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or an event of local importance and weaves into it "human interest.". Attention is secured from the start, and the snap put into it makes people remember the ad and remember Miller when they want jewelry.

At other times the newspaper copy is illustrated with cuts of the special values offered, always, however, accompanied by descriptive text written in the characteristic Miller vein.

Street-car cards usually contain the squaredeal reference and invariably are given a humorous twist which forces the subject home in the mind of the reader. White cards, printed in black, are the only kind used, as Mr. Miller believes them to be the most effective. He says that fancy frills, either in advertising

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Annual sales of $1500 for every square foot of space is the record in this store.

Miller gives away an eye-glass cleaning cloth, measuring 4 by 6 inches, a practice which is quite common with opticians. Instead, however, of having on it a conventional ad stating the name of the store, its street address and the fact that glasses are made and repaired, the

Gilbert E. Miller.

or in the conduct of a store, have no place in a business where the owner is giving full value for the money paid out by the customer.

"Movie" advertising Mr. Miller considers one of the best means for securing publicity. The ads are read by 100 per cent of the people seeing them and at a time when they are in the most receptive mood. In addition to the ordinary slide method of advertising, animated cartoons, made especially for the purpose, are used to force home the Miller messages.

The wording on the black-and-white cards posted in the stores is intended to bring out the advantages of trading with Miller and the absolute assurance of the square deal accorded to each customer. Typographically artistic cards, 32x51⁄2 inches, are always at hand where they may be picked up by customers or

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Package inserts like these aid in keeping the Miller stores before the public.

Miller ad starts off: "You can wipe your nose on this if you want to-but don't send it to the laundry-come in and get another." According to Mr. Miller the ad causes a laugh, and, whenever there are glasses to be made or repaired, he gets the business.

As an inducement to keep customers coming his way, Mr. Miller offers, every Friday, a "special" of a piece of silver or cut glass at a

below-cost price.

The merchandise may be a berry spoon, a mustard jar, a pie-knife, a salt çellar or other useful article. Housewives who follow the sales are enabled in a year's time or so to get together a valuable collection of highgrade table ware at a price way below the market value. "There is often a big profit in selling at a loss" is a Miller aphorism, and he proves his statement by citing the fact that some of his best customers have been attracted to his store by the Friday "specials."

A feature much appreciated by persons who trade at Miller's is that the clerks are not "persuaders." They are instructed to show the goods called for, to explain them in detail, and to tell their merits, but not to force the goods on customers. If a patron does not find exactly what he wants, the clerk offers to obtain it if possible, but he does not importune the customer to buy.

The clerks are carefully schooled in regard to the conduct of the business by means of gettogether meetings held each Tuesday night. At these gatherings the entire force exchange ideas and make suggestions for the betterment

A NEW USE FOR AN OLD PRODUCT

of the store service. The first instruction given to a new clerk is "Explain it to them (the customers) so they will understand it as well as you do."

The telephone plays an important part in the Miller business, for, owing to the reputation for square dealing built up by Mr. Miller, much business is transacted over the wire. "I've sold everything from a five-cent collar button to a $500 diamond by means of the telephone," says Mr. Miller, "and in order to make it easy for customers to remember my number I besieged the telephone company until it gave me the hard-to-forget number of Main 1234."

Unlike many retail jewelers, Mr. Miller is strongly opposed to the instalment plan of selling jewelry. He says: "I sell only for cash because this is the one method by which the purchaser can be sure that he is not paying for the instalments some other fellow did not keep up. The buyer of a watch, a diamond, or anything else, at my stores is sure that he is receiving full value for every cent he spends— that's my idea of a square deal."

Nowadays it seems that every time we turn around we come face to face with the fact that we are a profligate nation.

The Almighty has been good to us. We live in the best country on the globe-best in all ways. Money has been easy to get, comparatively speaking, and we have lived thus far during our national career a sort of offhand, happy-go-lucky existence.

Ish kabibble!

But the war has given us a brief day of reckoning and at the same time sounded a note of warning. We get a startling glimpse of ourselves occasionally, as a monkey does when handed a mirror at the Central Park Zoo.

Scores of drugs are on the want list-and we can't get them. Concerning many of these products and preparations it might be said that it is a crime that we don't produce them.

We have been in the habit of importing even dandelion root from far-off Russia.

By LUTHER H. VANCE, B.S.

Paper prices have boomed. Why? Because we can't get old rags from Europe any more: that is one of the factors.

Don't we have old rags in America? Sure we do. We have them to burn.

RENNET ON THE "SHORT" LIST.

And now we learn that a short time ago the cheese factories of the country were facing a real crisis; so acute a crisis, in fact, that some of them shut down.

They couldn't get rennet.

"It is estimated," says a Bulletin issued by one of the really big institutions in the educational field, the University of Wisconsin-"It is estimated that nearly one and one-half millions calf stomachs, yielding about 100,000 gallons of rennet extract, are used each year by the 5000 or more cheese factories in the United States. The supply of 'rennets,' as these calf stomachs are called, has in the past

come largely from European countries, but due to the war this importation has been stopped. As a result, the supply of rennet extract is so reduced that it is difficult for any dealer or factory to obtain more than 10 gallons at a time, and frequently not more than one or two gallons."

The two leading American rennet factories are located at Madison, Wisconsin, and Little Falls, New York. They have been importing their calf stomachs from Europe, quite regardless of the fact that Wisconsin calves as well as New York calves have stomachs!

TWELVE CENTS FOR A STOMACH.

