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Quotations:

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There lived and labored in the merchandising end of the lumber industry for many years, a man named L. R. "Dict" Putman, of Arkansas. He went to his reward many years ago. But the old-timers in the lumber industry will never forget the way he used to talk selling and merchandising to lumber conventions.

He started in the retail lumfer business at Fayetteville,

Atkatt"as, and soon won fame for his colorful leadership.

.As President of the Arkansas association of retail lumber' men, he made a number of speeches outside the Arkansas territory, md his fame spread. The Southern Pine As- sociation hired him away from the retail business, and as its advertising manager his territory enlarged, and his fame grew. rf**

Then he took over the management of a great whole' sale lumber association, and so kbpt covering an enlarged territory as a convention speaker of large ability. He had a beautiful talking voice and a winnin$ smile, and his audiences were always enthusiastic ones. No one yawned while

Dick Putman talked.

It was as a speaker on selling that he particularly shone. He used to tell about a farmer he saw selling apples ofr a wagon at a farm town in Arkansas, and Dick would polish an apple as he talked, and describe the wonderful qualities of that wagonload of apples, and everyone in the audience used to get apPle-h'ungry just listening. ***

He also used a potato-selling story to illustrate how selling should really be done by an expert. He said that two farm wagons, each presided over by a farm wortan' were parkedside by side in the farmer's market, and both wagons were piled high with potatoes. A shopper approached one of the wagons, and asked the farm woman the price. She replied that they were a dollar a bag.

BY JACK DIONNE

ones for boiling, smaller ones for baking. The baking size must not be too large, so that they will bake dl the way ' through, quickly. That saves your gas bill.

"'We wash all our potatoes before sacking. When they come out of the sack, they are ready to cook. You don't buy any dirt. I'm asking a dollar-and-a-half a bag for themand they're worth every cent of it."

The shopper had only intended to buy a peck of potatoes' but with such potatoes as these she saw the wisdom of buying a whole sack, wh'ich she did. These potatoes were the same kind, size, and sort as the other woman was selling, and prepared for market in exactly the same way.

"The difrerence," Dick Putman used to say with his pleasant smile, "was in the selling." And then he would add that there is just that much difference in the better selling of''lumber and other building materials.

There is an old Chinese proverb that says "One pict[re is worth a thousand words," and Dick Putman used that philosophy in his sales talks to lumber conventions. Cold words and lifeless figures played fio part in his methods. A polished apple or a highly praised potato told the story. A delightfully told story always accompanied his histrionic efforts. Lumber convention speakers of his quality come seldom. Very, verJr seldom. * ,N. *

When he discussed the competition between the home salesmen and the automobile salesmen to corral the public dollar, he would give much credit to the sdes ability of the automobile folks. "You knovr," he would say, "there are lots of folks buying autos today who are so poor they actually haven't got a pint of licker in the house." *** ttGoodness !"

These stories, and many others, apty illustrate what made Dick Putman one of the most popular speakers in all the history of lumber associations and their conventions.

[igh, isn't it?" said She the woman shopper, "that's awfully stopped at the next vvagon, and the other farm woman, who had overheard the brief conversatidn at the first wagon, was prepared. When the woman asked the price of her potatoes, she said: :krk*

"These are especially fine potatoes, ma'am. They are the very best potatoes for all sorts of eating that I know of. They're the small-eye type that save a lot of waste in peeling. The skin, you see, is unusually thin. A bag of these potatoes-is a bag of food, not of potatoskin and waste.

"In each bag you will find two sizes of potatoes, large