The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-10


 clenahan. past master in the art of ad- vertisement
 I'm William Mcclenahan of the White Store. anu Mayor of Belltown." announced McClenahan to Barker. the head If the Food corporation. T used to advertise for the Manhattan. and I want to make deal" McClenahan didn't stop there. He told him many things. And when he had finished. the President rose and tapped McClenahan on the shoulder By George, Mir. McC1enahanr he said, the very thing, the very thing. by deorgew
 Two days later. all Belltown, and all New York, were electrified by Food corporation advertisement that was spread thickly and iiberaily upon the | sheets of dailies. upon the outsides of the weeklies. and over all the available | stumps and posts and fences. It announced in substance, that for | a period of two weeks before Christ mas, William McClenahan, proprietor | of the White Store, and mayor of Bell | town, would walk daily, in Belltown, | to his train in the morning and from
 his train in the afternoon. clad, as a | sandwich man, between boards plas- tered with the gaudy advertisements of | Food, itself. The advertisement stated | further that the mayor would receive | for this service the sum of $25,000, to | be paid by Food Into the coffers of the town of Belltown, a beautiful but bankrupt town. The whole thing was to be done in the interests of Belltown | for that town McClenahan was raising | money in the only way 1t could be raised.
 One thing was certain--people read | this preliminary announcement; the crowd sat up and began to take notice; so far, so good.
 The newspaper reporters besought | McClenahan for a statement, but he refused to be interiewed. He main | tained silence that was discreet, i not significant.
 The performance was to commence on the morning of Monday. the 18th. On Saturday. he was once more in I terviewed at hts store and at his home.
 NOW" he said. finally. what are you fellows talking about? What ad- vertisement? They produced the an nouncement which he had already looked upon a hundred times. He read 1t through again.
 It's a lie." he said. from the be- ginning to the end. What!-I2 Catch
 me as a sandwich man. for any half
 liked food concern? Not much"
 This terse sentence spread like wild fire. The mayor of Belltown had re- fused to carry out the conditions of the contract--at least, so he had said The public waited until Monday morning. New York waited Bell town waited.
 When the 7:4s train pulled Into the little town that morning, its passep- gers from up the road pushed up re- fractory windows and leaned far out to see the fun. The station crowd at Belltown had trebled in numbers Ex- citement was rampant But, where is the mayor?" queried the crowd No one knew. But sud- denly, as the train once more started up, a neat little trap darted around the corner. a man jumped out sprinted across the platform and caught the last car of the train. It was McClena- han. clad only in customary garments, and without the sign of poster or a sandwich board about him. The peo- pie held their breath.
 Again was he besought by ae many of the press crowd as had climbed aboard
 It is living fact that there is noth- ing a newspaper so detests as to ind in it's reading matter a name, word. phrase or sentence that. by any means. could be tortured into an advertise ment. But McClenahan, to this point, had been close-mouthed. and the re- porters had rushed upon him with an ardor born of his previous silence.
 Now. look here" said McClenahan, you take me down word for word, or, cut it out. I'll tell you everything there Is to tell; but, no monkey busi- ness. See?"
 They saw, and said as much. holding their pencils poised in tho air And then he started in.
 When he had finished. the reporters went away with the biggest two col umn advertising scandal they had ever had And day after day, from that time on. McClenahan was waylaid by gentlemen of the press, to each of whom he talked for publication. McClenahan now began a suit for libel But Food rose in it's indignation, and told a tale it had to tell. It did more. It exhibited the written con tract of the Belltown mayor. And Food commenced a suit for breach of contract
 The libel suit was the first to be reached for trial IL was short enough. and by noon McClenahans case was in. If consisted merely of published an nouncements, and these published an- nouncements. in themselves, were suf- Acient in the eye of the community and of the law. to hold up McClenahan to the ridicule of the public, of his friends, to injure him in his social standing. If not in his business. Food attempted to put in evidence that writ ten contract of MeClenahan. McClen- ahan smiled.