1290 
October 29, 1921 
Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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. 
The Rural New-Yorker has been ex¬ 
posing the deceptions of portrait houses 
and the tricks played on country people. 
One of the worst offenders has been the 
Chicago Portrait Company, Chicago, Ill. 
The “lucky envelope” and other schemes 
of this concern have been repeatedly ex¬ 
posed in these columns. 
The Federal Trade Commission. Wash¬ 
ington, under date of September 20, 1921, 
issued a complaint against the company 
which is too long to print, but the essen¬ 
tial facts of one of the charges against 
the company are as follows: That as an 
inducement to prospective customers to 
purchase its portraits represent the ac¬ 
tual values of said portraits to be much 
greater than they in fact are. and repre¬ 
sent the usual prices to be far in excess 
of the prices at which said portraits ac¬ 
tually sell; and then offers said pros¬ 
pective customers pretended special prices 
which are usually much less than the 
represented actual values and usual prices 
of said portraits; that such pretended 
special prices are made upon the claimed 
consideration that such'prospective cus¬ 
tomers will recommend the portraits and 
advertise the business of respondent in 
the respective communities in which they 
live, or by inducing prospective customers 
to participate in a drawing for a so- 
called “lucky envelope” from a number 
of envelopes carried by agents of respon¬ 
dent for that purpose, the greater number 
of which envelopes contain coupons or 
trade checks which purport to entitle 
those drawing same to discounts from the 
represented usual prices of portraits sold 
by respondent; and such drawings are so 
manipulated by agents of respondent that 
each prospective customer receives one of 
said “lucky envelopes”; that the prices 
represented by the respondent to be the 
usual prices of its portraits are fictitious 
and misleading, and are calculated to and 
actually do mislead and deceive pur¬ 
chasers as to the values of said portraits 
and their usual selling prices, and mis¬ 
lead and deceive them into the belief that 
they are obtaining said portraits at prices 
substantially below their usual selling 
prices and below their true values or 
worth when they buy at the pretended 
special prices offered by the respondent. 
That as a further inducement to pros¬ 
pective customers respondents represent 
their portraits to ' be hand paintings, 
whereas in truth and in fact such por¬ 
traits are not hand paintings. 
In a later issue we shall give a synopsis 
of the Commissioner’s findings bearing on 
deceptions of schemes to induce those 
ordering a portrait to buy a cheap frame 
with the picture. 
Last February my husband became in¬ 
terested in fox hunting, and desired a 
good fox dog. He was in a hurry for the 
dog, and sent a certified check to West¬ 
minster Kennels, Tower Hill, Ill. The 
check was for $50, and was mailed Feb¬ 
ruary 24, I think. The promise was the 
dog would be shipped at once. We 
waited a month, and no dog came, al¬ 
though we heard from A. E. Humphry, 
the proprietor, once or twice that he 
would ship dog soon. At the end of 
March, the hunting being over for the 
year, my husband wrote and asked Mr. 
Humphry to return his money, as he 
would have no use for a dog for nearly 
a year. We needed the money. A good 
dog in six weeks could have paid for 
himself and we would have had our 
money and the dog, too. Getting no sat¬ 
isfaction from writing Mr. Humphry, and 
as the paper printing advertisement does 
not back their advertisers, we took the 
matter up with our county prosecutor. 
After a letter or two regarding the mat¬ 
ter we sent a draft on tlm bank at Tower 
Hill, Ill., which was later returned with 
the information that Mr. Humphry had 
no funds there and they had since re¬ 
fused him the privilege of using their 
name as a reference, as he was worth¬ 
less. Our county prosecutor has written 
to the prosecutor there to see if the laws 
of Illinois are such that a man can do 
business in that way and get by with it. 
Michigan. MRS. G. G. H. 
the second time with no money in the 
bank to meet it is sufficient grounds to 
call the good faith of this dog dealer into 
question. Dog dealers are an irrespon¬ 
sible lot as a class, and it is generally 
“dealers” and not the breeders who are 
the most persistent advertisers in the 
sporting papers. Caution is recommended 
in sending remittances to unknown 
dealers in publications that do not stand 
behind their advertisements. 
We come to you with “praise and 
thanksgiving” in our hearts for the very, 
very great appreciation of “Publisher’s 
Desk” department. Really, we believe 
we have saved many dollars by heeding 
your truly timely advice. This page is 
indeed a most wonderful asset to anyone. 
Thanks in reality for this page. We are 
sending herewith a copy of a lease that is 
going the rounds in our section. We have 
no gas or oil wells in this country. What 
do you think of our signing this lease? 
Virginia. m. g. & son. 
This is the old regulation “oil lease” 
again. As usual, the other party to the 
lease is an unknown individual with no 
known responsibility, and if he represents 
some responsible oil concern it is not re¬ 
vealed in the lease. Therefore the lease 
•binds the farm owner “hard and fast” 
without any corresponding advantages. 
There is no provision that compels the 
other party to the lease to drill for oil on 
the farm at any time, and of course the 
lease prevents the farmer from drilling 
himself, or allowing anyone else to do so. 
