Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1915-10-23
INTRODUCTION.

YES 7 have been in the mail order
game for q long time, so long that
late TO admit how many years Old
Father Time has taken away from
me.
The wears have been busy ones.
-.ava been in the harness since way
hack in the early "6O's, when
started as errand boy for a little con-
Germ that sold merchandise over the
counter and occasionally shipped
nock,re TO some irregular customer
who lived out OF town.
have found It profitable. Ny wages
frauv were transformed into a sal
arv and the salary was increased
GRO dunllv at first, and then with in
creases md additions from percent
ages of profit from the business un-
tiI-vell | 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 big mail order
house after reading one of my bright
end optimistic catalogue descriptions
or after receiving one Of my carefully
written form letters beginning with
Dear Friend
Dear Frierd-of course you have
been q 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
fcent 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 sendlns
YOUR orders with the money! TO the
big mail order houses.
l know this, and you will believe
that l do know It after you have reaC
what am writing-my Confession
of a Mail Order Man"
NY work has covered the whol'
United States. For many years
have written catalogue descriptions
: handled the making of the not-always
, honest Illustrations, as you know u
, vcur cost and chagrin; written attrac
lively worded letters urging you I
, send your orders with the cash)
: gene into the market to buy merchar
use with your money, which yoI
kindly sent in advance, and, In fact
I have gone through the entire mil
: from Office boy IN general executive
and have a modest block Of stool
upon which you are paying me div
n 6ends right now. and which you vi
= continue to make very profitable fo
me for the rest of my life, unless 20
o wake up and quit sending order
< with the CASH to TIE mail orde
4 concern which issued the stock.
= No, you won't stop sending you
= money to the big mail order house
II for several years to come. Some
V you will stop, when you begin to rea
- ize how you are opposing your ov
local prosperity and interfering wit
es your own prospects, but enough
lie you will keep on sending your none
to the big cities, so that l will nev'
know the difference.
Besides this, If I see that you
begin to realize just what you are d
e ing against your own town and yo1
t. own friends and associates in bu!
ly ness, and If l think the country
ev waking up to a realization Of the l
n. ter foolishness of cutting your ov
~ threats by patroniZing out-of-town co
>. Germs, then I shall sell my stock.
= can get big premium for it. The
W. is enough of it to insure me from ev
being troubled about money affai
OF again. You have seen to that So
X the classic words of the modern Ar
-, totle, Il should worry"
In an attempt to analyze my o,
ma reasons for writing these "conft
i'll sions" and exposing the who
,te mail order game, and showing hi
foolish it is for the people in the SIN
u towns to continue to stultify tn
ut own prosperity by sending their ca
ts away, l am puzzled. Frankly a
openly I must admit that cannot ;
Vi swer this question even to myself
on I have no kick coming. I ha
,b. been we'll treated. l have been W
paid. I am prosperous.
Perhaps after all these years
NIB awe discovered a conscience.
ch HOW LOCAL BUSINESS IS HUFF