Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1895-10-11
ADVERTISING INCARS
A NEW BUSINESS WHICH AMOUNTS
TO 1000. 900 A YEAR.


Bostons Serious View OF the AID. Writ
er's Attempts at Humor.
The annual expenditure for street car
advertising in the United States has IN
five years grown from $500, GOO to So,
OOO, 600, and is constantly increasing.
Although it is yet small in comparison
with the enormous amount of money
paid for newspaper advertising, 1t Is,
for various reasons, a peculiarly inter-
esting development Of modern business
methods. It is an outgrowth Of lmpor-
tant social betterments, new field for
the display Of artistic and Literary tai,
ent, and a not inconsiderable element oil
entertainments as well as practical IN
formation for the quick witted Ameri-
ran public. 1t is also q field curiously
liable to be cornered. Newspapers may
add ON columns and pages to accommo-
date advertisers, magazines be made
few ounces or pounds heavier to the
same end, new publications without
number be set going and billboards ell
larged indefinitely. In fact, every other
vehicle of advertising has quality OF
elasticity that is entirely lacking in the
street car method New lines will not be
started or even more cars put ON to give
opportunities to advertisers Those
things are determined by the require
ments of local travel. And when the is
advertising spaces in a car are filled the
seventeenth advertiser who comes along
will have to wait his chance for some
one else to drop out.
Not infrequently the limit of accom-
mediation has been reached in Boston
md other New England cities peculiar
" favored by advertisers, aud apph-
cants for space have had to wait for the
expiration of running contracts before
thew could gain entrance. Already half
dozen firms are spending from $75, 900
TO 500, 600 a year each in this way, at
least 20 concerns each expend from $40,
600 to $40, 600, and from % to 80 may
be counted who put out from S25, 900 to
$40, 600 each. These sums, it is under
stood, are paid for the actual rental Of
spaces in the street cars, the placing Of
the cards il them and the watching nee
essary to see that the cars are run &C
cordinR to contract. The cost of getting
up the cards, which is very considerable,
is outside this estimate. To make up
the remainder of the estimated $3,00O,-
600 of total annual expenditure an ar
my of smaller advertisers, generally To-
cal only, lend their aid.
The growth of street car advertising
has been to a very marked degree de-
pendent upon and synchronous with
marked improvements in street car serv-
ice 1t was a very insignificant interest
in the old days Of the horse cars prior to
1878. The low ceiled, dingy, i'll lighted
vehicles then in use carried a few plain,
uuattractive cards. half Obscured by
dust and covered by glass, the refrac-
tions from which made them difficult
TO decipher. Only local advertisers Occu-
pied spaces and did so rather to help a
struggling enterprise or get rid Of per-
sistent solicitor than through any hope
of profit from the investment Then, in
San Francisco primarily, cable traction
began to take the place of horses, ena-
bling the employment of roomier, loft
Ter cars, handsomer in every detail Of
materials, form and color than the old
ones, and some genius evolved the hap
DIV idea of combining the advertising
cards by holdings in concave spaces and
without glass. At once the cards were
made to conform to their improved sur
roundings. They were more handsome
" designed, printed in bright, attract
i've colors and sometimes illustrated.
It was not until 1888, when electric
propulsion had been clearly demon
strated to be commercially practicable
and trolley lines were put in operation
all over the country, that street car ad-
vertising began to assume its present
character. AS before the improvement
in it was in keeping with the better
ment of the vehicles, which were now
no longer simply comfortable, but be-
came luxurious. The amount Of interest
taken in the advertising cards, as well as
the vigilance of critical observation, is
sometimes demonstrated by protests
against some novelty within the first
hour Of its appearance. That is partition
larly likely to happen in Boston. where
the committee for regulating the uni
verse is largely represented. That COM
mittee is always in session, one Of its
members constitutes a quorum, and it
seldom lacks things to kick at. One day,
some months ago, it was moved to turn
itself loose ON the subject Of new card
that flashed out at once in all the cars
The man who let's lady stand
Where others push and crowd her
Deserves to have the strongest brand
OF rs baking powder
To raise him.
The Boston newspapers received let
tiers of indignant protest against the ad-
vertiser s aldacity in presuming oteach
Bostoniaus courtesy under the guise OF
advertising his baking powder. Finally
the row got into the courts over the
question whether the car companies
could compel the removal Of the OBJ
noxiops card. The squabble was COM
promised, but not until that baking
powder had been advertised as it never
was before. In like manner in the same
city another rumpus was caused by the
simple query Of tailor RS card, DO you
wear pants?'
The characteristic Bostonian remon-
strated against the word "pants as a
vulgar abbreviation, outrageous to cor
rect taste. IN a number Of cities the car
companies will not permit the display
Of any cards advertising wines or liq-
uors, and such things would even he
contrary to law in certain portions OF
New England Patent medicines, too.
are viewed with disfavor New York
Sun.
Made a Record.
odd the major go through the warp
eyes, like streak of lightning. /
don't think he was ten minutes getting
through. Atlanta Constitution.