Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-30

and, as a number OF them Were buxom.
well-developed girls Of twenty and more,
the effect was most startling to the boule-
vardiers-and blue gingham- sun bonnets-
They. all carried those old centennial
year glazed valises. On their backs were
new brand of laundry soap that has lately
been sprung upon the town. They walked
straight ahead, the long string of them,
looking neither to the right nor to the left,
despite the merciless guyfng to which they
were subjected by the pursuing horde of
gamins.
Another device that is coming into vogue
Is the messenger scheme. The freak ad-
vertiser hires a hundred or more boys,
pays them regular messengers wages and
fits them out in the regular uniform Of dis
trtct messengers. These boys are sent out
with patches Of regularly addressed en-
velopes that look for all the world like
telegram envelopes. They are made out by
corps of young women with business d.
rectories at hand The recipient OF one OF
these envelopes, never suspecting that the
freak advertiser has put up a dodge on
him, nervously tears open the envelope
that is marked paid" and finds, in type
written telegram form, an ingeniously
OF hats, or suitings, or gloves, or mineral
water-the fake messenger boy having In
the meantime disappeared. to carry the re-
malnder of his batch OF fake kilograms
down the line. A busy man doesn't like to
be fooled in this way.
Advertising a Tailor.
A remarkable parsonage made his ap-
pearance down in the financial district
about a month ago. He is still going the
rounds of the town, gradually working his
way UP toward the Tenderioin. He is
singularly good-looking. well-built man
OF thirty. with smooth, well-shaven face
and a smiling pair of brown eyes. He
walks into your office and waits for yoti to
finSl< md ally
He smiles pleasantly at you, and inquiries:
How do you like this suit? '
You look at the suit, and you perceive
that it is an admirable specimen of the
sartorial art-cloth of fine texture, cut tip
top, fit perfect. But you can't see the
point, of course, of the query of this total
stranger to you.
The suits all right you probably re-
ply But what of it?"
Nothing, except that 1t cost me only
$50, and had 1T made at Shears" the man
replies, In the most polite sort of way, at
the same time handing you one of Shears
business cards; and then, with a most
graceful bow, he passes out, leaving you In
a natural state of wonder. The scheme is
said to have paid Shear-which of course.
Is not his name-so well that he has quadru-
pied the size OF his tailoring plant.
Hard on the Boys.
The freak window displays are becoming
more numerous over here all the time.
Those queerly impressive men and women
who are able to sit perfectly still, without
batting an eye, for long periods and to
pose as waxwork figures, are in big demand
over here Besides these, there are some
extraordinary window displays. On one of
the most prominent Broadway blocks big
window has been rented by the agents for
a much-advertised brand of toilet SOAP the
chief merit of which seems to be that lit
swims." In this window, for a couple of
hours every afternoon, a really beautiful
young woman, with her sleeves rolled I'D
over her plump, white arms to the Shout
der, washes In portable porcelain tub two
perfectly stolid and impassive papooses
from the Indian show now running at Mad
lson Square Garden. The Indian kids are
clad only in breechclouts of the G-string
half years old. The handsome young wo-
man souses them in the suds and scrubs
them and dries them, and then scours and
fathers and souses them again, and they
don't seem to mind 1t all a little bit nor
let so much as a cheep out of them Moth
ers OF infants that yell at the very sight of
water stand In front of that window in a
sort of trance, waiting for the Indian chill
dren to squeeze out just one little bit of a
tear over the treatment to which they are
subjected; but they are never rewarded
Booming Books.
The publishers Of books-some of the
Oldest and most conservative firms, too
have taken to the employment Of sand
wieh men to advertise rev novels. Some
remarkably worthless works Of fiction have
been so successfully boosted in this way
that thousands and even tens of thousands
or copies have been sold before the ces-
satlon of the rush for the no-account
books.
Even the comedians on the New York
stage have gone in SO heavily for adver-
Using various and sundry well-known ar
ticles that they are frequently called down
by their audiences nowanights. They dove
tan illusions to this or that brand of
whisky, or this or that kind of biscuit or
such and such new kind Of wheat food.
In with their lines, and the nuisance has
OF late become so great they, the come
dams who do this, get themselves Missed.
and voices from the gallery inquire, Hey,
now much Of rake-off are you getting
for that?'
New Workers talk "humorously" of the
innocence and gullbility of the "proyin-
Gals" Yet If some brazen freak adver-
tiser were to begin a persistent boost
OF the ordinary. four-holed trousers but
ton of commerce and long usefulness, the
New Workers would doubtless buy them by
the hat full just out of curiosity. c. L. c.