The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-11-24
INTRODUCTION.

Yes, have been in the mail order
game for long time, so long that l
hate to admit how many years Old
Father Time has taken away from
me.
The years have been busy ones. l
have been in the harness since way
back in the early "80s," when l
started as errand boy for a little con-
Germ that sold merchandise over the
counter and occasionally shipped
package to some irregular customer
who lived out of town.
| have found Ii 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 I'M
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.
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 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 by sending
your orders with the money! to the
big mail order houses.
/ know this, and you will believe
that ] do know it after you have read
what | am Writing-my Confessions
of a Mail Order Man"
Ny 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,
I 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-
deuds 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
concern which issued the stock.
No, you won't stop sending your
money TO the big mail order houses
for several years to come. Some of
you will stop, when you begin to real
lee how you are opposing your own
local prosperity and interfering with
your own prospects, but enough of
you will keep on sending your money
to the big cities, so that | will never
know the difference
Besides this, if [ see that you do
begin to realize just what you are do
ing against your own town and your
own friends and associates in bust
ness, and If I think the country Is
waking up to a realization of the ut
ter foolishness of cutting your own
throats by patronizing out-of-town con-
Germs then I shall sell my stock
can get big premium for it. There
is enough of 1t to insure me from ever
being troubled about money affairs
again You have seen to that So In
the classic words of the modern Arts
totle, L should worry"
In an attempt to analyze my own
reasons for writing these "confes-
sions' and exposing the whole
mail order game, and showing how
foolish it is for the people in the small
towns to continue to stultify their
own prosperity by sending their cash
away. | am puzzled. Frankly and
openly | must admit that cannot an
swer this question even to myself.
| have no kick coming I have
been we'll treated. l have been well
paid I am prosperous
Perhaps after all these years |
have discovered conscience.