Show PICTURES ARE ft RIOT NOT N ALWAYS ALTOS TROTH TRUTHFUL FOl some mail order 14 houses auses find them very useful in thela their r business CAr CAN DOCTOr OCTOR photograph concerns can give wrong impressions with illustrations while sticking to truth in descriptions copyright 1317 1917 W western batern newspaper union figures never lie it has been C claimed but this is tar far from the truth the defaulter who has doctored his books in such a way that he has escaped detection for years knows that figures can be made to lie the shrewd politician who knows how to juggle statistics knows that they can be made to teu tell a story that Is far from the truth but there is another medium of expression pres slon which Is also supposed to be a stickler for truth but which Is a greater prevaricator than figures that Is a picture A picture of any person or thing supposedly Is an exact reproduction of the original but this is frequently only a wild supposition the photographer who did not make his picture tell a little fib now and then would soon go out of business from lack of patronage pictures better than words pictures have come to occupy a very important place in the life of the world in recent years it has been said that for newspaper purposes a picture which tells its story strikingly is worth more than columns of written words on the same subject newspapers and magazines have realized the truth of this fact and as a result pictures are used profusely in illustrating the news and fiction or of the day no one has been quicker to realize the possibilities of the picture when properly or it might be said improperly used than the mall mail order man he has realized that a picture will do more to sell his kind of merchandise than a column of words and fl figures one reason for this Is that it Is harder to catch a picture in a lie than it is printed words and figures for instance if you yon sell a man a table on the strength of a printed statement that it Is 48 inches wide and it if when the table reaches the customer it is only 36 inches wide the customer not only has a moral right to kick but he has a legal right to accuse the seller of obtaining money under false pretenses however if the customer buys a table which looks in a picture to be 48 inches wide but which proves upon its arrival to be only 36 inches wide he has no legal grounds upon which to base a complaint it if the seller has not told him in so many words that the table was 48 inches wide stick to truth in figures some unscrupulous mall order houses have taken advantage of this selling power of pictures in a very ingenious way they adhere strictly to the truth in the actual measurements given in their catalogues cataloguer catal of the articles which they have to sell they may employ descriptions which exaggerate the qualities and appearances of of the articles offered but when it comes down to actual measurements the descriptions given are technically correct then these concerns rely upon their pictures to sell the merchandise realizing that a picture will make a far deeper impression epou the mind of the prospective buyer than the actual figures given A picture of a wide roomy bed will attract the eye nod and the reader probably wm will not stop to measure off the width of the tha bed us it Is described in the catalogue catalog ue to see whether it Is as wide as desired figures in the abstract mean little to the tha average reader and do not convey the impression that Is given in the picture I 1 A former manager of a mall order house tells how his concern manipulated pictures in this way to suit its purposes it had eg adf bof its chairs re touched so that tahe e legs seemed to be an inch and it half in diameter when they were really less leas than an inch it made narrow beds appear in the picture to be wide and comfortable posts of iron beds beda that were really an inch in diameter were made to appear as if they were three inches in thickness these things are easy for any competent artist to do patrons had no recourse this concern however adhered rigidly to the truth in the measurements in the descriptions customers who found when they received their goods that they were not what they expected could kick but it would do them no good the mall order house could show that it had seaforth set forth the measurements truthfully in cata bogues and there was no recourse for the customer there Is no question but that pictures will lie sometimes without any manipulation and the person who buys an article of merc merchandise handke from a picture is taking big chances even though the picture is not intentionally altered to give a any adv amateur photographer knows from experience how the camera often will give elve a wrong idea of proportions the only sale safe methal is to buy from the local merchant where one sees the article itself and not a picture of it the article itself I 1 self cannot lie about its dimensions at least |