The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-31
Especial CORRESPONDENCE

What a Smart, Alert, Ingenious Gener-
| alton This Is--Advertising Pictures.
| Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27.-There is a
| modern art which | admire very much,
and which is still little celebrated in the
salons or the books. It is an art which
| reaches nearer to the essence of life in
| this practical age, an art which has a
! literature of its own, and which num-
bers it's masters by the thousand and its
followers by the millions-the art of adj
vertising. | am believer in adver-
Using, and particularly in artistic adj
vertising.
The shrewd and successful man of
business always advertises, but not every
advertiser studies the art of advertising.
Did you ever stop to thisSs, reader, how
dreary and Ineffective newspapers and
magazines would be without advertis-
ing? Did it ever occur to you that in
scores of admirable publications with
which we are all familiar the advertis-
ing pages are more interesting, more
readable, more artistic than any other
pages? And in looking over these adver-
Using pages, did you ever give serious
thought to the art, the fine human in
stinct, the touch and delicacy, the inge-
nuity displayed therein, and above all
the view of our intensely practical, ra-
tionally luxurious and highly specialized
modern life thus afforded? I have done
so, and if had to buy newspaper or
magazine composed of reading matter
without advertisements, or of advertise
ments without any reading matter, l
think should choose the latter.
Let us study together for few
moments these marvellous advertising
pages of modern publications. Perhaps
we shall learn something about art,
literature, trade and human nature.
Could anything be more effective, more
perfect, than this soap advertisement?
Blanks soap is nothing but soap-no medi-
cine in it-pure soap. 1t has no alkali in it
nothing but soap. The more purely negative
soap is the nearer does it approach to perfec-
ton.
Here is a volume in less than three
dozen words-a model for advertisement
writers, for journalists, for authors, for
correspondents, for teachers.
A shoe manufacturer knows some
thing of the art of advertising too. He
says:
The secret of success and popularity Of the
Blank shoes is that they are the best made, best
value most elegant and perfect fitting shoes in
the world
This also is multum in parvo, and it is
strengthened by an accompanying pic
ture of the shoe itself, wherein the en-
graver's art has produced lines of real
elegance and finish.
You would not expect to find a semi
literary art in a high state of develop
ment in varnish factory, would you?
Yet here is varnish man who more
than knows his business-who knows
human nature and how to approach it.
He writes:
You know a man who is honest and straight
forward. You can always depend on him.
You know another = dishonest, deceitful,
tricky. You meyer depend on him.
You know still another-sometimes kindly
and truthful: sometimes cruel and treacherous.
When can youdepend on him?
That is the way with varnish.
If you want a friend to trust in, which would
you choose?
Do the same with varn!sh.
The maker Of tonic is another artist.
He prints in this autumn season a pic
ture, drear and cold, which attracts the
eye and makes you think of overcoat OF
fire. Then he adds:
The month OF driving pelting rain and sleet;
dangerous to the weak. trying even to the
rugged.
ne o,,,,,~, Al -, -, ,,.,1 =; +I,o4 ~, NV,
must be fortified with something; that
you must PUT on an armor of flesh and
strength. And the one thing to do this
with is his preparation, whose praises he
SO softly sings that, though | weigh 200
pounds, I'm half tempted to buy bottle
of it.
A railroad passenger agent shows him
self to be as bright as the best Of them.
His road makes a specially of carrying
people from the north to the sunny south,
so he asks, in a line which was stroke
of genius:
Is your health worth q hundred?
In the advertising pages we have an
ever present international show of what
human ingenuity is all the time doing
IOI uuIildu COiulOIt, uSdlbl ctIu luxury.
In fact | know of no better way of
keeping up with the new things which
are constantly coming out than by read
ing the advertisements. Did you know
that a valuable brain and nerve food
could be made from the phosphoid
principle of the OK brain and embryo
of wheat? Did you know that dandruff
should never be neglected, because it's
natural end is in badness; that young
Americans who do not wish to lose
their hair before they are forty must
begin to look after their scalps before
they are twenty? Did you know that
impurities of the blood could be re-
moved by plasters externally applied?
Did you know that a toothbrush de-
signed especially for artificial teeth is
necessity in many households? Did you
know that you can buy a salt with
which yoN produce real sea water at