The lease is all one-sided, with no protec¬ 
tion to the farmers’ interests. Before 
considering a lease at all the farm owner 
should make sure that the other party to 
the lease is a responsible oil company, 
and then the farm owner should go to his 
own lawyer and have him draw up a 
lease that will give him proper protection 
and advantages on a fair and equitable 
basis to all concerned. Never sign a 
“ready-made” lease with those claiming 
to represent oil concerns. 
Last week I received a letter from L 
P. Gunson & Co., Rochester, N. Y., ask¬ 
ing me to sell their seed. I would like 
to know if their seeds are all right, and 
are they fair dealing with the farmers? 
New York. j. g. d. 
The methods of L. P. Gunson & Co., 
Rochester, N. Y., have been explained 
many times in this department, but some 
old readers may have overlooked the ad¬ 
vice given, and new members of Tiie 
Rural family require a repetition at this 
time. The concern sells its seeds through 
agents, which is an expensive method, and 
their price is correspondingly high. Ex¬ 
travagant claims are made for the seeds, 
such as “oats yield 100 bushels per acre,” 
new varieties of potatoes, corn, etc., “yield 
double ordinary varieties.” Whether the 
varieties are new or just old kinds under 
a new name no one knows except the 
company itself. We have many reports 
that the Gunson seeds do not yield better 
than the common varieties, and in many 
cases are very inferior. We had a case 
last year where admittedly orders were 
taken for oats on the strength of the 1919 
crop samples and inferior 1920 crop of¬ 
fered for delivery. George K. Iligbie & 
Co., Rochester, N. Y., operate on the same 
basis. The agents of both will soon be 
on the road soliciting orders. The farm¬ 
ers who get caught cannot blame Pub¬ 
lisher’s Desk for their predicament. 
What can you tell me about the relia¬ 
bility and assets of the Silver Fox and 
Fur Co.. Binghamton. N. Y., of which I 
enclose a circular? h. j. b. 
New York. 
The proprietor of Westminster Ken¬ 
nels sent us a check last month refunding 
the remittance of this subscriber, but it 
went to protest also. Sending a check 
As we understand the advertisement of 
this concern, the assets of the company 
are matters to be determined in the 
future except that mention is made of 
the location of a ranch. The profits of 
the business are all figured out to a nicety, 
very much in the same way as the “hog 
ranch” profits were figured out by pro¬ 
moters of those enterprises a few years 
ago. There are no doubt just as many 
pitfalls in rearing foxes as with pigs, 
chickens, etc., and the overhead expenses 
in managing these corporations for con¬ 
ducting any farm enterprise usually eat 
up all prospective profits before any pro¬ 
fit is made. We would not advise anyone 
putting money into such propositions 
with the expectation of getting rich there¬ 
by, or without considering the probability 
of losing all he puts iu. 
What Happened 
To Mi! J. Smith 
T ET Mr. J. Smith, of Philadelphia, represent the typical citizen of these 
United States who works for a living, pays his bills and saves when 
he can. 
Time was when Mr. J. Smith’s dollar bought a dollar’s worth of goods 
anywhere, but for a long time it had been taking two to buy what one 
used to buy. That was before he made the acquaintance of the Charles 
William Stores; before he used Your Bargain Book as his buying guide. 
When the Big Book first arrived at his home, Mr. Smith needed a suit 
of clothes. He found what seemed just what he wanted on page 322— 
a guaranteed all-wool blue serge suit at $ 17 . 98 . It was his first order 
and being a shrewd and experienced buyer, he was skeptical. But when 
the suit arrived his skepticism vanished and enthusiasm took its place. 
He knew that at last he had found the place where he could get back to 
the dollar for dollar basis again. 
What he received was a conservative three-button, single-breasted model 
that looked and felt and eventually wore like the $40 and $50 kind he 
had previously thought good value. And this suit fitted him well, too. 
Like Mr. J. Smith, of Philadelphia, other Mr. Smith’s all over the 
country are finding scores, yes hundreds, of bargains—real ones—big 
ones—for every member of their families in the Bargain Book. 
They have found New York Styles, dependable quality and low prices 
all combined in women’s suits, dresses and other wearing apparel of 
every kind, as well as men’s clothes and clothes for the children. They 
have found money saving opportunities in furniture, carpets, draperies, 
household equipment and dozens of other things. 
And for the farmer this book offers further big opportunities for saving 
money. Here he will find a wealth of low priced necessities for the 
man out-of-doors—and the man who works with his hands—tools of 
all kinds for every man. If you have not already discovered that The 
Charles William Stores Big Catalog is a short cut to economical living, 
write for your copy today. 
We call it Your Bargain Book and the name tells a true story. Use the 
coupon and mail it nozv. 
1 
•—* I Sale Book 
jAS ulg! Coupon 
The Charles William Stores, Inc. 
806 Stores Building 
.- rlT -r -unrun—-jg r P^W~~f jfB New York, N. Y. 
Gentlemen : Please send mo FREE 
your Fall and Winter Bargain 
Book showing the new low prices. 
| Name... 
Address. 
TheCharlesWilliam Stores inc. 
