Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1895 — The Advice Was Late. [ARTICLE]

The Advice Was Late.

John F. Leighton, a prosperous farmer of Franklin, N. H., fell in with two apparently guileless innocents last week who turned out to be clever bunco men. They managed to relieve him of $3,500, and in return they gave him a box containing nothing more satisfactory than a long letter of advice. The letter said: “Keep the affair to yourself. If you tell any one they will laugh at you and say it served you right for trying to take advantage of a man you thought was a greenhorn, and your friends and'-neighbors, and also your enemies, will say that you are not the honest man you were always supposed to be. You know you told a lie to get the money and.no banker will ever let you have money again, for they will think you want to take it and gamble again and lose it.' Your credit will be ruined; so keep quiet, pocket the loss and never gamble again. As for my partner and I, we are going to reform and you will never see us again. You cannot make any excuse to your neighbors and acquaintances, for you gambled at cards and 16st, and no honest man ever gambles.” Mr. Leighton did not follow the advice. He at once notified the police and the Boston bureau of criminal investigation has already begun to trace the men from a point between Nashua and Worcester, where , they mailed the letter to Mr. Leighton.—Boston Transcript.