Watch fakery back in 1896

[miamiclay]

The words SWINDLED and WATCHES caught my eye in an image of an adjoining, unrelated article. A remarkably easy* search found this, from page 3 of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of December 16, 1896.

Link is here -
https://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/5...r%20simpson%22

* - I occasionally think how fortunate I am that there was no modern Internet when I was in school: My unnatural attraction to rabbit holes would have doomed me.

.

[Blansky]

I cancelled my subscription to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle 90 years ago.

It just seemed like all crime...all the time. And that's wasn't just Page 3.

I'd tell people...throw this scandalous rag in the garbage, get out of the house and enjoy life.

[MILGAUSS88]

In this case, it sounds like they were pawning gold plated watches off as solid gold.
But I have seen Swiss Fakes of Waltham watches from the 1860s and fake Breguet watches from the early 1800's.