Buying at Wholesale. 355 



Two short letters and ten cents for a money order saved me $4. 55. 

 I could give you plenty of illustrations of this kind, that one can 

 do most anything with the cash. Perhaps you will say : "Oh, 

 yes,jy02^can, because people know you, and you may do them 

 some good by way of pay. This might have some show of truth 

 as regards tools, but how about those bags, or that clock or piano, 

 or that paint ? Not one of these parties knew me from Adam. 

 I will agree to sign ' 'John Smith " to an order and get what I 

 want. If some manufacturer stands by his agent, one can usually 

 get a similar article of some other make. Now, friends, buying 

 at wholesale will not make you rich, but it saves me certainly fco 

 a year or more in hard cash, and it takes less work to earn that 

 $50 than any other I get ; in fact, the work is not worth men- 

 tioning. It would be more work for some of you, for a time, 

 perhaps ; but you can learn. There are mammoth cash stores in 

 our large cities, that sell good goods on a very small margin of 

 profit. They have customers scattered all over the country. 

 Cheap postage and low express and freight rates, and the ease 

 and safety with which money can be sent now, make this feasible: 

 This is the way the great cash business of the world is to be done, 

 deplore it as you may. The farmer has as good a right to what 

 can be saved in this way as any one else. 



Some object that this is sending the money out of one's own 

 town. Are .you sure ? Some things are not what they seem. 

 You buy a barrel of sugar in some little town of your grocer. He 

 sends $15 to Philadelphia for it. He charges you, say, when you 

 buy a little at a time, $20 for it. He puts $5 in his pocket. All right. 

 That is keeping the money in town, isn't it? But suppose you 

 had sent the $15 to Philadelphia, and kept the $5 in your pocket, 

 wouldn't there be just as much money left in town ? There would 

 be only this difference : In the one case the money would be in 

 the other fellow's pocket, and in the other in yours. Haven't 

 you been growling, many of you, greatly because the other fellow 

 the middleman was getting so much more in his pocket than 

 you ? Whose fault is it ? Can you blame a man for taking what 

 you throw right in his way? Wouldn't you do it ? Do your own 

 business more. Your town will not suffer in the aggregate by it. 

 Nor is it contrary to the golden rule. No business man would 

 dream of hiring you to do work for him that he could as well do 

 himself. Be more of a business man. Don't any longer exchange 

 eggs and butter, that your wife very likely had to overwork to make, 

 at a starvation price for second-class groceries, that someone 

 makes from 25 to 100 per cent, on, and then complain that farm- 

 ing doesn't pay. Wake up and make it pay. This is only one 

 little way out of many, wherein we can do better. Don't get dis- 

 couraged if you make mistakes at first. I have got cheated two 

 or three times myself. 



Now, don't say this isn't for you. I have quite a little hard 

 cash that has come in this way. I preach to you just exactly 



