tragedy. 
 
 Here is the first one read: 
 
GAMBLER'S WIFE ART?E81^ED FOR MURDER 569 
 Tragedy op a Soul in Poems of Passiox by Dora McDonald. 
 
 Put the woi-d "finish" doAvn by my name : 
 
 I played for high stakes, but I lost the game ; 
 
 I played for life, for honor and love ; 
 
 Well, 1 am not the first mortal who has lost all. 
 
 I have made up my mind to care not a bit ; 
 
 Let honor and love sink to the bottomless pit. 
 
 Pull down the curtains, bring in the lights, 
 
 Put from my memory horrible sights . 
 
 Of treachery where there should have been love. 
 
 Of red blood where should have been whiteness of dove ; 
 
 The past, the present and the future are done : 
 
 How different, O God ! had it been had I won. 
 
 Weitten as Tragedy Approached. 
 We are drifting apart, 
 Though from no change of heart : 
 But we cannot agree, 
 And the end we can see, 
 So the bonds of our love we will sever ; 
 And I wonder if we 
 Will, alas ! too late see 
 That our happiness lay in each other. 
 For when soul finds its mate 
 It is often too late 
 
 To struggle and fight against conquering fate. 
 And what does it mean? 
 This parting, I ween ; 
 I'll leave you, but. well. 
 Neither heaven nor hell 
 Will make me forget you. 
 Nor save you should t find 
 Another holds the place that was and is mine. 
 
 Poem Written on D.vte of the Guerin Tragedy. 
 
 This poem, entitled "^Mistakes," i? dated Februan'- 31, 1901, 
 
 11 :20 a. m. : 
 
 Said he: "Where is my sin? 
 
 I'm only as men have ever been. 
 
 I'm not so bad, I'm not so good. 
 
 And I'd be as you'd have me if only I could. 
 
 But you are strong and good and brave. 
 
 Surely for me a road .von can pave, 
 
 A road which shall be my happiness, my very soul save. 
 
 After all, it's for you and you only that I crave." 
 
 She waited a moment, then came her reply : 
 
 "To the old adage, that women are weak, you can give the lie. 
 
 Not only you, others as well. 
 
 All through life have the same tale to tell. 
 
 I didn't mean to do it — I didn't, I swear. 
 
 But you can forgive me; your loss I cannot bear. 
 
 Can I forgive you? Well, that's not so clear. 
 
 Though you certainly were to me very dear. 
 
 I think, after all, now that I am awake. 
 
 I think it was I who made the mistake. 
 
 T thought of you ever as a flower rare. 
 
 With whom other flowers could not even compare. 
 
570 DORA McDonald, the million-dodlar 
 
 Alack and alas ! I find, after all, 
 
 You are only a sunflower, of which there are many. 
 
 Who take all the elements have to give 
 
 And give nothing that creates or causes happiness to live.'" 
 
 "Kill Me If You Will/' She Says in a Yerse. 
 Another of Mrs. ]\IcDonald's poems, written on the day of 
 the killing, is as follows: 
 
 Kill me if you will, for all is well. 
 
 I know that to Satan your soul you can't sell, 
 
 And I've saved you from everlasting hell. 
 
 I had lifted you up, when, lo ! I found 
 
 Slowly but surely you were dragging me down. 
 
 Out of space thus came a warning 
 
 Soft and clear as the breath of the morning. 
 
 Pearls Before Swine. • 
 Have you learned the old saying of pearls before swine? 
 I gave every pearl that ever was mine. 
 I've nothing more to give. 
 And it's hardly worth while for me to live. 
 More blessed to give than receive, they say. 
 I followed that teaching in my poor way. 
 I wanted returns, I'll have to confess, 
 And I had to be cool, and firm and brave. 
 For I knew 'twas my duty your soul to save. 
 And I've set your feet on the path of right. 
 And from now till the end you shall see but the light 
 And turn from it to pitfalls and terrors of night. 
 Turn to the right, to the wrong you may sway. 
 From black imps' vile rottenness I've snatched you away. 
 And though I fall slain at your feet with a moan. 
 I care not. for evil from you has flown ; 
 And, by all the glory of God above, 
 I've proven the strength of a weak woman's love. 
 And I thought my pearls would bring love that was blessed. 
 I did so want love that was loyal ; 
 'Twas more to me than a diadem royal. 
 But I found too late that I was wrong. 
 That love but existed in hopes and in song. 
 What became of those pearls of mine? 
 Oh. nothing! I just threw my pearls to the swine. 
 
 Another Poem of Passion. 
 I waged a battle fierce and long, 
 I fought to know the right from wrong. 
 Did I succeed? I cannot tell. 
 Yet when I met sin I knew full well 
 That fight's not over. 'Tis scarcely begun. 
 And I struggle again to win. one by one. 
 Steps on the ladder that mounts to great deeds. 
 Where the path to the right unfailingly leads. 
 As I gazed at the battlefield, flooded with gore. 
 Where the path to the right unfailingly bore, 
 I knew that the wounds came from contact with sin. 
 'Twas demons let loose that float in the air; 
 
GAMBLER'S WIFE AREESTED FOR MURDER 571 
 
 But the fight's worth the while, for when 
 Misery and heartaches shall all pass away 
 Right has full sway. 
 
 The reading of the poems was followed intently by the big 
 crowd in Judge Brentano's courtroom. Mrs. McDonald ap- 
 peared uninterested. 
 
 From poetry the step was easy into song. Accomplished 
 and educated as Dora McDonald was, with time hanging, 
 sometimes, heavy on her hands, what more natural than that 
 she should set her verses to music of her own composing? 
 
 Nevee Again. 
 ^Song written, composed and published by Mrs. Michael C. McDonald.) 
 'Twas only a story of a woman's love, a tale that has often been told. 
 She gave a love that knew no bounds ; the rest of the story is old. 
 Again he had strayed, and this time had made a mistake she could nevor 
 
 forget ; 
 In a voice that was dense with a grief intense she mournfully did say : 
 I gave you sweetest love, you gave me naught but pain ; 
 Oh, I forgave you more than once but to be hurt again. 
 This time it means the end, for I could never forget. 
 I shall never see you again, although I love you yet. 
 With tears in his eyes the man replied : "I know that I have gone 
 
 astray ; 
 RemQj-se will last till life is passed ; forgive me, don't send me away. 
 Oh. let me atone, live for you alone ; just once more have pity on me." 
 But, bowing her head, with its look of one dead, she softly but firmly 
 said : 
 
 I gave you sweetest love, etc. 
 
 The mother of the woman, an aged orthodox Hebrew, never 
 went near Dora McDonald until the trial was nearly done, 
 though that same old woman bent her knees as she day and 
 night raised her voice to Jehovah in lamentations. 
 
 Ill health, mental and physical, followed. All the sorrows 
 of a shattered life befell her. 
 
 Sought Vindication" to Spare Her Aged Mother, 
 
 For Dora McDonald, life had been lived when Guerin died. 
 It mattered not after that whether she went to the gallows or 
 to freedom. But for one reason she would not have cared a 
 whit whether her case was fought before a jury or not. The 
 one reason was vindication that her mother might be spared 
 something of shame. 
 
572 DORA McDonald, the MILLIOX-DOLLAE 
 
 The vindication, however, Avas sought at a costl)- price — tlie 
 price of a life and heart and love bared to a gaping world. 
 It was an expensive effort to wash off the stain of an indict- 
 ment. 
 
 At the trial Assistant State's Attorneys Edward S. Day and 
 William H. Rittenhouse wrangled with their own witnesses and 
 tried one after another to have them testify to things they 
 jiever saw or heard. 
 
 They attacked Inspector John Wheeler, Officer J. G. S. 
 Peterson, Thomas F. McFarland, Detective Wooldridge, Police 
 Matron Elizabeth Belmont, Charles Freudenberg, an old 
 soldier 60 years old, and threatened him with an indictment: 
 Louis Jacobs, Lorenzo Blasi, Herman Hanson and Charles B. 
 Williams. 
 
 All of those accused except Detective Wooldridge considered 
 the fulminations of Attorneys Day and Rittenhouse a good joke. 
 They regarded them as the vaporings of temporarily disordered 
 intellects, minds that had become rattled by a case which was 
 too big for them. 
 
 Owing, however, to the peculiar position in which he was 
 placed as the officer who made the arrest, Wooldridge was 
 forced to take cognizance of the matter. 
 
 Wooldridge denied the statements made against him and 
 branded them as malicious lies manufactured out of whole 
 cloth. He asked for a hearing before the Civil Service Board, 
 which was granted to him after the trial was over. 
 
 It was fully shown at the investigation how Wooldridge had 
 been treated in the matter, and the motive for his transfer; it 
 was also shown that he knew no new facts, neither did he meet 
 or know any witnesses except those who had testified to the 
 Coroner and Grand Jury. 
 
 The motives for his transfer and the reports were fnlly 
 uncovered and exposed. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge was exonerated by the entire Board of 
 Civil Service Commissioners. 
 
GAMBLEE'S WIFE ARRESTED FOR MURDER 573 
 
 Day and Rittenhoiise simply sewed up the case in crimina- 
 tions and recriminations. 
 
 Assistant State's Attorneys Day and Rittenliouse were out- 
 generaled, outclassed and whipped, and wanted to throw the 
 blame for the acquittal of Dora McDonald on the Police De- 
 partment and failed. They did everything hut try the case. 
 Stkong Defense by Lewis. 
 
