The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-02
CASH FOR OLD LETTERS.
The Market Value of Answers Written to
Quack Cure-Alls.
TnafrOit NaTvc

The Market value OF Answers "rlCCeh 10
Ouack Cure-AlIs.
Detroit News.l
How do these people who pretend to
give advice and send medicine for moth
ing make it pay?"
"etrange as it may seem, replied ply
stefan, "the part of the business which
these quacks advertise to do for the good
of humanity pays them nothing at all.
They are like the Irishman who sold eggs
at loss. He said that 1t was the guam
THY that paid him. The same way with
these people. It's the quantity that pays
them. 1t isn't the amount Of medicine
they send out, either, but merely the
number of letters received, that makes
that kind Of business profitable How?
Listen, and I'll tell you. Take one case.
1t is typical of thousands. A person
writes to one of those firms whose adver-
tisements appears in every country paper
in the union. He may have liver com
plant, or kidney trouble. Perhaps he is
dyspeptic or suffering from some other
kind of disease. He resolves to write to
one of the 'philanthropists" and that's
precisely what they want. They are not
after your custom, but they do want your
letter, for that is the only merchantable
article in the whole transaction.
There are houses in New York, he
continued, where they make it a bust
a man, after having written for medicine
from a certain house and received little
box of worthless ground herbs, valued at
about 1 cent, has been surprised short
time after to receive circulars and letters
from ali sorts of people about everything
conceivable that can be purchased with
money. He wonders how people down
east have learned his address. 1t was that
fatal letter he wrote to the medicine house.
AS soon as that especial firm had
done with the young man his and
thousands of other letters were sold for
good round sum. The price varies &C
cording to the supply and demand. L
have known bundle of letters numbering
1 900 to have been sold for $500. A few
years ago there was firm for the cure of
everything that flesh is heir to doing bust
ness in Detroit. It became bankrupt and
a receiver was appointed, and, upon an
order from one of the judges, he disposed
of about 5000 letters receiving therefor
nearly $4,000.
you see now why it is to the interest
of such men to advertise so literally in
small papers and invite correspondence.
All these people lay particular stress on the
idea that it is not necessary for the patient
to make visits. Years of practice in GER
tain branches of medicine, they claim,
enables them to properly diagnose a case
from the letter written. A diagnosis is
very easy when the same remedy is ap-
piled to everything. The writer gets a
box of herbs, or a little bottle, or box of
pills. and the sharp gets the letter. which
is of much more value to him than the
worthless stuff he sends its writer Nor
are these letters destroyed when once sold
They are passed on and on. sold and re-
sold, till the victim absolutely refuses any
more circulars or removes to some other
city. His name is then stricken off the
list of "greeneys and he obtains peace
once more.