The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1875-04-08
VOL. IV
AUSTIN MERcHANrs AM rup
CRAFTSMAN.

Happily the use Of ''dodgersp by adver.
tisers has been almost wholly abandoned.
In TACT the circular often produces an effect
the very opposite Of that contemplated
Fiacards, " "dodgers7 and circulars have
been so prOstituted by humbuqgery and
quackery that decent people win not read
them and business men resort exclusively
to the newspaper press. A circular, at first
sight initiates and disgusts and people
have no patience with them. The news
paper, on the contrary, Is ever welcomed
and we have seen a WEEKLY STATESMAN,
after every line and psge Of It had been
read by every reading member of seven diff
terent families. The Weekly gets into a
neighborhoOd and is borrowed and read
and constitutes the bans Of nocturnal con-
versations and rural dreams in many house
holds, each neighbor borrowing or exchang-
ing his own paper for the WEEKLY STATES
MAN. Here in Austin we read each morn
ing and scan over the advertisements of the
DAILY STATESMAN and since each intelT
gent household has its own pGper a single
copy is read, save where delivered on bust
ness streets, only by the family taking it.
In the great cities families form mariner
ships and alternate nrights Of priority, and
the shopmen, in cities of the Old World,
farm out the privilege of reading the great
dailies by the hour. Here, newspapers, in
proportion to the cost of money and labor
employed in their production, are the
cheapest Of all results of human industry,
and here newspapers are more universally
read. They have almost driven books out
of use and almost utterly abolished that
educator of the people known, in former
years, as the stump speaker" People
do not care to listen, through an hour or
two, to speech when they can read bet
ter one sitting comfortably by the fireside,
in the STATESMAN of the next morning.
The old-fashioned stump speaker is an in
stitution to which we, who knew the world
as itwas before the deluge-'the war;
look back with reverence. He lives no
more, His occupations gone. He is no
more the conosure Of all eyes; no moro
does be give tone to public morals or shape
to public opinion. The newspaper has
even dethroned the popular orator and
makes its endless speeches by day and night,
at every hearthstone IN all this broad land.
It discusses not only affairs Of State and
the conduct and fortunes ofparties, but its
advertising pages tell curious and inter
esting story Of the worlds progress in art,
industry and science. Nothing is too tri-
fling to escape it, nothing too great for it
to grapple. Oratory cannot compete with
its simple eloquence, or nervous force with
sinews Of steel and breath of fame that
yivify the newspaper and send out its
''sheet lightning" to startle the world.
At last orators abandon the field, and Amer
ica's master, morally, Is the daily newspa-
per. ap asi
There is a species Of advertising by cir
culars eminently proper and valuable. It
differs toto eelO from the common, rude pla-
card or handbill. Merchants of taste and |
resort to it to make known |
changes in business associations. In fact,
chese circulars. are really printed private
letters, used as such, and very properly.
Besides this circular letter and the common
business card, the business intelligence of
the country approves no other agency of
advertising than the press. OF all members
Of the community, merchants are confess
edly most intelligent. They travel and
read and think. They soon discover the
value, to village or city, of an excellent,
newspaper. Not only do they
prefer to advertise, for reasons suggested,
in the local daily or weekly paper, but are
deeply interested personally in making their
paper prosperous. Their own
and the prosperity and character and intel
lgence Of the city or town is measured
abroad by that of the representative paper
of the place they inhabit and, therefore,
each public-spirited merchant and banker
advertises literally, and augments by all
possible means the circulation of the
STkTraNAN stt - ai