 C'olonel Lewis said that the State had not denied that the 
 revolver with which Guerin was shot was his own. He called 
 for tlie weapon and showed the jury how Guerin might have 
 shot himself if Mrs. McDonald, in her struggle with him, had 
 merely pushed the revolver around in the palm of his hand. 
 
 Again he called for the blood-stained coat that Guerin wore 
 when he was killed. It was too good an opportunity to be 
 overlooked by the fine dramatic eye of the Colonel. 
 
 "You remember the speech of Mark Anthony," he said ; "how 
 he produced a tremendous effect with the robe of the great 
 Ca3sar? I will not ask for more than the robe that this Caesar 
 wore." 
 
 Tliereupon he spread out the grewsome relic on the railing 
 on tlie jury box to show what he said were powder marks. In 
 his mind, there was no doubt about how the tragedy worked 
 out. Guerin, enraged and terrified when Mrs. McDonald told 
 him tluit she had told her rich and influential husband every- 
 thing, attacked her. He got the revolver out of his drawer, 
 probably to frighten her. Mrs. McDonald, half choked, saw 
 it gleam and pushed it away from her. 
 
 Strikes Hard at x\rchie Guerin. 
 
 More striking than the beautiful imageries and the wealth 
 of quotation from ancient and modern authors with which the 
 Colonel embellished his speech was his strong play upon *^that 
 fifteen minutes," which, according to his interpretation of the 
 evidence, elapsed between the time the boys in Guerin's studio 
 were ejected and the time when Archie came out, leaving his 
 brother and Mrs. McDonald alone, behind locked doors. 
 
5?4 DORA McDO.NALD, THE MILLION-DOLLAR 
 
 "There need be nothing else in this case for you/' exclaimed 
 the speaker, "than this fifteen minutes unaccounted for. Archie 
 Guerin knew what was going on there, and before God he 
 should tell, but he did not. He hurried away and cleared the 
 corridors. Ner^^ous and confused, he hunted up Harry Feld- 
 man in the Windsor-Clifton Hotel, so that if anything hap- 
 pened, he could say: 
 
 " 'I didn't do it. You know I didn't, Feldman. I was righi ' 
 liere with you.' " 
 
 O'DoNNELL Moves to Tears. 
 
 There were wet eyes in the courtroom as the real Dora Mc- 
 Donald was brought to life in the closing address of Mr. O'Don- 
 iK'll. The bickerings and the charges and the abuse that had 
 made the courtroom like a pothouse brawl, all day were for- 
 gotten. The woman's black clad figure and her white, despair- 
 ing face became the living picture of the world-old tragedy of 
 the judgment and the problem of pardon. 
 
 "The tragedy was in that room," said Mr. 0'D6nnell, point- 
 ing to a plat of room 703 of the Omaha building, "and no one 
 knows how the life of Guerin was ended. 
 
 "I am not going to place a wreath upon the brow of this 
 woman. She is not all that a man would wish his wife to be. 
 Slie has traveled the devious pathways and her eyes have fallen 
 upon the shifting scenes of life. 
 
 "The Sabbath is coming on. Her ancestral people lit the 
 candles at sundown last night. Somewhere in this city a light 
 is burning where a Jewish mother is praying and hoping for 
 her erring daughter. You are approaching the moment when 
 you must do your great duty. You are here only to sa)-^ whether 
 she killed Guerin with a criminal intent in her heart. 
 Quotes the Gospel. 
 
 "A daughter of Israel coming to judgment. She may have 
 been wayward, but we are not here to judge her past life. In a 
 temple of Jerusalem many years ago the Saviour of us all stood 
 l>efore the multitude and they brought him a woman and said : 
 
GAMBLER\S WIFE ARKEtSTED EOK MURDER 575 
 
 '' 'She has been taken in sin and she must die." And he said: 
 
 " 'Let him who is without sin among you east the first stone.' 
 And they walked away and left him with the woman. Then 
 the Master said to the woman: 
 
 " 'Go and sin no more.^ 
 
 "Let us pass judgment upon this woman as the Son of Man 
 passed it upon the woman of old that we may expect mercy 
 when we stand at last where the fallen woman of Jerusalem 
 stood." 
 
 Mr. O'Donnell created a scene of profound dramatic fea- 
 tures when he based his contention that Guerin blackmailed 
 Mrs. McDonald upon a letter written by Guerin. He called 
 the ghost of Guerin to take the witness stand and testify against 
 the state's attorneys. 
 
 Acquittal Creates Thrilling Scenes. 
 
 These were the scenes which attended the rendition of the 
 Dora McDonald verdict: 
 
 "Bring in the jury," said Judge Brentano, as he dropped 
 into the big leather-upholstered chair behind the bench. 
 
 Bradle}'' was waiting for the word at the door to the Judge's 
 right. Looking very solemn and sphinx-like, the twelve men 
 filed in and took their usual places. 
 
 At the same time Mrs. McDonald came through the corridor 
 from the custodian's room, accompanied by her nurse,- Miss 
 -V. K. Beck. Miss Beck was trembling, but there was not a 
 tremor in ^Irs. McDonald's hands or a movement of the facial 
 muscles to indicate that she felt the least excitement. 
 
 Attorney Norden pulled out her armchair for her and pushed 
 it under her again as she sat down. Every man in the court- 
 room felt a choke in his throat, but if Mrs. McDonald felt it 
 she gave no evidence of it. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the judge, turning toward the jury, "have 
 yoiT agreed upon a verdict?" 
 
 At first there was no answer, and the judge had to repeat 
 the question. That interval was like a lapse of a week or a month. 
 
676 DORA McDOXALD. THE MILLION-DOLLAK 
 
 Mrs. McDonald, who had not been asked to rise, sat facing 
 the jury and looking straight at them. She considered it only 
 polite to keep awake and to forego those beloved "dreams" of 
 hers in honor of the verdict, whatever it might be. 
 Suspense Frightful. 
 
 "Have you agreed upon a verdict?" repeated Judge Bren- 
 tano, a little impatiently. 
 
 "We have," replied the foreman, Hugh H. Fulton, rising; 
 and displaying a paper which he held in his right hand. 
 
 "Let the Clerk of the Court read it." 
 
 A. J. Harris, the Clerk, was already in front of the railing 
 to receive the paper. He took it to his desk, and holding it 
 under an incandescent lamp, for the courtroom was dark, he 
 read, in a loud voice: 
 
 "We, the jury, find the defendant, Dora McDonald, n(M 
 guilty." 
 
 It was as though you had touched a match to a pile of gun- 
 powder. The people in the courtroom seemed to explode. They 
 did not cheer, or applaud, or shout, and yet they appeared to 
 he doing all of them. The tension was broken and a sort of 
 bubbling effervescence took its place. 
 
 McDonald Jurors Tell of .the Verdict. 
 
 "The jury found Mrs. McDonald innocent because they could 
 not feel sure that she did not act in self-defense, and, follow- 
 ing the instructions of the court, gave her the benefit of tlio 
 doubt." 
 
 This was the opinion voiced by Juror Charles McGrath. Mr. 
 McGrath said that the jury presumed the defendant sane, and 
 that the matter of possible insanity was not considered at any 
 time. 
 
 "I think that the jury attached a great deal of imponanci^ 
 to the testimony of Dr. McNamara," continued Mr. McGrath. 
 
 "He was the only physician that had made a thorough physi- 
 cal examination of the defendant subsequent to Guerin's death. 
 We especially paid a great deal of attention to that portion of 
 
GAMBLEK'S WIFE AHKR8TED FOR MURDER 577 
 
 lii,s ttsiimony that toid of the marks found on Mrs. McDonald's 
 neck, indicating that she had been choked. This evidence, 
 taken with that relative to the finding of the hairpins on the 
 floor, showed that there had been a struggle, and the court 
 had instructed us that if we found that there had been a strug- 
 gle we would be Justified in finding a verdict of acquittal. 
 
 "Although I, perhaps, ought to speak only for myself, I will 
 i<ay that I do not think that the members of the jury were 
 much impressed with the expert testimony." 
 
 Another juror said that those favoring an acquittal based 
 their arguments largely on the fact that most of the evidence in 
 the case was circumstantial, and that there was no absolute 
 proof that Mrs. McDonald fired the fatal shot at all, and that 
 if she did it was not shown that it was not in self-defense. 
 
 "It was mostly by argument along these lines that the con- 
 viction men were won over, one by one," said this juror. "The 
 subject of the unwritten law was not gone into at all." 
 Woman Serene as Verdict is Read. 
 
 Dora McDonald, in a state of serenity and composure that 
 is baffling even to those who are nearest her, was surrounded 
 after her acquittal by friends and relatives, who were weeping 
 for very joy at her acquittal. 
 
 She seemed quite unconcerned about it all, but when the}' 
 took her to one side and asked her how she felt about it, she 
 said, in the amazingly simple way she has: 
 
 "I am pleased. Do you want me to tell you the five reasons 
 why ?" 
 
 They said yes, and though she lost herself several times in 
 the attempt, for she was very tired — these were the reasons she 
 gave: 
 
 1 — Because no Jewish woman could ever do a deed like that 
 of which I had been accused. 
 
 2 — Because it removes the stigma from dad^s (Michael C. 
 McDonald's) name. 
 
 3 — Because of my boy. 
 
578 DOEA .AIcDONALD, THE MILLION-DOLLAR 
 
 4 — Because of my darling old mother. 
 
 5 — Please believe it, last and least — absolutely least of these 
 — because of myself. 
 
 "The only real disappointment to me is that dad did not 
 live to hear that verdict, and that is my bitterest disappoint- 
 ment." 
 
