The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-09-14

authors seems justified, it is true.
Some of these authors indulge in a
sort of delirious ecstasy over the
heroine's hand, and would use up
eight or ten pages describing it.
By the time one has become thoroly
convinced that said hand was
the most perfect discovered to date,
the thread of the tale is forgotten.
In novels written by English
speaking authors the action turnout
is sufficiently rapid to crafty the
tastes of the most ardent speed
maniacs. There is no real pleas
ure in merely "glancing" at book.
1t is either good enough to read
from cover to cover, or else poor
enough TO be consigned to the waste
paper basket.
One of the professions not yet
overcrowded is that of the mail
order catalog writer. The work is
lucrative. ordinary positions paying
from 500 to $500 monthly, accord
ing to the range of the writer's
knowledge of merchandise.
The specially catalog man who
confines his work to one line, as
furniture, jewelry, drygoods, etc.,
is generally found in the big whole
sale houses in charge of their adver-
Using departments. Then there
are the catalog writer's who work for
manufacturers of machinery. These
require technical knowledge and
are paid excellent salaries. The
work is of course very tedious and
admits of little or no divergence
from certain specifications.
The king of catalog writer's Is the
mail-order man. He requires a
good working knowledge OF practi-
cally every line of merchandise made.
He must also be thoroly familiar
with the operating end of the print
ing business. 1t is his job not only
to prepare for the printer a we'll.
balanced LAY out" sheet, but when
the style and size of various type
are set" by the compesitors, the
assembled matter, including many
engravings, or cuts" most of them
mortised at all angles, must fit the
page just as shown in the lay OUT
sheet. A few lines too much mat
ter might necessitate the elimination
of an important paragraph. And
these changes in catalog construc-
ton are what swell the final cost of
the completed book.
The mail-order writer must pos
sess the ability to describe an ar
ticle of merchandise in terse phrases,
which at the same time must enable
the reader to form a quick and
favorable mental picture of the arti-
Gle. AS every page contains head
line, and frequently number of
sub heads, considerable ingenuity Is
required to coin four, five, and SIX
word phrases that embody the main
attractive feature of the various
articles for sale.
There are probably not over
one hundred mail-order catalog
writer's in the country: that is, men
who possess not only the knowledge
Of various lines of merchandise, but
also the ability to describe their
merits in smooth but forceful phras-
es.
Most of the big" catalog men
worked their way to the top either
by the trade newspaper-journal
route, or by understudy work in a
big mail house.
The work never grows monoto-
nous as one must necessarily learn
new lines just as quickly as they
enter the house.
The word impossible" is seldom
used now .a-days. Men have come
to realize that the imposslbility of
to-day becomes the accomplishment
Of tomorrow.
Twenty years ago engineers still
believed the Panama Canal could
L II i.