unt we can easily calculate the percentage of profit he generally
makes. There are cases where men who started as petty dealers have,
after a few years, become millionaires.

To show the importance of advertising I cite the well-known sanitary
drink which is a substitute for tea and coffee, and which by extensive
advertising in almost every paper published in every country has now
become a favorite beverage. The proprietor is now a multi-millionaire
and I am told that he spends more than a million dollars a year in
advertising.

Another thing inseparable from American business is the telephone. A
telephone is a part of every well-appointed house, every partner's desk
is provided with a telephone, through which he talks to his clients and
transacts business with them. In all official departments in
Washington scores of telephones are provided; even the secretary of the
department and the chief of the bureau give orders by telephone. It
goes without saying that this means of communication is also found in
the home of almost every well-to-do family. The invention of a
telephone is a great blessing to mankind; it enables friends to talk to
each other at a distance without the trouble of calling.[1]
Sweethearts can exchange their sweet nothings, and even proposals of
marriage have been made and accepted through the telephone. However,
one is subjected to frequent annoyances from wrong connections at the
Central Office, and sometimes grave errors are made. Once, through a
serious blunder, or a mischievous joke, I lost a dinner in my Legation
in Washington. My valet received a telephone message from a lady
friend inviting me to dine at her house. I gladly accepted the
invitation, and at the appointed time drove to her home, only to find
that there was no dinner-party on, and that I should have to go hungry.

With some trades, in order to create a new market, commercial
travellers or "drummers" give their goods away for nothing. Experience
has proved that what they lose at the start they recover in the course
of time, receiving in addition triple or tenfold more business than the
cost of the original outlay. These commercial agents travel through
all sections of the country to solicit business; they call upon those
who can give them orders; they look up those who are engaged in similar
businesses to their own, and, if they are retailers, they invite their
orders, or ask them to become sub-agents. These gentlemen