In March 1908, a sharp-eyed, unidentified Kingstree man and a gutsy young woman, also from Kingstree, played instrumental roles in the arrest of another man whose fraudulent scheme enticed "young girls over the state to ruin," as one newspaper of the time delicately described it.
The Kingstree man became suspicious when he read a Want Ad in The State newspaper on Saturday, March 14. The ad read: "Wanted–three girls to learn the show business; experience unnecessary; expenses paid while learning; enclose stamped envelope for reply. Address Predro, care The State."
He decided to answer the ad, using the name "Miss Annie Dow," to see if he would get a reply. On March 17, he wrote. "Dear Sir, I see your advertisement in The State for three girls to learn the show business. I would be glad to engage with you as I have always had an inclination for that line of work and think I have some talent if developed. Am 17 years of age and neat in appearance. Please write me full particulars about the work you would expect of me and how long it would be until I would receive some compensation. Hoping to hear from you soon."
Four days later, he received an answer to his letter, written on Columbia Inn stationery. It was signed "Wallace Amusement Co." Annie Dow was instructed to come to Columbia so that she could be assessed to determine if the company could use her. She was told that girls the company hired were required to work only one hour each night and could receive from $16 to $200 per week, plus expenses. The letter then stated in "suggestive" language that only girls with good figures were wanted.
"If you care to join us,' the letter continued, "you will have to come to Columbia, Thursday, March 26, and put up at the Columbia Inn, then our stage manager will meet you there Thursday night, March 26, and see you and if satisfactory will employ you, and you will be in a position to become a successful actress with an income that will give you a mark in your hometown."
Miss Dow was instructed to reply by postcard with these words on it. "Meet me at appointed place and hour." If she was accepted, the letter added, her railroad fare would be refunded, but she would be responsible for her own expenses if she was not acceptable. The letter concluded, "But if you will talk to our agent and treat him as you should, we have no doubt but what you will 'make good.'"
The letter was written in pencil on four pages of ordinary stationery. Written in ink on the top of the first page was "Charles Van Burean, Manager, Wallace Amusement Co., is the man you are to meet in Columbia, S.C. Don't forget." Also written in ink was the number 6335. On the bottom of the last page, another sentence in ink said, "Register at the hotel as you wrote to us, that is Miss Annie Dow, so our agent will know you."
The day after receiving the letter, the gentleman in Kingstree mailed it to the editor of The State, with a personal letter explaining how he had obtained it. The editor was annoyed that someone might be using his newspaper to instigate what was likely to be a vicious fraud. He immediately decided to investigate the matter.
The first step in the investigation was to contact Post Office Inspector Gregory and get him to come to Columbia. An employee of The State was also dispatched to Kingstree to find a girl who could pose as Miss Annie Dow. This young woman would keep the appointment in Columbia, giving Inspector Gregory a chance to determine who was behind the scheme.
He found a young woman he thought would be able to handle the situation, and she arrived in Columbia at 12:25 p.m. on the Atlantic Coast Line train from Florence. She went immediately to the Columbia Inn and registered as "Miss Annie Dow, S.C." The desk clerk, who had been briefed by the postal inspector, assigned her to Room 16. A connecting door linked it to Room 15, where Inspector Gregory, a reporter from The State and another man were stationed so they could overhear "Miss Dow's" interaction with the target of the investigation.
With the trap set, there was nothing left to do but wait. Around 5 p.m., the desk clerk informed Inspector Gregory that it was likely that George A. Bristow, a young man who worked at the Union Station lunch counter, was the man in question. The clerk said Bristow had been stopping by the hotel every night for almost two weeks. He had told the night clerk that he was expecting a visit from a Mrs. Dow, a wealthy young widow, who had offered him a position to travel with her, looking after her invalid son.
Another hour passed before someone knocked on the door of the room in which the Inspector and the reporter waited. One of the hotel porters entered and whispered to Inspector Gregory that a man had entered the hotel and asked for Miss Dow in Room 16. The porter then slipped out, and a few minutes later someone came up the stairs whistling.
He went into Room 14, where he stayed for about 10 minutes before going back downstairs. He then sent a note to the young lady in Room 16. It read: Miss Dow: If you are the young lady who wishes to see the advance agent of the Wallace Amusement Co., I have been instructed to see you, and as not to attract attention, will you be ready in a few minutes to take a car ride around the belt, and I shall be pleased to to explain the business to you. If I have made a mistake, please pardon me. Mr. Van Burean has gone to Atlanta to join the show, and I have full instructions to act. Please let me know by the porter. Respectfully, Geo. A Bristow.
She got the porter to tell Bristow that she could not go out with him. If he wished to see her, he would have to come to her room. After the porter delivered the message, Bristow asked the hotel manager for permission to call upon the young lady in her room. The manager, who had consulted with inspector Gregory on how to handle this, said that it was against hotel policy for gentlemen to visit young ladies in their rooms, but if this was strictly a business call, he would allow it this once. But he also cautioned him that he should not stay long.
