Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1901 — Skinned By An Old Game. [ARTICLE]

Skinned By An Old Game.

A dispatch from Lafayette says: “More than a soore of farmers in the neighborhood of Ash Grove have become entangled in an old confidence game. They ordered portraits enlarged through an alleged, representative of a Chicago art company, at a cost of 98 cents each. When the pictures arrived at the express offioe they were i n frames and the bill in each case was $4. When the receiver objeot ed to paying this amount fcr something not ordered, the agent of the company asked them to sign a receipt for the picture, saying the company would arrange the matter. These receipts have now turned up in a Brookston bank in the shape of lien notes, practically ohattle mortgages on the signers’ personal property, and as the signatures are genuine the victims will probably have to pay up.” There are said to be parties canvassing for pictures to enlarge, in this vicinity, now. They may be all right, but people should be very careful what kind of paper they sign at the request of strangers. And not sign .any at all if it can be avoided.