o
x 3,, 323nm Hucnss.
, LMOST unbelievably immense
A is the amount annually taken
. .. from the confidlng American
While by the schemers who don't al-
wliyl take. the trouble to invent new
mndles. The old ones’are still po-
.ml. and especially so when put to
work in new ways.
The average human being is gen-
itally willing to accept something for
nothing. and it is this inveterate
weakness the swindler takes advan-
tage of. 'Hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year are drawn by him un-
der various guises and firm and cor-
poration names, but the main avenue
through which he works is the Post
Office. Of the good name of that the
Government is sensitively proud; it
‘ill zealous in its efforts to protect it
and at the same time to protect the
"money and rights of the large num-
ber of ciizens who are susceptible
to the schemer‘s lure.
“There are no spectacular cases in
View at the moment where brains
They carry to.these bereaved
Something for Nothing
Stillman a letter proving that Cana-
dian witnesses had committed per-
Jury in the divorce case. She turned
the letter over to the Post Office
Department. which is after him.
They believe that he is the man who
similarly attt‘mpted to defraud Mrs.
Theodore P. Shouts, Mrs. Thomas
and TV. '3. D. Stokes.
The Family Crest Maker. who car-
ried on,a thriving trade in family
trees by the aid of a rented type-
writing machine and desk room on
the main street, is out of durance
vile and busy again. But he no longer
offers his wares under the imposing
title “American Heraldic Instituf
tion,” but asserts that he is a former
member of the [Ancient Order of
Heralds instituted in the time of the
Plantagenets. and is able by means
of his familiarity with documents
and family papers.to trace anybody’s
lineage from Henry VIII. down. He
has increased his price for this ser-
vice. As a humble American he
formerly provided a family tree with
innumerable branches for 55; now‘
tenses against banks and private
individuals. However. he agreed
that all signs seem to indicate that
our people instead of growing wiser
appear to became less sophisticated.
In 1914 and 1915 more fraud‘orders
were issued. Later the, Post Office
authorities cut them down‘ in the
belief that it would be wiser to
prosecute criminally the operators of
fraudulent Schemes. Neither plan
alone seems to deter the crooks.
Business is sometimes continued
“at the old stand“: all through the
periods of arrest. ball, trial and even
imprisonment.
Queer Companies.
Tip: fraud order, on the other
bald, puts a quietus on business
conducted through the mails. There-
-fore the authorities are now using
both methods.
In the list of what the Post Office
calls mail swindles are inducing bet-
.ting on “fake" horse races and .
athletic contests, selling worthless
goods .throuch misrepresentations,
: "‘13;me
homes C. O. D. packages addressed to the dead veteran.
Always there is a pretty steep blil.‘ .
nave been ns-d to lnvt-nt newscllcmcs as a servant of the Britannia office obtaining commissions on fraudu-
l0 defy-31H." said i'nitmi Stat-,5 .\t- he charges $1."- for the same serviCQ. lent officers, selling: divining rods
form-y Jinxn'wll S. Aldlllll'k rot-cull)". At lln- fm'mr-r figure be trimmed. it . for locating "gold" and other
"but a {ll‘Hiil many casts of ingvnuity
in employin: old llllt'S have been dill:
up. EVLI')‘ any; and tlml: a flush
avenue of fraud is optimal; the
scheme may be old but tile victims
of it or“ l‘."‘\’."
In ill!" I” pal" nni‘s, rt-r-mlt :li-tivl—
ties flagrant violations “"‘l‘fi‘ discnv-
ered \vllIM‘v srwral thousand tl‘rl-
lars Were- i-iil;~-l flu-in innocent vic-
tims who our» :llnlliliuus to rank as
compost-ts of ~'M:Z:.~i. The fgskr'rs
posed as son: publishing concerns
and 2i::1lfl'.if"'l.yf1‘:l‘ sums ram ‘ng
from $7.3 in $100, fill. lwus prailts to
“Thurs of sincalilv l)’;’ s.
