Part 35

The work-at-home scheme is operated in a variety of ways, but the underlying principle is the same in all cases. Sometimes the work to be done consists in embroidering doilies or in making lace, and in other cases it consists in filling in with gilt paint price tickets printed in outline. In all cases the work is described as easy, the advertisements assuring the reader that experience is unnecessary. In all cases, too, the victim is obliged to buy, from the promoters of the scheme, "materials" or a lace-making machine or some other object before she is given any work. The following description of a scheme against which a fraud order was issued last May will make clear the methods pursued by all fakers of the work-at-home class. The advertisement in this case reads as follows:

Home Work, $9 to $15; No Canvassing.

$5 to $6 weekly working evenings; experience unnecessary. Inclose stamps for instructions, sample, etc. Address B. Wilson & Co., 603 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.

MONEY CHARGED FOR FAKE "OUTFITS."

To those who reply to this advertisement a circular letter is sent stating that the work required consists in filling in with bronze paint store-window price tickets printed in outline, one of which, partly filled in, is inclosed as a sample.

The circular states that the work is easily done, requires no previous experience, and that all that is necessary, is to do the work in a neat manner. Two dollars and a half a hundred is offered for tickets filled in as described, and the prospective victim is assured that she can easily gild at least 100 tickets a day. She will require an "outfit," of course, the cost of which is generously put at the remarkably low price of $1.10.

In return for her $1.10 the victim receives a handful of window tickets, a small bottle of bronze paint, and a brush for applying it--the actual value of the articles furnished, including postage, being fully covered by the extra 10 cents.

The worst is yet to come. When the woman, having parted with her money and having spent her time in filling in the handful of tickets sent her, returns them, at her own expense, she receives, not a check in payment for the work done, but a circular letter stating that her work is "unsatisfactory." She may possess the talent of a Rosa Bonheur and a department store ticket writer rolled into one, but she will never succeed in selling a cent's worth of bronzed price tickets to the fakers who sold her the "outfit." Their business is not to buy but to sell, and her fate is not to sell but to be sold. Similar to the work-at-home scheme is what may be described as the letter-writing dodge. The following is a typical advertisement of its class:

LADIES--Earn $20 per hundred writing short letters. Stamped envelope for particulars. Gem Manufacturing Company, Cassopolis, Mich.

When the woman anxious to earn an honest penny replies to this ad. she receives the following letter:

Dear Madam:

We pay at the rate of $20 per hundred or 20 cents for each letter sent us in accordance with our printed circular of instructions, and make remittances to you of all money earned by you at the end of each week. The letter which we send you to copy contains only eighty words, and can be written either with typewriter or with pen and ink, as you prefer, and you can readily see that you can write a number of letters during your leisure time each day.

You do not pay us one penny for anything, except $1 for the instructions and for packing and mailing the Ideal Hoodwinkem which we send you.

There is no canvassing connected with the work, and if you follow our instructions you can earn good wages from the start.

When the victim sends her dollar for the instructions and for the Ideal Hoodwinkem (or whatever the name of the article the fakers are selling happens to be), she discovers that the 20 cents is not to be paid merely for writing a letter. Oh, no! The 20 cents will be paid only for such letters as induce some other woman to part with a dollar for one of "Our Ideal Hoodwinkems." The following letter, which is sent after the unsuspecting one's dollar has been safely salted down, lays bare the true inwardness of the scheme:

Dear Madam:

We herewith hand you trial blanks, also copy of letter which you are to write. You are to send these letters out to ladies, and for every letter which you write and send out and which is returned to us with $1 inclosed for one of our Ideal Hoodwinkems, with your number on the letter, we will send you a cash commission of 20 cents.

It is needless to say that the fakers do not expect their victim to be so stupid as to send out the letters on the terms indicated. The object of the plan is accomplished when "dear madam" parts with her dollar for the letter of instructions and the Hoodwinkem, which would be dear at 10 cents.

A SMOOTH SCHEME.

