Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-02-01
FLEEClNG THE PUBLIC.
The Harvest Time Of Advertise
Ing Sharpers.
How They Gull the Unwary and
Make Rich Catches,
Some Of Their Smart DOdges Ex.
posed, ETC., Etc.

This is the season when the timer
ant and hungry hunter after adver-
tisements is to be met as he moves on
the grand rounds in search of patron
sRe, worrying the large merchant, the
snail tradesman and all class OF peo-
pie who have the time and the inclina-
ton to listen to his Establishments.
This is his harvest time, and the ways
and means of these peripatetic ge-
muses. are numerous, while their in
Ventions are many.
The Jeremy Didler Of a past genera
ton was nowhere in comparison to the
advertising sharp of the present day.
In fact, if Jerry were living at this
time he wouldn't TAKEN enough to pay
for his lodging among the sharp com
petitors he would now be compelled
to battle with. You can see these
sharpers everywhere, almost, laying off
plans to take in the unwary public
with their lodges and their dodgers.
Specimens of the work Of this class
of imposters are to be found in many
QUITO the way places, not where they
will do the most good, but where a
practical eye now and then detects
the smart job skillfully worked
up by the soft palaver of the
visiting sharper. A year or
two since one of these cunning fell
lows dropped in upon us from Chicago
Just before the Mardi Gras. He spent
a few weeks with US, got up a lot of.
cheap frames, with a clock or Their
mometer or some other device in the
center, stuck them along on the street
corners, three or four dozen in all, and
left the city a clear thousand dollars
ahead ofall expenses, enough to run
him through the watering places next
summer, with money to spare. 1t is
safe to say that not six b worth Of
business was ever drawn to a single
individual who patronized this adver-
Using sharp.
Another case occurred here a few
years back, a clever swindIe upon all
who patronized it, and there were
many taken in. A man with a glib
tongue went about and took in many
dollars under a promise to have a lot
OF ccstly albums put about in hotels
and other public places, with business
cards of various houses therein, gotten
up in a high style of art. He had a
considerable amount Of printing done,
collected liberal sums of money on the
plea that the albums were in the ex-
press Office, and were to be paid for be-
fore he could get them out, and about
the time the albums should have been
placed before the public in accordance
with the proposals, the smart fellow
lit out. and has not been heard OF
leaving the printer in the lurch
and the albums in the hands of the
manufacturer. Dozens of instances
of a similar nature might be described,
but the foregoing is enough to serve
the purpose at present. Many
smart persons have come among
us and gone off ahead in cash,
leaving nothing for the benefit of their
gullible patrons. They are here now,
getting up advertising sheets OF vari-
GUS kinds, out of which they will
make money to carry off and leave
nothing to show forit. Their patrons
will suffer in pocket as we'll as in mind,
and then express themselves in fOrci-
bic terms regarding the manner they
were taken in and wonder how they
allowed themselves to be so easily i'm
posed upon.
A we'll prepared article on this sub
ject appeared in the Appeal of Sunday,
and it strikes home so completely that
the following extracts are given that
the readers of this journal may be
warned in time to steer clear of adyer-
Using quacks. The Appeal says:
Under the technical heading of
snaps" may be classed all of those
small, %evauescent advertising schemes.
whereby shrewd Yankees, and some
who are not Yankees, delude mer-
chants and others into giving up their
ducats. Business Guides, "Busi
ness Directories" "Gazetteers," rail-
way and steamboat time and distance
tables, Hotel Registers" etc are
usually "snide," and should be
Stunned, as the only object Of their
originatOrs is to get something for
nothing. The usual style is to guar.
antee" an immense edition and then
print just enough to go around the
circle of dupes and collect on. This
is n of the most difficult Of all adj
vertising swindles to detect, and, in
case the printing is done at a distance.
it cannot be detected.
THE REMEDY.
l. In the case of canvassers for for
eign newspapers, it is best TO decline
having anything to do with them. un.
less you know the standing and char
acter Of the publication. II. however.
you feel disposed to patronize any-
thing with which you are not a%cquaint
ed, demand the exact (not the
"aboutn) circulation OF the nannr md