Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1909 — FORMER RESIDENT IN LIMELIGHT. [ARTICLE]

FORMER RESIDENT IN LIMELIGHT.

A dspatch from Washington states that a fraud order has been issued against John F. Braun, et al, who under various names conducted a cure-all mail order business originally at Bloomington, 111., and later received mail at Greenfield and Indianapolis, Ind., and which was bringing them in SIOO a day from their dupes. The dispatch goes on to mention the plan of operations, and states that S. U. Dobbins, a former hotel proprietor here, was an agent for them, in the following words: The Brauns were engaged in selling through the mails absent treatment for the sick, no matter what the disease. They obtained names and addesses by hiring boys and girls to report all cases of sickness and also advertised in newspapers. The treatment they called “mendopathy ’ was alleged to be given by •telepathic vibrations or suggestions. A second letter or circular was mailed to victims purporting to come from S. U. Dobbins, of Francisville, Ind., setting forth a remarkable cure- Postoffiee inspectors found Dobbins to be an employe of Braun and he received $5 for each patient he obtained. The Brauns contracted to give two telepathic treatments a day for thirty days for $5; if a cure was not effected in that time the money was to be refunded or free treatment continued indefinitely. Inspectors found that Braun was receiving on an average of SIOO a day from, willing victims from all over the country and that no effort was made to give any treatment whatever.”