ng of them provides employment for hundreds of printers. As time
goes on, more and more business is annually transacted by mail. The
country is so tremendous and the expense of sending out salesmen to
cover it so great that merchants now do much of their selling from
mail-order catalogues. Many of these books are very attractive, too. A
careful reproduction of the object for sale is made and the photograph
sent broadcast to speak for itself. Jewelry firms issue tempting lists
of their wares; china and glass dealers try to secure buyers by offering
alluring pages of pictures, many of them in color; dry goods houses send
out photographs of suits, hats, and clothing of all sorts. You have seen
scores of such books and know how they are indexed and priced. In fact,
there are commercial firms whose mail-order department is a business in
itself, catalogues entirely supplanting salesmen. It is a much cheaper,
wider-reaching means of selling, and often the results are quite as good
as are the more old-fashioned methods. Now that artistic cuts can be
reproduced with comparatively little expense this means of advertising
is becoming more and more popular. Many charities annually make their
appeal for funds by leaflet or card; stocks are offered to customers;
your patronage to theaters, entertainments, and hotels is thus
solicited. The combination of low postage rates and wide mail
distribution is accountable for an almost overwhelming amount of printed
business being transacted. Then, too, the mail is a great time-saver, or
should be, an advantage to be considered in our busy, work-a-day world."

"But people don't read half the stuff they get through the mails," said
Paul.

"No, of course not. If they did, they would do little else," smiled his
father. "Nevertheless, they glance at it and now and then, as their eye
travels over it, an item on the page catches their fancy. Any artistic
advertisement will usually command attention; so will the receipt of
some trifling article that is pretty or novel. Besides, it is chiefly
the rushed city person who tosses the advertisement away unread. Those
with more leisure, country people, perhaps, who receive little mail,
usually read every word of the printed matter that reaches them. They do
not have so many diversions as we do, and this printed stuff entertains
them and keeps them in touch with the cities. Therefore they generally
go over what is sent them quite carefully. Frequently they a