170 ^ 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
February 4, 1922 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
All letters to Publisher's Desk depart¬ 
ment must be signed with writer’s full 
name and address given. Many inquiries 
are answered by mail instead of printing 
inquiry and answer, lienee unsigned let¬ 
ters receive no consideration. 
I have watched with a great deal of 
interest your column from week to week, 
and if others would watch it and heed 
its advice, they would be much better oft’ 
in both mind and pocket. I am clipping 
a few advertisements from a weekly mag¬ 
azine which claims In have a big circula¬ 
tion. and entering to the farmer's pocket- 
book. In this, as well as nearly every 
other paper, we see these same advertise¬ 
ments. Sunday-school papers, sporting pa¬ 
pers and even the big Sunday papers have 
these same advertisements. I have re¬ 
ceived circulars from all of these from 
time to time, but never hit. I know of 
one man who bought stock from one of 
these “buy-lmck" concerns, but never was 
able to sell them any of the output. Why 
do the farmers' papers ami the poultry 
papers and the Sunday-school papers 
carry these advertisements? The clip¬ 
ping marked X was a few years ago be¬ 
fore Ihe postal .authorities, I believe. 
Why do they let him still advertise to 
humbug the public? T*. T. Bar mini once 
said : “The American public wants to he 
humbugged.** I believe it. You tire do¬ 
ing a wonderful work. Keep it up. 
New Hampshire. c. s. p. 
We do not know why the papers re¬ 
ferred to carry the unfair and misleading 
advertising. Perhaps they need the 
money, but a more charitable view would 
he that the publishers do not realize that 
Ihe advertisers in question intend to cheat 
the readers of their publications. It is 
possible, too. that the readers of those 
publications do not take sufficient interest 
in the papers to write the publisher and 
tell him the nature of the advertising ap¬ 
pearing in his publication. The poultry 
and pet stock advertisements enclosed by 
the subscriber have all been barred from 
the columns of Tmk It. N.-Yand our in¬ 
formation regarding their fraudulent 
methods all came from our readers. 
I had a son who was in the service; 
was discharged December lb. 1019. and 
found to be far advanced in tuberculosis, 
lie was sent to a Government hospital, 
lie liad always been interested in fur 
farming, so, with his very first compensa¬ 
tion money. May. 1020. he sent $'500 to 
a dealer in Dockland, it.. Arthur Shu¬ 
maker. to buy 12 mink. I" In- delivered 
December, 1020. Before this, in July, he 
was so much worse that l wrote to Mr. 
Shumaker, asking him wbnl he could do 
about it, as my bo.v was too far gone 
with disease even to be troubled by think- 
in- of it. but be paid no attention to my 
letters. I have tried through the lied 
Gross and lawyers to get the money back, 
or, at least, part of it, but so far In- lias 
not refunded a dollar. lie claims to be 
ready to ship the animals at any time. 
My boy died last. January, and T am a 
widow, far from well. MRS. E. m. 
After writing him the second time in 
the matter, Arthur Shumaker writes us 
that the mink were finally “pelted” by 
him, and that lie realized only $$ for the 
skins. Perhaps Mr. Shumaker was under 
no legal obligations to this young man 
to refund bis money when ho found him¬ 
self in such condition that lie was unable 
to carry out his plans, and under no ob¬ 
ligations to make refund to the widowed 
mother now, but we believe public senli 
ment would demand that the money be 
returned to the mother of the young man 
who paid the supreme sacrifice in behalf 
of his country. We shall see what power 
public sentiment may have in this ease. 
I wish to ask you if you know any¬ 
thing regarding the Monetary Metals 
Company, as to their mining shafts 
in the Boise Basin. In ihe past, 
year of 1021, and in 1022 T have been 
receiving sonic letters from H. I.. Barber 
& Co. of Chicago. III., wishing sharehold¬ 
ers at different times. One that 1 have 
just received from them, or from the II. 
I,. Barber & Co., concerns a special $10- 
$25 share. According to their statement 
a share listed in this company al $N.S-4 
eei - year would lie worth $8ft.40. Do 
you know anything about this company? 
I hardly think they are going t.> give 
anvono something for nothing. In fact. 
T have never answered any of their let¬ 
ters, as 1 did not think it amounted to 
much. «t. A. G. 
As a rule, the enterprise itself is the 
important thing to consider when con¬ 
templating an investment, but the record 
of II. L. Barber & Co., Chicago, is such 
that any stock they promote is subject to 
suspicion at once. If this brokerage 
house has ever promoted an investment 
of merit, we have no record of it. We 
therefore feel justified in advising sub¬ 
scribers to pass all of Barber’s literature 
into the waste-paper basket immediately 
upon receipt—or the stove would be a 
safer receptacle. 