Alluringr arlvcrtis~nwllis wcre svnt
out broadcast with l'l‘f'd‘t‘llC" in the
vast fortunrs that authors of “Two
Little Girls ill Blue," “Alax.ln.lr‘l"s
Rag Time Band," and more mmlt-l‘n
popular sun: hits had made. in con-
sequence a vast horde of innocent
persons knit their brains to comp-Ho
verses. and when they thought tin-y
had sweet-tied they forwrll'dvd them
to the song publishers with the 75‘
or $100, '
In due time tilt-y received fifty
copies of lllt'll‘ songs set to music.
printed an chmp paper. So far so
good, i l: a lontrtr time of waiting
brought in no profits. and when the
-I.uth0ri:ii s took the matter up. they
found that nothing: further was ill-
tended by the fraudulent publishers.
Entree to Heaven.
Among the fraud orders issued by
the Post Office liivpartlllt-nt in the
first six months of the present your
Were a number against the same
man. He lives in Canada. although
he is really an American citian.
Under many firm names he has been
writing to the disappointed aspirants
for prizes in newspaper, magazine
and other contests in sympathetic
terms and promising, for the insig~
niflcant sum of $1, to put them
“right" in contests that he said were
forthcoming. “'hile it might ,not
seem that ‘many persons would be
‘likely to be caught by this bait they
were almost innumerable who came
up‘wlth the dollar. And then they
‘ waited and never heard another word
, tro’m their sympathetic friend. .
Thousands of colored persons in
:11 parts of the country were sending
a Mndler of their own race last
winter and spring $10 for the “Keys
to the Kingdom." They expected to
[at for their money some magic
token that would insure them ready
“mission to Paradise. What they
did get was a pamphlet containing a
jumble of unintelligible words. The
Mueller was caught.
He is at his game again in another
part of the country, but this time he
‘ selling a. salve which. if you
”at yourself with it in the full
Mywm bring a remission of all
sins ‘
swindler in Rochester "who
sympathetic letters to any-
firho. gets into the newspapers
‘ ny ,oi- otherwise is a sort
' ' 'Cahhdian prize "tip-
some is to offer for a
5“. letter that "fell into his
:"tlat will clear up
is said, Jllvlgts_ Senators, Governors
and sol-it-ty women.
A mean name which started up
shorily after the return of our ser-
vice men from Europe is still being
kn‘pt up. althoucli exposed by the
arrest and punishment of some of its
perpetrators. It tradr-s in the affec-
tions and sorrows of thr- parents and
relatives of the lmys killed in France,
and the capital of the swindlnrs is a
list of tln-ir namv-s. They carry to
these borravml homes (f. H. D. pack-
alzr-s admires-red to the dead veteran.
Always there is a pretty steep hill
attached to the package, but it is
rummptly liquidated. The man who
lulu-s the money gets out (-vcn more
olllnkly, and what is found inside the
par kagr- is always worthless.
Get Short Sentences.
A reason fur the continuance of
these it. 2. . n. .. games is thought by
some lawyers to be a deft ct in the
law. Long time sentences cannot be
inflicted, and the offender gets out
soon and is able to begin all over
again under a new name and in new
surroundings.
One of the lightest sentences ever
s-Irvod was that given to a pretty
Polish girl who called herself Bina
Inawaska. Sim got one day in the
SOill‘l)‘ a t‘ lllL' L'. S. Marshal.
llina's was a matrimonial swindle.
Sh ~ advertisu d in \Vestern papers for
a hnsl‘and, and [Ovlllt‘ numerous men
who answered her she sent a photo-
graph, not of herself lout of an even
prettier girl. “'hcn that lull caught
she wrote to the 13')" to send on
traveling expenses. From many of
her correspondents she received
money in amounts- varying from $25
to $100. The int-n who remittal
money never heard from her again.
llina frankly admitted her guilt
but pleaded that she 'was hungry
and promised to reform. After serv-
ing her short term she disappeared.
