4. An Advertisement

4. An Advertisement

A man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspapers. "Last week," said he, "my umbrella was stolen from a London church. As it was a present, I spent twice its worth in advertising, but didn't get it back."

"How did you write your advertisement?" asked one of the listeners, a merchant.

"Here it is," said the man, taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper. The other man took it and read, "Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening, a black silk umbrella. The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No. 10 Broad Street."

"Now," said the merchant, "I often advertise, and find that it pays me well. But the way in which an advertisement is expressed is of extreme importance. Let us try for your umbrella again, and if it fails, I'll buy you a new one."

The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote: "If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesn't wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No. 10 Broad Street. He is well known."

This appeared in the paper, and on the following morning, the man was astonished when he opened the front door. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colours that had been thrown in, and his own was among the number. Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser not to say anything about the matter.