The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-11-27
INTRODUCTION.

Yes, have been In the mail orde
game for a long time, so long that
hate to admit how many years Oh
Father Time has taken away from
me-
The years have been busy ones.
have been in the harness since way
back in the early "s0's," when
started as errand boy for little con
cern that sold merchandise over the
counter and occasionally shipped
package to some irregular customer
who lived out OF town.
have found It profitable My wages
finally were transformed into a sal
airy, and the salary was increased
gradually at first. and then with in
creases and additions from percent
ages of profit from the business un'
til,-well | have never had any com
plant to make.
The man who can make good in the
mail order game practically can name
his own salary.
Who pays the salary? Why. you
do, of course.
Probably ninety out OF every one
hundred readers of this newspaper
have sent money to a big mail order
house after reading one of my bright
and optimistic catalogue descriptions
or after receiving one of my carefully
written form letters beginning with
Dear Friend"
Dear Friend-of course you have
been a dear friend. You have paid
my salary without a whimper, you
have built up for various big concerns
which have become wealthy through
your orders containing CASH magni-
ficent buildings. You have bought
automobiles, bonds, stock, real estate,
elegant homes, trips all over the
world, oceans of champagne, and
everything else that the most exact
ing person could mention.
You have done all this IL SsEding
your orders with the money! to tho
big mail order houses.
I know this, and you will believe
that l do know it after you have read
what I am writing-my Confessions
of a Mail Order Man"
My work has covered the whole
United States. For many years
have written catalogue descriptions,
handled the making of the not-always-
honest illustrations, as you know to
your cost and chagrin; written attrac
lively worded letters urging you TO
send your orders with the CASH;
gone into the market to buy merchan-
disc with your money, which you
kindly sent in advance, and, in fact.
l have gone through the entire mill,
from Office boy to general executive,
and have a modest block of stock, !
upon which you are paying me divi-
dends right now, and which you will |
continue to make very profitable for |
me for the rest of my life, unless you |
wake up and quit sending orders
with the CASH to the mail order
which issued the stock
No. you won't stop sending your
money to the big mail order houses
'or several years to come. Some of
you will stop, when you begin to real
20 how you are opposing your own
ocal prosperity and interfering with
your own prospects, but enough of
'ou will keep on sending your money
o the big cities, so that l will never
NOV the difference.
Besides this, if I see that you do
Iegin to realize just what you are do
rg against your own town and your
wn friends and associates in busi-
ess, and If | think the country is
'aling up to a realization of the ut
er foolishness of cutting your own
hrcats by patronI zing out-of-town con-
erns, then I shall sell my stock. I
an get a big premium for it. There
! enough of it to insure me from ever
eing troubled about money affairs
gain. You have seen to that. So in
le classic words of the modern Aris-
'tle, Il should worry" :
In an attempt to analyze my own {
sasons for writing these "confes-
ons" and exposing the whole
ail order game, and showing how
'olish it is for the people in the small
WINS to continue to stultify their
Hn prosperity by sending their cash
way, | am puzzled Frankly and
,enly | must admit that cannot an
YER this question even to myself.
l have no kick coming. I have !.
zen well treated. l have been well =
lid. l am prosperous.
Perhaps after all these years / !,