"DEAR FRIEND: While conversing with a gentleman from your
locality recently, you were named as a shrewd and reliable
person, and one likely to enter into a business, the nature of
which will be explained in this letter. At all events, he said,
whether you go in or not you would keep a still tongue, and
would not expose me. He told me that under no circumstances
must I inform you who recommended you; and as I claim to be a
man of honor, I will never violate a pledge. I have on hand,
and am constantly manufacturing large quantities of the best
counterfeit money ever produced in the world. The sizes are
two, five, and ten dollar bills, and fifty cent stamps. They
are printed on first-class bank note paper. The signatures are
perfect, and the engraving is admirable. Not one banker in five
hundred can detect them. I will take a solemn oath that the
bills which I send you will never be detected, unless you make
known your business to persons who have no right to know it. I
shall charge you ten dollars in good money for every one
hundred dollars of mine. If you have confidence in yourself,
and desire to push matters, you had better order as much as you
can get rid of in a month or two. In that case, if you buy as
much as five hundred dollars at a time, I will sell it to you
for twenty dollars cash down, and will allow you thirty days
credit for the remaining thirty dollars. If you purchase one
thousand dollars, I will sell it to you for forty dollars cash
down, and will wait thirty days for the remaining sixty. If you
want to make a desperate, but successful, struggle for a
fortune in a few weeks, I will send you five thousand dollars
for one hundred and eighty dollars cash down, and will wait
thirty days for the remaining three hundred and twenty. Under
no circumstances will I sell less than one hundred dollars
(price ten) at a time. When you send me any money, or a letter,
go to the nearest Railway station, ask the express agent for a
money envelope; insert your letter, seal the envelope, and see
that it is properly directed to me. Don't send me a letter
through the Post Office. The Express Agent never heard of me,
and he will have no idea of the nature of your business. I
would prefer that you would send me money in advance. If you
are unwilling to do so, I will ship whatever quantity you wish
by express, and the Agent will hand you the sealed package as
soon as you pay him the money. That is, I will collect my money
on delivery of goods (C. O. D.). I will make it appear that
your package contains jewelry. If you can spare time come on
and see me. Call at my private office, No. 52 John Street, Room
5, up stairs, New York. I will then take you to my manufactory,
and let you select whatever quantity of bills you desire. No
person in the building knows what business I carry on.
Therefore you are just as safe as if you were going into a
theatre. If any person suspected my business I would not have
you call. Now, sir, if you manage this business properly, you
can clear twenty thousand dollars in a year. You have unusual
advantages for passing the bills with perfect safety. Always
ruffle them up to make them appear dirty and old. You can pass
one of my bills at every store, and as the change you receive
will be genuine, you will be enabled to clear at least two
thousand dollars a month. Not one in a thousand of your
neighbors can distinguish a genuine bill from one of mine.
Therefore you are foolish for not grasping an opportunity to
make money that may never occur again. I could name a man in
your country who made a fortune in the same way. All his
neighbors wonder how he made it. But he keeps a still tongue.
Probably you know who I mean. I deal on the '_square_,' and if
you are true to me you will never regret it. I pray you will
not betray me in case you do not go in. You will find by
dealing with me that I have the best counterfeit money in the
country, and that I deal more honorably than any other man in
the business, because I deal on the '_square_.' I would not ask
you for any cash down for your first order only to secure
myself for the cost of engraving, printing, etc. Read my terms
carefully, and remember them. Bear in mind that I will give no
more credit than I state in this letter. One or two of my
counterfeit bills have already been passed on you, and you have
in turn passed them on others. Therefore you should be familiar
with their appearance and quality. Of course you did not know
they were counterfeits.
"Read the following instructions carefully. Be sure and follow
them; then no mistake can be made. If you come on, call at 52
John Street, Office No. 5, up stairs. But if you send me money,
or a letter by Express, direct it to my manufactory as
follows:--