The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-05-06
How an Institution Grew from Moth.
ing to Tens Of Millions.
Early Days in the Bush
ness of "Ad" Writing.
The Part Of the Joke Writer III
the Present Industry.

Tens of millions of dollars year. d.
verted to channels that In the course Of
events carry them back to the men who
spend them-that Is the evolut on of ad-
vertising, an art that had Its inception
not quite three and one-half centuries
ago. And all because woman Is wise.
or all observers Of human nature, its
frailties and its passing weaknesses, the
professional joke writer is perhaps the
most keen. He, this frivolous sage, has
linked women to the bargain counter,
and there she stands. The mystic fetter
that binds her-is it not the advertise
ments
1t Is because women are wise; that they
weigh In the balance the penny and the
a,tiele to tie purchased; that the latter
day advertiser is possible. 1t is not that
human nature has changed, for women
were quite the same when they fashioned
their husbands garments out OF home
spun, but because the merchants-the
men with things to sell-are just finding
cut woman ways, and with field of
lhudo iheoh ~
possibility and more thorough study of
human needs ara taking advantage of the
new order of things.
The woman who eagerly scans her
morning paper before starting to do her
lay shopping might not like to admit
that even within her time such conve
nience was not afforded her. Yet she
would have been hardly out of her teens
20 truthfully aver otherwise. Even TWEEN
5y-iiye years ago, long after the United
States had grown to consider itself the
praudest Of nations, the bargain counter
lad, " the "big stors'' 'ad," or whatever
you choose to call 1t, was unknown. in
those days merchant would now and
then direct attention to a clearing sale or
y removal sale, but his statement to the
public was dismal little affair, perhaps
six inches of column, without cuts or
adornments of any kind.
HUE AND CRY "AD."
And yet advertising, in its more crude
forms, is as old as newspaper building.
The Acta Diurna of the Romans, the Ga
zetta of the Venetians, and the Affiches
If the French belong rather to the foun
intion of both newspaper making and ad-
sertsing than to the history CT either.
they were the rough devices which
served as IL beginning.
The first lad" proper arose with peri
O .icnl literature, and served more to aid
the law than for individual profit The
.taid householder of 1853 enjoyed the
his spectaclss, brushing his wig from his
eyes and reading-an advertisement 1t
didn't tell him that John Jones was still
at the old stand, where he would he
pleased to meet his many friends and
G lstomers or that a can of Professor
rel Of DR.. Blacks. 1t was the AIecicurius
politius that he read, and its "hue and
cay" advertisements conveyed the
knowledge that thief was at large or an
apnrentice had deserted his master.
Books were the first artic le to be adver-
.ised, followed closely by groceries and
tea (then tcha). Other articles followed
IN quick succession, and before the GEN.
ilry had ended advertising on scale
that would be Insignificant in these days
was not an uncommon practice among
the more enterprising Of the merchants.
in the latter part of the sixteenth cen :
fury, before the era of professional ethics,
the plague brought the first medical ad-
yeItisement. In the 800 years interven-
ing the shoe has been on the other foot.
The medical advertisements have lie n
a plague to the ultra circumspect men
of medicine and to legislatures. the form
or contending that advertising is not pro
fsssional and the latter being Obliged to
give audience to their representatives.
The medical practice bill, as presented
Tor passage to the lately adjourned Hi
nois Legislature, would have prohibited
Advertising of any sort by regularly
graduated specialist. but it was finally
amended to provide for the punishment
of physicians who advertise fraudulently.
LITTLE CUTS AND FIGURES.
It was in l7lO that the first pictor'a
advertisement appeared. A writer OF the
period describes these crude effoits to-
ward illustration as being made up OF
"little outs and figures. For many
years thereafter processes were the samt
and no advances were made in pictorial
work.
1t was not until 1900 that classification
was attempted. Then an imperfect sys-
| tenn was devised, and the man who madt
known through the papers the death o
his wife could feel some assurance tht
the notice would not bs inserted between
the advertisement OF man who wanted