National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-09-08
THE ADVERTLSIYG STAGE

There are degrees or stages of growth in
newspapers, as distinct as those in men or
vegetables. And there are corresponding
stages in the development Of towns. The two
are so closely connected that shrewd OBJ
server will make very fair guess at the char
acter of town Tor business, population and
enterprise from a stray copy of one of its lead
ing papers; and conversely, he will give you no
bad hint of the sort of newspaper you may look
for in given conditions of municipal growth
And he will look not at all at the size of the
sheet, nor at the character Of the editorials,
nor the quality and arrangement of the news,
but at the advertisements their subjects, mum
Der and appearance, and the length of their
continuance Sin one stay" Broad sprawling
advertisements that blacken with cuts and dis
play type spot as big as q handkerchief,
tell the story of raw papers and lubberly
towns at once. They are as significant as
horse bills on the door posts. The paper
is ''lOblolly," and the place is d cOun-
try village Just raised above the mud and
stumps of the primeval woods. He expects to
find the editor abiding to other editors by
name, retailing private jokes, putting Toms
chickens and Dicks baby, and inviting gifts Of
any good thing that happens to be in sea-
son. The paper is little more than cOncen-
trated gossip, and could not live except in a
villsge where everybody knows everything
about everybody else. As our observer notes
changes in the advertising columns, he eN-
poets changes in the town. He finds cuts dis
appearing; advertisements eompaGtly "set up
and frequently changed; long lines of brief an
uonncements which merely hint some point Of
business, but enough in the terse attention and
ready sharpness of busy public to tell all that
is necessary; and most significant of all he finds
notices of meetings, political, social or re-
ligious, appearing in their proper place as ad
vertisemeuts and not as items of local news
''There is a city," he says, ''actiVe, busy and
wide-aWake." He might be mistaken, but is
hel Does anybody know Of paper that does not
grow in such place! The full development
of the paper and its relations to a town is
reached, when it can make business" Of all
that should be ''business;" when matters Of no
general interest are placed and paid for like
other private matters; when the paper is re-
garded as precisely the same to patrons that
dry goods store or grocery IS; when the pub
Usher is placed on the same level as the car
penter and the blacksmith, and paid as they
are for what he does. A "church social' eN-
poets gratuitous notices that would cost five
dollars as advertisements, and thinks them
amply paid for with a bowl of cold oyster soup
or a saucer Of strawberries. If a carpenter
should be asked to bring back load of boards
and saw them up, plane them and make 4
table of them for the meeting, would anybody
think of paying him with cold victuals, or
thanks? Hardly. The publisher does as much
in different way. Religious gatherings con-
Germ the public not at all, as news, and If it be
deemed worth while to notify the public Of
them, they should pay for the notice. When
a paper has reached the stage in which nobody,
individual or society, expects to do gratuitOus
advertising for particular advantage, and never
thinks of claiming something for nothing, it
has reached its full growth, and it don't do it
till then Indianapolis NelrS.