The Raymer enterprise., 1914-12-17
Confessions ef a
Mail Order Man
Revelations by One Whose Experience In
the Business Covers Range Prom
Once Boy to General Manager
HOW THE BUSINESS EXPANDED.
By Mr.. N. o. x.

out IN the country" said one of my
bosses, whom will call "Y" for con-
venience.
They seem to be satisfied with
whatever we send them," responded
my boss whom l will designate for con-
venience e."
They don't know the difference be-
tween good stuff and bad stuff." said
\. Il guess it's this way. Out in the
jay towns they have sofew things that
they Ire 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 was
q boy"
Look here, x, why not start Z
department of furniture for our Gus
TONER'S" said Y. Wrought to find 1t
profitable" He spoke to me.
Il think we're losing money every
day by not handling furniture" In
terjected 2. "Supposing we let X try
out his hand by putting new line in
our catalogue-furniture. carpets. rugs.
pictures and that stuff"
So 1t was decided that should have
respite from my Office work and put
In my time for a few weeks looking
up the possibilities of a furniture de-
partment. All this time while we
we're doing an enormous business, sew
eral 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 a 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 go
per cent Of the amount, as our profit.
After visiting several of the furni-
ture manufacturers In our city, for
mulated 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 had learned
that another discount can always be
demanded for the payment of cash.
So ] secured from the manufacturers
photographs of the various articles l
had picked out and showed them to Y
and z.
They look rather skimpy and slim,
those chair legs said Y.
THAT photograph of a chiffonier
looks Ike a coffin stood on end-it's
SO narrow" suggested z.
"But ] picked out only the cheaper
grades of stuff" I replied. You told
me not to try to get anything ex-
pensive. It's all cheap stuff"
Cant we make 1t look better in the
catalogue than 1t does In the photo
graph?' suggested Y.
We sent for wood engraver to
come to the office and then we went
into the subject in detail. He said
that he could make the chair legs look
bigger and stronger by drawing them
as though they were larger than they
were actually. As for the chiffonier.
and similar articles, he showed us a
very neat plan. He took a pair OF
shears and split the photograph in
two, then pasted the two parts on
another sheet of paper SO that the
split parts were about quarter OF an
inch apart.
Now that looks like a wide, COM
Portable chiffonier," said Y, and we
could not help but agree with him. 1t
made an entirely different piece of fur
niture. 1t looked half again as wide
and presented a really desirable ap-
pearance while, as the photograph
showed it, II would look too narrow and
ungraceful to sell well. The change
in the character of the illustration
made 1t look like piece of furniture
worth $50. while 1t was to cost us only
about $3.50. wholesale.
And the chairs, when the engraver
had drawn them to look as though the
legs we're an inch and half in diam
eter. instead of as they really were,
actually less than an inch through,
looked like So chairs instead of like
the chairs they were. honestly made
to retail for $1.25.
And SO 1t went on. We took bu-
reaus, commodes, wooden beds, and all
of the various articles that ! had Sc
lected and made them look in our
catalogue illustrations as though they
were vastly superior pieces. suitable
for the finest rooms in the house. The
engraver did his work well, with con-
stant grin on his face. for he admitted
that all of this hocus-pocus, as he
called 1t. was new one on him.
One day he said to me. confidential
ly. Say X, what will those poor yaps
out in the country say when they get
the real thing? Won't they holler?"
repeated this to Y and 2. who re-
nIiod soothinoIv that 70 thov boJlorad