Argosy All-Story Weekly

This issue of Argosy-Allstory (July 25, 1925) contains the opening installment of "The Motto Man" by Perley Poore Sheehan, a story about a con artist hymnal salesman. The scoundrel, operating under aliases including "Skyblue" and "the Bishop," successfully sells defective hymnals (with misprints and pages printed upside-down) to a young minister at a seminary in Millville. When the minister cannot cash the check immediately due to a local holiday, the salesman accepts an invitation to the Millville Female Seminary's graduation exercises, calculating he can cash the check elsewhere. The tale introduces the salesman's modus operandi—manipulating church officials through flattery and pious sentiment while concealing fraudulent goods. The story emphasizes the contrast between the salesman's respectable appearance (white beard, gold spectacles, dignified manner) and his actual predatory nature.