Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-14
A BIG SCHEME
Callahan Sold 81 Shoes For
Two Bits.
TO SALT LAKE VICTIMS
The Plan Worked Beautifully Until the
Endless Chain Became Too
Long to Handle.

The following account of the operations
of a ''hustler' who is said to be at pres
ent in Butte may be of interest to many.
It is taken from the Salt LAX Herald of
yesterday:
One thousand, two thousand, possibly
three thousand people will soon begin to
wonder what has become of j. D. Gala
han, late manager, proprietor, sole owner
and hustler for the american Shoe COM
pany," that captivating 81 footwear pro-
position which furnished the kicks for
the handsome sum of 25 cents. Callahan
has went" His company has closed its
doors-he makes nj bones about it-and
something like 100 Ocoupon books, which
cost the holders 81 apiece. are floating
around with little chance of being
''caShed in
The scheme was m~agnitudinous. The
traditional sucker fell in with little hesi-
tation, Briefly stated, Callahan sold TO
one man for 25 cents a little book con-
tanning four coupons. The buyer sold the
four coupons for Is cents each. Those
who bought of him each presented the
coupons with 81 for a book for themselves,
and, that done. the original buyer, for MS
energy and hustling proclivities, was en-
titled to a 81 pair of shoes for the money
| he turned in from the sale of the coupons.
The other buyers did the same, selling
| their four oupons which, when pre-
sented with the 81 at Callahan's office,
gave them the snap shoe privilege. He,
| at any rate, made a profit of Is cents on
| zach pair of shoes, receiving $4.25 for the
| 81 shoe-and in a case where one OF the
buyers failed to turn in and buy a DOOR,
he made the $1.25 deposited by the less
successful agent.
mt. -lo..o xv,1e n onponvyhof 0n"nlj.
Gated one, but, of course, Callahan wasn't
in it for his health. He necessarily made
| money by the endless chain arrangement.
How much Callahan made in Salt Lake
| can only be surmised. A great many
were lucky, the coupons they sold being
turned in, when they received the SHOES
forthwith, out as so many were so soon
supplied, the hosts found it harder to dis
pose Of their coupons.
The scheme locally took root when two
or three months ago Callahan approached
Manager Aaron Levitt of the Davis Shoe
company. with the proposition to sell
shoes for him, explaining the plan. ana
closing the contract whereby the Davis
people should allow him 10 per cent for all
he sold, The arrangement was spot cash,
and Callahan advanced 500 to pay TOR all
shoes ordered by him. I
The first day out so orders came in, the
second day about 60, and a like number
on the third. Then 1t was slower, but in
all the Davis people have furnished about
400 pairs of 81 shoes to Callahan's boost
ers.
This gives but a rough estimate of the
way coupons went out. it being neces-
sary to sell at least 20 of them before one
pair of shoes could be had. A casual n
fair estimate is that Callahan got SIS out
of every sale of shoes. Weeks went on.
the number of books sold increasing and
the number of shoes sold decreasing
every day.
Finally, some weeks ago, Callahan
/ came to Mr.. Levitt and said the thing
had got to end some time, and when it
ended there would be trouble. When
asked why, he replied that there would
be a lot of coupon books out and he
/ would be unable to nay for the shoes
upon demand. the manager, who then
saw through the proposition, would, un-
der no circumstances agree to furnish
/ shoes at a less price, when asked. He
answered that he would give every pair
i of shoes Callahan wanted to order after
the cash had been deposited to a for
them. The work continued in all its
| glory.
Three weeks ago Callahan told Mr..
Levitt he was going to Butte, saying thero
was a big opening there, and leaving a
Miss Erdly in charge of the business here.
He also left $50 on deposit with the Da-
Wis people, and a sum with Miss Erdly.
Slowly this was paid out to customers,
and last Friday found the establishment
without funds
The lady in charge wired: "Ofice clos
ed here unless you send money. Wire an
swer."
Poor Callahan. His very interesting
answer came yesterday by mail. 1t reads:
Butte, Mont, July 10, 1899.
Mr.. Aaron Levitt, president Davis Shoe
Salt Lake, Utah:
Dear Sir.-I have delayed writing this
letter to you until the last moment, hop
ing that it would not be necessary to do
so. But the very worst has come to pass;
to be brief. l am broke, and cannot
furnish money to keep the Salt Lake
business going. I came to this city 50
full of confidence in the success of my
shoe idea,' that I could see no chance for
It to fail to make money. l paid SIS to a
man that was here three days ahead of
me to leave the city. I then started in
what l considered, the proper way to
make the scheme a go. Sent out solicit
out and hustled myself, and in fact did
everything that I could do. With all of
this exertion, I succeeded in selling lone
pair of Shoes" This can be verified by
dropping a line to Mr.. O'Rourke-(a shoe
dealer)-I cannot give any good reason
why the idea did not take in this city.
MY idea is that the Irish" (and everyone
here is Irish) would rather go out and dig
in the mines for 81, than to sell four
coupons. Now I realize that my failure
to carry out my agreement with the peO-
Die of Salt Lake will put me out of the
:.shoe business" besides branding me
fakir, thief, and everything that is de-
testable to honest men.
I have thought of all this and I hope