of bits of
pasteboard, every one of which was blank. Efforts were made to punish
the parties connected with the swindle, but without success.

Another trick of the New York swindlers is to send a circular to someone
in a distant town, notifying him that he has drawn a prize in their
lottery, say a watch worth two hundred dollars. They state that he must
forward five per cent. (ten dollars) on the valuation of the watch within
ten days. The person receiving this circular well knows that he has
purchased no ticket in the above concern, and at once supposes that he
has received through mistake the notification intended for some other
man. Still, as the parties offer to send him, for ten dollars, a watch
worth two hundred dollars, he cannot resist the temptation to close with
the bargain at once. He sends his ten dollars, and never hears of it
again. These circulars are sent out by the thousand to all parts of the
country, and, strange as it may seem, the trick is successful in the
majority of instances.

The scoundrels who carry on these enterprises feel perfectly safe. They
know that their victims dare not prosecute them, as by purchasing a
ticket a man becomes a party to the transaction, and violates the laws of
the State of New York. No one cares to avow himself a party to any such
transaction, and consequently the swindlers are safe from prosecution.

The Post-office authorities of the city state that over five hundred
letters per day are received in this city from various parts of the
country, addressed to the principal gift establishments of the city.
Nearly all of these letters contain various sums of money. Last winter
these mails were seized and opened by the Post-office Department, and
some of the letters were found to contain as much as three hundred
dollars.

The profits of these swindlers are enormous. Those which are well
conducted realize half a million of dollars in three or four months.
Instead of resting satisfied with this amount, the rogues close up their
business, and start a fresh enterprise.

From this description the reader will see how the various gift
enterprises, under whatever name they are presented, are managed, and how
certain he is to lose every cent he invests in them. The description
applies also to the various Manufacturing and Co-operative Jewelry
Associations, and all schemes of a kindred nature.

A little common sense ought to teach persons that no man can afford to