University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-03-27

city. She had never known what it
was not to have a tiny brother or
sister in her arms. Indeed, she her.
self had had to leave the cradle to
make way for the next eldest, who
in turn. in short course of time, was
supplanted. With each visit of the
stOrk need came also, and with her
hair still down her back, the girl
found it necessary to give the time
she should be in school to the main
Itenance of the family. She must
find work. So one Sunday morning
among the thousands of want ads
in great paper of the city there ap-
peared this unpretentiOus notice:
"SITUATION WANTED - AS
NURSE-GIRL. age IA; neat: used to
children. Ala Jarvis"
The girl had contributed her mite
to the most influential literature of
and to those who took time to look
for the story back of the ad she
told an interesting tale i'm a brief,
straightforward way.
The point of the foregoing illus
tration. then, is this: Unappre-
ciated and unstudied there eX-
lists side by side with the work of the
great reporters and stOry-tellers a
literature full to the brim of tales of
primal human desires and human
needs, of human ambitions and
struggles and vanities. The tales are
mostly plain, unvarnished tales that
give the imagination free scope di-
rected only by suggestion. They are
stories that move to action; they can
also move to tears. HumOr and pa
thOs and elOquence are to be found
in the advertising columns of our
newspapers and magazines. In those
advertising columns is to be found
the world as it is, not as it ought to
be or has been. The literature of
this other half has something of in
terest to every man and woman who
reads, not merely from the stand
point of the buyer but from that of
the story-reader or the economist or
the philosopher. In short, advertiS-
ing from a literary standpoint is a
literature of universal appeal. Some
time some university will give part
of the time now given to the inter-
probation of the dim epicS and hymns
of the long dead past to the interpre-
tatiOn of the psalms of wants and ac-
accomplishments and frivOlities occu-
lpying one-half of the. periodical lit
erature of today. This university
will be hailed as pioneer in the
discovery of the cultural value of ad-
vertisment Interpretation.
That advertising is literature of
action and as such has especial in
terest for the American people,
strongly filled as they are with the
belief that il is blessed to do some
thing-it matters little what. but do
it's obvious. Yet for the sake of
power emphasis of this important
element in the literature of advertis-
ing a few propositions are worth put
= I'd
mOney-tOward the writer. All 9TH
er kinds of literature are said to have
more often than not an unfortunate
knack of neglecting the author.
1t is a hard job to separate man
from his money. 1t is harder to get
your neighbor to part with his cash
than it is to raise turkeys in wet
weather. In either case the task is
a delicate one. Advertising. howev-
er. does its work. A professor in the
University of Missouri used to say
that his life would be happy but for
two things. poverty and the ring of
his alarm clock He read tale well
told of a clock with a CHEEKY ring
He bought. Other members of the
family say the ring of the new clock
is just like that of the old one, only
worse. But the professor wakes
each morning with smile on his
face. The literature of the advertis-
er had not only opened his not too
we'll filled purse; it also read cheer
into the cheerless voice of an alarm
clock. What greater power can a
literature be asked for than to part
money from men and at the same
time minister to their total happi-
ness?
| Advertising does more than move
money: it moves men. Advertising
builds cities. fills churches and
schools and theaters and libraries. A
st. Louis preacher advertised a SER