needs, as well.

The window-trimmer must not make the mistake of thinking that the
showiest stocks are the most salable. The advertiser must not make the
mistake of thinking that the showiest words are the most clinching.

Windows are too few in number to be used with indiscretion. The good
merchant puts those goods back of his plate glass which nine people out
of ten will want, once they have seen them.

The good advertiser tells about goods which nine readers out of ten will
buy, if they can be convinced.

Newspaper space itself is only the window, just as the showcase is but a
frame for merchandise pictures. A window on a crowded street, in the
best neighborhood, where prosperous persons pass continually, is more
desirable, than one in a cheap, sparsely settled neighborhood. An
advertisement in a newspaper with the most readers and the most
_prosperous_ ones, possesses a great advantage over the same copy, in a
medium circulating among persons who possess less means. It would be
foolish for a shop to build its windows in an alley-way--and just as
much so to put its advertising into newspapers which are distributed
among "alley-dwellers."

How Alexander Untied the Knot

Alexander the Great was being shown the Gordian Knot. "It can't be
untied," they told him; "every man who tried to do so, failed."

But Alexander was not discouraged because the _rest_ had flunked. He
simply realized that he would have to go at it in a _different_ way. And
instead of wasting time with his _fingers_, he drew his sword and
_slashed_ it apart.

Every day a great business general is shown some knot which has proven
too much for his competitors, and he succeeds, because he finds a way to
_cut_ it. The fumbler has no show so long as there is a brother merchant
who doesn't waste time trying to accomplish the impossible--who takes
lessons from the _failures_ about him and avoids the methods which were
their downfall.

The knottiest problems in trade are:

1--The problem of location.

2--The problem of getting the crowds.

3--The problem of keeping the crowds.

4--The problem of minimizing fixed expenses.

5--The problem of creating a valuable good will.

None of these knots is going to be untied by fumbling fingers. They are
too complicated. They're all inextricably involved--so twisted and
entangled that they can't be solved singly--like the Gordian knot _they
must be cut through at one stroke_. And you c