BOOK LOVERS EASY PREY OF FRAUDS.

Bogus Art Works Fine Graft.

Some of our citizens are paying a high price for education in art and book swindles. People, generally, are becoming experts in detecting small frauds and attacks upon their pocketbooks, and are becoming wise to pious dodges that run into spiritualism, clairvoyance and fortune telling, but when a large, smooth scheme is broached, they get caught. It may be that we have concentrated our minds upon so many trifling schemes to part us from our money, that we have laid ourselves bare to big operators in big frauds like that perpetrated upon the Patten family of Evanston. The clever fakir reached for $40,000 in an "old book" game and came very near gathering in the pot. He did get $2,600, which was a very neat job.

It appears that there is a wide-spread system under the operations of which Chicago book lovers, and others all over the country, have been bilked out of a sum estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The same system is applied to paintings by the "old masters," for which some Chicago men have paid fabulous sums, only to find them imitations. The expert frauds are geniuses in their peculiar calling, and would deceive the elect if listened to. A bright, smart, well groomed man with letters of introduction from high quarters, often forged, perhaps with a title, breaks into society and bides his time to make a big haul. The vanity and foibles of the high-steppers and nobility worshipers are pandered to with masterly skill, and then a mere suggestion of untold values in books or paintings is breathed in secret. Do the big fish bite? Some of them swallow the bait and it has to be cut out of them before they will give it up. It is becoming so easy to gull some people, that the crime should consist in the betrayal of innocence rather than in the successful fraud. While guillible people continue to parade their guillibility to the world, there will always be frauds to take advantage of them. If anybody doubts the fact that people can be easily defrauded, let him visit any old book store, antique furniture dealer, oriental rug concern, even junk shops. He will find an amazing army of faddists, who are willing to pay any exorbitant price for some cheap fraud because a gentlemanly man, or an opium-smoking Chinaman, tells him it is the real thing. When business is dull at the shops, agents visit front doors, back doors, or invade society with some bogus job of "art" works and realize enormous sums.

Miserable Little Short Measure Thieves.

In the Municipal Court in South Chicago three extremely mean swindlers have been fined $25 and costs. It is unfortunate that they could not have been sent to the Bridewell without the alternative of paying the fine.

For these swindlers were coal dealers who robbed the poor that bought coal by the basket. They STOLE money from their customers, just as the short-measure milk trust conspirators robbed their patrons. We repeat that they ought to be in the Bridewell.

Giving short measure is the dirtiest, smallest, most cowardly form of commercial rascality. The hold-up man who takes his life in his hand and robs on the public highway is a model of decency and courage as compared with the pitiful rascal who steals the pennies of the poor by selling coal or milk or any other necessity of life by short weight.

Short weight is larceny. It ought to be treated as larceny by law.

Crime a Fine Art.

Living by one's wits has become a fine art, and it is a profession that is more liberally patronized than any other by the present generation. One of America's leading detectives remarked that there were about seventy-five thousand people in a city the size of Chicago that would bear watching. There isn't a bank, insurance office, dry goods store, restaurant or hotel that does not employ men to watch their customers, and there is hardly a business house in the country that has not some system of watching its employes. Everybody at this day seems to be afraid of everybody else.

Professional criminals pride themselves quite as much upon their ability as men engaged in legitimate occupations. A thief, for instance, is as vain of his superiority over other thieves as a lawyer, politician, or clergyman might be whose talents had elevated him to a commanding position in the eyes of the people. And the talented thief is as much courted and sought after as the successful man in the honest walks of life. The other thieves will say: "He is a good man to know; I must make his acquaintance." But the thief who has earned a reputation is particular about the company he keeps, and is scornful in his demeanor toward another thief whom he does not consider his professional equal. Caste exists among criminals as well as among other classes.

Men and women who are not living merely for today must be deeply interested in the efforts which practical philanthropists are making to discover the causes of crime and to remedy the mischievous conditions which now prevail to such an alarming extent. Hidden away to a considerable degree in the great mass of figures which came into being through the operations of the census bureau, are facts that should shock every good citizen. With all the warmth of eulogy the story of wonderful progress has been told again and again, but only a few references have been made to the abnormal growth of what may be termed by the criminal class. Forty years ago there was but one criminal to 3,500 good or reasonably good citizens. According to the last census the proportion was one in 786.5, an increase of 445 per cent in a period during which the population increased but 170 per cent. Never in the nation's history has educational work of all descriptions been nearly so active as at present, yet the increase in the number of those who were confined in penitentiaries and jails and reformatory institutions is almost twice as rapid as the growth of population.