On December 27. 19*21, three agents of 
Queen City Household Company. Buf¬ 
falo, N. Y., went through here selling 
portieres on the installment plan. The 
price was $1-1.05 per pair, at least $10 
more than actual worth. Now these 
agents seemed to be well posted as to 
where to stop, as they only stopped 
where Hie women were atone, their hus¬ 
bands away, and almost never stopped 
where a man was likely to be about. Two 
of them dime in. or practically forced 
their way into the house, while a third 
waited outside in their truck. With all 
the bluster and bluff known only to such 
class of agents, they fairly intimidated 
and mentally overpowered tin- woman and 
left two pairs of the portieres, getting 
the woman to sign an agreement, copy of 
which is enclosed. A duly authorized 
agent is to call each week and collect 
payment, Tn the case of a neighbor they 
induced a buy of It! or 17, not normally 
bright, to sign his father’s name, ns both 
parents were away at the time. T would 
like your advice as to what is best to do 
when their representative calls, as we do 
not want the portieres and feel under the 
circumstances we are not morally obli¬ 
gated to stand by the agreement, but sup¬ 
pose we nitty be legally obligated. 
New York. I„ s. s. 
The above report illustrates the meth¬ 
ods employed by agents of concerns sell¬ 
ing cheap goods at exorbitant prices and 
intimidating women into signing orders. 
Our advice in such cases is to throw the 
collector out of the house when lie ap¬ 
pears anil fling the cheap goods after 
him. The collector may be ail entirely 
innocent party’, blit lie is unfortunate in 
being employed by a bouse resorting to 
such methods as are outlined above. 
Y'our most welcome letter of December 
.“,1. enclosing cheek for $2,075.47. was 
received today. Speaking for all the 
milk patrons, I desire to thank you most 
heartily for your untiring effort in our 
behalf. There is great rejoicing among 
these dairymen here, and all are very 
thankful that the farmer has a friend and 
standby in Tut; Bi kai. New-Yorker. 
who does something when all others fail, 
as il was in our ease. I believe Some 
mention of this service should he made 
in Publisher’s Desk, because we feel that 
without your effort we would never have 
received this money. Fltrn BAM-IKT. 
In this case one Louis Tolins was 
operating a creamery, and gave a surety 
bond to secure the patrons in the pay¬ 
ment for the milk. The milk hills were 
due for April and some for March, when 
Tolins disappeared with the record sheets. 
There were some complications in refer¬ 
ence to the bond. Various attempts were 
made to get the money, including.the em¬ 
ployment of a local attorney, flu Novem¬ 
ber 1 the claim reached us, and on De¬ 
cember 31 wo sent cheek for full amount 
of (he claim. It was not necessary to 
employ any outside legal talent, and so 
we were ahle to send the full amount of 
the claim to the dairymen for their milk. 
Wo never before had so many claims for 
milk bills as now. YVe are always glad 
to do what we can f >r our friends, but 
in many cases the dealer leaves no assets, 
and in other cases the information is so 
meagre and the facts so indefinite it is 
hard to press claims to a successful end. 
Dairymen should have a definite under¬ 
standing in writing with dealers, and 
keep a daily record of the weight of milk < 
delivered. In this case they were pro¬ 
tected by a wise provision of a bonded 
security. Dairymen’s just claims have 
been so long and contemptuously thrust 
aside it gives us especial pleasure to 
occasionally be ahle to produce the real 
goods. 
Perhaps It would be of interest to you 
to know that the new National Nursery 
Company. MieMinnville. Term., which 
was at one time the American Nursery 
Company, had their permit cancelled in 
Tennessee during the past Fall. If you 
COM give me any help on making this can¬ 
cellation permanent in all States, ii will 
remove one of the worst offenders in the 
nursery game. As some of your farmer 
friends write you, I always turn to Pub- 
lisher’s Desk first when I receive your 
paper. P. T„ 
North Carolina. 
While fin’s nursery house is outside of 
Thu It. N.-Y. territory, we feel the record 
may save some of our Northern subscrib¬ 
ers from an unfortunate experience. 
F irrners cannot exercise too much cau¬ 
tion its to Hie character of the nursery 
houses they patronize. Wo have reports 
that Whiting is at large in New York 
State, and many have fallen victims of 
his oily tongue nml suave manners. And 
there are many “Whitings” bearing other 
names. . 
>in»iii«m«lii«m*iii«ni»iii»iimii»iinin>iM«ni«)i>iit»iinni>m>iiMiiii«ii)«in«ni»iii»iii«in« 
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