I don't care if you are a big, six-foot, bull-necked husky who smokes black cigars and swears, you have to admit the truth of this assertion so far as you are concerned. Sounds like moralizing, doesn't it? And yet it's God's own truth! It was convictions such as these which caused me to write "Dawson Black." I wanted to give the world a book which would not be a learned and technical treatise on retail merchandising, but would give a picture of business life as it really is--not as the world mis-sees it. I have tried to make "Dawson Black" a human being, not an automaton to go through a series of jerky motions to illustrate principles. I wanted him to do some things wrong and suffer for it, and some things right, and perhaps still suffer a little; but I wanted to make his business life _REAL_. I wanted the reader to say to himself, "By Jove! I did just that same fool thing myself!" And, underneath all this, I wanted to present a few of the principles of retail merchandising. I wanted to show that the result of the correct application of principle was sure, and that a principle of retail merchandising is applicable to every kind of retail store--be it the little corner Italian fruit stand, or be it the largest department store in the country; be it hardware, drygoods, drugs, shoes, plumbing, or what not. This book will have answered its purpose if it encourages you to persevere by showing that the majority of people make the same mistakes that you do,--and inspires you with the nobility of business, and in particular convinces you that you are not working for money, but for the happiness you can give somebody else in addition to yourself. HAROLD WHITEHEAD. CONTENTS