printer must be a veritable wizard in writing letters, made him an
attractive offer to take charge of the advertising for the company's
Minnesota and Canada lands.

The man sold his business, accepted the position--and made a signal
failure. He appealed to the printers because he knew their
problems--the things that lost them money, the troubles that caused
them sleepless nights--and in a letter that bristled with shop talk
he went straight to the point, told how he could help them out of at
least one difficulty--and sold his product.

But when it came to selling western land he was out of his element.
He had never been a hundred miles away from his home town; he had
never owned a foot of real estate; "land hunger" was to him nothing
but a phrase; the opportunities of a "new country" were to him
academic arguments--they were not realities.

He lost his job. Discouraged but determined, he moved to Kansas
where he started a small paper--and began to study the real estate
business. One question was forever on his lips: "Why did you move
out here?" And to prospective purchasers, "Why do you want to buy
Kansas land? What attracts you?"

Month after month he asked these questions of pioneers and
immigrants. He wanted their viewpoint, the real motive that drove
them westward. Then he took in a partner, turned the paper over to
him and devoted his time to the real estate business. Today he is at
the head of a great land company and through his letters and his
advertising matter he has sold hundreds of thousands of acres to
people who have never seen the land. But he tells them the things