Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-11-19
ANCIENT ADVERTISING.
The Debris OF HercuIaneum and Pom.
peii Is Uttered with Signs
and Notices.

Clinging to the mumbling court crier
is the odor of the first advertis-
ing medium to appear in his
tory. He is an adaptation of
the snowy courier whom the king Of
old was wont to send out into the high
ways and byways to make proclamation
of his latest within ard command
obedience Of his subjects to it. His
worth as an agent for the dissemina-
ton among the people was not lost on
the shop keepers of those primitive days,
and they speedily took him unto them
selves for purposes of their own, says the
New York Herald.
The Greek tradesmen sent musicians
with him on his rounds to cry their
wares, and he tickled the ear Of the
aesthetic people Of Athens by chanting
the merits of his employers offerings
rather than shock them with rude shouts.
In less remote days he was the favor
ite of the wine merchants Of Paris; and.
so that the good folks Of the city might
see that he spoke nothing but the truth
about the wine, he carried at either end
of a pole that rested on his shoulders
a bucket of the vintages he cried On the
crowd to sample.
With characteristic keenness the
tradesmen turned into a crier every man
whose business brought him into public
view. Orators were paid for putting" as
a side line. There are records of bar
gains even with priests to extol goods
frND, {I1i, ,nI,;41 - o4,,,, 4l1,- r-O-,a
to have them furnished to them at first
price. The old bellman of London who
stole out from his den hourly days and
night to sound his bell and announcethe
hour often found an incidental profit in
the function of rousing the early work
ing the rounds in some of the ancient and
remote localities of the realm.
Though, as has been noted, the crier
was not an unfamiliar figure in Greece
the ancients as a rule preferred the writ
ten signsfor communicating intelligence.
Hieroglyphic notices of their entertain
ments and their business were traced
on parchment and posted in the most
public places. In the British museum is
an advertisement of a reward for a u n
away slave written on papyrus 5000
years ago ard exhumed from the ruins
of Thebes.
The debris of Herculaneum and Pom
peii is Uttered with signs and notices.
How like the bill of a modern boxing
bout are the announcement on a gladia-
| torial poster that there will be an avn
ing to keep off the sun" and notices of
side shows to beguile the spare change
out OF the pockets of the small boy and
the rustics!
But the favorite advertising centers
with the ancient Greeks were the tenn
pies of their god5. People with griev-
ances were wont to exploit them on
parchment and hang the written scroll
to the ears, the nose, the head, the eye
ids of the images of the a~veneins
deities till the temple looked like a mod
ern bill posters display room. At the
start they were only the devout appeals
of the suffering for relief OF vengeance
and the most minute details were record
ed only that the rectifying deity might
not be left to act in the dark. But in
course of time every one who wished to
expose or abuse his neighbor resorted to
the subterfuge of writing the story to the
gods and lacking it under the deity's
nose for every M else but the god to
read and gossip about.
These inscriptions drew crowds of thc
curious, eager for the news and scandals
of the neighbOrhood. They moved from
one to the other Of the placards, as il
they were the scattered fragments of a
yellow journal. In time those who had
to- deal with the multitude began tc
flock to the temples to promote theiI
business-fakirs, jugglers, money lend
ers, women of no account, all seeking
whom they might devour.
ANTISEPTIC WRAPPING PAPER