A.
The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART TWO
EDITORIAL SECTION
PAGES OXX TO TEN
PAST TXO
WOMAN'S SECTION
rAois on to rot
VOL. XM NO. 5.
OMAHA. SUNDAY MORNING. JULY 23, 1911.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
Money
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(Copyright. 1911. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
WASHINGTON, L). C. (Special Cosrespond-
l ence cf the S.) In c of tts back
rooms of the tig: postoffice building here
In Wasl;iaton sits a man who U un
known to Its thousands of clerks. He
y-y.H IIvos at the capital, hut he can goo the
1::H of prr.r7lraa!a avenue without raising his
kafia, rt?3s9 to a bow. He has but few acquaint
cm. aJ alcost no Intimates. Nevertheless, he is
Of the re est lspertant men in the United States
tortfTTsrr.tv.aBd to many who have guilty consciences
he re?rtiu" the ghort of the penitentiary, which
Jsanate thee Cay aai night
T.U wen Is the chief Inspector of the Po3toffice
TtTnfn. a Iran who has cot only to watrh the ?cur
raEdred ar.d o:d tri'licns cf dollars v.hich go in ad
rrt cf Cat cfr:c9 in the course of the year, but to
kee? track of the erines of its 300.000 employes, ar.d
to pee that every bit of It 14,000.000.000 pieces of
msll H honestly carried.
This in Itself is a Job; but when to the crime on
the !n5l are added all the crimes and swindles car
r'.cl on t.roich the trails, all burglaries of postoffices,
ail e::r of stamps und padding returns, you will
ace thet the wires of his influence reach every man,
wetaa and child In the country, and that upon him
the est of us depend for protection.
The Chief Inspector.
The name of the chief Inspector is Robert S. Sharp,
and. s'.ttsuiarly enoagh, he is the son of A. G. Sharp,
who heii this same office when Mr. Gresham was
postmaster general, and who at that time put down
the Louisiana lottery and wiped out all sorts of
chance games through the malls. Mr. Sharp recently
acted as one of the internal revenue commissioners,
and it was his work among the moonshiners of the
Tennessee mountains that caused Postmaster General
Hitchcock to ask him to aid in putting down the mall
swindlers. He took charge only about a year ago,
but since that time he has already convicted and pun
lahed men who have defrauded the people of perhaps
$100,000,000. He has today a score of such mil
lionaires under the harrow, and a half dozen or more
have already been put behind the bars.
I ahould like to Introduce yon to the chief post
office Inspector, but that Is impossible. He will not
allow his face to be published, does not like to have
his name mentioned and I doubt whether the apart-,
meat house where he lives here in Washington knows
that he la anything more than a mere government
clerk. He does not like to talk, and It was only
through a suggestion from the postmaster general
that It might be well to let the people know what
Uncle Sam la doing to protect his children from the
wiles of the swindlers that he gave me an Interview.
rmrle &am's Work.
"It la my business to keep In the background.
This work is done for the government and the people,
and I would like to have yon aay that it la Uncle
Earn and the Postoffice department who are con
victing the rascals. This government la bigger than
any one man. and we want to make these swindlers
know that it la the government and not Individuals
who are after them. We want them to know that
the government is bigger than any in3ivldual, and
, that no matter how rich or influential the rascal may
be, he la on a level with the poorest of his kind In
the eyes of this institution.
These were the instructions which the postmaster
general gave me when I took charge. He nrged us
to be acre that we were right, and to then go ahead
without fear or favor? That is what we are doing.
When we arrest a man we follow the same procedure,
tt makes no difference whether he is a millionaire or
penper, whether he is at the head of the poi't'.ce of a
dty or an individual voter. I have Instructed my
toes to make bo change U the arrest of a millionaire
ever that of a negro stealing a ham. The patrol
wwtca Is backed up to the door of the palace, and
xre take the rich swindler handcuffed to JalL He
has ell of his rights at the trial, but If he does not
EDDIE Ef
who stole
in. scamps
lew?
rracisco fst'ay !t is rretiy sure to be known to all
the swindlers over the country tomorrow. . '
a:: oi U-eso "-e J"t ' addresses of peo
plo who may be easily victimised. These are called
sucker list, and they are classed according to .the
ease with which the men may be swindled. One list
may be headed 'hard suckers,' another 'easy suckers'
and a third 'will take any fool thing. The big
swindlers have their agent and branch officea scat
tered over the country to whom they send instruc
tions and sucker lists.
