The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1891-09-26
MODus

lHTec IHen st dTOuCu u tdDic III u
little office and say TO each other, now.
if we can rope in" 1000 men in this
community that will agree to pay in
thirty dollars in a year. that will give
us $4,000. We will agree to pay
them 800 at the end of twelve
months, as their names appear upon
the list in numerical order. We will
put the President. the members of
the family aad friends down as the
first twenty on the list. The Secretary
in the same way for the second twenty,
and the Treasurer the third twenty.
That will give us and our friends
$4,000. Then rs our scheme is such
a great advance and so beneficial
we must have good salaries: the Presi-
dent as being tie most dignified,
should have at least $4,000, and the
Secretary and Treasurer $4,000 each.
Then there will be Office rent, print
ing. etc. for We must distribute leaf
lets by the thousand among working
people. to show how TO get rich quick.
We will allow $500 for that. SO for
salaries and expenses we will deduct
$4,000. leaving $4,000 to be distrib-
uted among 200 subscribers. Our
families and friends will be the first
sixty members, and we give to 40
outsiders that come next, 500 each.
That will be very liberal, and they
will do us good by Boosting about it,
among their friends, and draw Others
into the scheme, and as TO the 800
that get nothing, we will tell them
their chances will come next year.
Barnum says the people like to be
humbugged, and we will delight them
to the extent of our power and their
crcdulity.
A cynic to whom the above scheme
was confidcd, in order to draw him
in, took out his pencil, and figured up.
200 get 800 each and 800 get moth
ing, and they are out of pocket 1924
900. How does that benefit the COM
munity:: Then it was explained TO
him that they would come next year.
Not under that system, for the officers
and their friends will always be ahead,
and there will be only 40 of the
original 1000 paid out of the receipts
of the first thousand; and if the num-
Der is kept up to the full number the
second year, and SO on with every
thousand, no matter how many thOus-
and there may be, the losses will be
cumulative. One-ffth get all the
money and fOur-fifths loose all they
put in. So we come back to our ques-
ton, show docs that benefit the COM
munity?' To keep the matter plain,
SO that these financiers cannot pull
the wool over our eyes by talking
about accessions and lapses, winch
only increase the fallacics and augment
the losses and injustice, a. well as ex-
hibit their supreme sclfishness, let us
run the scheme on, for ten years with
the one thousand, and as there il but
slight allusion to interest on invest
Insnt, that need not enter into our
calculations, as it will not enter into
he pockets of the contributors. In
:rease of salaries and expenses will
'at that up. In ten years there will
,ave been paid by the one thousand
100000. One third goes for salaries
md expenses, 100000 for officers and
$4,000 goes to 140 subscrib-
rsand 800 subscribers $4,000 out of,
All, but they won't all hold '
n, many of them will lapse, they can :
ot afford to keep their assessments
aid. Well, be it SO, they hold on till !
rim poverty compels them to let 60, i
nd that is the most cruel and nefari- Il
US part of the whole business to dis
punt in advance and speculate upon
he probabilities of poverty, and the y
necessities Of those whom they have II
rofessed to befriend; to take the S
Ioney OF many to enrich the few. y
b, shame, where is thy blush?