Cities Breeding Spots of Crime.

The true explanation of this unsatisfactory state of things is not far to seek. It is almost entirely to be attributed to the growing tendency of the community to become concentrated in large cities. A highly concentrated population fosters lawless and immoral instincts in such a multitude of ways that it is only an expression of literal exactitude to call the great cities of today the nurseries of modern crime. Statistics of all kinds show this, but it can easily be ascertained without the aid of any figures. The aggregation of large multitudes within a very limited area must increase the chances of conflict, and consequently multiply the occasions for crime.

A population in this crowded condition has also to be restrained and regulated at every turn by a huge network of laws, and as every new law forbids something which was permitted before, a multiplication of laws is inevitably followed by an increase of crime.

The prevention of crime should be the great object with the philanthropist. The obvious remedy is, if possible, to aid the individual in overcoming the temptation to evil or to crime. The remedy must be general, gradual, and constant. It consists in religious, moral, intellectual, and industrial education of the children, especially of the poor and unfortunate and the weakling classes. The most certain preventive is the early incarnation of good habits in children, which, becoming part and parcel of their nervous organization, are an unconscious force when passion, perplexity, or temptation tend to make them lose self-control. Little can be expected from palliative remedies for social diseases so long as this educational remedy is not thoroughly carried out.

America's Educated Criminal Class.

The great mass of the American people, aside from those who have had experience in hunting and shadowing criminals, labor under the popular delusion that the most daring criminals of today are a lot of tough, ignorant men, with little or no education at all, who would do almost anything else than work honestly for a living. If people would but stop to consider the subject a moment they would readily discover their error. There are, it is true, a large number of swindlers, thieves, pickpockets, thugs and criminals of a like class who have but a scant knowledge of books, or literature, but they are only to be found among the lower class of criminals. The most notorious criminals the world has ever produced have been men and women of high culture and refinement, well educated and thoroughly posted on all that is transpiring. It is this class of people who make the most successful, and at the same time most dangerous, criminals. It requires men of education to swindle, crack a safe, rob a bank, jewelry store or forge a paper. To be a successful confidence operator requires the man to be well educated in matters of all kinds, to be a fluent talker, a person of refinement and polite address, and a good judge of character.

Refined Criminals Most Dangerous.

Criminal history shows that the most successful jobs are always planned and executed by men of education; the details of some of the great forgeries that have taken place, of the numerous bank robberies and burglar's exploits, all go to show the direction of a brain of no ordinary person, being proof positive that the persons planning the work possessed both education and talent. First class criminals are exceedingly hard to cope with, and are the most dangerous to handle by the officers. They do not generally do things in a rush or by halves. Great care is given to all the minor details of their work, and it often takes weeks and months before they are ready to put their plans into operation. They study all the possibilities of the job; the chances of success, and the way of escape in case of failure; how they can cover all traces of the work and throw the guilt or suspicion upon the more unfortunate of their class who have had reputations and who are likely to be brought up and possibly convicted on suspicion of being the guilty parties. Educated crooks are always to be feared, not only by the public against whom they are constantly devising ways and means to relieve of their valuables, but by detectives of a lesser grade. This class of crooks do not hesitate to sacrifice the detective if their desired ends can be successfully accomplished, while the detective finds it a task of no little moment to gain even the faintest clue to their operations.

Prison Poor Cure for Crime.

Locking a man up for committing a crime does not always cure him. It is now proven that affixed penalties to certain crimes accomplishes practically nothing, for it is based on a wrong principle. The length of confinement ought, confessedly, to be adjusted to the needs of the prisoner. He should not be discharged from his moral hospital until there is reasonable assurance that he is cured. He certainly should not be turned loose on society, on the mere expiration of a formal sentence, when it is known he will begin anew on his old life. Protection to society, as well as the reformation of the criminal, call for the retention of the latter until he can be trusted with his liberty, and affords proof that he is fitted to take his place in the world as a useful, law-abiding citizen. This system alone permits the fullest scope to reformatory methods, and leaves to the court the right of sentencing indefinitely, and to the tribunal which has to do with the prisoner's release, to say when there is reasonable ground for faith that if discharged he will not prove either a burden or menace to society. Where conduct and character afford no such grounds he should be incarcerated for life, just as we would retain hopeless lunatics in asylums.

