An Amazing Fraud.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 July 1910, Page 4

An Amazing Fraud.

Human nature will probably remain the same to the end of tlio human chapter, and rogues u'ill continue to profit by the weaknesses of their fellow-men. One of the strongest of human passions is greed, and frauds witliout number have owed their successful perpetration to the fact that it was to this passion that _ they made their appeal. In his reminiscences, now running through Blackwood's Magazine, Sir Robert Anderson relates the story of an .amazing fraud that was perpetrated on a great C'ty house—a fraud that, owing to the large sum of money involved, will stand for nil time as a monument to human folly. A genius claimed that 'by a process he had discovered | the bulk of any quantity of gold Could lie increased by ono-lialf at a trifling expense, and lie offered to sell tili-e secret. His dupes accepted his terms, subject to hSs giving satisfactory Proof, and to test his discoverv they proposed to supply him with one hundred sovereigns. He rejected that amounlt '•f gold as too small for hiin to waste time on, as his mysterious process was a tedious one, and! finally, alter skilful. negclf.'iaitioiiK, lie contrived to arrange for £20.000 in sovereigns to lie given him lor the purposes of ibis d-enionstration. A house was taken, and a laboratory fitted up there. The p-old W'°s r.laced in tanks, the chemicals asked for wore supplied, and tlx' crmit -prorwrfed, with "laborate precautions against iar"env or fraud. The man insisted t.liat no one but himself was to enter the laboratory, and he was to J l '*, ncidly sea rolled every time ho eft the room. His experiments lasted for many weeks, and he parsed in and out a large number '■■'i tunes. One day lie was missing, and when the door was eventually forced onen. the tanks that had contained the gold were empty. What had bconie of tl<e 20 000 '•vereigns? That mvsterv would ''''ave remained for ever unsolved if the criminal had not, through sheer bravado and pride, suopliw! tlm sol i it'on. Rave 'in the knowledge that sooner than expose them.selves to the ridiculo of tiro worM, yrd fho conzo q}}en t ] ORS c f p^ige, +iie firm (is luul swiii tWexl say notnnsr. fe wroto to them and' revonlorl lvi.q mo.tlio'l. TCverr time ho li ft the laboratory, the gold-headed miie be carried was packed with sovereigns!