By no means all the mail swindlem
of the United States are arrested.
though fraud orders stop their opera-
tions efficiently where the fake games
are carried on exclusively through
the Pest Oiilce. It often happens,
too, that the Post Office inspectors
'are unable to get evidence to convict,
so they do not hale these offenders
to court. Very offer: also the frauds
of the swindle-rs never come to the
attention of the authorities.
A corresponding type of crime is
said by,Burgess Smith, formerly in—
specter of technical work for the
United States Bureau of Engraving.
to net the thieves annually more
than $5,000,000. This is the loot
obtained by check and draft manipu-
lators and forgers. Mr. Smith left
last week for England to investigate
protective measures taken by that
country against such criminals.
' Carelessness in the use of checks
explains-in a. measure this large per-
centage of dishonestly acquired
wealth. ’ . '
Mr. Mattuck said there was com-
'paratiVely little forging done in
Government paper because criminals
are afraldtof handling it, the penalty
being greater than in similar i6:-
minerais, guarantwing stocks and
l-onds. using forged bills of
lading, llrolit‘rngrn frauds, getting
money luv impersonating other per-
sons, gr-ttin: goods under false pre-
tenses. establishing fictitious agencies,
using “no fund" chucks. matrimonial
schemes, running sham employment
l-urt-aus. sv'lizuz interests in non-
existent moving: picture theaters.
and, in a word, the list includes
almost all kinds of plans to do the
“sucker," from plain three card
mome fuguling to blackmail.
It will pay anyone who would
like lo aitt-mpt to mtusure the
crodulity ofmanllinii in affairs of
business where humanity is expected
to have a little caution to read over
a list of securities of wildcat
variety that were noted in a will the
otht-r day. Tile very names tell
, what they are. but at least they
were floated somewhere: Blue
Pickle Aromatic Company, Syrian
Banking Corporation of Staten Isl-
and, Blue Pencil Investment Asso-
ciation and Incorporated School for
Mercantile, Idea‘
,. --. - ..- ..- -m.-_-
Wins Fortune
on an Option
HAT the immigrant can pick
gold up in the streets of
New York is still an accepted
legend in Calabria. Other and wiser
immigrants laugh at the story. But
it is true and here is a current veri-
fication of it. '
Recently a man acquired by
plunging his small savings in the
venture of a twenty year option on
a small building on Thirty-fourth
street, adjoining a hotel. His pur-
pose was to improve it and, having
the land, he vent among his rela-
tives and business friends to form a.
close corporation and putgup a fine
modern building. In this attempt
he utterly failed and all he saw was
a struggle to pay taxes.
But he wasn’t the kind to brood
over failure. Instead he put up a.
sign on the place announcing that a
fourteen story building would be
erected on the site and work of con-
struction would begin September 1.
Then he waited two weeks. An emls- .
sary from the hotel came to see him
and ask what he would take not to
put up a. building which would make
inside rooms out of a number of out-
side i'ooms. They offered him $100,~
000 not to do it, and they increased
their offer every time he declined'it.
Finally an agreement was, signed by
which he was to- receive $5,000 a
year for twenty-six years. On an
investment of about $600 he will
realize $130,000.
A Polish Spelling
BEING picnic spelled Pik Nik,
one would naturally think the
word had been submitted to
phonetic treatment, ‘but ~it hasn't.
Pik'Nik in twosyilablesis the‘way‘
the Poles writeit. : "7,
mom's of the
By BLANCHE McMANUS.
. “ BE Naples and die!" See
Grasse and breathe the
breath of all the myriads of
pepfume flowers of its gardens and
live to sample the rare floral per-
fumes of the world!
French perfumes encircle the world
with a magic ring of sweet chat-Ins. ,
In this industry France stands
unique, at the very head, and even
above the Parisian creations does
the' mondaine covet these ,rare es-
sences. the fragrant souls of flowers
that the laboratories of Grasse alone
distill in secret from the warm
bosoms of their blossom-garlanded
hillsides. ‘
Between this old French hill town
of the 'Mediterranean and America.
is a link of sweetness long drawn
out and strengthening with every
revolving season. The United States
is the best of patrons ot the per-
fumes, the , Scandinavian countries.
curiously, coming second.
