The Portland daily press., 1869-07-02

we publish to-day an interesting and impor-
tant letter from Hon. Frederic A. Pike, who is
travelling in Europe. Mr.. Pike is man of
considerable business experience and great
shrewdness. He has studied the subjects of
American commerce and navigation, both as a
successful ship-builder aud as q legislator
His observations are acute and sagacious, and
his counsels are none the less important, now
that, to the loss of the State, they can be no
longer given from the chair of public station.
The subject of this letter is one of para
mount concern to the business men Of Maine
particularly to those of the maritime towns
Whatever great advantages may be derived
from railroads, and ttey cannot be easily over
stated, the great permanent advantages of
Maine are maritime. She has two hundred
and fifty miles miles of sea coast that trends
exactly in the direction of London, Liverpool,
Paris, Hamburg and the mouth of the Baltic.
No artificial thoroughtare can ever rival this
natural highway of commerce.
Maine can manufacture, but without coal
or iron she can have rivals in that industry
Great agricultural production is forbidden un-
der.her cold skies and upon her thin soil, but
State built along a quarter Of thousand
miles Of bold sea coast indented every five
miles with capacious harbor, may defy the
continent to compete with it in commerce and
navigation.
Mr.. Pike judges that the day of merchant
sailing ships is over and that the sooner our
. wide awake Maine ship-builders find it out
and govern themselves accordingly, the better
for their interests. We submit the valuable
e. I.
ton, and should their own judgment vary
from his, we should be very glad to have some
Of them discuss the subject of our commercial
marine and how to restore it to the proud po-
sition it held ten years ago, in our own, or some
other State paper
Apropos of the subject, we cut from the last
Tribune the following item, which seems to in
dictate, that already our merchants are on the
alert, and that fleet of iron steamers are to
be put afloat to undertake that heavy carriage
of hard Goals coastwise, which has been
thought heretofore business, where the econ
omy Of slow-sailing wooden vessels was to be
found if anywhere.
Boston, June 28.-The iron screw steamer
Rattlesnake, which arrived here from Pha
!. delphia to-day, brought 577 tons of anthracite
coal, She is the first of the fleet of iron screw
{ Golfers which the PENNSYLVANIA, New Yorl
and New England Steam Navigation Compa
ny have recently commenced building for the
+ purpose of carrying coal from philadelphia tx
Boston aud other Eastern ports and the en-
terprise is expected to materially cheaper
freight and insure prompt and abundant deliv
cry. ed ils86 en 5A.srs{ .f
A New MODE OF ADvERT1sNG-Th OBJ
jeet of all advertisers is to inform the public o
the kind Of goods they have for sale and the
reasons why they wish the people to give
them call. Various methods are resorted tx
in order to attract the attention of the public
The age has been fruitful in these devices and
Inventions, and many of the stereotyped state
ments have become SO common that they lose
their charm and cease to attract the attention
the advertisers most desire. But there il
something fresh, novel, and calculated to ex.
fit cite the sympathy, and through that lead peo-
pie to purchase, in the advertisement of a
J. Zurich tradesman in New York, which he has
circulated freely over the city. He says:-and
if the readers have any tears to shed let them
prepare to shed them now-"Wishing to pni
an end to my. life, which is burden to me
and being determined to die as soon as posi-
BILE, shall sell my goods at such low rates as
have never before been heard Of" There
that will do. fthe people don't flock to his
store after that they must have lost their hn-
manity.
But now to the legitimate mode of advertis-
ing. It's generally the safest and most sue
cessfal way to make fair, honest statement
Of what one has to sell, and avoid anything in
the shape of humbug. True, humbugging
may succeed for once, and some trade may be
oDrHfucu Jnrougn fts fnsrruur-nsszsss,- but
:, burnt children dread the fire, and people dom
like to be humbugged the second time, and
will not if they can avoid it. Much money
has been made by proper, legitimate advertis.
ing, and much more will be made through the
same medium. An experienced trader and
advertiser Of Minnesota writes: Last year at
an expense of $7O2 my advertising yielged me
$3,774. This gentleman is bound to make
good headway in this world