The value of a smile, We know how much a dollar is. And how much is a mile; We know the distance to the sun. The size and weight of earth, But no one's wise enorgh to tellJust what a smile is worth.

(Anon.)

There is one qu,estion l"a o*n" agitating my mind a whole lot as I travel around amidst lumber folks and lumber yards and lumber stores, and that question is-what on earth has become of Mr. Pip? I'll swear I can't find him anywhere. And I remember so well the old days when I used to find about ten Mr. Pips to every one Mr. Pep. But things have changed'

Mr. Pip, you remember, is the old-fashioned, old-timey retail lumber dealer who did nothing but keep raw building materials of the plainest character in stock, and sit and wait until someone came in to buy, and then got out his sharp pencil and went to figgerin'. He didn't merchandise, he didn't advertise, he didn't carry fancy building materials in stock, his place of business was dingy and unattractive, and he did nothing to create a demand for those things that his materials would construct. :F

Mr. Pep was the opposite of Mr. Pip. He was the live, energetic, active, hustling retail lumberman, who kept in stock all sorts of building materials that he thought his trade could or should use I who displayed them well and attractively; who kep,t an up-to-date place of business that advertised in every way the good judgment of the operator; who did the building thinking for his community, and sold buidings at a price, rather than building materials at whatever he could get; who took part in everSrthing that went on for the good of his town, and was in every way one of its most useful citizens.

We have used tons of paper and barrels of ink in these columns preaching FOR Mr. Pep and against Mr. Pip. Someone said to me not long ago-"I notice you don't spend much space talking about Mr. Pip any more," and I said "No, because there are too few of him left to be worth worrying over, and preaching to." As a matter of fact Mr. Pip has practically disappeared from all those parts of the earth that I am familiar with. If there are any of his type of retail lumber dealer left, I don't encounter him, or hear anything about him. Practically speaking, every lumber dealer today is more or less a live building merchant.

'F**

Just the ot-her day I visited in a town of about twenty thousand people, and went the rounds of the retail lumber yards. And when I got through and had looked them dll over, I scratched my head in vain trying to make up my mind which of the yards I had seen was the most modern and attractive. All of them were keen, all of them displayed their wares in admirable fashion, all of them were on their toes to furnish their trade with the latest things in building materials, plans, and ideas for building. Surely the builder of today gets a whole lot better service than he did thirty years ago.

And in this same a*" t "rUted a wholesale building material establishment that undoubtedly has the most attractive and beautiful office display of building materials and home modernizations that I have ever seen. Everything they have for sale, beautifully finished.and displayed in dazzling fashion, is to be found and shown in that big front display office. And as I looked it over, I said to myself-"Mister, things HAVE really changed in the building material business."

The exhibit departme; : ;. various retail lumber association conventions furnish a splendid illustration of the great change in the direction of better merchandising that has come to the retail lumber business. At each convention you will find scores of attractive booths, every one of them a living, breathing illustration of what the live lumber merchant can do to better serve his trade. Every booth furnishes him, or at least offers him, new ideas that he may use. The man who wants to get out of a merchandising rut, need only make the rounds of the exhibits at his annual lu.rnber convention, and take notes of the things he can get and the changes he can make. Ideas galore await his gaze. He doesn't have to do his own figuring along merchandising lines any more. ft is all being done for him. All he has to do is apply what they show him to his own needs and situation.

UIGTl| R postgraduate course in merchandising And so it should be considered, and so