Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-07

ing the Ledger for short time MIR. Bonner
bought it. At that time New York had no
literary journals, Philadelphia and Boston
being recognized as the literary centers.
When Mr.. Bonner announced his inten-
ton to make a literary weekly OF the Led
ger his failure predicted by all. AT
that time Fanny Fern at the height Of
her popularity, and MIR. Bonner engaged
her to write for the Ledger at 800
column. He advertised this fact every
where.
Mr.. Bonner engaged the foremost writer's
OF the day. and stories by Edward Everett,
Alice and Phoebe Cary. II. W. Beecher,
James Gordon Bennett. Henry ]. Raymond,
Horace Greedy and others appeared in the
Ledger.
Mr. Bonner was a noted lover of horses,
and owned Dexter, the crack trotter
generation ago. Rarus and Maud 5. He
had an elegant country seat at Morrissaaia,
\. Y, in addition 10 fine residence in
New York city.
Advertising Made His Success.
Mr.. Bonner was probably the originator
of the modern system of advertising. This
he began when he first started the Ledger.
But before establishing this paper he was
the owner of commercial paper. In an
interview. Mr.. Bonner gave an interesting
account of his methods. He said:
In regard to my system OF advertising,
| learned. in the first place, that the ordl-
nary method of advertising: Mr.. Brown
begs leave 10 respectfully call your atten-
ton to q well selected assortment. etc.,
" as not advertising at all. You must call
attention to your business in some marked
and peculiar way. So l would frame
small advertisement announcing new
story by Mrs. SouthwOrth. i would make
that no longer than an ordinary adver-
tisement and repeat il over and over again
on entire page OF newspaper. People
soon began to talk about that Then
would take two pages and do the same
thing.
.Ads" That Startled New York.
ba Trf-
bune to place an advertisement in the daily,
semi-weekly and weekly editions. After
il appeared in the daily MIR. Greeley OBJ
jected to its going in the weekly; he
thought it would take too much space.
The Weekly Tribune in those days had
the largest circulation of any paper in the
country. Mr. Greeley said TO me: We VIII
not carry out that contract, but the page
you have in the daily edition you can nave
for nothing L had made the contract with
his publisher.
THE editor of the Herald. who was I'M
doubtedly the greatest journalist this coun-
try ever produced, speaking to MIR. Hudson,
his managing editor, about the Tribune
action in this matter, said: We can give
an advertiser all the space he wants. L
heard of this remark. and. calling on Mr..
Hudson asked him: Mr.. Hudson, did MIR.
Bennett say and So? He said: Yes,
If you want an extra quantity of space we
would like day or two's notice. soon
afterward / sent word to him: Tell him
| will take the whole paper next Saturday.
Next Saturday they got out a siXteen-page
paper; l had five pages Of advertising on
one sheet and three on another.
when | began to advertise one page
some people would say: oh, that is throw
ing money away Others, again, would
say: oh, he knows what he is about
When 1 advertised two pages some OF my
acuuaintances would shake their heads
gravely. When l advertised four pages in
some of the dailies my friends We're IN
clined to give me up. Finally, when L
took the whole Herald for ii was an eight
page sheet at the time) people thought
l had become daft sure enough