The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-10

leaf and putting on a cover.
Now In view of the disrepute in which
this pretentious directory business has
fallen We should say that business men
ing themselves OF the value for advertis-
ing purposes of any such work as "Gil-
mour's Directory of Trade and Com
meree," and even of the responsibility OF
the publishers, WHITE q CocHENTHALER,
who are, we believe, otherwise known as
the Gilmour Publishing Company and
are reported TO be located at 40 and 81
University Place, New York City, and to
have the guarantee that the Chief OF
fpolice of New York knows nothing to
their discredit. Neither the high sound
ing name of the directory nor
the patronizing letter which we
printed would he a sufficient guaran-
tee to us Of the value of taxing space in
the directory IL we were solicited.
The names of newspapers are published
without charge and we find the name of
THE NEWS printed in the sample copy of
the GILMoUR book in conspicuous letters.
AS we are charged nothing for it we can
not complain, because we have never given
authority for it. We hope it may prove
beneficial to us and would cheerfully pay
a fair price for its insertion il We thought
it worth anything.
We have been at pains to look up the
concern referred to and its directory and
we have failed to find anything about
them to justify us in endorsing them to
our business men as we may have been
taken to do by reason of printing their
letter in the interests of their agent, DOL
LIVER. We know as little about them as
we do OF DoLLIvER, but we care nothing
for the agent one way or the other. The
business men Of this town have a good
deal of faith in The NEWS and we do not
want to be held responsible for a concern
about which we can learn nothing more
than may be CLEANED from their letters.
The name OF the concern is not 10 be
found in the standard New York direc-
tories, nor is the house rated at the CON-
mercial agencies. This proves nothing,
perhaps, other than that the concern has
not been long established. But; more
than that, our inquiries among reliable
directory publishers, who would be sup
posed to know of important publica-
tions Of their class, have failed to discover
any knowledge of "GILMoUR's Directory
OF. Trade and Commerce" or Of the pub
fishing house.
We suggest that Messrs. WHITE &
CocHENTHALER arm their representative
dentials as to their own standing than he
has at present been able to produce for
they state in their letter, they ~''recognize''
the '~'Iaudable ambition TO protect citizens
from imposition" and appreciate the fact
that the business Of publishing legitimate
directories "has suffered Of late from
mountebanks." The burden Of guaran-
teeing themselves to our BUSINESS men
may thus be, as they readily understand,
as onerous as it may be unfortunate, but
our business men cannot be blamed for
the situation. Business men, in many
lines of business, are frequently called
upon to justify themselves because of
imposition practiced i'm their names. They
may be seriously annoyed by the neces-
sity, but they cannot blame their custom
ers, and under such a circumstance are in
duty bound to present a clear bill OF
health, without any b~lufing. Messrs.
WHITE & C~ocHENTHALER should under
stand, too, that Providence is rated
abroad as an ''easy thing" for advertis-
ing scheming and actual swindling.
Within the past two years thousands OF
dollars have gone out of this town into
the pockets of swindlers, fakirs and pro-
moters OF advertising schemes from
abroad that have been Of no earthly
value. We should say that by this time
our business men might reasonably be
hard to convince as to the value Of ad-
vertising propositions from parties whose
headquarters are located in other cities.
That they may not be as "soft' as they
once were, and may be as suspicious of
fire as a burnt child, may impose griev-
Gus burdens on concerns engaged in
promoting legitimate and even valuable
advert Using enterprises. but there seeing