One of the simplest and most effective schemes for hooking new "suckers" was adopted by a Dearborn street "investment" concern. This consisted in sending to a prospective victim a check for $100, made payable to some other man, and accompanied by a brief letter telling that recipient would find inclosed his weekly dividend on his investment of $1,000. Of course the marked "sucker" knew nothing of the deal, and, believing a mistake had been made would return the check and letter. He at once received in reply an apologetic letter, stating that the first letter and check had been inserted in the wrong envelope through the carelessness of a clerk, it having been the intention to mail to the recipient a circular instead of another man's check for dividends. It was enough. Ten per cent a week was not to be resisted. The "sucker" almost invariably opened negotiations on his own initiative and was landed.

FINANCIAL "JOURNAL" FRAUDS.

The multiplicity of these schemes led to the establishment of the "financial paper," designed, according to the publisher's statement, to guard investors against get-rich-quick frauds. To the police these papers are known as "special form papers." The editor comprises the staff. The contents consist of financial matter usually stolen from reputable journals, a formidable array of financial advertising, and, most important, "reports" on investment concerns. For a consideration the "special form" paper tells its readers that the "Cotton Mutual Investment Company" is sound and reliable. The manager of the "Cotton Mutual" buys as many copies of the paper as he wants, as it has no regular time of publication, and can be run off in any quantity at any time with the article boosting the "Cotton Mutual." The get-rich-quick manager then sees to it that the paper finds its way into the hands of his "sucker list," or list of names of persons whom he hopes to be able to induce to "invest."

Therefore, when reading want ads. in the newspapers, consider carefully the nature of the promises made. If they are too rosy, too high-flown, have nothing to do with that ad. or the man who inserted it. You may depend upon it that it is a fake. There are no great armies of persons walking about this country seeking to give away something for nothing.

MILLIONAIRE BANKER AND BROKER ARRESTED.

Ramifications of the Bucket Shop System Revealed by Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge.

George T. Sullivan, the millionaire stock, bond, grain and cotton broker at 159-161 LaSalle street, Chicago, Illinois, was arrested May 23, 1906, with 60 inmates. Twelve patrol wagon loads of books, records and papers were seized and carted off to the Harrison Street Police Station.

Mr. Sullivan at the time had one of the finest, best-equipped offices in Chicago, which was located in the Traders' Building, opposite the Chicago Board of Trade. He occupied several floors, and they were very elaborately furnished. Part of the third floor was used as a telegraph office, where forty men were constantly at work at the telegraph keys. His private telegraph wires reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the British possessions in the north.

Mr. Sullivan paid to the Western Union Telegraph Company for the privilege of using their wires and services $150,000 per year.

Mr. Sullivan had 111 branch offices, located in the principal cities of the United States. Each of these branch offices evidently was equipped with all the paraphernalia used in the bucketshop, and was in charge of one of Mr. Sullivan's representatives.

Mr. Sullivan owned the entire equipments of the offices and dictated the policy and work to each manager, which had to be carried out to the letter. The following is a list of the branch offices and locations which were operated by Mr. Sullivan:

LIST OF BRANCH OFFICES.

The Sullivan letterhead gives branch offices in the following cities: Altoona, Pa., Arcola, Ill.; Aurora, Ill.; Avoca, Ia.; Boston, Mass.; Buda, Ill.; Burlington, Ia.; Cambridge, Ill.; Chicago, Ill.; Cleveland, O.; Davenport, Ia.: Decatur, Ill.; Des Moines, Ia.; Detroit, Mich.; Earlville, Ill.; Effingham, Ill.; Elkhart, Ind.; Fairfield, Ind.; Fostoria, O.; Fort Madison, Ia.: Galesburg, Ill.; Geneseo, Ill.; Gibson City, Ill.; Goshen, Ind.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Greenville, Ill.; Grinnell, Ia.; Iowa City, Ia.; Ivesdale, Ill.; Johnstown, Pa.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Keokuk, Ia.; Kewanee, Ill.; Lancaster, Pa.; Mansfield, Ill.; Mattoon, Ill.; Michigan City, Ind.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Monmouth, Ill.; Monticello, Ill.; Morris, Ill.; Mount Pleasant, Ia.; New Castle, Pa.; New York, N. Y.; Niles, O.; Omaha, Neb.; Peoria, Ill.; Pittsburg, Pa.; Plano, Ill.; Princeton, Ill.; Racine, Wis.; Roberts, Ill.; Saybrook, Ill.; South Bend, Ind.; Sheffield, Ill.; St. Louis, Mo.; Tolono, Ill.; Tiffin, O.; Toledo, O.; Tuscola, Ill.; Waukegan, Ill.; Wyanet, Ill.

