Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-10-21
THE VALUE OF ADVERTISING.
The Fool. Killer Often Misses a Fine
Chance-Eifectiveness Of News
paper Ads.

UdpCN nus.
The fool-kilIer missed fire chance
recently in the Office Of the Exp. s.,
Atlanta, No, where caller CAV a
fine exhibition of zero in knowledge
Of the value Of advertising. Under
the caption Of "A Question Unanswer-
ed" the Express tells about il in
this way, and quite incidentally gives
some good conversation as TO the
effectiveness Of newspaper advertis-
ing:
Last Thursday svening while We
were running off the Express q Ger
tain business man Of Atlanta stepped
into orr Office and noticing page ad
from one Of our wide-awake mer-
chauts. looked over the same and We n
tured this question:: What's the
matter with that fellow-has he gone
crazy-to advertise that way for the
little local business around At
lanta7"
We answered not word. The click
click of the type settlers abruptly
ceased; the pressfeeders uneonsciously
used the throw-off, and the engine
be gan to clugh forth nauseating,
Smoky substance, and acted as if it
also was going 10 stop to take a look
at the propounder of such a question.
The editor looked at the foreman, the
foreman at the compositors and the
coupositors at the devil, but no an
swer was offered.
A country newspaper Office has al
ways bee looked upon as a bureau
of information and we have always
| tried to protect that reputation by
having an answer Of some kind ready
for all questioners, but we must
| frankly admit that this fellow had
our goat. In fact the force was not
only astonisned but non-plussed at
such question from a man in bust
ness, and could not frame an answer
until the question mad been thoroughly
considered from every conceivable
angle and this particular advertiser
had been interviewed. After all of
these preliminaries, we are still at a
loss for a satisfactory answer to the
gentleman's question.
However, we cannot pass the sub
| ject without giving thu substance of
an interview on the subject with
William Allen, proprietor of the
Leader meat market, who happened
to be the advertiser:
"WeIl, Allen, how is your sale go
ingH"
"Well, you can judge for yourself
the biggest business have ever
had since | have been in business here
was Saturday; and for the first time
/ was completely out of all kinds of
meat Monday evening, notwit1stand-
ing the fact that | had hired new
butcher and made special preparations
for the rush which knew was COM
ing. They simply bought it faster
than we could butcher it. -
"Are you making a special price
on meats?"
mo, but the other special prices
bring them to my shop, and while
they are here nine out of ten will
take some Of my home-buichered
meat along with them.
"Do you credit your big weeks run
to the ad you run in the Express?
Entirely. A comparison of my
business this week with that Of pre-
vious weeks would convince anyone
that it pays to advertise.
DO you ship any meat away from
heref"
eyes, have regular customers in
La Plata, Macon and Queen City that
make weekly shipments to, and ]
credit this fact to my advertising and
to the fact that my checks go to the
home people for their stock and the
only means have of making these
things known is by advertising.
We leave the question unanswered.