The Piano Salesman and the Farmer Who Could Not Read English
A salesman is accused of talking a wealthy Russian immigrant into signing $2,500 in notes by passing them off as harmless commission contracts for five pianos.
A warrant has been placed in the hands of the sheriff for the arrest of W. O. Erbs, a piano salesman, on a charge of obtaining from Henry Ochs, a wealthy Russian farmer of Endicott, five promissory notes of $500 each, by alleged fraudulent representations. Erbs took advantage of his inability to read English and induced him to sign the notes with the understanding that they were contracts for the sale on commission of five pianos, so Ochs alleges.
“Erbs took advantage of his inability to read English and induced him to sign the notes…”
A confidence man dressed a $2,500 obligation in the language of a piano-sale contract and put it in front of a farmer who could not read English. The scheme anticipates the fraud that still finds people whose literacy or language leaves them exposed — and in 1909 that sum was a small fortune.
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