Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1920 — GET RICH QUICK IS OLDEST BAIT [ARTICLE]

GET RICH QUICK IS OLDEST BAIT

Hope of Getting Something for Nothing Springs Eternal in Human Breast.

MANY WILD SCHEMES TRIED

Story of Romance, Hardship and Vlolance, of Adventure, Despair and Gullibility, With Sudden Tripe Abroad Made by Promoters. Boston.-—Ever since the beginning of things men have been trying in one fashion or another to achieve their fortunes over night, to recover the Midas touch of the fabulist, to “get rich quick.” Sometimes they have Succeeded. Sometimes they have nurtured their hopes only to come back to hard reality with a hard bump. Sometimes in their haste they have been swindled. From the days of the sailing of Jason upon his long quest of the Golden Fleece, from the times of the alchemists of the middle ages, who puttered out their yves among dusty tomes, seeking with tired but hopeful eyes for the key to the enigma of sudden wealth —the touchstone which should transmute lead to gold—to the days of mushroom fortunes in “international reply coupons,” isn’t such a far cry after all, James H. Powers writes in the Boston Globe. It Is a story of romance and hardship and violence, of adventure and despair and sometimes absurd gullibility and sudden trips abroad made by promoters with gripsacks stuffed with cash. Mad Rush for Gold. In America the story really begins with the.mad rush across the prairies and the mountains in ’49 to the gold Adds of California. There had been other “gold hunts” before this, but none of them developed such a national fever as resulted from the announcemtnt of this discovery of nuggets “weighing as much as half a pound apiece,” - that percolated through the East and started that famous uproar. Enthusiasm rose to unbelievable heights. Families started out from Massachusetts, New York and other eastern seacoast states without e\ en bothering to sell their houses By horseback, farm wagon and by ship the migration got under way. Parties of prospective millionaires chartered schooners and sailed all the way around the Horn in their excitement And upon the retina of the inner eye of every one persisted the dream picture of “marble halls,” and a “span,” and the Imagined luxury of doing nothing in particular, while obedient lackeys hovered about forever after, like the genii of Aladdin s lamp, awaiting orders. The California gold rush enriched thousands, though at the price of vast hardship and sacrifice. Thousands of others it ruined, when they became stranded in a wilderness,’ 5,000 miles from settled civilization, on their illfated claims. The best thing about it wasn’t the wealth it produced at all, but the fact that it began the definite expansion of the United States. Capt, Kidd and the Klondike. “Something for nothing," many years later, drew thousands more Americans down in the Oklahoma territory when the government announced that it would permit homesteads to be “rushed” on a certain date. All the man who wanted to become a property holder had to do was tq be on hand when the signal wa* given. Government officials lined off the atari, as if it were a 440 yard dash of today. Fences were built and every cl aliqah t had to be behind the bulwark ready. Then, at a given signal, down went the barriers and the swarm of fortune hunters plied into the plains, peilmeU, to stake their claims and begin their new careers, happy.

So, too, In the latter part of the last century, when the Klondike became a word of magic. Just as in the days of ’49, there was a wild rush for gold, the prospectors being, in the main, men who were doomed to failure, although hundreds of them won from the frozen rocks and river beds the fortunes upon which not a few American families base their ability to purchase a new seven passenger car every yeah One of the oldest and the most persistently attractive lures of golden affluence that awaits the fortunate Is the mythical burled treasure of Capt Kidd, the pirate, familiar to every schoolboy and to the schoolboys of Boston in particular. For the two centuries or more that have elapsed since Kidd swung at the gibbet in Execution Dock, England, expeditions have been continuously gotten up with the purpose of finding his buried booty. All that has been recovered to date has a been .abpujt $90,000, most of which was found at one end of Gardner's Island. The numerous search parties, according to some estimates, have spent a total of about $700,000 in the effprt. To Pay 96 Per Cent a Year. Along with the popular quests for “gold In the raw,” or In bidden caches, there have also been scores of clever schemes for ertrlchlng people through marvelous “new” discoveries and through manipulation. Massachusetts has had its full shkre of suo> ventures In the last half century, and Boston has been the center of the activities of not a few. More than forty years ago, for instance, there was the notorious “Ladles’ Deposit,” conducted by Mrs. Sarah E. Howe at 2 East Brookline street Mrs. Howe had a sensational career In giving people “something for nothing.” The "Ladles’ Deposit” was an institution based upon her statement that she was the agent of a legacy amounting to more than $1,500,000, which was left by a Quaker who wanted to be a benefactor of “widows and single' women only." With this money she was supposed to establish a foundation in Boston which paid such women, whose incomes wear inadequate to permit them to live in comfort, 96 per cent a year ou deposits made at the "Ladies’ Deposit.” Mrs. Howe was no parsimonious person. She paid Interest three months in advance. Three Years in Jail.

