The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-15
Promoters and Their Methods.

4
| Houston Post.
Promoters and Their Methods.
Sometime in your life you read an
| alluring advertisement and wrote to
a promoter for his prospectus. That
put your name on sucker list" And
perhaps you sent him some of your
| money and received in exchange a
beautifully printed stock certificate.
| That put you on preferred list. These
| sucker lists" carrying all the way
from five to fifty thousand names, are
regularly offered for sale. Some OF
| the very choice lists are made up of
suckers" who can be caught for
amounts from $1,000 up. 1 know one
man who has a sucker list" of 100000
| names, and he is proud of the fact that
| he has landed 10000 of them. l know
another who has 1900 victims on his
list. The promoter may buy Michigan
| lists recommended for copper COM
| panies), clergymen's lists, ''ten-dollar
suckers lists, railroad stockholders
| lists, German investors lists, farmers
| 1iSts-any variety that suits his fancy.
Pursuing the investors by the gum
| shoe method, the promoter takes his
sucker lists" and proceeds to try vari-
Gus kinds of bait on his prospective
victims. In these days, when adver-
! Using and craftsmanship have been re-
duced to an exact science, many clever
wrinkles have been devised to catch
the attention of men of business. One
man in Chicago opens up on the invest
or with a series of heart-to-heart let
tiers about investments, written in ad-
| lnirable style, following each other at
ten-day intervals. 1t is not until you
receive the third or fourth letter that
you discover that the resourceful Chi
cagoan is a company promoter and has
stock to sell you. Then he goes ahead
bOmbarding you with prospectuses,
circulars
had a score of communications from
him without ever once responding to
his appeals, and his campaign to Land"
me has cost him Including postage,
stationery and printing! not less than
IS cents. If he is working on a suck
ers' list" of 10000 names, which is en-
tirely probable. he has spent 100000.
And the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., he calls
them-must pay the bill.
When the promoter gets an investor
nibbling on the bait sent him by grace
Of the United States postoffice depart
ment, he proceeds to spend money
laviShly on him. I nibbled some to
learn the ways of the animal. Two
Goldheld promoters bombarded me
with long kilograms at 10 cents a word
kilograms of fifty to seventy words.
BUY Goldfeld Goat quick for big rise.
Now 3S, going to 90 few days. Tele-
graph your order" "Only few shares
Bullfrog Bird at ground-fioor price,
SO. Next allotment rs. Get in quick"
Sending kilograms on which the tolls
are from five to seven dollars is pretty
expensive shooting in the air, but if
you can land" one victim for $500 you
have paid for good many kilograms.
Personal solicitation is even more ex-
pensive. One New YORK promoter sent
four agents to see me in the course of
a fortnight, and one of these men had
to travel four hundred miles. I was
not the only victim they were after.
Each of these agents covered a district
in which there were many nibbling
suckers" and one good haul covered
q whole months expenses. - Frank
F'ayant in Success Magazine"
The FalIibIe Human Element.
Describing the surprise test of
railroad employees in his article on
THE Growing Railway Death Roll"
in the April Everybody's, Carl Snyder
relates the following:
''It happened that on Wednesday
evening in January. at a point in In
diana, the inspecting officers pursued
the usual device of setting the signal
at clear and removing the light. The
first engineer who passed stopped his
train, an important passenger train,
and inquired what was the trouble. 1t
would not have been a heinous crime
to run past, for as his headlight
flashed upon the signal board he could
see that 1t was properly set, although
the light was out. OF course, however
the rules. On the Friday night fol-
lowing this same engineer passed the
same signal, set at danger and in work.
ing order, and in less than a mile
crashed into another train. A score or
more lives were lost. This engineer
was accounted one of the safest and
trustiest ensinemen on the road. Moth
ing could better illustrate the diff
eulties under which railway operators
labor and the almost uncomfortable
elements against which they must
struggle"
Oyster Plant.
This is one of the most delicious
much as it's merits demand, either by
amateurs or for the market. 1t does
best in a deep, rich soil which is some
what sandy. Fresh manure should not
be used for fertilizing, as 1t produces
too many lateral roots, but bone meal
and mineral fertilizers may be used to
good effect
The seed sh ould be sown as early in
the spring as the ground can be pre-
pared, making drills one foot apart
and covering the seed with about an
large enough to facilitate rapid and
careful handling, thin out, leaving a
plant every five or six inches.
The crop may be dug in the fall and
stored in the cellar covered with sand,
or the roots may be left in the ground
until spring. The roots are hardy,
however, and there will no loss If they
are left in the ground.
POINTED PARAGRAPHS.