THE “SAMPLE” CRAZE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 47, 25 January 1926, Page 6

THE “SAMPLE” CRAZE.

\ A BUSINESS PITFALL. CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 22. A Christchurch business concern which had been full of enthusiasm and energy, is feeling discouraged, and with reason too. it is all very veil toi Fortune to slip over a half-Nelson occasionally. but the strangle-liold is bailed in the best catcli-as-catch-can circles, and in this instance Fortune hasn’t stuck to the rules. The particular firm is the agent for motor trucks and sucli-like competitors of the railroad, and recently it received a request for a full set of catalogues concerning its brand of motoi truck. . . The firm scented business in the olfing, and a smart salesman was put on the trail, which led to a small North Island town on the Main Trunk line. He disembarked from the train i i due course, made inquiries, and found that the address he sought was some miles out of the town. But enthusiasm spurred him on, and, bearing catalogues galore, lie tramped to his final destination.

The outlook, on arrival, looked unpromising. He gazed upon a shack, a broken-down, decrepit affair of rusted corrugated iron, and faded and split woodwork. A scraggy individual with a discouraged growth of straggling whisker, answered his knock. “No, I never sent for no catalogues,” said the householder, in answer to ail inquiry. “That’ll bo my boy Alec. Ho collects ’em. Gome on in, and I’ll show you a box full of ’em.” The collecting craze lias swept the country, and cigarette pictures, chocolate cards, and blood alleys are hooding the homes. Young Alec had turned his fancy to catalogues. Had the opportunity been present at the moment the salesman of motor trucks also would have turned collector. He would have collected young Alec, and having connected him with a piece of string to a fair sized brick he would have dropped him in the nearest pond, but Alec was absent. He was away collecting tho postal mail, that operation having been a source of positive pleasure and interest since he had entered into the catalogue business.