Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-12-25
HOW TIE BUSINESS EXPANDED!

few complaints from our customers
out in the country" said one of my
bosses, whom / will cali ''Y' for con-
venience.
They seem to be satisfied with
whatever we send them" responded
my boss whom l will designate for con-
venience a."
They don't know the difference be-
tween good stuff and bad stuff said
Y. Il guess it's this way. Out in the
Jay towns they have so few things that
they are glad to get anything that
looks all right
"Ha," said 2 with shout of laughter,
They keep their parlors all dark ex-
cept when company comes, or on Sun
day. can understand how their par
lor furniture don't become worn out.
remember how it was when 1 was
boy
Look here, X, why not start a
department of furniture for our Gus
TONER'S said Y. 1--WE ought to find 1t
profitable" He spoke to me.
Il think we're losing money every
terjected 2. "Supposing we let x try
out his hand by putting new line in
our atalogue-furniture, carpets, rugs,
pictures and that stuff.
So it was decided that should have
a respite from my Office work and put
in my time for few weeks looking
| up the possibilities of furniture de-
! partment All this time while we
! were doing an enormous business, sew
era1 thousand dollars worth every
week, we carried no stock at, all with
/ the exception of a few cheap watches
and other articles of jewelry-revol-
vers and half dozen guns. The GUS
| toners were furnishing the capital for
our business, cash in advance, SO that
all we had to do was to take their
money, go out and buy what the or
ders called for, for generally less than
one-half the amount of the remittance,
and keep the balance, from so to so
i per cent of the amount, as our profit.
After visiting several of the furni-
ture manufacturers in our city, for
| mulated a list of prices and arranged
that we could obtain any of the arti-
cles on the list at any time by paying
only for such as we had orders for
Of course we got all of these things
at wholesale prices and l had learned
that another discount can always be
demanded for the payment of cash
So secured from the manufacturers
photographs of the various articles
had picked out and showed them to 7
and e.
They look rather skinny and slim
those chair legs" said Y.
THAT photograph of a chiffoniel
looks like coffin stood on end-it':
SO narrow" suggested z.
'But / picked out only the cheaper
grades of stuff" replied. you told
me not to try to get anything ex
pensiye. It's all cheap stuff"
Cant we make it look better in tn,
catalogue than it does In the photo
graph ?" suggested Y.
We sent for wood engraver {,
come to the Office and then we wen
into the subject in detail. He sal,
that he could make the chair legs lool
bigger and stronger by drawing then
as though they were larger than the,
we're actually AS for the chiffoniel
and similar articles, he showed us
very neat plan. He took pair o
shears and split the photograph il
two, then pasted the two parts o.
another sheet of paper so that tn
split parts were about quarter of a
, inch apart.
Nov that looks like wide, CON
Portable chlifonier," said Y, and W
could not help but agree with him.
, made an entirely different piece of fu,
, niture. 1t looked half again as wild
. and presented a really desirable al
: pearance while, as the photograp
, showed it, 1t would lock too narrow an
' in the character of the illustrate
> made it look like a piece of furnitur
, worth $40, while it was to cost us onl
+ about $3.50, wholesale.
And the chairs, when the engrave
: had drawn them to look as though th
r legs were an inch and half in dian
t eter, instead of as they really wer
I actually less thar an inch ttrougl
looked like $3 chairs instead of lii
0 the chairs they were, honestly mad
d to retail for s1.25.
k And SO it went on We took b
: reaus, commodes, wooden beds, and a
y of the various articles that / had S
lected and made them look In oil
catalogue illustrations as though the
were vastly superior pieces, suitab
for the finest rooms in the house. tt
l. engraver did his work we'll with a CO
stant grin on his face, for he admitte
that all of this hocus-pocus, as |
It called it, was new one on him.
One day he said to me, confidentie
ly, "Say K, what will those poor ya]
out in the country say when they e
0 the real thing? Won't they holIer
/ repeated this to Y and 2, who 4
piled soothingly that If they holler,
~ we would send them nice letter al
jolly them along.
We've got their money, anyhow
said Mr.. Y. Let 'em holler.''
Yes, and they'll send after more
4 said 2.
We decided that we would take Il
curse off the chances for kicking |
putting the actual measurements in
the catalogue descriptions. If thu
should write in, with a kick, we cou
S call their attention to the actu
I, measurements and explain there hs
been no deception practiced In OF
a statements to them In the catalogue
n While I was writing up my desert
It tions for the catalogue, Y came
d one day and picked up some of ii
sheets had finished
# "Whew,' he whistled, ''this won't d
a l."
If Whats the matter?"
r "Why, this stuff looks In the pictur,
s Ike real genuine oak and real sol
mahogany. Here you say that it
s9@swood zr} pine and so forth"