The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-04-10
Fraudulent Advertisers

AT the present time there is a hord.
OF Williams who are advrtisipg Quit,
extensively in the newspapers, especi
aily the religious papers; to sell a large
variety of Things for a very small per
centage of what they say the articles
~ worth. Some advertise SETS 81
silver spoons, worth (they say six
dollars, which they offer for sixty
cents. jest enough they assure as 10
pay Tor boxing nd postage. Another
offers j4welry sufficient to deck a
household and all for one dollar.
Another a ten dollar engraving for
twenty-five cents. Another q watch
at twenty per cent. i 5 real value and
SO on. These advertisements are usu-
ally made very prominent with wide
black lines surrounding them. and
they are particularly sent 10 religious
zap r. for publication because people
generally supp Sc and correctly o :.
that The editors Of uch papels would
not knowingly publ sh d fraud, ana
consequently the swindlers get a SOFT
Ct a antee OF the goou faith OF
their advertise ments from the chaIac-
ttr OF those papers. Althou Ii we
know of course thai no man would
S III anything for les than / alt its cost
a d pay the cost OF advertising il in
addlt on, yet we determined to see for
ourselves how great the swindie eas
The first one we saw was in thu
Wdtchman and Reflector. Of Boston. a
Kan n Ict ~ y-l1.h NO. -
dollar engraving for Twenty-Five ceuts
On condition that the adver isement
was svnt viii the order, which con
dition was put In t, make e readers
suppose that it wasa premium offered
by the paper TO Its subscribers. We
* ut the quarter and in due iime a
miserable iithOg app print came 10 US
which might have Cost t.ree cen S.
AgaIn II Of these cheating adyer-
tsemeut< got INTO the weekly STANDS
ard, and Offered twelve dollar silver
watches tor thee dollars, and so on
throu-h a list OF higher priced watch~
IS q similar discount. We soLt III
three dollars al the watch proved TO
be just What we expected, VIZ. a ut
ter cheat. Ih- works were genuine,
bus they were taken from some old
wOrn out French repeat r, made more
than h II a century ago, the repeater
paris we G left out, ana he works
were put into the Case ii a most bung~
ling anne The case was sEc. al
excellent lmita lou of silver that it &C
1u lily deceived a leweiler at first, bat
on a closer examination 1t proved to
be entirely com posed of use me al
without a particle of silver IN i. The
VIII lie thing may have been W, rth
fit Y cents, certainly not moi0 One
of its chief austs wa, the fact is was
SO out OF order that it would not e
We have since then been pre- S d very
strongly to put the advertisement In
again. The offer was made through a
advertising agency, but
wrote them That It was a fraud,
we refused &c print and which
they ought to be ASHAMED to assist in
putting before the community.
A few months ago we received a
from a in CHICAGO,
that by some drawing or other,
forget VIVA We we're entities to a
very valuable oil painting VIII ca
be sent us on receipt of a Ger
ain am cunt IF money to pay for box
pg. AS we knew the writer lied inCe
bad rot been concerned in any
whatever, we knew this was
IN att mpt 10 cheat us out of s me
money for some miserable daub. We
# course S n, no money. but perhaps
here are others in this city who were
by that circular froud.
We advise our T. aders n, yer to send
money for anything that is advertised
S lie at a small part OF its est, for
hey may be sure hat it is a fraud,
hat the advertiser merely DESIGNS to
,uil the publ C, and that instead of
Jsing money he is selling some ~orth-
css mi ativn at an Ell rmtu profit
o himself. And we should add, es-
beware Of baing cheated by
UGH advertisements when SEN in the
papers.