appropriations for public buildings, it was felt that there was little chance of getting the extra money; or, if the money for a site were secured, it might be years before an appropriation for a building would be granted.

Matters were in this condition when, at a meeting in Washington, Mr. Beekman Winthrop, then Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who had visited Boston and had been impressed with the beauty of the old CustomHouse, asked if it could not be treated as was the old Custom-House in New York City, where a colonnade of several stories in height was superimposed on the old colonnade, producing a very monumental effect.

From this suggestion grew the idea of a tower covering only the central portion of the old building. The Old Stone Fort possessed material as well as historical and sentimental value, and the half-million dollars appropriated for a site might become immediately available for building purposes. Meetings of the business bodies were held and rough sketches of a tower form of building discussed; and, as a result, it was voted "that the present site is regarded as a most desirable and appropriate location for the CustomHouse, and that the Treasury Department be requested to make plans to retain the present Custom-House as an integral part of the structure as shown in the studies."

The Treasury Department then gave its approval of the project, and the passage by Congress of a special act empowering the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint an architect" for the enlargement, remodeling, and extension of the present Custom-House" resulted in the selection of Peabody and Stearns, of Boston, who had designed most of the principal buildings on State Street, as architects for the new tower.

As for the architectural style, the illustration shown will explain in detail. The tower conforms in its design to the rest of the building, with such variation of scale of parts and of details as would be necessary to preserve a proper relation between the old and the new portions.

The completed building will be five hundred and four feet high from the sidewalk to the top of the ornamental cap on the roof. There will be approximately three times as much office space as was available in the old

building, and, it is believed that, with rapid elevator service, business can be more quickly despatched in a building of the tower type than would be the case in a low building with long corridors.

The tower proper is about sixty-five by seventy feet in size, and has a batter of thirteen inches on each face of the shaft, to give the appearance of greater stability. It will rest on massive concrete caissons, which were sunk a hundred feet below the street in order to get a proper bearing for the great weight. The building is, of course, fireproof throughout, and every precaution will be taken to see that the steel is properly protected by painting and casing in concrete, brick, or terra cotta.

Among the features of the design are the clock, the observation balcony at the twentyfifth floor level, the ornamental smoke-stack at the very top of the roof, and the marbleand-bronze rotunda and dome in the entrance story. This latter will be similar to the one that was in the old Custom-House, but higher and even more impressive.

The clock face is of reinforced concrete, marble, and bronze. The dial is twenty-one feet in diameter and the minute-hand is eleven and one-half feet long. The numerals and minute-dots are bronze boxes built into the concrete, the front being glazed and the back opening into a white enameled room from which the light will be reflected through the openings.

The building as contracted for comes within the appropriation of one million eight hundred thousand dollars, as against an estimated total expenditure of from two and one-half to three million dollars had a new site been selected.

For a century the Bulfinch dome on the State House was the crowning feature of Boston's skyline as shown on the seal of the city, but the surrounding buildings have so changed the historic outline that there is no longer a dominating feature. Moreover, the building restrictions limit the height of buildings to one hundred and twenty-five feet. The United States Government is under no building restrictions, and thus it is possible to restore a distinctive and impressive crowning feature to the harbor approach and to provide Boston with a unique Custom-House, the first Government sky-scraper.

A

I

S Robert Cartright and his companions were passing the door of the writing-room on their way in to the bar, they caught sight of Pete Crowther sitting at the writing-table.

"Come on in, Pete, and take a smile," called Cartright.

"Not for me,' replied Pete. "Say, Bob, come on up to my room. I want to show you something."

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"Room is no place for a man on Saturday night. Come along, Pete, and have something." Nit. See here," and Pete motioned him to come inside the door. "What are you doing out with that fast bunch? I thought you had more sense, Bob."

"Oh, come! None of that now. I'll see you later," and Bob hurried in to join his friends at the bar.

Pete finished his letters and stepped out upon the sidewalk for a breath of fresh air before going to bed.

Presently Bob and his friends emerged from the bar-room and entered a taxicab.

"Jump in, Pete," invited Bob. "We've got a pot of red paint in here. We are going to smear the town."

It's a big proposition to smear this town, Bob. You take my advice and go to bed." As the taxi rolled down the street the strains of "Oh, you beautiful doll!" came floating out of the cab window. Pete stood and watched it until it disappeared around the corner.

"I wonder what has been getting into Bob Cartright," he mused. "I never thought he would hit the turf the way he has been doing lately. If I get a chance at him to-morrow, I'll rub it in good and plenty."

It was 11:30 the following forenoon when Cartright stepped out of the elevator into the hotel lobby. His eyes were slightly bloodshot and his face bore the marks of a night of dissipation.

He assumed a deprecatory

grin as he met Pete Crowther near the desk.

"Well, Bob, who got smeared, the town or you?" greeted Pete.

Say, Pete, isn't it queer that when a fellow tanks up all night he feels so thirsty the next morning?"

“Oh, not so queer. When a man starts a fire inside of him he needs some water to put it out. Come on over here, Bob. I want to tell you something about business." "Wait till I get a drink of water, Pete." As they seated themselves in the corner Pete abruptly faced his companion.

"Bob, I helped you get that position with your company, didn't I?"

Sure you did, and I'm much obliged. What of it ?"

"I told those people that you had it in you to make a corking good salesman."

