Serving America's America has its aristocracy of intelligence and culture, of achievement and wealth, of taste and talent. Every community has its leaders of thought and action. And historic Washington -drawing its leaders from every section of the Union-is representative of the aristocracy of them all. There in the world's greatest capital it is natural to find Packard cars honored by marked preferment-now as for a generation past. That five of the distinguished jurists of the United States Supreme Court own Packard cars is but an indication of this preference among those whose taste and judgment is unquestioned. The list of cabinet members, senators, ambassadors and congressional leaders who consistently favor Packard with their patronage reads like the roster of an American peerage. Packard could cite no stronger credentials. PACKARD MAN WHO OWNS ONE necessary permission. Altogether fortythree different stock propositions for which nothing good could be said were being sold to the financially unsophisticated of Bridgeport; propositions which not only included the ordinary sorts of stocks, but also shares in such enterprises as dealing in groceries, chain stores, meat packing, various kinds of manufacturing, an assortment of services, hotel schemes, and a salt mine. In addition there were three offices in New York City from which brokers were selling stock in a new oil swindle by telephone, and still another New York broker who was doing a lively business by telephone with Bridgeport widows. These fake concerns claimed capitalizations which totaled $83,000,000, ranging all the way from $250,000 to $30,000,000; offered dividends of from seven to one hundred per cent, and by a very conservative estimate based on reports of the New York Stock Exchange, the National Security Company, and the United States Government were harvesting not less than $1,500,000 a yearprobably something more than three per cent of the total factory pay-roll of the city. Nor was it by any means the foreigner wholly, the ignorant, or those with no business experience who had fallen for the sharpers' wiles, for Osborne's investigation disclosed the fact that of the merchants themselves twentytwo per cent had been "stung" anywhere from one hundred to fifteen thousand dollars apiece. No sooner did Osborne's friends realize the significance of his report than they were more insistent than ever that he organize some sort of a movement to drive the buccaneers from the town. This he proceeded to do. First of all, he gave his attention to some of the worst of the bunch which had fastened itself on the town. All that was necessary to get rid of those selling oil and mining stocks was to demand the State license which they should have and didn't dare ask for. To some of the others he gave a line of talk and asked a series of questions which brought him an invitation to join in "cleaning up the town" and offers of commissions as high as fifty per cent, but when the negotiations reached a certain point he informed them that he was "onto their game" and was "going after them," and they too disappeared. With these most troublesome and dangerous ones out of the way, he left the rest to make the discovery, which they did in less than a year, that Bridgeport was no place for them, and then turned his attention to "putting out the fire" by the very simple method of "cutting off the supply of fuel." "The best average a man can make in getting rid of promotion stocks," he said getting rid of promotion stocks," he said in telling of his experience, "is one sale to every ten prospects, and I knew if I could cut that average down to one in twenty their backs would be broken; that they couldn't make any money and Henry S. Osborne The Outlook for chant that if one of his customers was "stung" a hundred dollars he couldn't spend that hundred dollars in the store. I showed the bankers that if the savings of the town went for wildcat stocks there would be nothing left for legitimate investments. I pointed out that, as savings on an average are only about seven per cent of a man's income, if he loses a hundred dollars he will have to earn fourteen hundred more before he can replace the loss. I showed the manufacturer why it was an injury to him to have his help losing money constantly, and as soon as I got the idea over to a manufacturer or a merchant or a banker they passed the word along and helped sell somebody else, and so before long we got practically the whole town sold and I was able to give my time to putting the plan in operation." Each business man and manufacturer joining the movement pays pro rata toward a fund to carry on the Service. In return he is supplied with cards, seven by eleven inches, on which in large print is the warning: BUYING STOCKS, BONDS, OR OTHER INVESTMENTS FROM STRANGERS IS DANGEROUS. Underneath, in slightly smaller type, is the suggestion: "Before you buy ask your banker about the dealer or go for free advice to the Investors' Protective Service, Inc." These cards are hung in