The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-07-29
Curoslties Of Advertising.

PAINTER in the Bowery found his busi-
ness failing, and having nothing else to
do. went along Harlem lane painting
his name, occupation and address on the
rocks and fences. Several business men
were struck by the novelty of the
method, and employed him to advertise
their wares in similar manner. His
customers increased in number. He
trav eled with his brush and paint up
the Missouri river by steamer, and
across the plsins and Rocky mountains
pedition was not the easy matter it is TO-
day. His signs appeared under the
| paImettos of the Gulf and among the
| flowers of the Antilles. He reached
| Oregon; he daubed the pyramids; the
RAILWAYS were hedged in by his handi-
work. But his success was harassed by
| a competitor, who was as bold, as push
| ing, as adroit and as irreverent as he
was. He converted this eLemy into a
friend, and the two together continued
the PROCLAMATION ofnature, and the whole
face of the country near the main lines
of traffic was degraded into vast bill
board.
half of miles. sir, said the arch vandal
whose adventures we have given
.'painted more than ninety thousand
SIGNS. and used more than five hundred
barrels of linseed oil, mixed with five
hundred barrels of turpentine and hun
dred and fifty tons of white lead. say
tons, sir, and will show you the books
| to prove it."
He beamed with exultation in men,
tioning this stupendous fact, and seemed
to breathe with difficulty whenever he
required to it. He overwhelmed us
with figures, and begged that, it any
body questioned their authenticity, he
would either "put up or shut up"
iingling the coin in his own pockets to
indicate that he was prepared to back
all his assertions.
The firm has over eighteen hundred
agents, he told us, and in addition to
painting it has facilities for distributing
and posting bills in every city. The
cost of painting the name of any article
containing not more than ten letters,
each about eight inches long, is about
one dollar, and small posters are de-
signed, printed, distributed and hung in
eyery CITY east of Omana at cost OF
about six cents each. Over 100000
s'gutter. .snipes" are distributed for one
tobacco manufacturing concern in a
year, and certain patent medicine was
''billed and painted" in seventeen differ
ent States one year for thirty thousand
dollars. A "gutter-snipe," let us add
is long, narrow bill usually pasted on
= the curbstones of sprominent streets. II
all large places the bill-stickers' priv
leges are valuable, and there is good
| deal of competition where any are to let
They consist of dead-walls, fences anC
2 boards. upon which one concern usually
! acquires by purchase the right OF eX
hibiting their advertisements; and as al
example of the prices sometimes pait
we may mention that, during the erec
ton of q new building on Broadway
three thousand dollars were offered TO
5 the use of the boards surrounding 1t
There are also window privileges, o
which theatrical managers avail them
selves, exhibiting their programmes ant
, Autographs in the windows OF tn
smaller stores and saloons, and reward
ing the tradesmen for their permission
with three or four gratuitous tickets
e month while the season lasts. But IN
average bill-sticker does not limit III
operations to the extent of the privilege
which he has purchased; he has law
less instinct TO put UP one of his poster
in every position where it can possibl
= attract attention, and through bis lac
of principle he sometimes becomes IL
volved in dispute with the competlto
:. upon whose space he has encroached. =
= bill-sticker's war is chiefly damaging t
4 the advertisers whose posters are beln
- :. distributed, as the combatants efface til
9 bills of one another rs fast as they al
4 put upon the walls. The bill.sticker
4 also open to the charge of being
- u nuisance, from his habit of using h
Il paste whgre it is obviously inappropr
: ate; but, charitably overlooking the'
:, proclivities, which are less the outcon
i of evil than of excessive zeal, he is a
:, industrious, honest and sober person
" u and if in bleak winter you should 81
y him starting out at midnight on h
% round, with ladder, brushes and past
- - to cover his boarGs with announcement
~ that will be fresh in the morning, yol
" antipathies would vanish.-Scribner.