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Show I HOOK HITS T9 BE EXCLUDED Book agents, beware! said the school.board last night. The five members have reached the limit of patience To be besieged by a never-ending stream of scientific book agents, who can talk the most Job-like listener to death, bas become, t they stud, unendurable Herearter, the board decided, .all ; books will be purchased solely on i their merits Agents' eloquence will t cut no figure, because the said agents 1 will get no chance to uncork it. A resolution was adopted barring all agents from the school buildings, except ex-cept those ho are especially invited, and who are provided with a letter ' : of introduction from Superintendent Henry C Johnson. ! Cunning System Revealed. The board and the teachers are now ' aware of the fact that book publishers long ago took advantage of the principles princi-ples of scientific salesmanship, and no agents are sent out who have not been graduated as adepts from a school in salesmanship. Most of the publishers maintain schools of their own The agent students sit at desks in a school room. Lectures are given by specialist four times daily. Every ' phase of book 'agent's work is analyzed ana-lyzed thoroughly Each student is drilled in the primary selling talk, the secondary, the territory, and the clos- fing talk. Students Learn "How." After the lecture, the students are me called up, each in turn, and required Cg to "sell" the books, which are to be i exploited, to the lecturer. While this ' : ordeal is on, the other students sit 1 - and learn, ears and eyes wide-open. The lecturer makes every possible ob-! ob-! jection The student overcomes these objections with argument, persuasion, cajolery, flattery, appeals to cupidity, by every appeal which may suit the victim's peculiar characteristics. Mysteries Unfold. The mysteries of psychology are revealed re-vealed to them in practical manner. Phrenology is applied. All of the different dif-ferent types of men and women are described. The tell-tale significance of every bump on the victim's head, the indices to character and personality personal-ity as denoted by the contour of the face, the shape of the ear, the color and gleam of the eye, the shape of the nose, the fingers and finger-nails, the postuie, gait and pose of the victim; aud after using all of this knowledge upon the unwilling victim, the agent's "stretcher" is produced (showing tlio bindings of'the books) and, at the psychological psy-chological moment, a pen is thrust into the victim's fingers and he is given giv-en the direct command to "sign your name on that line," which he does, the agents say, in most cases. Big Fish Liked Best, f Somotime, unexpectedly, before becoming be-coming hypnotized, the victim rises suddenly and kicks the conquering agent into the middle of next week, or sicks the bulldog on him, but most of them, the agents say, yield without a murmur and they say they dearly like the big fish that resists vigorously; vigor-ously; they like the sport. The festive agents, presumably, have been working their mystic science on the school board members and the teachers. It remains to be seen, the agents say, whether the lesolution adopted last night may be overcome by suggestion and scientific methods. nn |