 It had been the belief generally among those who followed 
 the case that the woman would not outlive the verdict long, no 
 matter what it might be. The original plans Avere that she 
 would be sent to a sanitarium in case of acquittal. She her- 
 self is said 'to have planned that if let go she would make a 
 journey to Jerusalem, and there end her days in prayer with 
 her chosen people, in an effort to blot out her past. "Life can 
 never have any more meaning for her," Colonel Lewis said 
 when the jury first retired. "Ko matter what the verdict, it 
 is of little consequence to her, though she will die happier, 
 maybe, if she is acquitted." 
 
 In Jerusalem there is what is known as the "Wall of the 
 Wailing of the Jews." In the Valley of Tyron, at the foot of 
 Mount Moriah, on which now stands the Mosque of Omar, but 
 where formerly the Temple of Solomon stood, there are five 
 enormous stones built into the foot of the hill. A little court- 
 yard beside these stones, which Solomon laid as the founda- 
 tions of his Temple, is set aside for the Jewish race. Each 
 Friday this courtyard is filled with Jews Availing for the sor- 
 rows of Israel. Every type of Jew, from the hunted Eussian 
 to the Avoalthy American, may be found there, reading 
 from the Book of Lamentations, and sending the cry of sorrow 
 to the skies. It was here that Dora McDonald proposed to weep 
 out her ruined life. 
 
 But no, it is not the Place of Wailing in Jerusalem to Avhich 
 Dora McDonald has gone. Hard as it is to believe of the Avoman 
 Avho so bravely passed through this tremendous ordeal, she has 
 stooped, stooped loAver than one Avould believe humanly possi- 
 ble. She has returned to the stage. She is now engaged in at- 
 
GAMBLER'S WIFE ARRESTED FOR MURDER 579 
 
 FROM THE- 
 
 Paimting by 
 
 BUnNE- JONES *c=, 
 
 tempting to have a play based upon the tremendous tragedy of 
 her life placed on the boards in New York. 
 
 She is attempting to lay bare to the gaping audiences of 
 cheap theatres the sores upon her soul. She has been calloused 
 to publicity to such an extent that she now hungers for the 
 public eye. She has placed herself in the same class with the 
 lepers outside the walls of Jerusalem who display their horrid 
 sutures and demand a penny before they replace the bandages. 
 To this petty end has come this greatest and most spectacular 
 of modern trials, this heart-shaking romance of love and life. 
 
580 DOHA :\Lel)OXAl.l). THK MJ LLION-DOLLAR 
 
 After Paintiiig (7 
 
 SIR ED. BURNE-JONES 
 
 Ver«e« by 
 RUDYARD KIPUNG. 
 
 FOOL there was and he made his prayer— 
 
 (Even as you and I.) 
 To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair— 
 
 (We called her the woman who did not care) 
 But the fool he called her his lady fair— 
 
 (Even as you and I.) 
 
 Oh, the years we wa^e and the tears we wa^e— 
 
 And the work of our head and hand 
 Belong to the woman who did not know— 
 
 (And now we know that she never could know) 
 And did not understand. 
 
 A fool there was and his goods he spent— 
 
 (Even as you and L) 
 Honor jmd faith and a sure intent— 
 (And it wasn't the leait \s^at the lady meant) 
 But a fool mu^ follow his natural bent 
 
 (Even as you and 1.) 
 
 Oh, the toil we lo^ and the spoil we lo^- 
 
 And the excellent things we planned 
 Belong to the woman who didn't know why— 
 (And now we know she never knew why) 
 
 And did Qot underhand. 
 
 The fool was Gripped to his foolish hide— 
 
 (Even as you and I.) 
 Which she might have seen when she threw him aside— 
 (But it isn t on record the lady tried) 
 So some of .him lived but the mo^ of him died— 
 
 (Even as you and I.) 
 
 But it isn't the shame, and it isn't the blame 
 
 That aing like a white hot brand- 
 It's coming to know that she never knew why— 
 (Seeing at la^ she could never know why) 
 
 And could never underhand. 
 
MIKE McDonald. 
 
 "King of Gamblers," Supreme in His Day, Relentless 
 
 Nemesis of Old "Clark Street Gang," Brings 
 
 His Gray Hairs to Grave 
 
 With Broken Heart. 
 
 Rises From Newsboy to Gambling King and Becomes 
 
 Millionaire. 
 
 -* 
 
 ^like McDonald's career in Chicago has heen speetacnlar and 
 -cnsational to a degree. 
 
 The present-day generation in Chicago cannot appreciate 
 what the name Michael C. McDonald meant twenty years ago 
 in Chicago. There is not a single man today in Chicago, or in 
 any city in America who occupies relatively the position that 
 Mike McDonald did in the old days in Chicago. 
 
 He never held office, but he ruled the city with an iron hand. 
 He named the men who were to he candidates for election; he 
 elected them; and then, after they were in office, they were 
 merely his puppets. 
 
 While in recent years Michael C. McDonald has shown little 
 activity in Chicago political and sporting circles, living quietly 
 at Drexel boulevard and Forty-fifth street, in a costly mansion, 
 his name twenty years ago was a |)ower in both. 
 
 Born in 1840 in Xiagara county, Xew York, he came to 
 Chicago in 1854 and was a newsboy with John E. Walsh and 
 other pioneers, in the city's infancy. Before the vvar a business 
 venture took him to Xew Orleans, and when the south began 
 to become inflamed he returned to Chicago with enough money 
 to purchase the sample room of the Eichmond House. Michigan 
 avenue and South Water street. 
 
 Here a spectacular career began. McDonald became the big 
 
582 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 MjiliafI C McDonalds wheel of fortune, sliowing his progress from bootblack to gambling king, 
 and the woman's face that brought him to the tragic present, Causing him to exclaim: "My riches have 
 brought rae only sorrow " 
 
 gambler of all the host of gamblers that were then growing 
 rich in Chicago. He also became one of the leaders in the 
 democratic organization. He made money hand over fist. 
 Begins Life as "Candy Butcher." . 
 Mike McDonald began life as a "candy bntcher' on railroad 
 trains before the war. He sold peanuts and popcorn and mys- 
 
KING OF GAMBLEKS 583 
 
 terious packages not to be opened on the train, and fine gold 
 watches at $3.75 apiece. 
 
 Mike ran on many different railroads, although it must be 
 said for the sake of truth that his customers were often very 
 sorry to board a train and find that the energetic little candy 
 butcher who had sold them jewelry on the last trip they had 
 made had left and gone over to some other railroad. Mike's 
 old customers used to beg him to return to them. They even 
 dared him to come back. 
 
 Patriotic for a Price. 
 
 The candy butcher made money and saved it, and during 
 the war he settled down in Chicago. Mike was very patriotic, 
 He sent many men around to the enlistment offices, especially 
 when big bounties were offered for volunteers. The trouble 
 with the gallant soldiers that Mike put into the service was 
 that after they got their bounty money they lost their enthusi- 
 asm and faded from view, like an evanescent mist. 
 
 Mike made much money out of his bounty-jumpers, but 
 lost a good deal of it gambling. At this time he trained with 
 "Tip" Farrell, Charley Miller, John Sutton and Matt Duffy, 
 who figured more or less in the police records of that time. 
 Sutton was shot and killed in front of Pete Page's saloon, on 
 Clark street, in 1864. 
 
 Toward the close of the war McDonald and a notorious St. 
 Paul crook lost $600 in the famous game that Colonel Cameron 
 was running in Chicago. McDonald found out that the cards 
 were stocked against him, and it discouraged him with having 
 anything more to do with poker playing from the front of the 
 table. Colonel Cameron had taught him, at the expense of 
 $600, that the money in gambling was in running the game, 
 not playing it. From that day Mike McDonald never gambled. 
 He straightway opened his own game. 
 
 With Dave Oaks he started a game of faro at 89 Dearborn 
 street. It was a nice, little, modest game, with only those two 
 as the entire crew of the place. They took turn alternate days 
 
584 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDOXALD 
 
 as dealer and roper in. The suckers who played the gane u?ed 
 to complain frequently that the firm of Oaks & McDonald 
 Avorked sleight-of-hand tricks with the faro deck, and the un- 
 kind police used to raid the game every day. 
 Solved Gambling Problem. 
 
 This frequent raiding cut frightfully into the profits of the 
 enterprising firm of Oaks & McDonald, and set the junior mem- 
 ber thinking again. He had already solved the great problem 
 that it is better to run a brace game than to play one, but he 
 found there were thorns even in running a game. Therefore 
 he set to work to discover how tliese thorns could be removed. 
 
 The thorns that beset his career as a gambler were the po- 
 lice. But the police acted under instructions from the chief 
 of police. The chief of police acted under instructions from 
 the administration. Therefore, McDonald figured out that he 
 would have to control the administration. So he straightway 
 blossomed out as a politician, and grew in importance until 
 finally he ruled Chicago, and realized the great ambition of his 
 life, to make and unmake things like chiefs of police, with a 
 curt nod of his head. 
 
 Once Euled All Chicago. 
 
 Mike McDonald never got over his hatred for the police 
 that was born in tlie days when they used to raid his little 
 game at 89 Dearborn street. He probably would have abol- 
 ished the police department entirely when he finally found 
 himself on the throne of Chicago, had it not been that he found 
 the police useful in making the other fellows behave, while he 
 could do as he pleased. And then, it was such a joy to make 
 the police bend the knee and acknowledge him as Lord and 
 Master. 
 
