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Show I i STATE MILITIA MAINTAINS ORDER L IN COLORADO COAL STRIKE SECTION Qejnbllng on tho weather Is no innovation among those of sport-in;: sport-in;: propensities, but It remained for Lew B. Brown, editor and pro prletor of Tho Evening Independent Independ-ent of St. Petersburg, Tla., to introduce in-troduce in original method that has proven his observation and keen business and advertising ability abil-ity with profit to himself and the community in which he labors. "The Sunshine paper gives away lt. entire circulation absolutely free to everybody, even' day the sun does not shine on St. Petersburg. Peters-burg. The record Is twenty free Issues Is-sues In three vcars." This brief announcement that appears ap-pears at the head of The Evening Independent tells of one of the most unique offers in the world to-da. to-da. And Brown "makes good " Ho Is "game." On each of the twenty dwys on which the sun did not shine on St. Petersburg up to the time The Independent goes to press 4 p m notices are printed prominently promi-nently on the front page announcing announc-ing that no money will be accepted for copies. The Inst "free" day was October 29, 1913, and tho notice read as follows: Tho Independent is free paper pa-per TODAY. DOXT PAY the newsboys, carrier, car-rier, or anyunc cUc for a copy. It Is then nway, absolutely free trt . - i . . , I .... I . I " wuj, uamwa me sun has not shone upon tho city today, up to the hour of going to press. This is the twentieth time the pa-pei- liac lieen given nay under The in. i. p.-mi. Mi's BUNfiHDTE OF-MR, OF-MR, although the offer has stood continuously for nearly thirty-six months and through all seasons of tho year. The Independent s SUNSHINE, OFFER Is that it will c awnv It rntiro circulation, with hundreds hun-dreds of extra copies printed to meet the demands of everybody, upon every afternoon wj,en ,jle sun baa not shone upon St. Petersburg Peters-burg up to the hour of going to press. And It has leen called upon to "make good- twenty times In nearly three ycrs certainly fine record for the Sunshine City, Copies of The Independent are being EtrCn awa free on the streets und at the office to everyone who asks for one. For the regular subscribers sub-scribers a record Is kept and each time we have had six sunshlncles days each subscriber's credit Is ad-vnneed ad-vnneed one week. Tills offer of The Independent has attracted attention all over the United States and has been a great advertising featuro for St. Petersburg. Tho Independent Is "game," and the offer still stands :o prove to the world that St. Petersburg Peters-burg has more sunshiny days than any other place In tho rnlted Slates excepting tho Wcs'. rn deserts. MANY THOUGHT HE HAD GONE CRAZY. This announcement tells the story briefly. When Brown made the announcement an-nouncement of his remarkable offer on September I, mo. there sen LB those, even In the Sunshine city, T Wlio . thought he had gone crazy. M Many of them had lived in St. Pe- I tersburg longer than he had. but they were not as close observers. His offer was based, as we have I said, on close observation of St. I Petersburg's climatic conditions, and 1 the offer has stood for three years. 1 And it still is In effect. At the same lime tho sunshine offer" was made, Brown called St ) Petersburg "The Sunshine Clt " w Today St Petersburg is as well. If not better, known by the name "Sunshine City" as by Its real name. The "6unshlne offer" has brought the city much publlcitv that could not be purchased at any price It Is a constant source of surprise, to the newcomers to one of the best .known winter resorts on the ucst roaKt of p Florida, and practically all of the free papers are mailed by the people who receive them to friend! In some distant part of the country "Soon after coming to St. Petersburg, Peters-burg, nearly five years azo," said Mr BroTvn, "I noticed, in addition to Its other desirable climatic conditions, con-ditions, the little city had a low percentage per-centage of cloudy das. I made a re rd of the days on which the sun foiled to shine, and found them to be remarkably few. Thn I hepnn to wonder bow hes4. to feature this cheerful climatic condition to the advantage of St. Petershnru. The j sunshine offer' Is the result. y "One of tho many duties of a S newspaper as I sce It" said Mr Brown, "Is to help build up Its home town. St Petersburg Is a winter resort, first of all. and her climate Is the foundation on which the thriving thriv-ing clt has been built. Therefore, I felt that it was mi duty to 'play up her climate In every possible, legitimate way. Yes, It costs us a neat little sum of money each ye,-, r to keep this offer standing, but we put this cost on our advertising expense account. SCHEME MADE. TOW N GROW. I-ooklnc at the proposition from the business viewpoint, It has been I stood one for The Independent. When the offer Was mad The Evening Even-ing Independent was doing all the business possible for a dally paper to do In St. Petersburg. Our only hope for increased business was to increase the size of the town. We undertook to do that. We are vain enough to believe that our 'gambling 'gam-bling on the appearance of the sun each day has done more than any other one thing to help the "Sunshine "Sun-shine City make her almost unparalleled un-paralleled growth. "There Is seldom a day n the year that wc