The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-03-04
Important Letter.
MEDITATION RETREAT,
March 1, 1870.

Match l. 1870. I
My DEAR CoGIA HAssAN,
SO Exchange Street:
1t has been a custom of mine to write NV
friends birthday letters, and put in as much
good sound advice and warning as could dis.
til on to about two sheets of paper And. Co.
eia, you must not be offended if saw some
plain things to you. You are now a year old
1t is twelve months since you were launched
upon the commercial sea of Portland. Your
birth differed from that Of many. Other CON-
mercial houses are born babies, and either
slowly grow to maturity or sickea and die of
cramps or internal combustion, or something
else, but your birth, like that of tabled charac-
ters, and like that of our honOred ancestor,
Adam, was anomalous. You came Tito exist
sound of trumpet and drum. The bill-poster
and the newspaper fOretOld your corning,
though In somewhat vague, oracular language.
Commercial astrologers pretended to find the
failing star in the ascendant. They found con-
functions in the heavens foretelling your
speedy dissolution. There were choice few
who saw in these predictions the overfowings
of superabaudant gangrene But, Cogia, when
crowds rushed to your magic number &c."
and all creation and the rest of mankind seem.
ed determined to leave with you all their pic
lures Of Mr.. Lincoln and Mr.. Chase then was
jealousy rampant; then, trembling with ire.
did merchants send forth their hand-blls de-
Glazing you 'peripatetic swindler;' then did
they roundly declare in the same breath that
your goods were Ualueless, and that they cost
t,cace what you were selling them for. And,
joining in the cry, one respectable literary pa
per did connect your name with the funny
Word "humbug," referring, no doubt, to the
IKE G between your store and hive Of bees
But, Cogia, am glad you never lowered your
self to a notice of ugly, slanderous words; you
remembered what taught YOU when YOU
were boy, about the more than uselesspess of
quarrelling with little black and white animals
with bushy tails.
But Cogia, honestly think you have made
some mistakes-yeu have kept too many kinds
OF goods why, Cogia, you have seemed to
have ranged creation over for something else
to sell, and when at last you put in that lot o {
army caps, thought it was step too far
Then, again, you buy too many of one kind of
goods. Didn't you have one hundred thou
sand collars on hand before you bought that
other lot Of eighty-fve thousand? Now, how
many necks are there lin Portland-did you
have advertised too much? People will say
they have to pay for this advertising.
One word OF warning-don't fall into the
common blunder of advertising your goods as
gong at less than COST because any one with
half an eye knows one of two things is true Of
| such advertizers-either they lie, or they paid
more for their goods than they ought to.
have much more would like to say, but
continuation of your great success, remain
| your old friend and teacher,
AMNADAB PEDAGoGUE.
| I give this letter of my quondam teacher as l
received it, though there are one or two things
I would like to cut out am gratified by bis
| approval of my course in severely letting alone
those who forget that no man ever built SUBJ
stantial house BY trying to tear down his neigh
bors' houses: But I had confidence in the peo-
pie, and believed that time would settle these
little questions; end time has, have lived to
see the very house that advertised me as a
| swindler, prove bankrupt, and do what re-
quires more brass than ever hope to muster,
ddUertize its own stock as bankrupt and itself
as selling regardless of cost.
| In the matter of large lots, I do purchase lots
of goods regardless of quantity if only they are
cheap enough, and my friend forgets that
supply not only all Portland but my goods 60
to every hamlet in the State, and that I bave
mont, Massachusetts,, and occasional orders
| from all over the country, and that my custom
ers lay in their collars by the hundred when
l sell them nice article for 10cts. box-the
same they have been accustomed topay 25cts.
| for.
have written my old teacher regarding ad-
vertising that by actual figuring am satisfied
that each dollar expended for this purpose has
increased my trade twenty dollars, and there
| fore the more advertise the cheapee can af-
ford to sell; and here I would add, 1 should ad-
| vertise more but have really as a rule ad
all the business my store was capable Of &C
| commodating.
Now, good friends, if you are not tired Of
this long story let me tell you these things.
always sell at profit, I never have t,co prices,
l never buy an article for my store unless
get it at less than the market price. always
| sell at slight advance on the cost to me. ]
shall always be glad to see old customers or to
see new ones, and remain the publc's servant
| COGIA HAssAN,
80 Exchange st.