224 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



May, 1914 



"To business that we love we rise betime 

 And go to 't with delight." — Antony and Cleopatra. 



CROWDS AGAIN 



A FEW days ago a gentleman from Califor- 

 nia visited us in Garden City. He said 

 that he read one of the advertisements of 

 " Crowds" inserted by Mr. Howard Kehler in a 

 Chicago newspaper, as we have frequently told, 

 at his own expense, spending his money for the 

 pleasure of introducing Mr. Gerald Stanley 

 Lee's book to new readers. Our visitor, for 

 the moment out of business and recovering 

 from a long illness, read the book at first with 

 indifference, but as he went along with increas- 

 ing eagerness. He read it a second time, and 

 then took it to pieces and had certain sections 

 typewritten, and made his own edition of 

 "Crowds." Finally he decided to emulate 

 Mr. Kehler's example and introduce the book 

 to all the people in San Francisco (there are 

 a dozen or so disinterested business men now 

 spending their brains and money to sell 

 "Crowds" in various sections of the country); 

 and to begin with he had a card printed read- 

 ing as follows: 



I Don't Know You And You Dont Know Me 

 But Read 



CROWDS" 



and learn how YOU can become a Millionaire if 

 you are not already one. If "Crowds" does not 

 help you to be more successful, there's something 

 wrong somewhere. 



Gerald Stanley Lee is the author of this book, and Doubleday, 

 Page & Co. are the publishers. Neither of these know of 

 this method I am employing in trying to help my fellowman 

 to "see things" which WILL help him. Ask your bookseller 

 for a copy. 



A BUSINESS MAN 



Pass this along to some other good fellow like yourself. 



These he sent to every one he knew, and 

 handed them to his friends, when opportunity 

 offered, like a travelling missionary. His 

 success was spasmodic; some were interested, 

 others were not, but one intimate friend in 

 particular he could not get even to look at the 

 book — he had no time to read, and the book 

 was too solid anyhow, etc., etc. 



One day the "Crowds" admirer was going 

 to the dentist, and when leaving the room he 

 said to his friend, "There is something in that 

 book 'Crowds' about you, Bill!" 



" Show it to me," said the doubting Bill. 



"Find it yourself." And off he went to the 

 dentist. 



Just as the first filling was being finished, 

 the telephone bell rang, and Bill's voice came 

 over the 'phone asking, "Where can I get 

 some copies of 'Crowds?' " He had discovered 

 his double in the book and was absorbing the 

 ideas in great gulps. 



Next day the bookseller told our visitor 

 that Bill had bought fifty copies and was giv- 

 ing them away like mad. 



This sort of thing has happened in scores of 

 cases, and still " Crowds," after many months, 

 remains the "best-selling" non-fiction book. 



KIPLING SIGNED SETS 



During May two more volumes of The 

 Seven Seas Edition will be published, includ- 

 ing "Plain Tales From the Hills," which is 

 signed by Mr. Kipling's own pen. The sheets 

 had to be prepared long in advance and sent to 

 Mr. Kipling's home in Burwash, England— 

 1050 copies of them. These he signed in ink 

 and returned to Garden City, where they were 

 bound and will be delivered this month to sub- 

 scribers. Future generations will value this 

 set. What would one now give for a set of 

 Eliot, or Dickens, or Thackeray, or Scott, 

 signed by the author — a definitive edition? 



THE PARCEL POST 



It took the United States Government one 

 year and two and a half months to decide to 

 permit books to come under Parcel Post rates. 

 A two-gallon silk hat, bulky but light, could 

 be put in the mail more than a year ago, but 

 a compact book, even were it a very spouting 

 fountain of wisdom, was ruled out. However, 

 all these things are past, and now we are 

 making up for lost time. Several men in 

 Garden City are spending all the day in "rout- 

 ing parcel post" packages, and our direct sales 

 to friends out of reach of bookstores are in- 

 creasing by "leaps and bounds." 



It may take a long time to inculcate the 

 habit, but we ask our readers, the next time 

 you see a book mentioned as being published 

 by Doubleday, Page & Co. to reach for a postal 

 card, cut the notice out, mark the advertise- 

 ment, or otherwise let us know that you'd 

 like to see this book. 



If you are like most people, you will think of 

 many books you wish you had ordered when 

 your mind was on the subject. We do not wish 

 to interfere with the trade of the bookseller; 

 we wish that every locality in the United States 

 had a good bookseller; our suggestion is ad- 

 dressed to readers who don't go to bookstores 

 or have no bookstores to go to. Doubleday, 

 Page & Co. catalogues for the asking. 



This is the space occupied by ten thousand HARVESTER. 

 A printing of twenty-five times this size: i.e., 250,000 copies, 

 has been completed and 100,000 more are coming through 

 now. 



EXCUSE US 



if we reprint this cut from last month. It is 

 a picture of 10,000 copies of the new and 

 cheaper edition of Mrs. Gene Stratton-Por- 

 ter's book, "The Harvester." The first 

 edition, completed in March, was twenty- 

 five of these piles — 250,000 copies. We are 

 just finishing up a second edition of ten more 

 of these piles — 100,000 copies — 350,000 

 copies printed and bound in March and 

 April, to say nothing of many thousand 

 copies of "Freckles," "A Girl of the Limber- 

 lost," and "Laddie," the latest book of all 

 and always a "Best-Seller." 