EXCLUSIVE OFFICES FOR LADY SPECULATORS.

Chicago--225 Dearborn street, National Life Building, 16 Imperial Building, 51 Dexter Building, 84 Adams street, South Chicago--9138 Commercial avenue.

Mr. Sullivan had his correspondents and solicitors in all of the leading stock, bond, grain and cotton markets of most of the foreign countries. On May 23, 1903, he was doing a business of from $300,000 to $500,000 per year. His weekly expenses ran from $15,000 to $20,000.

Mr. Sullivan advertised extensively in the leading newspapers throughout the United States and in foreign countries. Many of his advertisements would cover an entire page. These advertisements brought him many inquiries from persons either through curiosity or desire to invest, saying nothing of the cash customers secured.

Mr. Sullivan made special effort to buy or acquire every mailing list to be found in the entire country which had been used by other fraudulent and get-rich-quick concerns.

It is said that he had secured over 20,000 names, which he had on his mailing list. These men were bombarded from day to day with his literature and his _red-letters_, giving the forecast of the market. These letters were very ingeniously gotten up by himself and a clairvoyant fortune teller named Madame Dunbar.

His methods were absolutely devoid of even a pretense of sound business ethics, sensationalism and red ink being his only stock in trade.

The class of literature and telegrams he sent broadcast and regardless of expense is well illustrated by the following:

Telegram sent January 1, 1903, to hundreds of persons throughout the country:

"Am going to run three-cent turn in May wheat. Let me act for you heavy. I will take loss if any. Mail three-cent margin.

George T. Sullivan."

In his "Red Letter" of May 18 he makes the following statement:

"There is only one thong about this wheat, and that is, a bull market is at hand; and those who buy cannot lose, and if they buy on my advice and buy quickly, I will pay the loss if there should be any."

He had four offices in Chicago aside from his main office, these being designated by him as "Exclusive Offices for Lady Speculators." When about to open one of these offices he addressed a circular letter to the wives of many prominent citizens announcing the opening of same. The first paragraph of this letter reads as follows:

"I have opened superbly appointed offices on the ground floor of the National Life Building, Room 120, where I accept accounts from ladies of $100 or upwards for marginal speculation in stocks, bonds, grain and cotton.

"George T. Sullivan."

George T. Sullivan, who frequently signs himself "Red Letter Sullivan," is by occupation a telegraph operator. He was first heard of in Boston during the year 1899 and the early part of 1900.

ON THE "OIL EXCHANGE."

On May 17, 1900, Sullivan was admitted as a member of the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange of New York and under the firm name of Sullivan & Sullivan advertised extensively and had a system of wires through New England. It was noticed that his business on the exchange was very small and upon the complaint of a customer his trading methods were investigated, with the result that on the 11th of October he was adjudged guilty of obvious fraud or false pretenses and expelled from membership in the exchange. He made some threats of a suit against the exchange, but the firm of Sullivan & Sullivan failed in November and nothing was heard of him in New York. His customers and correspondents never received any statements of their accounts and Sullivan fled the state.

He seems to have come direct to Chicago, and was employed for several months by bucketshops and private-wire houses as a telegraph operator.

In the fall of 1901 he associated himself with E. F. Rowland, ostensibly to do a commission business in stocks, grain and cotton. His methods of advertising were extremely lurid, and he flooded the country with literature and letters printed in red ink. The employee, Sullivan, soon forced Rowland out of business and continued under the name of Rowland until the first of January, 1903, when by degrees he had worked the name of Sullivan into prominence and the name of Rowland had gradually been eliminated from his signs and literature.

REASONS WHICH CAUSED INVESTIGATION, RAID AND ARREST.

