N Philadelphia at the present minute there is a very happy jobber with a thousand dollars in his pocket that he has never really expected to get. It represents a debt incurred about ten years ago which at the time was practically given up as lost. The debtor was insolvent, his business was gone, he was not well, and probably nobody would have given $10 for the claim.

This jobber was discussing this debt with his counsel one day, and observed that he had charged it off with the rest of the year's losses, when the lawyer made a suggestion. It was that the jobber go to the debtor, and suggest that he, the debtor, get his life insured in the creditor's favor, the creditor to keep the premiums paid. In the end there might be a chance that the debt would be paid. The debtor was an honest man, and seeing no way in which he could lose anything by adopting *Copyright, April, 1918, by Elton J. Buckley.

the suggestion, he went to an insurance company and got a policy on his life with the jobber as beneficiary.

The policy was not for the flat amount of the debt, which was about $1,000, for most of that would have been eaten up by the premiums which the jobber would have had to pay. The debtor was fifty years old, and not very robust. It was nevertheless figured that he would live twenty years. At his age the premiums were about $60 a year, if I remember rightly, and enough insurance was therefore taken out to cover the debt and twenty years' premiums at $60 a year. In such a case the law allows a creditor to include in his insurance on a debtor's life all expenses of taking it out and keeping it up, so that at the debtor's death, the debt will be paid in full and all expenses refunded. Interest for twenty years was also included in the amount of insurance taken.

In this case the debtor died in about ten years, and the creditor will therefore collect from the insurance company more than he has

paid out and more than he is entitled to. The difference he must pay over to the debtor's estate, for the law will not permit him to gamble with a debtor's life. He can use insurance on a debtor's life to pay a debt, but he cannot use it to make any money for himself.

I have always wondered why more creditors did'nt use this method of getting a bad debt paid. Almost every debtor will agree to it — why shouldn't he; it costs him nothing. There are only two small drawbacks to it — 1, you must keep track of your debtor so you will know when it is time to cash in; and 2, you must invest some money in premiums. That you will get all this back with interest, however, is just as certain as anything can be, for the debtor is bound to die some time, and if you have kept the premiums paid, the money

is sure.

I know one wholesale dealer who to-day is carrying more than twenty policies on debtors' lives. They vary all the way from $300 up to over $2,000, and the combined premiums amount to quite a little sum, but he figures it a good investment, and it is. He will collect thousands of dollars that way that he would never have gotten otherwise.

There is another large dealer who makes. a sort of specialty of carrying these policies on the lives of debtors who went bankrupt. He will go to a customer of his who has gone bankrupt and say: "See here, you owed me $1,000 when you went into bankruptcy. Your estate is going to pay 15 per cent., which will reduce the debt to $850. I can never collect a cent of that from you, but nevertheless it is still a moral debt, and I'm going to show you a way in which you can pay it without costing you a penny. Simply let me have you life insured in my favor for enough to cover. I'll pay the premiums as long as you live, and when you die the debt will be wiped out."

This man told me that every bankrupt debtor he had ever had, with one exception, agreed to do this, with the result that he had collected several debts that would ordinarily have been lost.

Some creditors are short-sighted enough to do this thing in another way; they will let the debtor get the policy and assign it to them, or

assign an interest in a policy he already had, the debtor, in this case being responsible for the premiums. This is very uncertain, for the debtor will probably fall down on his payments and the insurance will lapse.

The law is clear that a creditor has an insurable interest in the life of a debtor, not only for the amount of a debt, but for all costs, expenses and interest. This is the law practically everywhere.

A variation of this law gives a partner or a business backer who advances money to somebody to put a deal through, the right to take out insurance on the life of the partner or the person on whom the success of the deal depends. Also, when you go on somebody's bond, you can take insurance on his life to protect you.

Co-operative Conservation.

