Faith in Advertising

FICTION

GIRL OR BOY -- John North -- Small, Maynard ($2).

"Consult Mr. Marcus Faithful." Then, as an immaculately tailored magnifico, he accords exceedingly confidential interviews to hundreds of expectant London ladies, relieving them of maternal anxieties and fat fees. A fallen gentleman, Mr. Still, is his able secretary. A charming, competent demimondaine blackmails her way into the business, putting it on a wholesale basis through the post. After a certain number of months, of course, the jig seems up, and Mr. Marcus Faithful becomes small Mr. Crump again, dismayed when his hitherto barren wife bears twins as the result of secret correspondence with Mr. Faithful. The rich travesty on modern advertising is rounded off by an amazing rise in the male birth rate and universal posthumous acclaim for Marcus Faithful, whose only private explanation is: "It must have been faith."