Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-08
HOW NAMES ARE OBTAINED.
THE ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MAIL MAT
TER SENT AS BAIT.
Letters Sent to Unsuspicious People Who
Wonder How Their Addresses
Were Obtained.

BY thousands of persons mail matter is
constantly received from different places
all over the country. Naturally enough
they wonder how it comes to be sent to
them. The matter is in various forms,
and embraces circulars, cards, chromos,
photographic letters, and every conceiv-
able way OF telling by mail how fortunes
may be made, diseases cured, land en-
riched, crops increased, husbands, wives
and divorces obtained in short, every
thing that ingenuity can invent to appeal
to curiosity, cupidity, pride or necessity.
Some of this matter is elaborate and quite
expensive; it serves to ornament walls
and picture albums. The bulk of it, how
ever, is poorly printedon cheap paper, be-
cause imrc ase quantities Of it are used,
a great deal of it being sent into every
county, town and hamlet in the Union, all
postage paid and directed to individuals.
1t NAV seem incredible, but it is true,
that there is scarcely locality that has a
postofice, however small and obscure, any
where in the United States, that does not
contain many persons whose names and
addresses are recorded in New York and
the principal cities of the East.
In places large enough to boast directo-
ries it is, of course, an easy matter to pro-
cure names and addresses. But when it
nrrucrnaHc xuh
office, store and tavern are combined, where
mail arrives but once a week, and people
90 miles for it, then it seems strange to the
uninitiated that the names and addresses
of the blacksmith and farmer, dairymaid
and plowboy are so well known, receive an
almost national circulation, and are made
a source of profit by people of whom they
never heard and whom they will never
know.
Why this is SO, how the names are pro-
cured and what is done with them is an
interesting chapter of modern business en-
terprise, while the direct results from their
use have at times shocked communities,
given sensational newspapers rare chances
for starting headlines, and furnished the
basis for many true story stranger than
the fiction of the widest fancy.
In New York an observant person may
often notice on Broadway, on Fourteenth
street, or further uptown, well-dressed,
gentlemanly- looking men, who seem to
have plenty of money, ample leisure, and
yet to be without ample means of support.
Some of them have the airs of sporting
men, and might readily be taken for
king hts Of the round table, but they are
not. They have a sort of nodding ac-
quaintaace with many whom they meet,
and yet ask who they are and the reply
will he:
81 don't know his name. l see him
every day. l think he is broker down
town somewhere"
And so he is-at least he thus dignifes
himself. He is "a name" or 'letter
broker" one who deals in names and their
deals, too, oftentimes in other
things-or pretends to-such as cheap jew
elry, bogus money, worthless prescriptions,
or whatever will bring postage stamp or
a greenback to his treasury. But these
men do large and profitable business by
dealing simply in the names and addresses
of people. They advertise extensively and
in various ways, using the smaller country
weeklies and the story papers that have a
national circulation when they can get into
them. Their advertisements are some
times for one thing and sometimes for an
other, often for agents, but in every case
intended and well calculated to elicit an
swers of some sort, letters of inquiry, or
perhaps remittances and orders. Usually
enough answers are obtained in this way
to pay for the advertising. These letters
are carefully sorted and arranged in
months and years, according to their dates,
those that contained money or orders be-
ing kept separate from mere letters of in
quiry. They are then ready for use, sale
or hire. If the "letter broker" is running
any scheme on his own hook-cheap Jew
elry, lottery swindle, fancy cards or any
thing of the sort-he will first mail his
circular to all the addresses he has secured.
The most common method of deriving
profit from these letters is to let them out
to others who have schemes of their own
for tapping the pockets of gullible people.
they are hired by those who are
doing legitimate business, and who keep
their engagements.
The average price for the use of mere
letters of inquiry is S. per thousand, and
a month is generally given in which to
copy the names and addresses, while let
tiers that have contained money or orders
for goods Of any sort are often let for
double that sum. Sometimes the letters
are sold outright, the prices realized being
about IS per cent more than the
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in either case, however, depends very much
upon the nature of the business by the adj
vertisement that has called them forth.
People who are all the time on the qui
vive to get gold dollars for rs cents apiece
are always ready to be swindled, and
though it by no means follows that all the
matter which is sent to them ema-
mates from swindling concerns, much of it
certainly does, and this is the kind that
they are most likely to take stock in, be-
cause it promises so much more than can
be honestly performed. Such letters have
sold as high as $50 per thousand. Age
has much to do with the value of these
letters. As a rule, those of recent dates
are worth much more than those two or
three years old. The letter brokers" do
not depend entirely upon advertising to
secure nance; they buy letters and ad-
dresses from various sources. OF course,
no reputable commercial concern will sell
the letters Of its correspondents, or even
permit the addresses to be copied for sale
or use BY others, but there are hundreds of
concerns in the East that deal in various
things, who receive hundreds of thousands
of letters from all over the country, which
they sell to the brokers or exchange them
for the use OF those received by the letter
dealers. These interchanges of letters are
quite common and by no means confined TO
one of the larger Eastern cities. New
York dealers buy, sell and exchange with
those of Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia
and other cities The sawdust or counter
felt money swindler, the cheap jewelry
man, the lotsery beat, the worthless medi-
cine man, the rare and racy book man, the
squash-seed hurnbug, all buy, sell or ex-
change tons of letters with each other
throughout the year. Atthe headquarters
q these concerns (when such headquarters
can be found) from FIVE to twenty-five
clerks, usually gigls, may be seen address
ing wrappers or envelopes, for the personal
circular method is mainly depended upon
by sninalers who have become known as
such to reputable newspapers. Names and
addresses are also often copied in lists and
kept for some new scheme after the one for
which they were originally bought has