Crane & Allen:
I find your Preservative is just the thing I want, and it bears out the reports of others, who told me they have used it with good success.
J. H. PATTERSON.
NOTE.
We would more particularly urge upon your attention the care that should be taken in keeping this Manual of Instruction from the observation of any person other than yourself, for reasons which we trust will appear plain to you; that, as it contains all of the practical knowledge of the present day on the subject of Embalming, so plainly demonstrated in the Manual as to be easily acquired by any person who might have the opportunity of studying the book; therefore it is clearly in your interest to keep it in such a safe place that no one but yourself can have access to it, otherwise it might be the very means of educating and qualifying some person who might sooner or later come into competition with you, to the great injury of your business.
We endeavor to protect our customers by refusing to fill all orders for the Preservative from any persons who are not regularly engaged in the Undertaking business, and we would not furnish the Manual to any other than our customers under any circumstances. See card pasted on inside of the front cover.
TO OUR CUSTOMERS.
A few of our customers have, from time to time, called us to order (as it were) by reason of the cost of the Excelsior Preservative, and to such we would say that the first cost to manufacture the Preservative is from five to eight times more than any of the poison water “Fluids” that have ever come under our observation, and among all classes of merchandise, we know of nothing that is put on the market at so small a margin of profit as the Excelsior Preservative. We are now down to bed rock, with only a very small margin above actual cost. Nevertheless, we are sticking to it by reason of the continued increase of trade, which we trust in time will enable us to say that large sales and small profits are sure to win in the long run.
We trust that this explanation will be satisfactory to those of our customers who have written us, and will only say in conclusion that a small reduction in price would now drive us out of the market, which we feel sure you would regret.