The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-17
THEY PATRONIzE THE OUTSIDERS
How Scores of Wichita People Were TakeI
i'm uy a Photograph Concern.

IN Dy aTnOtOsraph CONCERN
please send a reporter to PIT North
Main street" was a telephone message
! that came TO the Eagle office last night.
A reporter was detailed and there
found Mrs. Hammer who was sur
Tcundedwith a large number of unfin-
ished photographs and in anything but
| a good flumor. On seeing the reporter
she said:
Il just wanted you to come until
tell you what kind of a. delema am in.
| Here you see are $50 pictures and they
have been paid for by Wichita people,
who thought they were getting a snap
by patroniZing an outside institution
instead of dealing directly with respOn-
sfble Wichita dealers. As a result they
have paid about $3.50 for good talk and
l am left like THE rest of them with the
sack to hold. l want you to tell every
body who had pictures enlarged by the
late firm of Wilcox & Miles thar they
can get what the raScals have left and
the business of which there is not cent
in to me.
Il wish you could be here and see
how not the people are who have been
taken in by the late firm of Wilcox &
Mills. Here is about the way they COM
mence:
Where on earth is the firm Of Viii
COX & AIills?" is the question that 500
good danes of Wichita are asking
as they climb. painting TO the third
floor Of 215 North Main street and find
room S vacant.
Where's that picture was 10 have
end where's the five planks 1 paid for
To- oh. those horTid men. I'd like 10
wiring their precious neCks, that's what
I wouEdr These are but a few of the
ordinations one hears as the irate wo-
men pound on the closed door and de-
mand admittance. There is a constant
procession Of them and they are as mad
as hornets, every one of them.
Early in September four young men,
Harry Wilcox. or Fuzzy" as his pards
called him. o. c. Miles, Monta Camp
bell and Harry HOfTmaster came here
and set up q portrait studio on the third
floor OF 2l5 North Main street uader the
name OF Wilcox & Miles.
The firm" worked in the studio and
the other two worked" the good people
OF Wichita, their plan being as follows:
Campbell and Hoffmaster would sole
II orders for enlarging pictures, sell
Ing coupons for 80 cents which they
agreed TO accept as part payment on
the finished pictures. In all cases they
expressly stipulated that frame must
be purchased with the picture. The
prices on the enlarged pictures and
frames ran from S1.sc 20 S@-tV ana even
higher. The work was ell TO be free
hand work. Having secured the pic
ture from which the copy was 10 be
made they Immediately sent il to
photograp hing establishment in Kansas
CITY 10 get a solar print" a dim outline
of the original enlarged 10 the Dortrait
size. When they received the solar
print" copy they sent q card 10 the
customer. asking her 70 call and in
spect the proof and select a suitable
frame. The customers were made 70
believe that i-te SOAR print was free
hand work and were induced 70 select
and purchase a frame The orders
rolled in at a great rate and IN every
nighborhood a few customers would
be given their PICTURES ard frame &C
cording 20 agreement.
The efforts % the firm were given %
collecting IN all the money posSs BE b.
fore the delivery OF pic,ures and when
customers grew impatient chey were
assured mat this work would o. r-un-
- OF, IN 4 very few days By sharp
work these boys managed 70 collect sew
erai hundred dollars n advance All
last Tuesday night al bur Cz-npbeh
quietly sid out - Gown.
People ouiy tuls5lei % tLs.- racket
yesterday and sle stairway leading
up 70 their Office : beng kepl NOT.
About 150 unfi-s shed pictures are 10 b.
found scattered about ele rooms and <
Is etimated that over 500 has been paid