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HEART INTEREST IN 



WINTER WINDOWS 



In these intensely practical times the appeal to sentiment is stronger 

 than ever before. Consequently, store-keepers in all lines of business are 

 capitalizing sentiment, although few of them have merchandise which 

 lends itself to the work as readily as do plants and cut flowers. 



AKING our cue from the 



T"sob sister" now on the 

 staff of every daily news- 

 paper, we will find a ready 

 connection between heart 

 interest and the private 

 purse — an appeal to one 

 will open the other. At 

 ^=^=^^ least so it has been found 

 by florists who have adopt- 

 ed tlie plan described here as the work 

 of John E. Stelzig, of Belief ontaine, 0. 

 Mr. Stelzig says his sales never were 

 better for the time the "sentimental" 

 window was on and that no other dis- 

 play has so clung in the memories of 

 those who saw it. 



The idea of the Stelzig 

 window was to picture 

 two i)oorly clad but not 

 unhappy children, a boy 

 and a girl, who stop, in 

 passing down the street, 

 to look in at the beauti- 

 ful plants and flowers in 

 the window of the warm, 

 comfortable home of 

 more fortunate children. 

 To got a better view they 

 climb upon the gate. 



How It Was Done. 



It was a night scene, 

 so planned to bring the 

 special features into 

 higher relief. The mate- 

 rial used was all full size 

 and much care was exer- 

 cised to see that the per- 

 spective was correct. 



The store window is 

 "fty-two inches wide and 

 a platform was built in 

 It 6x9 feet. The iron 

 posts ;ind the gate were 

 set thirty inches from 

 |np ylass, the brick- 

 lookiujr wall of the house 

 ^J 8 i^ thirty-six inches 

 noni the gate and the 

 ■■far nail of the room, 

 ^een through the win- 

 "'^^■. was forty -two 

 >"^>ios farther back. This 

 ^^"I'led space for the 

 l*,'^"-, cut flowers and 

 ^-"•■'^'tmas tree which 

 ^P'''^ shown on different 

 J»y^- The "children" 



er(. of sphagnum moss, 

 <^aref nily fiHed into 

 ™>0'' suits and then 



J^ll the details were 

 ^^te-uled to with much 



care, as the success of such a display 

 depends on the perfection of the little 

 points. 



Many hundreds of persons viewed the 

 Stelzig window daily, for it was shown 

 when the weather was cold and stormy 

 and the conditions favorable to giving 

 the public the same point of view as the 

 "children" in the picture. 



To Keep the Glass Clear. 



One of the troubles at this season, 

 whether one has a heart-interest display 

 or merely uses the window for the stor- 

 age of cut flowers, is that steam forms 

 on the window when the water vapor in 

 the warm atmosphere of .the store comes 



How an Ohio Florist Pulled the Heart Strings. 



in contact with the cold glass. As the 

 flower store has an unusually moist at- 

 mosphere, its windows are the more lia- 

 ble to be coated with frost, particularly 

 in the coldest weather. Layer after 

 layer of moisture freezes to the pane, so 

 that the lower part sometimes becomes 

 covered with ice on the days when the 

 mercury is registering its minimum for 

 the year. 



These are just the days when the flo- 

 rist is most desirous of making an at- 

 tractive display, to suggest to those who 

 may see it that they brighten up their 

 homes with flowers and plants. He can 

 afford the least of all storemen to have 

 his windows obscured at this season. 



Heat in the front of 

 the store does little or 

 no good. In the old days, 

 the burning of gas-jets 

 in the window cleared 

 only a circle within a 

 few inches of the flame. 



Closed-in Windows. 



If one could construct 

 a double window it 

 would solve the diflicul- 

 ty. This is formed of 

 two panes of glass, with 

 an air chamber of about 

 one-half inch in thick- 

 ness between — similar in 

 design to the doors of 

 florists' refrigerators. 

 These are said to be ab- 

 solutely frost-proof, but 

 they are expensive if one 

 has large window space. 

 They are, also, bound 

 to become dirty in time, 

 oven if they are as air- 

 tight as can be made. 



It seems that the closed- 

 in window, that is, the 

 one with the display 

 space shut off by a parti- 

 tion from the rest of the 

 store, is the one that is 

 most easily frosted. The 

 reason for this is obvi- 

 ous. Watering of plants, 

 the presence of vases 

 filled with water, etc., 

 make the atmosphere in 

 the window more moist 

 than that in any other 

 part of the store. If 

 this moisture-laden air is 

 shut off from the rest of 

 the store, steam and 

 frost will surely form on 

 the glass whenever it is 

 much colder than the air. 



