The Savannah morning news., 1901-04-12
THE wrLEs OF THE BILa-PosrER.
Learning How to stick the Bills.
Tricks of the "sniper."


From the New York Evening Post.
1t has been said that American p4 PIE
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 thirty-five
miles Of bill-poster stands, ten feet high
in and around Greater New York, and
more than two hundred men make their
living by putting up, repairing, and past
ing bills on these boards.
The actual work of putting up the
posters is not nearly so easy as it looks.
The men become marvelously skilful at
it, 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
ly. 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 call
ed, are the different districts into which
the bill-poster companies divide up the
city. Each route is covered by two men
with horse and cart to carry their rolls
of posters and barrel of paste, and a lad
der with which to reach the highest
stands. Two men can generally take
care of about 5000 running feet of bill
boards, and they go over the route once
or twice a day regularly, though in case
of a severe storm all the carts are sent
out as. soon as it is over to repair any
damage that may have be:.n done. The
companies are obliged 30 keep the posters
in good condition, so that torn ones have
to be constantly replaced and patched.
Every big poster is made up of a num-
Der of separate sheets. There may be
six, twelve, twenty-four, or more sheets
in any individual poster. but these sheets
are the unit upon which the size and
cost of the poster is calculated. The trick
of posting is to put these sheets up neat
ly and rapidly. An experienced bill-pos-
ter will place sheets together as high as
he can reach with his brush so perfectly
that it is almost impossible to realize
that the poster is not in one piece, and
will handle the Tapping sheet of paper
more cleverly on the end of his brush
than most people could with both hands
The old-fashioned bill boards 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, VINO
visit its signboards every week TO report
on their condition. "A small corps of car.
penters is kept continually busy in re-
pairing the stands, as we'll as In puttins
up new boards and taking down old ones
The under side of bill-posting is th'
work which is carried on by the snip
ers." They are the men who go round al
ter dark with buckets of paste and rolls
of posters, and without any right, stick uI
bills anywhere and everywhere, bright
ening the dark places" the Bih-Posteri
Magazine calls It. These men are re-
sponsible for the decorated ash-oarreh
and telegraph poles and rubbish heaps
Reputable companies seldom have any
thing to do with these men, who work IN
dependently, and are generally emp.oyee
by the smaller theatrical companies. TneS
have a good many ingenious schemes iol
getting their posters up. One Is nam
mer with handle about eight feet Ions
and a strong magnet for the head. me
"snlper' puts a tack through poster
PAGES the head of the tack against ih'
hammer, when the magnet holds II. ans
then sticks the sign up IN some inaccessl
bic corner whence a ladder is needed
get Il down. Whenever a house Is toil
down or a new building put up there y
chance for the bil-poster, ana the CONF
MES have men who DO nothing bit "s'''
the whole city for chances OF this kihp.
Almost every kind Of advertising n
been done on bill-bOards. from pohN,-
doctrines 10 patent medicines, put Wy
business which ~ most dependent on ~
sori Of advertising 10, az everybody XIV
che circus,