The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-02
HENRY JACKSON.


won't you explaing" said the younger man.
Il buy and sell the addresses of people in all
parts of the United States and Canada. There
are hundreds of business men who reach their
customers by circulars, as well as by advertis-
ing in the newspapers. Thus a book publisher
gets out a new book, which he wants to sell
through agents. He is anxious to learn the
names and addresses of all the men and
women in the United States who sell subscrip-
ton books. lie also wants the names of those
who sell other goods in the sama way because
they are very likely to drop the other article for
the sake of the new book. Then he wants the
addresses of the people who have never acted as
agents, but who want to try it to see what they
can do. He advertises for agents in a variety of
papers, and at a pretty heavy expense. 1t costs
him several cents for every letter of inquiry
about his book that he receives. To that letter
of inquiry he sends his elaborate circulars. l
come to the relief of the publisher by selling
him a very large number of agents addresses at
a small part of the cost Of getting them by adj
vertising."
"How do you get theml"
You see every publisher has a list of agents
whom he has employed at one time and another.
Nearly every one will sell ME a copy of his list
for a consideration. The combined copies make
a formidable pile of manuscript. Then there
are the novelty men, who accumulate large lists
of names of agents. Agents form one line of
special names. lnvalids form mother"
ID you mean sick peoples"
mot necessarily. Every community has a lot
of people who are always buying medicine. They
are the most valuable lot an advertiser can reach.
The consumption-remedy circular gives them a
hacking cough and a hectic flush. The blood
purifier circular flushes them with eczema. So
it goes through the list of chronic and acute ills
that flesh is heir to. They will buy ANYTHING
from beef and bark to a steam atomizer to doc
tor a sprained foot. All these people at one time
or another write to some advertising doctor or
vender of the elixir of life. / buy the names
from the advertisers, classify them according to
fha r,r,ha ~ 4ipnaa 4ha ro,,,or hoxa hnon y,uAI
by medical men and the last diseases that afflicted
the writers, and sell them over and over again.
Sometimes l sell the original letters outright.
The careful advertiser sometimes varies the char
acter of the circulars sent according to the char
acteristics of the letter-writer, even writing a
personal letter in some cases"
What other classes have you2h
1.-TWO general classes. One for the sharpers
and one for the general advertiser. The latter
class is cosmopolitan. 1t includes all others, re
ally, but it is made up mostly of farmers. For
instance, IN New York, Rochester, and Detroit
are several firms of dealers in garden and farm
seeds. They get hundreds of thousands of let
tiers every year. To those addressed circulars
for all kinds of farm and household goods, books,
jewelrv, anything that a man or a woman
doesn't need but is sure to want, can be sent
with great profit. The names for the use of
sharpers are the most profitable of all, and yield
the largest returns to all concerned, except the
ones addressed. Once we get a name on that
list we know it will pan out till the man dies.
The addresses of all people who buy tickets in
lotteries, who write to dealers in fac-simile
greenbacks, and who write to other advertisers
that offer to give something for nothing, are
very carefully arranged by themselves. They
are usually very smart in their own conceit, but
they nibble at a bare hook"
what prices do these names bring2"
II have got as high as $25 a thousand for
names for sharpers' use. Good lists of habitual
invalids are worth all the way from $40 to $40 a
thousand. Agents are so easily obtained that
General-use lists copied off the letters bring from
So to s. where they have not been mailed to
more than twice. When mailed to oftener
than that, and where a year or two old, they get
Town to a dollar a thousand"
"Are many in this business of yours2"
mot continuously. They drop in. make a
good thing, and straightway begin mailing circu-
lars on their own account. The number of
actual addresses handled by me in any year has
never exceeded ], 900, 900, but it has crowded that
figure closely.