Take, for instance, C. E. Mitchell of Spokane,
Wash., whom we convicted last May. He waa an ex
mining newspaper reporter, lecturer and theatrical
manager who dealt In fake mines, taking In hundreds
of thousands of dollars for stock and paying dividends
out of the funds received. In writing one of his
agents he said: "This include all the people who
have ever bought shares of me. I give them our best
propositions and use follow-up letters. , I am sendiac
yon here a letter I have Just received from . Mr.
Blank. She is not a heavy Investor herself, but has
brother and. sisters who are well healed and it la
worth while to cultivate the family. J nother let
ter this man wrote that he had a wealthy Oerman in
Iowa who would take $50,000 in German-American
stock if we (Mitchell) could answer his questions.
He continued: 'Will I? I ahould) aay so! We will
m&ke 50 per cent on this deal.'
Fake Mines.
"We have all sorts of fake mining swindles," con
tinued the Inspector. "They are backed by men who
send an agent to Arizona or Nevada or some other
slate of the west well known for it copper, silver or
' aNr''
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vp;
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Poet came out with a great scare head laying that
the scheme was a fraud and would be Investigated.
At that time I was living in a quiet boarding house
here and waa eating my breakfast there when the
paper waa delivered., An old lady sitting next to me
took the Post and" heid.lt close to her eyea. he then
dropped it and put 'her hands over her heart, saying:
" 'I wish the government would stop meddling
with legitimate business; they have attacked the
gold. This agent U instructed to get some land near' Unltedk WrelM ""J7 "d tbey rU1
the gold mine, and he. perhaps, spend $100 or so hurt th ,tock- 1 hjlTe 11.500 invested in it.'
make good he goes behind the bars just a surely a
doe the negro who purloins a ham. It is this pub
licity that the millionaire swindler objects to. and also
the fact that his influence and money count nothing.
"Thla is the only way to treat these fellows," con
tinued the chief inspector. "The department has
tried again and again to put down swindling through
the mails, but in the past every time a man of promi
nence and good banking connections was arrested he
could command hia politicians to have the depart
ment ease up on him. and the pressure was such that
the work could not go on."
Professional Mail Swindlers.
"But are there many men who make a profession
of swindling the public through the mails?"
"There have been thousands of them, said the
chief inspector, "and there are hundreds who are
working in that way today. ' We are now engaged in
prosecuting some of the richest and most powerful,
with the Idea that if we suppress those at the top
we are bound to get the smaller rascals by and by.
Aa a result the small mea are frightened. We have
located many of them, and we get reports every day
or so from the postmen that their offices are closed
and that there is no one to receive their mail."
"Ton aak about thla class of swindling as a pro
fession. We have life records of the chief swindlers,
and we can trace them from one fraudulent scheme
to another. Now It Is a fake rubber scheme, now a
fake mining scheme and next, perhaps, a fake land
Jobbing scheme. Take Huston, who waa once treas
urer of the United State, and whom we recently
convicted. In going back over his records we found
tracks of hi swindling long before he came into the
government service, and they were a proof of the
general rule: 'Once a rascal, a rascal again.'
"We have a rogues' gallery and a set of records
of the principal swindlers. We hsve cross reference
index cards, and we can trace them from place to
place at a moment's notice. Our sources of Informa
tion are such that It Is almost impossible for the guilty
man to escape. '
"Take, for instance, the case of a millionaire law
yer, now in the penitentiary. He thought he could
not be touched, but we mound the colls around him
until he finally gave himself up. aaying he would
rather receive a thousand penitentiary sentences than
suffer the wear and tear on his nerves while waiting
for the axe which he knew must certainly fall. This
man could not pott a letter without we were aware
of it- He could not pay his Insurance policies, he
could not make a step but It waa reported. The re
sult wa he gave np.
The Becker LUt.
