News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-03
TERMS 81. 50.
ADVERTISING.
Its Growth and Development from
Remote Ages Past to To-day.

Although the first newspaper adver-
tisement, which has any claim to authen-
ITCHY, appeared at no more remote q
period than 200 years ago, yet advertis-
ing merchants were not unknown to the
ancients.
Posters were used in the time of the
children OF Israel; the walls of Pompeii
and Herculaneum still bear witness to
the fact that they were inscribed with
notices of gladiatorial performances,
painte1 in black and red.
Both the Greeks and Romans had a
space on tho walls of their dwellings
painted white, on which to write adver-
tisements. This was called album.
In Rome, it was the custom for the
booksellers to advertise new works by
placarding the titles on the front OF
their shops.
Both the Romans and Greeks adver-
tised by writing on tablets or tabelLR,
which were affixed to columns of tenn
| pies or at the base OF statues.
When the darkness of the middle
ages enshrouded the whole of Europe,
reading and writing were almost un-
known, except among the clergy, there
fore written advertisements were of no
avail, the only medium being the public
crier.
In 1858 the public criers of France,
for the purpose of mutual protection,
banded themselves together in q cor
poration.
In England the public crier was an
institution as early as the year 1899.
The first printed bill of which we have
any record was in 1880.
The Germans awakened to the virtues
of printers ink about the fifteenth cen
tury, as did also the French.
Church doors were used for the pur-
pose of posting bills, and about the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries st.
Paurs, London, was one of the favorite
places for affixing advertisements.
II was not until 1862 that the fiji st
newspaper advertisement made its ap-
pearance. The heavy stamp-tax on
newspapers was imposed in 17I3, and
\ this greatly retarded the usefulness of
newspapers as advertising mediums, as
they were too expensive to be bought by
any but the wealthy.
In 1861, the repeal of the stamp
duty gave renewed impetus to adver-
tising by increasing the circulation.
Besides this tax, another was levied
on each advertisement; until 1888 the
sum of IS. Cd. was imposed on every no
tice. 1t was not until 1888 that this
duty was abolished in Great Britain.
The predatory bill-s.iclzer wos twenty
years ago an intolerable nuisance, but in
these later days of advertising contract
ors bill-sticking has developed into al
most q science.
Railway advertising has assumed phe-
nomenal proportions, and has become q
vast source of revenue TO the already
wealthy corporations.
Advertising on the pavement was once
in vogue, but it was finally stopped by
the Intervention of the authorities. The
London undertakers were in the habit of
advertising by dropping small black bor-
dercd books along the sidewalk, or
throwing them in doOrways as ghast.y
reminders of the wares they had to sell.
In France. n law compels all announce
ments posted in public places to bear q
ten-centime stamp, only the government
being able to evade the edict. This tax
on street advertising is very remunera-
tive. The Ki0Sques, where Partisan
newspapers are sold, are furnished with
sides of colored glass, and in these
spaces advertisements are painted. The
Freach are noted for the symmetry
OF Jnelr SIreeG pOSJerSi WHICH are guy
and attractive, and always neat and
fresh.
After all, America appears to be the
nation most at home in the promulga-
tion of announcements. The professional
advertisement-writer is now an estab
lished institution, and by his ingenuity
in inventing novel methods he commands
large prices. Judicious advertising is
money well expended, but it is not every
one who is an adept in this art. Printers
ink is power in the land, and the in
telligent advertiser girdles the earth
from zone to zone by well-worded and
sagacious advertising.-Paper and Press