1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
39 
SUNDRY HUMBUGS. 
This column is not open for any individual to vent his 
spleen. Anonymous letters making charges of fraud 
against others receive no attention. No man should ask 
the editor to make accusations which he himself dare 
not back up. Some complain that we have failed to ex¬ 
pose swindles which they have forwarded. Very likely. 
Sometimes we can not find room for all. In other cases 
there is not sufficient evidence to warrant us in putting 
some names and business enterprises in these columns. 
We try to be very careful, and when, after faithful ex¬ 
amination, there remains a doubt as to the real character 
of any person or business, we give the benefit of that 
doubt. In these exposures of swindlers we have only 
the best interests of our readers and of the public in 
view, with no animosities to gratify; and if, through de¬ 
ception of others, or by error, any mistake is made, we 
will be most happy at any time to make prompt correc¬ 
tion or retraction. Though often prosecuted by those 
who hope that we may not be fortified with legal proofs, 
and by those who hope to get notoriety and free advertis¬ 
ing, or at least to scare us into silence by beginning libel 
suits, we are glad to be able to state that in a long course 
of years, and after having shown up more than Fifteen 
Hundred swindling schemes, no libel suit has yet been 
successful against us, and our exposures have never been 
successfully controverted in more than one or two in¬ 
stances, and these only when the work has. been neces¬ 
sarily delegated to others for a brief time. I?ine tenths of 
all our Humbug columns have been written by the senior 
editor, and he has never yet been shown to be in error 
in a single item. Our readers seldom hear through our 
columns of the libel suits commenced against us, for in¬ 
timidation oradvertisement. The intimidation is of course 
a failure; and we will not gratify by advertising those 
who hope to get notoriety or sympathy by assuming the 
innocence implied in bringing a libel suit, which can be 
done at slight expense. Bank of England 
Notes. —An expensive cable telegram from London re¬ 
cently appeared in the daily and other journals, respect¬ 
ing the operations of a swindler who offers to supply fac¬ 
simile Bank of England notes. Our readers, especially 
those residing in the Dominion, were fully informed of 
this fellow’s schemes many months ago.Queer- 
Sawdust. —The “sawdust” class, is so called be¬ 
cause in return for money privately sent forC.O.D. boxes 
of first-class counterfeit bills, the senders receive neatly 
put up parcels of sawdust or other trash. As already 
stated, we have no sympathy for the thousands of victims 
of this specific swindle. None but dishonest persons, 
who wish to defraud their neighbors or the Government 
by circulating what they are led to believe to be perfect 
facsimiles or imitations of real money, would ever send 
their money for this “ queer ” stuff. The money so lost 
is merely transferred from one swindler’s pocket to that 
of another—and millions in the aggregate have been so 
transferred within three years past. No counterfeit 
money has gone out. The operators escape free because 
their victims can not appear against them without con¬ 
victing themselves of an attempt to circulate counterfeit 
money. For the $10 to $100 remittances forwarded, noth¬ 
ing is ever returned, except the C.O.D. sawdust boxes to 
be paid for before delivery. Those who call at the dens 
of the operators are fleeced by bogus policemen, who 
nab them as counterfeiters, and let them off after taking 
all they have, even to watches, etc., as hush-money; or 
they pay for packages of good money, which are dexter¬ 
ously changed for the sawdust... .Oneoperator sends out 
large numbers of newspaper slips, ingeniously printed 
and cut to make them appear to be from the New York 
Herald, which state that certain plates have been stolen 
from the Government. In a lithograph letter lie pretends 
to have these stolen plates, and offers genuine bills 
printed from them for 10 cents on the dollar, ne signs no 
name, but puts in a loose card, “ Benj. F. Grayson, No. 2 
Whitehall street, N. Y. (late of Houston, Texas); ” also 
“Robert M. Jameson (late of New Orleans, La.).” lie 
adds on liia card, “ Collections made South and West,” 
which he is doubtless doing—from greenhorns. Of course 
it would be difficult to prove that the man on the card 
wrote the unsigned lithograph letter, and so he escapes 
arrest. He asks for money by express, and for letters by 
mail. The letters aro of course stopped by Mr. Gayler. 
-Wm. & Jno. Wood, 192 Broadway, to be addressed by 
express at 33 Park Row, offer the “ good ” queer, and add 
a P.S., requesting letters for them to be addressed to one 
in their employ—viz., Wm. Potter, 190 Broadway. Mr. 
Gayler will please note this—a new dodge to get letters. 
