The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1914-03-26

MS Will was III WIN q -
quest that it be published. by prom
inent club woman of the city. 1t be
gins as follows:
The First Purchase.
A simple little jacket for the baby
this first Montgomery Ward purchase
That Baby" is now twenty years OIL
and just engaged. So another hom
will be planned and furnished througI
the big catalogue-etc.
Thus you see how far-reachng is tn
influence of the mail order house if
is given full sway. 1t starts its worl
as soon as the baby is born, sells hin
his wedding suit, feeds him through
life, ships him set of false teeth t,
aid his declining years, and the cata
logue is on the center table when HI
dies, ready for the heirs to select ;
neat, tasty tombstone.
Apropos of tombs,ones, a good stor,
comes from one of the large mail or
der houses, as follows:
A good man sent in a letter. sayins
his wife was quite i'll, describing the
symptoms, and asked for remedy. A
further bei2g heard from him for a
month, the enterprising mail order
correspondent wrote letter of in.
quiry, asking if more medicine was
needed. The reply came back that
the wife died shortly after the medi.
cine wa: .ceived. She bad taken only
two doses, and the request was made
that the house take back the remaind-
er and allow credit In answer to this
a special tombstone catalogue was
sent 1t is not related whether or not
the rebate for the bottle was allowed
on the tombstone.
Are you q mail order victim? Has
the mail order house got your card in
dexed and all figured out when you
will die so it can sell your heirs a
tombstone? Remember, though, that
you will have to patronize the local
undertaken and be buried in the local
graveyard. The mail order houses
have not as yet started cemeteries.
They think there is no profit in deal
ing with dead ones"
Turn, then, to the local merchant.
Let us select the grocer as an exam
pie. He is an honest, Woodworking
man, toiling early and late to support
his family and send his children to
school, hoping to make them worthy
citizens. He rises betines-which
means a. m.-sorts the rotten cab
: bages, apples and other perishable
goods, and sees his profits go glimmer-
ing before daylight. Then he hurries
to put up your grocery order on which
he has figured a gross profit of 20 per
cent. When he has paid his rent, tax
es, clerk hire, delivery cost, contribut-
ed to the fireman's ball, the Ladies'
Aid Society, the band dance, paid his
commercial club dues, given the pas
tor his, and has come through with a
goodly contribution for the new road,
he finds at the close of a 14-hour day
that he has made fair wages if he has
been lucky. Some days he is not lucky
and his wage account 6 in The ed
When, in the course OF month or
two, the grocer wrings a reluctant ten
dollar bill from you on the old grocery
account, he hurries to the dentist or
the doctor to pay something on what
he owes him. AS collections have been
good this month, he also stops at the
drygoods store, the butchers, the
plumbers and the hardware store, and
they all get a slice of his months in
come. Then when he gets back and
finds there is still something left in
the bank, he writes a check for the
bill of lumber he bought last month,
and also pays his coal bill.
The money he has received for groc-
cries from all these people during the
month, is now returned to them. Some.
times the balance of trade' is in fav.
OF Of the doctor or the lumber dealer
but take it year in and year out, the
general equilibrium is maintained
The profit he made on the groceries
he sold you last year probably all
came back to you, either directly
when he bought your products or in
directly when he paid others wnc
bought what you had to sell with the
money he paid them.
The dollar ttat travels around Tire
neishbct3ood =o.s worn doHr lc
ninety cents e7eItua:lv, .ut tie te.
cents went 49,. schools and roads arc
churches and o.Ee: pupllc improve
ments which yor enjoy The brsrC
new dollar that goes to the mail order
house never comes back to stare YOU