KinSource - Tale of the Week - Elysian Man Is In Trouble Trying To Be Get-Rich-Quick

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The New Richland Star, March 19, 1915, p. 1

ELYSIAN MAN IS IN TROUBLE TRYING TO BE GET-RICH-QUICK

Ernest W. Hoffner of Elysian was brought before United States Commissioner Benjamin Taylor last evening by Deputy Marshall W. W. Rich, charged with using the United States mails to further a scheme to defraud the people. Mr. Hoffner pleaded guilty to the charge and was bound over to the federal grand jury, which meets here on April 27; he was released on a $250 bond.

Mr. Hoffner is charged with having advertised a novel "get-rich-quick" scheme, selling instructions, which if followed by the purchaser, he stated would bring them in from $30 to $60 per week, for a small investment.

The scheme worked to obtain this easy money was charmingly simple, and if allowed to proceed would have resulted in an endless chain of "suckers" who would have been "stung" for large or small amounts. Who would have been the ultimate sufferer is hard to determine. Mr. Hoffner is probably only one of many who is said to work the trick.

Short circular letters were sent out, so it is alleged, reading something like this: "How I am making from $30 to $60 per week on an $8 investment! This is a brand new proposition, which I have just completed and has proven a great success. There is room for you in this field. It is a great money making proposition for the mail order men.

"Only spare time is needed, one to three hours each day, to do the work. This is your time. Your chances for success are better now than ever before because of the fact of the low parcel post and express rates which have gone into effect. I am enthusiastic over the business because I made a success of it and helped others to succeed. Full and complete instructions for 25 cents coin or stamps." The circular was signed with Mr. Hoffner's name and address. Those who sent their quarters received the "instructions" in circular form, telling them to send 25 cents to the Cope Advertising agency for a bunch of 100 names and addresses and mail out similar circulars with their own name attached, and they "would be surprised at the way the quarters would roll in."

Prices were quoted on the circular letters, 200 for 75 cents, 500 for a dollar, and a thousand for a $1.50.

Copies of the "instructions" were listed from lots of twelve for 50 cents to 1,000 for $6. Outfits of the circulars were made up to show the expense and profit of operating the business, following being an example: One thousand copies at $6; 2,000 names at $5; 2,000 circulars at $3; total cost $14. The 1,000 copies costing only $6 are sold at 25 cents each, bringing in $250, making the profit on the deal $236. -- Mankato Free Press.