Personal experiences furnish concrete examples of the practical results which may be obtained through intelligent and (in these times) patriotic co-operation between physician and pharmacist. For years a wellknown oculist ordered one grain of his favorite mydriatic in a fluidrachm of distilled water. When informed that supplies of the substance were running low and the cost mounting high, he changed his formula to one-third grain mydriatic in twenty minims of distilled water, with entire satisfaction to himself and his patients and proud of his achievement in conserving two-thirds of his normal consumption of a rare chemical. Another practitioner was in the habit of prescribing from four to six ounces of compound tincture of benzoin; with the directions to the patient to "add two teaspoonfuls to a pint of boiling water and inhale the steam." When informed of the difficulty involved in procuring certain ingredients contained in this preparation, he reduced his order to one ounce of tincture with directions to "add fifteen drops to one cup of boiling water."

Another changed his favorite combination of ammonium chloride and syrup of lactucarian to one containing an equal dose of the active ingredient in a vehicle consisting of one part syrup and three parts anise water, with no noticeable sacrifice of therapeutic efficiency, according to his statement- Still another has been securing results with a capsule of terpin hydrate and heroin that are quite comparable with those he formerly observed when using the elixir containing the same substances. He is justly proud of the fact that he is a practical conservationist, and the available supply of alcohol, glycerin and sugar, is automatically maintained.- Ambrose Hunsberger.

A surgical sewing forceps is a new contrivance which greatly facilitates the closing up of wounds.

By the following plan you can have all the sign boards you want for use in the country on roadside fences, barns, etc. The cost of getting them ready will be so little as to be negligible. Save all the suitable pieces of boards from packing cases and crates, sawing them up into proper lengths and planing off one side. For the largest, fasten two or three together by cleats across the back. Have one of the boys paint these white, doing the work at odd times when other work is slack. After getting two or three good coats of white paint on them, they can be lettered with good, waterproof black marking ink. They are then ready to post in conspicuous places on all the roads leading into town, The paint will cost but little. They can be put up when on pleasure rides into the country, or a boy can be sent out with them on a bicycle. They should be nailed securely in place where they will not be torn down by malicious folk. The inscriptions on them should be brief and plainly lettered.

MAKING SALES ANNUAL AFFAIRS.

By holding a special sale on a certain line of goods at the same season each year, making the event an annual one, it will gain in importance and the use of the word, Annual, in connection with the advertising will have the effect of creating more interest. The line of goods sold may not be an important line. It may involve ten cent articles or ten dollar articles, but the "Annual" phase of the matter is going to interest people. There are many lines in every store that are susceptible of this treatment. It is more important that the occasion be made the time for displaying new goods and for offering stickers at prices that will move

them. Each time this annual sale is repeated it will attract more attention. Make the sales seasonable and just a little ahead of the seasonal demand so as to get some of the business that otherwise would go to other stores. Call the first sale the "First Annual" in order to begin to profit by the annual idea at the outset.

"CLOSE OUT" TAGS.

This is a plan which might be kept constantly in operation. Secure a supply of red tags and put one on each article that is slow of sale, the last of a lot, or that for some other reason you want to close out. Put the price in plain figures on the red tag, leaving the old price, if you like still on the old tag, to show the original price. Put up signs in the store reading "Watch for Red Tagged Bargains!" "Red Tagged Article Always Special," ," "A Red Tag Means Closing Out at a Special Price." Occasionally make a display in the window of red tagged goods. When the idea begins to get noised around, every customer will have an eye out for the red tags and some people will get into the way of coming in just to see what is red tagged. It will not be necessary to advertise these bargains much, save to get the idea started. They will be a kind of unadvertised bargains for customers to hunt up.

BRINGING THEM IN.

On the occasion of a special opening or a selling event in a large store, the plan may be followed of bringing people to the store in order to get the attendance of many who otherwise might be unable to come. Arrange with a motor bus owner to rent one or two busses for half a day. Then advertise that at nine

a. m. a bus bearing your store name will start from a certain corner out on the West Side and pick up and carry right to your store any persons along the route who will signal it to stop for them. At other hours the bus may be started from other points. A few people will come for the free ride, but you will need to encourage use of the bus rather than discourage it, because the more people use it, the better the advertisement. Have a man at the curb to help people out of the bus and influence them by the knowledge that they are expected to go right into the store. Don't hesitate to send out a few deadheads to ride in if you are afraid the plan will not be a success. If you get fair loads, the plan will be a good advertisement whether it brings in any actual buyers or not.

