New-York tribune., 1921-11-27

~HRIsTMAs advertising of the SOS and
COS, If you can get hold of an old
~ magazine or two with the back pages
intact, is something that is bound to
start food of reniniscence, provided you are
at all susceptible to the complex, or urge. or
any sort.
The great difficulty is In getting hold Of the
magazines, for in the process of binding the
advertising pages have been carefully removed
from most of the collections extant, and there
by has been destroyed the chief link in the
Christmases Of to-day and yesterday. Maga-
zine stories run good deal the same People
we're saying then as now: 81 wonder why these
editors don't print better stuff? There must
be lot Of II written" Artists were drawing
just about the Same general run of pictures.
Travel articles we're pretty nearly the same,
Samoa being frequently mentioned. Poetry,
Of course, was different. There's no denying
that The ii1ses not only began regularly, but
ended regularly, instead Of In the modern
ragged styiA Scientific articles were about
the same, leaving cut airplanes and vitamines
When writer's mentioned the Great War they
meant ths Cava War. instead Of the war with
Germany. The editorials were just about as
remote from human experience as magazine
editorials ars to-day-maybe trife remoter,
for nowad2yu editorial writer's have jazz,
bobbed hair, automobile parties and bootlegging
to inveigh against. which makes 1t lot easier
for them to express themselves without hurt
ing the circulation hsures As for the jokes in
the back Of the old magazine. Of course, they
were ths same. Nobody expects jokes to
change. Il takes radium 10000 years to wear
ITSELF out, but Joke can go longer than that
without losing fractional part Of its original
form.
So It will be seen that 90 far as concerns
the material inside the advertising husks of
the old-time magazines, a generation can 60
whooping on It's careless way without making
much difference. But the advertising itself
there We have q totally different proposition
with which to deal.
paderewski might be described as the pre-
siding genius of those old-time Christmas ad-
vertising pages, next to Santa Claus. Those
who want to be reminded how time puts its
foot on the accelerator should gaze on Mr.
Paderewski's picture as It was then. He would
have been deemed handsome, even III conven-
ton Of modern leading men of the films at Los
Angeles And when he declaimed from the ad
vertising section about the virtues Of certain
make Of piano it is no wonder people went and
bought it.
The bald gentleman who advertised the
three-dollar gum and the pepsin shoe--or was
Il the other way around?-looked about the
same. Three dollars was the price nominated
in the shoe advertising, incredible as it may
seem to those who are now confronted with
the prospect Of $14 replacements every time
pair Of soles wears through.
Bottles figured extensively In the Christmas
advertising Of that bygone era Whistles, cock
tails, wines were freely praised in the adver-
Using pages Of the lighter magazines, which
we're supposed to circulate in the less firmly
anchored homes Of the individuals with bo-
hemian incinations The magazines which
specialized In New England serials advertised
nothing stronger than malt extract and per-
haps certain make Of bitters, which, even 1t
N was household word, was long and hard to
pscnouncs.
In the way Of vehicle advertising one was
eonfrcnted by nc invitations to buy q certain
make Of automobile and plunge into the depths
q ths Grand Canyon without mishap, or to
0uy another make and climb the Rockies and
seoot up and down the California coast just as
summer vacation matter. None of that hair
1sising line. of copy appeared. Instead, there
we're advertisements which utilized such obso-
No words as carriages, phaetons, buggies,
surveys, buckboards, Kensingtons, extension
ops, cabriolets, Victorias, coaches and
D'oushams. Any one of these things, it was
sserred. would make fine Christmas gift,
S1ov'ded you had a span of horses, coachman
anu stable to go along with it. The adver-
usements pictured the most awe-inspiring
examinations. showing arched-neck horses
xs'Oose-stepping toward tire family church, with
Ae .coachman in his rightful place and the
ssOuo householders duly ensconced in the car
Asss. Victoria, brougham OF whatever it hap
ssneo to be- The picture was something to
sessss dignity rather than speed. In fact, it