"Thanks. And I've been making good, too. You gave it to them straight."

66

Yes, but you've only been out a year. I am responsible for your salesmanship, and I want to tell you something. Let me give you an idea that I got last trip. I was talking with our tea man just before I started out. That tea man of ours is a crackerjack. When he gets to showing the different kinds of teas and describes the way they are grown and packed, and then draws them up and gets you to tasting them, he makes you think it's something right out of a rose garden. He stumped me to sell more tea. I had been selling tea right along, and I told him so. I showed him my order book. Yes,' he said; but you can sell twice as much this trip. We never had such a line as this since I have been with the house.' Well, I got to thinking it over after I took the train, and I made up my mind to unload some tea. Now, you understand, Bob, every wholesale grocery company handles tea, and there are lots of tea jobbers that don't sell anything else, and they send out good salesmen, too. The consequence is that these retail grocery dealers are pounded to death on tea, and are usually stocked up 'way ahead. When you try to talk tea to them, they throw up their hands. The first town I struck was Bloomington, and I sailed in on tea, and, say, when evening came I had sold thirty-five boxes of tea, and believe me, that's going some."

"Yes, I see your point, Pete; you're a daisy all right."

66

Sure I am; but I've got another point that you don't see yet. When I wrote up—” "Say, Pete," interrupted Bob, "do you think it's good salesmanship to sell people stuff that they don't need?"

"Nit. Salesmanship is selling a man who doesn't intend to buy, but you want to be sure he needs the goods."

"But you just said they were all stocked up and-"

"Sure. It's this way. Here is a man, say, who has got five boxes of tea on hand that will last him two months. He won't be in the market for six weeks. He doesn't want to buy, but you sell him five boxes to be shipped five weeks later, and you give him a good drive and special terms. That isn't overstocking him, and that is salesmanship. Well, after I wrote up my orders that night I was feeling pretty cocky, and I said to myself, 'Huccum? How did you turn the trick?' I thought it all over, and I saw that when I got off the train that day the town looked like my oyster. Every time I tackled a man I could see myself winning out in advance. It was pep-ginger-the scrappy spirit, see? That is one of the biggest things in salesmanship. And do you know what takes that out of a man quicker than anything else ?”

I've begun already, and I am going to finish it, too. There's another thing, Bob. When I started on the road ten years ago, it was a common thing for traveling men to crook their elbows over a bar. They used to invite their customers out to take a drink nearly every time they sold a bill. You don't see much of that now. The best salesmen have cut it out. These are days when men are after efficiency. It is in the air. Manufacturers, railroad managers, merchants, and salesmen are studying how to save energy and get in their best licks. Men can't waste themselves the way they used to-not if they are going to get there. Salesmanship nowadays is strictly business. That Tom-and-Jerry stuff don't go. Say, I just saw a friend go into that hotel down the street and I want to see him a minute. Come along and I'll introduce you."

As they entered a shabby-looking hotel Bob

That's what. You were the stiffest competitor I had the first three years I was out," agreed Pete.

"Won't you join me in a drink, gentlemen?" invited Morgan, courteously.

"No, thanks; we aren't drinking. Well, so long, Morgan."

66

So you steered me up against your horrible example," grinned Cartright, as they stepped out upon the sidewalk.

"Bob, that man Morgan had the best prospects of any young salesman I knew, but-"

See here, Pete, if you weren't a good friend of mine I would invite you to go to the devil."

"And I wouldn't go, see? I've got too much work to do.”

"Do you think for a minute that I would make such a bone-headed chump of myself as that man Morgan has?"

"Oh, no; you don't intend to do it any more than he did when he was your age." "You needn't think, Pete, that I am spending much of my time in front of a bar. I am attending to business all right.”

"Over at Decatur last week, for instance," smiled Pete.

Who told you about Decatur ?" "Oh, those things are passed around.

Your competitors will see to that. Believe me, Bob, these merchants won't stand for it. Business is based upon confidence, and merchants lose confidence in a man as soon as he gets the reputation of blowing himself."

"Who says I'm blowing myself? The fact is, Pete, that I have only gone on two bats in a year. One was at Decatur last week, and the other was last night." They had reached their hotel and resumed their seats in the corner.

"Bob, I want you to give it to me straight. Something has gone wrong with you. It isn't natural for you to make such an ass of yourself. I am one of your best friends, and you know it. Now uncork it. Has business gone punk? Do you owe money? What's the matter, anyway?"

"A mighty good looker," commented Pete. "Yes, but her looks aren't in it with her character-that's where she's got them all skinned a mile. She's high-toned. She is finer than silk. She belongs to the Presbyterian Church, too, and she's the real goods. She has got an education. I don't see how I ever got a stand-in with such a girl, but I did. She is a niece of Browning over at Princeton. I sell him goods, and he's a friend of mine. She was over there visiting, and I met her, and, believe me, she made a home run right off the bat. I didn't know which end I was standing on when she was around. Well, I went in to capture her, and I went in hard, too. Maybe you know how that is."

"Sure; didn't I get just that kind of a girl myself?"

"Well, there's a young fellow named Clark in her town. He is cashier in a bank, and a corking fine fellow. He is an all-round athlete, too, and has got some property. He was stuck on her too, and was just as hot after her as I was. He belongs to the same church that she does. Her mother was