Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1886 — TRAFFIC IN NAMES. [ARTICLE]

TRAFFIC IN NAMES.

Ilw Cartons Prof- s*tou of a New Tmhws A pleasant, gray-bearded gentlemaa aat in a Sixth avenue elevated train, talking to a younger man. A reference to the occupation of the older man made him say: “Mine is an unusual business. Sea here.” He pulled out a card, si his name had been Henry Jackson, the card would have read:

HKNBT JACKSON, DEALER IN NAMES.

“Won’tyou explain?” said the younger man. “I buy and sell the addresses of people in all parts of the United States and Canada. There are hundreds of business men who reach their customers by circulars as well as by advertising in the newspapers. Thus a book fu Wisher gets out a new book which e wants to sell through agents. He is anxious to learn the names and addresses of all the men and women in the United States who sell subscription books. He also wants the names of those who sell other goods in the same way, because they are very likely to drop the other article for the sake of the new book. Then he wants the addresses of the people who have never acted as agents, but who want to try it to see what they can da He advertises for agents in a variety of papers, and at a pretty heavy expense. It costs him several cents lor every letter of inquiry about his book that he receives. To that letter of inquiry he sends his elaborate «ircnlarg. I come to the relief of the publisher by selling him a very large number of agents’ addresses at a small part of the oestof getting them by advertising." “How do you get them ?* "Ten see every publisher has a list of agents whom he has employed at one time and another. Nearly every one will sell me a copy es his list for a consideration. The combined copies make a formidable pile of manuscript. Then there are the novelty men who accumulate large lists of names of agents. Agents from one line of special namea Invalids from another.” “Not necessarily. Every community has a lot of people who are always buying medicine. They are the most valuable lot an advertiser can reach. The consumption remedy circular gives them a hacking cough and a hectio flush. The blood purifier circular flushes them with eczema. So it goes through the list of chronic and acute ills that flesh is heir to. They will buy anything from beer and bark to a steam atomizer to doctor a sprained foot. All these people at one time or another write to some advertising doctor or vender of the elixir of life. I buy the names from the advertiser, classify them according to the number of times the names have been used by medical men and the last diseases that afflicted the writers, and sell them -over and over again. Sometimes I sell the original letters outright. The careful advertiser sometimes varies the character of the circulars sent according to the characteristics of the letter writer, even writing a personal letter in some cases.” “What other classes have you?” “Two general classes. One for the sharpers and one for the general advertiser. The latter class is cosmopolitan, It includes aH ethers, really, but it is made up mostly of farmers. “What prices do these names bring ?” “I have got as high as $25 a thousand for names for sharpers’ use. Good lists oi habitual invalids are worth all the way from slo\o S2O a thousand. Agents are so easily obtained that $lO is a big price; from $3 to $5 is ordinary. Gen-eral-use lists, copied from the letters, bring from $3 to $5 where they have not been mailed to more than twice. When mailed to oftener than that, and "where a year or two old, they get down do a dollar a thousand.” “Are many in this business of fours?” “Not continuously. They drop in, -make a good thing, and straightway begin mailing circulars on their own aceeoni The number of actual addresses handled by me in one vear has never exceeded, 1,000,000, but it has crowded that figure closely.”— Yexo Yarik Nun.

Vbal Loaf.—Three pouuds ol lean, raw veal, and one - hall |M>nnid of salt pork, chopped <fine. ttf you have an accommodating butcher he will chop it free of charge, hut it;isheat to setae! Hie miret yoar•self anfl see it weighed, few it mould not contain any grime or stringy pisses. It must :be chopped very fine, then -thoroughly with it six small eaefcew jrolldd, two eggs, a pieoe of butter near* ly the size of ; an egg, a teaspoon of pepper,one small itablespoon of salt, a little sage or any other* herb you may prefer to use for flavor. Peek tightly in a deep, square tin, <oover with tats of batter, epmnkle or acker crumbs on the top and hake slowly leg two hours. When Paid shoe it thinly. Itis very nice Cat fenchar capper.