ABSTRACT
The idiosyncrasies of the purchasing public, by making it difficult for honest men to deal with them, result in placing power in the hands of sharks of various kinds. It goes without saying that such men do not lose the opportunity thus presented to them of strengthening their hold on the public. The craftsman, like all persons of taste, hates the meretricious ornament with which commercial firms spoil their products, and he desires to promote a taste for simple, straightforward design of good proportion. Exactly to what extent this system obtains it would only be possible to say after long and careful investigation. It certainly does so in all trades in which the element of taste enters, and which are subject to the control of the middleman. This is natural, for such trades lend themselves so perfectly to bluff and humbug when handled for commercial purposes.