 Generally the superintendents of police knew what was ex- 
 pected of them before they accepted the office, but oncp in a 
 while one of them had foolish notions about duty and law, 
 and had to be taught his place. Poor old Simon O'Donnell, 
 when he became superintendent of police, in the days when 
 
KING OF GAMBLERS 585 
 
 Mike McDonald ran "The Store"' and ruled Chicago, got the 
 idea, because of numerous complaints of many patrons of the 
 gambling games in ''The Store/' that the place should be 
 raided. So he raided it. 
 
 It was a most impious act. It was like laying hands on the 
 Ark of the Covenant. Superintendent Simon O'Donnell lost 
 his job so quickly it made his head ache, and William J. Mc- 
 Garigle, whom McDonald afterward made warden of the county 
 hospital, and who was indicted and convicted of boodling, was 
 installed as superintendent of police in place of the simple- 
 minded Mr. O'Donnell. 
 
 Mike McDonald's hatred and contempt for the police is 
 preserved in a joke that the few minstrel companies still left 
 on earth continue to cherish as one of their best beloved jests. 
 It originated with McDonald. One day, when he was in the 
 zenith of his power, a man came into "The Store" with a sub-' 
 scription list. 
 
 ^The boys are raising a little money, Mike," said the man. 
 ."We'd like to have you give something. We are putting our 
 names down for $3 apiece." 
 
 "What's it for?" asked Mike, suspiciously. 
 
 "Why," answered the man, considerably confused. "We're 
 burying a policeman." 
 
 "Fine," said Mike. "Here's $10; go and bury five uf "em." 
 Near to Penitentiary. 
 
 While Mike was running tlie place at 89 Dearborn street 
 he became involved in an affair that put him in jail for three 
 months and made the portals of the penitentiary loom up 
 largely across his path. It looked for a time as if his career 
 was about to be nipped in the 3^oung bud. 
 
 In 1869 Charles Goodwin, assistant cashier of the Chicago 
 Dock Company, was found to be a defaulter to the extent of 
 $30,000. He fled from Chicago and went to California, but in 
 a few months came back and surrendered himself to the au- 
 thorities. 
 
586 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 He testified that McDonald had lured him into the game 
 at 89 Dearborn street, where he had played and lost his money 
 in a series of brace games that lasted during a period of several 
 weeks. At first he lost a few hundred dollars, and he was per- 
 suaded to go back to the Dock company's office and get money 
 out of the safe in order that he could return the next evening 
 and win back the money he had lost. 
 
 He never won anything back, but kept getting in deeper. 
 At length the poor, deluded victim was told to make a big haul 
 and skip the town. He made a last pull at the strong box for 
 $15,000 or $18,000, and his friends at 89 Dearborn street let 
 him play one last farewell game, at which they took the trouble 
 to see that the boy should not be bothered in his flight from 
 justice by lugging a big bag full of money around with him. 
 Case Finally "Fixed." 
 
 McDonald was arrested, and the Dock company also pro- 
 ceeded against him civilly, as it was not certain he could bo 
 held on a criminal charge owing to tlie guarded manner in 
 which he had conducted his operation. McDonald was put 
 under bail of $60,000, and, being unable to supply it, re- 
 mained in jail for several months. Things were finally "fixed" 
 all right, though. A few days before his trial he was released 
 from jail, John Corcoran and Alderman Tom Foley going on 
 his bail bond. 
 
 The trial was a farce. All the gamblers, "con" men, bunko 
 steerers and strong-arm men in Chicago lined up in court and 
 told how the defaulting clerk had begged to be permitted to 
 play the brace game, with tears in his eyes, and that most of 
 his money had been spent on wine, women and song. The jury 
 solemnly declared McDonald innocent. 
 
 The expense of his trial on the charge of stealing the Dock 
 company's $30,000 had made McDonald poor, and he had to 
 get out and do a little "hustling." Soon after his release from 
 the county jail John Donaldson, a California gambler and a 
 high roller, made a winning in McDonald's place of $2,800 at 
 
KING OF GAMBLEES 587 
 
 poker. He took the money back to the hotel with him and was 
 robbed of it and $500 besides before he had been in bed ten 
 minutes. 
 
 A cracksman by the name of Travers was convicted of the 
 crime. 
 
 Donaldson used to go to Joliet every day or two to inter- 
 view Travers. Finally he came back from Joliet and never 
 ate nor slept until he had run McDonald down. Tweaking his 
 nose he shouted: 
 
 "Travers has confessed. You are a thief. You are a coward. 
 Within twenty minutes after I was robbed you were dividing 
 ray $2,700 with Travers and his pal." 
 
 McDonald did not deny the charge or strike back at Donald- 
 son, as the latter apparently hoped he would. Donaldson was 
 a slight man, almost dead with consumption, but he was famous 
 as a man killer, and while with one hand he tweaked McDon^ 
 aid's nose, the other hand was jammed down in his coat pocket, 
 and McDonald knew that if he made a move or said a word 
 he was a dead man. 
 
 Donaldson's hatred for McDonald became a mania with him. 
 He was a doomed man, anyhow, and he wanted to kill McDon- 
 ald before he went. So for the three years before death finally 
 claimed him he would drag himself about the streets until he 
 could stand in front of his enemy and slap him in the face and 
 curse him, and beg him to raise his hand or say a word, or give 
 him the slightest pretext for killing him. It was a great relief 
 to McDonald when grim death finally claimed Donaldson. 
 
 EiSEs IN His Profession. 
 After the fire McDonald opened a place on State street, in 
 partnership with Nick Geary, a celebrated thief, who was sub- 
 sequently killed in Philadelphia. McDonald next moved to 
 the West Side, and was taken in by John Dowling, who gave 
 him a third interest in his game in consideration of indem- 
 nity against police interference, McDonald's political star at 
 
588 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEi: (\ M. DONALD 
 
 ihis time being on the rise. The firm cleared $100,000 in less 
 than a year. 
 
 About this time McDonald formed a partnership with Harry 
 Lawrence and Morris Martin, and for four or five years they 
 had supreme control of ilie bnnko business. None others could 
 
work excepting those who took the trouble to see the firm of 
 MeDoiiahl, Martin & Lawrence. Among the gang who worked 
 under the protection of the firm were Tom Wallace, John Wal- 
 lace, "Snitzer, the Kid/' John ^fartin, ^^Snapper Johnny," 
 •'Kid ^Miller,--' "Sir Jame>;'" Arlington, or Gannon, "Appetite 
 Bill,"' and "Hungiy Joe." 
 
 There is no telling how much money these individuals took 
 away from the unsuspecting public, but it is estimated at over 
 $1,000,000. Of this, 20 per cent went to the police, 40 per 
 cent to the roper, and 40 per cent to the firm. The latter fur- 
 nished straw bail, witnesses and juries, and other protection, 
 and the confidence gangs reported to it and received orders. In 
 1875 "White Pine" Martin shot and killed "Sir James" Gan- 
 non in front of "The Store" while c[uarreling over the division 
 of the proceeds of some job. 
 
 Throne in "The Stoee." 
 
 The firm of McDonald, Lawrence and Martin had opened 
 up the resort known as "The Store" on Clark street, on the 
 northwest corner of Monroe street, where the Hamilton Club 
 stands today. The first floor was operated as a saloon, and the 
 floors above as gambling rooms. x\fter public sentiment became 
 aroused over the bunko business of the firm, Lawrence and 
 Martin drew out, leaving IMcDonald to run "The Store" alone. 
 
 "The Store" was the most famous place in Chicago in those 
 days. It was not only the rendezvous of all the sporting men, 
 politicians and denizens of the underworld in Chicago, but it 
 •was virtually the city hall, for from his little* office in "The 
 Store" McDonald managed the affairs of the city. 
 
 Every form of gambling known flourished on that wonderful 
 ■second floor. The most expert manipulators of cards that ever 
 dealt a second or shifted a cold deck sat behind the tables. 
 They were Clif Doherty, Frank Gallon, Billy Tyler, Charles 
 Winship and George ISToyse. 
 
 High-ball poker, in which the roller holds the high ball in 
 liis fist and rolls it to the cappers continuously, and faro, with 
 
590 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 fifty-three cards in the deck, so that the odd could be dealt, 
 were said to have always prevailed in "The Store." 
 
 "There never was an honest card dealt in the place," is the 
 epitaph one old-time gambler has written on its dead pro- 
 prietor. 
 
 Big as the place was, it was always crowded. McDonald is 
 said to have coined a very common phrase when, on one occa- 
 sion, one of his dealers protested against putting in more tables 
 and increasing the size of the gambling rooms. 
 
 "I tell you, Mike," he said, "we won't have enough players 
 to fill up all the games." 
 
 "Ah, don't worry," McDonald is said to have replied, "there's 
 a sucker born every minute." 
 
 In politics McDonald's first great triumph was when he 
 elected Colvin mayor on the democratic ticket. Then he put 
 the elder Harrison in the mayoralty chair, and after that he 
 had plain sailing. His control lasted during the entire Harri- 
 son administration of eight years. In all that time there was 
 no bigger man in Chicago than Mike McDonald. 
 
 The only time he met with a serious set-back was in 1883, 
 when he tried to elect William J. McGarigle, then chief of 
 police, sheriff of Cook county. 
 
 The Big Courthouse "Job." 
 
 Another disappointment of McDonald's political career was 
 when he got a bill past the county commissioners and city 
 aldermen authorizing Harry Holland to paint the outside of the 
 City Hall and County Building with a mixture which was 
 guaranteed to prevent the stone from decaying. 
 
