1883. J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
149 
J’or several years prior to 1880, a large share of our 
letters of inquiry related to certain Wall street 
operators. Each broker, as he claimed to be, made 
frequent 
Statements of Enormous Profits, 
and the temptation, assuming these to be true, was 
«o strong that many sent funds to these brokers 
for investment. Finding that the parties who ad¬ 
vertised so largely were quite unknown to the reg¬ 
ular Board of Brokers, we did not hesitate to warn 
our friends against entrusting money to their care. 
Their being unknown was one reason, and the other, 
that their stories were too good to be true. Early 
in 1880, these gentlemen of the eloquent circulars, 
some of which were adorned with pictures of pala¬ 
tial banking houses, were arrested for making 
fraudulent use of the mails, and turned out to be 
Most Disreputable Swindlers. 
At present a large share of our letters inquire 
about certain concerns in Chicago, which offer 
through “Mutual Cooperative Funds,” “Coopera¬ 
tive Clubs,” “ Mutual Investment Clubs,” and the 
like, special facilities for speculating in grain, in 
pork and other provisions, etc. These concerns 
issue various wordy circulars in which they propose 
to sell shares of $10 each, and in their reports show 
Most ICeiiiarlcsikle Profits 
on the investments. In some cases as much as forty 
per cent, each month on every share of $10. One 
claims to have made in nineteen months on each 
$10 share a profit of $87,521. It is not to be won¬ 
dered at that, seeing statements like these, a large 
number of friends write to ask if they can be true. 
We have no doubt that as an investment, these 
concerns sometimes report and actually make re¬ 
mittances of such large sums, claimed to be made 
in their operations. We know that this has been 
done in a large manufacturing town, where the 
great profits reported from an investment of $10 
would be talked about among the mechanics and 
operatives. These speculations are sure to col¬ 
lapse, because they are unnatural and unhealthy. 
As a correspondent in Ohio writes ; “ Investments 
that pay 40 per cent, per month 
Should he Handled Carefully.” 
There are five different concerns whose circulars 
have thus far come to hand. A majority of these 
claim to have originated the cooperative plan and 
nearly all claim to afford larger profits than any 
other, or to have some peculiarly superior advan¬ 
tages over the rest..... 
Eater and Interesting'. 
Since the foregoing was in type the Chicago 
operators, against whom the American Agriculturist 
has been warning its readers, and whose plans 
and schemes are exposed above, 
Have Come to Grief, 
by the interference of the Government, the Post¬ 
master General having issued an order forbidding 
the delivery of money orders and registered letters 
to five Chicago firms. Those named are R. E. 
Kendall & Co., Fleming & Merriam, Charles J. 
Henri & Co., Bennett, Holtsman & Co., and Cud- 
worth and Co. It would not be strange if some of 
these firms were mere dummies and if the same 
half dozen names figured in each. The Inspector 
on whose report the order is issued, says that un¬ 
der the system adopted by these operators, hand¬ 
some dividends were occasionally returned; but 
that in the end “investors ” were advised that by a 
sudden “turn of the market,” their money had 
been lost. The action of the Postmaster General 
will prove only a temporary embarrassment to 
these firms, which, it is probable, will reappear un¬ 
der new names and new disguises. “ Now you see 
us, and now you don’t,” is the motto of the ad¬ 
venturers to whom these “transformation scenes” 
are so familiar. They have as many shifts as the 
most pernicious insect, and pass from egg to 
larva and from chrysalis to imago with surpris¬ 
ing facility, and not always with due regard to 
natural sequence. A good time to destroy such 
creatures is in the egg. Our readers are again 
cautioned against this class of circulars. 
A lady in New York sends us a circular concerning 
which she asks our opinion. The circular is headed: 
“Work si* Home,” 
and contains a proposition to instruct persons in a 
new method of coloring photographs, the work to 
be paid for at what appears to be a liberal price. 
This is one of those uncertain eases that is some¬ 
times presented. The document is somewhat of a 
study as there are many “ ifs and ands ” in the pre¬ 
scribed conditions. It may be, in spite of several 
improbabilities, a bona fide offer, or it may be a care¬ 
fully devised plan forgetting $1 for the “Pamphlet 
of Directions,” which must always be paid for in 
advance. It all depends upon the character of the 
advertiser, and as it may be all right, we do not 
mention names or even give that of the locality. 
We would suggest that the advertiser, if a party of 
undoubted integrity, is very unfortunate in so 
wording his circular in several instances, as to 
create a doubt as to his real intentions. We are 
cautioned not only against evil itself, but to avoid 
“the appearance of evil.” There is much in the 
circular calculated to excite suspicion. .... 
Farmers are not the only cultivators of the soil 
for whom swindles are especially provided. Those 
who do business in cities and reside in the suburbs 
have for several years been victimized by a gang of 
Frenchmen, who are known among New York 
florists and seedmen as 
“ Tke Dlne>Kose Men.” 
These fellows have usually commenced in some 
Southern city, in winter, and worked their way up 
with the season, so as to arrive in New York about 
the time that amateur gardeners have the “ spring 
fever” and are excited by a short-lived enthusiasm 
in garden matters. The blue-rose men hunt in 
couples—one, who understands English, but does 
not speak it, calls to his aid the other, who wears 
a gardener’s apron, and speaks a great deal of Eng¬ 
lish—such as it is. The chaps hire an unoccupied 
store, on Broadway if possible, and display various 
sticks with roots, done up in bundles which are 
numbered and labelled with great appearance of 
precision. But their strong card is not the plants 
themselves, as they are, but the pictures of them 
as they will be, when, under the influence of an 
American sun, in an American soil, they shall 
“burgeon and blossom” after a manner that no 
other plants ever before equalled. 
