Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the WorldWooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
History
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World
Wooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police -- Illinois -- Chicago
And this monster is hydra-headed. Stamp it out in one place and it
immediately reappears in another. Send a "manager" to prison once,
twice, ten times, and the minute the prison doors are open he is back
at the old stand doing business.
Something of the tremendous efforts being put forth to stamp out
this evil may be gained from the headlines of this story, where the
strenuous work of Detective Wooldridge of Chicago is summarized.
Chicago has been and is today infested by a formidable community of
matrimonial agencies who invade all ranks of life. They promote many
specious schemes to lure the elusive dollar from the pockets of unwary
victims. These operatives are sharp, smooth and unscrupulous--the most
dangerous of criminal perverts.
Were the census enumerators of the United States to compile a list
of the "sucker" public the gullible ones would aggregate tens of
millions. There is not a township in this great nation that does not
contain its portion of confiding persons who are ready to believe
anything, from the rankest catch-penny advertisement to a fallacy in
theological dogma.
They are willing to open up their hearts to unknown matrimonially
inclined correspondents; to accept as gospel the incredible statements
of impostors and to pay out money gained by hard toil for something
which the reason of a child should tell them it is beyond the power of
man to provide.
They are easy prey alike to religious and political impostors and
unscrupulous adventurers. Investigations for years past into the
innermost secrets of swindlers, and the observations incidental to
official experience disclosing how victims are drawn into the net of
the grafter, impel the belief that the faith of many persons passes
beyond the bounds of credulity into the domain of imbecility.
Men and women who are engaged in promoting matrimonial agencies are
guilty of crime. It is opposed to the fundamental principles of
society. Such a practice should under no circumstances be tolerated.
It is inconsistent with the highest ideals of what should constitute
the proper marriage relations.
HUMAN DERELICTS ARE DUPES.
Human derelicts of a low mental caliber are the dupes of these
matrimonial agencies. Few people know that such schemes as these are
carried out. Few know that advertisements by men of wealth, women of
culture and pretty widows who seek matrimonial alliances are merely
means by which scoundrels get a revenue.
MATRIMONIAL AGENTS' METHODS.
To describe adequately the technicalities of the marriage agencies
and bureau swindlers' methods would be impossible without presenting
actual copies of documents necessary to the system. Early in the
investigations the discovery was made that the scores of matrimonial
agencies, "introduction bureaux" and "marriage clubs" were using
practically the same literature. Few departed from the stereotyped
plan for "pulling the suckers on." For the most part the prospectuses
and "follow-up" letters were identical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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