 Holland applied his marvelous preparation, but when tlie 
 time came to pay the bill a newspaper man, John J. Lane, 
 who died only the other day in St. Louis, had dug up evidence 
 tending to show that Holland's preparation was nothing but 
 water and chalk, and not quite so efficacious in preventing the 
 decay of stone as prune juice or ice cream would have been, 
 but much cheaper. The county has never yet paid the $80,000 
 
KING OF GAMBLERS 591 
 
 that Holland wanted for the job on the county building. 
 
 After the close of the Harrison administration a new day 
 began in Chicago. The independent voter broke the power of 
 party bosses. Mike McDonald's rule was broken. He could 
 no longer do what he pleased with city administrations and be 
 unofficial chief of police. 
 
 He bowed pleasantly to the inevitable, and stepped down and 
 out. He was wise in that he saw the handwriting on the wall, 
 and gracefully submitted instead of "kicking against the 
 pricks" and wasting his time and his money, as did other 
 gamblers and sports, who were finally crushed out simply be- 
 cause they could not recognize that new conditions and new* 
 men had come. 
 
 McDonald quit every sphere of his old life and went into 
 business. 
 
 It was he who, with William Fitzgerald, built the first ele- 
 vated road in town, the Lake street "L." Then, in 1891, he 
 thought he would like to be an editor. He bought control of 
 the Globe, a daily morning paper, and ran it for over two 
 years. It was not a financial success, and finally McDonakl 
 gave it up. "I guess I was never cut out for a literary man," 
 was his laughing remark. ^'There are other things I know 
 more about." 
 
 Domestic Life Rough. 
 
 A great deal has been said about McDonald's domestic un- 
 happiness, but it was not until his body had been buried that 
 the truth was known. , 
 
 His first wife was Mary Noonan, whom he married in the 
 days when '^''The Store" was the sporting and political Mecca 
 of Chicago. 
 
 It was a great scandal in the community later when she sud- 
 denly disappeared, and it was reported that she had run away 
 with "Billy" Arlington, a minstrel man. It was the greater 
 shock because her devotion and loyalty to McDonald had been 
 the talk of the town. 
 
592 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 One time she had stood, with a pistol, in her husband's 
 gambling house, and defied the police when they raided the 
 place under instruction of some blundering chief of police, who 
 did not realize that he was toying with the lightning when he 
 laid violent hands on anything that belonged to McDonald. 
 Mary McDonald had held her ground at the door in "The 
 Store,'" and declared she would shoot the first policeman that 
 attempted to enter. She was as good as her word, and one of 
 the officers was carried to a hospital with a bullet through hi? 
 arm. Mrs. McDonald, through hfer husband's pull, was nev.T 
 prosecuted. 
 
 McDonald went to San Francisco and brought his wife back 
 and installed her in the house he had built at Ashland avenue 
 and Harrison street, considered in those days a veritable palace. 
 McDonald gave it out to the world that he had built the man- 
 sion for his wife, and his taking her back after she was re- 
 puted to have run away with another man was accepted as a 
 wonderful instance of his great-heartedness and magnanimity. 
 Sam Barclay Tells "How Mike McDonald's Coix Wox 
 Dora Away." 
 
 "Sam" Barclay (Harry is supposed to have been his baptis- 
 mal name) was one of the great ball players of the long ago, 
 and the shadows of the drama that wrecked his life are, there- 
 fore, interwoven with the world of sport, and even with the 
 career of Charles Comiskey, "the master of the White Sox." 
 
 Barclay, a trim and graceful fellow, came into prominence 
 twenty years ago and played with Pittsburg and St. Louis. 
 At St. Louis he was under the command of Comiskey, who 
 therefore knew him well, and was always interested in his 
 doings. 
 
 On two or three occasions quarrels over the contracts of Sam 
 Barclay nearly wrecked organized base ball. He was a won- 
 derful second baseman, and one of the fastest and most scien- 
 tific players of the day. 
 
 In 1889 Barclay's knee went back on him, and, while he re- 
 
KlSii OK (iAMBT-EKS 
 
 59^ 
 
 gained full iise of the leg, lie was never fast enongh to play 
 his former game. He alstj began to take on flesh, and was 
 glad to retire from the diamond. 
 
 Opens Saloox tx Ciiicago. 
 
 Coming to Chicago, Barclay opened a saloon oji West Madi- 
 son street. Back in 1894, West Madison, from Halsted to 
 Elizabeth, was the real red-light district, fitll of saloons and 
 concert halls. Barclay's place was the headquarters of revelry, 
 hut Sam himself kept a good name for personal honesty and un- 
 bounded generosity to his friends. 
 
 When the red-lights ^vent out on Madison street, Sam leased 
 a saloon at 15 i^orth Clark, where for some time he held the 
 same kind of swav lie liad maintained west of I he river. This 
 
594 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 place was ultimately lost, and he went over in Garfield park 
 district, without much success. 
 
 "Sam" Barclay, former husband of Mrs. "Mike" McDonald 
 II, 451 West Lake street, freely discussed his life with Mrs. 
 McDonald. 
 
 It was an interesting story, in which he told of Mrs. McDon- 
 ald's attempt to commit suicide once in Kansas City, of brawls 
 in his saloon, the "Half Moon," and of how "Mike" McDonald, 
 assisted by "Bunk" Allen, lured his wife away from him. Here 
 is what he said : 
 
 "They have printed stories that are not true about this case. 
 Mrs. McDonald's mother was a Mrs. Feldman, who at one time 
 lived at 619 Harrison street. At the time I knew her Mrs. 
 Feldman had been divorced from her husband and he was 
 living in the Ghetto. 
 
 Likely Lad of 200 Pounds. 
 
 "It was in "89 that I met Dora. I was in the Kansas City 
 ball team, and was a likely lad. I weighed 200 pounds, trained 
 down, and it was a good man who was able to floor me. 
 
 "Dora came to visit her brother-in-law in Kansas City. He 
 is Dick Vaughn, and a very good "pal" of mine. I met her 
 there at his house. 
 
 "We took a liking to each other, so I used to have her in the 
 best seat every day at the games when we played on home 
 grounds. 
 
 "And she never was slow, I tell you, of giving me credit 
 Avhen I made a double play or lined out a hot one. 
 Nothing Like Eeal Love. 
 
 "Well, the season came to a close. I liked the kid, but I 
 didn't feel nothing like real love for her. I was going to leave 
 Kansas City, and nothing was said about taking her with rac. 
 I noticed that big tears came in her eyes when I told her. but 
 she didn't say much. That night they sent for me. They told 
 me that Dora was dying. 
 
 "I got to Vaughn's house and found her unconscious. She 
 
KING OF GAMBLEES 595 
 
 had taken laudanum, the doctor said. She was in a stupor, 
 The first chance I got, I asked her what was the matter, and 
 she said to me, as the tears rolled down her cheeks : 
 
 " 'I don't want to be left alone/ 
 
 "That, you know, touched me. We got married. I've got 
 the license right here. It was all doped up by a fellow in the 
 Washingtonian Home, who thought he owed a lot to me. He 
 certainly did some fine pen and ink decorating with birds, and 
 shadings and such things. 
 
 "So, after I quit the national game, I went into the saloon 
 business at 293 "West Madison street, first, and then started the 
 'Half Moon.' 
 
 "I'll tell you the truth about how Dora met Mike McDon- 
 ald. She went to McVicker's theater one day with Harry 
 Summers, who is now treasurer of the Illinois theater. 
 
 "Dora was with Mrs. Elliott. She used to be a model in 
 Eyan's store, at Madison and Peoria streets. Summers intro- 
 duced Dora to Mike McDonald, and th. "^'s the way they started. 
 Day of Harrison FuisTfiRAL. 
 
 "Well I remember the time — it v,'as on the day that Carter 
 Harrison's funeral went past the house, at 319 Washington 
 boulevard, wh.-^e we were living at that time. 
 
 " 'I met an old gentleman today who has lots of money/ 
 Dora said to me, as we looked out of the window. 
 
 " 'It's funny how a man gets up in the world and then loses 
 it all when he's laid away in the narrow box,' I said, keeping 
 my eyes on the hearse. 
 
 "I was thinking, then, but not about what my wife said. 
 Afterward the words came to me, but I didn't realize the mean- 
 ing of her expression or what it had in store for me then. 
 Deep Game Well Played. 
 
 "A few years passed. They went quick, then. Money made 
 the time fly, and Dora certainly was a spender. Then one night 
 they pulled off the game that was to separate us and give 
 Mike McDonald a young wife. 
 
596 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 "I was boozy with wine. Bill Hoffman and 'Bunk' Allen 
 were masters of the ceremonies. They bundled me in a cab 
 and drove me to a place on Wood street. Detectives came in, 
 and my wife, too, and they there and then laid the basis of 
 the divorce suit which ended the game between Dora and I." 
 
 Barclay then told of a fight in his saloon, in which one man 
 was almost killed and another badly wounded. Then he said : 
 
 "That's how they wound up the 'Half Moon.' Jimmy Quinn 
 said he was my friend, but he stabbed me in the back. I was 
 getting too strong in politics, so he got me and I was put down 
 and out." 
 
 Barclay had seemed perfectly happy with her, but one night 
 
 when he was living in rooms over his saloon at 15 IlTorth Clark 
 
 street he learned that Mike McDonald had come into her life, 
 
 and it Avas not long before the ball player's romance was ended. 
 
 Wife Gets Divorce. 
 
