The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-24
Took Him in Earnest.

Took Him in Earnest.
Some rather humorous incidents
grew out of this. l knew that the
masses of the people had never
studied the money question. and were
therefore ignorant on that subject,
but it never occurred to me that any
one would think these lectures actu-
ally took place, and that the scholars
who appear in the book were actually
present. Thousands, however, believ-
ed that such was the case, and men
like Lyman ]. Gage, Marshall Field
and John r. Walsh were deluged with
letters asking them if they had at
tended the lectures and were correct
~ reported.
mir. Gage received the greatest
NUMBER of letters and his mail from
Coin readers became so large that he
was obliged to have a circular printed
which he sent as reply. He solemn
ly denied having attended any such
lectures, and said therefore he could
not have asked the questions or made
the statements attributed to him.
After the book was written 1 had
5000 copies printed, and awaited re.
suits. They sold slowly. L said to
myself, if the people knew what is
in this book they would buy it by the
L d
few papers that entertained the same
ideas as myself on the money ques-
ton to offer the book to their readers
on the coupon plan. This quickened
the sales, but the advertising was not
extensive enough to suit me
Il then devised what I thought was
q great advertising plan. Carter Har-
rison'S sons were the owners of the
Chicago Times, which was advocating
the free coinage of silver. I made
them this Proposition:
II was to hire a special train to
visit every state capital and principal
city in the United States. Upon the
arrival of the train my representative
accompanied by the representative of
the paper, was to officially present the
governor of the state with a copy of
Coins Financial School. While the
train remained in the city, employees
were to sell copies of the book, and
take subscriptions to the paper. The
representative of the paper was to
telegraph a full account of each days
trip TO the Times, and give the timer
airy a week in advance. 1 was pleased
when the Harrison boys, as they are
called, accepted my proposition, which
also included an offer on my part to
bear the expenses of the special train.
81 went to Colorado. secured certiti-
Gates from bankers to the effect that one
piece of my property there was worth
$4,000, and then tried to mortgage 1t for
$4,000, which l thought would be sut1cient
to get my scheme under way. Did those
silver bullion owners and millionaires we
read so much about jump at my PROPOSE
ton? No, sir; they coldly said that my
property did not have the rental value
sufficient to pay the interest on the loan,
and therefore they could not let me have
the money.
II went to Dennis Sheedy, president of
president Of the Colorado National bank.
at Denver, who is also a large owner OF
silver mines; he would not let me have
the money. I went from bank to bank
controlled by the owners of silver mines,
and they all gave me the marble heart.
tell you this because 1 have been accused
of having the silver mine-owners behind
me in these 1 blications.
What was .he secret of the books sue
cess? that is, what gave it its first impe-
tus?"
How 1t Caught On.
Just this. The farmers began to buy
it through the country papers coupon
the drummers bought it from the
train boys to kill time. l owe a great deal
to the farmers and drummers, for as soon
as they had read the book they bought
an extra copy, and sent it to some bank
err, senator, congressman or federal Off !
cial.- Hundreds of copies were in this way
sent to President Cleveland, Secretary
Carlisle and Senator Sherman. The daily
~, and to deny its arguments; then they
began To cartoon it, and the book was
made.
'It took its first big jump in February;
since then my printer has been taxed
TO supply the demand. When he began
to print my book he had ten employees
working on the book; now he has more
than one hundred. During April, and so
far this month, the presses have been
run night and day 10 keep up with the
ORDERS
I'm what states has the book had the
greatest circUlation%'
In the west and south; but it is now
reaching the east. New York, New Jer- |
sey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Vir- |
ginia are receiving large daily ship |
ments. One man in Huntington, w. Va, !
my native state, sent i'll an order for |
200 copies, the largest individual order |
[ have received. The largest days sales |
were 14700 copies, while the average is |
now $500. OF course, this includes orders |
FOR the two books l have since written. |
This, however, does not give u complete |
dea of the number of people who have |
read the book.
Mr.. Harvey picked up from his desk
very dilapidated copy of Coins Finap- |
,ial School," and held it up as he said: