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Show I BUYING A WAGON ifcaw Mr. Brown Got the i Worst of Two Bar- ga'ns. TRIED MAIL-ORDER METHODS Thought He Was Saving Money, But Will Not Try the Same Thing a Second Time Buying at Home Pays. (CopyrlffhteJ, IDOfl, by Alfred C. Clark) Mr. Urow'n, a farmer living In Boono county, Mo., decided to liny n spring wagon. Tho next tlmo ho was lft tOwh he wont to Hie local dealer U) neo what ho had In stock. Ono wagon Uiat mtltcd him was offered to him at J7G. Ho thought ho would toko It, hut hoforo ordering ho looked oVor .a mall order vehicle catalogue ttoro ho saw described a wagon which, in far as description wont, was tho name as tho ono he saw In the deal-tir'n deal-tir'n ntoro room. In fact, tho description descrip-tion was written In such a convincing convinc-ing manner and all of the good points ot the mall order vehicle wero brought ! nut mo thoroughly that It appeared to tio superior to tho other ono. And tho price was only Jlr. Urown thought of tho saving of $7.G5 which I represented soveral days of hard work, i . The moro he thought about It tho moro he wanted to save that amount jl and In the end .the Chicago mall or- b dor concorn got his chock. I When tho wagon finally arrived, I' with a freight bill of $4X0, ho rodo to ' fown with his son and spent half a i day putting It together. Ho had to ?. buy a screw driver nnd somo oil nnd tuinrt paper and a fow bolts to rcplaco somo that had been lost In shipment. H' All of these cost htm 7D cents. Hoi H, not experienced at putting spring wagona together and ho didn't do a H' vyry good Job ot It, for ono ot tho , tieatn refused to sit In tho right placo and lie had to get a local blacksmith f tit help him fix It. This cost him Hf anothor halt dollar and delayed him t;o much that ho nnd tho boy had to v o tii tho hotel for their dlnnors; nn M' tiddltlonal' cxpcnRo of 70 conts. So boforo ho got his team hitched to tho wu'gou It, cost him $73.00, allowing him fl ' navlug. of $1.10, which was vory M-. stingy pay for tho tlmo ho had lost. Of Uio amount ho spent for tho wagon, -inly $1.95 remained In Boouo county. ' The railroads and tho mall order ' house got Uio rest ot It. H' (n the mean time his neighbor, Mr. H., Tones, bought tho $7K wagon from the H.', local doalor, who mado a profit ot Hi- $1G on Uio snlo. As tho vohlclo was H;t already assembled and thoro wero no Hj extra parts or tools to buy, tho amount a p.ild for tho wagon represented all ot M' i.lio cost to Mr. Jones. Tho dealer niMjnt tho $1C profit for a now sign on bin building; tho sign painter hired a carpenter to repair tho root on his housu; tho carpenter paid his hill at Uio butchor's nnd tho butcher bought .t hog from Mr. Jones. And so tho ,lfi Itopt going In tho county until a farmer with tho mall order habit got I hold ot It. Ho Bent It to Chicago and BH it novor camo back. i nut this wasn't tho last of tho two -p purchasos. A fow weeks after tho t two wagons woro bought, Mr. Hrown's i boy and Mr. Jones' boy, driving tho now vohlclos, met on tho country road. BV ' They drovo too closo to each other K ud a smash-up resulted. Tho weak- Bl vat part of each wagon gavo way; nn BB!' axlo on tho mall ordor product wa H'"' broken and a doubletree on tho othor. H w.ia Bmashod. ltoth breaks wero plain- 1 y bocauBO of defectlvo construction, r Hjj.. Jones took his broken doublotrco f, t0 town the next day and tho dealer I .rvq hira a now ono. Mr. Urown nt- BB F Ixjmptod to explain to tho Chicago firm BV; Unvt tho Tixlo would not havo broken Bl 'i If 41. had riot been dofcctlvo und H coliplod this explanation with a ro- i (,uotJt for a now pnrt, but after sovoral B&! wooks of correspondence with tho Bllft pieco as far away as nt tho bogln- Bf nrr, ho. gavo It up nnd bought tho BB'( lWl0 hlmsolf. This oxperlonco told BjKl Mr. Drown why ho should trndo with BBJl homo merchants Instead of patronlz- BH t lug tho mall ordor houses. BBC I fn Doonu cbunty and In ovory othor BBJJk, county thero aro mnny who sond thou- BBB( Hands of dollars out ot tho county BBH. very year, without over contldorlus BBBBBfr BBBBV'r BBBbi tho fact that they arc making thelri community poorer, reducing tho per capita of wealth, and dwnrflng locnl business, only to enrich n concern nl-roady nl-roady rich enough to buy several counties. An extra thousand dollnrs In any community will monn, during tho year, many thousands of dollars In 2'uslncss transacted and Increased In-como In-como for practically every ono In tho community. Often tho amount sent to tho mall order houses Is moro than enough to turn tho balance tho other way and business depression exists whoro prosperity would prevail under normal conditions. 13 von If tho country coun-try purchaser was able to sao a snug sum by ordering his supplies from n mall ordor house, tho loss to tho conv munlty would ho greater than tho gain for himself. It Is needless to point out that as tho amount of the mall or dor business from any community Increases In-creases tho amount of loss to tho community com-munity also Incrcnscs, until It Is only n quostlon of time until tho Individual loss caused by tho general depression ot business will exceed the Individual saving. In fact If overyono la tho community commun-ity bought from tho mall order houses, local markets would disappear and tho farmer would bo compelled to sell as well as buy from the catalogue concerns. Tho rural districts would ho dovold of bustness activity while tho wealth of tho country would bo contorcd In ono or two points. Buying Buy-ing by mnll may ho attractive, but tho most pronounced mall order fiend must look with npprchcnslon on any condition whoroby ho would bo compelled com-pelled to depnod on tho mall ordor man for a market for his products. nut tho Idea of saving on individual purchases Is, to a great extent, a fallncy. In splto of his boasted ability to buy in largo qunntltles, ho Is not nblo to buy for much less than tho country morchant. Competition In all manufactured products Is too keen for I Like the terrible devil fish the catalogue house Is death to everythlnQ thjt gets within Its grasp. Once Its death-dealing tentacles have wound .iround your community, there Is no escape. Are you assisting the greedy monoter by sending your dollar to the mall order house. that. Anil tho small saving ho la ablo to make by largo purchases Is moro than Offsot by his larger expenscsj These expenses must como out of thii purchaser so tho mall ordor man lsl compelled to mnko.n larger profit than tho local doalor. It costs him moro to market his goods. Ho must maintain a largo and oxpenslvo offlco forco and ho must advertise. As an oxamplo of what tho mall order man expects to mako out of his customers, a letter written by n prominent mall ordot man might bo quoted. Writing to a magazlno ho paid: "Advertising In your publication cost us 17 conts an Inqujry nnd wo mado sales at a cost of only fiC cents each for advertising, This Is about half of our regular cost." This man'wns selling "A complete outfit out-fit of clothos for $9.ur.." Ho was willing will-ing to pay n dollor for each salo the ndvortlslng brought him. Ask your local doalor how long ho could keop tho sheriff awny from his doors If ho took a dollar out of ovory ton dollar sale. You can't buy tho samo class of goods any choapor from the cataloguo hnusns than from tho local dealor, though ono may think ho can aftor reading tho catalogues. Tho dlffor-enco dlffor-enco comes In tho quality of tho goods. Thero Is a particular class of goods known as "mall order goods." This trailo term I applied to cheap hut showy goods and novelties which can ho sold at a largo pro lit. It means much the same tiling as "street fakir goods" and, as Is tho caso wltli streot fakir goods, mall order goods aro not handled by tho regular Jobbors and wholesalers. Thoy cannot afford to handle them because their customers want better merchandise. Tho streot fakir duplicates, in appearance, tho Jowelry carried by a first class Jow-olry Jow-olry house anil makes largo profits. Tho catalogue merchant docs tho same thing but does It on a large scale and much moro clovorly. |