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Show I Attempts to Bunco Priests. ! I TJHEN. it comes to selecting persons y V to be buncoed, a sharper can make a clergyman or school teacher bite easier than he could a hayseed. The latter generally falls a victim to-three-card monte. The poor clergyman is carried away by the typewritten type-written story of the stock broker. Priests do not receive princely salaries; sal-aries; most of them, in order to keep up proper appearance, spend or give away what they receive. Yet among them are persons of thrift, just as ypu win nnd men born that way in every avenue of life. Not for the world would they handle a deck of cards or bet on a horse race, but raking in a dollar on stock margins that's a different dif-ferent matter. But it generally turns out in the end that the other man gets the dollar. A clergyman of this city received a New York stock broker's circular the other day. The stock broker was pleased to announce that he "enjoyed a liberal patronage of men of your calling," call-ing," and would be pleased to assist this priest with his best advice. A number num-ber of stocks were named which he .listed. As a matter of fact, all are good investments. But we have not yet come to the little lit-tle joker. The next letter this Salt Lake priest will receive from the accommodating ac-commodating broker (if he receives any at all) will not be. like the first, nor will the stocks listed be the same stocks. On the contrary, they will be wildcat stocks, offered at a low figure, so low that the priest in fancy is finding find-ing money when future dividends are declared. Wliat does the poor priest know about .wildcat stocks? All he knows is that a broker Avho handles the stocks of 'the United States Steel garding others. Right here is where the priest is taken in on the little joker. The intention of these circulars to priests "is first to induce them to invest. in-vest. This, done, other circulars are sent out to persons whose names are obtained from directories, informing them that their parish priest is one of their customers. In this w ay the harm which the priest does unconsciously, is visited upon members of his flock led into the trap. The Review of St. Louis is paying some attention to sharpers in other lines, whose particular prey seem to be priests. The warning follows: We are requested by a Nebraska clergyman to publish the following as a warning to all Catholic priests: An agent representing a New York life insuran'-f concern is endeavoring to insure a atholic clergymen of the western static, making use of all and any deceptive representations ana promises, showing all kinds of recommendations recom-mendations in order to induce them to insure. His object is to get all Catholic Catho-lic clergymen, sick or healthy; the medical med-ical examination is a mere sham. The president of the company has been informed in-formed of " these matters, but to no avail. It seems the scheme is to get through the clergy the Catholic laity and the public in general. Several priests after learning of these transactions, trans-actions, have refused to accept any policy pol-icy and notified the president of the company, that they would demand that their partial payment alreTidy made, be refunded. We see from the San Francisco Monitor Mon-itor (No. 18) that another mining concern, con-cern, one claiming to possess rich gold mines in Arizona, has come to grief. The chief manipulator of the affairs of the exploded corporation was described in advertisements freely published in Catholic newspapers as a distinguished Catholic and a member of numerous religious and other societies. It appears ap-pears that mainly on the strength of this representation, hundreds of poor Catholics invested their cash in shares of stock which were to return them fabulous profits, when the mining properties prop-erties which he controlled were "devel-opend." "devel-opend." The bubble suddenly burst, however, and a receiver has been appointed ap-pointed to gather up the pieces, if there are any. When the sheriff took possession posses-sion of the company's offices, according to newspaper accounts, there were found on the desk of the young Catholic Cath-olic society member, whose religious affiliations had been assiduously paraded pa-raded in connection with his mining enterprises, "threatening letters from depositors who Tiad invested in the mining stock and who reproached him for using religious connections and his membership in temperance and other societies to further his ends." And his innocent victims had ample grounds for such reproaches. As the Monitor justly observes,' "there is no obvious connection between religious faith and corporate stock speculation. When the two are wedded in advertisements which promise enormous profits on small investments, as they were in this case, persons, with even a moderate gift of ordinary horse sense ought to know enough not to part with their good money." - |