{"id":2018,"date":"2026-03-23T12:01:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerrykuntz.org\/harryhill\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2026-03-24T15:25:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T19:25:05","slug":"con-artists-and-mulberry-trees-published-september-2-1883","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrykuntz.org\/harryhill\/con-artists-and-mulberry-trees-published-september-2-1883\/","title":{"rendered":"Con Artists and Mulberry Trees [published September 2, 1883]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The big camp meetin\u2019s at Ocean Grove and elsewhere remind me that some years ago there was a chap flourishin\u2019 around here by the name of Bacon, a respectable lookin\u2019 old fellow, with a sleek and plausible manner, who used to follow \u201cthe camp meetin\u2019 lay.\u201d He was one of those lucky sinners that looked just like a saint, and he knew all the \u201ccant\u201d terms of \u201cpiety\u201d by heart, and all the \u201cslang words\u201d used in \u201creligion\u201d as if he was a parson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It was in his case, like most others, the more religion on his lips the less in his life, and Bacon not only \u201cprayed\u201d but \u201cpreyed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Once he went up the river to a camp meetin\u2019 and stayed there a week. He not only got \u201cconverted\u201d himself but a lot of portable property lyin\u2019 around loose got \u201cconverted into his pockets.\u201d He not only experienced a change of heart, but a good many articles in his immediate vicinity experienced a change of location and ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Having \u201cfleeced\u201d the lambs of the flock, he returned to New York, where he lived in clover on the proceeds of the fleece. But one day as he was walkin\u2019 along Fulton street old Bacon was suddenly seized by a muscular chap, a Jersey blacksmith, he turned out to be, who fell upon Bacon, and came near makin\u2019 cold ham out of him. In fact, if the two hadn’t been separated the old rogue wouldn’t have been able to save his bacon at all. The Jersey blacksmith meant to pound the life out of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And no wonder. The blacksmith was one of Bacon’s camp meetin\u2019 victims. The old rogue had stolen some things from him direct and had talked him out of other things to the tune of several hundred dollars, and had then given the blacksmiths pretty wife \u201cthe kiss of peace,\u201d and parted from the blacksmith himself as \u201chis brother in the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      The blacksmith had found out his folly too late for anythin\u2019 but revenge. But he had vowed to get that, and he got it. Both men were arrested, but the blacksmith was soon released, while Bacon was held. Then the case got into the newspapers and other men whom  Bacon had swindled complained against him, and he was railroaded to Sing Sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Some of the sharpers of New York can imitate foreigners as well as any dialect actors in the world. One chap called \u201cSnug\u201d among the flash gentry, though he is known also as Jim Winters or Tom Trap, can do the German emigrant as well as Oofty Gooft, and he often \u201cdoes\u201d the German emigrant, too. Years ago he tried several times the \u201cjewelry trick\u201d combined with the \u201cGerman racket,\u201d and carried it through splendidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Winters dressed himself up as a German of the better class of immigrants, in a neat woolen blouse with a blonde wig, while his accomplice or pal dressed himself as a well to do American artisan. They started off together and then separated, each to perform his part of the \u201clay\u201d or \u201cracket,\u201d which was all cut and dried between \u2018em and had been as carefully rehearsed beforehand as if they were goin\u2019 to try it at a theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The accomplice strolled along the Bowery till he came to a beer saloon near Canal street, kept by a German. The accomplice stepped in here and got talkin\u2019 to the proprietor and his wife, whom he delighted by showin\u2019 \u2018em he knew German as well as by drinkin\u2019 and treatin\u2019 \u2018em to beer. The German beer seller and the stranger got to be quite friendly, and in the course of the conversation the stranger let it fall from him that he was a jeweler and a cast-iron, infallible judge of diamonds and gold and silver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      All this took some time, but skillful rogues are never in a hurry any more than truly skillful men in any other line of business, and it was not until the most sociable terms had been established between the beer seller and the accomplice, that the principal, Jim Winters made his entry as a German emigrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Winters rushed in the saloon and in