Read "The Clock that Had no Hands" by Herbert Kaufman online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
An advertiser must realize that there is a vast difference between "amusing" people and "convincing" them. It does not pay to be "smart" at the line rate of the average first class daily. I suppose that I could draw the attention of everybody on the street by painting half of my face red and donning a suit of motley. I might have a sincere purpose in wishing "to attract" the crowd, but I would be deluding myself if I mistook the nature of their attention.
The new advertiser is especially prone to misjudge between amusing and convincing copy. A humorous picture "may" catch the eyes of "every" reader, but it won't pay as well as an illustration of "some piece of merchandise" which will strike the eye of every "buyer". Merchants secure varying results from the same advertising space. The publisher delivers to each "the same quality of readers", but the advertiser who plants "flippancy" in the minds of the community won't attain the benefit that is secured by the merchant who imprints "clinching" arguments there.