Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1902-02-01
DENOUNCES FRAUDS.
Bill Arp Hits Certain Advertising
Schemes Hard.
Abuse of the Endless-Chain Letter
Plan by PubIisherE-Some of the
Distressing Cases That
Have Come to uirht.

purpose of getting few more dol
lars into his own pocket. Bil's pro-
tests have evidently gone unheeded,
for now he writes as follows:
The cry is still 'they come" and
the victims continue to write me for
sympathy. I am sorry for them, but
am amazed at their stupidity and
credulity. Now here are two clever,
NEG ly women in this community who
sen; $25 each to one of these fakirs
and each sent him a list of 25 names
MT subscribers, but names. The
women knew very well that nobody
here wanted the paper and so they
beg ged or borrowed or made some
sacrifice to get the money and went
diligently to work writing letters and
sending circulars to other women at
other places urging them to join the
scheme and get years employment
at $40 month. And these last wom-
en- sent $25 each and go to work writ
ing to a third set of women, and so
it goes on and on in an endless chain,
growing longer and longer and
widening and branching out as it
goes until, if it keeps on, it will en-
brace the continent and then cross
the ocean and chain up all Europe.
That is the principle on which all
these endless chain schemes are
based. OF course the chain will break
sooner or later and / am pleased to
learn that one of them says he will
have to surrender, but that he will
protect his agents. He cannot do
it. His last circular tells his agents
to stop working in North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and
Alabama, for he has pretty well COW
cred these states with agencies and
now they must work up the western
and northwestern states. And so 1
continue to receive letters from Ar
kansas and Texas almost every day
asking about the scheme. A poor
woman writes me from Colorado,
Tex, that her little children picked
cotton to raise the $25 for her invalid
sister who wanted to work and to
get the monthly salary. She sent the
money and list of names, for she
could not get a single subscriber, and
the fakir sent her a dollar and that
is all she has ever received, and she
asks: "Is it possible that any human
being is mean enough to rob a starv-
ing woman and her little children?
Is it possible that Bill Arp would
raise up a boy like that?" No, he
cannot protect his agents. 1t would
take Aladdin's lamp to comply with
his promises. He got $50 from these
two women in this town. I don't
know how many at Kingston and
Adairsville. He has promised $175
to each, which makes $3.50 for one
town. No doubt he has 800 agents
in Georgia and it will take over $780,
900 to pay them. Then multiply that
by four other states that he says he
has already covered. Of course he
can't pay his agents. But he pays
enough to get few credentials. One
lady writes me from Milledgeville and
defends him and says he has paid
her so far and she believes he is an
honest man. Another writes from
the same county and says he won't
pay her anything and will not answer
her letters. 1t is to be hoped, how
ever, that he will refund the S25 to
each agent. But take another view
of this wonderful scheme. There are
80 of his papers received here at this
office and not one Of them represents
a subscriber. Our people took them
out for awhile, thinking they were
some of these sample copies that
flood the country But they have
found out better and refuse to take
them out, for they do not want them
and they fear that somebody will be
calling for the money. Now if our
county is an average there has been
sent from the state to that one town
from $4,000 to $4,000 and got back
nothing that anybody in Georgia
wants.
Another paper writes me very tart
ly about its scheme and advises me
to let things alone that / do not I'M
derstand. The publisher sends to me
copies of his circulars and asserts
that it is nothing, like the other plan.
Well it is more liberal, for it asks
only ten dollars to get ten subscrib-
ers and an agency and start the chain
and promises $24 a month for every
five agents secured in a month. My
wife had already received two letters
urging her to take an agency and
make 1924 a month so easy. OF course
she declined, for she didn't care to
beg anyone to take a paper he didn't
want, nor would she send her own
money and list of names and write
to other women to come in the
scheme.
And here comes another scheme
from another Georgia town. 1t says:
"Send us $50 and we will employ you at
$50 a month for 10 months to write five
letters day and get agents to work
for us and will pay two dollars extra
for each agent over five in a month.
Some of our agents get from ten to
fifty new agents monthly and make
from $40 to $11O a month. 1t will take
only few minutes every day to write
the letters" That beats the original.
reckon they must have thousand
agents in Georgia getting $40 month.
That takes $240,000 year to pay them.
Does anybody believe that? And yet
this investment company does not
seem to have anything to sell, but will
get you a sewing machine, gold
watch, Dyke or q gun. They refer