The Brinkley argus., 1914-05-29
ddvertising Oaks
EARLY NEWSPAPERS
 PRINTED WANT ADS "Help" and situation Wanted" Advertisements Found in Ger
 man Publications of 1591.

man Publications of 1591.
 Not long after the first newspapers were printed the want ad was born. It did not take ingenious men long to see it's value, but it did not come into general use for many years.
 What is said to have been the first newspaper published in England was the English Mercurie. It is doubtful however, whether the copies preserved in England are real ones or forgeries. This paper was published in 1893, but newspapers did not become at all com mon until the Cromwellian war start ed.
 The first paper in America was the Boston Newsletter. published in 1704. Pamphlets or small books of news ap- peared in Vienna and throughout Ger many as early as 1524. The French men, although they had no newspa- pers until the Journal General d'Af- fiches was started on October IA, 1912, saw the value of want ads before any of the other nations
 The English Mercurie appeared dur ing the Armada panic and was "by au- thoTity imprinted at London by Chris topher Baker, her highnesses print er,' to calm the fears of the peo- pie. It was not in strict sense a newspaper.
 During the war both sides had their party organs The Weekly News, which waS founded in 1929, was the first to appear on the scene. but Fit did not contain ads
 Mercury seemed to have been the popular name for the papefs that be' gan to spring ups on all sides during those troubled ttmes There was a Mercurius Achoroattcus which was supposed to contain weekly news gath cred in the internal region, Mer- ca4y Bemeerttna1csnsAiaing news from the moon, and Mercury Mastix .which contained nothing but criticisms of any other newspaper with the name of Mercury
 Among the titles of enterprising sheets at that time one finds the Dutch
 
 and the Screech Owle.
 Early Newspapers Came Nigh.
 The Daily Courant. the first number of which appeared in Queen Anne's reign, was the first of the dailies. and for long time had the field to itself. but in 1724 the Daily Post and the Daily Journal blc ,somed forth as ri valk. During the reign of George l. publications in England increased rap idly and in 175s over z .O0O. 900 papers were sold, which nundber was increased Ito over 15.O00, 900 in f5S2. In the meantime the north coantry was entering the journal9stic field l During December of 1917 the town council gave to James McEwen the exclusive privil~ge to pnbltsh news. paper three times in Edinburgh upon l co .:tion that @the said James should l give ane coppe of his print to the
 magistrates" before publication. This paper is still being published, and ap
 parently the publtshsr stt1 could be
 held to this condition.
 | The first of the Engliah provincial 1 papers was the Norwich Postman l which contained the Naive stAtsmeni 1 that the price of the paper was | penny. but half penny could not be l refQned.
 l In 1713 the Engfiah government la16 I a stamp tax of half penny on papers l of a half sheet or less. and one penny l for larger publications, in spite o ! the loud outcries of the literary meE l and journalists of England. This duty | was increased from time to time, un ] til at it's highest point 1t amounted t four pence. but the tax was abolished in 1885.
 l The natural result of such ta, was that the price of the papers wal ! l1gh and few people were able tO bul them. At one time 1t was necessar! Nor book sellers to rent ont the TimeI Tor penny an hour and newspape
 two or three days old was considered a luxury.
 German Paper Had First Want Ad
 Meanwhile a4xeytising had beel
 growing, and not to let such goo | .cfrance get away from them. the gov
 errument ofIicials laid tax on adve1
 tisements. In 1883 this tax amount
 ed to three shillings six pence for eac
 advertisement, and the revenue fror this tax paid by the newspapers wa
 over $85O,00O. Four years later tn
 tax had been reduced to one shillin six pence an advertisement, but in tn
 first six months of that year 460 ps
 pers in England paid more than ta75
 GOO for 27.014. .529 stamps required D 78s ,0SS advertisements published. ! 1853 the tax was taken n of advel
 tisements.
 The Journal General d Aflches cal
 ed commonly the "Petftes AfIiche"-
 ran real want advertisements almo6 from the start. In its columns weF
 found advertisements of domeatic
 looking for employers and Of sn l ployers looking for servants, of pubai
 and private sales. 1egal nottceA n similar advertising. Tho 0t3e of lzl1 newspaper never hos been c4a1ln
 and today 1t itcontala6 may ''A1p
 ''situhtlon wantod' s4v6v ' ] 'demeltic1.