The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-11-10
A LIBRARY OF SECRETS
Nine Thousand Volumes Which Con-
tain the Public and Private Rec
ords Of Business Men.
How the Facts Regarding Mans
Standing in the Merchants
World Are Obtained.

Think of pile of 5000 books, each
filled with secret information about mer-
chants and business men from the great
lakes to the Golden Gate, and from Man
itoba to the Rio Grande! But that Is
what We have here"
The speaker vas gentleman connect
ed witE the Dunn Commercial agency on
LGSaile street.
"rhat library" he said, sis the joint
work OF thousands of agents scattered
all over the territory l have named. The
history of all tie business men Of conse-
quence are there, With much information
about each not found in the directory |
which wG issue 10 our subscribers.
Half q century ago, when this institu-
ton was founded, this commercial agency |
wGs crude affair 1t has now become
an immense and, at tho same time, very |
perfect machine. II man comes from
some remote point in the southwest,
northwest, or anywhere, and applies 10
Chicago merchant for credit, we can in
form the merchant in n very short time
Who azd what the customer IL, and to
what extent he is TO be trusted. Ii We
don't happen to have the information IL
| our books we can get it in few hours by
| telegraph. If Chicago man goes 20
Europe and wants 10 buy d:es.es for his
wife at Worth's, in Paris, Worth sends
| TO our agency there, and soon has tuil In
| formation as to the standing Of his Gus
| toner at home, and whether he can safe
| iv give him creoit. IL would be the same
| way ii he asked for credit in any other
| city in Europe.
This information is collected by agents
both local and travelling, whose business
| it is TO find out all they can about the
merchants and businessmen in their dis
! tricts. The facts upon which merchants
are rated in our directory are geueraiiy
ATTAINED f ON the merchants themselves.
The agents ask them what their stock 10
worth. the amount OF their assets AID
Liabilities and upon those facts the rat
ing is made. Some merchants may put
the value of their stock, for instance, too
high, and in sach cases the agent tones 1t
down according 20 his judgment. As a
| rule, merchants do not hesitate TO give
| ail the facts necessary, and give them
correctly. II q mans business IS IN good
condition he is very wiling to make :hs
fact known and be rated hish. When
man hesitates to show up mis- business or
beat ABOUT the bush we always know there
il something wrong. The chances are
|
long.
A mans rating in the directory is Q
public matter, com paritively speaking
but the Information in our little library
of 90CO volumes is not suolic, except
that il IL at the disposal of our snbscrl
bgrs. For instance, IL Il man comes from
some other state to buy goods III one ot
the big Chicago houses, the credit man
would look in the directory and see nov
he was rated. He knows something shCu
the man then, at least enough to gaid'
him in his treatment of the customer
He turns him over To d salesman wht
rhows him through the stock an1 helps
him make his selections. While this ii
being done a message Is sent the cunmer
cial agency, and in few minutes 'h'
credit man of the house Knows hos
much to give the customer on credit, %
!, whether he has got to let him down q
easy as possible by Offering him pc
cent. off for cash and informing hin
gently that the house can't sell him OIL
any other terms. This system saves tn
buyer and seller great deal oftroubie
1t used to be that a Chicago merchan
who vent to New York To buy, unleas h
was we'll known there, Was met with tn
question: "Who are you! Who are yoa
friends? How much are you worth!
; and whole list OF questions wherever n
went TO buy. Now that is ell unnecessary
The New York merchant has no troubl
, in finding out all he wants TO know ahou
his customers.
"The private information which W
= furnish covers not only the buyer's actus
: business or financial condition but hi
. moral standing. II he gambles, s?ecu
lates, plays billiards when he ought TO b
, attending TO busir ess, or Is carefr
shrewd business man, attending closel
. TO business, and likely, therefore, to b
successful, we know 1t. If he Is not
: good manager. who can gather things to
= gether around him and keep them ther'
D but is loose and wastefui, the fact Ia notsc
3 II is not difficult for our agents TO In
1 out all these things. A mans reputatio
D among his immediate business associate
will generally tell all that