The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-01-22
The Laurens Advertiser
Sligo Per Year in Advance.
BILL ARP HrTs THE FAKIRs.
Their Victims Are Continually
Writing Tales of Woe to Him.
Atlanta Constitution,

lhev victims continue to write me for
sympathy. i am sorry for them, but L
amazed at their stupidity and Gre
Now here are TWO clever, needy
women in this community who sent
$26 each to one of these fakirs and
each sent him "a list of twenty-five
names--not subscribers, but names.
The women knew very well hat no.
body here wanted the PAPER aud 80 they
begged or borrowed or made som
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 n years employ ment
at $40 a month. And these last wo-
men sent 1875 each and go TO work
writing to a third set of women, and SO
1t goes ON and on in an endless chain,
growing longer and long and WIDEN
ing and branching out as it goes until,
il 1t keeps on, it will embrace the con
tinent 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 aud L am pleased to learn hat
one of them says he will have to sur
render, but that he will protect his
agents. He cannot do it. His last cir
cular tells his agents 10 stop working in
North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor.
gia, Florida and Alabama, for he has
pretty well covered these States with
agencies and now they Dlust work up
the Western and North ,estern States.
And sc ! continue TO receive letters
from Arkansas ard Texas almost every
day asking about tie 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 &c, the monthly
salary. She sent the money and a 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 re
ceived, and she asks, sis it possible
that cny human being is mean enough
to rob a starving woman and her little
children? Is is possible that Bill Arp
would raise up a boy like that 2"
No, he cannot protect his agents. 1t
would take Aladdin's lamp to comply
with his promises. He go, $50 from
these two women in this town. L don't
know how many at Kingston and
Adairsville. He. has promised $175 t o
each, which makes $3.50 tor one town.
No doubt he has 300 agents in Georgia
and it will take over $4,000 to pay
them. Then multiply that by four
other States hat he says he has already
covered. OF course he can't pay his
agents. But he pays enough TO get a
few credentials. One lady writes ME
from M~1ledgeville and defends HIM
n says he has paid her so far and she
believes he is an honest man. Anoth.
er writes from the same county and
says he won't pay her anything and
will not answer her letters. 1t is to be
hoped, however, hat he will refund
the 1875 t, each agent.
But take another view of this won
derful scheme. There are fifty of his
q, papers received here at this office and
not n of them represents a subscriber
Our people took them out for a while,
thinking they were some of these sam.
pie 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 eight to ten thousand dollars and
got back nothing that anybody in Geor-
gia wants.
Another paper writes me very tartly
about its scheme and advises me to let
things alone that L do not understand.
The publisher sends to me copies of
his circulars and asserts that it is moth
ing like the other plan. Well it is
more liberal, for it asks only 500 to
get ten subscribers and an agency and
start the chain and promises 1914 a
month for every five agents secured in
a month. My wife had already re-
ceived two letters urging her to take
an agency and make $24 a month so
easy. OF course she declined, for she
didn't car TO beg any one to take a
paper he didn't want, nor would she
send her OWN money and a list of names
and write to ather women TO come in
the scheme.
/ will cot say it is a fraud, for / have
reason to believe that the publisher is
honest and conscientious, but the
scheme is a delusion and a snare and
is in very bad company. The agents
can't get genuine subscribers and will
send their own money and a list of
names.
And here comes another scheme
from another Georgia town. 1t says:
"Send US 500 and we will employ you
at $40 a month for twelve months to
write five letters a day and get agents
to work for us and will pay SO extra
for each agent over five in a month.
Some of III agents get from ten to fifty
new agents monthly and make from
$40 to $110 a month. 1t will take only
a few minutes every day to wl1te the
letters" That beats the original. /
reckon they must have n thousand
agents in Georgia getting 800 a month.
That takes $240, 900 a 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 a gold
" tch, q Dyke or a gun. They refer
20, to a long array of references.
But here is one from North Carolina.
where the cherry trees grow: "Greatest
money making plan of the Twentieth
Century" $50 per day made at 'home
mailing circulars. II breaks all records
and the money comes rolling in"
These are the head lines of the offer.
The hndv of the circular ia too lnno ond |