Another kind of bait offered is that of the "prominent name."
This has proved more useful in England than in this country.
Whittaker Wright was able to secure members of the nobility for
his boards of directors, and the English public swallowed his
schemes one after another, bait, hook, bob, and sinker. In this
country we have no lords whom we dearly love, so the names of
prominent literary or scientific men sometimes are employed by
wise promoters. A "prominent mining expert" is excellent bait.
Some good men have been used in this way, and the bait of their
reputation in other lines of activity has served to make ignorant
and innocent people of small means swallow the hook hid in the
lying statements which they have perhaps innocently, certainly
ignorantly, fathered. We are all familiar with the literature of
this class, sent to us under the guise of personal and intimate
confidence. Always that part of the communication is followed by
the blackfaced type where the stinger lies concealed. The words
AT ONCE usually come in capitals, as do LAST CHANCE, and PRICE
POSITIVELY WILL ADVANCE AFTER TEN DAYS. Millions and millions of
dollars have been extracted from the public by these means. There
is no law against it.


"ADJOINING" MINES--GOOD BAIT

Then there is the same old argument about wonderful properties
"adjoining" such and such a dividend-paying property. Very often
the properties are miles apart. They might be within twenty-five
feet of each other, and one still might be worthless and the
other rich. The profits of old and famous properties very
frequently are given in advertising literature of this class, "to