Mrs. Howe is described as being “short, fat, ugly looking and indescribably vulgar.” She couldn’t write grammatically and this was one of the causes of her downfall in Boston, for her lack of culture aroused the suspicion of the authorities at last and they began an investigation which landed her in jaiL Then it came out in the court trial that Mrs. Howe’s “Quaker” was a day dream and despite the fact that during the last days of “Ladies’ Deposit,” when the run started, she paid out between $75,000 and SIOO,OOO in one .day, the Investigators found that her insolvency amounted to $200,000, with the “bank” and some cheap furniture profusely covered with gilt as kssets. -Mrs. Howe insisted to the last that she was merely a salaried agent, receiving sl2l* a year for her work from ♦he “Quaker organization,’’ but that Uid not keep her from. serving three years in jail. Boston was in an uproar during the whole proceeding and hundreds of fascinated hopefuls thronged the institution during the week before the crash. ’ Received Secret irt a Vision. Then there was the masterpiece of all strokes of the imagination, the Rev. P. F. Jernegan’a scheme for getting gold out of sea water. As a “get rich quick” scheme this is yet unsurnassed—bothfrom the romantic aspect of the undertaking and In the sheer audacity with which it was worked out. . Mr. Jernegan was a former Baptist minister A graduate of Brown uni-

versity and of the Newton Theological seminary. After a few years in the ministry his health broke down and he went south to recover. It was on the way back that “the heavenly vision" came to P. F. Jernegan, and the “Electrolytic Marine Salts company” took shape in his brain. « \ The “Heavenly vision,” according to the claim of Jernegan, showed him 8 marvelous way of getting "something for nothing”—of getting gold from the water in the ocean by a secret process.

He formed a company. He opened offices in this city at 53 State street and 235 Washington street. The “Marine Salts company” became a slbgan of amazement and wonder. Mr. Jernegan showed to the doubting Thomases he met several thin metal plates upon which there had been, crystallized small deposits of gold. He suggested the wonderful secret in his possession and spoke vaguely of the fabulous fortune that awaited him. Financiers, men and women of wealth, poor and prosperous—folks thronged his offices to buy shares of his stock. There was, he affirmed, about four cents’ worth of gold in every ton of sea water. Now, Just think of it, four cents’ worth in every ton 1 And the Atlantic. Pacific, Indian, Arctic— All the oceans In the world were to pay tribute to his scheme, to make their deposits of gold ip the pockets of his shareholders. w Mr. Jernegan estimated the possible returns at 72,000,000,000 tons of gold. Boston went Into a frenzy. All New England went into another frenzy. Mr. Jernegan went to New York, where he deposited $68,000 with one of the largest savings banks there. Soon after he made another large deposit. The deposits were checks. A few days aftA this he drew out $20,000. and then $75,000- in bills. Then the bank told him that they didn’t want his account. He told New Yorkers that he intended to issue 2,500,000 shares of stock at $1 a share. Meanwhile, his friend, one “Frank W. Thompson,” took the money withdrawn from the New York bank and between them the pair bought $150,000 worth of government bonds.

Machinery Never Cante. at North Lubec, Me., the “Marine Salta company” began operations. A dam was raised, and when the tide receded it left water twenty feet deep behind the dam. This was to be flowed over the' “secret” machine Invented by Mr. Jernegan, and by a “secret” process the metal plates, ■called accumulators, were to gather the gold from the sea. More than 600 workmen were hired, and the buildings were begun. By this time 2,400,000 shares of the stock had bapn sold and the capital was in the hands of the ex-clergyman who had had the “vision.” To work the plant at its proper ca parity, machinery, of course, was nee essary. Mr. Jernegan and his partner boarded a French Uner for LeHavre, France, to get*the machinery. Mr Jernegan took passage as “Louis Sinclair of Chicago,” with "the necessary funds”—that is, all of them. a The day after his departure gold ceased'to crystallize on the plates of that marvelous “secret” machine up in Lubec, Me. The company suspended business and the 600 workmen on the new buildings were out of a job. The shareholders in “Electrolytic Marine Salts company” were without their money, too. The gold crystals on the plates had been “planted.” In spite of. efforts to bring about extradition. Jernegan and Iris pal escaped in France- They later sent some of the# money back to clear up the activities of the company, but they did not*move back to Boston. - So, the story ruqs, year after year. The “Luck Box” is an affair of only yesterday. To make one’s fortune without an effort, to hope desperately for “good luck” in “taking a chance.” to find a silver mine or become heir to 'a kingdom, to dig for Kidd’s treasure or to buy a machine which will turn out crisp new bank notes in a legal manner; above all, to avoid as much work as possible in the whole affairf Adam fared forth from Eden, wnert he. was not bothered with sack