There are dozens of ways in which a crowd can be prepared for this
influence and by which it can be maintained. Take the pretended money
deception. That operates along this line. I used to carry a lot of dummy
stacks of coin money.
They were put up to resemble piles of silver dollars and five and ten
and twenty-dollar gold pieces, and looked like stacks of real money. To
all appearance I would have thousands and thousands of dollars stacked
up in front of me in the carriage, and I found that its presence helped
me out wonderfully in holding and magnetizing a crowd. They would stand
around, gazing at this money and wanting to see what I was going to do
with it, until they forgot all about it in their interest in something
else. But all the same I had started their expectant attention, and by
and by they were ready to see the green cheese in the moon. With such an
evidence of wealth in sight they were ready to believe in the value of
almost anything I presented.
I also used an imitation of paper money with the same effect.
When I got fairly in the swing of “giving away” goods I would say:
“Don’t imagine, gentlemen, that I am traveling simply for personal
profit made now and at your expense. I am introducing these goods.
That’s all there is to it. The firm I am with represents millions, and I
have all the money of my own that I know what to do with. I don’t need
yours. You can see for yourselves my very clothes are lined with it.”
Then I would pull out bundles of this green paper from every pocket,
piling them on the table in front of me, and perhaps seeming to light a
cigar with a ten or twenty-dollar bill.
This particular time I sold jewelry packages and after giving some kind
of an interlude I would say to the crowd:
“Now, gentlemen, I have traveled over every state and territory in this
glorious union, and in all foreign lands; I am known the world over as
whole-souled, honest, liberal Jim, the man who gives goods away. I am
going to show you tonight that I deserve the title. You’ve done
considerable for me; I’m going to do something for you.
“Here is a genuine, black kid purse with fourteen rivets. It would cost
you in the regular way fifty-five cents. Here are a pair of patent lever
collar buttons, that should cost you at least half a dollar. I’ll just
drop them into the little pocket book. Here I have a beautiful wedding
ring, warranted solid brass. You’ll notice I don’t make
misrepresentations. We’ll say that this wedding ring is worth a nickel,
and drop it also into the purse, like this. Then, we’ll go right down
here and get a pair of these beautiful, agate setting cuff buttons, that
any jeweler in the world would charge you a great big dollar for. We’ll
drop them into the little purse and call the whole outfit two dollars.
Don’t forget. They are a fortune in themselves, magnetic and diretic,
and can be used internally, externally, eternally and ever-lastingly.
“Does any one want them for two dollars?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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