ADVERTISING
333
classes is a waste of money, for they have
neither the means nor the desire to indulge in
such extravagances. Very naturally the great
demand among these people, as it is among
persons of this class elsewhere, is for the neces
sities of life—cotton goods, textiles, patent
medicines, shoes, farming implements, hard
ware, machinery, tools and the like. These
are the things required by the farmer and the
laborer who make up the greater proportion
of the world’s population, and perhaps the
very best way to reach them is through the in
fluence of the middle man, the jobber and the
local storekeeper. Of these three, the village
merchant is by far the most important with
the masses. He is always a man of standing
in his community. He is invariably respected
and looked up to. His word among many
amounts to law—his judgment final. He is
the moneyed man of the neighborhood. He
carries the peons on his books—helps them
along in hard times, and when crops are short
—extends credit when he thinks it wise to do
so and curtails it when proper. He is there