The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1903-04-18
FUN IN "SMALL ADS"
UNINTENTIoNAL HUMOR FOUND
IN NEWSPAPERS.
Some Strange and Curious Ways
Adopted to Make Wants Public
"Choice Villain" Offered for Sale
Inexperienced Bug" Called for.

It may be that the funny man is
not always original. Anyhow, he
apparently devotes the best days Of
his life trying to make other people,
feel jolly-when they read his para
graphs in the newspapers. Be that
as it may, no man needs to be a pro-.
fessiOnal humorist in order to get an
awful lot of fun sometimes out of the
newspaper advertisements.
To while away the time recently
the writer busted himself the greater
part of an entire day delving through
pile of dailies and weeklies. The
work was done through mere curios-
ity, pretty much as. work" is done
by the backwoodsman who with his
gun on his shoulder tramps out early
in the morning in the brush to see
what he can get a shot at. There
was no thought of fun search in the
reading >of the papers at the start.
The fun cropped up as the reading
progressed. The work" became not
a labor, but a decided amusement.
Now, then, for some of the best
specimens discovered.
"Sinners wanted to work on metal"
one advertisement began.
The same one was found in another
newspaper of the same date. But
tiS<A:e was a slight difference between
the two lads" The word "sinners''
read "spinners.'
Another "ad' in another paper was
Just as good in it's way. 1t was: Z"
Patent leather mems shoes at re-
duced rates."
The following one was all right. At
least it told the truth:
For Sale-A Scotch collie thor
oughly' trained; can tell black from
white especially at night"
Now what did the advertiser in the
following think of when he left out
the small ladies'?
Large ladies' neckwear house de-
sires to secure city salesman; state
age" etc.
The following is good one:
"Lost-Dog answering to the name
of Gypt; can waltz on both legs"
Listen to this:
1926 Reward-A lady's gold watch,
lost between Union Square and
Twenty street. .a.a = s'aas
Here is one that may have been
written by husband who suddenly
remembered, after he had been to his
Hodge," that his wife had given him
verbal instruction to have an "ad'
inserted in daily paper Of this city:
Board without lunch table, must .
be too good; one bed"
What the advertiser meant to say.
as the corrected "ad" the next day
showed, was that breakfast and din
ner, but no lunch, were wanted; that
the table must be good, and that the.
two persons wanted only one bed.
Here is weird one:
For Sale-A choice villain, White
stone, l.. l.; fishing, boating"
The fact is, the advertisement pub
lished the next day, properly, made it
plain that the advertiser had villa
in Whitestone which he regarded as;
choice, and he SO described it.
An advertisement appeared in a.
newspaper last summer which came
out a second time, but in quite new
form. Whether the original shape
was the result of the hasty WORK of
the advertiser or the typo is a ques-
ton. This is the way it came out
first:
10 Let-Cottage at New Rochelle.
faces the Sound, good mosquitoes"
The lad" appeared more invitingly
when republished in a reformed con-
dition with two words that had been
forgotten by the advertiser in his
hurry not to miss his train for New
Rochelle, or by the man behind the,
types. It read thus:
ITO Let-Cottage at New Rochelle,
faces the Sound, good bathing, no
mosquitoes"
The following is a decidedly good
one:
WANTED by commission house, an
experienced bug to assert samples of
wooden goods" The same ADVERTISE
ment in another paper asked not for
bug, but boy.