The Times is calling attention to a practice which is
becoming a very serious nuisance. The promoters of new and doubtful Companies, besides advertising them in the usual ways, have begun to forward their prospectuses to all private houses above a certain class, till in some places the householders receive five or six prospectuses a day. People without the slightest know- ledge of business study them, get interested in their absurd promises, and end by investing a. small amount. Of course there is no remedy for such a practice, bid the Times is doing good in calling attention to it, and would do more if it would say out plainly that in the majority of cases such a method of advertising indicates that the adver- tisers are cheats. Any project which will certainly yield a profit above 5 per cent. will be taken up in the City in five minutes, and any project which will yield that, yet requires advertisement of the house-to-house kind, may be set' down at once as either excessively dangerous or a mere swindle. '
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