Maconochie's Experiment.

This form of sentence was first put into operation in a modified form by Maconochie, at Norfolk Island, in 1836, with a success in the way of reformatory results from the start which was unequalled. Now the best authorities in penology in all countries not only commend it, but the opinion is fast becoming general that it is a necessary feature in every reformatory system of prison discipline. Of course it implies in prison management the highest wisdom and integrity, and especially the banishment of partisan politics therefrom. It makes the dominant idea of prison administration manhood-making, and not money-making.

Faces Portray Character.

Every one knows that men's passions, propensities, and peculiarities, as well as their calling, are reflected in their faces.

It is as impossible to disguise a face as a handwriting. When the expert comes the disguise is torn off and the face tells the true story of the spirit inside the body. One only needs to visit the penitentiary to realize how undeniably vice writes its sign manual on the features. It is not the drunkard only whose red nose, flabby cheeks and rheumy eyes betray him; it is the senualist whose vice is read in his lips, the knave whose propensity is revealed in the shape of his mouth; the man of violence is surrendered by his eyes. An experienced detective policeman, or a trained jailer seldom needs to ask the crime of which the prisoner was guilty. He can tell it by his face.

It is quite evident that in the future the study of physiognomy is going to be pursued more vigorously than it has been. As a means of preventing crime it may prove invaluable. How constantly do we hear of men "falling from grace," as the phrase goes. Yet these men must have carried their crime in their faces for a long time. If any one had been able to read their features the mischief might have been averted. It is well known that every man's face is more or less stamped by the pursuit he follows. An experienced observer can generally detect a lawyer, or a doctor, or a merchant, or a clerk, or a mechanic, or a clergyman, by merely studying his face.

The instinctive criminal is a social parasite. The conclusion is irresistible that he is organically morbid. He will proceed to any extreme, and life and property, separating him from the accomplishment of his wishes, are but barriers to be overcome. The occasional criminal is largely a negative creature, who yields himself when temptation and the stimulus of opportunity exceed his resistive power. The habitual and professional criminal represents degree rather than kind. Criminality is to him a profession, a fine art, and susceptible of division into specialties.

Criminal Heads Not Extraordinary.

The average heads of criminals and those of ordinary people probably do not vary much in size. A large brain does not necessarily indicate great intelligence any more than a small one mental deficiencies, this being true, as little importance can be attached to the weight of brains of criminals. The weight of Oliver Cromwell's brain was 82.29 ounces; Lord Byron's, 79 ounces; Cuvier's, 64 ounces; Ruloff's (a thief and murderer), 59 ounces; adult idiot's, 54.95 ounces; Daniel Webster's, 53.50 ounces, and Gambetta's, that of the size of a microcephalic idiot.

A face may either attract or repel; its lines indicate firmness and decision, or weakness and sensuousness. In physiognomy may be traced fineness or brutality, surfeit or privation, gentleness or irascibility; yet from a consideration of the face it is assuming too much to predicate the form of criminal tendencies, if any, on the subject. Criminal physiognomy is not yet an exact science. The practical criminologist regards criminality as bred in the bone and born in the flesh, and the ethology of crime to be looked for chiefly is in heredity and environment, using the word environment in its most liberal sense, ante and post-natal, and whatever cause, in whatever way, that exerts a deleterious influence upon nutrition and the functions of organic life, voluntary and involuntary.

Little is being done in this country in criminal anthropology that can compare with the studies and researches that are being carried on in Italy, France, and Germany. The student unacquainted with the language of these countries pursues his studies at a disadvantage, owing to the paucity of literature in English upon the subject.

The tide of crime is steadily rising. The level of criminality, it is well known, is rising, and has been rising during the whole of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, throughout the civilized world. Its prevention and cure is a perplexing study, and is engaging the thoughts and energies of the best intellects of the world.

[DETECTIVE CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE'S]
"Never-Fail" System

THE ONLY SURE WAY TO BEAT:

$1,000 REWARD WILL BE PAID TO ANYONE WHO USES DETECTIVE CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE'S NEVER-FAIL SYSTEM AND FAILS TO BEAT THE ABOVE SWINDLES.

DO NOT RISK YOUR MONEY WITHOUT HAVING FIRST CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED THE CHARACTER OF THE ENTERPRISE IN WHICH YOU ARE INVITED TO BECOME FINANCIALLY INTERESTED.