-Hudson,Wood & Co., 44 Liberty st., adopt I.O.O.F. 
symbols, and pretend to be forming an extensive secret 
society for sundry operations, and want you to take a $10 
share, in return for which they will send $1,000 of good 
“ qjjeer.”.Among other assumed names in this line 
we have: Dr. Lorand, Williamsburgh, N. Y. (no street 
or number), Dr. J. Hermans, 340 Canal street, N. Y ; 
G. M. Washburn, 3 Beekman street, New York; B. 
H. Longstreet, 50 Maiden Lane, alias , G. W. Washburn, 
3 Beekman street, who promises to send you the plan of 
his real “den,” if you promise to come on and get 
fleeced; John Ilood, Jr., who dates some of his swindling 
circulars at Wilmington, Del., somcat 1'98Broadway, and 
some at 907 Broadway ; H. Miller, OSS Broadway, alias 
S. Wing, 16 South Fifth avenue, who pretends to have 
a book-store, and who uses secret society symbols as 
a blind, etc. “Spanisli Policy.” —This is a 
dangerous humbug, because so many ignorant people are 
Micawbers, trusting to luck, and a “ Spanish ” lottery has 
to them always some charm. The persistence of the oper¬ 
ator, who adopts one or two new names each month, 
shows that he finds paying dupes. Under each of two 
names, G. W. Jackson and Wm. T. Neal, both at 16 S. 5th 
Avenue, N. Y., he claims to be sole agent in the United 
States of a Spanish Policy. The printed»scliemcs and 
tickets he scatters so widely at great expense are entirely 
of his own manufacture, and he pockets all the money he 
receives—which must be a large amount to mce.t his ex¬ 
penses only,besides profits, which are doubtless large also. 
.Gift Enterprises abound—many of them so 
taking and plausible as to draw in large numbers of fool¬ 
ish people. We judge that not less than $100,000 a 
month are thus extracted from the pockets of the people. 
The Louisville, ICy., Library scheme is just now the most 
active and glaring. The million dollars wanted not 
being quite made up, the “drawing,” “owing to the 
Chicago fire,” was necessarily “ postponed” to December 
15th. The “Library” will stand a poor chance, judging 
from the daily “ expenses ” of the Broadway office near us, 
and the extensive advertisements constantly appearing. 
.Of a like character is the Kentucky lottery of certain 
schools; ditto the Omaha, Neb., Lotteries, dubbed Gift 
Concerts, and put under the patronage of Libraries, Hos¬ 
pitals, etc.; ditto the South Carolina Land and Immi¬ 
gration Association Lottery, alias “ Gift Concerts.” We 
have circulars, ostensibly from “ the Sisters of Visitation, 
Mount de Chantal Academy, (near) Wheeling, W. Va.,” 
which may be genuine, and the Academy may, for 
aught we know, be a very worthy one, but the Sisters 
are certainly degrading the livery of Heaven when 
they stimulate subscriptions by offering for each dollar a 
ticket in the lottery of a farm of 100 lucres near Washing¬ 
ton, D. C. Perhaps we may aid them by hinting the 
expediency of telling something about that farm, how 
much it is worth, and how many shares there are to be. 
The inducement to subscribe will be increased, if some 
taking particulars are given. Another strong inducement 
we did not note when writing the above, viz., every pur¬ 
chaser of 10 tickets ($10) “ will be entitled to the registry 
of his name for a weekly Mass to be offered for tho next 
ten years (Jan. 1870 to Jan. 1S80) for the benefit of Mount 
de Chantal Academy.” We are further informed that 
subscribers can have dead relatives or friends entered on 
this registry! If such a lottery will not draw, we don’t 
know what will. To have one’s dead relatives remem¬ 
bered weekly at mass for ten years is worth (?) paying well 
for.Luther & Son, proprietors, and John De Armond, 
manager, Buchanan, Mich, have a small lottery, only 
$34,000,in a brick store, gothic residence,etc. Tickets only 
$1 each, giving you a choice from three weekly papers. 
We thought lotteries were prohibited bylaw in Michigan. 
This has another name, however. If people want the 
papers offered, the publishers will gladly receive their 
money direct. If they consent to this lottery stimulant, 
their papers better be unsubscribed for. Such schemes 
debauch pnblic morals more than the best papers can do 
them good.—[P. S. A letter from a cotemporary says, 
“Luther & Son have been doing business in Berrien Co. 
for fifteen years, and are known to be men of honor and 
integrity. Under pressing pecuniary embarrassment 
they are attempting to dispose of their property at a fair 
value by means of a Gift Concert,” and further says the 
affair will be conducted fair and honestly ; that the prop¬ 
erty is most desirable, etc. All of which we will not call 
in question; but if Messrs. L. & Son are right in this 
mode of selling property, may not all other embarrassed 
parties—and there are tens of thousands of them—adopt 
the same plan of getting relief, and so inaugurate a gener¬ 
al system of Lotteries all over the country ? If it is right 
in one case, it is right in all, and the more respectable the 
parties in this case, the worse is the example.].Vile 
Books and Pictures are covertly advertised by 
sundry parties, and pretty openly by a “ Book Company ” 
in Minneapolis, Minn. We suggest to the proper author¬ 
ities of that city to look into this affair and see that, for 
tho credit of their fine place, there be no dissemination of 
vice. Lest any imprudent youth be tempted to try this 
(so-called) company’s “Turkish lozenges,” we advise all 
who have not done so to read the item on “Love Pow¬ 
ders ” in our Nov. paper, page 406. This so-called com¬ 
pany also offers “ exact copies” of U. S. Treasury notes 
and National Bank bills, but claims to only offer them 
as detectors of counterfeit money. Why better for this 
purpose than the good money, which is accessible to 
everybody? Parents should have a care that the “our 
catalogue” of this so-called company docs not get into 
the hands of their children, with its tempting bait of 
corrupting pictures.Medical.—About the meanest 
cheats we know of are the tribe of “ Consumption 
curers ” who impose upon the hopes and fears of a class 
of persons needing sympathy. One man has during a 
dozen years grown rich by his skill in giving and selling 
books and medicines to consumptives. He has the art 
of persuading his dupes that he has great experience 
and skill, and few that listen to him once get off without 
putting into his pockets from $25 to $1,000 each. He 
publishes records of many cures—all of them cases which 
had doubtless no vestige of consumption to start with, 
except in imagination. There is a large number of Im¬ 
postors who dub themselves “Rev.,” and claim to have 
obtained a sure cure for consumption, while missionaries 
away down in Brazil, or among the Western Indians, or 
in the East Indies. Some of them offer a free recipe, 
which always contains some curiously named plant that 
you ultimately find can only be obtained of themselves. 
