Apbil 2, 1914. 



The Florists' Review 



46 



TWO YEARS IN THE PEN FOR 

 FLIMFLAMMING FLORISTS 



l^OT 



Advertiser who failed to keep faith with Review readers, 

 at this paper's complaint, gets prison term at hard labor 





wo years at Joliet." It 

 I was Judge Kenesaw M. 

 Landis who spoke, in the 

 [United States Circuit court 

 at Chicago March 28, and 

 I his words closed the inci- 

 dent of August Miller, La Grange, 111.; 

 Albert Frei, Pittsburgh, and Fred 

 Klein, of Colona, Pa., whose real name 

 is August Pajonk. 



The charge against Pajonk was us- 

 ing the mails to defraud; his mistake 

 was in not keeping away from The Re- 

 view. 



Over the names of Albert Frei and 

 Fred Klein, another trade paper printed 

 Pajonk 's ads after they had been re- 

 fused by The Review, but his arrest, 

 indictment and conviction was solely 

 on evidence placed in the hands of 

 postoffice inspectors by The Review. 



After Pajonk had disappeared from 

 La Grange, 111., and been located by 

 The Review as . operating under the 

 name of Frei at Pittsburgh, the post- 

 office inspector at Chicago sent two 

 men to the Pennsylvania city to make 

 the arrest. They there 

 found evidence that the 

 man also was operating a 

 matrimonial swindle, (but 

 the case presented by The 

 Review was so clear that 

 no use was made of any- 

 thing else. Pajonk 's great 

 mistake, therefore, was in 

 not keeping faith with the 

 readers of The Review. 



The Trial. 



When Pajonk was ar- 

 rested he had a sum of 

 money on him that the 

 United States C o m m i s - 

 sioner permitted him to 

 use to employ an attorney 

 and to obtain bail. But 

 Pajonk jumped his $5,000 

 bail bond in Pittsburgh; 

 when wanted, his attorney 

 could not produce him. 

 Knowing a number ^ of 

 banks in which Pajonk 

 had trifling balances, the 

 postoffice people watched 

 these until they found their 

 man, rearrested him and 

 brought him to Chicago. 



At the trial, March 27, 

 Pajonk pleaded guilty to 

 the charge. The judge was 

 the man who attained 

 world-wide celebrity by 

 assessing the famous twen- 

 ty-seven-million-dollar fine 

 against Standard Oil and 

 Pajonk undertook to miti- 

 gate the severity of his 

 sentence by telling a long 

 story about come florist he 



who had told him 

 up a nice, profitable 



could not name 

 how to build up a 

 and easy business by taking orders 

 and then buying the stock to fill 

 them with. The court was incredulous. 

 Enough evidence was introduced to 

 show the extent of the man's opera- 

 tions, and their duration. The judge 

 took a day to look over the papers 

 and March 28 fixed the punishment at 

 two years in the Joliet penitentiary. 



Pajonk 's Story. 



Pajonk 's story is that of a florist 

 who found easy money too great a 

 temptation. Apparently Pajonk, who 

 perhaps is better known under the 

 name of August Miller, had intended 

 doing an honest business; he adver- 

 tised and took orders with the idea of 

 picking up the stock to fill them. But 

 it was not so easy or so profitable as 

 it had promised to be — the temptation 

 was great, with a pocketful of other 

 people 's money and no home ties, to 

 pull out, change names, and try it 

 over again somewhere else. Pajonk 



EASY MONEY LEADS THIS MAN TO HARD LIFE 







did not have strength to resist. 

 Pajonk knows the trade thoroughly. 

 He made just one mistake; he over- 

 looked the zealousness with which The 

 Review guards the integrity of its ad- 

 vertising columns. That was what got 

 him the term in the penitentiary. 



When Pajonk slipped he rented a 

 postoffice box at La Grange, 111., just 

 outside of Chicago, under the name of 

 August Miller. He sent a small classi- 

 fied ad to The Review, accompanied 

 by cash, for publication over the La 

 Grange address. Apparently he kept 

 faith with all who answered that one. 

 But the stock offered in a second ad 

 two weeks later was not so easy to 

 supply. When a Chicago florist dropped 

 in at The Review office and remarked 

 that he had been at La Grange to buy 

 some of the advertised stock and 

 couldn't locate the advertiser, it was 

 enough to arouse suspicion. There 

 doubtless are many honest florists 

 whose places of business are not easily 

 found, but if they are not known in 

 their home towns they have to show 

 The Review before they 

 can use its advertising col- 

 umns. Consequently, the 

 ad never appeared a second 

 time. 



Pajonk Moves On. 



An investigator from the 

 office of The Review went 

 to La Grange. The post- 

 master had received no 

 complaints. There was not 

 the slightest evidence that 

 anything was wrong; only 

 no August Miller could be 

 found. The postoffice in- 

 spector was asked to keep 

 an eye open, and in a few 

 days reported that the mail 

 was no longer being taken 

 from lock box 54 at La 

 Grange. "Miller" had 

 skipped. 



Then a complaint came 

 that afforded a basis for 

 action. A florist wrote that 

 he had sent an order for 

 geranium cuttings, accom- 

 panied by a postoffice 

 money order; a typewrit- 

 ten acknowledgment had 

 been received, stating that 

 the stock would be shipped 

 in a few days, but it 

 hadn't arrived. Investiga- 

 tion showed that the money 

 order had been cashed. But 

 the man had vanished. 



Enter Albert Frei. 



Having had a taste of 

 easy money Pajonk wanted 

 more of it, and tried for 



