Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — The Art of Swindling. [ARTICLE]

The Art of Swindling.

Th* overage “ literary 1* paper of the day is becoming to be ag much a nuisance and as injurious to youth as the dimo novels which were all the rage among the poorer and least-informed persons some years ago. For instance, the numbfcr of trashy and blood and thunder, hhfi Improbable love stories, putdfeiwd lathe so called literary, weeklies, undtir wFcaption of "•* true story," are often fouqd to be as demoralizing as theyW nonaetisical, sasd. it is really no wonotor. that foere are so many Idiots to be ftHfad in the world when grown people and children indulge in the light literature of the day <n preference to that whigh would entertain and instruct, It is jift®»i|fch papers as we have here made reference to which, confidence people seize upon and patronize in order to make dupep. f In a recent number of a Boston literary production, published weekly are fully half a dozen columns of advertisements (50 cents per lihe each insertion), and they are intended chiefly to catch ths <eyes and the dollars of the foolish people who delight in reading stupid stories <rf tiction instead of familiarizing them selves with the study of literature and tustory, which is a combination of something useful to the student, the pursuit of which is a source ot knowledge as wqll as pleasure. In the literaiy weekly we have before mentioned—it is not neces sary to name the paper—some of • the advertisements are novelties in their way! For instance; One advertiser, signing himself the “ Importing Company, Broadway, New York,” agrees to send half a dozen fine hem-stitched handkerchiefs, “worth, and usually sold for $8 per dosen.” to evero subscriber of a cheap literary weekly for 75 cents. The weekly is a blind inducement. Read the order:

CUT TUTS OCT—OOOD FOB HAU DODCXHAjmKBBCBtßwi.—The Importing Company, No. Broadway, New York: Thia ia to certify that 1 am a anbacriber of thia paper, and am entitled trader your premium to half a doaen fine hematitcbed handkerchief*, with my monograph initial on each. lindoaaTS toafia Ito. pay coat of initialing and express chargea. On receipt of this order ami 75 cents to pay coto of initialing and expreaa and packing chargea, we agree to send, free of charge, a halt doaen hemstitched handkerchiefs, and which we guarantee will be toe same aa we sell to the trade at M per doaen, [Signed] -r— MANUFACTUBING CO., Broadway, New York. Any sensible person must know after reading such an advertisement that the scheme is a swindle. The advertisers agree to aetf the handkerchiefs as a premium to the subscribers of any paper in which the advertisement appears. No doubt the recipient could purchase the handkerchiefs at any Cincinnati store for a nickel each, or twenty-five cents for a half-dozen. They could be mailed to any part of the United States for three cents. The Importing Company is no doubt a myth. They sail under false colors and should be avoided. The other day the Jtmmmial contained in its kcal columns a complaint about the dealings of the Cincinnati “ Monitor Manufacturing company." Here is the advertisement the company utilizes in these cheap literary weeklies to trap the un'w arv • SE£ r ABTED—MEN TO TRAVEL AND SELL rnwUtodmitom No peddling j 880 a. month, hotel and traveling expense* paid. CinThese are ven' hard 1 imes. and many a young fel'ow with no experience, who sees the advertisement, would hasten to reply to it. The advertisers have invited him, like the spider did the fly, io walk into a net. He gets fleeced before he knows it. So do thousands. Only the wise beware. Any sensible person can read fraud on the very face of such an advertisement. Here A WEEK—MALE OB FEMALE. BO . rom ® . •

day selling some article which the advertisomsMdMa not stata, and the idiot whp. answers such an “ inducement" of course finds that aH he gets for his pains are a few mysterious circulars, which cost him Then there is the bankrupt Milton gold Jewelry swindle, where the advertisers, in Philadelphia, agree for fifty cents to sell enough Jewelry to open a small retail eetablisl.mnni The Milton gold is repretgnted as pure as virgin gold. Here is an todueemont, certainly. Om patent aanfa risese-buttons, withinOne beautiful coral aenrf-pin, retail pnoe. 76 i» One oollar-buttMi, retail price SO One elegant wedding-ring, very bean. «- [ -tail price 2 00 Total .... f W 50 Heaieniber we will aand you the above-named •to articies, which we htertsMailed for 96.501 by St four sample “ What a wonderful bargain!" someone will exclaim, and then immediately send five dollars for a lot of the stuff. He will find that his investment is brass on its arrival, and turns in a few days to resemble the color of the coal we burn in Cincinnati foundries. For one dollar somebody C remises to Send a iady a recipe to enable er to retain her youth and beauty, or to regain the former and obtain the latter—if. she never had any. For twenty-five cents, a Massachusetts Yankee will 'send a recipe to make whiskers grow on a fif-teen-year-old school-boy, and for thirtyfive cents you can obtain a "correct likeness" oi your future wife or husband. Then, there are other advertisers who agree, for a consideration, tofiunishwives and husbands and fortunes, and there are always fools to place faith in snch swindles. Tlie three-dollar watch turns out to be a dumb watch, and the one dollar music-box a cheap harp. Then, the lotS advertisements are often swindles, , in fact, through the entire advertising catalogues in the average literary weekly are inducements both false and enticing, Intended to enrich the advertiser and deplete the pockets of some thousands of unwary victims. Of course, occasionally an honest advertisement mixed with thia classis found, but in a large majority of cases they are the other kind, intended solely to drain money from tne pockets of the foolish people who patronize the cheap literary weeklies, and who have not sense enough to discriminate between the good and the bad.— Cincinnati Commercial. 4 ~ ~ ; /