Year: 1877

There was time when the Weekly


Yarn spinner, or Smiths Boarding.
house Magazine, could gain hun


dred thousand subscribers each by


Dn6lng them with "beautiful prize


chromos." Usually two chromos


were given to every subscriber, and


the fashion rapidly spread until
scores of new weekly papers and


monthly magazines were established
upon the basis of chrome distribu


tion. The country was consequent
ly soon flooded with these parodies
of painting. The result might have
been foreseen. After every farm
house and cottage had been filed
with cbromOs, the demand for them
totally ceased, and the subscribers
who had been bought with them,
waited tor new and more attractive
brides. The surfeit of chromos even
led to a partial revulsion of popular
feeling in regard to them, and in
many cases farmers who once felt
proud of their chromos thrust them
into the stables, where they now in
fiict poignant misery upon all decent
horses and elicit hoWls from cultured
dogs. That something must be found
to take the place of the chrome and
to lure back the lost subscribers of
the chromo-giving periodicals, has
for some time been very evident; but
it has been left for the wild, free in
tellect of the West to decide what
the new premium should be.


A newspaper published in the
State of Kansas has lately offered to
its subscribers a premium far supe-
rior to the most brilliant chrOmOs at
the period of their greatest popular
ity. A chrome, however cheaply it
may be bought, costs a newspaper
proprietor more or less money, but
the Kansas premiums can be obtain
ed by any newspaper without the
slightest expense. The chrome, al
though exceedingly popular in rural
districts, never had any attraction
for people who possessed a fondness
for art; but Raphael himself would
have regarded a first-elass Kansas
premium as the most beautiful OBJ
ject in existence. Moreover, unlike
the chrome, the Kansas premium
can never become a drug in the mar
ket or lose its attractiveness. A
thousand years hence the latter kind
of premium will be sought after as
eagerly as it is to-day. To merely
mention these facts is to give an un-
mistakable clue to the nature of the
premium, for what is there in the
whole State of Kansas which for a
moment can be compared with the
Kansas young lady?


The ingenius newspaper publisher
who has conceived the idea of offer
ing his subscribers premium young
ladies, has heightened the attractive
ness of the scheme by mingling with
it the element of chance. He has
now on his list of premiums the
names of one hundred young ladies
who have gratuitously lent HIM their
aid and sent him their photographs.
To every new subscriber to the pa
per he gives a ticket emitting the
holder to participation in grand
drawing of prize girls, to be held at
an early day AS fast as ticket is
drawn from the wheel a photograph |
of one of the prize girls will be drawn
from another wheel, and the lucky |
owner will be furnished with the |
name and address of his prize. He |
will thus obtain a wife at the mere
cost of a years subscription to an en-
terpTising paper, while the girl whom
he draws will obtain a husband with
out any exertion or outlay whatever.
Of course every one of the premium
young ladies will be drawn, and |
hence each one of them is sure of a
husband. The scheme is, therefore,
even more popular, if possible, with |
the Kansas young ladies than 1t is
with the Kansas young men, and |
there is no doubt that it will be a |
tremendous success. The columns of |
the fortunate newspaper which has
been the first to occupy this grand
field of business enterprise are filled
with glowing descriptions of its un-
equalIed prize girls, most of which |
descriptions are written by the girls |
themselves, and hence are free from
the suspicion of being untrustwor-
thy or in any way exaggerated
Among them are ''handsOme young
widows" "beautiful girls of from
sixteen to twenty-five years of age,"
and ''exceedingly handsome" ladies
of twenty five. The photographs of |
all the young ladies on the list |
are sent to every person who init
mates a desire to become q subscri |
Der, and then no one is asked to pur-
chase a ticket until he is satisfied
that the prizes are substantially as
represented.


Excellent as this scheme unques-
tionably is, it might perhaps be I'M
proved in certain details. For eA-
ample, the plan of drawing Ph9toc
graphs of the prize girls lns'e'u Vi
the girls themselves, may give occa-
sion Tor CaVll,lH OaNo


precisely correspond to her photo
Pronb This could be entirely avoid
Cd were the girls themselves to be
nIsced in a large glass wheel, and
after being thoroughly mixed, were
to be drawn out by blind man. If
this were done, there would be no
possible ground for any complaint
of want of fairness, and the winners
would enter at once into possession
of their prizes. 1t would also be
well were the newspaper publisher
to guarantee to each winner the
peaceable possession of his prize. 1t
is within the bounds of possibility
that a girl may be entered on a list
of prizes and actually drawn, who is
already married and who has failed
to obtain a valid divorce; or a prize
girl may have a father who is too
"spry with his weepOns," or a broth
or who has q tendency TO borrow |
money, To obviate all trouble, each
prize girl should be warranted to be