ABSTRACT
Reference has been made to what might possibly have been achieved, in an advertising way, had our office been the owner of some trademarked commodity or proprietary article, having an established demand throughout the country, that might be stimulated and increased by advertising, whenever and wherever profitable contracts could be placed, or space that was in danger of going to waste could be bought at bargain prices. Some such idea was always in mind. The proprietary article that is managed with greatest ease, when the demand for it is once firmly established, is a patent medicine. The cost of production is generally small, the percentage of profit consequently large, the methods of distribution are perfected, and a demand, once established based upon merit, will continue to some extent as long as children live who can remember hearing mothers commend the article, or having seen it used, or participated in such use. I early thought I saw advantages that would accrue from the ownership and control of such an article, but the question was how to get possession of one. Those that were well established were not for sale; such as had moderate prospects were held at speculative values—probably far beyond their real worth—furthermore we had no large capital at liberty for sequestration in the way of such a purchase. We might buy some deserving article that had not been pushed far enough to become an established success ; we might acquire an interest in a promising one, by purchase; or we might get up one of our own, and begin at the foundation, as had been the method pursued by most people who had made successes of this kind.
