The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1895-10-06


All Grown Up Within II Very Few Years.
hoston's Serious View of tho Adj. Writ
era Attempts ut Eumor.
The annual expenditure for street car
ADVERTISING Iii the United States has in
lVo years grown from $500, 600 TO 3d.
ooo,oo0, and Is constantly increasing.
Although it IS yet small in comparison
WIN tho enormous amount of money
Iald for newspaper advertising, it is,
ior various reasons, 4 peculiarly inter-
esting development of modern business
methods. 1t is an outgrowth of impor-
tant social betterments, new field for
tho display of artistic and literary tall
olit, and not inconsidcrable element of
entertainments as we'll as practical in
formation for tho quick witted Ameri-
can public. 1t is also a field curiously
liable to be cornered. Newspapers may
adu on columns and pages to accommo-
cato advertisers, magazines BIO made
Jew ounces or pounds heavier to the
same end, now publications. without
humber be set going and billboards en-
S@larged indefinitely. III fact, every other
vehicle of advertising has quality of
elasticity that is entirely lacking in tho
street car method. New lines will not DO
started or oven more cars put OH to give
opportunities to advertisers. Those
things are determined by tho require
mcnts Of local travel. And when the &c
advertising spaces i'll Il car arc filled tho
seventeenth advertiser who comes along
Will havo To wait his chance for some
ono else to drop out.
Not infrcquently tho. limit Of accom-
modatiOn has been reached i'll Boston
and other New England cities peculiar
ly favored by advertisers, and appli-
cants for space have had to wait for tho
expiration of running contracts before
they could gain entrance. Already half
n dozen firms are spending from $75, 900
to 500, 900 year each i'll this way, at
least 20 concerns each cxpcnd from $40
600 to $40, 900, and from 25 to 80 NAV
be counted who put ont from SEQ, 600 to
$40, 600 each. These sums, it is under
stood, are paid for tho actual rental of
spaces i'll the street cars, the placing of
the cards i'll them and the watching nee
essary to sec that the cars arc run ac-
cording to contract The cost of getting
up the cards, which is very considerable,
the remainder of the estimated So OOO,-
600 of total annual expenditure an ar
my Of smaller advertisers, generally To-
cal only, lend their aid.
Tho growth of street car advertising
has been to IL very marked degree de-
pendent upon and synchronous with
marked improvements in street car sery-
ice. 1t was very insignificant interest
Ill the Old days Of the horse ears prior to
1878. The low cciled, dingy, i'll lighted
vehicles then i'll use carried Il few plain,
unattractivc cards. half obscurcd by
dust and covered by glass, the refrac-
lions from; which made them difficult
to deciphcr. Only local atlver, iscrs occu-
pied spaces and did so rather to help
struggling enterprise or get rid of per
sistcnt solicitor than through any hope
of profit from the Investment Thcn. in
San Francisco primarily, cable traction
began 10 take the place Of horses, ena-
Bling the employment of roomicr, loft
Ter cars, hundSomcr in every detail of
materials, form and color than tho old
ones, and some pCnius evolved the han
py idea Of continuing the advertising
cards by holdings in concavc spaces and
without glass. AT once the cards were
made TO conform TO their improved sur
roundings. They were moro handsome
ly designed, printed i'll bright, attract
i've colors and sometimes illustrated.
1t WAS not until 1883, 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-
vcrtising began to assume its present
character. AS before tho improvement
i'll it was i'll keeping with the better
ment of the vehicles, which were now
no longer simply comfortable, but be-
camo luxurious. The amount of interest
taken i'll tho 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-
larry likely TO happen i'll Boston. where
the committee for regulating tho uni
verse is largely represented. That com
mittec is always III session, one of its
members constitutes 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 now card
that flashed out at once i'll all tho cars:
The man who lets a lady stand
Where others push and crowd her
Deserves to have the strongest brand
OF IS baking powder
To raise him.
The Boston newspapers received let
tiers of indignant protest against tho adj