The Sweetest Girl in Iowa (old ad)

4

4V50 Gary

Staff
This is an old ad reprinted in The Boys' 22. Here's the text of the ad:

The Sweetest Girl in Iowa Has a Real Shell Ejecting Rifle For You.

Send no money - Just your name and address so I can tell you how to get this rifle without it costing you a single penny of your money. All I want is one honest boy in each town to do a few minutes work for me which is very easy and pleasant. This is not a toy air gun, but a real steel Rifle with Fine Steel Rifled Barrel - Breech Loader - 1/2 Cock Lock - Pin Fire - Take Down - Shell Ejector - Triple Reinforced Breech - Patent Drop Breech Mechanism - Loaded at Safety Cock - Walnut Stock - V - Sights - Nearly 3 feet long. This is a brand new style Rifle and unequalled for target or small game. Be sure and write today for free particulars.

May Wauters, 238 Tenth St., Des Moines, Iowa
Click to expand...

OK, so what did an innocent and honest boy have to do for sweet May Wauters? Did he have to sell something door to door and if so, what was it?

There's another ad that offers a free 22 rifle. The boy had to sell 30 packages of Bluine at ten cents a package.

Update: It was flower seeds. I found Miss May Wauters' ad (online via Goggle Books) in The Floral Magazine.
 
My, how things have changed. Nowadays, no periodical with a competent editorial board (or legal department) would dream of running such an ad.

And Miss May would likely have been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor or somesuch.
 
Before there was Fast n' Furious

There was Miss May. :D

Hotel Fort Des Moines now stands at 238 Tenth Street, Des Moines, Iowa.
 
I learned that the ad was published in the October 1906 issue of Floral Magazine. I found the magazine at Goggle Books. I don't recognize the gun but will look into it at the library.
 
The cheapest .22 i could find in old catalogs is a Flobert -Remington action rifle priced at $2.25
That is an old Montgomery Wards from 1895.
The same catalog prices an 1890 Winchester Factory price $16.00 and our price $9.72! That is all models.
An added note below the Model '90; :rolleyes:
"Testing Guns For Accuracy"
In testing guns for accuracy, sit down when firing, resting the muzzle on some solid object, and if possible securing a solid rest for the arms and body.
In this way extreme accuracy can be obtained-sufficient for testing of the gun.
Do not in any case attempt to get accuracy by screwing the gun in a vice. No reliable results can be had in this way.
Click to expand...
The cheep air rifles start at $0.85 (The Chicago air rifle)
The pellets are advertized as Slugs in the old catalogs.
 
Wayne in FL - I checked out the Hamilton Model 27. That's not the same as in the illustration. That doesn't mean that dear sweet May didn't send the boys the Hamilton. I'll have to compare the image of the gun with some books in the library.
 
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