Free.
There’s the catch word of all humanity. Fifty years ago it was the most potent word in the language, and all the advertising experts who have developed since have not succeeded in devising one to succeed it.
Look over the papers which are read by the simple country folk, and note how that word stands out all over them. The article advertised goes in agate type below it. The particulars about what stamps or coins must be sent to secure the “free” article, go in minion. The ad. may occupy but an inch, and half of the inch may consist of the one word “Free,” but the advertising evidently pays if continuance signifies profit.
One sometimes wonders where the crop of gold brick victims constantly comes from, where the green goods men continually find patrons, and why confidence men grow more numerous as their wiles become better advertised. There is a greater crop of “Free” victims growing somewhere. It is hard to believe that anyone answers a “Free” ad. twice, but this class of advertising grows and prospers. This is a large country, and the boys who are growing up must all learn by experience what their fathers learned likewise. No youth seems content to be taught in any other way. It looks as if there was no danger of any lack of advertising to teach them.—Exchange.