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PRIDE OF ANCESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES--IT IS SOMETIMES MORE
PROFITABLE TO OTHERS THAN TO THOSE WHO INDULGE IT--"PROPERTY IN
CHANCERY"--A WESTERN MERCHANT, HIS STORY, AND HOW HE TOLD IT--A
FAMILY MEETING AT NEW HAVEN, AND WHAT A MEMBER LEARNED
THERE--THE GREAT "LORD, KING, & GRAHAM" SWINDLE--THE WAY IN
WHICH THE FRAUD WAS ACCOMPLISHED--A CUNNING LETTER FROM "WILLIS
KING," OF THE FIRM OF "LORD, KING, & GRAHAM," TO ONE OF HIS
RELATIVES--THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THIS NOTED FIRM--THE
SEARCH--THE TRAP LAID--THE SHARPERS CAUGHT, AND FOUND TO BE
EDUCATED YOUNG MEN OF THE HIGHEST SOCIAL STATUS--THEY ARE MADE
TO DISGORGE--A PARADOX, WITH A MORAL IN IT.
The pride of ancestry is usually great among those whose ancestors
possessed any traits of character worthy to be remembered, or did deeds
of which history has made emblazoned record, or who held large estates,
or were in other respects distinguished,--and justly great is this
pride, perhaps. However, it is not to be overlooked that, as a general
thing, how great soever the pride of the progeny may justly be, that of
the ancestors would probably not have been extreme, in most cases,
could they have looked forward for a few generations, and seen what
their successors in time were to be. It is not certain that some of
them would have refused to have successors at all, and might not in
very shame have betaken themselves to the cloister, in celibacy, or
forsworn their mistresses altogether. And could their ancestors have
foreseen that even their greatness would be overshadowed by the large
or small estates which they might leave, what would have been their
disgust or displeasure, is left to us to conjecture.
But a "pride of ancestry" has developed itself in this country, which,
if it is not altogether profitable to those exercising it, is sometimes
made so to others; to lawyers who seek fortunes for others, and who,
for due fees, are ready to hunt up "estates in chancery" in England,
and find them, too, _if_ they are there,--which is the only requisite
for the finding, except the fees. At sundry times many families get it
into their heads that there ought to be property of their ancestors
preserved somewhere for them, and talking up the matter among
themselves, get feverish over it, and finally assure themselves that
such property exists, and that it is their first duty to procure it.
Such people become an easy prey to speculating lawyers and others, who
find it an easy thing to whet their hopes, and procure money from them
to make "primary investigations." A shrewd lawyer, wishing to make the
tour of Europe, for example, can readily play upon the credulity of
some such family, and induce them to advance him a few hundred dollars
to go to England with to examine records, and so forth; and when there,
can send home such a "statement of the case," so full of hope, as to
evoke a few hundred, or a thousand or two more dollars, in order to
retain and pay first-class counsel. It is a shame to our people that so
many of them fall victims to the greed for money in this line.
I hardly knew whether the more to be vexed at the stupidity of the
sufferers, or amused by the skill of the intriguing scamps who
perpetrated the swindle I am about to disclose, when I first heard of
it; and _I_ confess I haven't yet come to a decision on that point
after the lapse of a dozen years or so.
