The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-09-10 00:00:00

SOME OLD ADVERTISEMENTS,

It is a matter of common belief that advertising,
as we now understand it, is a purely modern de-
velopment. But, as a matter of fact, this is not the
case, as a glance through the files of any very ancient
newspapers can soon convince us. Indeed, it would
be quite as easy to write a history of the social condi-
tions as to wants, losses, amusements, habits, and
money-making, from the advertisements of the bye-
gone journals, as from their literary contents. We
can trace distinctly through their space devoted to
announcements the events and the tendencies of
thought which we look back upon as the representa-
tive features of previous times.
One of the earliest, if not quite the earliest, news-
paper advertisements known to exist, appeared in the
January number of the Parliamentary paper, Mer-
curius Politicus, 1652, and runs as follows " Irenodia
Gratulatoria, an Heroick Poem, being a congratulatory
panegyrick for my Lord General's late return, sum-
mingfup his successes in an exquisite manner.
London.r.Tobe
sold by John Holden, in the New Exchange,
Printed by Tho. Newcourt, 1652." Booksellers'
announcements, however, were almost the only ones
for some time, and many of the titles of the works
thus brought into notice in the Mercurius Politicus
ought to make the Salvation Army tears its hair for
jealousy, and exclaim, "Verily, there is no new thing
under the sun "—not even sensational religiosity.
"Gospel Marrow," " A few Sighs from Hell, or the
Groans of a Damned Soul," " Michael opposing the
Dragon; or, a Fiery Dart struck through the Kingdom
of the Serpent," are amongst the productions thus
mentioned. Seven years later, the initials of the illus-
trious Jc..hn Milton appears in an advertisement regard-
ing " Considerations touching the likeliest means to re-
move hirelings out of the Church; wherein is also
discoursed of Tithes, Church Fees, Church Revenues,
and whether any maintenance of ministers can be
settled by law. The author J. M. Sold by Livewell
Chapman, at the Crown, in Pope's Head-alley."
Advertisements for runaway apprentices or servants
soon began to appear, and scarce a week passed with-
out some of these. In many cases they had stolen
their masters' property, but they afford evidence that
service was not a paradise to either master or man in
those days. An advertisement shows us that tea was
drunk in England during the Commonwealth, some-
what earlier than the accepted tradition that Lords
e.rlington and Ossory introduced it from Holland in
1666; for the Mercurius Politicus of September 30th,
1658, informs us that "That excellent and by all
physicians approved China drink, called by the
Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is
sold at the Sultaness Head Cophee House, in Sweet-
ing's Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London."
With the restoration of the Monarchy this print
changed its designation to the Mercurius Publicus. One
of its earliest numbers in its new form, contained an ad-
vertisement for a favourite greyhound belonging to the
King, and this having evidently failed to bring back
the lost pet, the following issue included this quiet
pathetic appeal: "We must call upon you again for
a black dog, between a greyhound and a spaniel; no
white about him, only a streak on his breast, and
tay I a little bobbed. It is his Majesties own dog, and
doubtless was stolen, for the dog was not born nor
bred in England, and would never forsake his master.
Whosoever finds him may acquaint any at Whitehall,
for the dog was better known at Court than those who
stole him. Will they never leave robbing his Majesty?
Must he not keep a dog? This dog's place (though
better than some imagine) is the onely place which
nthody offers to beg." It is almost as difficult to
imagine such an advertisement as that from
our present Sovereign as it would be to con-
ceive her gravely announcing in, say the Times and
Ecso, such a public appearance as this, which was in
the Public Intelligencer : "Whitehall, May 14th, 1664.
His Sacred Majesty, having declared it to be his Royal
will and purpose to continue the healing of his people
for the evil during the month of May, and then to
give over till Michaelmas next, I am commanded to
give notice thereof, that the people may not come up
to town in the interim and lose their labour.'
Whether imagination really produced beneficial emo-
tions or not in such cases need not be here discussed.
But the gold coin bestowed] by the King upon his
patients probably brought many not genuinely scro-
fulous patients to obtain such an easy remedy, and
who were of course " cured " by the Royal touch.
The last sovereign who assisted in perpetuating the
superstition was Anne, the Brunswick line never pre-
tending to possess the healing virtue.
After the accession of William and Mary, news-
paper enterprise was very mat, not less than 26 new
journals springing into existence between 1688 and
11392; and, naturally, the advertising departments
were increasing in importance. But not until the
commencement of the eighteenth century do we find
that the theatres employed the newspapers as mediums
of publicity. The ice was broken in this direction by
the Lincoln's-inn Theatre, in 1701, in the columns of
the English Post, and in a very few years the custom
of announcing their programmes in the journals was
regularly followed by all the play-houses. Lottery
advertisements filled the earlier copies of the Tatler,
and many of their headings are suggestive of the
"word competition " and similar manias which filled
whole columns of our papers last winter,
"A sixpenny sale of lace," "A penny
adventure for a great pie," " A hun-
dred pounds for half -a - crown," "Three
penny sales of houses," will recall visions to many
minds of sending good money afterbad. Even modern
society journals, however, have hardly evolved a finer
manner of obtaining "valuable copy" than did this
gentleman, who inserted this pleasant notice in the
Taller of May 8, 1709: "Any ladies who have any
particular stories of their acquaintanze which they are
willing privately to make public, may send 'em by the
penny post to Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., inclosed to Mr.
tHcalalli.m"
evlenheto"bUenain
original idea either, for the same paper of Decembr-
s.
vjeorhenalM° Informationr pl ie n , near
o ES
et Stationer" ocnaenrns
o'
16tb, in the following year, informs us of the existence
of the " Charitable Advice Office," "where all persons
may have the opinion of dignified clergynien, learned
council, graduate physicians, and experienced surgeons
to any questions in divinity, morality, law, physic,
or surgery, with proper prescriptions, within 12
hours after they have delivered in a state
of their case. Those who can't write may
have their cases stated at the office. The fees are only
one shilling delivery, or sending your case and a
shilling more on redelivering that and the opinion
upon it, being what is tho ght sufficient to defray the
necessary expenses of servants and office rents." It
was not until 1786 that the English law was merciful
enough to abolish the Slave Trade, and one feels a
little ashamed that one's ancestors so recently as
Sept. 28, 1728, in the daily journal, unblushingly set
forth that there was "To be sold, a negro boy, aged
11 years. Enquire of the Virginia Coffee-house in
Threadneedle-street." Previously to this, numberless
advertisements had shown that an English slave
market was as fully recognised an institution as that
of any eastern town. Many of the lads who were
missing were stated to have their masters' names and
addresses upon the collars round their necks, in true
canine fashion. But from that period up to our own,
advertising seems less interesting. The subject hits
become such a colossal one in its development that
even a bulky volume could do no more than give a
few disjointed fragments, and speak of a few of the
boldest and most striking of its feetures in the present
century.