In the machinations of the bucket shop interests and those of kindred concerns that are garnering this $100,000 a day from the American people, the fake trade journal has had much to do; the fake mercantile agency, reporting extravagantly upon the responsibility and wealth of the schemers, has played extensively upon the credulity of men and women; fake banks and bankers have come into existence for the completion of the work of the others, and have been by no means the least in the category of rascality; the whole aggregation has been lending back and forth the "sucker lists," which is an interchangeable lists of names and addresses of men and women who have "bitten" at one scheme and may be promising of a rise to another of different type under a new title. On file in the office of a Chicago man of affairs at the present moment is a series of interesting letters, which he shows occasionally to a friend. These letters are especially eloquent of a spirit of investment which is in the country today and which prompts the "biting" at almost any sort of flaunting announcement of quick riches. The letters are from a young man holding an official job under the government at Washington. BIG DIVIDEND PROMISES FALSE. The first letter is apologetic for reminding the addressee that he is an old friend of the writer's family; but it recites that the young man has about $200 in bank which he has saved from his salary, and which he is disposed to invest with a certain company if his friend in Chicago thinks the prospects are in line with good business and responsibility. Evidently the Chicago man does not regard the concern as dependable, for the next letter expresses thanks for saving the writer loss, but asks a further question of a concern that promises 20 per cent a month on cash investments in grain. The third letter, recognizing all that the old friend from Chicago has done, explains that he has only a fair salary from which it is hard to save much money, and this fact has led him to the necessity of considering an investment of his savings that promise large returns, and yet at the same time promise the maximum of safety. Having established his reasons for such ventures, he suggests to the friend: "Perhaps you can answer all I want to know in a single reply. 'Are any of these concerns promising dividends of 50 per cent and such to be depended on'?" And the Chicago man's letter, in substance, reads: "No!" "OUTSIDER" HAS NO CHANCE. Speculation, for the most part, as in the case of this young man, means for the average intelligence a possibility for placing money in a side line where quick and profitable returns may be expected, wholly independent of the person's occupation. To the man who knows what the best of the speculative market is, the necessity for all of the time and attention and best judgment of the speculator is imperative. It is a business in which only the best business methods succeed.