The Decalcomania Confidence Man
A group of Seattle women expose a predatory art instructor who used a 'transfer work' scam to swindle local households.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A committee of ladies called upon us last evening to inform us of the doings of a fellow who had been swindling them. He pretends to teach Italian painting, a sort of decalcomania or transfer work, charging therefor three dollars a lesson of about twenty minutes. In one house he got fifteen dollars in less than half an hour, proving to the ladies that he knew little of what he was teaching; that his instruction was without value, and that he was a fraud and humbug of the worst kind. The committee referred to wanted him published that others might be warned in time to avoid imputation.
“proving to the ladies that he knew little of what he was teaching; that his instruction was without value, and that he was a fraud and humbug.”
This report highlights the vulnerability of domestic spaces to itinerant confidence men, a common occurrence in boom-era frontier cities. The proactive organizing of the women involved prefigures modern community-based consumer protection efforts.
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