The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-10

Within the past few days complaints have been coming into the New York postofhcs from various parts Of the country. calling attention to the mass of get-rich-quick" literature now go- ing out of New York in pursuit of suckers" As a result the New York postoffice inspectors are watching the mail of 6 dozen houses in the hnan- cial quarter that style themselves ''curb brokers" and appeal to the pub Iic for money in mining. industrial and speculative schemes. The most of these houses do very little adver- tising sucker lists" are their stock in trade.
 Are you on sucker list The writer Is, in fact he's on a good many From fifty to & hundred alluring cir culars and prospectuses are brought to him by the postman every week, be- cause his name in on the Sucker lists" He has boxes and drawers and bas- kets filled with thousands of these messages of fortune that he has nev- CT unsealed--and every one is guide to the royal road to wealth.
 Some few hundreds he has opened richly printed prospectuses, photo- graphs of mining camps in picturesque mountain gulches. crazy-quilt maps Of mining claims. long. technically phras- ed reports from gentlemen with han dies on their names. subscription blanks for cash buyers and fnstall- ment investors, and heart-to-h heart personal letters from the promoters themselves--sll making 1t plain that q few dollars invested now will make us independently rich in a very short time. Think of Calumet and Hecla that sold at a dollar and now com rnands $700i Think of Bell Telephone. in which an investment of S100 multi piled to s2oO.ooo! Think of Carnegie. who put $500 in a steel plant and saw it grow to s1.000. .006. 900!
 Your Name Goes vn The List
 Some time in your life you read an a1luring advertisement of a mining company out in Arizona. or an oil conn pany down in Texas, or rubber plan tation fin Central America or pa tent right company In Connecticut or some other incorporated dream of wealth, and you wrote the promoter for a copy of his prospectus. That put your name on sucker list" Perhaps you sent him some of your money and received in exchange a beautifully printed stock certificate. That put you on a preferred sucker list"
 These Sucker lists. carrying all the way from one to 50. 900 names are regular article of commerce on the fringe of Wall street. Any wildcat promoter who dreams of swapping his book of Autograph, stock certificates for the coin of the realm must first possesses himself of a sucker list" You cannot go half a block In narrow New street behind the Stock Isx- change without meeting a man who has Sucker list" In his inside pocket to sell you-a nicely typewritten list. with the names all in alphabetical or der, and the addresses complete. The fellows who live by their wits In the financial districts find trading in suck CT lists" profitable business when ever promotion boom strikes town
 Many New Promoters.
 A horde of new promoters pours in on every boom-tenderfoot bubble flowers. men who have failed at some staid old business ne'er-do-well Jacks of-all-trades who think they can make an easy fortune In Wall street, rough fellows from the mining camps of the West, Mexico, South Africa. who have heard that mining in New York is more profitable than in the mountains These tenderfoot promoters. who come to Wall street to hunt for the Suckers" are themselves easy prey of the old timerssin the quarter, who have learned all the tricks of the financial .nndegwprld, d,a Ther neWa qrowd Is "held up"g by thea-oid inhabftAnts and whenever one Of the newcomers has "roll"hhe becomes a mark. The fellows with the sucker lists" reap a harvest. When the company promo. | tion craze strikes the street there's a bull movement at once in the '.sucker list market. Lists that could have been bought for song suddenly are marked up to $50 CT &100. A hardened old-timer will make a new. typewrit- ten copy of an old list of dead ones. or perhaps "phony' list made by phone books in interior towns and of- fer this to a tenderfoot bubble flower with roll" in this wise
 'I understand you are putting out a copper company in Arizona that's go- ing to be a world beater. know all about your property--it's corner. and I've heard all about you. I've looked you up and you're ali wool and yard wide. or somebody's lying to me. You are going to make fortune in the I, next few months and I'm going to tag old man Sharpe (of course you know him. he's the biggest operator this town ever saw) about your property and (don't breathe this to soui) the old man is waiting for my say-so 10 take slice of your stock Now. I'm going to make some money out of your company, and while I'm making 1t you'll be making a good deal more. Now, this is all sub rosa, you under stand--the way to make n fortune down here is to keep your mouth shut.
 Appeals to Him.
 i've got list of investors, 5000. that if properly appealed to by you by a straight t-from-the-shoulner cir cular letter-and you're the man to write 1t, from what know-will bite off In the next six weeks s10o,oo0 of your stock. This is the choicest min ing investment list In the United State. It cost $3.000 to get together. for it. But I told Jim I dijn't have it StIngum and Co.'S office in Broad street But (this Is sub rosa) I did good turn for one of their copies of the precious list.
 Now, I've been looking around for three months for the right place for this list. don't want any pikers to have 1t. I want 1t used by big man like yourself with a big prosposition because that's the only way I can make any money. Why, Jim Catchem. who's putting out string of Nevada companies, sort O got an inkling that 1 had this list and offered me $l.O00 fro it. But told Jim I didn't have 1t. and. anyway I didn't like the way he was running his game.
 "But you've got the goods, and heres