Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-05-11
RESOURCES OF THE Blll-POSTER
The Qualifications Necessary to sticking
Up Sheets-Technical Terms.

The Qualifications Necessary to sticking
UP sheets-Technical Terms.
Bill-post'ng, like editing paper, ID
something that every one think she can
do. and vet not one in 10000 is qualified
either by nature or education To be a
bill-poster, as plebian as the title may ap-
pear. 1t is business requiring capital,
energy, tact. perseverance, patience, gall,
good temper, iirnness and shrewd
knowledge of human nature. To Mac
beth's question. who shall be wise,
amazed, temperate and furious, loyal
and neutral in moment:" the man who
knows him would dunhesitatinGly answer:
"The bill-poster,'
He controls miles upon miles of bill
boards which have to be built and paid
for; he controls acres upon acres of
dead wall ,lGle, in the city which have
to be rented from the property owners
or lesscrs nr cajoles thousands of his
fellow-citfzan> oIIt of hundreds of thou
sands of window spaces, and yet is
deemed by the chronic deadhead ticket
seeker hpuyiartor. He use oceans of
paste ma,lc fr.m hundreds of barrels of
flour to stick tons of paper into attract
i've positions. where the details will be
spread so prominently that he who runs
may read. 10 see him in his diplomatic
capacity, watch him entertain u crowd
crowd of advance agents for coming
shows, each one of whom insists on hav-
ing his paper" up first, and ON securing
control of the very best Stands" in the
city. He will converse familiarly, even
jocularly. of "three-sheets," dodgers,
.snipes," hangers, steamers" and such
things in a manner which would puzzle
the faculty ~ Harvard and make Rich
ard Grant White howl with agony,
thinking the English tongue was being
ruthlessly butchered to make a Pitts
burg holiday.
A "stand" is composed Of eight, ten,
twelve twenty or more sheets of litho-
graphed or printed show paper,
each sheet measuring 24x3S inches.
A "hanger" is a long printed announce
ment for displaying either indoors OF
out, and measuring about l4x36 inches,
while window work" comprises the
photographic pictures, colored or plain
(the picture, not the subjects), which
adorn the shuw-windows of saloons and
other places where the public most do
congregate. "Snipes' are those odd lit
tie specimens of typography which so
grotesquely ornament the curbstones, tel.
egraph poles and other out-of-the-way
places. With the "dodger" all are famil-
lar from the frequency with which they
have tried to dodge the boys who insist
on thrusting them into the hands of pc
destrians.
But all this, though showing the mex
haustible resources of the bill-poster in
technical knowledge by no means DEM
onstrates his industry, delicacy of touch,
and wonderful capacity for grasping a
coign OF vantage on some burned out
building. suburban barn OF isolated house
of which the walls are controlled by a
crusty and conservative proprietor.
Watch him as he handles wet paper on
windy days with twelve-foot brush,
and judge if it does not require manip-
ulator more careful than the layer of
gold leaf or the tuning of an IFolian
harp. Listen to him as persuades, ex-
ports, flatters, and sometimes, it is to be
feared, steps slightly beyond the strict
confines Of the truth to secure an inch
and appropriates several square yards of
display space, and you will acknowledge
that bill-posting is indeed great busi-
ness, and one whose followers are indeed
born, not made.-Pittsburg Chronicle
Telegraph.