I was called on one day by a Western merchant, an old man, by the name
of King. He was a New Yorker by birth, he said, born in a place called
Janesville, in Saratoga County, where he had lived to maturity, had
then done business in New York City till he had reached beyond middle
age, when, failing in business, he had retired to some land he had, in
the course of business, acquired in Illinois; but finding farming
irksome, had managed to open a little country store, which had grown
upon his hands until he had, in the process of time, become rich, and
was in the habit of visiting his old home in Saratoga County every
year, and also coming on to the city, sometimes to select goods, though
his junior partners came down at the same time, and did the principal
business. The old man had learned to drink whiskey at the West, in
order to keep off the "fever-na-gur," as he called it, and at the time
of visiting me, had evidently not gotten over his last "fuddle" at
home, some weeks before, or had somehow managed to get abundance of
that creature comfort--"old rye"--in New York; not that he was drunk,
but he was "keyed up" to a good pitch--a height from which he surveyed
all the glory of the King family, and felt that nothing but royal blood
flowed in his own veins; and who knows but the blood was royal? It
might have been the whiskey, however,--but what matters it? The old man
descanted a long time on the glory of his ancestry, and the pride of
his race; claimed relationship to the great Rufus King of New York, and
all the Kings by name, who were of any account; spoke of their natural
pride; said that they were always ready to avenge any insult to their
name, come from what source it might, and so forth, and so forth. It
was in vain that I interrupted him at times at the end of a sentence,
in order to ask him to come to the point. Talk he would, in his own
way; and as he was a white-haired man, the outlines of whose face
showed that he was a gentleman when not in liquor, especially (and he
was thoroughly gentlemanly at the time, though vexatiously garrulous),
I thought I would let him have his talk out in his own way. At last he
got to tell me that some months before he had been swindled out of a
dollar, and that a large number of the King family, he had recently
learned, had each been defrauded to the amount of a dollar, and that
some of them, moved by family pride, had, as he had been informed, made
effort to discover and punish the defrauding parties, but had failed.
He felt his pride wounded at this. The King family had made an effort
to find out the parties who had so questioned their good sense as to
successfully swindle them, and such a number of them, too--and failed.
This he could not endure. If all that had been lost had been wheedled
out of one member of the family, if he himself, for example, had been
the only victim, he could have endured that, and would, for the pride
of the name, have endured it in silence. But the whole race had been
insulted, the very family coat of arms had been mocked, and he would
not suffer it any longer. There had been, a few days before he came to
me, a large gathering of the King family from all over the country. If
I remember rightly, this was at New Haven, about the time of
commencement at Yale College. The Kings of Georgia shook hands there
with the Kings of New York and the Western States, and so on; and it
was there that he learned how extensive had been the swindle. Some of
the family had talked and laughed about it as a good joke, and poked
fun at each other about it. But the old man considered that these were
degenerate in spirit, and spoke of them with a degree of shame. Persons
present at the gathering, with King blood in their veins, but bearing
other than the King name,--the sons of King daughters, by men who
rejoiced not in so royal a name,--made great sport of the swindle, and
said that people high in position, like Kings, emperors, etc., were
more subject to such things than people of undistinguished names and of
low estate, and assured the King relatives that the latter ought to
feel complimented by the deference that had been paid to them by the
swindlers. The old man felt sore over this style of joking; felt that
the name had been trifled with, and he was resolved to let the jokers
"see that there was yet the 'true spirit' in the King blood to avenge
an insult,"--and so he did at last. He was not particular about
"terms." He was willing to pay abundantly, for he was rich,--rich on
that day, at least,--and persuaded me to take hold of the matter by
advancing me,--and insisting on my taking it,--double what I told him
it might cost to make thorough work of the matter. I told him I had not
a particle of hope, for I saw no prospect whatever of tracing out the
perpetrators of this fraud in question months after it had been
accomplished. But I took the matter in hand, and hearing his story in
full, told him to call next day, for I might, on reflection, wish to
consult him again. He left with me a letter, which a son of his had
received--the man to whom I was indebted for my engagement in the
matter. His son, and a partner of his in business at Utica, N. Y., had
about a year before had occasion to engage my services in tracing out
some forgers, who had been "speculating" a little upon them; and when
he found his father, against his advice, was determined to do something
about the matter in question, he told him he had better employ a
regular detective, and so sent him to me. I kept this letter for a long
time, and, indeed, had three or four copies of it, which I got, some
from the Kings, and others from some persons by the name of Perkins,
who had been victimized at the same time. I supposed I could readily
find a copy now; but in the multitude of vicissitudes to which a
detective's papers and "things sacred," as well as those of other
people, are subjected, the letters have become misplaced or lost. But
my memory is pretty retentive, and I can reproduce the letter so nearly
that I presume several thousands of people in the land would, trusting
to their own memories, say that it is a perfect copy, for these several
thousands and their families were the victims. The letter purported to
be, at its head, the advertisement of a great firm of lawyers in New
York City; or rather the professional firm name was displayed in type
at the head of an ordinary full-sized letter sheet, thus:--