The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-09-02
Walking Advertisements.

Let us glance at those porambulatory
advertisements which are set in motion
through the busy arteries of 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-
wich man" excites is often supple
mented by the grotesqueness of his APP
parel. Caring little for what his an
nouncement is, there is a 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 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, bill
board, or, more properly speaking, two
bill-boards, between which he is braced
and set adrift in the crowded streets earlv
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 traffic-motives to fathom
and passions to read; but he bears him
self with an air of preoccupation, and
being himself cynosure, pays no atten-
tion 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 un-
communicative, he marches hither and
tlther; 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 me -
The world knows little of the wounds
it intiicts on the peripatetic sandwich
man; and he conceals his embitterment
under placid condition of mental res
ervation, unrippled by the faintest in
dication of any disturbance. He is ST.
lent and cogitative, like philosopher.
Nothing is left to his discretion. Pinned
to his back or heart is a small open case
containing his employers cards, with a
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
DEnnery's capital drama was being
acted. took advantage of the habitual
and characteristic gloom of the sand
wich man to advertise his attraction.
He selected two.of the saddest he could
find, and set them adrift 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
along in. the twilight, as he
went home from business to dinner, he
mentioned so good an adver-
tisement to his wife, and that lady, be-
ing reminded of the piece, of course in
sisted upon his taking her to see it.
The very woe of the sandwich men thus
became medium of the astute man
ayers success, and while they braved
The wintry weather for an incredible 4
oittance, he sat in the box-office con- \
'entedly smoking "big cigar
But, after all, extravagantly lugubri-
ous as he is-sometimes carrying a
scarlet umbrella, with great white let
'ers and stars upon it, that invites Gus
,om to certain manufacturer when the
country is suffering from drouth;
sometimes exhibiting two immaculate
shirt bosoms, framed and glazed, coun-
erparts OF which may be purchased at
he small price of dollar, though no
'hirt, at all is visible upon him, and
'Ometimes bearing above the double
'ign-boards, or sandwiches" which
conceal his body. third advertisement
upon heavy pole after all,
lis melancholy goes too far in some in
stances for any mirth. No one who
aw a lofty and handsome old man.
traight, except in the shoulders, with
! large-featured. candid face and white
lair, patrolling Nassau street last
christmas Eve, with banner advertis-
ng some sort of stuff, could have smiled
It him. This ignoble and wearisome
business, with its few cents a day. has
pared him from starvation when that
,aunt wolf was staring him in the face,
md one need not have been very pene-
rative to see the humiliation and de-
pair that lay beneath his faded over
oat. At the same season there was
mother old man, with a foreign aaui-
inc face like that of Meissonier's organ
.rinder, who marched to and fro on
broadway with an announcement of a
heap edition of the "Turkish March,
nd though there was something nearly
aughable in the incongruity between
lis own abject appearance and the i've
y, martial tune that he proclaimed, his
Misery turned the laugh into more de-
ent pity.-W H. Rideiug, in Scribser's
Monthly.
Mrs. Sumner Hayden, of Ashland,