The raid by Detective C. R. Wooldridge on the Lincoln Commission Company, a race track scheme, in the Portland Block, 115 Dearborn street, May 14, 1903, developed the peculiar relations between this concern and Sullivan, and the police department was somewhat astounded to find among the papers of the Lincoln Commission Company conclusive evidence, in the shape of telegrams and correspondence, proving that Sullivan's agents on his private wires were acting as the agents of the turf scheme, and that the employees and private wires of the Sullivan concern were used in common by the Lincoln Commission Company with the consent and approval of Sullivan.

More than twenty of Sullivan's agents were posting in his various offices the tips sent out by the Lincoln Commission Company and accepting bets which were transmitted over Sullivan's wires to be placed ostensibly by the Lincoln Commission Company on the horses which they tipped off as sure winners.

The mixing up of a turf scheme with a so-called grain and stock business was something new to the police, and Detective Wooldridge prosecuted the investigation, and, upon becoming fully acquainted with Sullivan's methods, concluded that he was not only running a bucketshop, but was interested in the turf scheme to a greater extent.

The evidence gathered in the raid on the Lincoln Commission Company fully established the fact. The Cook County Grand Jury was in session at the time and the evidence was presented to them. Detective Wooldridge was ordered to make a full investigation and report to them, which he did.

The Grand Jury instructed Wooldridge to lay the matter before the General Superintendent of Police, Francis O'Neill, and say: "The Grand Jury requested immediate action should be taken by the police to enforce the state law, which was being violated."

Wooldridge submitted the case to Chief O'Neill. He asked if Wooldridge had secured the necessary evidence to prove that Sullivan was conducting an illegitimate business. He was answered in the affirmative.

WOOLDRIDGE'S RAID.

On the morning of May 23, 1903, ten picked detectives were secured from the Detective Bureau to accompany Wooldridge in the raid on George T. Sullivan, which turned out to be one of the largest as well as one of the most sensational raids and arrests that had occurred in Chicago for years.

Sullivan did an extensive business. The offices of the company which were raided were elaborately furnished, and there was a complete assortment of tickers, blackboards and like paraphernalia. At the time of the raid the offices were crowded, the operations on the open board and the Board of Trade being remarkably exciting. The officers who assisted Wooldridge in the raid were Detective Sergeants Howe, Mullen, Quinn, Qualey, Miskel, McLaughlin, Weber, Flint and McLane.

OFFICES FILLED WITH PATRONS.

It was at 10 o'clock in the morning, when the largest throng of speculators can be found in the offices at 259-261 LaSalle street, opposite the Board of Trade, that Wooldridge and his men swooped down on the place and proclaimed "every one there a patron of a bucketshop and under arrest."

The wildest excitement prevailed. Telegraph operators, messenger boys, pit men and persons of every station in life were caught. Some of the traders, thinking of their wives and children, pleaded frantically for their freedom. Some attempted to force their way from the betting rooms, but, meeting with armed resistance, they desisted.

"I don't belong here," said one man, indignantly. "I only dropped in here to see a friend." His plea was unavailing.

Another man, attired in a frock coat and a silk hat, attempted to bribe one of the detectives. "I can't have it get out that I was arrested," said he. "State your price and I will give it to you gladly."

The only persons allowed to escape were three women stenographers, who fled through a rear window.

Advertising matter, private correspondence, telephones, tickers, telegraph instruments and everything of consequence was seized and loaded into twelve patrol wagons and taken to the Harrison Street Police Station.

Four hundred and twenty telegraph wires were cut which connected Sullivan's bucketshops in Chicago and through the country. It took the Western Union Telegraph Company two weeks to get the wires in working order.

NAMES OF PRISONERS ARRESTED.

