Life, 1904-09-22 · page 7 of 20
Life — September 22, 1904 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical piece by Thomas W. Lawless-Son of Boston confesses to a brass-adulteration scheme. The two portraits show Lawless himself (left, captioned as "the handsomest ex-outlaw in the band") and Hennery H. Dodgers (right, "a better confidence man than I am"). The satire targets turn-of-the-century financial fraud: Lawless describes evolving a plan to make counterfeit brass look like gold, then recruiting "The Standard All Gang"—a band of public plunderers and highwaymen—to execute the swindle. The piece mocks both the perpetrators' brazen confessions and the "Dear Public" for remaining silent about such schemes, positioning financial crime as entertainment for a morally compromised audience.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- Frenzied Financial Frankness The Story of ADU LITERATED By THOMAS W LAWLESS-SON.of BOSTON, picase? AM going to tell the simple story of Adulterated Brass. I wish to state at once that my determination to tell the story of Adulterated is not actuated by a 7. desire to even things up with my former “pals” in the ‘hold-up " Iam about to describe, notwithstand- ing that they robbed me of part of the * swag." No! A thousand times, no! My regard for the ‘Dear Public’? prompts this con- fession—if so I must term it; although I am not so guilty as they, in the face of the admission that I knew they were confidencing the said ‘Dear Public’ and remained silent. Still, Iam willing and anxious to take my share of the HENNERY H. DODGERS. A BETTER CONFIDENCE MAN THAN 1 AM. blame (just as I took as much of the ‘swag ”’ as I could get). But as I did not get all of the latter that was coming to me, neither do I want as much of the former as I deserve. However, to ‘get down to cases,” as goes the saying in the commoner circles of that society of which I have been a shining light, and tell the Great Story of Adulterated, I will begin with my part in the swindle. In the first place, I evolved an idea by which all of the Brass in the country could be adulterated and made to look like Gold. Next, I sought the well-known band of public plunderers andhard All Gang—who imme- THOS. W. LAWLESS-SON. (THE MANDSOMEST RX-OUTLAW IN THE BAND.) A VICTIM OF JEALOUSY, AVARICE AND GREED, AND THE SELF-ARASING AUTHOR OF THIS STORY. and highwaymen—The S comicbooks.com