N. B .—Every one of these benevolent “Revs.” is a down¬ 
right swindler. We met one of them the other day that, 
from his circulars, you would suppose to be a very vener¬ 
able old gentleman; lie was a young scapegrace who 
under another name conducted a pretended counterfeit- 
money scheme. The “ Sands of Life ” man was one of 
this stamp. He is probably now a very reverend in 
sheep’s clothing—a returned missionary anxious to send 
you a free consumption cure, and his “at cost ” prepara¬ 
tions, that is, a parcel or bottle of it, costing 10 cents, he 
will send for $3 or so..... .The Cundurango cancer cure 
will be treated in a separate item by our M.D. Editor. 
The “University Medicines,” and the Company Medi¬ 
cines inquired about, we rank among other quack medi¬ 
cines, and advise people to let them all alone severely. 
.Other downright swindlers we have not room to 
describe, such as R. II. Foster, Williamsburgh, N. Y., 
$50 Watches for $2.75; Mrs. (?) Sarah B. Lambert, Green- 
point, N. Y., Love Perfumes (rank poison), and Matri¬ 
monial Agency; sundry offers of “Books of Secrets,” 
paying (?) Recipes, etc; the “Seeding Machine,” patent 
paid for by notes to be divided (already noticed).—— 
Wise people, young and old, will promptly burn the 
“ Prophylactical Star ” and the “ Good Samaritan,” sheets 
sent out from Albany, N. Y.A Tennessee subscriber 
writes us that he counted fifteen bad advertisements in a 
single number of the Toledo Blade, besides an uncounted 
host of quack-medicine advertisements. We hope he 
and all other readers will write to that and similar papers 
and remonstrate with them. If all subscribers to news¬ 
papers would take this course, and then drop the papers 
if the advertisements be not dropped, we should soon have 
a great reform in this matter throughout the entire press. 
. Postmasters are promised a “good,useful present,” 
not described, if they will distribute the vile sheet called 
“Journal of Health,” sent out from Albany, N. Y.—an 
•Id thing, with a new name for the doctor. In this 
sheet you are offered medicines for vile diseases, secret 
of taming horses, honey recipes, etc., etc.—a poor hum¬ 
bug. We hope no postmasters are so green as to want 
the presents, and arc sorry there are ignorant people 
enough to support this extensively circulated trash. 
Another so-called “ M.D.” sends out the old story about 
his finding a cure-all down in Brazil, for Uncle Joe, and 
wants agents to sell his “ Wine of Apocynum,” which 
nobody else knows. We suppose there mtst be people 
so ignorant and gullible as to patronize such a pretender, 
or he would not operate in this way, but we pity his poor 
victims.Maine State has several ingenious persons 
located within her borders (so as to get out of reach of 
the mass of their customers, we suppose) who are very 
anxious to make all the rest of the world rich by the sale 
of sundry notions—sewing-machines, the best in the 
world, to be sold for a song; thousands of most valu¬ 
able (?) recipes, etc., etc. Those who put faith in these 
wonderful pretensions (on paper) can prove their truth¬ 
fulness by sending the money required, always in ad¬ 
vance, or C. O. D., which amounts to the same thing, as 
the money must be paid to the Express Co. befot'e the arti¬ 
cles can be seen. Perhaps it will benefit the country at 
large if half a hundred or so of the victims of these 
Maine concerns will send us an account of their expe¬ 
rience in past investment- giving full, reliable particu¬ 
lars.Burning- Oils.—Michigan is afflicted with 
sundry sellers of recipes for manufacturing burning oils, 
with various luminous and scientific names, claimed to 
be non-explosive, etc. They are all humbugs. We have 
probably seen all these recipes from “ Sun-light-” 
to “French;” the nahptha found in most of them is a 
dangerous thing in any burning-oil for common use, and 
is one of the things to be carefully taken out of all safe 
illuminating oils.Honey Becipes are still largely 
advertised by sundry parties. They tell how to scent up 
simple syrup of sugar and water to resemble honey. 
Nobody should invest 25 cents in any such recipe for 
home use or sale. 
