Scammony

“ Some one, my friend, must be in fault; and what fault can be more atrocious than this? To defraud, by forgery, your neighbour of a few dollars, is a crime which nothing but a public and ignominious death will expiate; yet how trivial is that offence, compared with a fraud like this, which robs a helpless woman of her reputation,--introduces mortal enmity between her and those whose affection is necessary to render life tolerable!
Whenever I think of this charge, an exquisite pain seizes my heart. There must be the blackest perfidy somewhere. ”

“ Enter FRAUD, USURY, DISSIMULATION, SIMONY, and SIMPLICITY.
FRAUD. How happy may we call this merry day, my mates, wherein we meet, that once were desperate, I think, ever to have seen one another, when Nemo, that upright judge, had, by imprisoning our mistresses, banished us (by setting such diligent watch for us) out of London, and almost out of the world. But live we yet and are we met, and near our old seat? Usury, is it thou? Let me see, or hath some other stolen thy face? Speakest thou, man? ”

“ All the ways discovered so far lead to the horrors of our existing civilizations, described quite justifiably by Ruskin as heaps of agonizing human maggots, struggling with one another for scraps of food. Pious fraud is an attempt to pervert that precious and sacred thing the child's conscience into an instrument of our own convenience, and to use that wonderful and terrible power called Shame to grind our own axe. ”

“ For it is not the only kind of justice, not to injure him who has not injured us, but also to forgive him who has most injured us. We are often injured by the fraud of another, by the guile of a neighbour; do we consider it a mark of virtue, to avenge guile by guile, or to repay fraud by fraud? ”

“ Well, I knew you'd be sympathetic. It's a shame—a crime!—it's absolutely disgusting the way that men gamble with other people's money and cheat and lie and—and—oh, it's a perfectly rotten world and I'm tired of it! ”

“ How, sir! what's that?
SIMONY.
If a man had a casting-net, he might catch all you.
FRAUD.
Art thou not Simplicity?
SIMPLICITY. Goodman Simplicity, for I am married, and it like your mastership. And you are Master Fraud, too; a pox on your worship. I see a fox and a false knave have all one luck, the better for banning; and many of you crafty knaves live merrilier than we honest men. ”

“ One by one he recalled the fraudulent works in which he had had a part,—the school from which he had tried to steal some of the money his uncle had denied him, and finally this hotel, which had crumbled at the touch of fire. That was the strange, dramatic climax of the story, fated so to be from the first petty lust for money, from the first fraud.
Greed, greed! The spirit of greed had eaten him through and through, the lust for money, the desire for the fat things of the world, the ambition to ride high among his fellows. In the world where he had lived this passion had a dignified name ”

“ But come, sir, go with us, and we will prefer you.
ARTIFEX.
Good Master Fraud, remember me.
FRAUD.
Leave thy prating: I will, I tell thee.
ARTIFEX.
Good Master Dissimulation, think on me.
DISSIMULATION.
Thou art too importunate and greedy.
FRAUD.
Come after dinner, or some other time, when we are at leisure.
[DISSIMULATION, FRAUD, and LAWYER exeunt.
ARTIFEX.
Come after dinner, or some other time! I think so [170] indeed,
For full little do they think of a poor man's need.
These fellows will do nothing for pity and love,
And thrice happy are they that hath no need them to prove. ”

“ The open impudence of the whole transaction, appealing insidiously to the folly and credulity of mankind, the brazen, shameless patter, proclaiming the fraud openly while insisting on the fairness of the game, give one a feeling of sickening disgust. The honest violence of a plain man playing a fair game fairly—even if he means to knock you over—may appear shocking, but it remains within the pale of decency. ”

“ Suddenly out of a clear sky they will come like a pestilence, full of vile charges difficult to refute and—who knows?—sometimes perhaps true. For a while these abominations flow into the letter-boxes and not a word is said. If money is demanded, money is paid. ”

“ The fraudful forfeit life and being here below;
Who fraud eschew the bliss of heavenly beings know.
Even their body will fail the fraudulent; but even the world of the gods will not fail those who are free from fraud. ”

