Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-07-23
BUSINESS MEN VS.. FAKERs.
The Latter Becoming a Nuisance That
Should be Abated.


Should be Abated.
There is a certain class Of nomads that
roams about from village to village with
spurious wares which they palm of on the
public by means of silver tongued talk and
seemingly low prices. They have become so
plentiful that business men are up IN arms
all along the line fighting these dishonest fell
flows with determination born of feeling
that both they and their customers are being
imposed upon.
There is no town in the State that has more
cause for complaint in this line than has Ma
poleon. Our merchants reside here, they do
business here a life time and contribute
largely to the maintenance of our govern
ment. On the duplicate their names are al
ways in the lead. In fact the merchant is the
backbone of any town. It is by the business
portion that the standing, both financially
and socially, is guaged. When new railroad
is contemplated, a celebration or any public
Improvement, the business men are looked
to for furtherance and consummation of the
project.
In taking view of the above facts and
justly estimating the merchants value to
town it is no wonder that they feel incensed
when several fakes week make their appear
ance on our streets and with tripod hold
ing their wares harangue the populace into
purchasing bogus articles the very cheapness
of which shows them to be such.
Barnum once said that the American peo-
pie wanted to be humbugged. No truer words
were ever spoken than these. When you pur-
chase from street fakes you are not doing
business either for health or love. They have
expense of travelling, etc., to pay, yet they
make money. How is this done2 Simply by
handling the cheapest and most deceiving
goods. 1t is their trade to deceive; it is their
art to study their victim and impose upon
his ignorance Of the articles they sell. They
are here to- day and gone tomorrow and what
care they when an examination of your pur-
chase reveals to you the intelligence that you
have been robbed.
Now different is it with our own bust
ness men.
They are one of us. Their interest and ours
is common. Had they any desire to place
upon the market snide goods, their business
would necessarily suffer in the long run for
as a burnt child breads the fire so would we
avoid dealing with one who we knew had in
tentionally beaten us. The street fake is not
under these restrictions. He comes as a
"boon to poor people" but he departs with
his pockets lined with their money Civ
ing in return base limitations. He is trans
lent, heeting show that should be prohibited
giving exhibitions at the expense of our citi-
zens.
And there is only one way by which this
can be accomplished, and TINT is to fix the
license at least on par with'tl paid by our
own merchants every year. What we mean
by the "license paid by our merchants" is
the money that finds it's way from their cash
drawer to the city through the channel of the
county treasury. How merely nominal is the
tax placed upon street fakes compared with
this amount!
A movement of our business men should be
organized to bring about the adoption of
license schedule by our council sufficiently
high to forever bar out these worthless
nomads from entering Napoleon. They are
wen to the town and an abscess to it's bust
ness relations.
During the past week we have had more
than our usual quarto of experience with the
travelling business men''. Outside three
curbstone swindlers, half dozen of our He
brew friends have struck the town as an army
ofgrass hoppers on Kansas wheat field and
proceeded to extort money from farmers and
laboring men by offering "codink" extreme
ly cheap owing, they claim, to forced sale of
damaged goods by an insurance company.
This is false as we have interviewed our lead
ing insurance men who assert that no
insurance company extant, does bust
ness in this way. The manager sudden
ly made his appearance Just before our press
day last week and being assured by the fel-
lows license that his business was at least
legitimate we inserted local without giving
the matter farther attention. But since, we
have given the matter a thorough investiga-
ton and are convinced that their business is
a humbug and should be stopped. This
can only be accomplished by adopting the
schedule heretofore mentioned. In this case
S25 per day instead of 81 would be reasona-
BILE.