22 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



fered and become the innocent victims of these propa- 

 gandas of promotion, are unwilling to have their names 

 appear in print. 



It is the old story of the gold mine over and over 

 again. Perhaps as long as humanity remains as it is, 

 the art of the deceiver will flourish. The same princi- 

 ple which permits huge fortunes to accumulate by the 

 sale of quack remedies and worthless nostrums, is the 

 one employed to separate the hard-earned money of the 

 people and pour it into the coffers of the wicked pro- 

 moter. It is one of the astounding facts of humanity 

 to realize the truth of the fundamental principle of 

 Barnum's career, namely, that the people love to be 

 humbugged. It is not quite so bad when this humbug- 

 gery extends simply to going to a show. And after all 

 Barnum was not so great a humbug as he claimed to be, 

 because he gave a really interesting and instructive 

 performance. 



From the financial point of view, also, the victim 

 of the quack remedy is not so much to be pitied, because 

 it is only occasionally that he invests all he has in a 

 worthless remedy. Usually the promoter is wise 

 enough not to reduce him to penury, because that would 

 take him out of the ranks of his patrons. The wilder 

 the theory, it appears to me, the more devoted the con- 

 vert. Vagaries in politics, and especially in religion, 

 are quite as pronounced as those in medicine, and in 

 gold mines, and in submerged farms and non-existent 

 orchards. 



This Satanic cult even goes to the extent of defraud- 

 ing the people in the matter of the foods they use. 

 Simple cereals, the cost of which is perhaps not to ex- 

 ceed one and one-half cents a pound, are put up in at- 

 tractive packages under fine sounding names and sold 



