The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1909-06-18
Names at Wholesale.
New York Herald.

supplying to. dealers in COM
modities of whatever sort the
names and addresses of people who
are apt to be attracted by what the
former are offering.
When you received a prospectus
recently of the Yellow Wildcat
Gold Mining Company or a pam
phlet of testimonials to the efficacy
Of DR.. Pestle's Specific for. rheuma-
tism, hives and beri-beri, you
wondered how the senders hap
pened to pick upon you. You
thought, perhaps, that your name
was selected at random, with others
from the city directory. You
never thought of connecting the
receipt of these letters with your
purchase Of a hundred shares Of
stock in the Idle Dream Mining and
Milling Compa ny three or four years
ago, from a glib tongued promoter
or your sending for three bottles of
r.Quack' s Panacea some time past
The letter which you sent to DR..
Quack is now reposing, with mill
ions Of others, in big Office down
town. 1t is soiled and crumpIed,
and Won may wonder that it is be-
ing preserved. But its present own
er paid money for it, has made an
enormous profit on his investment
already and viii continue to make
more. The letter has an actual
commercial value because ii gives
the name and address of a man who
is shown by his own writing to have
weakness for the purchase of pat
ent medicine.
Once a man takes to eating
pills, said a former employee Of
this office down town, he will con-
tinue eating them all his lie. Once
he becomes addicted to the habit it
is harder to wean him from it than
il is for an inveterate smoker to
give up tobacco. And women are
worse. Confirmed pill eaters don t
confine themselves toany particular
brand. A pills a pill with them,
and one kind is Just as likely as a.
mother to cure their imaginary all
ments.
1t is upon this theory that the
promoter of a new pill acts when
he goes into the big office down
town where your letter is reposing
and asks for the names and address
ses of a quarter of a million pill
eaters. He pays a good stiff price
for them as he demands original
letters. Yours is an original let
ter" and was bought with several
thousand others from DIR. Quack.
The letters are not actually turn
ed over to him. He is merely al
lowed to see them to assure himself
that the names are really those of
people who are likely to give some
heed to the matter he proposes to
mail them-in other words, that
they are actually pill eaters. The
names and addresses are copied
from the original letters. -
Advertisements like the following,
which appeared in a monthly pub
lication recently, are common:
Get big mail. If You want to
get lots of mail put your name in
our mammoth directory, which goes
to firms who offer free samples of
agents goods, books, post cards.
pictures, novelties, magazines, etc.
We want a million names for our
directory; to get them quickly we
send every person who answers this
advertisement fifteen nice post cards
free, also big money making propo-
sition, also fourteen Irritation signals
twelve gay love letters, seventy
three Uoasts, sixteen feats in parlor
magic, seven fortune telling secrets,
ten funny readings, fifteen tricks |
with cards, forty amusing expert |
ments in Magic. one new Gypsy |
fortune teller, ffty-two money max
ing secrets, $50 Jokes and riddles,
twelve Irritation cards. fourteen pic
lures of married life, fifty-one verses
of comic poetry. etc. Send your
name to-day with ten cents silver
or twelve cents stamps and your
name viii be placed in the directo-
ry and all the above sent at once"
The names obtained through an
swer to this advertisement viii
be sold as those of people
with a fondness for nice post
cards. Irritation signals. > etc.
Nowadays one can obtain the
names and addresses of people of al
most every occupation, disposition
Or character. The concern with re-
Iigious books to sell can obtain the
names, almost to any number, of
persons apt to be interested. The
dealer in vicious or off color can