The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-23

ton of it's permanence in that part or the globe and there soon will be none In America. At present the great strong hold of the craze Is its birthplace-Ger- many In that country the idea has long outgrown its original dimensions. and not only do the photographs of buildings and
 scenery adorn the cards, but reproduc- tions of famous paintings, works of sculp-
 ture and even cartoons and caricatures Of
 personages in the public eye. Ten mil
 lions of souvenir post cards pass through
 the mails of Germany every week. The
 same may be said in lesser degree Of
 the state of the market in France and
 England. One firm alone in London dis
 posed of 49, ,OO0 900 postal cards last year.
 On this side the Atlantic Ocean Phila-
 delphia has taken its place as souvenir
 post-card centre. There is no city in the
 country, of course, with so much of his
 toric interest to picture, and this fact
 has been recognized by a woman, who
 has entered into the souvenir postcard
 businss. It was after tour of Europe.
 in which she gathered many of the sou
 venir cards, that she decided to make
 Philadelphia known to the world by the
 bits of scattered pastboard. She went to
 work picking out historic and municipal
 subjects for pictures, and soon had turned
 out thousands of the souvenirs. Though
 in the business only a few months, she
 disposes of 4O.0O0 cards a week now. It is
 expected that with the growth of the fad
 in this city the output of all those who
 deal in the picture cards will increase enormously.
 There is a big firm in Detroit and an- other in New York which help to supply all parts of the United States including Philadelphia. with the postcards Their photographers SCOUT the country for ap- propriate subjects for the cards. The plates are then forwarded to the manu- | lecturers, who turn out finished picture cards, in colors or otherwise. and ship them back to the particular places of | which they portray scenes.
 As yet however. the majority of the | United States firms have not succeeded | in evolving a card marked with any | thing like the high artistic merit of the European product For the best achieve ment in this direction We must look to | Philadelphia-the first city In the United States to introduce successfully the at | tractive typical German postcard. By | this is meant an uncolored card, the pie | ture on which Is made from a gelatine plate It has a most attractive dull gray finish and is vastly superior in every
 way to the gaudy Autograph or the ordi-
 nary photograph on glazed paper. Prac- tically no other kind is now in vogue among people of taste on the other side | of the Atlantic.
 The opportunities for souvenir postals l in Philadelphia are manifold. Although the principal buildings, streeats and the | most familiar park scenes have been util- ized. the field Is in many respects a vir- gin one. Most of the beautiful suburbs have yet to be subjected to the photo graphic operations of the postal-card
 maker. Already there have been sent out to everywhere souvenir cards containing pictures of Independence Hall. interiors | and exteriors; City Hall, Masonic Temple, Mint. Broad. Chestnut and other streets, Memorial Hall, Park scenes, photograph l of Washington and of other historic per | sonages and buildings that have figured
 in the history of this country as we'll as
 of the city. It is the intention to put on 1 the cards pictures of the University and | other noted institutions, also reproduc-
 tions of the most noted pictures of the 1 Academy of the Fine Arts.
 l But the supreme test of the postcard l dealers will be furnished next summer l by the St. Louis Exposition. The craze | will doubtless then reach it's American
 zenith, and 1t is confidently expected that | the only limit on the demand will be the
 supply. Nearly every one of the million 1 who will visit the big show will purchase
 illustrated postals depicting it's leading
 features, if only to show their less for
 tunate friends at home what they have 1 missed. And if the discouraged train ] boys are wise they will discard the bulky