conspicuous places on the walls of workrooms, offices, and shops. With them the subscriber receives a supply of membership cards, which he issues to his employees. These entitle them to the free use of the Protective Service. There are blanks for filling in the name of the employee, the they would clear out of themselves. So factory or store giving out the card, its I set out to cut it down. "It was simply a matter of education. I have a record of one proposition which caused a loss of $200,000 in Bridgeport in six months. There were 843 buyers, scarcely any one of which was known to a reputable investment banker, and in checking up I found that ninety-seven per cent of the $200,000 had been drawn from the savings banks. The only way to stop that sort of thing is to educate the ninety-seven legitimate proposition, but I did interI didn't interfere with any fere with the misrepresentation. I let in the daylight, and the matter took care of itself. per cent. "The man selling wildcat stock merchandises his proposition, and so I went out and merchandised the opposition. I sold the manufacturers and bankers and merchants the idea of giving an investment protective service to those who needed it most-the workers. I showed these men that it was for their interest to give this service. I showed the mer number and date. Below is the location of the office of the Service and the office hours. In connection with installing the Service in any establishment a sufficient number of talks are given to make the ployees, and in the majority of cases purpose and value of it clear to the emthey have been glad to avail themselves of it. Supplementing all this, as opporries on his campaign of education tunities present themselves, Osborne carthrough every available channel: talks to foremen's associations in the factories; meetings, clubs, luncheons, etc., always to individual workers and employers; at hammering home the advice to wait and secure the opinion of some one who knows before investing hard-earned and needed money, and constantly reiterating his slogan, "Ask your banker." slogan has penetrated is indicated by a How thoroughly and effectively this conversation which Osborne chanced to overhear one day while having his shoes polished. A dealer in wildcat stock was exercising all his skill and eloquence in an effort to interest one of the bootblacks. The fellow listened indifferently for a time, and then turned the matter down by saying: "Well, I ask my banker. I see what he say." Osborne and the promoter happened to leave the booth at the same time, and once outside the latter exclaimed: "What do you know about that? Did you hear what that Wop said? He said, 'I ask my banker.' His banker!" Results have fully justified the undertaking and the methods employed. Although some three hundred propositions have been offered in Bridgeport in the last six years, the amount of wildcat stock sold in the city has dwindled until it is negligible. The last one of the crowd reaping a harvest when Osborne began, slipped away without saying farewell before the end of the first year. If a new promoter comes to town, he does not make more than two or three calls before some one sends word to Osborne. Scattered through the schools, the Police and Fire Departments, the Post Office, among the letter-carriers and insurance men, are a couple of thousand holders of cards, and in the shops, stores, and factories another seventeen thousand, making altogether some twenty thousand pairs of eyes and ears on the watch ready to report any new arrival or activity. Strange "steerers" drop in from time to time, but they seldom stay for more than a month. Osborne is usually one of the first callers after they open an office and tests the "proposition." Then he begins to ask questions; ends up by telling the fellow what to expect, and in most instances the promoter moves on to some town where there is less information extant. One salesman admitted that in working the town for three weeks he only made one deal, and that every other person he approached either told him they would ask their banker or see Osborne. The promoter's approach is met at every angle with "daylight," "education," and the offer of "free service." Osborne has secured copies of "sucker lists" of Bridgeport which total about eight thousand names, and these are frequently warned by letter of the danger of investing through strangers. As there is a certain type of shark which makes a specialty of preying on widows, he sends letters to women recently widowed offering them the protection of the Service. The "Protective Service" passed the experimental stage in Bridgeport several years ago. It is now better established than ever, and there is small chance for "velvet" or a "killing" there. "Fifty-three Years of Proven Safety" The first of these booklets explains the safeguards that have created world-wide confidence in Smith Bonds, and that have resulted in our record of no loss to any investor in 53 years. It tells how you can invest now in strongly secured First Mortgage Bonds, paying 6%%. 64% and 7%, with the protection of these same safeguards. Monthly sinking fund payments constantly increase your margin of security in Smith Bonds and give you a choice of maturities from 2 years to 10 years. You may invest in denominations of $1,000, $500 or $100. "How to Build an Independent Income" The other booklet contains a number of interesting tables which show the results you can accomplish by investing systematically at 6% or 7%, and describes our Investment Savings Plan. This plan enables you to buy $500 or $1,000 bonds by 10 equal monthly payments. Regular monthly payments earn the full rate of bond interest. For copies of our two booklets, send your name and address on the form below. W The Book Table Edited by EDMUND PEARSON Beginning with Mice HAT the name of Barnum meant to many generations of Americans the name of Sanger meant in England. "Lord" George Sanger,' the proprietor of Sanger's Circuses, traveled for many years about Great Britain, Europe, and even America. Everywhere that he went he brought to boys and girls a vision of tents, bareback riders, lions, and elephants. His father, in the days of Nelson, was seized by a press gang and taken aboard the fleet. He served for ten years, and was on board the Victory on the glorious day of Trafalgar. When his Admiral was killed, the seaman was badly wounded. He was finally retired with a small pension and a curious letter, permitting him to carry on any lawful business that he chose. This was to travel about, carrying on his back a peep-show -the predecessor of the panorama, which is, in turn, the grandfather of the moving-picture show. The show prospered and new features were added, including a wife and children for Mr. Sanger. He wore a white smock-frock, a beaver hat, knee-breeches, and buckle shoes. The troupe included a giantess and some "cannibal pigmies." With them wandered around England the son, George, who was later to become a much greater showman on his own ac count. These were the 1830's and 1840's, the days of the early Dickens novels and of an England long vanished. There were stirring adventures when they fled the smallpox. There was a grisly encounter with body-snatchers. There were riots brought about by the Chartists, and there was much dealing with gypsies. Finally, young George decided to start a show of his own. He was a boy of about eighteen. He procured and trained some white mice, which with some performing canaries and other birds, afterwards strengthened by two THE F. H. SMITH CO. intelligent hares, served to set him up in FOUNDED 1873 Smith Bldg., Washington, D.C. 582 Fifth Ave., N.Y. PHILADELPHIA BOSTON 6-X business. These mice were to develop George Sanger was a stout-hearted and 1 Seventy Years a Showman. By Lord George Sanger. With an Introduction by Kenneth Gra-. hame. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. $2. how to run a circus. He did not altogether care for Buffalo Bill when he came into contact with him in later years. Buffalo Bill used to call himself the Honorable W. F. Cody, and Mr. Sanger thought that this was the assumption of a title of nobility, and so, in derision, began to call himself "Lord" George Sanger. "Lord" George was quite fearless with lions and tigers, but he confesses that he trembled and stammered when in the presence of Queen Victoria. The Queen loved to see his circus and animals, and was most kind to the show man. You may learn from this book many useful things, including how to establish a school for learned pigs and how to tame an oyster so that he will sit by the fire and smoke a pipe. But chiefly you will read it for the amusement which it offers. E. P. Art MAHOGANY, ANTIQUE AND MODERN: A Study of Its History and Use in the Decorative Arts. Edited by William Farquhar Payson. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. $15. This sumptuous book gives the history of mahogany as a wood, and tells of its simple and innocent days in the South American forest. Then it describes its harvesting, and its use in all countries, principally for household furniture. One section is devoted to the use of mahogany in ship-building. The articles are by expert architects, university professors, and members of the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The many fine half-tone illustrations are chiefly from photographs of specimens of furniture in the Metropolitan Museum. It is a book to admire and to covet. Biography R. L. S. AND HIS SINE QUA NON: Flashlights from Skerryvore. By the Gamekeeper (Adelaide A. Boodle). Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.50. Stevenson's Sine qua non was his wife. Miss Boodle was a friend of his days in England; readers of his letters will remember that she was one of his correspondents when he was in the South Seas. This is one more addition to the long list of books about Stevenson; we wish we could say that it is an important one. WHITTIER AT CLOSE RANGE. By Frances Recollections of the poet by a family friend, a writer who has made a lifelong study of Whittier. She is intimately acquainted with the incidents of his career, of his public life and his literary achievements. She knew his homes and his friends, and the scenes of his verses, and has told of them in a highly interesting The book includes anecdotes of the days of the abolition struggle, of Civil manner. In writing to the above advertiser please mention The Outlook War times, and of later political events. The circumstances of writing various notable poems are told, as well as many pleasing anecdotes of the later days of the old Quaker bachelor in his Amesbury home. Miss Sparhawk's work will give great pleasure to Whittier's admirers. History and Politics CALEB HEATHCOTE, GENTLEMAN COLONIST. By Dixon Ryan Fox. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3. The career of the Englishman who was once lord of the manor in Scarsdale, New York. His name survives in an inn, a school, and a railway station. THE NEW NATIONAL HISTORY. By Professor J. Arthur Thomson. Vol. I. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $6. This is an elaborate picture book in color and in half-tone. The text is doubtless respectable, but the illustrations are the chief feature. THE PAGEANT OF AMERICA: A Pictorial History of the United States. Edited by Ralph Henry Gabriel. The Yale University Press, New Haven. 15 vols. $67.50 per set. This is a series of books which is to be complete in fifteen volumes. It is the result of the collaboration of many editors and is notable for its illustrations. The average is about three pictures to a page, and the text gets in as best it may. The pictures, however, are admirable and make it a highly interesting and valuable book. Essays and Criticism The HERMAN MELVILLE. By John Freeman. Macmillan Company, New York. $1.25. "Herman Melville, the most powerful of all the great American writers, was born"With this challenging parenthesis begins the first English book on Melville. It is a pity to begin such a study with a superlative. The biographer's temptation is always to magnify his theme, but we recall few instances of so voluptuous a surrender to the lure. What Mr. Freeman means by "powerful" he, nowhere makes clear. Surely he does the cause of Melville no service (and the word cause is irresistibly suggested by his pose of champion) by vaunting power, beauty, artistic merit, in his author where they least appear. Instance, the narrative called "Israel Potter; or, Fifty Years of Exile." But for a few brilliant descriptive passages, it is a labored and perfunctory paraphrase and expansion of the far more spirited original-a tiny book with an enormous title, probably dictated by old Israel in his last days, published in Providence in the year 1824; price 31 cents. An interesting little item still (though Melville spoke of it as extinct seventy years ago) to be picked up in the old book-shops. Powerful Melville was in his creative moments, and it is strange that his own generation should have so little felt his value. Speaking with generous indignation of the general neglect of Hawthorne, Melville said once: "It is for the Nation's sake, and not for her authors' sake, that I would have America be heedful of the increasing greatness among her writers. For how great the shame, if other nations should be before her in crowning her heroes of the pen!" Melville had perhaps more recognition in England than in America during his lifetime. Several of his books (including "The Whale") were first published in London. But of late years certainly America has not failed of enthusiasm for the author of "Moby Dick." Mr. Weaver's full and fine biography has lifted its monument. New editions of-well, of "Moby Dick"have jostled each other, and collectors have run up the price of Melville "firsts" far beyond the scale of any of his contemporaries except Poe. Meanwhile England The Telephone and the Farm THERE was not a farmer in the world fifty years ago who could talk even to his nearest neighbor by telephone. Not one who could telephone to the doctor in case of sickness or accident. Not one who could telephone for the weather report or call the city for the latest quotations on his crops. Not one who could sell what he raised or buy what he needed by telephone. A neighborly chat over the wire was an impossibility for the farmer's wife or children. In this country the telephone has transformed the life of the farm. It has banished the loneliness which in the past so discouraged the rural population and drove many from the large and solitary areas of farms and ranches. It is a farm hand who stays on the job and is ready to work twenty-four hours every day. farmer's watchman in times of The telephone has become the emergency. It outruns the fastest forest or prairie fires and warns of their approach. It has saved rural communities from untold loss of ple notice of devastating floods. lives and property by giving amThree million telephones are now in service on the farms, ranches and plantations of the United States. |