Reading Assignment

“A Subtle Ingenuity in Advertising”

The C.P.R. has disclosed a subtle ingenuity in advertising; nor did this suffer impairment in a comparatively recent instance. The company wanted, to be exact, 670 cooks and waiters for its dining–car service last spring. It has tried the American cooks and waiters by the painful hundred and found them unreliable. It determined to advertise in the “Big Smoke.” London is unthinkably cosmopolite. Every race under heaven has its representatives in the world’s metropolis. In a delicate way the company announced that it wanted a certain number of fair–haired people and an equal number of dark “complexioned” individuals. The papers began to write about the “red–haired dining car,” and “black–haired dining car” to such an extent as to cause nothing short of a “thrill” in the general breast. And the requisite number responded – to be exact, indeed, there were at least 2,000 persons, at one time or another, who applied. There was a severe weeding process, with the result that the requisite number were employed and shipped out – fair and dark–complexioned men – to harmonize with the setting of the particular car to which the shade of color should be confined. And it is the fact that the C.P.R. desires, in its aesthetic way, to produce in each dining car what might be called a synthesis as to the color and height and general appearance of the men – the idea being in decorations and general ensemble to present a harmonious whole for the delectation of the passengers. The point of interest is this – that whereas the American cooks and waiters who had aforetime been employed by the company were for the most part unreliable, leaving after two or three months’ employment, the men found in London remained the whole season; and at this moment of the entire number 500 are still in the employment of the company. Some left to better themselves; a few went back but the greater bulk are at work quite contented, as the commissioner sent out recently “Answers” and who talked with the men, avouches. These men are Swiss, Scandinavians, Germans to some slight degree, and British. The Swiss speak at least three languages, and are most adaptive. This matter of help on the dining cars is one of the serious problems to be faced by W. A. Cooper, the manager of the sleeping and dining car service – the difficulty of getting and then retaining the right men; but the experiment of going to London and advertising for them has proved an unqualified success. It seems unthinkably remote to consider the big posters of the early days which announced, rather riotously, the advantage of the C.P.R. in the matter of gastronic enjoyment. The delicate aestheticism which the company now provides marks the apogee of advance and elaboration.