At the Harrison Street Police Station those arrested in the raid gave their names as follows:

G. T. Sullivan, W. D. Hart, John Conway, L. J. Hoff, Charles Barth, William Wilson, E. E. Matwell, J. A. Hogadorn, E. L. Wilson, T. N. Lamb, R. J. Brennan, Ralph Cunningham, Fred Boller, John Whitmar, E. F. Black, John A. Manley, Ernest Gerard, John Lawson, J. K. West, George Rodger, Henry Miller, J. A. Crandall, Y. R. Pearson, George Wilson, Harry Van Camp, George T. Kelly, J. P. Morgan, Joseph Cohen, Butler Coleman, Arthur McLane, George Frederick, A. L. Kramer, M. J. Franklin, Edward O'Connell, Oren Mills, W. H. Kelley, O. S. Reed, F. Foley, I. J. Kennedy, Robert Delaney, Joseph Bowers, John Black, L. Frederick, B. C. Cover, George Johnson, G. Weightman, H. C. Boder, Samuel E. Brown, Joseph Smith, C. E. Tracy, W. Jones, J. W. Kennedy, John P. Garrison, Al. Dewes, Elmer C. Huntley, T. A. Duey.

CROWD GATHERS.

The fact that a raid was being made became known outside the offices and in a short time several thousand persons gathered. Crowds peered through the windows and doors. The Chicago Open Board of Trade is directly across the alley in the rear of Sullivan's offices, and business there was at a standstill for a time. The traders gathered about Sullivan's offices and remained until the last prisoner had been taken away in the patrol wagon.

Sullivan himself was in his private office when the raid was made. Wooldridge broke open the door and faced the man at the desk.

"You are under arrest, Mr. Sullivan," said the detective. Sullivan grew pale and then reached his hand to the telegraph instrument which stood on the table. He started to work it.

"Stop that!" ordered Wooldridge. But Sullivan continued. Wooldridge made a leap for the trader and forced him away from the instrument. But the trader was not to be thwarted. He reached over the detective's shoulder, and again the click began. Wooldridge then seized the instrument and hurled it into the desk.

"Cut all telephone and telegraph wires," was the order given by Wooldridge, and the frenzied occupants of the place were thrown into terror. There was a mad rush for the door, but the detectives stood in the way. Every inducement was offered the policemen, but efforts failed.

Then Sullivan claimed that he had an injunction issued by Judge Elbridge Hanecy forbidding the police from raiding his place.

"I have an injunction from Judge Hanecy to stop you!" yelled Sullivan. "Show me the injunction, then," replied Wooldridge, "and I will obey it. If not, I am an officer of the court and have warrants here charging you with keeping a bucketshop and gambling house."

The injunction which Sullivan claimed to have was found by the police in one of his drawers in blank form, without any signature, together with the following letter to one of his managers:

May 19, 1903.

MR. CHARLES A. WARREN, New York.

Dear Mr. Warren:

Your friend Wooldridge was in all day Monday. We had four detectives here all day investigating my guarantee plan, and they showed up again today and held several conversations with Miss Lorentzen before we realized who they were. It looks like they were trying to make a case.

In looking up the injunction papers, find you neglected to change them to read The George T. Sullivan Company and The George T. Sullivan Elevator & Grain Co. I took them to Morris and he rehearsed them, patched them, etc., and they are now ready to play ball with.

Morris is very busy and it looks as if we might need someone else on the scene of action to watch things.

Hope you arrived O. K., and with best wishes, I remain,

Yours very truly, GEORGE T. SULLIVAN.

However, it was not until 11 o'clock and more than an hour after the raid had been made that Attorney Edward Morris filed the injunction bill in the Circuit Court.

The injunction was finally issued by Judge Abner Smith at 12:30 o'clock. It restrained Chief O'Neill and Detectives Hertz and Wooldridge from interfering in any way with the property contained in the offices occupied by the concern or cutting the telegraph wires leading to them. It is represented in the bill that the company has offices at 259 LaSalle street, Bush Temple of Music, 60 LaSalle street, 16 Imperial Building and 84 Adams street; but the damage had already been done.

Sullivan was practically out of business, and was being bombarded and seized by a horde of infuriated patrons who demanded their money, entrusted to him to invest. Sullivan could not return the money, as he had spent it and was bankrupt.

"RED LETTER" WELL KNOWN.

PATRONS TOLD THEY WOULD NOT LOSE IF ADVICE WAS FOLLOWED.