The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-15
ALL RECORDS WERE BROKEN That Big Edition of The
 Advertiser. AHEAD OF THE SOUTH More Advertising Than Any Other southern Journal. Assistant Postmaster Irwin Tells How the Great Issue Was
 Handled and About the
 Bill for Postage.

That record-breaking edition of The Advertiser Sunday morning was the talk of the town yesterday and Sunday. A newspaper containing seventy-six pages had never before been printed in much advertising had never before been printed in the entire South! | No newspaper in Alabama has ever be- fore published so much reading matter of general interest.
 Business men of Montgomery called at The Advertiser building yesterday and congratulated the management on the general excellence of the big Christmas | edition.
 It was a fine newspaper: splendid medium for advertising" was the general verdict of the business men. l Advertising Record. i The demands on the advertising space of the big edition exceeded anything in the history of the paper; the amount of advertising carried in it's columns beat the South's record.
 Asked about the amount of advertising In the big paper. Victor H. Hanson. ad- | vertising manager said:
 From an advertising point of view. the Christmas edition of The Advertiser was the most remarkable newspaper ever printed in the world, comparatively | speaking
 | Notwithstanding the fact that but two weeks time was devoted by this depart ment to soliciting and the preparation of 1 advertising copy, the volume of advertis- ing printed reached the phenomenal figure | of 7.135 inches. or over 33S columns. Of | this number 4l14 inches or 196 columns, 1 were the holiday announcements and reg ular advertising of Montgomery mer- chants. The remaining S.O21 inches. equal to IA columns. were filled with what is called foreign, or, out of town advertis- I ing.
 'TIast year The Advertisers Christmas edition contained A.6o4 inches of advertis- ing. This figure established a new high water mark in Southern newspaper ad- vertising Since that time, very few ' newspapers published in cities from five to twenty times the size of Montgomery have printed a larger amount of advertis- 1 ing. However, our Christmas edition of 1908. with it's grand total of 7,1S5 inches, marks but another record breaker for The Advertiser and puts the high-water i sign high above any previous efforts in l Southern newspaperdom.
 "When one stops to consider the size | of Montgomery, as compared with At lanta. New Orleans, Memphis. Nashville and Louisville, 1t Is all the more remarha-
 ble that The Advertiser could have print ! ed this record breaking volume of ad@ vertising. Furthermore, column after | column of advertising was left out of our Christmas edition. owing to lack of room in making up the last few pages.
 "Early last Wednesday. after summing l up the business then in hand, it was de- l termined that we had more advertising | than we had the physical capacity to 1 handle, and no soliciting for further busi- ness was done after Wednesday after noon.
 'If we could have had two days longer 1t would have been an easy matter to have printed 100 pages, with at least 5000 inches of advertising.
 As it was. we printed @ larger volume than that contained in the Christmas is- sue of any Southern newspaper. and more remarkable still, more than the Christmas edition of The New York World or The New York Herald, two of the world g greatest newspapers"
 Circulation Man Talks.
 Nearly 5000 copies of the big issue were printed and their circulation was in charge of P. J. Kelly, Circulation Man ager of The Advertiser. So accurately and skilfully was the work accomplished that there was little delay and few com plaints.
 l About December l." said MT. Kelly, ''the Circulation Department started to | boom the Christmas number. The edition was extensively advertised for the past two weeks and to say that our agents and all newsdealers throughout the State re- sponded promptly and generously Is put ting it mildly Each mail brought in or- ders for hundreds of copies All orders were properly routed and entered at once but our mailing list was not closed until the last mail Saturday. which was about midnight.
 "The editorial and mechanical depart ments. true to their promise to get the big edition out on schedule time, arranged things so that the first papers were deliv- cred in the mailing room at 2:F Q. m From that hour until 2 a. m. everybody was busy. It took us exactly four hours and fifteen minutes to carefully count, wrap and check 25 OO0 seventy-six page | paners without missing any mails It re- | nuired 900 sacks to handle the edition and the services of two mail wagons from 3 o'clo~k until 6:a0 o'clock. "Complaints from city subscribers were few and in every instance was caused by the paper not being delivered at the usual hour.
 For the information of all subscrihers let me say that all carriers were detained at the counting room until a. m. so that subscribers would be awaiting the paner when it was delivered thus pre- them"
 Henry F. Irwin, Assistant Postmaster declared that 1t was remarkable that so large a newsnaner could he issued in q l town the siVA cF Mo,tSanerv. Kept Postofice Busy. "lt may surprise you to know" said MT Irwin that The Advertiser paws & per cent of all the press postage at this oflce.