The Red Cloud chief., 1884-02-29
"HOW do yon ret theInon

"YOu see, every publisher has q lis'
of agents WON lie has employed at ont
time and another. Nearly every ont
will sell ME a copy of his list for a con
sideration. The combined copies make
. formidable pile of manuscript. Their
there are the novelty men. who accu,
mulate large lists OF names of agents
Agents form M line of special names,
Invalids form another
''DO you mean sick people?r
"NOt necessarily. Every community
has a lot of people who are always buy.
ing medicine. They are the mos; valu.
able lot an advertiser can reach. The
cOnsumption-remedy circular gives
them a hacking cough and a hectic
flush. The blood purifier circular
tlushes 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 doctor n sprained foot. All
OF these people at one time or another
write to some advertising doctor or
vender of the elixir of life. buy the
names OF the advertiser, classify them
according TO the number of times the
names have been used 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 .arics the character of the
circulars sent according to the charac-
teristics of the le~tter-writer. even writ
ing a personal letter in some cases."
"What other classes have you?"
1.-Two general classes. One for the
sharpers and one for the general adver-
tiSer. The latter class is cosmopolitan.
1t includes all others, really, but it is
made up mostly OF farmers. For in
stance, in New York, Rochester and
Detroit are several firms OF dealers in
garden and farm seeds. They get hun
dredS of thousands of letters every
year. To those addresses circulars OF
all kinds of farm and household goods.
books. jewelry. anything that Il man
or 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 of all concerned, except
the e addressed. Once we get a name
on that list we know it will pan Put till
the man dies. The addresses of all tho
people who buy tickets in lotteries,
who write to dealers in fac-simile green-
backs, ard who write to other adver-
tiSerS 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 bring?"
81 have got As high as twenty-five
dollars a thousand for names for sharp
crs' use. Good lists of habitual invalids
are worth all the way from ten dollars
to twenty dollars a thousand. Agents
are so easily obtained that ten dollars
is a big price: from three dollars to five
dollars is ordinary. General-use lists
copied off the letters bring from three
dollars to five dollars where they have
not been mailed to more than twice. |
When mailed to o~ftener. and where a
year or W old. they get down to one
a thousand.
care many in this business Of
yours?"
Not continually. They drop in. make
a good thing, and straightway begin
mailing circulars on their own account.
The number of actual addresses hah-
died by me in N year has never ex-
ceedcd one million. but it has crowded
that figure clOsely."-N. y. Sum-.