Grasse, little metropolis of some
twenty thousand souls, composes it-
self naturally into a picture. Here-
with is its portrait as one sees it
coming by the uplapping white
stretches of winding readway run-
ning through the “plan," or plain,
of Grasse, really a plateau, snugly
ensconced in the folds of the circling
mountain hinterland of the French
Riviera.
Cannes, the. first of the big fash-
ionable winter resorts of the Riviera,
is the front door to Grasse. Cannes
is on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, Grasse is a dozen miles back
:iud up in its mountain eyrie. The
:russois speak of their brilliant.
-nondaine Cannes as the port of
. So it is, but all the {iviera
pleasure seekers pay Grass-3 a visit
to Sue for illemsulves how the souls
of flowers are made into tangible
forms. also easily forms. A small
ll arm: of Grass} perfume in the new
ilat ttvstpockot shapes makes a hole
in unit-'5 porkrtln'lok all out of pro-
1
~
I:
‘ll'
portion to its size. '
(lrassc. like all other hill towns.of
)hnlfterranean France, sits on a.
lucky pinnacle, cnthroned in its
mulievnl ramparts 'like a queen
whose feet are bathed in a 5011 01
flu-w ers. Tile plan of Grasse is cov-
-, i't d with the allotments and prop-
irty of flower farmers, interspersed
with terraces of gray, old, gnarled
olive orchards. with oranges and
1. plans inltflninnlcd.
In this shultered garden spot are
grown throughout the year all the
perfume plants of the alchemy o:
the craft. “’ithin a length of a
bare fifty miles, with the barrier of
the Alps to shelter it from the icy
northern winds and the Mediter-
ranean of a lapls—lazuli blun- meet-
ing a sapphire sky of cmiioss sun—
shine before ii, thwse gardens of per-
fume flow-.rs terrace themselves
laboriously up hill and down dale.
Five thousand acres are under cul~_
tivation in the rarest' of essence
yielding flowers which give them
nectar to the dressing tables of
beauty throughout the world. Car-
pets of \‘inll'ls in all shades of pur-
ples and mauvcs, fields of tiny fra-
grant l’tnl rim-s. delicate, jasmine, SOF-
rled rows «f white nurcissi. mimosa
that rivals tilt: golden fleece in
magn'lilcelmw, hell‘otrupo in trained
branches r l‘ w. rpmvoring fragrance.
stately itllul‘usws, ling-.nouettr, carna-
tions of \'.ll‘:ml lines. basil, \Cl‘YciE‘JZ‘ .
(which wt- rali lr-ulon Verbena) laV-
QHtlt‘r-~ll(ltll wild and cultivated——
inarjolaim; lilacs and lilies of the
valley. all are lll'l‘t‘, row upon r0“ ..
and rank upon rank,
Ten thousand flower workers grow
and pitk tin-so blooms for the alem-
bios of the perfume factories on the
heights allow. In the spring the
plain is sewn at its best, the HOWE?
fields filled with pickers—men and
children with big baskets an arm,
the women with their blue and white
aprons turnvvl up like big panniers,
picturesque. figures all in their coun~
try costumes of bright colored print
dresses and crossed fichus. their
heads shaded with flapping straws
banded with black velvet, with per-
haps a great ltcrchief draped over
the back of the head as a further sub
shelter. Watteau-like effects they
make as they move through the
fields of tuberoses growing near by
as high as themselves, wandering
up lanes of starry white jasmine or
bending over beds of fragrant vio—
lets under the gray-green shadows
of century old olives.
They gather the blooms and b103-
50m3 by great handfuls, tossing
them into basket or girdled apron.
The then workers, too, give a meaS'
ure or rilstic coloring in glistening
white shirts, big, baggy blue and
brown. velveteen trousers. buttons
galore at ankles and yards of red
sashes swarthing their middles.
