Six Degrees of Gullible

In A Daughter of the Middle Border, Hamlin Garland wrote of his friend, sculptor Lorado Taft, "Taft was an 'easy mark' in those times, a shining hope to all the indigent models, discouraged painters and other aesthetic derelicts of the Columbian Exposition. No artist suppliant ever knocked at his door without getting a dollar, and some of them got twenty." Funny he should phrase the compliment just that way. And, Garland himself was also known to be generous when he had become an established writer.

Evidence of their giving spirit comes from a little Chicago Tribune article in 1910. The brother of Herbert Adams made a social call on Taft in late January and, being a little short on cash, Taft kindly loaned him $10. Ironically, Hamlin Garland had the opportunity to illustrate his generous spirit about that same time when a nephew of Henry Alden, a friend of Garland's at Harper's Magazine, came calling. The nephew too had found himself a bit strapped, and Garland loaned him $5. "He only asked for $3, but he seemed such a presentable man and the nephew of a dear friend of Mr. Garland, that we gave him all the ready money in the house," said Mrs. Garland.

As you might have guessed, this was a case of literary larceny. The men had been duped by a suave swindler. But, they weren't alone. Writer Clara Louise Burnham received him and he talked at length about her soon to be published book. "Mr. Greenleaf," as he called himself, walked off with a cool $20. The brazen thief represented himself as Mr. Johnson of The Century and even tried to establish an office in the hallowed halls of The Chicago Literary Club. He was refused. The stranger made calls all over town.

By February 18, 1910, the Tribune had put two and two together and exposed the ruse in the paper. The confidence man, said to be from the East and with a warrant on his head, left town...and was never heard from again.

There were, however, some re-faced writers left in his wake.