154 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 26, 1924 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
Friends of Publisher’s Desk will be in¬ 
terested as usual in our annual resume 
of its work. We have had some 356 
items in this column during the year and 
have covered over a hundred subject-, 
but the published items are only a small 
part of the work. We referjred to 49 
pure stock-selling schemes, many of them 
oil stocks. We had 23 references to real 
estate propositions. The schemes branded 
included work-at-home; correspondence 
schools; “buy-back” fakes; medical; eye 
swindles; oil gas burners; auto schemes; 
tire companies ; knitting machines; m i- 
tion pictures ; radio ; portrait companies; 
hatcheries; livestock; poultry; music 
publishing; fake book and subscription ; 
agents; grocery and membership con¬ 
cerns ; unknown dealers to whom hun¬ 
dreds of dollars worth of shipments had 
been sent and no payment made, and 
many other schemes. Practically all of 
them represented active effort to sepa¬ 
rate the farmer from his money in one 
way or another; in other words to live 
easy on others people’s money. 
The record of letters written is not ex¬ 
act. but we answered approximately 28,- 
000 direct inquiries for ratings and general 
information. We have written 35,000 
letters in collecting and adjusting the ac¬ 
counts sent us. The claims sent in for 
collection numbered 2,409 and represent¬ 
ed $86,216.17. Many were uncollectible, 
all were in dispute and more or less 
doubtful. Express and transportation 
numbered 224 and amounted to $10,- 
463.32 and are included in the above 
figures. 
The collections made covered 2,246 
claims, amounted to $79,138.91 and di¬ 
vided as follows: 
General claims .2014 $71,815.45 
Express claims . 168 2,718.87 
Railroad claims. 64 4,604.59 
The record of collections since 1910 
is as follows: 
1910— 400 claims collected, 
1911— 539 “ . “ 
1912— 558 “ 
1913— 743 “ 
1914— 800 “ 
1915— 921 “ 
1916— 1,192 “ 
1917— 630 “ 
1918— 2.232 
1919— 2.596 
1920— 2.493 
1921— 1.584 
1922— 1.479 “ 
1923— 2.246 “ 
$ 9,665.45 
12,110.63 
10.926.51 
10.112.91 
10.665.50 
13,021.12 
18.131.54 
23.961.21 
37.425.54 
44.684.29 
45.592.74 
45,804.23 
62.549.60 
79.138.91 
Total 19.323 $423,890.18 
Our old acquaintance, E. G. Lewis, con¬ 
tributed $1,295 on a subscriber’s claim. 
On an insurance controversy we brought 
about an adjustment of $2,500. The 
largest transportation claims were two 
adjustments by the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Railroad in the sum of $1,463.75. 
The campaign of the express company 
for right packing on the part of ship¬ 
pers and careful handling on the part 
of their employes has tiad a good effect, 
and there are fewer claims and more 
prompt payments. 
This is a part of our work. The ex¬ 
pense of it is borne by the paper. There 
is no charge for the service. 
On December 3, 1923, I shipped to I. 
R. Hough Fur Co., Meriden, Conn.; 
eight skunks and one raccoon skin. These 
skins were all dry and properly stretched 
as I can easily prove. I waited about a 
week, then wrote asking them why the 
delay in sending the check; the least they 
could do was to acknowledge receipt of 
the furs. The first word I received was 
on December 17. They said the fur was 
ruined by maggots, which is absurd to 
say because the weather was cold. En¬ 
closed in the letter was a check for 90 
cents for fur that was worth approxi¬ 
mately $15. I returned the check saying 
I wanted my fur returned because I sent 
it to them under the “hold separate” 
agreement. That is, if for any reason 
the check was not satisfactory I could 
have my fur returned. They wrote again 
sending back the check for 90 cents and 
with it the “Hough contract,” as they 
call it. They wrote they had disposed 
of the fur before it began to deteriorate. 
They had never said anything about the 
“Hough contract” before the last letter. 
You know as well as I do that it was im¬ 
possible for the fur to spoil in two days 
time and if it had, why didn’t they say 
so, so I could hold the express company 
for it? c.p. 
New York. 
We have so many complaints from raw 
fur shippers that there can be no ques¬ 
tion that I. R. Hough, Meriden, Conn., 
is defrauding shippers. Like the St. 
