Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1915-01-01
Confessions ST a
Mail Order Man
By Mr.. M. o. x.
Revelations by One Whose Experience In
the Business Covers q Range From
Office Boy to General 1anager
HOW WE DIVIDED THE MONEY.

catalogue was a great and immediate |
success. The fake" illustrations |
caught the eye of the people AID the |
orders poured in with every mail. We |
found out that whenever a customer
ordered one article there were always
number of others included with the
first. And the orders were all cash,
of course | don't remember in those
days that we ever had an inquiry for
credit. They seemed glad to get the
goods by paying the cash and they
seemed to get the money together in
some manner
We were busy. We moved away
| from the city where the business was
started and now had big establish
ment in one of the biggest of the east
ern cities. Our tiny leaf1et of a cata-
| logue had increased to over fifty pages
and there seemed to be no limit to our
prosperity.
My work was now almost entirely
connected with the catalogue. l wrote
the descriptions, ordered the illustra-
tions made by the wood engraverss
| superintendent the printing and mail
| ing departments and was up to my
collar in work all of the time, When
| ever anything of Importance arose in
| connection with the business was al
ways called into a conference with
and and we settled any question
that arose.
One day l was called in and the
doors were shut and locked. There
| Of - ~
| discussed.
Look here, X, we are going to in
corporate this business said Y with
a peculiar expression in his eyes. l
had seen this expression before and
! I held myself on guard, in readiness
to be very careful of my speech and
action as l knew 1 had need of eau
ton. 1t was like the hands up" of
highwayman, that look was.
Yes, we are going to incorporate
and We are going to take you in as
one of the incorporators," supple
mented T.
held my peace Here was some
thing worth listening to.
Seeing that asked no questions
! Gnu w as WdlJLlI6 tIItIu W du0du
they looked at each other until finally
Y said: I'VE are going to incorporate
for one hundred thousand dollars"
He continued to explain, with inter-
poiations by and an occasional ques-
tion by myself until it came about
that they had decided to make me
present of one thousand dollars of the
capital stock.
Sounds generous, don't it? Well, it
didn't to me. We had always dis
cussed the possibility some day of
incorporation and it had always been
held out to me that I was to have a
good slice of the capital stock So
took up the burden of the argument.
I explained my viewpoint, recited the
various services l had rendered, the
departments l had introduced, the i'm
provement in the business, ETC., for
all of which l claimed good part of
the credit 1t was due me, too, be-
cause l had developed into the handy
man about the shop for doing all of
the hard work.
We nearly had row over it. l
WoS AOiCA AAlACO tAoI IL lhCJ O1u AOt
treat me with fairness, that l would
withdraw and l knew where I could
interest capital If necessary to start
another mail order business. In fact,
l had the capital myself, for by this
time / was drawing salary of three
thousand year, about $50 per week,
and l had saved good share of my
salary told them SO with all frank
ness.
It resulted in their giving me $4,000
of the capital stock and an increase
in salary to $1,000 year Y and 2
took each $4,000, which took out $685.
900 of the stock 1t was decided to
sell out the other $4,000 of stock at
par If they had buyer for cash and
Of this sum was to have Is per cent.
The deal was put through and 1
found myself comparatively rich
man. Later. when the capitalization
was increased to millions, l got my
share of the increased valuation SO
that l have made pretty well out of
it. OF course in this matter l am Civ
ing fictitious figures. i will not give
any more details now because it would
be too easy for you to guess more, for
it IS no part of my plan to tell you
too much about the interior workings
of our organization.
We have figured it all out many
times just what becomes of your dol
lar that you send in to us with an or
der
About one-half of it goes for pay
ment for the goods ordered. The rest
is divided into dimes and cents for
the payment of postage. printing.
fee help, ETC., and last and best of all
into dividends for the stockholders.
The families of Y and 2 are now
looked upon as merchant princes.
They have their yachts, their automo-
biles, their racing stables, their vari-
GUS establishments. They take their
annual tours in various parts of the
world and they live off the best the
world can supply. And why?
Because you have sent your dollars
to the mail order house, established
by their fathers many years ago
Each year you send more dollars and
the wealth piles up in the banks.
All because of the clever wording
of our catalogue descriptions. All be
cause you will have the unreal instead
: of the genuine, because you will in
sist on dealing with the unknown in
stead of trading with your own home
merchants. 1t is human nature fol
you to do this because the rule of life
Is to follow the will-o'-the-wisp blindly
, Everybody does this, everybody tries
to grasp the indefinite instead of grab
bing the things at our very home
door.
Really it is laughable when you
i come to think of it. You sent youl
r dollars to US because you fancied ana
, hoDed that the distance, which gives