“ Turn a thousand dollars of your savings over to a worthless whelp that’s got into jail! How do you know he’s your brother?—a [97] man that waits all these years before he shows himself and then plumps down on you for a thousand dollars! I tell you it’s blackmail, blackmail! And you hide all this from me just as though I hadn’t any right to know what kind o’ trouble you get mixed up in! Ain’t you got sense enough to know you’re touchin’ bottom when you give up money that way? ”

“ These questions of fraud and imposture are naturally the first that suggest themselves when we begin to study these phenomena. But the slightest acquaintance with the life, habits and proceedings of the three or four great mediums of whom we are going to speak is enough to remove even the faintest shadow of suspicion. Of all the explanations conceivable, that one which attributes everything to imposture and trickery is unquestionably the most extraordinary and the least probable. ”

“ Some of the richer and more powerful ransomed themselves from this disgrace by dint of money; while others of the highest orders were remonstrated with, and seduced by their examiners into confession under a promise that if they would confess, they should not suffer either in person or property. ”

“ I am told, by some of their number, that the merchants of this place rank high as men of integrity and honor, above mean cunning, but enterprising, industrious and far-sighted. In comparison with some other places, I suppose it is true. Still I must admit the temptation to fraud is a great one; that it is often yielded to. Few go to a great extreme [Pg 243] of deceit—they are known and exposed: but many to a considerable degree. He that makes haste to be rich is seldom innocent. Young men say it is hard to be honest; to do by others as you would wish them to do by you. ”

“ And again if he has been led astray by the desire for and love of money, and has fallen into perjury or theft or murder or blasphemy, he should cut off the occasion for avarice, which has allured and deceived him. ”

“ I wish to inform you that I alone am answerable for the charge brought against, or supposed to exist, against this young man. I lost the money, and replaced the amount with a packet of false notes—no one else. I acknowledge it was my intention to have confessed it all on the following day. I have never had or spent a single penny of the amount, but lost it all by some unaccountable means the same evening on which I neglected to return to the India House. Prosecute me, and I will suffer cheerfully; anything is better than the hellish remorse which I have already suffered. ”

“ To wit, “because of deceitfulness Thou hast set upon them” (ver. 18) . Because deceitful they are, that is fraudulent; because deceitful they are, they suffer deceits. What is this, because fraudulent they are they suffer a fraud? They desire to play a fraud upon mankind in all their naughtinesses, they themselves also suffer a fraud, in choosing earthly good things, and in forsaking the eternal. Therefore, brethren, in their very playing off a fraud they suffer a fraud. In that which but now I said, brethren, “What manner of wit [33] hath he who to gain a garment doth lose his fidelity?” ”

“ Shall sooner than a piece of good work be proffered to sell;
And our Englishmen be grown so foolish and nice,
That they will not give a penny above the ordinary price.
DISSIMULATION.
Faith, I cannot help thee: 'tis my fellow Fraud must pleasure thee.
Here comes my fellow Fraud: speak to him, and I'll do what I can.
Enter FRAUD.
ARTIFEX.
I beseech you be good unto me, right honest gentleman.
FRAUD.
Why and whereto? what wouldest thou have me do?
ARTIFEX.
That my poor estate you will so much prefer,
As to get me to be a workman to Lady Lucre;
And, sir. ”

“ He has heard that word of some great man, and now applies it to a fool. Vent my folly! I am afraid this great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. I prithee now, ungird thy strangeness, and tell me what I shall vent to my lady. Shall I vent to her that thou art coming?
SEBASTIAN.
I prithee, foolish Greek, depart from me.
There’s money for thee; if you tarry longer
I shall give worse payment.
CLOWN.
By my troth, thou hast an open hand. These wise men that give fools money get themselves a good report—after fourteen years’ purchase.
Enter Sir Andrew, Sir Toby and Fabian. ”