Thus unfolds the series of ani-‘
mated pictures of delicate li’ue as the
flower pickers of the garden plain
climb‘ the. crumbling stone stairs
leading from one terrace to soothe!“
higher up, and finally the town. '01“
fancies that these werethe inspired
their fame and beauty in a New
York art collector's gallery. . Fra-
gonard and‘ perfumes are insepar'
ably linked together in Grasse. where
his former birthplace isXconseliV¢d
Was a, museum of seaweed a"
shrinefoi' art womhtpeis'htfi slithe-
..Jrorld. . . ‘ , '
. Going to Grasse ,
of floral delights of the plain to the
town itself, atheroadway corkscrew-
ainter ,‘he '
.of the celebrcfled fouftgggg?;dthat
have been so disputed by art bol- - .
lectors and that finally found. ' 3
resting place in a cadre worthy 0: .'
{ng itself around tall houses of many
stories of stone, with weathered'
roofs of tiles of orange and rose.
‘with here and again' a— lonesome.
pasha's palm punctuating this land-
scape of a perpetual springtime. ii
natural greenhouse that resembles
nothing in its setting if not the
white walled towns of Mediterranean
Africa. . -
Still up through narrow streets V
past the circle of moycnagc ramparts
and the crest of Grasse is reached at ,
the qualntly named Jeu de Ballon.
Grasse to-day is much as it was
centuries before the secrets of per-
fumes were developed, it is said, for
the service of Louis XV.. who rec
fused to bathe his royal person, pres
'ferring that essence’ of jasmine,
roses and lilies should take the
place of mere piebeian water rites.
There are villas on the garden
garlanded slopes and not a .few big
hotels. but the factory chimneys ad-
monish the touring visitor to the
effect that Grasse, the Perfume Cap-
ital, is a 'hive of busy industry
and not merely a. shrine of gayety
like. its sister cities down by the
shores of azure. .
Perfume secrets are guarded jeal-
ously here, handed down in families,
as ships go out to sea under sealed
orders. Entrance to the most holy of
holies of the laboratories“ even to
observe the transmutation of the
spirits of flowers, is denied' most
folk. Occasionally one of the usines.
or factories. will open its doors as a '
policy of business astuteness which
rmlizes the value thereof.
Thus it is that insistent hordes of
winter visitors migrate like birds to
this enchanted Mediterranean coast
of blue and endless sunshine, all in
search of something not elsewhere .
to be found.
Synthetic perfumes, like coal tar
dyes, are cutting in on the trade of'
the genuine article. but not with
those of discriminating taste. Noth- '
ing has. really happened, or is likely
to happen, to discount the distilled
product of the flower fields of
France whose head center is here in
this warm. little corner of‘the Med-
iterranean shore, the benign climatic
virtues of which were known to the .
Romans when they invaded Gaul in
the seventh century. Perfumes are
supposed to be. as old as the Pyra-
mids; those of Grasse are at least
as old as the Romans.
At one of the biggest of these
Grasse establishments we were
obligingiy given a welcome by per—
haps the most popular maker of all.
You are shown .into a large room
where the blossoms arc heaped up
high on broad tables. It all de-
pends upon the season as to which
flowers will he most in evidence, the
white orange blossoms of early
spring, the red FUSt'S of high sum-
mer or the Vlt')lt"ts of midwinter.
From here one. passes into the lard-
ing rooms. “Little pigs and line
lowers!" Yes, that is the astonish-
ing blend of beauty and the beast.
It is from this combination of ele—
ments that are born the essential
oils and essences of fine perfumes.
"The best and healthiest of young
porkvrs is the first requisite for the
extraction of perfumes," your doc-
rone will assure you. “and then only_
the fatty slab sides are used."
