Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

I woke next morning with an idea in my skull. Personville had only some forty thousand inhabitants. It shouldn't be hard to spread news. Ten o'clock found me out spreading it.

I did my spreading in pool rooms, cigar stores, speakeasies, soft drink joints, and on street corners -- wherever I found a man or two loafing. My spreading technique was something like this: