Show tALI LAKEY Y LAKE Trapping a aNE I JV AGAZINE NE I S. S E C NI liON nh 11 g 11 SUND SUNDAY MORNING MORNING R NOV NO 11 1917 17 W in America JT ie The Amazing Swindle Unfolded by hy Inspector John Morrison and Interpreter In In- Interpreter Samuel i Burba-i of the United States Slates Immigration Service Service- Descendants of the Ancient Assyrians in the Guise of Nestorian Christian Fathers and Fortified With Fake Credentials Were Collecting ColI Collecting Col Col- I Millions From High Officials and Churchmen Throughout the United States The States The Investigators Finally Trapped Them and They Are Arc Bound Back to Turkestan Deported but With Their Spoils Intact t Of c au I h I 1 v i p I I f fi Peace Puce sad ana Blessing Blessing- be with you CU tots data Or Sy 51 Jan January ary 10 1916 Dy By Greco Grace of our Lord tYe Tio sent Beat to you our brothers brothelS an oni ens ns in who wo be beInor be be- I loved in Jesue It ea were all or In-or end o Toro the neat hta e of J e oar ti nth o Baer 1 kY 7 S1 G lP Co ST q Nr 0 S Lard Jeus yon all Ane tilt H v rUS pF J t M Three ringleaders of the Chaldean Fathers who were really Kurdish and Persian Persian brigands bri- bri brigands brio bri gands and one of the forged letters letters' by means of which they collected vast sums as charity chanty in inthe inthe the name of the starving Christians of Asia Minor lip By y EDWARD RD II SMITH f Somewhere cast east of Suez there aint no ten Kipling g. g e 1 W. W days since two twenty-two men set sail sall from fromn km Con n a long journey By Tay boat an thence again by boat to sok fok across Asia the Siberian iberian railroad down the thela la Jast t European rivers into the theeta tea eta across the Caucasus range illy into Kurdistan and Persia I 1 district of the tilo far lake that that was their line of travel Journey of this character they it L tally t ally equipped with unusual ad foresight Aside Asido from a tat lat travelling outfit f these descendants of the i 3 wore about his body a heavy to which American awed Ved in thick layers In some somo ad of precious metal in habits was so heavy trong man could hardly walk Kis As 6 much as is said been b n sewed into the tho vest of tan Ian intone I one ne of the travellers ao dock k in Seattle waving these gers a fond fend farewell were rs of the immigration service 1 uden Maden aden descendants of ot Babylon e eveh eh h were leaving the country good They had been boen ints in a monumental fraud If those picturesque pieces of trickery simply incredible simple which crop up UJ I every few years and furnish the police police po po- lice forces something for worry the world something for amusement and me a new v entry for my of roguery How much had the they got A million more likely two perhaps three And withal they had escaped prison and prosecution They had gulled men of the highest rank had made anade dupes of persons In the first station in politics politics politics poli poli- tics and ecclesiastics even used the Ambassadors of the sovereign powers for their ends these ends these simple Kurdish Kurdish Kurdish Kurd Kurd- ish mountain villagers At last they had been caught at their conniving and run to earth only to have it found that no more could be done than to deport them while the officers stood on the dock their faces hesitant between between be be- tween amazement and mirth watching the astute Orientals sailing off with their booty A story To tell it in all its beautiful sym Gym symmetry metry of guile and imagination reqUires requires re requires re- re I quires retrospection as far as human buman records run Civilization began so far as can be bo traced in the hot valleys of ot the tho lower Euphrates and Tigris Here were and Erech and later Babylon The races which h peopled these places and built the first cities and empires in time admixed with other peo pe peoples les once stood at an Imperial eminence among the human tribes These were the first great conquerors but amon among g them too were tho the first scholars scientists poets priests priests and and the first firs t business men t Their empires fell before 1 JL t f rt UI- UI l o C a TU ItI I r I t ct d JC fr U JJ etter he head d of an eastern bishop biskop in Chaldean script used for forB B funds from American chu churchmen men Wt tr t an and Cyrus when then Greece and Rome Home were still young oung nations but the on original original inal peoples survived One invasion n after another scattered them The Th e the Medes the Persians Persian the Romans tho the th the e Caliphs and finally the Ottomans Ottoman took turns at the conquest of the th fertile ferme valleys Talleys and the oppression of I Ithe the original Meantime C their religion had undergone sever several changes From the worship of the th Babylonian-Assyrian Babylonian gods they turned turne d to the Pagan In the fifth and sixth centuries of our era the Christian followers followers followers fol fol- lowers of Invaded Mesopotamia desopo- desopo tamia tamla and converted large numbers cf the tho old population These early miss missionaries penetrated the Kurdish and t Persian hill bill fastnesses whither many of the tho old had been driven They even overran most of Asia Thus the children of the worshippers worshippers worshippers wor wor- shippers of Bel