The white lard is carefully stripped
from the lean, resembling white
tissue "paperK~ '
These white tissues of lard are
laid in great, shallow pans and over
them are sprinkled the petals of
flowers, each variety distinct unto
itself. These traylike pans are then ,sirxrple forms, selling them in bulk.
in demijohns and cstagons and, bo-
caua', to the wholesale perfume mak-
ers, the fabricators and the second’
fusion operators
It is they for the,most part
who concoct the commercially
taken to the rooms where, lined up
in rows, are the copper alambies
with their snaky coils and all the
mysterious apparatus of a laboratory
of the old time alchemist for distilling
his potions, these only a trifle, more
modern in appearance at least.
Here, after the layers of fresh pork
fat are thoroughly impregnated with
the odors of the blossoms that carpet
them, the mass of perfumed lard is
put into the stills, when drop by drop '
through zig-zag copper coils the es-
sence, the SWeet souls of the flowers.
is arrived at. And through the aid
of pork fat—curious ve
most recherche of the altar acces-
sories that adorn
beauty and art—the modern woman's
dressing table!
At this first distillation does not
come forth the wonderful scent which
we have always believed French per-
fumes to be from their birth.
any means is this so: a perfume is a
creation. indeed, of many component
parts and as intricate an assemblage
as are any creations.
Tito first essay at the liquefication
of an odor is a very crude beginning.
Anybody could carry the procedure
a certaip part of the way.
as well as the secret of the art, of
the perfume maker lies in the subtle
' blending of these various essences in
rightful marriages and just propor-
Here is where the perfume
makers of Gl'asse take their proper
place as the great master perfumers
of the world.
The curious fact is that no single
commercially known perfume is the
essence of any one single, flower.
Evidently each flower has not only
one soulmate but many soulmates.
Most polygamous are perfumes! For
example, a violet perfume requires
the admixture of three or four "es—
sences” of as many different flowers
captivating breath of
dewy violets is given out to charm
the olfactory sense.
One of the biggest features of this
Grasse perfume industry is the dis-
tillation of these essences in their
known blends from 1.,
and paste their ..
marked names an? '.' «-:
lacons and satin 1.;- 1 {Cl'
So it is that the no": ‘.'. “re crud!
essence of the orange if: avr. is the
big output of the Grass- fa. :
it is the basis of a large ma, -
perfumes, especially that ax .
popularly known as can lie tribune—-
at least that which is recognized as
the "type." Grassc to-day produces
an eau de cologne 1 lat can more than
compete with that of the famous
trade-marked German article of be-
fore the war, which latter, by-the
way, as its name indicates to those
who recall what was supposed to be
the genuine article, was nothing
German at all originally but Italian.
~It is true also, in the first analy-
sis. that perfumes were of Italian
origin. though true also that the Ital-
ians got their flower sec-rots from
the Persians. Nevertheless, per
fumes owe their modern debut to the
French godfathcrs. the perfume mak—
ers of the little town of Gm 'se in
southern France, with its : rrnw
picturesque thi‘teenth and four-
teenth century streets. anl radius.
The perfume industry i< mu that
gives every one :J-u-d r- 3' The
market garden rs an ::::.i :d it
profitable to plant: runs of ;=-rf:llr.-e
flowers among their l'
glam
<
‘rnx‘: t‘ lilrn]
..> and wilt-at
i l iltift‘t‘ 13103-
..;-:> (431:3 33:18.
.. sea-
. . 11hr- moun-
lw to the north down
to the .. l and valley for the har-
vest of liloswms, and this to the
great discuntt-nt of the lux‘tlvious
villa population of the iiivitra -_. :s,
which eompa us loudly “1.1: .m
francs a day paid the girl xiv-Ker
pickers cull-tics their ho f ser-
vant maids. Those, of (one are
after the war I‘ll'lv‘t'S, ‘ ‘ "; r and
five times what they ‘ .
ago. Pessii‘ly this is one of the
lSL‘S
o
.t n years
reasons why pufnmrry is a high
priced article.
‘-.\
gn&)f".\
3 kl:
,{ ‘fili s
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Norwalk Chronicler