"For more than a year," the Bulletin tells us, "manufacturers in this country have made efforts to buy rennets wherever milk-fed calves are butchered, and have offered as high as 12 cents a piece for them when properly prepared.

As an inducement to get factory operators and patrons to aid in the collection of rennets, it may be necessary for extract makers to supply extract at market prices only to those factories which furnish rennets in good condition in exchange."

However, as bad as all this might indicate the situation to be, its chief value lies in the moral it points. In this case the calamity isn't a calamity at all, and for this reason: cheese factories are now using pepsin in the place of

rennet.

And fortunately, thanks to the enterprise of American manufacturers, our supply of pepsin is unlimited. We don't import from Europe

JUST PLAIN REMINISCENCES

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A COMMERCIAL SUCCESS.

Market tests have vindicated the pepsin cheese. Factories are buying pepsin, frequently in relatively large quantities, in the dairy districts of various States. Orders for 200 pounds are not uncommon.

One-fourth to two-thirds of an ounce of dry pepsin is required to thicken 1000 pounds of "ripened" milk for the manufacture of American and brick cheese. Swiss cheese requires more.

The pepsin should be weighed and dissolved in about twenty times its weight of warm water-water at about 105 degrees, Fahrenheit: hot water won't do. Undissolved pepsin, if any, should be strained out. The solution should then be added to a pailful of clean water, and this pailful stirred, in turn, into the milk in the vat. After adding the pepsin, the cheese-making is continued the same as it would have been had rennet been used.

Here's the moral for the druggist: why not seize the opportunity and sell pepsin to cheesemakers?

I worked for a druggist once, years ago, who had a lot of bottles of pineapple extract that he couldn't sell. He had two or three dozen bottles on hand, the retail price being 15 cents. He had me put these bottles in the sink, soak the labels off, and label them "Bicycle Oil, 25 cents." We put them out on the cigar case and sold every one of them!

Our store was located near the court house and he had quite a good whisky trade. County officials would come in and get their "morning's morning" with frequent regularity, rather

By M. K. BARBER

than to go into one of the thirst parlors. This druggist had a private brand that he made.

I never knew how he made it, because he mixed it up in his office with the door locked, but I know he used a syrup of some kind which he got in barrels labeled "Prune Juice," and that he also used alcohol and water. It seemed to be a very satisfactory booze, for it sold fine.

PADDING AN ACCOUNT.

There was a young fellow who worked in a printing office who traded with us regularly and who ran an account. He paid promptly

each month; but his mother, whom he supported, took sick, and the drug-store bill and doctor's bill put the young fellow to the bad so that his account got two or three months in

arrears.

Before he could catch up he got a good offer from a newspaper in another town. He came

and told "the boss" that he would send him a check out of his second month's pay and for the druggist to send him a statement, as he did not have time before leaving to have the account looked up.

I happened to be present when the boss made out and mailed this statement. He added some cigars, two bottles of Hood's Sarsaparilla and a few other articles, so that the account was nearly $10 instead of 5 or 6 dollars. And he got a check for it, too!

Contrary to the old adage that "honesty is the best policy," this man seemed to prosper, and eventually he sold out and retired; and the last I heard of him he was living in a beautiful home in a distant city, taking life easy and enjoying his ill-gotten gains.

A HELPING HAND.

Several years ago a young fellow came into my store one day and asked me very privately if I had any love powders. I thought at first he was joking, but upon questioning him I found that he was in earnest, and very much so. I told him that I had a formula that I could mix up for him that I believed would be all right and for him to come around in about an hour and I would fix him out.

I mixed up about two drachms of sugar of milk with a very little carmine—just enough to impart a slight pink color-and made it into a dozen powders, and when the young fellow came back I told him to give the backward lady one of these powders at least every third day until all were given.

I advised him that the best way to give them would be on candy, and not to give more than one powder a day, and to average not less than three a week. He said he had a good horse and buggy and that "she" liked candy, so he could work that all right.

I found out that he had been keeping company with this young lady, intermittently, for nearly two years, and that she "didn't seem to love him at all."

I also told him that these powders would do no good unless he had confidence in them and treated the girl nicely, even aggressively; that he must propose to her within a week after giving the last powder, and that he must let me know how he was getting along every other week.

I figured that the most of the trouble with him was that he was too bashful and that if he followed my directions he would likely get over it. I charged him only a dollar for my services.

He reported to me regularly, and at the allotted time came in and told me that he had proposed and had been accepted; and he was about the most pleased young man you ever saw in your life! They were married and, as far as I know, "lived happily ever after."

A BARREL OF SASSAFRAS!

Then there is the old barrel trick. I told about that in the columns of the BULLETIN once, I believe.

I took a common sugar barrel-a nice clean one-and put a false head in it about six inches below the top, first putting ten or fifteen bricks in the bottom. Then in the upper part I put sassafras bark, and tacked a sign on the side of the barrel and set it near the wrapping

counter.

This scheme sells sassafras bark, there is no dodging that!

There are tricks in all trades, not excepting ours!

Nevertheless, if a man is naturally honest he can be a conscientious druggist as well as any other kind of a business man can be conscientious; and if a man is a crook he has no right to be in the drug business, or any other kind of business-unless it is an enterprise conducted by the State; a place where everybody dresses alike, with nice broad stripes running horizontally across the clothes.

Money-makers and Money-savers.

Information as to where any of the articles mentioned in this department may be obtained will be furnished upon application. Address "Department of Money-makers," THE BULLETIN OF PHARMACY, Detroit, Mich.

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