Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-05-29
GIVE THEM WIDE BERTH.

There is hardly city, town or ham,
let in the Northwest whose merchants
have not been drawn into competition
with the mail order houses of the large
cities. These houses are reaping mill
ions of dollars in profits every year and
will continue to do so, as long as they
can find gullable people to buy their
wares. Merchants have tried many
schemes to counteract the inroads made
on their business by these catalogue
houses and the most effective one is to
advertise their goods in home papers
and let people know what they have to
sell. AS a sample of the methods re-
sorted to by these houses to get busi-
ness, we print the following letter re-
ceive3 recently by the officers of the
Wausau Telephone Co., and to which,
it is needless to say, the officers wasted
no paper in answering. The letter is
from a well known large mail order
house doing business in Chicago.
Dear SirS:-
Being DESTROYS of getting in touch
with the most fashionable people in
your city, so that we may increase our
business with them, and having no
other means at present available where
by we may acquire their names, we
have taken the liberty of asking you
to furnish US with copy of your Tele-
phone Directory and are inclosing six
cents In postage to cover expense of
sending.
Should you acquaint US with the name
of person, in your city, who would
be willing to place a check against the
names of about one hundred of your
best people, for a reasonable remunera-
ton, we would be pleased to cores
pond with him or her.
The newspapers are continually
pointing out to the public the folly of
dealing with city department stores,
but here is an instance we believe more
convincing than any yet noted:
Through the error of clerk in a
Chicago mail order house John Olaf
son, a well-to-do Danish farmer, living
twelve miles northeast of Osnabrook,
N. d., has been compelled to submit to
an operation for the removal of his
vermiform appendix.
"On March 81 the rural mail carrier
delivered to the Olaffson farm an elab-
crate catalogue issued by a large mail
order house in Chicago. In examining
the many things offered for sale in the
catalogue Mr. Olaffson discovered that
by sending to the Chicago establish
ment he could save penny in the cost
of a certain brand of liver pills, which
he had been accustomed to use. Mrs.
Olaffson also was interested in the
things exploited in the catalogue, and
determined tic send an order for a
quantity of seeds of a new and gor-
geous variety of sweet peas.
1.-The orders were sent by OlatfsOn
and his wife, and in due time the mail
o,.,.say Ao1i Of Ho fxxyo cf<
manila envelopes on which was printed
the direction, take one before and two
after each meal and on the other in
structions as to the proper cultivation
of sweet peas. Mr.. Olatfson found on
opening his packet of pills that there
was no coating on them, but was
pleased to discover that in spite of this
omission the medicine was tasteless.
He had taken number of pills, when
he became violently i'll with pains in his
abdomen. A physician hastily sum-
moned, diagnosed the case as one of
appendicitis, and said that an operation
would be necessary to save the mans
life. The operation was successfully
performed and in the excised appendix
the surgeon found three small brown
eolcred pellets. He started an investi-
CATION which soon led him TO the con-
clusion that the clerk in putting up
the Olaffson order had transpOsed
printed directions, and that Olaffson
had taken number of doses of sweet
pea seeds, while his wife had planted
the liver pills. If MIR. Olaffson had
patronized his home merchant he would
still have his appendix, and would not be
out the 800 doctor bill that the mistake
the catalogue house cost him. 1t pays
to trade at home"