German wanted to know where Herr Somebody or other lived. Of course, that Herr Somebody or other didn’t live there, and the beer seller told him so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Still the German emigrant persisted that this \u201cHerr\u201d (who was a him and his uncle, he said) lived near here somewhere. He had been shown here as the place, and come what would he must find this uncle of his before three o\u2019clock (it was now after one), as he wouldn’t be able to get his valuable trunks out of the Custom House, where they had been just taken from the steamer that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      When the beer seller at last convinced the emigrant that there was no chance of findin\u2019 his uncle thereabouts, the poor fellow seemed desperate. He even, in his desperation, asked the beer seller and his companion, forgettin\u2019 that they were utter strangers to him, if they wouldn’t assist him gettin\u2019 his trunks out of the hands of Uncle Sam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The beer seller only laughed at the young German\u2019s unconscious impudence, but the jeweler got mad at him. \u201cGo to the devil with your uncle and your baggage,\u201d he said in German, \u201cbut take this quarter to buy some beer with,\u201d he added, handing the emigrant a quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The emigrant, with an attitude of indignation that would have \u201cbrought down\u201d the old Bowery, flung away the hand extended with the money. \u201cGott in himmel, I am no beggar,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cWhy dis watch of mine,\u201d pulling out a magnificent lookin\u2019 watch, \u201cis worth several hundred dollars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cWell, it is a good \u2018un,\u201d said the jeweler, examinin\u2019 it. \u201cIt is one of those rare old European watches which we so seldom see in this country. It is an heirloom, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So it turned out to be, accordin\u2019 to the emigrant\u2019s account, he havin\u2019 received it from his father, who in his turn had received it from his father. The emigrant prized it highly, of course; but if just now he could borrow some money on it to pay the duties on his trunks he would be willin\u2019 to pawn or loan the watch as security for the repayment of the money with big interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The jeweler’s eye began to twinkle now\u2013to fairly sparkle with delight. \u201cDon’t lend on the watch,\u201d he said to the beer seller ,takin\u2019 him aside confidentially. \u201cBut offer to buy it from him outright for say $75. It is worth $200 cash down at the very least. You can get that for it at any of the big jeweler\u2019s. The gold in it is worth the money. Never saw such a watch in this country. Mind, I shall expect you to give me $25 for givin\u2019 you this chance to make it least $100.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The beer seller took in the situation and his chances at a glance. He promised the cunning jeweler the $25, and then offered to buy the watch of the emigrant for $75.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But the Immigrant strikin\u2019 another first class attitude, refused positively to sell \u201chis fadder’s watch.\u201d He would borrow on it for a while, but sell it never.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cLend him the $75 on it, then,\u201d said the jeweler to the beer seller in another confidential aside, \u201conly make him promise to pay you $100. This will give you a clear profit of $25 if he redeems the watch, or if he ever finds his way back to your place, which I don’t believe he will ever be able to. Anyway, make sure of the watch first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The beer seller \u201cmade sure of the watch\u201d by payin\u2019 out $75 for it to the emigrant who took for the watch the security of a piece of paper with the beer seller’s name\u2013a name feigned for that occasion, at the suggestion of the jeweler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Then leavin\u2019 his magnificent \u201cfadder’s watch\u201d behind him (which the beer seller discovered a few hours afterwards to be an ororide worth about $6) the German emigrant hastened to redeem his trunks, or rather Snug, alias Tom Trap, alias Jim Winters, hastened to a \u201chotel\u201d in Prince street, where he waited the coming of his \u201cpal,\u201d the lifelong jeweler, the two havin\u2019 made just $69 in less than sixty-nine minutes off \u201cthe German racket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But years and years ago, before Winters and the German racket were ever heard of, there was a \u201cracket,\u201d or a \u201clay,\u201d or a scheme worked up by a few unprincipled men who \u201croped in\u201d a lot of enthusiasts, which scheme or \u201clay\u201d or \u201cracket\u201d made thousands upon thousands of dollars for the men who started it, while all the rest in the