offered double the salary to take charge of the publicity department
of a mail-order clothing house. He agreed to accept--two months
later. Reluctantly the firm consented.

The firm saw or heard nothing from him until he reported for work.
He had been shrewd enough not to make the mistake of the printer who
tried to sell land and so he went to a small town in northern Iowa
where a relative owned a clothing store and started in as a clerk.
After a month he jumped to another store in southern Minnesota. At
each place--typical country towns--he studied the trade and when not
waiting on customers busied himself near some other clerk so he
could hear the conversation, find out the things the farmers and
small town men looked for in clothes and learn the talking points
that actually sell the goods.

This man who had a position paying $6,000 a year waiting for him
spent two months at $9 a week preparing to write. A more conceited
chap would have called it a waste of time, but this man thought that
he could well afford to spend eight weeks and sacrifice nearly a
thousand dollars learning to write letters and advertisements that
would sell clothes by mail.

At the end of the year he was given a raise that more than made up
his loss. Nor is he content, for every year he spends a few weeks
behind the counter in some small town, getting the viewpoint of the
people with whom he deals, finding a point of contact, getting local
color and becoming familiar with the manner of speech and the
arguments that will get orders.

When he sits down to write a letter or an advertisement he has a