The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-03
ORIGIY OF ADVERTISING.
An Interesting Chapter on Mercantile
Enterprise in the Days Of Long Ago.


In this age Of enlightenment, with ali
our streets named ana all our houses
numbered. We are capable Of but a
/ limited appreciation Of the difficulties
that .beset our ancestors Of generations
ago in their eudeavors TO find a given
locality. The city-bred folks. who sniR at
. the IoQuacious vageness Of the country
man, scarcely realize that there was time
4 when Il was equally difficult to give
accurate directions in a great town. An
advertisement taken from the Spectator
| gives a fair idea Of some Of the methods
resorted TO in such endeavors. 1t reads:
! TO Be Let. Newbury House In St.
Z James Park, next door but one to Lady
/ Oxford's. having two balls at. the gate
and iron rails before the door. etc"
I Lucky was the man who had a neighbor
/ Of distinction whereby he could describe
Z his own habitat.
As early at 1872 there was an attempt
made in Paris at numbering sixty-eight
/ new houses: but the wise innovation met
with saCnt repetition and became in no
I sense general for more than 20 years.
| The landmark to which the citizen chung
| was the sign-board. 1t was distinctive
] anu ttAHl lIUousa ana It's n4luDie nel6 IL
| Dor, with no individuality OF his own.
| living opposite TO it, next door to it OF
| even around the corner from it. Imbued
! with a sense Of its own importance, IL
thusts itself with eyer-increasing promi-
hence upon the public gaze, till In some
I of the narrower streets il obscured the
light Of day and INSTRUCTED travel. In
both Paris and London it was hidden by
royal mandate to retreat and to restrain
itself within proper limits. Its ultimate
removal engendered grave dissatisfaction,
| especially among people advanced in
years, who then, as now, look grudgingly
on Innovations and were inclined to re-
gard this peculiar phase of progress as
visible doing away with of good old times.
The first use of anything akin to the
sgnboards of a later day was by the
Egyptians, from whom we have derived
many another good and useful thing.
Among the western peoples they were
extensively used by the Romans, some
Of whose streets to-day bear the names
Of the signs that long ago made them
conspicuous. The Nicus Ursi Pileat
tstreet of the Bear with the hat on) tells
the wherefore OF its christening. H.
England and on the continent-and con-
sequently the newer world-many name,
the proud boast of subsequent genera
tions. had its humble origin in a sigr
board Thus William, who dWelt at tho
sign of the Bull and Thomas. who
dwelt at the sign of the Dolphin, and
were known respectively as William a.
the Bull and Thomas at the Dolphin,
were in course of time still further con
tracted into William Bull and Thomas
Dolphin.
Among the ruins of Pompeli was found
a profusion of signs. some being painted
and others cut in stone or terra colts
relieve and placed conspicuously in front
of the shop walls. a mill driven by
mule was the peculiar insignia of
baker a goat was the appropriate choice
of daryman, and the not wholly in
vitng spectacle of a school master ap
plying the scriptural rod to the small
boy denoted a school Nowadays, the
fractional part of "a foot bali team, OF
the fractional part Of any member OF
a foot ball team, would prove more
catching advertisement. We don't seen
to outgrow our thirst for corporal pun
ishment.
Sign boards were among the tokens OF
civilization that Rome bestowed upon the
British Isles, and the British cleverly
improved upon the importation, adding
in course of time here a cross to attract
the custom of a Christian and there
sun or moon to meet the appreciation OF
those who still chung to paganism. a
simple device, a picture or part of
coat-of-arms was all that a sign board
usually contained. There was no preju-
dice in the days of its early adoption
in favor of the man who knew how tc
read. Foreigners, indeed, at much
later day found fault with the sign boards
of London, that they contained no word
ing. and thereby deprived them of al
opportunity to learn English by way OF
object lessons. Oftentimes the picture
itself was trangely at variance with the
trade carried on beneath it. Addison
in l710 wrote of a boot" that was
the sign of a cook. and of a shoemaker
who could be found at the Roasted
Pig" Not wholly reverent, though pos
sibly most significant, was the sign of
Frenchmau at Charing Cross whose beV
erages had a reputation. 1t represented
two angels squeezing lemon into q
punch bowl. a publisher named Day.
during the Elizabethian era, was perhaps
guilty of still graver irreverence. He
hung out a picture Of the resurrection
beneath which was painted: Arise. for
! it is day"
Dutch sign boards were prolific in Scrip
tural names and facts oddly jumbled with
announcements altogether temporal and
earthly. The following is pure type
/ of this eccentricity:
Moses was pick'd up among the
! rushes-Teeth and grinders drawn here
Apropos of the surgeon dentist, A
! sign about Fleetbrdge in the reign of
| Charles II. cieverly advertised those who
had the honor of -eNtricating his majesty :
teeth. in view of which privilege gram
! mauoal construction was of little mo-
/ ment. 1t read:
Here lives Peter de la Roch and
! George Goslin, both which and no others
| are sworn operators to the kings teeth
The head of the Merry Monarch was
! a favorite subject with sign board dec
orators, who were ever partial to roy
/ atty. There was a goodly array of
! Queen EHzaheths. making up in guam
tity for what they lacked in quality. In
] 1868 Elizabeth, being very much of a
woman and still more of a vain wom-
an. and having moreover. reached that
limit at which forhearance ceases to be
a virtue and sign board caricatures of her
royal features an acceptable tribute, or
I dered the wholesale destruction of all
such signs as bore portraits of her made
| by uasRiHed and common painters"
After the royalty the choice of the dec
orator fell among birds and animals.
At Yaurich there was the Inn of the
Raven, which achieved fame through
the dissatisfaction its prices caused one
Of its patrons. He relieved himself in
the following couplet:
Beware of the Raven of Yaurich;
tfr1 Of or,1aY, al