Del came to reverence Christ All through the later Roman or Byzantine rule the Caliph Caliph- Ian and Ottoman periods the Chal Chal- Chali i deans kept their I primitive Christian faith They were persecuted oppressed oppressed oppressed op op- pressed beaten from pillar to post mulcted by the tho governments raided and end slain by the Kurds Kurds and and yet they remained and Christians Their early church variously called Assyrian Chaldean and Nestorian still pUll exists with some hundreds of thousands of adherents Part of theold the tho old became affiliated with the tho Roman church in the course of o history part remain faithful to the tho excommunicated Theirs Is the tho oldest original Christian faith onearth on onearth earth the oldest ritual the most primitive acceptance of the tho Christ The Tho true have no connection connection connection tion with any any- of ot the tho larger Christian sects Th Their ir head is the archbishop or primate of the east and their chief chic habitat the tho remote mountain country of Kurdistan and Persia In this wild section of of the of-the the world where there Is almost no law and order these tribes have lived in their I little villages through tho the march of f ti v r 1 y Y YI I s I a n- n 1 r C i J I i. i d Li A i 2 rb 1 i i r t r J. J i S Sf c f i k r i fir ri s r rc if j t ra rat t S T 11 ra ii I f Xi o 4 G 00 a it t little e JIl r L d doo oa d 1 0 j t b t M i 4 i 0 Ci 1 f f iC x J. J G the centuries Such vicissitudes as them would long since have exterminated exterminated exterminated ex ex- ex- ex terminated ordinary peoples Massacre Massa cre after massacre only drove them back further into their mountains Plenty with them would Ibe he famine In Europe Almost Indescribable poverty poverty poverty pov pov- erty exists everywhere The year- year round ration seems to consist of ot a little mutton scanty provision of rice end such vegetables fruits and grasses as will gro grow in the rocky Kurdish hills Brigandage and violence violEnce violence vio vio- lence is the order of every day and yet these are among themselves themselves themselves them them- themi i selves scrupulously honest kindly and I generous to a degree unknown in the West Early in the nineteenth century British travellers and missionaries found their way Into the tho country Layard the discoverer of Nineveh made mado a tour of their retreats in 1845 47 Eventually missions of various churches were established at principal principal principal pal points In and near their districts and the tho descendants of the oldest oldest- of races came face to face taco with that modern organized charity a a thing as Incomprehensible to tha primitive mind as 11 It is anomalous to the tho cultivated Money Ioney began to be shipped to the succor of these impoverished impoverished impoverished from all ends of the earth England and Germany began it ft Then France America and Russia took it up It is no exaggeration to say that for two gen generations the Chaldean Chaldean Chal Chal- dean Christians in Kurdistan and andI I Persia have lived mainly on Western charity charIly The effect of all this on the rustic Oriental mind has been remarkable Not only was It soon a byword that Franks Westerners were full of ot money but the came to look upon them as fair game In countries which could af afford ord to give away such sums as were being poured Into Eastern Eastern Eastern East East- ern charities the gold must grow on the bushes The saw the missionaries living In what seemed to them a bed of opulence They saw their elders and lords distributing the charity and keeping most for them them- selves A thought thought-a a brilliant inspired in inspired inspired in- in idea idea began began to in the tho minds of ot these Why let the missionaries and our lords get fat on these gifts of or the tho foolish Franks and dole out outto to us a mis miserable rable few pennies pen pen- nies ales Let us go direct to and collect the money ourselves Accordingly about ten years ago several Chaldean villages got together what funds they could and sent a few of their men Into Europe Germany and England were found responsive to the pI pleas ens of the Eastern Christians who came armed with letters of introduction introduction in in- from Tram their bishops and chiefs Soon the organized d begging spread through France and Russia I where picking picking- was quite as good Poor mountaineers who had lad never before bo- bo foro fore enjoyed more than a few dollars a year were able to collect thousands thousand in a a. few months Meantime they lived on the fat of ot Europe Naturally It did not take song long for word of this charitable El EI Dorado to get back even into Kurdistan More lore ore and more men got together funds to take them into the promised land In time word came camo that If Europe was easy casy there lay a land across the great sea that was a glutton for charity Dunya they called it the It-the the new world It was harder barder to reach but hut reached it was To this ibis historical set of causes we owe the presence in the United States and Canada of these th se descendants of the most ancient Before Defore beginning the story of their operations here hero we should take a alook alook alook look into the minds of these men First it should be remembered