THE CREDULOUS YANKEE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 16 May 1907, Page 4

THE CREDULOUS YANKEE.

* ' (liy Herbert Kaufman.) Once upon a time a man advertis td that lu> would sell -,eel engravings of General George Wa-sliinjitou, "reproduced from Government plates,' at tin' very remarkable price of livepence, ami. in a spirit of gracious condescension, signified a willingness to accept postage .-tamps in payineiut. Those who availed themselves of this Litter convenience experienced the pleasing snsation of having one of the live penny stamps which they forwarded him returned by the next mail. Clever \ Decidedly'; janj the swindler reaped a fortune out of his shrewUne-s.

One of the most amazing examples of imposture was that of Howie, the selfstyled -Elijah;' whose death ' occurred on Saturday morning at Hon City, lllinois; U.S.A. Or Transatl uitie brother, despite all his vaunted shrewdness, has been the prey of more cunning rogues than the citizens of the world.

The post regulations of America exercise a very sleepy guardship over thhonesty of the maiis. They are rules largely made up ot exceptions, ine American Government has pre'sunublv placed a formidable weapon in the hands of the Postmaster General, but clo.-e listening to ..he reuorts from his seemingly powerful blunderbuss will disclose the fact that it is very much a dummy weapon, and that its charges are largely powder, which may produce a temporary fright, but seldom eventuate m injury to the targets at which their offence is directed. In view of the fact that Congress is at the present moment actively engaged in a revision of the laws governing the' post, to the end that a recodification will probably supplant the existing statutes with really effective and substantial regulations, a brief account of some of the most flagrant frauds which have been passible under the former status of affairs may be interesting. MAIL OKDEKK. The mail order business, owing to the thousands of villages and hamiets very much sequestrated from the larger centres, has developed into one of the wonderful institutions of America. Stoves and wagons, ploughs and sewing machines, as well as cravats and bracks and blouses and stockings, are advertised for sale direct from the maker to the user. As a natural sequence to the grawth of this business, cheap publications issued weekly and monthly, were before long flooding the country. These periodicals were sold at a very nominal sum and were edited for farmers and villagers, so as to secure a clientele of readers which would be most valuable to ldvertiscrs desiring to sell goods where they would not be faced with tho competition of establishments offering similar wares on the ground. In the beginning .the advertisements which they carried were legitimate, but the sharper, ever alert to find a newavenue of activity, Soon beetime aware of this splendid channel for pursuing his shady calling, and perceiving the advantage of making proportions whiwi called for advance payment upon wares which would be examined after they were owned, the brotherhood of the shady before long infested the mails with their mirages and lures. A FALSTAFF AKMY.

Disbarred physicians and phy.-icians who had never known the fostering eare of an alma mater; healers of cvci-y school; promoters of mines out of which no gold was to be taken, but omy poured in; vendors of stock in companies which purposed to accomplish everything, from air lines to the moon down to railroads which would never know a mile of track; as well as a host of pretty swindlers and ltiaraiinders—-all came circling to the feast like carrion attracted from every quarter of the heavens by the sight of a first brother swooping down upon a newly-found quarry. I shall not attempt to detail the story of the mining swindles that have besmirched the none too fair name of American promotion. At the present moment the American new-papers are packed with pages announcing potential El Dorados. The recent discoveries 01 gold in the deserts of Arizona and in Nevada have "resulted in a swarm if mining companies, all of which purport to possess the most valuable claims in history. And not one of these mining, companies out of a hundred can prove that i s s claims are even being worked; can furnish evidence that ore is being taken from the earth or carried to the Smelters. It is incomprehensible that the American people, so boastful of their commonsense, assurance, and caution, should pour into the tills of these financial Jack .Shepherds and Diek Turpi.ns a stream of treasured savings that is rolling into the millions of pounds. The present status of affairs is only comparable to the oil craze that illuminated the North American continent with 'ts seductive glare some half-dozen years ago.

RIVER OF I'ERTROLEUM. The town of Beaumont, in Texas, was found to be built over a subterranean river of petroleum. A few really genuine wells were sunk. The news spread. Within a month every available acre of land within a hundred miles of this township was in the hands of promote i'S. Enough "gushers'' were advertised to supply illuminating fuel for the whole world in all the ages to come. Then for a while Mexican and South American plantations were the fashion. The Isthmus of Tehuanlepce, in the southern part of Mexico, was exploited as the most wonderful rulilher disfri-jt in the world. Statistics Setting for the number of trees that could be' planted within an acre, the length of time if took for a tree to bear rubber, the profit that was sure to be realised from every rubber-tree, occupied page after page in the Press. For a year the stream of gold flowed rubbenvards. The seamstresses and the clerks, the farmers and the merchants saw before them visions of fortunes which would expand with the same capacity as the product in which they were interested. Enough land was di-posed of to form ti dozen Isthmuses of Tehuantcpcc. One New York newspaper actually produced evidence to show that one of the larg. st companies had sold plantations which, according to surveys hail to be located under fourteen feet of water—a quarter of a mile from the solid ground.