THE “SAMPLE” CRAZE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4936, 8 February 1926, Page 2

THE “SAMPLE” CRAZE.

THE “SAMPLE” CRAZE.

HOW ONE FIRM “ FELL IN.”

A Christchurch business concern which had been full of enthusiasm and energy, is feeljng discouraged, and with reason, too. It is all very well for Fortune to slip over a halfNelson occasionally, but the stranglehold is barred in the best catch-as-catch-can circles, and in this, instance Fortune has not stuck to the rules.

The firm scented business in the Offing, 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 in due course, made inquiries, and found that the address he sought was some miles out of t,he town. But enthusiasm spurred him on, and, bearing catalogues galore, he tramped it to his final, destination.

The outlook, on arrival, looked unpromising. He gazed upon a shack, a broken-down, decrepit affair of rusted ebrrugated iron and faded and split woodwork. A scraggy individual with a discouraged growth of straggling whisker answered .his knock.

“N(\ I never sent for no catalogues,” said the householder, in answer to. an inquiry. “Th.at’ll be my boy, Alec. He collects ’em. Come on in, and I’ll show you a box full, of ’em.” The collecting craze has swept the country, and. cigarette pictures, chocolate cards, and blood alleys are flooding the homesi. 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 woud have dropped him in the nearest pond, but Alec was absent. He was. away collecting the postal math that operation having been a source of positive pleasure and interest since he had entered into the catalogue business.