"Ton would be surprised to learn now well thla
swindling system 1 organised." continued the chief
inspector. "I do not know that there la any fixed
combination, but there aeems to be a brotherhood by
which the men in the business can communicate with
one another more quickly than by telegraph. They
have their own code, and It a man is arrteted In San
to buy the side of a mountain. He then ha a fraudu
lent mining engineer make a report on the property,
and he may even dig a few holes and put up a derrick
or so. He takes out a claim and goes through all
the operations that he would with a legitimate enter
prise. There may be some photographs taken and
money spent in printing. Then the stock is gotten
out at $1 per share and the advertisement are put
in the paper. Some such schemes are sold for mil
lions and then a report is made that the gold lead haa
played out.
"It is the same with rubber plantations in Mexico,
many of which are paid for In Installment until the
time the trees are supposed to come into bearing.
Often the title to such lands is no good and the photo
graphs of the plantations are those of other rubber
districts, perhaps not far away.
"Not Infrequently the man who handles stock ha
his office in his carpet bag. where he carries the seal
of the company and moves about from place to place.
One man tried to sell me $4,000 worth of stock in a
fake mining scheme. He came here to Washington,
and we afterward found that he had the seal with
him and that he signed with hia own hand the names
of both secretary and president on the certificate.
We had a draft for $4,000 sent to him to Chicago and
he went there straightway to receive It In the mean
time it wa so directed that someone else opened it
Ton see, we never open a man's mall except by mis
take. This draft was on a bank which did not exist
in Chicago and we had our men there to arrest him.
He is now serving a term In the penitentiary.
Side Light on the Wireless.
"It is Impossible to know now widely these fraud
schemes extend," said Inspector Sharp. "They swal
low up the savings of army officers, the insurance
money of widows and the savings of all classes, even
to the government clerks. Take the Wireless Tele
graph company; it ha cost the people millions. One
of the first evidences I had of its extent occurred
shortly after I came to Washington. We had already
begun to draw our nets around It and the Washington
Get a Transfer
If you are on the Gloomy Line,
Get a transfer.
If you're inclined to fret and pine,
Get a transfer.
Get off the track of Doubt and Gloom,
Get on the Sunshine Train, there's room.
Get a transfer,
if you are on the Worry Train,
Get a transfer.
You must not stay there and complain.
Get a transfer. -The
Cheerful Care are passing through.
And there Is lota of room for you.
Get a transfer.
" If you are on the Grouchy Track,
Just take a Special back.
Get a transfer. . .
Jump on the train and pull the rope
That lands you at the station, Hope.
Get a transfer.
Ladles' Home Journal
At the same time a young girl on the opposite
aide of the table, a clerk in the treasury, s(d: 'I
hope so, too.. I have got $50 In Wireless. , I took It
as a flyer.'
"These people thought Lwaa a clerk in the Post
office department and they had no idea thai I wa con
nected with prosecution. They lost their money, of
course, and that like thousands of others who invested
in thla stock.
Swindling by MaO. .
"Can you give me some idea of the swindles car
ried on through the mails?" I asked.
"Their name is legion. We have farm option
sain dies, mail order swindles and rubber plant men;
we have fraudulent employment bureaus, fake corre
spondence school and fake patent agent; we have
swindles run by individuals and swindles by corpora
tions and, in short, all aorta of swindles under the
sun. As it is now, we are striking at the big men,
and we hope to wipe out a great part of the business.
We have a score or more of schemes which are being
carried on all over the country, some of which we are
rapidly eliminating. We have the swindler syndicate
by which the schemers try. to .induce the unsuspecting
to buy green goods or gold .bricks; we hare swindlers
who pretend to sell counterfeit money, and for good
dollars give the would-be rascals green paper or aaw
, dust Instead; we have diamond ring swindlers who
pick up diamond rings near jewelry shops and sell
them for half the value,' so changing the ling that the
victim gets only a cheap imitation.
"We have also- swindling loan agents and swin
dling real estate dealers; among the latter was Clar
ence D. Hitlman of Seattle, who made about $7,000,
000 in land schemes and town lot schemes, often
selling land to which he had no title at all. Ha laid
out towns and published pictures of the improvements.
Including railroads and factories, which had no ex
istence. He was considered one of the largest real
estate operators on the Pacific coast, but we exposed
hi fraudlent methods and he is now in the penlten
tlry for over two yeara."
