The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-23
THE TESTIMONIAL HUNTER.
4 WOMAN WHO PREIS ON THE
FRAILTIES OF HUMAN NATURE.
Every Man, and Every Woman. Too.
Has His Price She Declares. and
May BE Induced 10 Proclaim the
Virtues of a Patent Medicine lie
HASN'T Tasted

How do i get them ttlSu class ttSt-
monials, you mean? Let me ,hnk. In
sense. / may be sad to run factory.
And yet l would prefer 10 say briefly. and
comprehensively, I set them by my wits"
But we want 10 know specifically"
specifically, it viii be a long story"
This was said meditatively by a spright-
ly little woman who is the representative
of patent medicine house. and had been
asked to explain The seemingly mys,eri-
Gus mthods employed in securing the pic
lures and testimonials used In advertis-
ing. What could possibly induce the Gov
ernor of this state, the Mayor of that
city. and women in private life 20 testify
TO benefits received from patent medi-
cines? she was asked and presently came
The answer.
AS you know. it is my business to gath
er these pictures and testimonials. and |
have been at it for several years, although
I am by no means a pioneer. With these
years of experience behind me, Whatever
the difficulties may once have been, l
think that I may say that now it ha.s
been reduced to a science worthy Of re-
spect. certainly on account OF the amount
of brains and skill required. Perhaps you
have noticed that in some of the largest
cities we run each spring a tWo-page adj
Vertisement one of the pages being bright
ened with the faces of prominent business
men or politicians, locas celebrities, while
the other is solid with photographic lauda-
tory remarks from wholesale and retail
druggists. l have been told that away
back of my time. money used to change
hands in the securing of these, not from
the company direct, understand. but from
its representatives, rather large salary and
expense accounts. BE that as it may, VIC
manage things better now, and If any cash
ever does reach the actual giver of the
testimonial it is because the many hands
through which il has passed have not
known their business, and what has slip
ped away must have made the trip~so in
directly that Sherlock Holmes would have
difficulty in tracing its route.
There are few men or women, be they
ever so strong-minded and self-reliant,
and no matter to what nights they may
have risen through the possession of these
very qualities, who have not some weak
points in their characters and VINO nave
not also some friend who can strike them
safely and surely. 1t is my part to choose
the people whose testimonials we want,
discover their weak points and become
the intimate friend of their friends. The
process is simple, though not easy Some
times it is a business man who thinks MN
self shrewd in getting a. half-column illus
trated advertisement of himself and MS
business at no cost to himself. He does
not want or need the medicine probably,
but some kind friend can easily make him
see that thousands of people must read
our advertisements or we would not keep
paying cut good money for such an amount
of space as we purchase for so many
years OF course people cannot read our
nan We mint his tpGtimN-
NAL without learning about his business
as we'll 1t is easy enough to word the lit
tie paragraph in which he pays his re-
spects to the remedy in such fashion that
only the most painstaxing reader would
ever guess that he had not actually ever
tasted the stuff he so highly recommends.
Perhaps It is a good-natured man with
an eternally impecunious friend whom he
is always helping over financial snags.
How could there be an easier way of help
ing that friend to earn possibly SO than by
letting him have photograph and his sig
nature to something which he has not
time to read but which his friend assures
him is thoroughly unobjectionable? Then
again il is the man who has never had
his portrait published, but has always
had sneaking desire to see what it would
look like. He falls an easy victim to the
graphic representation Of the unusual
amount Of space which will be given in a
prominent paper to his physiogomy. If
he has a single qualm. it Is easily doWned
by a rapidly recited list of his assocites;
for our gallery of photographs is largely
made up of local national and world
known celebrities.
Another man whose photograph is easy
to secure is the over-economical business
man. He probably has no use just now
for the bait held out. the pen and ink
sketch framed, If he likes and the original
zinc etchng but he thinks he might
sometime, and his habit of never lettins
anything get away becomes our very eff
cient help. Another good way TO catch
both men and women is an offer of eleven
out of twelve photographs which we are
quite willing to have taken for any reputa-
BILE citizen, free, at the best studio, in his
town. In short, every man has his price.
The minister is helped to a friendly feel
ing by a timely contribution 10 the needs
of his church The philanthropist is rem
dered willingly helpful by generous as
sistance in pushing his favorite fad. The
politician is induced to think that ii Is
well to keep his face before the public
in and out of season and is told that IL is
very democratic to announce publicly that
he takes a popular remedy when he needs
toning up instead of wasting his money
on some heightened doctor. The hypo-
chondriac is coaxed into actually imbibng
the medicine, and is made TO believe the,
1t has helped him--and probably has-ana
so it goes.
There is little difference in the methoA
of getting what we want from either man
or woman. 1t Is difference of character,
rather than of sex which we have TO
study. The thing is TO get the chosen
victim interested. This must chiefly be
done through intimate friends. We some
times have trouble, though not 50 often as
one might suppose. l remember back
couple of springs, when we published the
annual announcement in the Chicago pa
peers. The work was done in this way.
We paid a morning paper O good roun5
price to furnish and print once two pages
of brand new matter, illustrated and made
up in the regular way. The newspaper
hired a reporter for q stipulated sum TO
turn in the matter subject to its approval
The young man hired in turn young wo-
man whose business made her acquainted
with most of the prominent business rnen
and politicians to suggest to him whom he
should approach for pictures and testi-
nonials and how. In less than ten days
the thing was accomplished. Six pictures