The 'Royal Endeavor' Insurance Fraud
A shady order claiming to be an insurance society dupes citizens of Prosser before being unmasked as a total fraud.
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.
Considerable commotion has been raised in the town of Prosser and adjoining hamlets, caused by the ramifications of an organization that claimed to be the 'Royal Endeavor,' purporting to pay sums of money to the heirs of a deceased member. The organizer, who travels under the name of T. I. Neuman, succeeded in taking in a large number of the citizens of both sexes of this place. It has been discovered that the whole thing is a fraud. Special advices reveal the fact that the 'head banker' of the concern does not know of the existence of such an order. The gentleman referred to is a local real estate man by the name of Range. He says that some parties made a proposition to him to take charge of their funds as banker of the 'Royal Endeavor Society,' which they proposed should be on the same plan as the A.O.U.W., but so far as he knows no such society exists.
“It has been discovered that the whole thing is a fraud.”
This story highlights the vulnerability of early Washington frontier towns to 'affinity fraud'—where swindlers use the promise of mutual aid or insurance to exploit tight-knit communities.
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