t they
will purchase the car. Having decided upon the tires, however, they can be
asked to decide upon other minor points, including the terms upon which
they intend to pay for the car, and thus eventually go through the entire
process of purchasing the car without ever giving their delicate mental
mechanism the severe shock and strain of deciding to purchase it at all.
As a general rule, such people are surprised and delighted to find that
they have made the decision so easily and with so little pain and
distress.

But this method will not work with all people. There are some natures so
positive, so aggressive, so fond of taking the initiative, so determined
to make their own decisions without interference that the wise salesman or
persuader apparently permits them to have their own way, at the same time
skilfully guiding them in the way he wishes them to go by means of
indirect suggestion.

INDUCING A POSITIVE NATURE TO PERSUADE HIMSELF

The story is told of an old-time, domineering railroad official, formerly
an army colonel, a great lover of horses, who was intensely prejudiced
against the automobile. During the days when carriages were favorite
conveyances of the wealthy, this man kept a magnificent stable and boasted
that no driver ever passed him on the road. With the coming in of
automobiles, he became accustomed to seeing the gasoline-drinking machines
flash by. They came up behind him with a honk. They rushed by with a roar
and they disappeared in the distance in a cloud of dust. He saw the
chauffeurs gripping their steering wheels and glaring intensely along the
road.

"Humph!" he scorned, "those fellows work harder than an engineer for their
rattlety-bang speed. I had rather sit back and get some pleasure out of
riding, as I do behind my bays."

Then one morning he noticed a car slip by him slowly, noiselessly, easily,
and with so little evidence of effort that the old man felt that by urging
his horses to just a little faster pace he might have kept ahead. The next
morning, the same thing happened again. It was the same car, and this time
the old man tightened his reins a little and sent his horses speeding
ahead. At first he gained a little on the car, but eventually it pulled
slowly and easily away from him. The third morning, there was another
little brush of speed on the boulevard. By this time the old railroad man
had noticed how luxurious the car was, how smoothly it rolled, how deeply
uph