BE CONVINCED BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT THAT THE MEN CONNECTED WITH THE ENTERPRISE ARE ABOVE SUSPICION.

IF THEIR PROBITY, INTEGRITY OR RELIABILITY CAN NOT BE ESTABLISHED BY PAST TRANSACTIONS IT IS CERTAIN THEIR HONESTY WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED BY FUTURE DEALINGS.

DO NOT INVEST IN ANY COMPANY, CORPORATION, OR PRIVATE CONCERN UNTIL THE MANAGEMENT HAS FURNISHED INDISPUTABLE PROOF OF ITS ABILITY TO FULFILL EVERY PROMISE.

LEAVE SPECULATION TO THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD TO LOSE.

LARGE GAINS ON SMALL INVESTMENTS USUALLY EXIST ONLY IN THE IMAGINATION OF GULLIBLE INVESTORS AND UNSCRUPULOUS PROMOTERS.

LARGE RISKS INCUR LARGE LOSSES.

NO MAN WILL "LET YOU INTO A GOOD THING;" HE WILL KEEP IT FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FRIENDS.

PROMOTERS ARE NOT IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY FOR YOU, BUT "OUT OF YOU."

CONTENT YOURSELF WITH LEGITIMATE INVESTMENTS AND SMALL BUT SAFE RETURNS.

RATHER THAN SEEK GREAT PROFITS WITHOUT TOIL STRIVE FOR THE DESERVED FRUITS OF INDUSTRY.

NO MAN WILL GIVE YOU A DOLLAR FOR FIFTY CENTS—UNLESS THE DOLLAR IS COUNTERFEIT.

DO NOT PAY OUT YOUR OWN GOOD MONEY FOR ANOTHER MAN'S BOGUS DOLLARS.

IF THE PROMOTER COULD DO ONE-HALF OF WHAT HE CLAIMS, HE WOULD NOT NEED YOUR MONEY, BUT SOON WOULD BE RICH BEYOND THE DREAMS OF AVARICE.

DO NOT INVEST YOUR HARD-WON SAVINGS IN VANISHING AIR CASTLES.

PROMISES WHICH PROCEED FROM A DESIRE TO GET YOUR MONEY ALWAYS MERIT SUSPICION. SUBJECT THEM TO THE MOST CAREFUL AND RIGID EXAMINATION.

ADOPT THE BANKER'S RULE THAT: "ALL MEN SHOULD BE REGARDED AS DISHONEST UNTIL THEIR HONESTY IS PROVED," RATHER THAN THE SUCKER'S THEORY THAT "ALL MEN ARE HONEST."

THE BANKER WILL END LIFE POSSESSED OF WEALTH WHILE THE CREDULOUS OPTIMIST WHOSE FAITH IS UNBOUNDED WILL WIND UP HIS DAYS "A POORER BUT WISER MAN."

WHEN IN DOUBT DO NOTHING.

IF A PROMOTER CAN NOT DISPEL YOUR DOUBTS HE IS NOT WORTHY OF YOUR CONFIDENCE.

DO NOT FOLLOW SIREN CHANCE. SHE WILL LEAD YOU INTO THE ABYSS OF DESPAIR.

BEWARE OF THE DICE; THERE IS BUT ONE GOOD THROW WITH THEM—THROW THEM AWAY. THEY WERE USED TO CAST LOTS FOR THE BLOOD-STAINED GARMENTS OF JESUS CHRIST; THEY ARE USED TO GAMBLE AWAY THE HONOR OF MEN.

PLAY NOTHING, INVEST IN NOTHING, BUY NOTHING, TRUST NO MAN OR WOMAN UNTIL YOU HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THE ENTERPRISE IS LEGITIMATE BEYOND QUESTION.

AVOID THE MISTAKE OF THAT GREATEST FOOL OF ALL FOOLS, THE MAN WHO THINKS HE IS TOO SMART TO BE FOOLED.

YOU ARE NOT SHREWD ENOUGH TO BEAT ANY MAN AT HIS OWN GAME; HE HAS STUDIED ITS MANIPULATIONS; YOU ARE A NOVICE.

