advertised for men to solicit subscribers. Five
of those who applied were chosen and distributed through five different
sections of the city. I agreed to pay fifty cents for every good
subscriber obtained. This was, of course, a pretty heavy drawback upon
my expected income, but then it was admitted on all hands that a
subscriber was worth fifty cents, as after he was once obtained he
would doubtless remain a subscriber for years.

At the close of the first day my men brought in an average of ten
subscribers each. The agreement was, that I was to pay them twenty-five
cents on the name of a new subscriber being handed in, and the
remaining twenty-five cents when the subscription due at the expiration
of the first three months was collected. So I had twelve dollars and a
half cash, to pay down. But then my list was increased to the extent of
fifty names. The average of new subscribers from my agents continued
for a couple of weeks, and then fell off sensibly. By the end of two
months, my canvassers left the field, some of them sick of the
business, and others tempted by more promising inducements.

Many of the country papers noticed my "Gazette and Reflex" in the most
flattering manner, and not a few of them copied my prospectus. This had
the effect to bring me in a few hundred subscribers by mail, with the
cash, in a large number of cases in advance. About one-third, however,
promised to remit early.

At the end of three months, according to promise, I was to pay my
printer and paper maker. Up to that time my cash receipts had been
three hundred dollars, but every cent was gone. My clerk had to be paid
seven dollars a week regularly, and a mail and errand boy, three
dollars. Advertising had cost me twenty-five dollars; account and
subscription books as much more; and I had paid over fifty dollars to
my agents for getting subscribers. Besides, there had been a dozen
little et ceteras of expense, not before taken into calculation.
Moreover, out of this three hundred dollars of income I had my own
personal expenses to pay.

In the thirteenth number of my paper, I gave notice that the three
months having expired, all subscriptions were due for the year
according to the terms, and called upon subscribers "to step to the
captain's office and settle." There were of unpaid subscribers now upon
my books the number of five hundred and forty, and my debt to printer
and paper maker was exactly nine hundred and eighty dollars, I