The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-08-19
Walking Advertisements.


Let US glance at those pcrambulatory
advertisements which are set in motion
through the busy arteries of a city, fol-
lowing the movements of the crowds,
and pertinaciously thrusting themselves
into positions where they must be OBJ
served. The strong element of human
interest which the peripatetic "sand-
witch nan" excites is often supple
mented by the grotesqueness of his APP
parel. Caring little tor what his an
nouncement is, there is disposition on
the part of most pedestrians to look into
the face of the unfortunate, who, with
all his emotion and immortality, is re-
duced TO the level of a billboard, and
from the face, which often enough is
sad and worn, the glance is continued
/ to the big lettering which emphasizes
/ the fame of Browns shirts or Kydd's
indestructible pen-wipers. The sand
wich man, so far from being purveyor
of any kind, as the reader unlearned in
/ city slang might suppose, is a bill
/ board, or, more properly speaking, two
/ bill-boardS, between which he is braced
and set adrift in the crowded streets early
in the morning, to confront the public
with his employers advertisement until
dusk brings him welcome relief His
pace is not hurried, but his motion is
constant. If he were an observer, he
might find much to interest him in the
stream of traflic-motiveS to fathom
and passions to read; but he bears him
self with an air of preOccupation, and
being hlmselfa exposure, pays no atten-
ton to the other sights that surround
him. Up and down the street, putting
at phenomenal pipe which apparently
without refilling, emitS smoke in all
sorts of positions and which neither
wind nor rain puts out. solitary and I'M
communicative, he marches hither and
tither; and no wonder that his cOunten-
ance sOurs, that the purposes of exist
ence seem frustrated, when his eye falls
upon any vacant wall covered with
posters and he is forced to exclaim:
That wall is as much as am and that
automatic bear, in tOy-shOp window, is
a more versatile creation than nler'
The world knows little of the wounds
it indictS on the pcripatetic sandwich
man; and he cOncealS his embitterment
under a placid condition of mental res
evatiOn, unrippled by the faintest in
dication OF any disturbance. He is 81
lent and cogitative, like a philosopher
Nothing is left to his discretion. Pinned
to his back or heart is a small open case
containing his employers cards, with
request to " take one' painted across
it; even the courtesy of offering the
passing crowd circular is not left to
him, and the one thing required of him
is constant motion.
A shrewd manager, at whose theater
D'Ennery's capital drama was being
acted, took advantage of the habitual
and characteristic gloom of the sand
witch man to advertise his attraction.
lie selected two of the saddest he could
find, and set them adrft in the bleak
November weather, bearing between
them the name OF the play, the 1.-TWO
Orphans" The two orphans were met
in the street when the rain was soaking
them, and when the sleet was falling
chill against the panes. Smileless,
voiceless and bedraggled, those men
embodied in unconscious burlesque the
bereavement of the parentless; and as
Brown, Jones or Robinson saw them
trudging along in the twilight, as he
went home from business to dinner, he
naturally mentioned so good an adver-
tisement to his wife, and that lady, be-
inc reminded of the piece, of course in
sisted upon his taking her to see it.
The very woe of the sandwich men thus
became a medium of the astute man
ayers success, and while they braved
the wintry weather for an incredible
pittance, he sat in the box-oilice con-
tentedly smoking "big cigar"
But, after all, eXtravagantly lugubri-
Gus as he is-sometimes carrying
scarlet umbrella, with great white let !
tiers and stars upon it, that invites Gus
tom to certain manufacturer when the !
country is suffering from a drouth
sometimes exhibiting two immaculate |
shirt bosoms, framed and glazed, cOun- |
terparts of which may be purchased at
the small price of a dollar, though no |
shirt at all is visible upon him, and |
sometimes bearing above the double |
sign-bOards, or sandwiches which /
conceal his body. third advertisement
imposed upon heavy pole-after all,
his melancholy goes too far in some in
stances for any mirth No one who
saw a lofty and handsome old man,
straight. except in the shoulders, with
a large featured. candid face and white
hair. patrolling Nassau street last
Christmas Eve, with banner advertis-
ing some sort of stuff, could have smiled
at him. This ignoble and wearisome
business, with its few cents day, has
spared him from starvation when that
gaunt wolf was staring him in the face.
aud one need not have been very pene-
trative to see the humiliation and de-
spair that lay beneath his faded over
coat. At the same season there was
another old man, with a foreign aqui-
line face like that of Meissonier's organ
grinder, who marched to and fro on
Broadway with an announcement of a
cheap edition of the Turkish March,
md though there was something nearly
aughable in the incongruity between
his own abject appearance and the live
", martial tune that he proclaimed, his
misery turned the laugh into more de-
cent pity.-W II. RideiRg, IN Scri6nerS
Monthly.
Tho Iaolnusv nf iufS