fall to get at least one Inquiry through the mall from someone who has heard that -you give the paper away every day the sun falls to shine.' and wants to know whether the report Is true. We alwas answer such Inquiries, telling briefly about the offer. The Board of Trade also answers many similar letttrB each year. "No there is no 'trick' about the offer." continued the editor of The Independent. "The Sunshine City has to few sunless days that we can afford to keep tho offer standing Var after year. Perhaps the Western West-ern deserts have fewer cloudy days, but I am absolutely sure that there s no place In America with an excellent ex-cellent year-around climate th it can boast of sjueta a large number of sunny, cheerful daa during tho year as the Sunshine City." So, when the sun falls to shine on St. Petersburg the "Sunshine Pa-Pr" Pa-Pr" prints on Its front page prominent promi-nent notices stating that the paper II Free today; don't pay." The regular boyi who sell papers on tho streets are given extra large quantities quanti-ties of paper n tcy go out cry ing at the top of their voices: "Free paper today." These boys arc paid by the management of The Independent Inde-pendent for giving the papers away. RBGUIiAB S17B64 RIB1 RS tiirr no Ms. tou. The regular subscribers receive their papers In the regular way from the "route" boys who serve them daily. Each time thero has been six free papers the regular subscribers receive, attached to their papers, a "sunshine receipt " stating that thy are being credited Ith a week on their xubscrlption accounts. It complicate; com-plicate; the subscription accounts too much to give credit each time there Is a sunless" day, so this method of keeping account untd there have been six free papers and then giving a week's credit has been ail opt -. The last "sunshine receipt" eien out was "Sunshine Receipt No. 1." It read as follows Whereas. Upon the first day of September, 1910. The Evening Independent In-dependent promised to give away free Its entire circulation e try day the sun did not shine upon Si. Petersburg; Pe-tersburg; and Whereas, The sun has failco lo shine, up to the hour of going to preas. eighteen times to date. March IS, 101.?, and all subscribers were gien credit for on week's free subscription sub-scription on November SO, 1911. and a second week's free subscription on September 9, lnij; now "Therefore, you are this day credited cred-ited upon our books with another week's free subsilptlon said credit cred-it reading: 'Sunshine Advance. One Week ' In consideration of this credlf, your date of expiration has been advanced one week, as The Independent In-dependent fulfills to the letter Ita every promise. And the offer Is continued P.espectfully yours, The Evening Independent, The Sunshine Paper." During the Ors; year the offer atood, from September I, 1910. to September f, 1911, there were four free papers. During the second year there were seven free papers, and the third ear produced eight free edition. Sinee September 1 of this year there has been one free paper, making a total of twenty freo editions edi-tions in more than tbtrty-elght months. And thus Brown ha won In his gamble with the sun and bids fair to keep on winning. His plainly told story of the conception and development devel-opment of a remarkable idea is interesting in-teresting not only In Its revelation of the wonderful climate of the city he so tirelessly boosts, but In Its lesson on the value of observing and applying apply-ing results practically. As he tells you he has only had to make good his offer twenty times In longer than three years and the advertising received re-ceived oy his newspaper alone, to pej nothing of that received bj the In the first six months of the son of navigation the freight ton- m nage passing through the "Soo" k canal showed a gain of more than jKa, 1,000,000 tons over the correspond- i lng pirt of Inst ear. The increase ) alone was enoush t.-. urpa?s the to- n tal business of alm.ist iny other ar- 1 t tifielal waterway in the world. m The rate of gain was about :0 per l:i cnt. The toial tr.ifflc waa mre 1 than ( 000,000 tons over 10.000.- fk 000 tons a month since the begin- ! y. lng of April. That Is at the rate of Mi hout .130.000 tons a day. including 1, holidays and Sundays. It means Jrf mors fh.vn 11,001 tons an hour, M i snd nlcht tw.. big shiploads. It '- f ; nual to 216 tons a minute, without fc censing. I11 There Is nothing else on esrtu V like such figures. The traffic through y the "Soo" canul makes small if comparison the business of the SAt P canal, the Kiel canal and the Jfan- F Cheater - anal, all Jaken together It x' d the traffic of London. llm- burg and Antwerp combined, mjmt X for month, d.iv b Al ltv The tremendous bUilneM Of th L It, Mary'a River canal is Idrg'l I Cleveland business, it is mnrcy iarg- " Br ly earri-d in Cleveland vesftela an 1 ofttr oiled by Cle tl mfl i. n tnd 1 . Clerelend .pllal II is the vast out- L b growth of beginnings made b rieveland enterprise a;,,,i rievelsnd 1 courage In the days w(.hen I He BU- I parlor was almost o tlt of reach or the shlf-plnir of tle -oth' r lakes 1 In the future. "Vben sll present H reeerdi of traffic ti-auith tho cn at the Sco sink' into littleness by contrast, let it bfa remembered th.t II Bill oil be. In -urge measure, fruit Of Cleveland's '.Anting. I f f h" Mrfa foresight snd encrc; of Cleveleno m men. f m M |