The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-12

eternal figures or romance esnhleu tnelr
fowery complaints In view OF the read
ing world In those days the agonlsts
went on week after week. sometimes year
after year in an uninterrupted corre-
spondence.
Different in 1914.
Nowadays. perhaps. they do not finger
% long IN their pain. a comparison of
the old agones with the advertise
ments OF the present shows too that the
personalities OF the famous column tend
more and more to be OF peounlary,
rather than of a passionate. order. II
one were asked TO compose a typical
agony Of this year he might give in Illus
trdtJn this:
town. would like large house In country
with large income TO keep up same. o
Please help
or again, this:
Young man, weary OF work IN an ONCE.
seeks any sort of remunerative adventure:
would risk all. provided he got paid a
lot good Alpinist; can drive motor car
or motor bicycle; some experience Of
hying who will help"
But In an agony one likes to md
paroSysm. II doesn't matter about tho
grammar, which was. the deliver into
the files found. frequently very bad from
1900 TO 1870. What one seeks Is emo-
ton. not faultless English. Thus. a fne
psroxysm OF 1851 read thus.
william, thou wilt go to sea-thou
shalt 60 ; but oh return and first receive
tn blessings OF a heartbroken father. OF
a heartbroken mother! o my son Will
IAN. my son. my son william! Would
God 7 had died for thee, o William. my
son my son!
II reads like a minor dramatist Of the
Mrs Inchbald or Mrs. Centlivre period,
o.. later. OF Arthur Murphy and "A Cure
FOR the Heartache." In this manner, with
barred neck and dishevelled hair, beating
the breast did the Kemble rouse the pit.
But one doubts whether his poor
mother fetched" william by IL. The boy
had been reading nautical romances. Capt.
Marryat was but few years dead. Will
iams father who was no doubt Samuel
Butlerian father of the instructive type
made classical by James MIL. had warned
IN boy that II he ever much as mem
toned the sea TO him again he should re-
ceve the wrong end of a knotted rope on
But one must not dream over
william.
Thi. Is More Modern.
Other advertisements invited the i'm
mediate return Of other sons in more
modern and Shavian manner. As this,
dated 1904.
III the youth that left Isl!ngton on Sun
DAY evening can remember that ne ever
hal a mother he is Informed he VIII soon
he deprived OF that blessing, except he Inn
mediately writes with particulars or per-
sonany appears before her.
That youth probably preferred to be do
prived of that blessing OF a mother ana
one cannot help believing that II was the
same youth who was appealed to Few
years later by this:
Ph.llp.-Would Philip like to hear of his
mothers death?
Perhaps But we are sure he did not
hear Of II Just then. His mother was
waiting for him behind the door. and per-
haps his uncle too. for evidently the poor
boys father was no more. we trust
Philip revor went home. We always feel
sympathy for the missing.
Such maternal, paternal or filial agonles'
however, have always been less common
10 the column than those simply senti-
mental Many of these during half CEN
fury or more were In cipher. Now only
simple persons advertise In cipner'
Whereas 4 pursuing parent might not dls-
cover an advertisement In fun English.
his attention, and indeed the attention or
everybody, will inevitably be invited and
held by a tumble of capital letters, as
terisks and queries, or by such somehow
Irish looking dialects as this, from one OF
thu clphered agonies OF j. de w. In 1889:
- lmpi F.. npi. npkl. b. qkng. +. ding
a khq, lath nhgm, ding. lqkh. hmis flny
mlgi. ."
One much prefers to see the sentimental
appeal I'm full, or only limiting obscurely
that II could say more than 1t does. For
The cuurty invitation of this type you
have to go back TO the Weber period and
10 glance over the columns between lSOO
and 1880. At the very beginning, in 1900,
you mud this address to a CARD.
IF he Lady who Gentleman handed
INTO her carriage from Covent Garden
Theatre, on Wednesday, the third of this
month, will oblge the Advertiser with
line to Il, u. Spring Gardens Coffee
House, saying II married or single, she
~ dulet the mind of a young Nobleman.
,Tno has tried, but in vain, TO find the
Lady Tho Lady was In mourn
ng' and sufficiently coathed 10 distinguish
uer Tor possessing every virtue and charm
nat man could desire in female that he
would make choice OF for Wife. -
} :, me Young nobleman. as you see. had
we familiar aristocratic ignorance OF the
"ays or relative pronouns II not OF ladies'
ana we find ourselves hoping that his title
rloVed suitci4at aliurement 10 the lady
mho no loved at n distance, For an
"Tr ntty years the young nobleman's
uoNohil grammar set the tone of the
quinn. "Amlable females" abounded In
IN 1901 a gentleman tells one OF them
mar no will shortly be obliged 10 leave
"Nn IN few months" and we are moi
,u'prsed when he adds that he Is goinr
ireland. In no better style. but with
,vrons AZ satisfactory, was &c. s." Cir
So-) created to leave on this crue
.nee and lin 1850:
- ', r. =, is implored. for mercy's sake
w