The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-01-16
GHARL Es TON
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JANUARY is, 1867
NEWSPAPERS AND ADVERTISING.

NEWSPAPERS AND ADVERTISING.
| The cart preser7ative Of all arts unques-
tionably has had larger agency in bringing
about the sum total Of modern civilization
than all other Influences combined. Science,
the fine and useful arts, philosophy, literature,
politics, religion, all owe their giant strides 10
the ouickening power Of printers ink Too
much cannot be said in credit of an institution
that extends its useful, humaniziDg ramihca-
tions into every, even the humblest, sphere OF
life. That this blessing has sometimes oeen
abused, argues nothing against it. innocent
corn, the very staff of life,-we all know, when
brought under the u S. Internal Revenue
guager's rod called Bourbon then),-ls held
RESPONSIBLE for the most heinous crimes on the
penal catalogue. The same term in dreek is
used to represent the healing medicine anu
the deadly poison, and in Hebrew the same WORD
is translated both sfto bless" and "to curse. !"
1t need surprise no one, therefore, that the
| Press, like speech and other good gifts OF
God, has often been, and still daily is, used for
very wrong and unworthy purposes.
A newspaper article does not afford scope to
elaborate so vast subject, and we can only
touch on one or two ofshoots from the great
| and mighty tree. The daily newspaper, to the
wisest man even, affords the best school Of hu-
man nature The journal is q map of busy
life,-all unconscious, though, even the editor
himself may be of this department of his paper,
from the very nature of the case, it must and
will be faithful reflex of the life of those
whom it reckons among its readers and sub
soribers. This is the case in the news columns,
/ in the editorial, the literary or the miscellane-
Gus department, but more emphatically 30 IN
respect to it's advertisements. We often hear
complaints in regard to the number of these
and the great space they occupy in the paper.
The dissatisfied should bear in mind that the
advertisements arc more read than any other
part of the paper; such complaints, therefore
betoken an unbecoming sel6shness. The news.
paper, like.most of the institutions of modern
| civilized society, in d certain measure, is Q
Joint stock enterprise, in which every member
of the community is shareholder to the e1,
tent Of his subscription or advertising patron,
age. To this extent (the amount Of his invest.
ment) he has right to a voice in its manage
ment. But it is understood that, in all such
undertakings, the stcckholder is the "obliged
party $" for by the arrangement he obtains nd.
vantages out of all proportion superior to the
consideration he gives in return. It is, there
fore, expected that he should surrender also a
part Of his rights, or at least Of his prejudices,
for the accomplishment Of the greatest good to
the greatest number. The old fable of Jupiter
and the countryman, in regerd to the weather,
illustrates our point.
But to return. Weremarked that the adver-
-tscnnan.--f-- -.---r-r-~. L. l--=--. i'..
of cotemporary life. single copy. of the
Pompeii Morning Herald, Of the oath of August,
A. D. 70, published by Messrs. PL1NY & Co.,
would be of more service to the modern arcba-
ologist to a proper understanding Of the every
day life of the people Of Southern Italy in the
first century, than half the excavations and
three-quarters of all the many huge and
learned tones that have been written in their
elucidation.
Yet the world was slow to appreciate the
value Of this universal "fnisning school,"
Printing was invented in or abeust l440, and
the first newspaper in London was not estab
lished until 1922; and even then it took thirty
years additional before even dawn of the ad-
vertising idea broke upon the publishers mind.
In 1862, it is said, the announcement of book
was the first advertisement published in Eng
land. Once the ice broken, however, progress
was rapid; and it would amuse our readers,
were we to reproduce some Of the advertise
ments Of the last century, to SEQ that there
was nearly as much ingenuity displayed then
as now in the effort Of venders to bring their
wares to the attention of purchasers. 'War-
ren's Blacking" aud tho "Rcjected Addresses"
are among the best known Of the polite adver-
tisements Of that period. 'sWe keeps our own
poet, vas proudly said by the little shoe
black over hundred years ago.
Certainly as time rolls on, and on insatiate
public still Graves something new, advertisers
find it more and more difficult to devise new
'dodges." A literary man or So poet" is now
in the employ Of every large advertising mcr-
chant. DRAKE, the Plantation Bitters man, it
is said, enjoys the services of one of the first
literary men Of New York to write his adver-
:isements, manufacture parodies, write pretty
stories, ETC., ETC., all winding up with the in
svitable S. T.-l860-X.
That this advertising costs great deal of
money, al see and believe. But how it pays
hat is the question,-one Of the most curious
problems certainly in 'social science" We
lave seen advertisements, published in large
metropolitan daily, costing $1,000 for single
Insertion. Few investments require larger
aith, yet few yield larger returns. We know
# manufacturers and dealers in proprietary
nedicines in this country who spend over
500, 900 per anhum in advertising. AS this
tyle of business has now been conducted for O
lumber of years, and usually, too, by very
hreWd men, it is fair to infer that they must
nd advertising to their interest, and that they
re satisfied they could not do the same amount
business without it,
We know many Of our readers will exclaim,
Who reads quack medicine advertisements ?"
he answer has already been given. Quite re-
emily we heard of little incident All hoe. II
well known that almanncs have been circu-
tied by the million for number Of years by