Word: dimes
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Something of a nightmare to the big dairy companies, counter freezers do not dispense individual portions for a dime but they are supposed to permit a druggist to make his own ice cream at a considerable saving. No mixing is done in the store; the prepared "mix"' is bought from dairy companies. The dairy companies much prefer to sell not ''mix" but ice cream, in which the profit is bigger...
...Denver postmen began to grumble at the loads they were lugging. Postal receipts at the Denver Post Office for April climbed dizzily and more than 100 extra hands were called in for full-time service to help handle the swelling volume of first-class mail. An amazing number of dimes began to pop out of the stamp-canceling machines. Finally it was discovered that a "Send-a-Dime" chain letter was sweeping the city. Completely swamped, Postmaster James Orren Stevic called in postal inspectors to investigate the possibilities of stopping the scheme as fraudulent. "The thing is staggering...
Headed "Prosperity Club-In God We Trust," the chain letter contains six names. A recipient is supposed to mail a dime to the first name on the list, and that name is then scratched off. At the bottom of the list is added the name of the recipient, who then mails out five copies to gain new "Prosperity Club" members. He does not receive any dimes until after his letters have multiplied six times and his name has moved to the top of the list. Then if the chain is unbroken, he will receive no less than 15,625 dimes...
Last week, despite a score of arrests, the "Send-a-Dime" flood had spread to Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Spokane, Seattle, Nashville, New York and a dozen other cities. New ideas for cashing in on the scheme popped almost daily. One chain raised the ante to $1, another to $10. In Oklahoma recipients of chain letters were instructed to give a kiss to the person whose name was at the top "and surely he may find a true love among the 15,000-odd trading kisses." In Philadelphia, racketeers began hiring staffs to send out chain letters to "sucker...
...round-up of persons believed to have started the original "dime letter racket" as a modest swindle that ran away and quickly mushroomed into a craze, has been ordered by Federal authorities...