Louis pirates, he has a printed letter to 
notify his shippers that the skins were 
received in bad condition. I. R. Hough 
is advertising in a good many papers 
that are not too particular about the 
character of the advertising accepted. 
In the Dec. 15 issue, in answer to an 
inquiry, we said that the advertising of 
“Smoke-ein” had been refused because we 
found no poultry authorities who would 
endorse the claims of its manufacturers 
that it would cure roup. Since then we 
have had a number of letters from poul- 
trymen who have used it and who believe 
that it is of great value. One of the best 
poultrymen in the State, and a recognized 
authority upon poultry subjects, writes: 
I had an epidemic of what I would call 
diplitheretic roup in one house of about 
300 pullets. I used the “Smoke-em” 
treatment on them veVy thoroughly, with 
the result that I lost but very few birds, 
and they gradually regained their health 
much more quickly than I could expect 
them to without the treatment. I am 
very much inclined to think there is con¬ 
siderable virtue in this treatment and 
that it is really the best thing on the 
market for colds or roup in its early 
stages. I do not, however, just fancy 
their advertising methods, as their claims 
seem rather strong, and their advertising 
matter looks cheap, but I certainly like 
the “Smoke-em” treatment, although I 
could not give them as strong a testi¬ 
monial as the letters you enclose. 
Other advices are to the effect that the 
remedy is of little or no value in true 
roup, whatever virtue it may have in 
those cases which should be termed 
“colds,” or, at most, border line cases in 
which the distinction between colds and 
true roup is very difficult to make. How¬ 
ever, we have no desire to do “Smoke-em” 
or its makers the slightest injustice and, 
if there is any doubt in the matter, we 
prefer to give them the benefit of it. 
Does the inclosed literature, of Oorang 
Kennels, Larue, O., look to you like 
sucker bait? It certainly has some of the 
earmarks. w. d. h. 
New York. 
Y”es, pure, unadulterated sucker bait. 
The circular invites the individual re¬ 
ceiving it to pay $100 for a. membership 
in Oorang Sportsmen’s Association, 
which, when fully paid, will be trans¬ 
ferred to common stock of Oorang Ken¬ 
nels. Then the member is guaranteed 
$10 for each male puppy and $5 for each 
female puppy raised. This sounds very 
much like the Standard Food and Fur 
Association rabbit scheme, the promoters 
of which have recently been indicted for 
fraud. It’s an easy money scheme at 
best, and we could not advise dog breed¬ 
ers or prospective dojf breeders to .join 
the alleged association. 
During the last few weeks a company 
known as the J. N. Parker Company, 
suburban development, with offices at 123 
Liberty St., New York City, has been 
running a contest in some of the North 
Jersey newspapers in which you are 
asked to submit a name for one of the 
streets in their development parks, locat¬ 
ed in Cranford, N. J. They promise to 
give away, absolutely free of any charge, 
one building lot to the winner of this con¬ 
test. To test out the proposition, I sent 
in a name for one of the streets, and a 
letter was sent, stating that I was one 
of the lucky few. So after receiving the 
letter I went to New York to have a per¬ 
sonal interview. The office and its whole 
atmosphere was decidedly unfavorable, as 
were the type of men collected in the 
salesroom. A young lady was also em¬ 
ployed to look after the young men who 
had come in. also as winners. Of course, 
as I had expected, the lot was not to be 
given away, although it had been pub¬ 
lished as a gift to the winner of the name 
contest. But they spent a great deal of 
time and energy trying to sign people up 
to a contract which called for $50 dow r n 
and from $10 to $50 per month. All of 
this was going on without one stake be¬ 
ing driven to show the ownership of a 
single lot. I am very anxious to ascer¬ 
tain whether or not these people are a 
real business concern or only another 
“fly-by-night” organization. c. E. Ii. 
New Jersey. 
The subscriber answers his own in¬ 
quiry in relating what he found when he 
went to the office of the J. N. Parker 
Company. Like the fake guessing con¬ 
test, everyone who suggested a name was 
a “winner.” .Such schemes are a delu¬ 
sion and a snare. Those who expect to 
get something for nothing in entering 
such contests invariably get the “noth¬ 
ing” in exchange for any money they 
part with. 
M 
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