24 PETER HENDERSON. 



t 



ten years, he personally wrote and prepared all the 



matter for the plant catalogues, and after the seed de- 

 partment had been added, he also wrote the important 

 portions of it for many years. He had the rare gift of 

 being terse, and at the same time, comprehensive and 

 interesting in his description of the articles he had to 

 offer. His newspaper and magazine advertising also 

 exemplified his wonderful versatility. Not only did 

 he show great skill in the wording of advertisements, 

 but in their mechanical appearance they were always 

 bold and original, and in their results nearly always 

 successful. It is believed that the use of a heavy black 

 border, which so often surrounded or enclosed his adver- 

 tisements, originated with him many years ago. For 

 effectiveness in arre::ting the reader's attention, it has 

 seldom been surpassed by any advertising device. It must 

 be admitted that it never added beauty to an advertise- 

 ment ; and it is also only fair to say that it worried for years 

 many publishers who fluctuated between a laudable 

 desire to have the advertisement in their papers, and a 

 violation of their aesthetic tendencies. 



The use of a fac-simile of an advertiser's autograph, 

 he always considered a most effective addition to an ad- 

 vertisement, when it could be brought in. In his own 

 practice his written signature was always largely used. 

 This idea was a borrowed one, he first noticing Joseph 

 Gillott's pens advertised in that way years before he 

 ever supposed that he should become a great advertiser 

 himself. 



There are few pursuits in which the business depart- 

 ments are more weighted with detail, anxiety, or vexa- 

 tious annoyances, than the occupations in which Peter 

 Henderson loomed up supreme. It was always the rule 

 of his life to attack first whatever work was the most 

 difficult or disagreeable. Exasperating details that others 

 would shirk he would take hold of and patiently and 

 thoroughly carry to completion. In his business, as in 

 other work, he was even in his last days as eager and en- 

 thusiastic as a man of twenty-five. The optimistic spirit 



