The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-01-12
observation-disclosures Of Ideas on the Sub

Acknowledgements Or Ideas ON the Sub.
Chambermsids were the are. TO perceive the
true principles Of advertising, and step by
step the world Of business ia folio wing in the
path they marked out Wanting q place, the
girls natural idea was to advertise for it-but
where should she advertise! Clearly in the
| journal that was most taken by those who en-
| ployed servants-not in the cent sheet only
bought by people as poor as herself 1t would
be Of no use there. Not in the great blanket
sheets never seen save In the dingy counting
rooms Of heavy grocers nor yet In those
| organs that plume themselves on their amiable
responsibility and circulate in the rural dis
tricts. She put her advertisement In the
journal that went just where she wanted to go
herself, and that she had seen on the breakfast
table Of every house she had ever been In.
This practical view Of the case has always
given that class Of advertisements to the
HERALD, and has always kept them in our
columns despite every effort to draw them to
other quarters. They are ours in virtue Of the
natural operation Of business law that
Bridget makes no effort to defeat. Next to
the chambermaids there was large class of
promiscuous advertisers who also put their
notices where they were sure to be seen by the
people. There were horse jockeys and dog
fanciers and boat racers and people who had
lost articles Of value, and the auctioneers of
household furniture, and nostrum vendors, and
the managers Of theatres
Advertisements, however, OF great lines of
trade kept themselves for long while in
| special places, and whoever wanted to see this,
that or the other class Of advertisements had
to buy some particular paper for that sole
purpose. Business men had to buy one paper
| for the news to get the general movement Of
society, to keep up with the political discus
sion Of the day, and another paper to find the
trade announcements CT fellow dealers in the
| same article Here was the absolute mega
toH of the primary idea Of advertising-that
the advertiser shall force himself on the atten-
ton of the one to whom he makes his appeal.
Men were compelled to hunt up the advertise
ments But enterprising dealers saw the alb
surdity of this and led the way to change |;
l
obvious advantage compelled imitation.
Hummer, Of the firm of Hummer & Bunks,
who is the agent for eighteen lines Of steamers
and nobody knows how many lines Of packets,
read one morning In his newspaper at the
breakfast table the announcement Of the agent
of six rival lines Hummer was outraged to
| the core Of his heart. Such an innovation had
never been known. No business man had ever
before taken such advantage Of another. 1t
had been customary from time immemorial to
hide this class Of advertisements in an obscure
corner Of sheet published somewhere on the
banks of Buttermilk channel, and so respect
able in its proportions that it required porter
and two boys to turn it inside out Agents
had mutually agreed to this hiding, and all
was equal. But here was new man with a
fund Of rascally enterprise in him fouting
that tme-honored understanding, and actually
| putting his advertisement where nobody could
help seeing 1t who saw the news Flummer,
disguised with life by the circumstance,
nevertheless, had to follow suit in selt-de-
fence. So shipping advertisements, general
auction notices, dry goods announcements, and
q world Of others have been leaving special ira
ditlonal channels to force themselves on publ
attention in the columns Of q newspaper.
| One Of the first men to perceive the advan-
tage 10 be gained in this way was Mr.. Bonner,
Of the Ledger, whose peculiar and ex tensive
style Of announcing the attractions Of his
journal is familiar to all. Bonner has already
made large fortune out of the success thus
gained for his paper. Among the latter con-
vcrts to the system are the book publishers
Hitherto booksellers have very persistently
kept their announcements in journals that had o
quasi reputation as scholars organs, papers that
from an afeciation Of intellectual character
| were supposed to circulate especially among
book buyers. We need scarcely say this was
an error. Your people who read scholars
organs" are mostly those who expect to get
their books on deadhead principles, while the
subscribers to pretentously intellectual
sheets are more concerned with writing some
trashy little book Of their own than with buy
ing the best possible book ever written by any
one else. Booksellers who really want TO get
at the great mass--at the buying and paying
public--must put the announcement that they
have published new book where the people
find the other news Of the day-in the columns
Of the HERALD. Booksellers in London have
already recognized the necessity Of advertising
in the real newspapers, and the Appletons here,
having something really worth public atten.
ton, have led the way in this movement on
this side the Atlantic, and tho whole trade
will follow.
L
| The Fashions.
L ~C O.. to str og