Among tke Wonders 
—on paper, at least—of their stock are cherries, not 
of the celebrated kind of which “ a good many 
would weigh a pound,” but those which weigh a 
pound each ; strawberries of such enormous size 
as to require a bush to hold them up ; asparagus— 
real “ sparrow-grass,” which can be cut in 90 days 
after the seed is sown. If one is incredulous, 
there are the seeds, and there is the picture, and to 
hear the man in the apron tell how to put “ze seet ” 
in the ground is more instructive than some essays 
read at meetings qf horticultural societies. Then 
the roses—roses that in size equal the cabbage, and 
in fragrance out-scent a whole bottle of Otto or 
Attar, and in the way of flowers put all monthly 
roses to shame by blooming every day. There are 
roses of which white and red are obligingly borne 
by the same bush; and above and beyond all, 
there was 
Tke SSiue Hose, 
that horticultural wonder, which rosarians had 
striven for, and “waited for, but died without 
the 6ight.” We say there “was” the blue rose, 
as the last time these vendors appeared, they had 
It not—no, not even its picture. Perhaps they had 
heard of the ridicule attendant upon their attempts 
t j sell blue roses in former years, or it may have 
been that the 6 tock was all disposed of in other 
cities, before they reached New York; but the 
“ Blue Rose Men ” came without their greatest 
novelty—Hamlet, without the Prince of Denmark. 
Were Tkese I D eopie Siiceessful ? 
will no doubt be asked. The fact that they have 
come several years in succession would show that. 
The saying that “people like to be humbugged” 
never had a stronger illustration than this swindle 
affords. It was not the poor and the ignorant who 
expended their hard earnings upon these mythical 
plants, but the well-to-do and wealthy—men who 
would astonish their gardeners, and show them 
that their employer knew a good thing when he 
6 riw it—or its picture. Thus many a heavy bill was 
bought of these foreign swindlers by men who 
pride themselves on their shrewdness... .There i 6 
one thing which those tempted to purchase 
Novcllies in Plants or Seeds, 
whether in city or country, will do well to keep in 
mind. Our nurserymen, seedsmen, and florists are 
wide-awake, enterprising men, and as soon as a 
novelty of value appears in Europe or elsewhere, 
they at once secure it and offer it here. If any¬ 
thing out of the usual way, and claimed to be new 
and superior, is offered by travelling salesmen or 
unknown parties, like these periodical French¬ 
men, it is safe to assume that the claimed novelty 
has no real value, or is designedly a fraud. Among 
the latest documents received is one showing 
How to WI« Wilkout ('lieating, 
The inventor of this scheme explains his plan and 
kindly makes no charge. The method is the simplest 
application of the doctrine of chances to the prob¬ 
ability of a certain three numbers on the die turn¬ 
ing up instead of the other three, the comfortable 
assurance being given that the guileless victim is 
sure to win in the end. He is also informed, that the 
proprietor of this important secret wishes “ a lim¬ 
ited number of confidential agents” to engage with 
him in an easy, safe, and profitable job which, he 
mildly observes, “ like everything else that pays 
largely, is not strictly legitimate.” It is kind in 
this operator to offer ins victim the bait and to 
point out at the same time the consequences of 
taking it. This thing is so transparent that only a 
blind man would be deceived. It is well to remem¬ 
ber that “ playing with fire ” is a dangerous game, 
and if one must have a “ wicked partner ” he ought 
at least to have the privilege of choosing him. 
There ought to be but little place in this age, for 
the superstitious follies of former ages of ignor¬ 
ance, yet the credulous we have always with us, 
and as a general rule, as our “ Humbug ” responses 
have shown, there is an abundant supply of crafty 
operators ready to take advantage of human weak¬ 
ness and curiosity. Here lies before us a vile 
circular recommending 
Lover’s Powders 
or Philters to the young and inexperienced, in 
terms that are intended to debase the morals and 
degrade the habits of such as fall into this snare. 
This last corrupter of youth hails from the same 
town in Ohio as the card sharper above named, and 
occupies the same Post Office box, but under a dif¬ 
ferent name. It is probable that the same person 
is working both of these devices for all they are 
worth. The love powder is guaranteed to do all 
that is promised for it, and coupled with it is the 
offer of card pictures and ehromos at prices so low 
as to indicate their utter worthlessness and vulgar¬ 
ity. It is within the power of the Postmaster Gen¬ 
eral to put an end to these rascalities by ordering 
that no letters shall be delivered to these parties. 
This is the starvation policy which has worked ad¬ 
mirably heretofore. More than one hundred of the 
“Marriage,” “Endowment,” “Natal” and “BridaP 1 
Associations and Guilds, to some of which we called 
attention in the January number of the American 
Agriculturist, have been put under the ban of the 
Post Office since that number went to press. All of 
these were in the Southern States, Texas furnishing 
these organizations in a luxurious abundance un¬ 
becoming a Commonwealth so imperial. 
