"DAWSON BLACK'S MAIL-ORDER CATALOG CONTEST. TAKE A CHANCE! SEE THE NEWSPAPERS!"
This is the ad I put in both our papers:
HAVE YOU A SPORTING INSTINCT?
If so, take a few chances on winning a phonograph. These chances are free.
Bring your mail-order catalogs to us. In return for each catalog you will receive a numbered coupon.
A drawing will take place in our window next Monday at 7:30 p. m., when one of the coupons will be drawn by a blindfolded person from a tub in which all the coupons will be placed.
The number of the coupon drawn will be the winning number, and the holder of it will receive the talking machine absolutely free.
The machine may be seen in our window, or at the Farmdale Furniture Store.
I had only a few days between the announcement of the contest and the time for the drawing, because I thought, if the time were longer, people would write to the mail-order houses for catalogs so as to enter them in the contest.
I didn't know just what the effect would be, but I did know there was a lot of money going out of the town to the mail-order houses.