on the
unsuspecting, and generally the perpetrator escapes without punishment.
They come here from all parts of the country, and indeed from all parts
of the world, in the hope of reaping a rich harvest, and the majority end
by eking out a miserable existence in a manner which even the police who
watch them so closely are sometimes unable to understand.

They find their way into all classes. One cannot mingle much in society
here without meeting some bewhiskered, mysterious individual, who claims
to be of noble birth. Sometimes he palms himself off as a political
exile, sometimes he is travelling, and is so charmed with New York that
he makes it his headquarters, and sometimes he lets a few friends into
the secret of his rank, and begs that they will not reveal his true
title, as a little unpleasant affair, a mere social scandal in his own
country, made it necessary for him to absent himself for a while. He
hopes the matter will blow over in a few months, and then he will go
home. The fashionable New-Yorker, male or female, is powerless against
the charms of aristocracy. The "foreign nobleman" is welcomed
everywhere, feted, petted, and allowed almost any privilege he chooses to
claim--and he is far from being very modest in this respect; and by and
by he is found out to be an impostor, probably the valet of some
gentleman of rank in Europe. Then society holds up its hands in holy
horror, and vows it always did suspect him. The men in society are weak
enough in this respect; but the women are most frequently the victims.

Not long since, a handsome, well got up Englishman came to New York on a
brief visit. He called himself Lord Richard X---. Society received him
with open arms. Invitations were showered upon him. Brown's hands were
always full of cards for his Lordship. The women went wild over him,
especially since it was whispered that the young man was heir to a
property worth ever so many millions of pounds. In short, his Lordship
found himself so popular, and hints of his departure were received with
such disfavor by his new found friends, that he concluded to extend his
stay in New York indefinitely. He made a fine show, and his toilettes,
turnouts, and presents were magnificent. The men did not fancy him. He
was too haughty and uncivil, but the ladies found him intensely
agreeable. It was whispered by his male acquaintances that he was a good
hand at borrowing, and that he was remarkably lucky at