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It showed the running figure of a negro woman carrying her personal property in a knotted handkerchief slung from a stick over her shoulder, and was supposed to represent "a fugitive slave." Mr. Dimmidge's eyes brightened. "I'll take that, too. It's a little dark-complected for Mrs. P., but it will do.
Dimmidge's advertisement had been reached, and, as it was not renewed, it had passed out of the pages of the "Clarion," and with it the merchant's advertisement in the next column. The excitement had subsided, although its influence was still felt in the circulation of the paper and its advertising popularity.
Enough for you to know that I'll be miles away before that paper comes out. So stay where you are." She pressed his hand frankly and firmly, gathered up her riding-skirt, slipped backwards to the door, and the next moment rustled away into the darkness. Early the next morning the editor handed Mrs. Dimmidge's advertisement, and the woodcut he had selected, to his foreman.
The editor wrote down the line, and then, remembering Mr. Dimmidge's voluntary explanation of HIS "Personal," waited with some confidence for a like frankness from Mrs. Dimmidge. But he was mistaken. "You think that he R. B. or Mr. Dimmidge will understand this?" he at last asked tentatively. "Is it enough?" "Quite enough," said Mrs. Dimmidge emphatically.
"How big will it be?" said Mr. Dimmidge. The editor took up a copy of the "Clarion" and indicated about an inch of space. Mr. Dimmidge's face fell. "I want it bigger, in large letters, like a play-card," he said. "That's no good for a warning." "You can have half a column or a whole column if you like," said the editor airily. "I'll take a whole one," said Mr. Dimmidge simply. The editor laughed.
"Can you display that so as to fill a column?" The foreman grasped the situation promptly. It would be big business for the paper. "Yes," he said meditatively, "that bold-faced election type will do it." Mr. Dimmidge's face brightened. The expression "bold-faced" pleased him. "That's it! I told you. I want to bill her in a portion of the paper."
Dimmidge's protracted warning, appeared a column with the announcement, in large letters, "WE HAVEN'T LOST ANY WIFE, but WE are prepared to furnish the following goods at a lower rate than any other advertiser in the county," followed by the usual price list of the merchant's wares. There was an unprecedented demand for that issue.
"I suppose," he said ingenuously, "that you don't want to answer the 'Personal'?" "'Personal'?" she repeated quickly, "what's that? I ain't seen no 'Personal." The editor saw his blunder. She, of course, had never seen Mr. Dimmidge's artful "Personal;" THAT the big dailies naturally had not noticed nor copied. But it was too late to withdraw now.
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