There is a large concern in Chicago which advertises to send you a one hundred dollar diamond ring for a two-cent stamp; and they do it, too. Here is the way the scheme is worked: An agent of the company sells you a ticket or coupon for one dollar. You send the ticket and nine dollars in cash to the firm, which in turn sends you ten other coupons. You sell these coupons to your friends for one dollar each, thereby getting your money back. Your friends must each do the same as you did, selling their coupons to their friends. As soon as your friends send the money they have collected you get your diamond, and when their friends do likewise each one of your friends gets his. So, you see, while the company is paid for the goods sent out, each man actually gets a hundred dollar diamond ring for a stamp. Now, isn’t that up-to-date trickery? It is a sort of endless chain scheme, and is actually being carried on by a responsible firm in Chicago. A great many times in my travels I have noticed that the Salvation Army are particularly fond of holding meetings in front of those hotels which are most patronized by traveling men. The reason is obvious. They have an eye for the collections they invariably take up, and there is not a more cheerful giver on earth than the traveling man. I remember once seeing the Army collect twenty-eight dollars in front of a certain hotel, and then march up the street and work the next one. I do not censure them; I approve of their work, but I say this is trickery just the same. One of the worst things in the line of trickery and fraud is the system of paying in scrip by certain corporations. These companies have their own stores, and in order to force the men to buy at them they pay wages in scrip, which is virtually only an order for goods at the company concern. Is not this an outrage? Officers and managers who are honored and respected wherever they go have the men work like slaves, and instead of paying in cash give them a due-bill, good in trade alone, and only at the company store at that. By going through a lot of red tape, waiting perhaps three or four weeks, these due-bills can be cashed at ten per cent. discount. That is the best that can be done. Usually the laborer needs his money and thinks he is lucky if he can find some member of the company who will cash his order individually and on the spot at a discount of twenty-five per cent. Again, I call this robbery and trickery combined. When I first landed in San Francisco a hack-man led me to believe that he was a hotel runner and created the impression that I would get a free ride. All houses there run a free bus. When I reached the hotel he charged me two dollars. Without a kick I paid it, as I might have known better than to trust him. In another city I noticed a case filled with a beautiful line of photographs. The following sign was in the center: