Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 101, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1917 — GENERAL AND STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL AND STATE NEWS

Telegraphic Reports From Many Parts of the SHORT BITS OF THE UNUSUAL - • ■ c ■ Happenings in the Nearby Cities and Towns—Matters of Minor Mentio* from Many Places. POSSIBLY SOME' LOCAL DIMES Are Included in the Thousands Held in Petticoat Fraud. Washington, D. C., March 14. A fraud that is being perpetrated on the women of the United States has aroused the postal authorities and they are' endeavoring to put a stop to it and arrest the culprits. Floods of letters are arriving at the Minneapolis, postoffice at the rate of from 4,000 to 10,000 a day. The dead letter office in Washington is fairly swamped with the letters. The postmaster general has issued the second order to postmasters, directing them td withdraw and return all mail addressed to the “National Mail- Order. Brokerage Exchange.” This was the„ name selected by the perpetrators of this fake scheme/ under which letters were sent out promising that a $4.75 silk petticoat would be furnished in return for 10 cents, pro-, viding the. . person remitting each dime would make five copies of the letter and mail them to friends. Of course, each of the five friends was to get a petticoat if she did the same trick, and so it went around. Thirty, thousand dollars in dimes, representing 85 per cent of thy money, thus far mailed, is the contribution. The other 15 permit; was. Sent in in the form Hundreds of thousands ‘are Still being defrauded dimes, time and postage postal service is being expense and trouble the senders to retu