 Mrs. Barclay obtained a divorce — with McDonald's money, 
 so Barclay always said — and the ball player was left alone. 
 The blow proved his utter undoing. Barclay lost ambition and 
 energy. He spent hours in his rooms, gazing mutely at a huge 
 crayon portrait of his wife, taken a year before she left him. 
 and he seemed to have no desire or ability left for business. 
 Second Wedding in Milwaukee. 
 
 Mrs. Barclay was married to McDonald in Milwaukee. At 
 the time she Avas in the chorus of the Chicago Opera House. 
 Her mother is Mrs. Fanny Feldman, 338 South Marshfield 
 avenue. She has two brothers, Harry and Emil Feldman, both 
 known in West Side political circles. Harry Feldman was em- 
 ployed in the city clerk's office during William Loeffler's term. 
 
 When McDonald took his new wife to his house on Ashland 
 boulevard there was a red-hot family row. Guy, the elder of 
 the two sons of McDonald, had a pitched battle with her, and 
 the fight was carried into the street. The boy was victorious 
 at first, but his father sided with the stepmother, and eventu- 
 allv the bov left home. 
 
KING OF GAMBLERS 597 
 
 Harold Barclay, 10 years old, Mrs. McDonald's son by her 
 first marriage, was adopted by McDonald, and with, his two 
 sons, Cassius and Guy McDonald, has an equal share in the 
 estate. 
 
 Induces Husbaxd to Disinherit Son. 
 
 Shortly after her marriage to McDonald, Dora became angry 
 at her husband's son, Harley. The latter objected to his father 
 contracting further matrimonial alliances, and did not hesi- 
 tate to say so. Mrs. McDonald prevailed upon her husband to 
 disinherit the son, and later, of her own initiative, caused the 
 arrest of the young man. 
 
 The charge was threats against her life. The case came up 
 at the old Armory police court, and the young man was placed 
 under bonds to keep the peace. 
 
 The breach between father and son is said never to have 
 healed. Young McDonald went into the sign painting business 
 soon after the episode. 
 
 Guy married Miss Pearl Flower, and lives in Chicago. Mrs. 
 McDonald once had Guy McDonald arrested on the charge of 
 writing threatening and obscene letters. 
 
 The ease was hotly fought in the United States court. A 
 juryman, and warm personal friend of Mike McDonald, saved 
 him from conviction, which would have carried with it a peni- 
 tentiary sentence. 
 
 The Sting and Curse of Ill-Gotten Money. 
 
 "Mike" McDonald, the king of gamblers, was buried like a 
 king of men. There were flowers, tears, friends, orations and 
 processions. But as clothes are not, neither is a funeral, an in- 
 dex to character — nor even is the obituary column. 
 
 Strangers, reading the story of the last day above the sod 
 of McDonald's body, might has thought that Chicago had lost 
 a leading good citizen. They were told that McDonald had 
 amassed wealth, but they were not told how he got it. They 
 read of the great men whom he had befriended, but they were 
 not told of the men whom he had ruined. They were not told 
 
598 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONx\LD 
 
 that Mike McDonald living, had violated the laws of the land, 
 of society and of the home. 
 
 "Mike'^ McDonald died worth a million dollars. A young 
 man beginning life, familiar only with the post-mortem, story of 
 McDonald, and seeing no condemnation of his method of get- 
 ting rich, might feel encouraged to hold to the idea that the 
 accumulation of money bars all criticism for the way it is ac- 
 quired. 
 
 Though the publicity of cold type has put no brand on the 
 dead McDonald, the story of "Mike" McDonald's life and for- 
 tune is not yet finished. 
 
 Suppose he did die worth a million dollars, whom will it 
 benefit? What good will it do? 
 
 There will be a fight in every dollar, a quarrel in every 
 penny. 
 
 There Mdll be a strife among men and women over this for- 
 tune. 
 
 Much of it will go to lawyers to defend a woman charged 
 with murder. Much more of it will go to other lawyers who 
 will try to break his will. As McDonald's money was ill-got- 
 ten, so will it be spent to no good purpose. 
 
 In a few years McDonald will be forgotten except by those 
 whom in life he ruined. His fortune will be gone. No one 
 will remember him for the good he did, if he did any good. 
 
 Let not "Mike" McDonald's success in securing money en- 
 courage you to follow his method. 
 
 If you, young man, had an opportunity of entering a gam- 
 bling venture, with a certainty of securing for yourself a for- 
 tune of a million dollars, you Avould be a fool to take advan- 
 tage of that opportimity. 
 
 There is nothing in the life of even a successful gambler 
 worth imitating and nothing that he does worth admiring. 
 
 "Mike" McDonald may liave been better than the ordinary 
 class of gamblers, but the occasional good deeds that men of 
 
KING OF GAMBLERS 599 
 
 Ninety-nine gamblers out of a hundred that amass fortunes 
 die paupers. The money that a few accumulate, even as Mc- 
 Donald did, is, as a rule, a curse to those that inherit it. 
 
 But if McDonald had sense — and we believe he did have 
 sense — in the closing years of his life he cursed the day when 
 he started on a career that wrecked him, socially and morally, 
 and left him in his dying hour a bankrupt in everything but 
 the possession of a few hundrexl thousand dollars, which he 
 could not take beyond the grave. 
 
 And what has happened after McDonald's death, and what 
 will happen in the courts of law, Avill prove to men that ill- 
 gotten money carries a sting to- its possessor and a curse to 
 those who inherit it. 
 
 WIFE NO. 1, WIDOW; NO. 2, REPUDIATED. 
 
 Burial of "Mike" M-cDonald Serves to Open New Chapter 
 IN His Troubles — Old Scandals Denied. 
 
 Mary Noonan Now Clai.ms Innocence and Fights to 
 Prove Divorce Illegal. 
 
 The grave out at Mount Olivet that closed over the body of 
 "Mike" McDonald refused a final sanctuary to the life-tragedy 
 of the political boss and millionaire gambling king. 
 
 The same hand of death that closed his eyes on his triumphs 
 and afflictions raised the curtain on an unforseen last act in 
 this drama of Chicago life. 
 
 In this new part of the plot Mrs. Dora Feldman McDonald, 
 who turned the old gambler's head and broke his heart through 
 the shooting of Webster Guerin, appears as a wife solemnly 
 repudiated in death-bed rites. A.t the same time Mrs. Mary 
 Noonan McDonald, the divorced and exiled first wife, steps upon 
 the scene to cleanse her name of the scandals to which it has 
 been linked for twenty years. 
 
 While the two wives and the relatives stood before the coffin 
 
m) LIFE OK MICHAEL V. McDONALD 
 
 it ranu' out that :\IcDonald, shortly before his death at St. An- 
 thony de Padua hospital, had uttered a formal repudiation of 
 his second marriage, in the presence of the Eev. Maurice J. 
 Dorney, pastor of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, and several 
 witnesses, in the persons of hospital attendants. This having 
 been done, McDonald was permitted the last sacraments of the 
 church and burial under the Eoman ritual. 
 
 First Wife Denies Charges. 
 
 As the second wife passed under the ban, the first one came 
 forward to claim that of which she had been dispossessed by 
 human passion. Sitting in her apartment last night at the 
 Vincennes hotel, Vincennes avenue and Thirty-sixth street. 
 Mary Noonan McDonald gave her version of the romance anrl 
 tragedy that have measured forty years of her life. 
 
 "For the sake of my two boys, it is now my duty to tell the 
 world the truth about the slanders with which my name has 
 been blackened," she said. "I am not perfect, and I have done 
 things for which I am sorry, but I am guiltless of the charges 
 with which I have been hounded about the world for twenty 
 years. This I can prove, and to do so I shall remain in Chi- 
 cago as long as necessary." 
 
 Eepudiation of Second Wife. 
 
 Tt was after the solemn requiem mass over McDonald's body 
 in the Church of the Presentation that the Rev. Father Dorney 
 consented to tell the story of the gambler's dying repudiation 
 of his second wife. 
 
 "I told 'Mike' ]\IcDonald before his death," said Father 
 Dorney, "that in the eyes of the Roman Catholic church there 
 was no such thing as divorce; that he had but one wife, the 
 mother of his children — Mary Xoonan. T told him he must 
 publicly repudiate this other woman, and only when he said he 
 did so could he receive the last sacraments, penance, holy eu- 
 charist, and extreme unction. 
 
 "Although he was critically ill, he said, firmly, that he would 
 do as the church wished : that ho was corrv for his sins, and ho 
 
KlNU OF GAMBLERS 601 
 
 wanted to receive the last sacraments. Then, in the presenof 
 (if witnesses, as is required, he made the repudiation. Later 
 lie went to confession, but what he told there I can never re- 
 voal. 
 
 "Afterwards the other woman, Dora I'eldman, came to see 
 him at tlie hospital, but if he was conscious he never recognized 
 jier. He was true to his promise, true to his resolution to put 
 ho- out of his life." 
 
 Chuech Not Interested in Will, 
 
 Father Dorney's attention was called to the fact that Mc- 
 Donald probably had left a considerable portion of his estate 
 to his second wife. 
 
 '^'T suppose he did, but this is a legal matter in which the 
 church is not interested. Mike McDonald and Mary Noonan 
 were legally married in the eyes of the law, and the church, in 
 a Catholic church edifice. We never recognize divorce. Of 
 course, we know it is impossible at times for men and women 
 to live together, and the church permits them to reside apart, 
 but remarriage is impossible as long as both of the parties 
 are still alive. 
 
