ld have portrayed the
chief incidents of the plot. But his triumph was momentary. Blank
ended his argument in a voice that left no doubt of his own faith in
the effectiveness of his logic. "And the firm is going to advertise it
like ----."

"Send me two hundred and fifty copies," said the customer.

The longer Mr. Green travelled the more convinced he became that the
old salesman knew his business. The argument of advertising carries
with it a certain persuasiveness that the customer cannot resist. Not
always does a liberal use of printer's ink land a book among the six
best sellers; but it does it so often that the rule is proved by the
exception. A publisher once made the statement, in the presence of a
number of men interested in the book-publishing business, that, by
advertising, he could sell twenty thousand copies of any book, no
matter how bad it was. The silence of the others indicated assent to
the doctrine. But one inquiring mind broke in with the question, "But
can you make a profit on it?"

"Ah! That is another question," answered the publisher.

And the ledgers of several publishers will show a loss, due to
excessive advertising, on books that loom large in public favor. The
author has reaped good royalties and the salesman has had no great
draft made upon his stock of persuasive argument.

It is under such circumstances that the traveller finds his work easy
and his burden light. Another condition under which he meets with less
resistance is in the instance of a second book by an author whose
first book has met with success. The bookseller is a wary, cautious
man; what illusions he once had have gone down the corridors of time
along with the many books that have not helped him. For reasons that
are not so inscrutable as they may seem to the enthusiastic salesman,
the bookseller is disinclined to order more than a few copies of a
first book by a new author. Perhaps the traveller has read the book
and is surcharged with enthusiasm; he talks eloquently and ably in
the book's behalf; he masses argument upon argument--and in the end
makes about as much impression as he would by shooting putty balls at
the Sphinx. Even though the salesman's enthusiasm may find its
justification in the reviewer's opinions and the beginning of a brisk
sale for the book all over the country, still the reluctant bookseller
broods moodily over the past and refuses to be stung again. But let
the book have a large sale and then l