Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-04-22

and 50 10 pFenouiiiou Of them e given in
the printed programme, or in the preceding
languag. of the play. Bot the plan did not
resch. The csuse OF failure WIS simple.
Nobody recogniz d the portraits. The dis
tortiops oveIcaue the resemblance. Moth
iDg beyond mere grotfsqueness YVES disceinec
90 the figures, and they marched without
gaining ether laughter or applause, failing
utterly TO produce the intended climax.
NOVEL ADVERTISING DODGE.
A very hand-eme young woman, dressed
carefully in such mourning as the latest
fashion prescriDes for recentiy-beresved
widow, stood day after day on Broadway
corner and handed out circulars 10 the pass
ing multitude. She wss advertising for
weekly story paper romance IN which the
heroine was a widow. She was device Of
Francis s. Street, ;he principal owner Of the
publication. He had made 81 500, 900 by
Neutrality-suspicious. methods OF zlnterestIng
the public in the reading matter which he
provided. In this instance, he drew atten-
ZION successfully. But the mock widow had
| only been on duty a week or 80 before a real
cause for mourning made it expedient to
| withdraw her. This was the sudden death
| of her employer. The first man to make q
nit in any new way usually remains the
| fgurehead of that line OF business, no mat
ter if others subsequently Guido him. Ii Is
the general impression that Robert Bonner
| rem aims pre-emiuent as the maker of a for
| tune out Of continued stories, but Street,
| s., 500,0 600, added NO the like fortune OF
his partner, is quite az much, if 10,
more than Bonner's wealth, and was gained
| in about ha t the time. Smith ad no liter
| airy pretensions, and never undertook to
write anything for his journal, and he used
| 10 say that his lack oil refined taste was a
chief cause of his success. While never
printing an immoral line, he was careful cot
10 publish 10 after 30 good as TO be incompre-
hensible 10 dull readers. Stories must be
interesting, but not Psychological. That was
his rule. Lest he might err On the eide oil
fneness, he was accustomed 10 read manu-
scripts before a kind of jury, composed Of
rather unintellectual persons. He aimed al
a striking feature for the first chapter Of
each serial. met him in a barbsr..shop one
| day, and he told me that the frat story out 0!
which his firm had made any money was ont
10 which, at the outset, girl leaped from
ferry boat into the river, picture OF her sui
cidsl act having caught the eye OF the popu
lace.
Il wish 1 could duplicate that heroine
said he, land l have been puzzling my brsiI
lately over how 10 do IT,"
DO you mean" replied, shat you wan
l
Exactly"
Naturally, she must make bigger jump
and from something besides boat, Tor we
have progressed great deal since your hero
inc dropped into the East river"
"Thar5 il, but l can't hit on the RICH
thing"
"Aud don't see how you could miss it 70
an instant, with the Brooklyn bridge run
. ming right past your office. The bridge l
what abe must jump from, of course"
Street was delighted with the idea. II
wanted me to write the story at once. IL
, offered double The pay that he ordinaril,
gave 10 authors who had no fame as novel
, lsts. He even set an artist to making tn
picture of the leap from the bridge as eool
Z as the chapter describing that event had beel
! written, and before the rest of the romano
bad been 80 much as laid out in plot. III
dead walls of the whole country were sool
/ enlivened with huge representations OF tn
grs at bridge, with girl plugging head lore
i, most toward the river underneath.