666 
March 27, 1920 
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, hence unsigned let¬ 
ters receive no consideration. 
I am enclosing you clipping from Chi¬ 
cago Sunday Tribune, from which you 
can see how easy it is to land the big 
fish in the imaginary net. If this big 
game can be caught so easily you might 
just as well close up your Publisher’s 
Desk. b. T. S. 
West Virginia.* 
The story as published tells of the op¬ 
erations of one James Perry, who repre¬ 
sented himself as special agent of Town 
Topics, and by promising to print biog- 
graphical sketches, extracted from $25 
to $200 from prominent Chicagoans. The 
same scheme has been worked on coun¬ 
try people in a smaller way. All of 
which goes to show that big business 
men are subject to the same human weak¬ 
nesses as other individuals. This, how¬ 
ever, does not discourage the editor of 
Publisher’s Desk in the work of warning 
farmers against the sinister schemes to 
bring easy money to the promoters of 
them. 
I recentlv read your comment on Mark 
Harris. Buffalo. N. Y. What is your 
opinion after reading the enclosed folder, 
in which he issues a warning against 
fakers, and do you think there is any 
merit in the stock of the Auto Motive 
Tractor Corporation of America? w. a. 
New Jersey. 
We believe this corporation has con¬ 
ceived the plan of mounting an automo¬ 
bile on a set of trucks or independent 
wheels, and thus convert the automobile 
into a tractor. The idea is preposterous 
from a practical standpoint, and Mark 
Harris is just the sort of a broker to pro¬ 
mote such a scheme. In the olden days 
the professional pickpocket always cried 
“.Stop thief” when the police appeared, 
in order to divert suspicion from himself. 
The warning of Mark Harris to “Beware 
of fakers” must be considered in the 
same light if your definition of “fakers” 
is those who promote stocks of question¬ 
able value or no value. The Auto Mo¬ 
tive Tractor Corporation is about as un¬ 
attractive a proposition as any that has 
come to our attention since the Emer¬ 
son Motor and the Ford Tractor promo¬ 
tion of Minneapolis. 
I presume you are “fed up” on the 
Chicago Art Portrait Co., but I don’t 
believe vou ever beheld them in the light 
of public benefactors.- and I cannot resist 
the impulse to tell you about it. 1 -think 
if you can only get a picture of that 
agent in your mind you will laugh, too. 
The benefit to the public comes in in the 
fact that we have all had more fun out 
of the agent who called op us yesterday 
than we have had before in all this dull 
Winter. I began to laugh while he was 
still here, and still laugh every time I 
think of him. And whenever anyone 
calls me on the 'phone and begins to laugh 
before they can say anything. I know 
Mr. Agent has come and gone. I have 
never been bitten, because I don t caie 
for cravon portraits, but nearly everyone 
along this street has been, and we were 
all hoping that one of the agents would 
come along. When he did. it made me 
think of once when I was a little girl 
and a neighbor’s dog would come along 
and worry our kittens. Me had four 
mother cats, and one day when the dog 
came worrying around they all four lit at 
once onto her and clawed and bit till she 
was glad to run howling home, and never 
came again. It was the same old scheme 
of placing a picture in your home to ad¬ 
vertise (absolutely wouldn't sell one) and 
at the proper moment sprung the en¬ 
velopes on me. I told him I was badly 
disappointed: that I had only let him in 
hoping he had some new trick to show, 
and now he had gone and sprung that old 
chestnut! He was almost disconcerted 
for a moment. Then I told him I had 
seen the company advertised in The R. 
N.-Y. He said they had advertised in 
the farm papers, but now preferred to 
give the people the benefit of the money 
saved by not advertising. I said : “Oh. 
this was free advertising. I’ll show you.” 
And I did. lie tried to bluff some, but 
soon slunk off. However, he went 
whistling. The next-door neighbor had 
been badly bitten, but slu listened as if 
she was sucking ihe bait all in. let him go 
through all his parlor tricks, even draw 
a lucky envelope, gad then quietly 
“dressed, him down.” He went, still 
whistling. The next place has no ’phone, 
so we don’t know exactly what happened, 
but as they had been victims I can guess. 
The next neighbor was only a young girl 
when she had a picture enlarged by them, 
several years ago, and if her father had 
'not come into the house the agent would 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
have forced her to pay $12.98 for the 
picture, when they had promised it to 
her for $1.98. When our man left there 
yesterday lie had lost his whistle. I hope 
he catches it all along the line. If their 
work was only good, it wouldn't be quite 
so bad : but it makes me mad to have 
anyone think country people are such dear 
innocent lambs. Talk about the II. ('. L.! 
What can you expect when we can’t get 
a hired man for “love or money.” and 
then able-bodied young men run around 
on such business as that? E. p. r. 
New York. 
The above letter tells its own story 
complete, and comment is- unnecessary. 
Will you give me your opinion of the 
Eniversal Petroleum Corporation, now 
being exploited by Currier A Co.. Repub¬ 
lic building. Kansas City. Mo.? 
Pennsylvania. W. J.-M. 
Do you know anything about the Gen¬ 
eral Oil Company, Houston, Tex.. 8. F. J. 
Cox. president? He seems to be quite a 
philosopher, and something of a pliilan- 
throoist. c. n. r.. 
Almond, N. Y. 
We group the two above inquires be¬ 
cause Cox and Currier make a pair that 
is hard to beat as get-rich-quick perform¬ 
ers. The reputation of both is very bad. 
