Some of the papers have been full of the shady
trans- actions of transatlantic bucket-shop swindlers. When I read of people who have invested their life savings in some get-rich-quick syndicate I cannot help reflecting on the gullibility of mankind ; at some time or other, I suppose, most of us have had our fingers burnt. At the beginning of the present century when a land boom was in progress in Canada several offices were opened in London to interest the British public in the Canadian West. In particular I remember one office which dis- played in its window a picture of the township of — in which passers-by were invited to invest. Here was a brilliant blue lake, with little steamers puffing out columns of white smoke, at one end of the lake was the rapidly- growing and prosperous town of —, surrounded by emerald-green woods and a smiling landscape on which were dotted model farms.
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