 "McDonald never remarried in the eyes of the church, because 
 liis first Avife was not dead. By his actions with Dora Feldman 
 he gave great scandal, but before his death he repented of it. If 
 Dora Feldman followed Mike McDonald to his grave, she could 
 not do so from an ecclesiastical standpoint, and in my sermon 
 this morning when I referred to the wife of the dead man 
 I meant Mary Noonan McDonald, the mother of his children." 
 Mrs. Mary McDonald Changed. 
 
 No greater contrast could be conceived than that between 
 the woman reputed to have deserted her husband in turn for a 
 renegade French priest and a minstrel, and the woman who 
 rose to greet the interviewer who called at the Vincennes hotel 
 for Mrs. Mary Noonan McDonald. Twenty years of sorrow 
 have left snow white hair that still crowms her head with the 
 same wealth as that of younger days, and twenty years of 
 
602 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL r. McDONALD 
 
 1 
 
 Jt*<;MAEi c. 
 
 struggle to support herself have aulled the fire of those gray 
 eyes that once looked over a smoking revolver with which the 
 airl wife held at bay the police raiders of her husband's gam- 
 bling house. But the slender figure appeared as erect as ever, 
 though standing forth with an added frailty beside her stal- 
 wart, brown-faced son, Guy, and her face, though pale and sad, 
 scarcely confessed to her 60 years of age. 
 
KING OF GAMBLERS 603 
 
 This is the woman who began her career in Chicago as the 
 helpmate of an old-time gambling king, and is ending her days 
 in the work of rescuing wayward girls; this is the woman who 
 was driven to abandon the name of McDonald and bury her 
 identity for the last fifteen years under the alias of Mrs. Gras- 
 hoff, holding comritunication only with her children and secretly 
 visiting Chicago periodically to see them. 
 
 Tells Her Story at Last. 
 
 "It is sixteen years since I have talked to a newspaper re- 
 porter," said Mrs. Mary Noonan McDonald. "Again and again 
 have I been besought to tell my story, but long ago I determined 
 to remain silent until after the death of ]\Ir. McDonald. For 
 the sake of my children's relations with their father I held my 
 peace, and now, for the sake of my childrens' name, I have 
 decided to give m}'' story to the world. 
 
 "The lies that have been printed about me for the last twenty 
 years are but a feeble testimonial of the tremendous power 
 wielded by Mr. McDonald and his friends. None knows better 
 than I how he made and unmade public officials, set judges on 
 the bench, determined public politics in the old days, and 
 fought his enemies with a ruthlessness that made him feared 
 far and wide. When I became his enemy, I, too, began to feel 
 his power, as it was manifested in the public press. 
 
 "The lies have multiplied day by day, but I have so far re- 
 fused to answer them. Only during the last week the papers 
 have said that Dora McDonald, who ruined Mike McDonald's 
 life, and I, met at the bedside of the dying man. We have 
 never met. The only time I ever saw her was in a Providence 
 (E. I.) hotel, ten years ago, where I was stopping while at a 
 convention of charities. We sat at the same table, and I heard 
 her say to a girl with her that I looked like Guy's mother. 
 Then I knew who she was. I have not seen her since, not even 
 at the grave today, though I was told she was there." 
 
 Guy McDonald interposed to explain that his stepmother had 
 
604 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 not been allowed to attend the funeral service at the church, 
 being taken directly to the cemetery. 
 
 Says Charges Were Invented. 
 
 "The statement I want to make to the world/" resumed Mrs. 
 McDonald, "is that all the stories told of my conduct at the 
 time I was separating from Mr. McDonald^ are absolutely false, 
 and were maliciously invented and circulated. The trouble be- 
 tween my husband and me grew out of his brutality. He was 
 a big, red-blooded man, but when under the influence of liquor 
 he was rough and disorderly. He often struck me at such 
 times, and mistreated me in other cruel ways. 
 
 "I finally came to the conclusion that I could stand the life 
 no longer. So I ran away. But I went alone, and not with 
 Billy Arlington, the minstrel, as the story was told afterwards. 
 I went to San Francisco and visited with friends, and while 
 there I met Arlington. He was only a casual acquaintance, and 
 I never saw him after I left San Francisco. I went from there 
 to Cincinnati, and thence to New York, with friends. We 
 stopped at the Gilsey house, and there William Pinkerton, Al 
 Smith, the old-time gambler, who had a resort at 86 Clark, 
 and Mr. McDonald, coaxed me to come back home. 
 
 ""But it was not long before the old trouble bega , again. 
 Mr. McDonald was extremely abusive when in liquor, . nd Mr. 
 A. S. Trude will tell you that I went to his office one day and 
 asked him to get mc a divorce. He tried to smooth matters 
 over, and succeeded for a time. 
 
 No Chapel in House. 
 
 "Then Ave went to live in the new house at 3U8 Ashland 
 avenue. There my troubles began afresh, and grew until 1888. 
 The newspaper stories have dwelt at great length on insinua- 
 tions of my conduct with a priest for whom I was said to have 
 built a chapel in my house. Nothing could l)c more preposter- 
 ous on the face of it, as any Eoman Catholic will tell you. The 
 church does not sanction the erection of altars, the giving of 
 communion, and the receiving of confessions in private homes. 
 
KING OF GAMBLERS (505 
 
 Dispensations for temporal}' masses can be obtained in rare 
 instances. 
 
 "There was a priest named Father Price, from Asheville, iST. 
 C, who was raising money for his church in Chicago. We 
 gave a recital that netted him $500, after which he was a guest 
 for two weeks at our house. 
 
 "He obtained a dispensation to say mass a few times, and 
 did so before a temporary saint's altar set on a bureau. When 
 lie departed the altar went with him, and that is as close as we 
 ever came to having a private chapel in our house. 
 
 "The French priest with whom I was said to have eloped 
 was Father Moysant. He never said a mass in our house, and 
 I never knew him except as one of the priests of the parish 
 who were entertained frequently by Mr. McDonald. 
 Leaves Husbaxd; Goes to Sister. 
 
 "I did not run away with Father Moysant or any other 
 ])erson, the fact being that, unable to stand Mr. McDonald's 
 treatment, I left his house in the fall of 1887 and went to live 
 with Mrs. Peter McGuire, whose house stood on the site of the 
 present Studebaker building. I begged Mr. McDonald to let 
 my boys come to me, but he refused. At the end of three weeks 
 T went to New York alone, sailed for Havre, still alone, and 
 went to visit my sister, Mrs. Catherine Phillpot, who lived in 
 Paris. 
 
 "I remained there eleven months and returned to New York. 
 At the Fifth Avenue hotel, where I stopped, I found Pinker- 
 ton detectives, hired by Mr. McDonald, watching me. I com- 
 plained to Mr. Philips, the house detective, of the annoyance, 
 as he will tell you. I was traveling under the name of Arm- 
 strong, my mother's maiden name — she was English and my 
 father, Irish, you know. The annoyance of the detectives be- 
 came so great that I returned to Paris on the same boat on 
 which I had come to America. That was the middle of October, 
 1888. 
 
 "After six months with my sister iu Paris I returned directly 
 
006 LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD , 
 
 to Chicago. When I arrived I found my daughter dead and 
 with my own hands I buried her bahy the next day. I found 
 also that I had been divorced by Mr. McDonald in proceedings 
 Ijcfore Judge Jamieson, though no notice ever was served on 
 jue." 
 
 Pawns Her Diamonds. 
 
 Mrs. McDouald spread out her ringless tingers significantly, 
 and continued: 
 
 ^'I went to a pawnbroker that day and sold my diamond 
 rings, ear-rings, and cross, and with the proceeds opened a 
 rooming house at 1235 Wabash avenue. Mr. McDonald often 
 came to see me and dine there, and it looked as if there might 
 be a reconciliation. But soon after that he met Dora Barclay, 
 and from that time we were friends no longer, but bitter ene- 
 mies. 
 
 "The reputation of my house was ruined by the arrest of 
 Mike Coleman, alias Charles Wilson, the safeblower, who had 
 lived there a few weeks, and at first I thought Mr. McDonald 
 was behind this plot to ruin me. I went to the Animosa, la., 
 penitentiary, saw Coleman, and learned that Mr. McDonald 
 was innocent. But after that a story was started that I lived 
 with Coleman for years. I never saw him after that time at the 
 penitentiary. 
 
 "After the World's Fair I removed to St. Louis and started 
 a boarding house at 2686 Locust street. But soon Mr. ^Ic- 
 Donald's detectives were hounding me there, the newspapers 
 began to print stories of our troubles, and my business wa? 
 ruined. 
 
 Driven to Hide Identity. 
 
 "I saw that if I was to live peacefully I must bury my iden- 
 tity, and so, assuming the name of Mrs. Grashoff, I went to 
 New York, and obtained employment with the Board of Chari- 
 ties at Fourth avenue and Twenty-third street, of which ^fr. 
 Van Vordenberg was the head. For fifteen years I have been 
 in (•hnritnl)le work. \ founded the Destitute Old Ladies' Home 
 
KING OF GAMBLEES 607 
 
 at Paterson, ¥. J., and at present my work is with the Crit- 
 tenden Eepcue Homes for ITnfortunate Girls. It is not the least 
 solace for my many misfortunes that I have been able to save 
 many girls from continuing their wayward careers. 
 
 "So much for the lies circulated about me for twenty years. 
 I never saw Father Price after he left Chicago, nor Father 
 Moysant after I went to Mrs. McGuire's. Both are living, so 
 far as I know, but where, I do not know." 
 
 But the records show, according to Mrs. Mary McDonald, 
 that her husband repented of the wrongs he had heaped upon 
 her, and called her to his bedside wlien he was dying, acknowl- 
 edging her as his wife, and begging her forgiveness. They were 
 reunited, and a few days later McDonald died. 
 Opposed by Documents. 
 
