, 1906-11-03
A SENSIBLE
MERCHANT
OUTLINES THE DUTY OF THAT
CLASS OF CITIZENS TO THE
LOCAL NEWSPAPERS.
Interesting Address by Merchant OF
Storm Lake a. Mcet,ng Of Corn
Self Editorial Association-Mer-
chants Should Advertise and Take
The Home Papers Too.

In a paper read by A. NJ. Foster OF
Storm Lake, Ia, at the meeting OF the
Corn Belt Editorial association at
Storm Lake, last August, on Home
Merchants, Their Duty to the Home
Paper as Described by One of Them"
occurs the following, among other good
things, as applicable in Laramie as at
Storm Lake or anywhere else in the
world:
She Became Subscriber.
"If you will pardon me for a personal
illustration, this is what | mean, par
TALLY at least, by good will. Last fall
for the first time we devoted our store
basement exclusively TO Christmas
toys and novelties. We advertised the
fact generally in the local papers, but
one day | saw n of our regular Gus
toners coming in with a lot of toys.
| asked her if she could not find what
she wanted in III toy department.
Why she said, have you a toy de-
partment? Where is it?' | asked her
if she did not see our ad. in the papers,
and she said she did not take any pa
pers. l said TO her: My good lady, if
L were you the first thing | would do
would be to go over and subscribe for
one and then req the ads. You will
save your subscription many times ov-
err And the best Of it is she sub
scribed.
Duty of the Merchant.
Another duty the merchant owes the
local paper is his patronage. 1t has
been said by those who have watched
the order of events that no merchant
can succeed without advertising in one
way or another, Inc up to this day and
age of the world no medium mas been
found SO satisfactory as the newspaper
to convey information to the public.
The Man Behind the AID.
81 firmly believe that if a place is
good enough for a man to live in and
to make his money in it is good enough
for him to spend his money in, be he
an editor, merchant, farmer or any,
body else. Some merchants have told
me they don't believe people read their
ads, for they don't see that they get
any benefit. Well, suppose for the
sake of argument people don't read
some ads. Whose fault is 1.-THE news.
papers? Not much. 1t is the man be,
hind the ad.
Attracting Favorable Notice.
ut is a rare exception for the public
not to read anything that is interesting.
Perhaps we ought to dress up our
ads. a little. For example, fifty men
can go down u streets on a hot day
in their shirt sleeves and you would
hardly notice them, but let just one
man go down dressed in the height
Of fashion, and I'll tell you everybody
will sit up and take notice. Why? Be.
cause there is something about him
that attracts. That is what We ought
to do-dress up our ads. and make them
attractive.
Old story APPLY RetoId.
1t doesn't take so much, after all, to
attract. Just let a man take a rope
and commence to holler, Hang him.
and he will soon have some one inter.
ested. And I am quite sure the editors
will let the merchant holler through
the columns of their papers if they get
paid for it. Once in a while we get 1t
on them so We get a little free adver-
Using. For instance, the Smith Manu-.
featuring company was going to open a