The great mass of the American people, aside from those who have had
experience in hunting and shadowing criminals, labor under the popular
delusion that the most daring criminals of today are a lot of tough,
ignorant men, with little or no education at all, who would do almost
anything else than work honestly for a living. If people would but
stop to consider the subject a moment they would readily discover
their error. There are, it is true, a large number of swindlers,
thieves, pickpockets, thugs and criminals of a like class who have but
a scant knowledge of books, or literature, but they are only to be
found among the lower class of criminals. The most notorious criminals
the world has ever produced have been men and women of high culture
and refinement, well educated and thoroughly posted on all that is
transpiring. It is this class of people who make the most successful,
and at the same time most dangerous, criminals. It requires men of
education to swindle, crack a safe, rob a bank, jewelry store or forge
a paper. To be a successful confidence operator requires the man to be
well educated in matters of all kinds, to be a fluent talker, a person
of refinement and polite address, and a good judge of character.