Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-02-07

/ blg SpraWly letters could be read long
/ distance away and the guecrness of the
work certainly would attract attention
wherever it wa seen. What he printed
was this:
W JENKS' EXPRESS.
.--------------
Billy was so pleased with his handiwork
that he could have stood and looked at it
all the rest of the atteruoon but he again
/ remembered, after a while, that he was a
man of business and that, as he had heard
| hls father say, to man Of business time
was money;--though just how time could
| be money, he did not very clearly under
| stand. What he did understand. though,
| was that, if he meant his express IT, have
a good start, he ought to go down To- the
| station aud tell the station master, Mr..
| Ruggles, that he was prepared To- carry
| baggage to and from the trains; and it
| also occurred to him that, ii it didn't cost
too much. he ought to advertise his bnsi
| Ness in the Gazette.
Mr. Ruggles stopped telephouing some
| thing and seemed To be astonished, Billy
! thought when he told how he was going
! to start an express and asked if orders for
| it might be left at the station. But Mr..
! Ruggles kept his astouishment inside of
himself and answered, in his solemn way,
| If anybody leaves orders here for this
express of youm, Billy, whether the same
| l. = L.
through this here instrument, all / can
say is you shall get 'em sure, and then
he began to telephone again So that was
all right.
| The gazette was not the very best sort
| of newspaper. Its editor put into it many
unpleasant things which We're only half
true, or were not true at all, and every
now and then somebody would sue it for
| libel only short time before, as it hap
pened, the editor had been made to pay
very heavy damages for something that
he had published that was all wrong; and
! the lawyer who had won the case against
the paper was Mr.. wilkinson. Billy, of
course, did not know anything of this.
| paper in the town and that he must put
| his advertisement in that paper, or else
not advertise at all
! In general way, he knew that adver-
tising cost very heavily, and so he made
| his announcement short and to the point.
He thought very hard over it, aud finally
wrote one that, he decided, would do
But after he had it all in shape, he sud
| denly began to wonder if it would not be
dishonest to call the express his, when, in
reality, it was Il joint undertaking in
which all the capital belonged to his spec
ial partner. Billy was just as sound rs a
little dollar about honesty. SO he chang
ed the advertisement to make it fit in
with what was right, or what he thought
was right, and then took it to the news
paper office.
1t gave Billy a regular cold shiver when
the young man behind the desk took it,
made dabs at it with pen for a minute
or two, and then said, "ln display type
this will cost you fonr dollars for the first
insertion, and two dollars and seventy
five cents for each subsequent insertion
and added Special rates of it goes in by
the month you know"
All that Billy could say was OH and
he felt lump coming up in his throat
The idea of paying so much money for
mere advertising quite took his-breath
away
\ man standing behind the counter had
been looking on in queer sort of way,
and now he said What is it, George"
and reached out his hand for the adver-
tisement. When he read it, his eyes gave
queer sort of twinkle, and lie stepped
right up to Billy, and said.
I'VE wont charge you anything for
this;-not at first, anyway. And if it does
not pay, you will have saved this much
capital at the start
Il don't want you to print this for moth
ing, sir, Billy began. II cant pay four
dollars just now; but I've got a dollar,
and
But the man cut him short: Don't yon
say another word. I'm tho editor of this
paper, and if choose to print an ad. for
nothing, it's nobody's loss but my own"
Billy did not wish to accept a favor like
this from an entire stranger but the editor
was so pleasant about it that Billy finally
gave in,-with the understanding that if
by the end of the week the business had
made good start he might come back ana
they would make a regular bargain for
printing the advertisement by the year
A 5 he left the Office he heard the editor
say to the young man behind the desk,
"There's not a speck Of libel in it, and it
will make old Wilkinson just fairly howl
on the house tops" and then they both
burst into roars Of laughter.
Billy could not help wondering what it
could be that would make so very dignified
and quiet man as Mr.. Wilkinson do so
absurd thing as to climb on top Of the
houses and howl; and why anything like
that should be the joke of the season he
could not see. He concluded that it all
was some joke that he did not understand.
But Mr. Wilkinson saw where the joke
was-though it did not strike him as being
"'the best joke Of the season exactly, when
The Gazette came out the next morning
with this advertisement in it: