'The sale of one opens the market for a dozen in any neighborhood;'
but observe, I don't claim that any more will be sold in that
neighborhood, even if the market is opened. So far as my guaranty
is concerned, I only warrant them to be as good after three years'
use as when first purchased. Will you, or will any court, call
that in question?"

"It is charged," said the officer, changing the subject, "that you
neglected to fill a good many orders. How do you explain that?"

"Why, to furnish the shooter and pay the postage cuts down the
profits terribly," was the unique and characteristic reply.

Orders began to arrive in response to the circular nearly five
months before the first shooter came from the hands of the
manufacturer; and as none of them were ever filled, or even
recorded, it is impossible to estimate how many dupes long watched
the mails in anxious expectancy, and perhaps attributed their
disappointment to dishonesty among the employees of the department.

Of course the papers which printed the advertisement would have
spurned the impostor and exposed the fraud, had they discovered the
facts. The most scrupulous and careful publishers are often
deceived in the character of advertisements that come through the
regular channels of business, and appear plausible on their face.
In fact, the religious journals are the favorite vehicles of the
swindlers. The solicitude felt by the newspapers, not only for
their own reputation, but for the interests of their patrons, was
illustrated in the correspondence found on the person of Wilcox.
An influential western journal had addressed him two notes which