The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-06-25
THE ART OF BILL POSTING.
WiIes of Masters in the Fence Adj
vertising Profession.

It has been said that American people
read more advertisements than any other
people in the world. A large part of the
time snatched from reading advertise
ments is doubtless spent in looking at
posters. There are nearly IS miles of bill
poster stands, 10 feet high in and around
G0ater New York, and more than 200
men make their living by putting up, re-
pairing, and pasting bills on these boards.
The actual work Of putting up the pos
ters is not nearly so easy as it looks. The
men become TnarvelousIy siillful at 1t,
but it takes six weeks to two months to
teach the quickest of them, and many
men can never learn to do the work neat
". The new hands are sent out at first
with an experienced man to make the
rounds with him until they learn their
work These routes" as they are called,
are the different districts into which the
biIIposter companies divide the city
Each route is covered by two men, with
a horse and cart to carry their rolls of
posters and barrel OF paste and a ladder.
with which to reach the highest stands.
Two men can generally take care of about
$3.50 running feet of bilIboards, and they
go over the route once or twice day
regularly, though in case of a severe
as it is over to repair any damage that
may have been done. The companies are
obliged to keep the posters in good condi-
tfon so that torn ones have to be con-
stantIy replaced and patched.
Every big poster is made up Of a num-
Der of separate sheets. There Inay be six,
twelve, twenty-four5or more sheets in any
individual poster. but these sheets are
the unit upon which the size and cost OF
the poster are calculated. The trick Of
posting is to put these sheets up neatly
and rapidly An experienced billposter
will place sheets together, as high as he
can reach with his brush so perfectly that
1t is almost impossible to realize that the
poster is not in one piece and will handle
the tapping piece OF paper more cleverly
on teh end of his brush than most people
could with both hands.
The oId-fashioned biIIboards were tenn
porary structures made OF wood Now
galvanized iron is used, and the sign
boards are put up with the greatest care.
One company has two inspectors, who
visit its signboards every week TO report
on their condition. a small corps Of car
penteTs is kept continually busy in repair
ing the stands as well as in putting UP
new boards and taking down old ones
The underside of blllpoSung is the Work
which is carried on by the snlperS
They are the men who 90 around after
dark with buckets Of paste and rolls OF
posters and without any right stick up
bills anywhere and everywhere, bright
ening the dark places" the "Billposters
Magazine calls It These men are re-
sponsibIe for the decorated ash barrels
and telegraph poles and rubbish heaps.
Reputable companies seldom have any
thing to do with these men, who work in
dependeutIy and are generally employed
by the smaller theatrical companies
They have a good many ingenious
schemes for getting their posters up One
is a hammer with a handle about eight
feet long and q strong magnet for the
head The 'sniper' puts tack through
a poster places the head OF the tack
against the hammer. when the magnet
holds il, and then sticks the sign up in
some inaccessible corner. whence lad
der is needed 10 get 1t down Whenever
a house is torn down or new building
put up there is n chance for the billpos-
ter and the companies have men who
do nothing but watch the whole city for
chances Of this kind
Almost every kind of advertising has
been done on bilIb0aTds. from political
doctrines 10 patent medicines. but the
business which is most dependent on this
sort of advertising is, as everybody
knows the circus.-The New York Even
ing Post.