Bristow went upstairs and knocked on the door. When she opened it, he asked, "Is this Miss Dow?" to which she replied that she was. He first apologized that Mr. Van Burean was not available, as he had been called away, and then again asked Miss Dow to go for a ride with him, saying that the hotel manager had ordered him not to stay long, and he needed more time to explain the job to her.
She again declined, and Bristow began to tell her about the advantages she would have as a girl in the show business. He told her that the Wallace Amusement Company was playing at the Bijou Theatre in Atlanta, even as they were speaking. She had never heard of the play he said they were performing, and he proceeded to explain that 40 of the 60 people in it were chorus girls.
He then told her that these girls wore very short dresses, and then prefacing his remarks with, "Now, Miss Dow, I hope you won't be offended," he told her that they also wore tights. He said this fact made it hard for them to secure girls, but added that no lady should object to wearing tights if she expected to learn the show business. He said his wife had been part of the show for years and appeared on stage every night in tights.
Bristow told Miss Dow he liked her appearance and felt that she would be exactly right for the show business, but added that he would have to call Mr. Van Burean in Atlanta to get his opinion. He said he would go downstairs to make the call and let Miss Dow know what Mr. Van Burean said.
However, just as he was preparing to leave the room, he was confronted by Inspector Gregory and his assistant with one of them appearing in the hall and the other coming through the connecting door. Bristow was completely surprised, "acting as if the earth had opened up and these men had appeared out of its center."
Realizing that the men had heard his every word, he admitted his connection to the scheme, but he insisted that Mr. Van Burean was the one behind it, that he was merely acting as Van Burean's agent. As Inspector Gregory questioned him at length, Bristow gave details on how he met Van Burean and how they worked together. He said he had written the letter to Miss Dow, but that Van Burean had dictated most of it to him. He had also answered other replies to the advertisement in the same way.
He had arranged to meet two of the girls at the Congaree Hotel on the evening of March 22. He said Van Burean was supposed to meet the girls but that at the last minute Van Burean called him and asked him to go in his place. He registered at the hotel and waited all night, but the girls never appeared. He had not been back there and didn't know if Van Burean had ever met them there or not.
Bristow insisted that Miss Dow was the only one of the girls he had met. He also insisted that Van Burean had met several, including one in Brookland and one on Blanding Street. He gave the Inspector the names of several girls from the factory district that he wanted to get in the company, but added that he had left it to Van Burean to make all the arrangements with them.
Inspector Gregory took Bristow to the police station at 1:30 a.m. and had sworn out a warrant for his arrest by noon the next day. Bristow was charged with using the U.S. Mail to carry out a fraudulent scheme. Gregory spent the rest of Friday following up leads Bristow had given him, including interviewing several Columbia girls who had answered the ad. Gregory also visited a number of places, including several houses of ill repute, which Bristow said he and Van Burean had visited. At each place, Gregory was able to confirm that Bristow had come and gone alone. As the day wore on, it became more and more evident that Mr. Van Burean did not exist, and that Bristow was the sole operator of the scheme.
If the story ended here, it would be interesting, but as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now, for the rest of the story."
Bristow had requested that his brother be notified of his arrest, and on Saturday morning, the brother, a minister in Williamston, arrived in Columbia. He quickly released a statement to the press. In the statement, Louis J. Bristow–yes, the same Louis Bristow who owned The County Record and lived in Kingstree from April 1897 until November 1898–took The State to task for not taking into consideration the full story about George Bristow. In his statement, Louis Bristow noted, "My brother, George A. Bristow, is of unsound mind and has been since childhood." He added that George Bristow had, for years, disappeared for long periods of time without anyone in the family knowing where he was. In fact, no one in the family had heard from him for several months prior to his arrest. Bristow noted also that his brother had signed up for the military during the Spanish American War but was unable to fulfill his duties. He had later enlisted for service in the Philippines but ended up in a hospital in Japan. From there he was transferred to the hospital at the Presidio in California. He had continued to disappear from time to time after his discharge from that hospital.
Bristow wrote that he had been allowed to see his brother and that George Bristow was unaware of the seriousness of the charges he was facing. Louis Bristow had called in Dr. L.A. Griffith, who had treated his brother in the past, to assess his condition.
Louis Bristow and attorneys for George Bristow met with the prosecutor, Ernest F. Cochran prior to trial, presenting him Army records and certificates from two physicians who had treated George Bristow in the past. After looking over the information, Cochran agreed to a continuance until October 1908 so that George Bristow's mental capacity could be thoroughly investigated. Cochran made no promises about the course the government would ultimately pursue, but Bristow was released on bond.
I could find no reports of a trial ever taking place. However, George Bristow continued to have problems throughout his life. In early August 1914, a man believed to be George Bristow was found delirious in Front Royal, VA. Bristow, at that time a linotype operator in Baltimore, was missing.
And in 1922, the Greensboro, NC, Daily News printed a plea from his wife, Della. Bristow had disappeared from home two weeks before, and she was searching for him. The short article noted that Bristow often "wanders from home," and noted that he might be found at a newspaper office or printing office as he worked as a printer.
He died of pneumonia in Greensboro on November 18, 1924, at age 48.
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