DON'T LET ANYONE STAMPEDE YOU INTO DOING ANYTHING. THE "RUSH" ACT IS A FAVORITE TRICK OF GRAFTERS, FROM THE CHEAP CADGER WHO BORROWS SMALL CHANGE TO THE INVESTMENT BROKER WHO OFFERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RISK A FORTUNE IN "THE CHANCE OF A LIFE-TIME" THAT MUST BE SNAPPED UP IMMEDIATELY OR LOST FOREVER.

WHEN A MAN TRIES TO HURRY YOU INTO SPENDING YOUR MONEY PUT IT BACK IN YOUR POCKET AND KEEP YOUR HAND ON IT.

USE CAUTION, REASON AND COMMON SENSE.

DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. MOST OTHERS WILL "DO" YOU IF YOU GIVE THEM A CHANCE.

IF YOU ARE MARKED AS ONE OF THE GEESE READY FOR PLUCKING BY GET-RICH-QUICK SWINDLERS THEY WILL SEND YOU LITERATURE THROUGH THE MAILS. SAVE EVERY CIRCULAR, LETTER OR OTHER COMMUNICATION TOGETHER WITH THE ENVELOPES AND SEND THEM TO THE POSTOFFICE INSPECTOR IN THE TOWN FROM WHICH THEY WERE SENT.

BE SURE TO SEND THE ENVELOPES WITH THE LITERATURE AS THE COMMUNICATIONS CANNOT BE ADMITTED AS EVIDENCE UNLESS THE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OR ENVELOPES IN WHICH THEY WERE MAILED ARE OFFERED WITH THEM. THE POSTMASTER WILL INSTRUCT HOW TO FORWARD THE COMPLAINT.

PROSECUTION OF THE SWINDLERS WILL SURELY FOLLOW.

IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF THE CONCERN WHICH INVITES YOU TO INVEST YOUR MONEY, CONSULT A LAWYER, BANKER OR REPUTABLE COMMERCIAL AGENCY.

Intending investors should remember that:

"SURE TIPS" are sure bait for sure fools.

When you hear stocks have gone up and men who bought them cheap have sold them at high prices and gained fortunes suspect your informant. If he seeks to induce you to invest be assured he is a GET-RICH-QUICK grafter.

Many swindlers wear the garb of respectability; they even cloak their rascality with piety. Many men accepted by the world as honorable members of society spend their lives living on the credulity of the ignorant, and when they die go to the grave followed by hordes of dupes who mourn their end.

These swindlers await you at every turn; on the race-track; in the saloon; with the poker deck and the ivory dice; with watered stock and fraudulent bonds; with prayers on their lips and designs in their minds to defraud you.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN HONEST GAMBLER.

Every gambling game is a dishonest scheme. You seek to get the other man's money without giving him anything in return.

You are not entitled to one penny unless you give value in return. If you are in business you know that every promissory note, to be valid, must bear on its face two words, "value received."

INDUSTRY, ENERGY, THRIFT! These are the dice that win. The lesson is hard to learn for the young.

He has anxious days and feverish nights who risks at chance what should be devoted to the nobler ends of life; who "makes throws" on the green cloth; who watches the snake-like tape squirm out of the ticker; or gazes at a bunch of horses running around a ring.

GIVE IT ALL UP AND ADOPT HONEST MEANS OF PROCURING WEALTH!

[The Best Rules for Health, Happiness and Success.]

THEY ARE WORTH THE ATTENTION AND THOUGHT OF ALL READERS.

Some of these sayings will strike you as very old and lacking in novelty. But, old as these rules are, human beings have not yet learned to follow them. And they won't learn for many a long year.

We shall not moralize about them all today, only one or two we want to emphasize.

"Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly."

If you work willingly, if you make yourself realize that willing effort is easy, AND THE ONLY KIND THAT MAKES YOU GROW AND SUCCEED, you will solve one of your big working problems.

Did you ever see a small boy walking ahead of a band, with the music playing?

And did you ever see the same small boy walking half the distance to get a newspaper for his father? Walking with the band rests him; it doesn't tire him at all, BECAUSE HE DOES IT WILLINGLY. And the other kind of walking takes the very heart out of him and makes him almost too tired to eat his dinner.

It is exactly that way with all the work we do in this world. When you do things willingly, with the heart and the nerves and the brain acting with one another cheerfully, work is easy AND SUCCESS FOLLOWS.

A willing FOOL may lag behind an unwilling man of intelligence. But even a willing fool is happier in the end than an unwilling one, and, all things being even, the employe working WILLINGLY will cease being an employe and have others working for him sooner than the other man.