If the amount paid has been too small to satisfy hospital funds, an effort is made to collect more, but usually not from the girl.
The madam gets the patient's confidence and discovers, if she can, the man responsible for the girl's condition. A bill is then sent him for several hundred dollars. Should he ignore it or refuse to pay, he is politely told that the account will be placed in the hands of a lawyer in the town where he resides and the matter can be adjusted by a "jury of his fellow citizens."
Imagine the consternation of some business man or church deacon in a small community over the receipt of such a letter.
If guilty, and they are as a general thing, they take the next train for Chicago and pay the bill. Parties running these establishments are money makers. I know of one on West Adams street whose owner has made a fortune of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, all accumulated in twenty years.
The Electric Belt Fraud.
This is another one of the many humbugs that seem to have fastened themselves on the country. Chicago is the center for this as well as every other fake of a medical character.
These belts are of the cheapest construction and are made at a cost of twelve and one-half cents each. They sell for anything, up to three hundred and even five hundred dollars. There may be virtue in electricity, properly applied, but there certainly is none in the belt.
Dr. McL—— is located in Chicago, and has branch offices in almost every state in the union. He takes pages in the daily press to tell of the virtues of his belt. It cures everything from lumbago to corns. He usually pictures a man in a half-stooping position, holding his back with one hand, while with the other he is getting a belt from a sympathizing doctor.
Dr. McL—— has made big money duping his fellow men. Recently he opened an office in the City of Mexico. There the government protects people somewhat from their own folly.
A Mexican bought a belt, guaranteed to cure his disease: it failed. The doctor was promptly arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses. He was sent to jail, where he remained sixteen months.