honest, but a little more politic, sent forth worthless jewelry and
other stuff by the bushel.

One of the most villainous and at the same time successful devices
was built up on the offer of counterfeit currency at a heavy
discount. In substance, the circulars, emanating from different
parties, and from the same parties under different names, were all
alike. They usually began with an insidious compliment to the
person addressed, to the effect that from trustworthy sources the
writer had heard of him as a man of more than ordinary capacity and
shrewdness, and, emboldened by the high estimate placed upon his
abilities by persons well qualified to judge, had selected him as
the very individual to aid in securing a fortune for both with
"absolute safety." The circular usually goes on to state that the
writer is a first-class engraver,--indeed "one of the most expert
in the United States,"--while his partner is a first-class printer.
Hence the firm possess unrivaled facilities for imitating the
national currency. The recipient is particuarly cautioned to
beware of a class of miscreants who infest the city of New York and
advertise throughout the country the goods that he manufactures,
but send nothing except rubbish. The "original Doctor Jacobs"
excoriates unmercifully the whole tribe of swindlers whose
rascalities debauch and bring odium upon the trade. He exhorts the
gentleman of great reputed "shrewdness and sagacity" to observe the
utmost caution in conducting operations, and gives him explicit
directions how to forward the purchase-money.

Several years ago a preacher of the gospel, stationed not far from
the northern frontier of the republic, received by mail one of the
seductive missives of Ragem & Co., of New York City. The douceur