St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-02-07

publisher by selling him very large
number of agents addresses at a small
part of the cost of getting them by ad-
vertising."
''How do you get them ?"
''YOu see every publisher has 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 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 Invalids form an
other"
"Do you mean sick people p
"Not necessarily. Every community
has lot of people that are always
buying medicine. They are the most
valuable lot an advertiser can reach.
The consumption remedy circular
gives them hacking cough and hec-
tic flush. The blood purifier tiushes
them with eczema. So it goes through
the list of chronic and acute ills that
flesh is heir to. They will buy any
thing from beef and bark to steam
atOmizer to doctor 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 the number Of times
the names have been used by medical
men and the last diseases that afflicted
the writer's, and sell them over and
over again. Sometimes | sell the Or
iginal letters outright. The careful
advertiser sometimes varies the char
acter of the circulars sent according to
the characteristics Of the letter writer,
even writing personal letter in some
cases"
"What other classes have You ?"
''Two general classes. One for the
sharpers and one for the general adj
vertiser. The latter class is cOsmO-
politan 1t includes all others, really,
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 letters every
year. TO those addresses circulars for
all kinds OF farm and household goods,
books, jcwclry, anything that IL 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, eX
cept the ones addressed. Once we get
name on that list we know it will
pan out till the man dies. The adj
dresses of all people whe 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 care
fully arranged by themselves. They
are usually very smart i'll their own
cOnceit, but they nibhle at bare
hook"
''What prices do these names
bring ?"
81 have got us high as S25 thous-
and for sharpers' use. Good lists OF
habitual invalids are worth all the way
from so to $40 IA thousand. Agents
are so easily obtained that so is big
price. FROM 50 to s. is ordinary. Gen
eral-use lists copied off the letters
bring from 50 to So where they have
not been mailed to more than twice.
| When mailed to oftener than that, and
| when year or two old they get down
| to Il dollar a thousand.
care there many in this business OF
yours p
"Not continuously. They drop in,
make a good thing, and straightway
begin mailing circulars on their own
account. The number of actual adj
dresses handled by me in one year has
never exceeded 1000, 900, but it has
crowded that figure closely"