The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1915-07-01
The GIs...y Trip Thrssxh tn Paper

The t.IsNny Trip Thrssxh tn Paper
Editors Note: The following edi-
torial. condensed somewhat because of
lack OF space, is taken from The Wichi-
Ia, kas.. Beacon. II is published to
show to what lengths the critics of
certain advertising be omitted from
the columns of { newspaper, and the
;.bsnrdity OF trying 10 spoil our lives
by denying the right of anyone 70 en-
joy whatever good things he can get
out OF life beyond the bare necessities)
"A subscriber from Vasser avenue
sends well written protest against
some tobacco advertising which has
been appearing in the Beacon.
She says that paper whose columns
generally are clean and whose ambi-
tons for high standard are well
known should prin; in its advertising
columns nothing advertising the use of
that which leads TO the formation of
Useless habits.
Her argument seems plausible and
we started through the pages OF the
Beacon to see how much advertising
of this kind there is.
The first page we turned held a
large, breezy, pictorial advertisement
on the delights, rewards and consola-
tons of chewing gum. We paused to
study the attractive typography of it.
1t was the last word in modern adver-
tising. AS We gazed upon it, the desire
fer gum began to agitate our saliyaries
Then we realized that the advertise
ment was bound to increase gum chew
ten.
Then we remembered that modern
scientific conclusion declares gum
chewing to be more deleterious than
tobacco chewing Its gastron0mic ex-
travagancies attack entire families.
AS we reach the conclusion that
gum chewing should not be encourag-
ed in any virtuous newspaper, an at
t-active announcement of shoe man
confronts us. He is offering at bar
gain shoes with French heels four in
ches high. Then we catch a vision of
an age of gum chewing women mine
ing and tottering to their fall upon
these unnatural stills. Ad-
vertisements for foot ease" bunion
cures, relief from ccrns, flash across
our vision, and We make mental note
that = paper desiring to abolish the
harmful should eliminate the French
shoe advertising. You glance appre-
hensivcly through the tceming columns
to see how many there are, hut before
you've proceeded far your eye fails
upon the modern corset advertisement
and you recall all the things the dress
reformer and the physician have said
of tight lacing" and you put corsets
in the list of things that people do nc
need.
And so we pass wearily through the
advertising columns we have in times
past enjoyed. We read an advertise
ment for pins and shudder at the rec
objection that babies sometimes swal-
low them; we recall that it costs the
w2y%arG daughter OF u New York mil
.ionairc SO 9 week for pin money"
according to the reports of recent
scandal; We glimpse the picture OF &
nifty looking pistol for S29S. placing
homicide, suicide and foolicide within
the easy reach of all; the pictured silk
stockings, the temptation to wear
which, Jane Addams tells us, has led
poor girls into indiscretions, leer at
us.
We've become ahnormally sensitive
to the possibilities of evil in nearly all
the things that are offered for sale,
from the motorcycle to face paint
We lay down the paper realizing that
no editor can print them all and be
virtuous or refuse them and remain
solvent. AS a matter of fact. if our
weary brain does not de!ude us. there
are only about q dozen articles OF COM
mercc that should be advertised
n