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.