that tho though gh Christians they look upon Westerners as Martians and legitimate prey Again in fn Kurdistan robbery Is Isa isa a no highly honorable profession brIgands brigands brigands brig brig- ands become lords and pashas thieves become rich and live in splendor And the between brigandage brigand brigand- age and fraud Is not one which appeals appeals appeals ap ap- ap- ap peals to the tho elastic clastic Eastern mind Our morals are ero matters of ot contempt In the tho East even among the original 1 Christians L Last st it Is well to recall that these men are re the descendants cf tho the oldest ot of civilized peoples Though often orten unlettered they have none nono the less the heritage of ot some ome eight thousand years of with organized humanity to their credit and what they do not instinctively instinctively know now of wile euile and cleverness is probably not in the book of human knowledge knowledg t- t These were the gentlemen who camo came to America to solicit charity for the starving Chaldean Assyrians Assyrians As As- syrians Armenians what Armenians what matter tho the name or the tho pretext used One morning seven months ago a foreigner presented himself at the Bureau of ot Immigration on Ellis ElUs Island Island Island and with a story for the officers An inspector was detailed to hear his plaint The visitor Introduced himself himself him him- himself self as John de Pasha That he ho explained explained ex ex- was not his bis original cognomen cog cog- cognomen cognomen nomen but nt it served In America He lie was ho said the son of a lord of at the tho in Turkestan and has used his fathers father's title as a name nama The Tho son of at the pasha said that there was a band of ot his countrymen country country- men in America defrauding honest and charitable people by means of I solicitations for tor charities In Asia that did not exist The collected mone money was being pocketed by the solicitors their credentials were fraudulent and they were In fact tact an organized gang of sn swindlers I What proof Abundant If tho the of of- facers would help him he soon soonbo bo be in a position to expose the plot entire His motive Well he felt that the the whole traffic was a disgrace to his race and he was d to stop it for tho the honor of the Nestorian people The matter was put Into the hands of Paul F. F Morrison an inspector oj of the immigration office who was seas gives giver the assistance tance of Samuel O. O Continued Continue on ui on J J. J Inside Paa t i Trapping Ancient Chaldean n in America Continued from page pago 1 L an official interpreter These men worked with de Pasha For six months they went up and down the country quietly investigating questioning questioning questioning ques ques- running down bits of evidence evi evI- dence Finally they went vent be before Core a United States commissioner and swore out a valise full Cull of warrants The following night the inspectors and descended on the Syrian quarter of New York that lower west westside westside westside side region from the Battery to Rector Rector Rector Rec Rec- tor street and beyond mainly along Washington street street- Gentlemen who looked to the Ule unpracticed eye for aUthe all aU the world like Turks b began gan to fall into the arms anns of the officers one after the theother other Some were taken in the streets some in their rooms others in billiard parlors One Levantine restaurant which has long been the resort of Initiate initiate Ini ini- Bohemians and adventure seekers seekers seek seek- ers in New York yielded seventeen suspects including a patriarchal priest in the vestments of the Nestorian Nestorian Nesto Nesto- rian nan church In all aU about sixty were picked up in this way Word Vord was then sent out to all the principal cities in tho the country country a a general general general gen gen- eral alarm for all oriental looking gentlemen who were found soliciting for Asiatic charities Perhaps MO of the following have been picked up inthis in inthis inthis this way It is estimated that about of ot the men meu were operating in the United States and Canada so that a good deal of work along the line remains remains re remains re- re mains to be done The raids of ot the government officers I put into the hands of the officials all the evidence necessary Trunks and grips of ot the arrested men supplied supplied supplied sup sup- I plied proof of what I think is the most astounding scheme of ot tho the kind ever er brought to light I Inspector Morrison was able ablo to get hold not only of the tools of tho the craft I but of matters which gave a complete complete complete com com- history of or the conspiracy He ne has told me the tho sto story and I gIve lve it n here heie in brief brier Tho The main requirement for the success success success suc suc- cess of or the whole plot was waR proper I credentials To get them from the bishops and lords In Kurdistan was wag I impossible 01 or very difficult for these I officers had lon long since become weary I of sending out solicitors who got rich rica richand and did not return Hence it was necessary to get credentials in some other way vay Accordingly letters in the Kurdish dialect were forged Fake Take seals and false signatures were affixed af- af fIxed and the leaders set et t out |