The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-10-01
Ancient and Modern numbugs
Of the World.
BIZ p. !. BAkNCA.

.
DIGESTION OF THE WORD HrxBUG WARRES
OF L~osDoS-GESIs, THE HATTEs-GosLISG'
BLscEISG.
When I come to sit down earnestly 10 fulfill
ny engagement with the publishers of the MeT-
curry, to write for them a series of articles upon
the 50 Humbugs of the World" / confess myself
somewhat puzzled in regard 20 the true definition
of that word. To be sure, Webster Gays that
humbry, as q noun, is an " imposition under
fair pretenses - and as a verb, it is ." To deceive
To impose on" With all due Difference to Doc
tor Webster, L submit that, according to present
usage, this il not the only, nor even the gener-
ally-accepted definition of that term.
We will suppose, for instance, that q man with
" fair pretenses'' applies to a wholesale merchant
for credit on a large bill of goods. His 81 fair
pretenses" comprehend an assertion that he Is 4
moral and religious man, a member OF the church,
q man Of wealth, etc, etc. Ii turns out that he
is not worth a dollar, but is a base. lying wretch,
m impostor and a cheat. He is arrested and i'm
prisoned /" for obtaining property under false
pre.enses'' or, as Webster says, - fair pretenses."
He is punished for his ~viIlainy. The public do
not cali him a /" humbug:" they very properly
term him a swindler.
4 man, bearing the appearance OF q gentle
man in dress and manners, purchases property
from you, and with " fair pretenSes" obtains
yoar confidence. You End, when he he's Left,
that he paid you with counterfeit bank-notes. or
@ forged draft. This man il justly called 3
~ IOFgSE, OF " COuntcE-tlEsE -4lI IL SIEcSItAs
be is punished as such but nobody thinks OF
calling him a : humbug."
n respectable-looking man sits by your side IN
an omnibus or railcar. He conyerses Huentiy,
and is evidently n man of intelligence and Teac-
ing. He attracts your attention By his " far
pretenses." Arriving ut your journeys end. you
miss your watch and your pOcket-book. Your
fellow passenger proves TO be the thief. Every
body calls him 3 :" pickpocket," and notwith-
standing his ' fair pretenses," not a person in
the community calls him o " humbus."
Two actors appear as stars at two rival theaters.
They are equally talented, equally pleasing. One
advertises himself simply as g tragedian, under
his proper uame-the other boasts that he Is Z
prince, and wears decorations presented by al
the potentates of the world, including The 4. King
of the Cannibal Islands" He is correctly set
down as a "humbug," while this term is never
applied to the other actor. But if the man who
boasts Of having received a foreign title is a mis-
cradle actor. and he gets up gift-enterprises and
bogus entertainments, or pretends TO devote the
proceeds of his tragic efforts 10 some charitable
object, without, IN fact. doing so-he is then a
hur1bug IN the offensive sense of that word, for
he is an - impostor under fair pretenses."
Two physicians reside in one of our fashion
able avenues. They were both educated in the
hest medical colleges each has passed an ekamin-
alton, received his diploma, and been dubbed an
81. d. They are equally skilled in the healing
art. One rides quietly about the city in his gig
or brougham, visiting his patients without noise
or clamor-the other eallies out in his coach and
four, preceded by a band of music, and his car
riage and horses are covered with handbills and
placards, announcing his wonderful cures"
This man is properly called a quack and a hum
bug. Why? Not because he cheats or imposes
upon the public, for he does not, but because,
as generally understood, " humbug'' consists in
putting on glitteriDg eppearances-outside show
novel expedients, by which to suddenly arrest
public attention, and attract the public eye and
ear.
~Clergymen, lawyers, or physicians, who should
resort 10 such methods of attracting the public,
would not, for obvious reasons, be apt to succeed.
Bankers, iusuranGe-ageuts, and others, who aspire
to become the custodians of the money of their
f~ellow-men, would require a different species of
advertising from this but there are various
trades and occupations which need only notoriety
TO insure success, always provided that when Gus
toners are once attracted, they never fail to get
their m~oney's-worth. An honest man who thus
arrests public attention viii be called 4 - hum
bug bat he ia not 4 swindier or an impostOr.
If, however, after attracting crowds of customer
by his unique displays, a man foOlshly fails TO
give them a full equivalent for their money, they
never patrouize him a second time, but they very
properly denounce him as 4 s%windler, a cheat,
and "a impOstor ~ they do not, however, call
him q humbug." He fails, not because he
advertises his wares in an outre manner. but
because, after attracting crowds of patrons, he
stupidity aud wickedly cheated them.
When the great blacking-maker of London
dispatched his agent TO Egypt to write on the
pyramids of Ghiza, in huge letters, "a Buy War
ren's Backing, 80 Strand, London" he was not
as cheating travellers upon the Nile. His black
ing was really a superior article, and well worth
the price charged for it. but he was - humbug-
ging" the public by this queer way of arresting
attention. IL turned out just as he anticipated,
that English travellers in that part of Egypt were
indignant at this dissertation, and they wrote
back to the London Times (every Englishman
writes 0r threatens 70 . write 70 rho Times - IL
anything goes wrongly denounciug the " Goth
who had thus disfgured these ancient pyramids
by writing on them in monstrous letters :" Buy
Warren's Backing, 80 Strand, London" The
inns published these letters, and backed them
up by several of those awfully grand and dicta-
torial editorials peculiar TO the great Thun-
derer, :" in which the blacking-maker, - Warren,
80 Strand, - was stigmatized as q man who had
no respect FOR the ancient patriarchs. aud it was
limited that he would probably not hesitate to
sell his backing on the sarcOphagus of Pharaoh,
: . or any other''-mummy, if he could only make
money BY it. II fact, to cap the climax, War
rem was denounced as a 'shumbug.'' These in
dignaut articles were copied into all the Provin-
cial Journals. and very soon. in this manner, the
columns of every newspaper in Great Britain
wers teeming with this advice "Try Warren's
Backing, 80 Strand, London" The curiosity of
the public was thus aroused, and they did : try
it. and finding it q superior article, they %continu-
ed 20 purchase it and recommend it 20 their
friends, and Warren made a fortune by IL. He
always attributed his success to his having
" humbugged' the public by his unique method
of advertising his backing in Egypt! But
Warren did not cheat his customers, nor practice
"a an imposition under fair pretenses." He was
q char!atan, a humbug, but he was an honest,
upright man. and no one called him an impostOr
or n cheat.
When the tickets for Jenny Lind's first con-
cert in America were sold at auction. several