Connecticut western news., 1895-10-03
ADVERTISING INCARs
A NEW BUSINESS WHICH AMOUNTS
 TO S3,ooo, 900 A YEAR.


 TO ss,ooo,o ,ooo A YEAR.
 The Reason Why 1t Has It's Limitations
 An Grown Up Within a Very Few Years
 Boston's Serious View of the Ad. Writ
 CTS Attempts at Humor.
 The annual expenditure for street cal advertising in the United States has in five years grown from $500, GOO to S3, 900, ,O00. and is constantly increasing. Although it is yet small in comparison with the enormous amount of money paid for newspaper advertising, it is, for various reasons, peculiarly inter esting development of modern business methods It is an outgrowth of impor tant social betterments, new field for the display of artistic and literary tal- ent, and not inconsiderable element of entertainment as well as practical in formation for the quick witted Ameri- can public It is also field curiously liable to be cornered. Newspapers may add on columns and pages to accommo- date advertisers, magazines be made a few ounces or pounds heavier to the same end, new publications without number be set going and billboards en- 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 16 advertising spaces in car are filed 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- modation has been reached in Boston and other New England cities peculiar ly favored by advertisers, and apph cants for space have had to wait for the expiration of running contracts before they could gain entrance. Already half dozen firms are spending from $7 5, 900 to $100, ,000 a year each ill this way, at least 20 concerns each expend from $45, 5 900 to $75, 900, and from 25 to 80 may be counted who put out from $25, 900 to $40, 900 each. These sums, it is under stood, are paid for the actual rental of
 
 the cards in them and the watching nec- essary to see that the cars are run ac cording 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 8, ,000, 900 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 very marked degree de- pendent upon and synchronous with marked improvements in street car serv- ice: It was 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 few plain, unattractive 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 a 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 
 fer cars, handsomer in every detail of materials, form and color than the old ones, and some genius evolved the hap py idea of confning 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 ly designed, printed ill bright, attract i've colors and sometimes illustrated.
 Ut was not until 1888, when electric propulsion had been clearly demon strated toS be commercially practicable and trolley lines were put in operation all over the country, that street car ad- yertising 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 we'll as the vigilance of critical observation, is sometimes demonstrated by protests against some novelty within the first hour of its appearance That is particu larly likely to happen in Boston. where
 
 verse is largely represented. That com- mittee is always in session, one of its members constitutes a quorum, and 1t seldom lacks things to kick at. One day, some months ago, it was moved to turn itself loose on n'the subject of new card that flashed out at once in all the cars: The man who lets a lady stand Where others push and crowd her Deserves to have the strongest brand Of baking powder
 To raise him.
 The Boston newspapers received let ters of indignant protest against the ad- vertiser' audacity in presuming to teach Bostonians courtesy under the guise of | advertising his baking powder. Finally 1 the row got into the courts over the | question whether the car companies could compel the removal of the ob- noxious 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 card, "Do you wear pants?"
 The characteristic Bostonian remon- l strated against the word "pants" as 2, vulgar abbreviation, outrageous to cor | rect taste. In number of cities the car companies will not permit the display | of any cards advertising wines or hq- uors, and such things would even be contrary to law in certain portions of New England. Patent medicines, too, are viewed with disfayor or-New York Suh.
 | Made a Record.
 "Did the major go through the war;" | "Yes, like a streak of lightning. l I don think he was ten minutes getting through. '-Atlanta Constitution.