Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1915-01-01
Confessions f a
Mail Order Man
BY MIR. NJ. O. X
Revel~saena BY ona Whone Rxrewienes In
the Buslnmsa Covers Range FFum
Once Boy to General &ana@er
HOW THE BUSINESS ExpANDED.

uut III the country SAlU one vi my |
bosses, whom I win call X" for con-
venience.
They seem to be satisfied with \
whatever we send them" responded
my boss whom viii designate for con-
venience e
tween good stun and bad stuff,' said
Y. Il guess it's this way. Out In the
lay towns they have SO few things that
they are glad to get anything that
looks all right"
'Ha," said with shout OF laughter.
They keep their parlors all dark ex-
cept when company comes. or on Sum
day. can understand how their par
Tor furniture don't become worn out.
remember how II was when / was
boy"
Look here, X, why not start q
department OF furniture for our GUS
somers." said Y we ought to find It
profitable" He spoke to me.
| Il think we're losing money every
day by not handling furniture" In
ter1ected 2. "su2posing we let X try
out his hand by putting new line In
our MISUNDERSTANDING. carpets, rugs.
pictures and that stun"
So 1t was decided that should have
q respite from my once work and put
In my time for few weeks looking
up the possibilities Of furniture de-
partment All this time while we
were doing en- enormous business, sew
eral thousand dollars worth every
week, we carried no stock at all with
the exception OF few cheap watches
and other articles of jewelry-revol-
vers and half dozen guns. The GUS
toners were furnishing the capital fer
our business, cash In advance. 30 that
all we had to do was to take their
money. go out and buy what the or
ders called for, for generally less tan
One-half the amount of the remittance,
and keep the balance, from SO 4, SO
per cent of the amount, as our Kfofit.
After visiting several of the turni-
ture manufacturers in our city, for
INFLATED list of prices and arranged
that we could obtain any OF tie arti-
cles on the list at any time BY paying
only for such as we had orders for.
or course we got all of theas 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
had picked out and showed them to Y
and 2.
They look rather skinny and slim
those chair legs" said Y.
THAT photograph of q chiffoniei
looks like a coffin stood on end-it'i
so narrow" suggested 2.
But picked out only the cheaper
grades OF stuff. replied. You told
me not TO try to get anything 81
pensive. It's all cheap stun.
Cant we make 1t look better in thu
catalogue than IT does In the photo
graph" suggested =.
We sent for a wood engraver Il
come to the Office and then we wen
into the subject in detail. He sait
that he could make the chair legs iooi
bigger and stronger by drawing then
as though they were larger than the!
were actually. AS for the chiffonfer
and similar articles, he showed us
very neat plan. He took a pair 0
shears and split the photograph Il
two. then pasted the two parts Of
another sheet of paper 30 that TIL
split parts were about quarter of al
inch apart.
Now that looks like q wide, com
Portable chiffonier," said Y. and W
could not help but agree with him. |
made an entirely different piece OF fur
niture. 1t looked half again as wild
and presented really desirable At
pearance while, as the photograph
showed 1t. II would look too narrow an
ungraceful to sell we'll The chang
In the character of the illustrates
made 1t look like a piece OF furnitur
worth $40, while It was to cost us onI
about $3.50. wholesale.
: And the chairs, when the engrave
had drawn them to look as though tn
legs were an inch and half In dian
: ater. instead Of as they really wers
: actually less than an inch through
looked like IS chairs instead of lik
the chairs they were. honestly mad
to retail for e1.25.
And so 1t went on. We took bi
reaus. commodes. wooden beds, and d
of the various articles that / had q
: iected and made them look in on
: catalogue illustrations az though the
!. were vastly superior pieces. suitabl
for the finest rooms in the house. tn
engfayer did his work well. with a cor
!. slant grin on his face. for he admitte
! that all Of this hocus.pocus. as b
: called Il was a new one on him.
One day he said to me. confldentia
! ". Say x, what viii those poor yap
out In the country say when they 81
! the real thing? Won't they holler
repeated this to Y and 2. who RI
! piled soothfngly that II they hoilere
: we would send them q nice letter an
! Jolly them along.
We've got their money. anyhow
said Mr. Y. Let 'ena holler.''
Yes. and they'll send after more
! said 2.
We decided that we would take n
: curse Of the chances for kicking B
|. putting the actual measurements I'M
! the catalogue descriptions. If the
should write in. with kick. we coul
call their attention 10 the actni
.a.z