The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-07
RELYING ON woMAN's CURIOSITY
How an English Firm Will Sell Aner;.
can Postal Cards at Half Prica

How an English Firm Will Sell Amer,.
can Postal Cards at Half Price.
From. the Ne,c York World.
LONDON, Oct. 26.-An English cornors-
ton, with big capital to back it, is now ne-
gotiating for protected rights" to sell
twelve cent postal cards for cents to everv-
body in America who cares to buy them. The
same scheme has been tried here in ENGLAND
with success. In this country postal cards
are more generally used than
they are in America. People here
count the ha'pence If busines.
| man wants to make an appointment he
| uses ha'penny postal card II a housa,
keeper wants to order shoulder of mutton
she sends her butcher postal card. Poor
| men applying for situations, rich man
answering applicants for work, all Use the
postal card. There were 1SS, 800, 900 of them
bought in England last year.
As matter of fact the ha'penny postal
card in England costs three farthings-con-
siderably more than a half-penny Eight
pence Tor 16 cents for one dozen is the rrics
| charged at the general postofice. MANY
retail shops which sell them as ssconven.
| fence" charge tenpence dozen for them
The worklngmap grumbles at the excess
but he pays. After all, it is cheaper than
| a penny stamp.
The Farthlng Letter Card Companv
Hooded the town with advertisements and
and baited its hook for popular PATRONAGE
by offering two half-penny postal cards for
half penny. The booksellers and sta.
TONERS took hold of it and pasted their win
dows with placards offering cents for
The public thought it was a trick. and
fought shy of it. Then the projectors were
shrewd enough to advert SO a letter from
Mr.. Gladstone, in which he said; 81 shall
watch your experiment with interest. and
shall be glad if it operates as corrective of
the extravaganza price now charged to the
government for post cards, since in that
case it must exte end the consumptiop. and
thus enlarge the revenue l should be glad
to have few specimens"
The World correspondent got specimen.
too, and the whole source of profit was an
parent at a glance. The STAMP siden nf
the p lstai card was the same as postal cards
the world over. Nothing was allowed there
but the address. But on the reverse side of
the card one dozen London advertisers had
paid 500 each for the privilege of fringing
100000 cards with their ''ads.n A blank
space about two inches square was left at
the disposal of the sender.
talk with the president of the company
elected further information. He said: "A
man or a woman who would never dream
of reading private letter never hesitateS
to read a postal card. Thousands and
VI pOoUdl are reaQ IN this
city every day by people who have no bust.
ne.s to read them. We lind by visiting
waste paper houses that while the average
man tears up IL letter he throws a postal
card into the waste-basket untouched.
We propose to profit by this weakness in
human nature We will sell postal cards at
half their cost and will rely on advertising
for our profit. We have contracted to take
100000 postal cards week from the British
government for three years, from October
of this year. Our orders already promise
to Guido that. We pay the government one
half penny for each card stamped for us,
and give them premium for the trouble
We furnish the card, and print our ads
on them. To make the dealers sell our
cards we must give them discount. In
fact, we sell half-penny card for less than
farthing and still make profit The
cards are printed in series of 100000, and
an advertiser who has an extensive use for
cards can, by buying $1,000, have his adver-
tisement on 100, 900 cards for nothing. The
saving in the price of cards more than pays
for the cost of advertising.
This plan is popular in England, and
think it will be popular in America. Our
agents are over there perfecting arrange
ments for patent and we expect soon to
place In all the principal cities, packages of
one dozen 1-cent postal cards for cents"