Currier was in the publishing business 
in Chicago some years ago. and swindled 
the readers of his publication by selling 
them worthless stock in the publishing 
company. Cox has an equally unenviable 
record. These are the class of invest¬ 
ment propositions usually presented to | 
country people, through the mails or by 
smooth-tongued salesmen. To all asking l 
as to the advisability of investing in oil 
stock presented in this way we say Don't. 
I am enclosing a letter that was sent 
to our postmaster, that seems to indicate 
a smooth scheme t<> catch easy suckers 
that are always willing to grab something 
for nothing. You will notice it is simply 
a form letter, with the address filled in 
with a typewriter. The party addressed 
owns an automobile that has tires of the 
kind and dimensions mentioned, but has 
had no occasion for replacements or ad¬ 
justments. and never sent either tubes or 
casings t<> anyone, so. being an honest 
man, handed out the letter to expose the 
firm’s scheme. Yours to aid in exposing 
fraud. r. q. 
Michigan. 
The letter accompanying is from Qual¬ 
ity Tire Company. Chicago. It repre¬ 
sents that, a tire returned for adjustment 
has been received and while the name 
and address on the tag was badly blurred, 
presumably it came from the party ad¬ 
dressed. Then it is explained that from 
the appearance of the tires it had given 
the guaranteed service, but on account of 
their liberal treatment of customers it is 
offered to send a new tire at about $8 less 
than the price of standard tires—but it 
doesn’t say the tire offered is a “stand¬ 
ard'' make. A palpable fraud! 
Can you tell me anything about the re¬ 
liability of the enclosed guarantee? It 
sounds well theoretically. We have a 
small flock of hens that are laying well 
now but! that plan to stop as soon as 
Summer comes. I should like to try a 
box of “Henergizer" if Henry Traf- 
ford is on the square I think his adv. 
aopeared in the Boston Post February 13. 
Maine. m. w. t. 
Why Pay $160 for Lumber 
You Can Buy for $112? 
Make your selection from our FREE New Catalog- 
of Lumber and Building Materials. It means money 
in your pocket. This saving on any building—large 
or small—is large enough to be well worth your in¬ 
vestigation. Our Catalog shows just how we save 
you money. 
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We have an enormous mill located right in the heart 
of the lumber district—convenient to you, to save 
freight charges. We buy lumber and building mater¬ 
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to you in any quantities at a reasonably small profit. 
Furthermore, we handle only thoroughly seasoned 
stock—no seconds or wreckage. Your stock is ready 
for immediate shipment. 
Avoid Lumber Shortage 
Lumber is scarce—high-priced. Worse still—it will cost more, 
not only because the timber-cut is small, but because labor 
is scarce. 
Yet—people who wanted to build dui't oe last four years 
and could not. MUST Bl'ILD NOW ag the coming year 
large manufacturing concerns will erect many bouses to meet 
the demand of employees for modern, comfortable homes. 
If you aie planning to build or make repairs—OFT YOUR 
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Send for FREE Catalog 
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this New Catalog. Read about our lumber and building 
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RAY H. BENNETT LUMBER CO., Inc. 
Price Regulators of Building Materials 
511 Main Street North Tonawanda, N. Y. 
RAY H. BENNETT LUMBER CO., INC., 
511 Main Street, North Tonawanda, N. Y. 
Send immediately “Price Regulator Catalog” to 
Here is a bran new word and a new 
poultry dope. “Ifenergizer.” This prod¬ 
uct is exploited under the caption. “The 
1.000 Egg Hen.” by Henry Trafford. man¬ 
ager Standard Poultry Service Company, 
Binghamton. N. Y. Not a thousand eggs 
in one year, of course, blit during* tin* 
ben's lifetime. It makes hens up to five 
years of age equal to their pullet year. 
What do we think of these claims? 
Just bunk! 
Naturally I am interested in “Pub¬ 
lisher’s Desk. Perhaps you would be 
interested in the enclosed “newspaper.” 
Have you ever seen anything to equal it? 
I consider his literature a classic. 
North Dakota. c. s. V. S, 
The “newspaper” is the Fur Farming 
Specialty Farmer, Fargo, N. D„ the pri¬ 
mary object of which seems to be to sell 
stock in the Fur and Specialty Farming 
Co., which investment is to make the 
world and all upon it rich. The company 
and rhe paper is the product of the 
imagination of G. W. Rirs, who pro¬ 
poses breeding rabbits very much on the 
same plan as the “hog ranch” schemes. 
It is such a palpable fraud that we do 
not consider the scheme dangerous, but is 
worthy of mention in connection with the 
many exploitations of the innocent 
“Bunny” at the present time. The rab¬ 
bit is all right, but crooked meu are using 
him for selfish purposes. 
Name. P. O. 
* 
Street.P. 0. Box.R. F. D 
Feeds and Feeding now$2.75 
This standard book by Henry & Mor¬ 
rison lias been advanced to $2.75, at 
which price we can supply it. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street New York 
“EARN PIN MONEY at HOME'’ 
by crocheting or knitting Bootees, 
Sacqucs, IIooils, Ladies’ Vests and 
Shawls. Steady work. We pay 
parcel-post charges both ways. 
Simon Asclier £s? Co., Inc. 
134th St. & 3rd Ave.. New York City 
liiiiiniiiimn 
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[ 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square aeal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