Fake Price Fighters.
"How about the fake prise fighting schemes, Mr.
Inspector?"
"They sre anion the singular frauds carried on
through the mails," as, the reply. "They are
usually bached by men who pretend to be millionaires
and their victims try to make money by swindling the
swindlers. Take Mabray. who. together with his or
ganization, made something like $5,000,000 out of
that game. Hia victima came from all parte of the
country and each waa robbed of from $1,000 to
$20,000. In these cases the victim was approached
by one of Mabray's confederates, who confidentially
told the man that he was secretary of a company of
millionaires who had a prise fighter with them whom
they were matching at the various places in such a
way that the result was a dead sure thing. The con
federate claimed to have charge of the bet and he
got the victim to bet some money for him and at the
same time to put in a lot of his own money on the
C3Z CDT TBEELZ. 2NPa2&AZ22JEX
fight During the fight some unforseen thing always
happened and the money was lost In some cases
one of the prise fighters held a rubber bag of blood
or red ink in his hand which burst as he struck his
opponent giving claim to the statement that the man
had a hemorrhage and was, therefore, defeated. We
convicted Mabray and nine of his sssoclatea and mads
them pay a fine of J0, 000, 'as well a to serve twq
yeara in the penitentiary."
Barglarixlng the Postoffices.
"Is much money stolen from the postoffices?
"Yes; we hsve professional burglars who seem tJ
deal only with postoffices. They have stolen great .
quantities of stamps and at times considerable money
as welL Not long sgo a robbery occurred in the
postoffice at Minneapolis, where 800.000 stamps were
carried away. The thieves entered the postoffice at
night and opened the safe with a diamond drill; they
took their plunder to Chicago and disposed of it there
through men who acted as postage stamp fences; they,
hsd still about $4,000 worth of stamps left when
they were caught and convicted.
"'One of the largest postoffice robberies of recent
times," continued the chief inspector, "was that which,
occurred at Richmond in March. 1910. In this case
stamps to the value of over $84,000 were atolen, the
vault being entered by drilling a hole under the com'
blnatlon knob. This hole was threaded with a steel
thread cutter and then by a jimmy and screw the lode
wa forced back; the inner doors of the vsult wers
opened in the same manner. ,
"Thla work was done by Eddie Fay, a man who
had escaped from jail in Wisconsin a abort time be
fore, while awaiting trial for the robbery of the posU
office at West Superior. Fay waa known to be the
leader of a gang which had robbed the postoffice la
Chicago of $74,000 in 1101. He posed as a retired
business man living at Tacoma, Wash., under the
name of R. J. Cummlngs. He owned real estate In
Tacoma and was considered a respectable citizen. WJ
got on his track by tracing his trunks, one of which
waa aent to the Grand Central station. New York,
Inside the trunk was $2 7,000 in 2-cent postage
atamps. It was claimed by Fay, who waa thereupon
arrested and, to make a long atory abort, was con
victed of burglary, fined $6,000- and sentenced to
serve ten years In the federal penitentiary at Atlanta,
Ga."
"Hands Up."
As the chief Inspector concluded this story X
thanked him for the talk and rose to go. Aa I turned
toward the wall I faced the photograph of a train
robber who held a revolver which aeemed to point
straight at my eyes. Below it in black Ink wers the
words. "Handa Up!" Aa I walked across the room
the eyea of the photograph followed me and the gnn
seemed to move and to ever point straight at my
head. I remarked upon this, when Mr. Sharp said:
'That is the picture of a postoffice lnsDector who
helped convict a train robber out in the west. Ac
cording to the testimony of a half dozen different
men who were held up. the robber had pointed his
gun straight st each of them, and that notwithstand
ing they were scattered over the ear at whose door
he stood. The lawyers argued that auch a thing was
Impossible and that the witnesses must be lying, and
their testimony, therefore, could not be admitted.
Thereupon aa artist was called In and he said that it
was easy to make a picture whose eye would look
at all part of the room at one and the aame time.
The artist showed our Inspector how to pose in such
a position, and from that pose this photograph was
taken. It resulted In the train robber going to the
penitentiary" FRANK O. CARP ENTER.