A "BRING YOUR CATALOG" AD.

This is a plan for going after the business of the people who incline to order from the mail order houses. Use such an advertisement as the one below to bring the matter before your public:

Do YOU BUY BY MAIL?

If you find things in the mail order catalogs sometimes that seem to you to be better values than you can get in the store at home, if it is in our line, won't you bring in the catalogue and show us what you have found?

Even if you have an order all made out to send away, come in with the catalogue before you send it. If we cannot give you as good value as you find in the catalogue, we will order the catalogue article for you and save you expense.

Mail order catalogues have a lot to say about how much more the dealer charges than they do, but don't take all that at its face value. Come in and let us show you that we can meet such competition.

KNOWING THEIR AGE.

It would be an advantage to any merchant, and it would also surprise him, to know how long some of his goods have been in stock. There would be less stock allowed to stick year after year and eat up all the possible profit if some way were devised for showing the age of the goods. This is not a difficult thing to arrange. Adopt a uniform style of marking tag for all articles, using a good sized tag. On this tag, if the maker's or shipper's name does not appear on the goods, fill in that name as the source of supply. If there should be any reason for keeping the maker's name from the customer, use a code word. Next put the cost price, delivered in the store, and the selling price. Below this put either the date you received the goods or a figure that will indicate to you that date. To have the date when you bought the goods staring you in the face every time you look at the price tag, will be to make greater efforts to keep the goods from becoming heirlooms on your hands.

USING DODgers.

The humble dodger has been condemned as an advertising medium until many merchants are afraid to use it for fear of lowering the tone of their establish

ment. The dodger, of course, is merely an advertisement printed on a piece of paper by itself, and if it has gained a bad name, it is because the work has been cheaply done, badly done, entitling it to its reputation.

There is nothing to prevent a merchant from getting out dodgers that will be a credit to his store, rather than a discredit, and this form of advertising has the merit of being comparatively inexpensive, even if done well. The increased rates of postage make it more than ever worth while to devise means of making dodger advertising effective.

Instead of seeing how cheaply the dodger can be made, why not see how well it can be made. Take pains in writing it to make it interesting and of informative value. Instead of letting a cheap job-printer set it up in all the different styles of type in the shop, put a heavy headline on it and have the matter displayed much as you would a newspaper advertisement of the same size, though in coarser type.

Instead of printing the dodgers on odds and ends of cheap news stock in fifty-seven different colors and shades, select a good white stock in what is known as antique. Sometimes you will find a print shop having some odd lots of several very attractive white papers which can be used with little more expense than news stock. It is not essential, you know, that the whole of a supply of dodgers be printed on the same stock.

Give your dodger a distinctive appearance sometimes by putting an artistic, though not too conspicuous border around the advertisement. Make it a high class job, and the fact that it is distributed from house to house will not prevent people from noticing its quality. Then, instead of having the dodgers thrown hither and yon by dirty, tattered boys, engage a few nice looking girls to take them around, knocking at doors and handing in the dodgers folded instead of flat and obviously being advertising.

TESTIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENTS.

The patent medicine people built enormous business successes on the testimonial. People who would not read an ordinary advertisement, read to the last line what real (?) folks said about the medicine, and when the name of someone we knew appeared, we just ate up that advertisement and called for more.

You probably cannot use testimonials in the old fashioned patent medicine way, but there are more ways than one to skin a cat. Perhaps you can ask customers as they come and go whether they would object to your using their name in mentioning satisfied patrons or in referring to people who have used certain of your goods with success.

Of course this sort of thing is more of a small town, than a city proposition, but in the small town it will go big. If you use a weekly newspaper for advertising, mention in your regular space of real, live home folks who trade with you and who like what they have obught, will go a long way toward interesting and developing business.

There are people who will not want their names in

the paper thus, and there will be instances when anyone would object, but you will know better than to ask permission in cases where it is obvious it would not be given.

CAPITALIZIng the Older GOODS. Everybody knows that prices have gone skyrocketing in pretty nearly all lines of goods and they may stay at home and refrain from buying some things in your line, things they could afford to buy, just because of impression that all prices are beyond reach.