 For Mrs. Dora McDonald, on the other hand, an entirely 
 different case is made out by her attorney. Colonel James Ham- 
 ilton Lewis. He said thart he had procured new evidence in 
 the shape of affidavits and sworn statements of witnesses in the 
 suit for divorce brought by "Mike" McDonald against Mary 
 C. McDonald in 1889, and letters in the hand-writing of Mary 
 McDonald, and others. 
 
 The divorce bill, according to Colonel Lewis, Avas filed in the 
 Superior Court of Cook County on September 11, 1889. In the 
 complaint, McDonald alleged that he married his first wife 
 November 20, 1870, and lived with her until May 1, 1889. He 
 alleged misconduct in the complaint, naming Joseph Moysant, 
 or Father Moysant, a renegade priest, and gave dates and 
 places of alleged misconduct. He also alleged that Mrs. Mc- 
 Donald had fled to France with Moysant, and that she was not 
 a resident of Chicago, or the State of Illinois. 
 Joint Letters in Evidence. 
 
 Letters were offered in evidence which were alleged to have 
 come from Mrs. McDonald to women friends. Some of these 
 are said to have been signed Mrs. J. Moysant, and to have been 
 partly in the handwriting of Mrs. McDonald and partly in the 
 
(i(»,s LIFE OF MICHAEL C. McDONALD 
 
 handwriting of Moypant. These letters are said to have shown 
 thill ^Irs. McDonalrl liad ;i knowledge of the divorr-e suit pend- 
 ing against her. 
 
 An attempt was also made to prove that Mrs. McDonald was 
 deeded certain property hy McDonald in connection with the 
 divorce proceedings, and that she negotiated and disposed of tliat 
 property in part, thus acquiescing in the terms of possession an<l 
 establishing the legality of the divorce. 
 
 Mrs. Mary McDonald, now a white-haired woman upward of 
 sixty, declares that she has brought suit to establish her legal 
 status as the widow of "Mike" McDonald for the sake of her 
 two sons, Gu}'' and Cassius, for whom she desires to clear her 
 name of any stain. Her petition for an injunction restraining 
 the trustees of the estate from paying to Mrs. Dora McDonald 
 any money as dower rights was heard by Judge Barnes on 
 Xovcmber 18. 
 
 The contest was long and bitter -between the attomeys. 
 (*rimination and recrimination flew thick and fast. In the 
 end, however. Judge Barnes decided that the divorce of ^like 
 McDonald from Mary Xoonan McDonald was legal, that the 
 law could not go back of the records, and that, therefore, Mary 
 Noonan McDonald Mas not entitled to any share of the Mc- 
 Donald estate. 
 
 But the sordid contest over tlie ill-gotten money of the gam- 
 l)ling king was not yet at end. Dora McDonald failed to pay 
 her attorney's fees, and the estate was again brought into the 
 courts on an injunction obtained by James Hamilton Lewis, 
 who threatens to throw the estate into involuntary bankruptcy. 
 
 Thus the long battle over tainted gain goes on. Let those wlio 
 think gambling an easy way to wealth and power read aright 
 the lesson of the life of Mike McDonald; one continual tissue 
 of law-breaking, imprisonment, divorce, scandal upon scandal, 
 murder, adultery, leaving a name covered over and associate*! 
 with all vileness, all the mud and slime of society, to go down 
 to the grave with a broken heart. Is that an alluring spectacle? 
 Is such a life worth living? Who would emulate it? 
 
HAVE YOU READ 
 
 The Devil 
 
 and 
 the Grafter 
 
 And how tlipj- work ti)- 
 gether to Deceive, Swin- 
 dle and Destroy Man- 
 kind. A Thrilling and 
 Graphic Story of Truth 
 Stranger than Fiction. 
 
 How a great army of 
 600,000 criminals in 
 America, under the in- 
 fluence, guidance and 
 leadership of Satan wage 
 continued war with jus- 
 tice, law, society and 
 religion. 
 
 BY 
 
 Cliiion R. Wooldridge 
 
 The World's Great 
 CRIMINOLOGIST 
 AND DETECTIVE 
 
 After twenty years of 
 heroic warfare and scores 
 of hair breadth escapes, in 
 which he suffered wounds 
 and bruises by the hund- 
 reds, and baffled death so 
 often that his criminal enemies declare "he leads a charmed life." Mr. Wooldridge. 
 while stiU "in the harness," has given this volume to the public with the beUef 
 that he is sending forth a book with a mission of good to the world. 
 
 No man in all our country is so feared by evil doers of all classes as the author 
 of this revelation of the ways' and wiles of wicked men and women, who graft and 
 swindle, rob and corrupt their fellows in defiance of law and justice. , . , ,. 
 
 "The Incorruptible Sherlock Holmes of America" is the title by which Mr. 
 Wooldridge is favorably known. Hundreds of times large and tempting bribes 
 have been offered him by wealthy criminals; thousands of dollars at a time might 
 have been his for a "wink" at a nefarious practice, or for the loosing of his hold 
 upon a rich criminal's wrist. But like Cajsar's wife, he stands "above suspicion." 
 He is still a poor man, but deeply and earnestly studying the science of CTiminology. 
 laboring and lecturing for the cure of crime by wise laws and scientific means — 
 declaring himself to lie the enemy of crime, but the friend of the crimmal, whose 
 disease of crime he believes can be cured, and that it is his mission to help the world 
 suppress crime and find out the waj"- for its elimination. . 
 
 With an aim so lofty, and a motive so pure, the good people of every religion, 
 all trades, all professions and all classes are in hearty sympathy, and the circulation 
 of this book will not only serve to warn the people against the snares and pitfalls 
 of the Devil and the Grafter (into which thousands of new victims fall and one 
 hundred and sixtv millions of dollars of the people's money are lost every year), 
 but it will tend to make Grafting impossible and turn the Grafters into honest, 
 legitimate channels and good citizenship. 
 
 This Book should be in the Hands of Every Minister, every doctor, every stu- 
 dent, everv teacher, farmer, business man, mechanic and laborer, every wife and 
 widow — statistics show that ninety widows out of every hundred are swindled out 
 of what their husbands leave them. It should be in the reach of all, male antl 
 female, for there is not a post-office in all the land where the mail, every time it 
 comes, does not bring the alluring literature of the Grafter to swindle or tempt the 
 unwary. 
 PRICE CLOTH, ILLUSTRATED SI.OO 
 
HANDS UP 
 
 IN THE WORLD OF CRIME 
 OR 
 
 12 YEARS 
 A DETECTIVE 
 
 by Clifton R. Wooldridge 
 
 Chicago's Famous Detectiva 
 
 A BOOK OF 
 
 Thrilling descriptions about the 
 capture of Bandits, Robbers, 
 Panel House Workers, Confi- 
 dence Men and hundreds of other 
 criminals of all kinds. 
 
 TELLS IN GRAPHIC 
 MANNER 
 
 How Criminals of all classes op- 
 erate, illu.strations showing 
 arrests of Murderers, Safe 
 Blowers, Diamond Thieves, Pro- 
 curesses of Young Girls, etc., etc 
 
 THE contents of this book is a narrative of the authors twelve years' experience 
 _ on the Chicago police force. His long and successful experience with the crim- 
 inal classes justly fitted liim for the work of bringing before the public in presentable 
 lorra the many and interesting features of a detective's life. 
 
 In detail he tells the story of his life, and without coloring of any kind produces 
 an accurate account of his twelve years' experience, many times under fire; his famous 
 efforts to apprehend criminals, wiio, by means of revolvers and other conceivable 
 methods tried to fight their way to liberty. 
 
 . The book contains over 5 00 pages, is profusely illustrated from specially drawn 
 pictures and photographs of desperate criminals and law-breakers, such as murderers 
 highway-men, safe blowers, bank robbers, diamond thieves, burglars, porch climbers 
 shop lifters, bicycle thieves, box car thieves, lottery swindlers, gamblers, women 
 footpads, panel-house thieves, confidence men, picki>ockets. iirocuresses of young 
 girls for immoral purposes, women gamblers, levee characters, etc. 
 
 This great production is not a ponderous volume fihed with dry statistics, but 
 made up of thrilling accounts which depict the most noteworthy incidents in the 
 lives of criminals in large cities. 
 
 During Detective Wooldridge's service on the force he has made 20,000 arrests, 
 secured 12.5 penitentiary convictions, recovered $75,000 worth of lost and stolen 
 property, which was returned to its rightful owners; seventy-five girls under age were 
 rescued by him from houses of ill-fame and a life of shame and returned to their 
 parents or guardians or .sent to the Juvenile School 'or House of the Good Shepherd. 
 
 It is well known in police circles that Detective Wooldridge has refused at many 
 different times, bribtes of from $.500 to $4,000;$10,000 was offered for his discharge 
 or transfer from the levee district by criminals against whom he had waged a war- 
 fare. 
 
 He has letters from Carter H. Harrison, the mayor, three state's attornei/s, eiqht 
 chiefs of police, three assistant chiefs, six i7ispectors, nine lieutenants, sir police rustiees 
 and others too numerous to inention, which testimonials are printed in the hook toqether 
 u-ith their autographs. The book contains all Hie General Superintendents of Police 
 of Chicaco from 185.5 to 1901. 
 
 Detective Wooldridge has a wonderful rcjcord in police annals. 
 
 DPIf^B* CLOTH, ILLUSTRATED $|.00 
 
 mi\#C PAPER, ILLUSTRATED 50c 
 
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