My friends called one after another, to congratulate me on the beautiful appearance of my paper, and to predict, for my encouragement, its widely extended popularity.  I believed all they said, and more.  But for all this, by the time the second number made its appearance, my list had only increased one hundred.  Still, on reflection, this appeared very good, for at the rate of a hundred a week, I would have five thousand in a year.

“Why don’t you employ canvassers?” inquired one.  “There are hundreds in the city who will take the paper if it is only presented to them.”

Acting on this hint, I 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 having kept on printing three thousand copies, under the belief that the list must go up to that.