The merchant ought to take every possible opportunity to call attention to any line he is still selling at the old prices or at a very slight advance and where advance in price has been to some extent. at least, offset by advance in quality, this fact should be brought out.

You may have certain goods you bought before the present prices prevailed and that you are still selling below the market. Don't keep this a secret, but use the fact to bring in more trade.

Make displays of your best values in the windows and mark them to indicate present prices, or prices based on the present market, and showing the difference between those and your prices. By emphasizing of this sort you may be able to dispose promptly of the older goods in stock, goods which might cost more today, but which are still comparatively unsaleable.

LITTLE ADVERTISEMENTS.

Perhaps you cannot afford to use in your local newspapers a space large enough to be readily compelling and to indicate the importance of your business. That does not necessarily mean that you cannot afford to advertise in that paper. Instead of trying to compete in space with much larger stores, adopt the plan of inch or inch-and-a-half advertisements, scattered through the paper on certain suitable pages.

Get all these up in uniform style, with a distinctive border top and bottom and with an individuality of display type. Use a headline of two or three words, not more than four anyway, in 18 point type, caps and small letters, with the name of the store at the bottom in 12 point caps.

Make each little ad create a definite impression and leave an idea in the reader's mind. Don't allow the newspaper make-up man to bunch all or any part of your little advertisements, or to place them close together. Have them well scattered and in the best obtainable positions. Fifteen inches of space all in one position would not make a very big advertisement and it would be insignificant compared with the ads of the big stores, but scatter ten of your inch-and-ahalf advertisements through the paper and readers will think you pretty nearly omnipresent if you keep up the plan.

Use as many of these ad-lets as you can afford and make all of them different, no two alike and all of them good. You can get all the people in town reading your advertisements if you work hard at making them catchy.

A Conservation Suggestion.

As regards the problem before us, it may be said that practical conservation in the drug store includes restriction in the use of many articles which under normal conditions are used in enormous quantities without any special thought being given to the availability of future supplies. A brief list (excluding substances employed in the manufacture of galenicals) includes bottles, jars, tins, glass and paper boxes, paper and metal caps, extra wrappers, outer cartons, special seals, etc., some of the latter are designed to provide greater security of contents, but perhaps most of them calculated to lend an air of distinctiveness to the package a commendable procedure normally but one that should be eliminated in war time. Conservation of containers may be practiced by reducing the variety of sizes in bottled or boxed substances, since in most instances the public will adjust itself to a small emergency package intended for immediate use and a larger so-called family size for continuous use. This would do away with the myriad of intermediate-sized packages of household drugs and chemicals, toilet articles, etc., and would release a large volume of paper, glass and tin containers, allowing the material and labor required in their construction to be used for more urgent purposes. Where is the need of offering cold cream in four sizes, or talcum powder in two sizes of four odors each, or skin lotions and creams in 25 cent, 50 cent and $1.00 sizes? Why not, as regards the latter, eliminate the medium size; or still better as a war measure, retain the medium size and release the other two? In other words, instead of applying the old maxim about making "two blades of grass grow where one grew before," reverse its principle and paraphrase it to have "one bottle blown where two were blown before" and apply the principle to each detail of pharmaceutical practice. To be sure,

this may not seem to accomplish a great deal in the way of conserving the resources of our country when viewed from the individual standpoint, but if we stop to consider that fifty thousand pharmacists throughout the country can put the plan into operation within a very brief period, the potentialities of the suggestion become more apparent.- Ambrose Hunsberger.

Errors of Luck.

It is held to be bad policy to tie up with an unsuccessful man. The incidence of the vice, however, is not in the other fellow's failure; the vice is in tying up too tight to anybody. There is often more to be learned from an unsuccessful man, rich in experience, than from one who has made a lucky strike and got a big head. Because some other fellow has failed at a thing is no reason to think it can't be done. This only teaches us how not to do it; it does not teach us not to do it. - The Little Journal.

It has been discovered that diseased noses and throats allow the germs of infantile paralysis to enter the system, and a preventive is cleansing them with warm water in which table salt has been dissolved.