scheme lost of course. For it always happens that for one to make in a scheme of this sort at least a hundred must lose. The scheme I speak of now was a vegetable and an agricultural one, though its chief hold was among city people. It got to be known in time as \u201cthe mulberry mania,\u201d because it was really a mania about mulberry trees and the uses they could be put to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Some sharpers, or sharp men, started the idea that silk could be produced in America just as well as anywhere else by developing the mulberry trees, the leaves of which could nourish the silkworm and be transformed into silk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Accordin\u2019 to this scheme the more mulberry leaves the more silk. So that all a man had to do was to own enough mulberry trees to own all the silk he wanted, silk which was always worth its price in gold. In short, mulberry leaves were equal to gold, and all a man had to do to become a millionaire was to plant a garden full of mulberry trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This sounded pretty well and didn’t seem foolish either. The sharp people at the head of the scheme got the newspapers interested in it and they published editorials and special articles on the cultivation of the mulberry, the morus multicaulis<\/em>, as they called it; for the first thing a first-class sharper always does is to lug in science and big words if he can. They make a scheme sound so respectable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Then the sharp people workin\u2019 the mulberry racket set the arithmetic men to work, and these fellows proved by figures that cannot lie that the profits from plantin\u2019 mulberry trees were simply enormous. A very little money invested in a very few years would make a man very rich, or a woman either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The females took to this mulberry racket very kindly. Every woman prefers a silk dress to a cotton one, and if she could get silk out of mulberry leaves, why, then, in heaven’s name, she was for the mulberry leaves every time. In fact, a number of women talked their husbands into investin\u2019 in mulberries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Then they got Grant Thorburn, the florist, interested in this mulberry excitement. Grant went into mulberries with his whole soul and planted a place in Long Island full of \u2018em. He talked mulberry mornin\u2019, noon and night; stayed awake all night sometimes talkin\u2019 it, and at one time regarded himself, proved himself to be, the richest man in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grant Thorburn, botanist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      From New York the mulberry fever spread all over the country. Philadelphia got it bad. Old Doctor Gebhard, a leadin\u2019 physician and scientific man, made a mulberry fool of himself, and almost relinquished his practice to plant mulberry trees. Captain Whilldin, who commanded a crack steamer, talked mulberry durin\u2019 his whole voyage and got his passengers as mad as himself. For a while it looked as if the Western world would turn into one wild mulberry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But it didn’t. The men who had started the mulberry racket saw that it had gone far enough. They quietly sold out, and when the crash came they hadn’t a mulberry, but plenty of bankable funds instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The time soon came when people hated the very name of mulberry, when to be pointed out as havin\u2019 been \u201ca mulberry man\u201d was about the same as bein\u2019 exhibited as a condemned fool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Altogether it was a queer madness, one of the notable insanities which proved that there were as many fools in Gotham thirty years ago as there are at this hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Editor’s notes: The first two anecdotes–about the camp meeting pickpocket and the watch fraudsters–are generic. The names of the crooks (Bacon, Jim Winters, Tom Trap) can not be identified with specific individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mulberry craze was very real. See: https:\/\/newenglandhistoricalsociety.com\/connecticuts-great-mulberry-mania-1830s\/ <\/a> or https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2014\/02\/illustrated-account-1830s-mulberry-craze\/<\/a> ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big camp meetin\u2019s at Ocean Grove and elsewhere remind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-con-artists","category-criminals"],"yoast_head":"\nCon Artists and Mulberry Trees [published September 2, 1883] - Harry Hill's Gotham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jerrykuntz.org\/harryhill\/con-artists-and-mulberry-trees-published-september-2-1883\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Con Artists and Mulberry Trees [published September 2, 1883] - 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