The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-25

The foregoing statements and letters
show at a glance the results OF Inc
spy's great advertising contest which
came to an end yesterday noon.
Never has a newspaper contest IN
worcester excited greater interest
From the first day the contest was
open. every mail brought loads OF cou-
mons into the office. Each sue
cessive delivery brought it's share
until when the judges began
their work a heap OF several thousand
missives were placed before them on
the table.
The interest did not apate or flag
at the end. One man rushed hurried
ly up the Office steps two minutes ne
fore noon, and breathlessly deposited
his coupon, Other unfortunates ar
rived with their written opinion rev
hours or minutes too late and grleved
to learn that they were debarred from
winning the coveted gold.
The three judges, w. G. Melllsh, 4. G
Carrigan and Gustayus A. Cheney en-
tered upon their labors Friday after
noon, They worked continuously at
their hurculeon task until O'Clock
last evening, when the final selections
were made
Every coupon submitted received
careful attention at the hands OF the
committee, the members taking turns
in reading each aloud. Some had OBJ
vious defects, and were quickly reject
ed Others were put aside only after
much deliberation. After many hours
of careful discrimination, $50 of the
best were winnowed out of the whole
number.
Then came the tug Of war. The
reasons" given were all so good that
a, decision could only be reached after
weighing carefully every word of the
communications Many d coupon was
rejected that might have Won a prize,
had one little word been different.
The fault which vitiated the greater
part of the coupons was the stating OF
conclusions instead Of reasons. Few
of the contestants confined themselves
to stating reasons only. Others exceed
ed the limited number of words Others
made attempts at Jokes or put In a
puff in favor of their favorite adver-
tiser. All those appearing to be inn
partial or which wandesd from the sub
ject, were promptly cast aside.
Fully one-third of the contestants
labored under the impression that The
Spy would award the prizes. and there
fore attempted abandonment saying
that The Spy's gold gift advertisement
was the best of all. While The Spy
would have liked to see some of It's ad-
mirers win prizes, and If acting as its
own judge in the matter might have
proved susceptible to fattery, the
judges selected to do the work were
able and impartial men and sternly
threw on the floor every coupon con-
tanning the slightest allusion to Wor-
cester's best daily. Still, if numbers
count for anything, The Spy's adver-
tisement is one of the best. Many
thinking that The Spy's list of names
was an advertisement and not piece
Of legitimate news matter. named that
as their favorite sad.
Nearly every advertisement in We'd
nesday's edition, from that of the mer-
chant who takes a page to that OF the
hired man out of a job, who inserts a
want ad. was represented in the cou-
pons, and reasons" given why it was
the best The advertisers getting the
most votes were: G. F. Hewett & Co,
e. S. Pierce & Co.. the Barnard. Sum-
ner & Putnam Co. and the Boston
store. Then came d. H, Eames, Ware
Pratt Co., Green, the druggist and
others In making their awards the
committee were actuated by the great
est spirit of fairness. None of them was
in any way interested in the award.