The merchant of to-day needs little argument to convince him that an attractive window display is a powerful means of increasing his trade. Charity knows that the way to a man's pocket is through his heart. Business knows that the channel to the same place is through the eye. A failure to please means a failure to sell, while a pleased fancy redounds to the merchant's profit. The storekeeper, when he has handsomely dressed his window, has half made a sale. A trimmed window is an object lesson which conveys at one glance more ideas than many columns of newspaper description. It will sell goods not only to those who intend to buy, but also to those who have no mind to purchase. The individual who never reads an advertisement in a newspaper, will stop before an attractive window. Then, too, there are probably as many people who pass a given store each day as read any paper in a given town. An attractive window is thus worth a page advertisement, provided it is gotten up in a manner that will attract the attention of the passers-by and please them when they stop to look at it. The advantages to the merchant from a first-class window display cannot be overestimated. An old retailer has said that all he asked was to get consumers inside his door. Give him a chance to show his goods and he could sell them. If he makes good use of his window, all the modern storekeeper needs to ask is, that the people shall pass his door. The window will bring them in. Not at first sight, perhaps, but in good season.

There was a time, and that not many years back, either, when a jumble of bright colored goods back of the plate-glass was all that was considered necessary for a window trim. There has come a change. There is as much resultant beauty in its particular line in a store window, after an hour's labor by the trimmer, as there is in a picture when the artist throws aside his brush after the last touch to the canvas.

To place a lot of bright new goods in a given space might seem to the casual observer but a very light and insignificant task indeed, and one certainly requiring no great amount of skill; but, carefully considered as a business work, it opens a very wide field for study and improvement. It requires constant practice and intelligent effort to be able to deal with the numerous details: the differing shapes and sizes of windows, the varying shades of light, and the constant change of fashion in design and color, and numerous other links in a long chain of incidentals.

The show window was architecturally created for the sole purpose that it might be appropriately trimmed, and if it be not properly arranged it is simply useless—a waste of space which cannot be filled or used for any other purpose. To the general trade a well dressed window is an advertisement and encouragement to business which should not be overlooked. A very considerable portion of trade done may be traced directly to its agency. It indicates progressive ideas, which win the masses—the crowd ever following where life, activity and push are prominent. The advantages which a handsome window display gives a merchant over somewhat slower competitors are manifold; and many thousands of dollars in sales are recorded annually through attention paid in this direction, which otherwise would not have been made.

To clerks seeking advancement in mercantile life, no surer passport to success is to be found than to be able to appropriately trim windows. To be fully convinced of this fact, it is only necessary to consult the "want" columns of daily newspapers. From January to January, year in and year out, there constantly appears the little adlets:

Wanted.—A dry goods salesman and window trimmer. Good salary to competent man. Apply to------------

Or,

Wanted.—A dry goods salesman who can trim windows. One speaking German preferred. Apply to----------

Unfortunately, it has seemed to be the desire of many writers on this subject to impress their readers with the idea that to dress a window is a most complex and laborious operation, difficult to acquire, and necessitating the possession of great artistic ability and a creative brain. One writer goes so far as to assert that good window trimmers are like poets, "born, not made," a very ridiculous idea as well as misleading. Indeed, it is quite possible that this course on the part of writers has discouraged many clerks from making a beginning; if so, let the idea be dispelled. Any clerk who has wit enough to sell goods can certainly train himself to be a good window dresser, particularly if helped along by suggestions as to the best fixtures in use, and illustrated designs and examples.

In considering the subject of window trimming the merchant, or the clerk who has this particular branch of the business in charge, should bear in mind what he hopes to accomplish by it. He aims to set forth a fair sample of the goods to be found within. They must be so displayed as to prove an attraction to the people upon the street, most of whom are intent (presumably) upon going somewhere else to buy. Their attention must be diverted from their original intention sufficient to excite in them the desire of possession. To do this the goods displayed must be of such a character as will appeal with force to the purchaser at the time he is looking at them. In a word, the window must be dressed with seasonable goods.

The sides and back are of fine linen damask, hung from a rod or wooden strips. The two short figures at either side are arranged in angles, and draped on a wooden rack three and a half feet in height. The centerpiece is four and a half feet in height, formed of light scantling with a cross-piece at the top.

Seasonableness, however, is not the only requisite in window dressing. It is, manifestly, quite unnecessary to go to much trouble to decorate a window with common goods which are so well known that they will attract no attention from the passer-by. His attention must be secured first by some feature with which he is unfamiliar. Second, his attention having been attracted, his curiosity must be gratified, and he must not be allowed to go away disappointed.

There are two classes of feminine buyers to whom the trimmed window appeals most strongly: The lady who has nothing to do looks round at the store windows through mere womanly curiosity; the lady who wants a dress or other article looks round for something to take her fancy; both are certain to be attracted by goods prettily or tastily displayed; both may be made customers; and it may be most certainly relied upon that they will each tell friends at home of what they have seen striking in--------------'s windows. With women the subject of dress and dress materials forms a never failing source of interesting converse. And as a rule they have good memories in all that concerns goods which they have seen and examined, and when in want of any article noticed under such circumstances, they are generally sure to return to the store where it was first exhibited. First impressions with them are everything, and when particularly agreeable are indelible. The same goods may afterward be seen elsewhere, but there remains a feeling that they would like to go to the store where they first saw them, before purchasing. Hence, the window may be direct means of bringing a customer, or it may be a good advertisement.

But there are many kinds of people with whom the merchant has to deal, and whose patronage is solicited. Besides those whom it is desirous simply to attract, there are others for whom it is necessary to show what lines of goods are actually carried in stock; and having regard to this class, the window may properly be styled an index to the house. If carefully kept, it should be as reliable to refer to as the index of a book. In reality, it forms a means of reference between customer and merchant, and every variety of goods handled should as far as possible be from time to time represented in the window. It may be truthfully asserted that the store window is of the first importance to the every-day success of retail establishments. Neglect the window for one day, and you have neglected the means of arresting the progress of one or more purchasers, passing your door for the purpose of buying what you have to sell. Lay it down as an indisputable rule that windows properly dressed make trade.

Don't be discouraged if your window is small or badly constructed. Make the best of it, and carefully think out what kind of display will best suit the circumstances. You need a very small space to prove your taste and originality, and to make a show which people will cross the street to look at. After all, of course, your window, however beautifully and tastefully arranged, will not please everybody. But never mind the fault-finders. Study to do your best, and use every opportunity you can get for observing the effects produced by those who are successful in this matter.