The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-01-15
COL. KERR OF EMPORIUM
WRITES MR.. ROGUES GALLERY
Mr.. Rogues Gallery,
New York City.


in YOUR line, all men in every pro-
fession whom you believe to be wor-
thy of having their pictures there.
I had never heard of you until to-
day. A friend of mine told me about
YOUR Hall of Fame, as he said you
called it, and he said he believed
that all furniture dealers were en-
titled to have their pictures in your
Hall, especially those who sell on
the installment plan. Therefore, 1,
J. D. Kerr, President Treasurer,
and Stakeholder and General Man.
ager of the grand furniture empori-
um of Abbeville, S. c., hereby ap-
ply for a place in your Hall for my
picture.
am not trying to buy a place in
your Hall for said picture, because
from all I can hear it has place
there by right, but to show you that
I am not penurious in the matter l
thought I would mention that I
have a cut of myself which paid
to have made several years ago, in
which I am wearing my fighting
face, and which was printed in The
Press and Banner, of this town,
with the inscription, "The Poor
Mans Friend" Now I will send
you this cut in order that you may
use it and save expenses of having
another made, if you wish. My
friend also informs me that you
print circulars of your more promi-
nent eatrons with their pictures,
and that you sometimes send these
into all parts of the United States,
Asia, Europe, Africa, Greenwood,
and Atlanta. I hope you will use
the cut of myself freely and send
to all foreign ports and potentates.
Please say that I ami still the poor
mans friend.
Now I hope you will not think
that this is vanity on my part. 1t
is not. It is all done for the sake of
the truth of history. was reading
in my boys history book the other
night about Hannibal, and Nero,
and George Washington, and Cole
Blease and Hoke Smith, and I could
get so much better idea about these
great characters in history by see
ing their pictures. Only it seemed
to me that they should have been
shown in full figure, with age and
weight stated, as on the Question
naires. If you wish mine this way
I will have it taken again. Every
day, living in a historic town, 1 pass
a place and somebody says that some
great man lived there, or that some
body else there, or something of
that kind, and I wish Immediately
that I could see a picture of. these
parties and know what they looked
! like, then I would have so much bet
ter idea of history. Now that is
what I am after. In five or six
months, after I am dead somebody
may be in our city and say that is
the building in which the great en-
porium was run, which the largest
furniture business on Main street
in our city, and when the people
hear this they will want to see my
picture. If you have plenty of cir
culars made, and freely distributed,
any citizen of the city can just run
his hand in his pocket and get one
and say here is his picture, give him
the "once over". History must be
made practical as we'll as writ.
You will undoubtedly want to
write to some other persons about
me to see whether I am entitled to
place in your Hall. You can get
the best information as to my entire
eligibility to a place in your Hall
from my customers. Do not by any
means write to S. J. Link or w. A.
Calvert. They are small furniture
dealers in this city and might be
Jealous of me and, therefore, might
give you the wrong information and
might try to get their own pictures
in your Hall. I do not want you to
write to A. S. Stillman, of New
York, nor Patrick Roche, of Abbe-
i