The San Francisco call., 1898-01-05
Examin CT Padded With Bogus Advertising and
 Caught at It.
People Deluded Into Chasino Phantom Situations and
 Rooms Not for Rent.
THE PASSION FOR CHROMOs
Contenapdble Scheme to Victirraize the Innocent, Cause Annoyance and
 Boom Bad Art.

The Examiner has enlarged the scope of its fake department so as to embrace a portion of its advertising pages. Its want ads" have been corrupted. Now, among the genuine are scattered a lot of bogus. This cir constance works a double wrong. If a man desires to buy a horse and cart, and. seeing one advertised, goes to the address only to find that nobody there has advertised, nor has such articles for sale, he loses faith in the integrity Of the rest of the advertisements. al though some of them may set forth real ambition to dispose of a real horse and cart. On the other hand the bogus advertisement is Q gross imposition upon the man with some thing to sell. What shall it profit him to sandwich his announcement be- tween two fraudulent announcements which are apt to spread the blight of their pretense over his own good faith? Here is a thought for the per son who has an advertisement inserted in the Examiner, as well as for the one who reads the advertisement, to pom der.
 Fake news in the Examiner is no novelty 4 cablegram from the Elm peror of China, coming with such speed that, as d scientific proposition, it must have arrived before it started; a message of Salisbury outlining Se- crets of policy carefully hidden from the English nation; the Cisneros nov elette; the phantom charity inspiring a baseball tOurnament-all these were fakes, and never seriously regarded as being otherwise. But the adver- tisement, believed to be secure from the assaults of yellow journalism, had its fair fame beSmirched. It has been lJfred into the Examiner and it's repu- tatiOn so endangered that the only salvation is for it to get into better company. Why should a woman de- clare she wanted roomers. having no rooms to rent? Why should a man seek a situation, already having a good one? Alas! the virtue of the want ad" has been sapped by the Examiner and the chromo.
 The paper made known the evil in tent of giving a chromo to every one bringing a want ad." Many desired d chromo either to keep or bestow upon an enemy. Wherefore they flOcked to the Examiner, declaring the eligibility of rooming apartments which had no existence, offered for sale things they never had and gave as addresses numbers where they were strangers. Thus yellow Journalism succeeded in leading astray first the advertiser, second the reader of the advertisement had no means of know ing the snare set for his feet. Happi- ness reigned in the office of art and artfulness, the want ads. stretched to pleasing length and there was rid dance of the chromoS. To interfere with that happiness now appears to be a duty. AS to the full extent that the passion for chrOmos has vitiated the standing of the Examiner want ad." generally there is only one way cited, however, and doubtless more than one leg-weary mortal could ex- tend the list
 Here is one:
 PIANO for sale cheap on account of departure
 for the East. 22s2 Franklin st.
 The house mentioned is vacant and for rent.
 This is not bad stroke and is worth a large chromo of varied tints: 1915 WEBSTER-2 or handsomely furnished
 rooms; housekeeping; use of bath: kitchen.
 Ex-Mayor Ellert, who lives at this number, does not deny that it has handsomely furnished rooms, but they are used for family purposes and are not for rent. MT. Ellert is inclined to regard the matter as joke, know ing that no advertisement was insert ed by any one having a right to do SO He is amused by the people who confidently call to inspect the apart ments, but courteously refuses the best offers they can make. Whether the callers extract much hilarity from the affair does not appear but the Exami- ner extracted the price of the ad., and somebody extracted a chromo. Yester- day two ladies were surprised to find that the Ellert kitchen and bathroom were regarded as private. Then they bethought them that perhaps the peo- pie next door had advertised, but in- Quiry proved this not to be the case Tn an entirely pleasant way the El- lerts would like it understood that they are not renting rooms.
 FOR SALE-Lodging- house, 70 rooms; rent
 cheap. reason for selling, falling health. Ap-
 ply s22 Post st.
 The peculiarity of this is that the house is not for sale, that there Is no