Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-11-05
AKIRs AND FAKES IN ADvERTIs-
ING.

AAAANA ~ 49,
ING.
wheeling merchants. to speak the
unvarnished truth. seem to be the
easiest marks" in the world for the ad-
vertlsing fakirs. Let a total stranger
come into town with an advertising
scheme for a hotel register, q hotel
room card, Z circus programme, a street
guide, or an express card purporting to
contain valuable Information, and many
merchants will almost break their
necks TO take space at exhorbitant fig
CURES. II home talent were to at
tempt this fraud the merchant would
give the fellow who had the nerve to
present it the ruin" at first sight, but
the stranger always captures enough
suckers to make it a go"
The travelling fakir who does this
sort Of b usiness is rarely if ever
square" on any Of his propositions.
BE will charge one firm ten dollars for
space and his next door neighbor two
dollars, II he is hard to deal with. He
gets there every time, and gets as much
as he can. He will not only deal I'M
fairly, but will mislead his victims on
the number and quality Of cards, or
whatever he is to get out. II it is
not practicable to bunco mis- customer
fn this way he will find some other
method Of getting something for
nothing.
Some years ago a gang Of these
fakirs got up an express card with
a score or more advertisements on 1t.
They got proofs of the cards, went
about town collecting the money,
"bilked" the printer and not a card
ever saw the light Of day. Other
schemers have played the same sort of
tricks on confding merchants time and
again.
Even should these travelling fakirs
strictly adhere TO their contracts in
every particular, the merchant in
n~inety-nine cases out Of a hundred
throws his money away. The amount
invested in space in any reputable
Wheeling newspaper would give him at
least some return, great or small, but
with these travelling faklrs, never.
What return does the merchant, the
butcher, the baker or the grocery
keeper expect when he takes space at
five or ten dollars on q hotel room card
that is never read? What guest is go
ing out to order his clothes, bread, gro
ceries or meats, or his furniture, or his
coffin? The advertiser might as well
tack his sign on the back door Of Hades.
Yet apparently shrewd and certainly
experienced merchants are taken in"
systematically by this and similar
schemes every day in the year.
The circus programme is a particu-
Iarly fruitful source of waste in adver-
Using. The circus man N along
and says he is going to distribute 10000
programmes al the greatest show on
earth. The average merchant can't
sign a $40 contract fast enough. And
what is the result? The programmes
are all strewn about on the grass
and the sawdust and under the
seats before the ink is dry. Not n
person in a hundred reads an sad"
and not one in ten thousand would re-
member it if he did. A circus audience
is chiedy engaged in twisting its necks
watching three rings at once.
The regular programmes OF char
table entertainments, societies and
theatres are legitimate advertis-
ing ventures. The people have the
time to read them between acts; they
are usually artistic and many keep
them and take them home.
Merchants complain that people go
out Of town to spend their money, yet
when a travelling fakir comes along,
they contribute TO his wallet and
make his scheme possible in the mex
town. II our friends, the mer-
chants, would save this money and put
is TO practical use in the columns
OF the newspapers they would receive
some compensation, and feel the better
for investing in home enterprises.
When the next advertising faklr comes
along you will q V money by giving
him the sc. B." Put the money you
have laid aside for advertising purposes
in the newspapers, which are made and
printed and sold TO be read.
E,nor-n covc ba pavar Woc lcfrnrG1