“ These gentry know neither honor, pity nor remorse. Among their ranks, however, may be found men of brilliant intellect and high education, who, had they devoted to some honest pursuit the time and thought which they have expended upon the conception and execution of schemes of fraud, might have acquired a comfortable competence and occupied an enviable position in the professional or commercial world. Their moral nature, however, has become so warped, that fraud has become instinctive with them and the very name of virtue a by-word and a mockery. ”

“ It is scarcely credible to think any one could be deceived by so gross a fraud: but to what length of credulity, will not superstition carry the weak mind! The infatuated lady believed it all; and rose from her knees in a transport, to prepare the entertainment for the heavenly guests she expected. ”

“ It is in some sort Natural to be a Knave. We were Made so, in the very Composition of our Flesh and Blood; Only Fraud is call'd Wit in One Case, Good Husbandry in Another, &c. while 'tis the Whole Bus'ness of the World for One Man to Couzen Another. ”

“ The unparalleled frauds, which sprung like mines on every hand, set every man to trembling lest the next explosion should be under his own feet. Fidelity seemed to have forsaken men. Many that had earned a reputation for sterling honesty were cast so suddenly headlong into wickedness, that man shrank from man. ”

“ This fraud'll drift into the paths of virtue; as fraud sometimes does. You'll be in every way a fool if you drop a word to cause any one to think that you haven't been the Marquis all along. For one thing, you'll lose the good character I've earned you ”

“ If my future transactions be all honorable and trustworthy,—if by a fiction, only known to my own heart, I acquire that eminence from which I can distribute benefits to hundreds,—who is to stigmatize me as a fraudulent trader? ”

“ I, for instance, never failed to find a false coin in my purse upon returning from market, if there was a false piece in the whole crowd. Now, there is no sensation which looks so much like love, and which so readily deceives a noble heart, as sympathy. ”

“ How is it that all these things grow on the same root,—fraud, cowardice, formality, sentimentalism, and a lack of humor? Why do people become so solemn when they are making a deal, and so angry when they are defending it? ”

“ When you want something from the public, throw the blame of the asking on the most sacred principle you can find. A common beggar can read you exquisite lessons on this the most important maxim in the art of popular cheating. “For the love of God, sir, a penny!” ”

“ Suspicion of fraud no doubt arose. But the appearance is, that facts soon put the case beyond any powers of fraud which such children, or any embodied human beings, could put forth. Without previous practice and training in concert, a successful attempt by themselves at what was done through and upon them is incredible. ”

“ Finally I said, This is a fraud—that is what it is, it is a fraud—and if I had had any sense I might have known a cursed mud-turtle couldn’t sing. And then I said, I don’t wish to be hard on this fellow, and I will just give him ten minutes to commence; ten minutes—and then if he don’t, down goes his building. ”

“ How have you the effrontery to bring forward what you have procured by fraud? What place of safety will be left us if we cannot conceal our secrets even within our own walls and our own writing-desks? ”

“ He, however, in spite of such seeming, sought to lead other minds to fancy that fraud and malice acting upon credulity—in other words, that cunning and malicious embodied human beings, and none other—were concerned in their manifestation. ”

“ It was a hard, harsh, insulting letter, charging me with extensive frauds on you and others, assuming that I was in possession of large sums of money thus obtained, and imperiously demanding restitution. As to your sources of information, I know nothing; but I trust, that before you take such stories for granted, you will, at least, look well to their authenticity. ”

“ Hence all the cheating, fraud, deception in business; hence all the cunning and intrigue in high places and in low, to overreach others and get above them; hence slander, malice, and all manner of uncharitableness, springing from the spirit of detraction, and the desire to pull the neighbor down; hence, also, pride and haughtiness, in all their forms, springing from men's wish to put themselves up ”

“ The penitent gladly turns away or forsakes his evil ways. He abhors sin. Ah, what “vehement desire” to be free; what zeal! He gladly does all he can to repair the injuries he has done. When he has defrauded man of money he will confess it and restore it. When he has contracted debts and long neglected them he will confess his negligence and strive to pay them. ”