OLD-FASHIONED ADVERTISING.

THE

HERE is a constant war between the commercial and the editorial departments of newspapers as to the relative importance of advertisements and "reading matter." The distinction is perhaps arbitrary, for it is commonly believed that women, whose patronage is not to be despised, after reading the Births, Marriages, and Deaths, run through the advertisement columns, and then throw the paper down as exhausted. It is quite certain that, in looking over the files of old newspapers, you will find the advertisements not the least interesting part of the contents. Parliament and Courts go on for ever, and a debate or a lawsuit of 1897 is not very unlike a debate or a lawsuit of 1797; but there is a subtle fluctuation in the attitude of the tradesman to his customer, the Public, and of the terms in which it is thought proper to approach him. The shopkeeper of a century ago was obsequiousness itself. He did not rudely importune his patrons to "Come and Buy," nor did he announce "Startling Bargains" in indelicately large type. He humbly "solicited patronage"; he was agitated by "a lively sense of gratitude" for past favours; in his most enterprising moments he only "earnestly requested" the Public to honour his poor establishment with its benign presence.

Even official announcements have lost in quaintness what they have gained in conciseness. Perhaps the increasing charge for insertion has had a good deal to do with the greater peremptoriness of nineteenth century advertisements. Then it has to be remembered that a century ago was a time of national excitement, and in moments of stress even officials may lose their self-consciousness and remember that they also are flesh. Buonaparte was carrying havoc over the Continent; Spain had declared war against England; and we had several other little affairs on our hands. The papers swarm with adjurations to enlist. The Hon. Society of Gray's Inn offers to "give Twenty Guineas, without any deduction whatever, to any man who shall be approved by the Regulating Officer. No Volunteer who shall enter as above can be arrested for debt, or taken out of

His Majesty's service, but for a criminal matter." One wonders what the tradesmen must have thought of an inducement so contrary to their interests. In spite of its dubious morality, the same offer was made by the vestries of St. James's, Westminster; St. Luke, Chelsea; "Mary-le-bone," and several other parishes. A postscript mentions that "persons enrolled are not liable to serve more than one Calendar Month after the end of the present War." One of the advertisements is more patriotic than the rest. It is headed :

SPANISH WAR! SPANISH WAR! SPANISH WAR!

OLD ENGLAND FOR EVER! HUZZA! HUZZA! HUZZA!

That was the ebullition of St. Margaret's, Westminster.

But it was not all patriotism even then. The Government had on their own responsibility made a grant of £1,200,000 to "our ally, the Emperor "-meaning the Emperor of Germany-to enable him the better to resist the onslaughts of France. That incident supplies the necessary explanation to the announcement in the Times of December 16 that

IN a MEETING or ASSEMBLY of the MAYOR, ALDERMEN, and LIVERYMEN of the several COMPANIES of the CITY OF LONDON, in Common Hall Assembled, at the Guildhall of the said City, on Wednesday, the 14th day of December 1796,

Resolved: "That this Common Hall do instruct their Representatives in Parliament to move or support a Motion in the House of Commons for censuring the Ministers, for having taken upon themselves to send the Money of the People of Great Britain to the Emperor of Germany, during the sitting of Parliament, without the consent of Parliament."

It is clear that Mr. Labouchere missed an opportunity by not being born a century before he was. He would certainly have been pained to read this bellicose announcement :—

MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE FOR ENCOURAGING THE CAPTURE OF FRENCH PRIVATEERS, ARMED VESSELS, &c.

RAWSON AISLABIE, Esq., in the Chair.

Resolved: "That Capt. R. Bowen, of His Majesty's ship Terpsichore, be requested by this Committee to accept a piece of plate, value 100 guineas, in acknowledgment of his very gallant behaviour in the capture of the Spanish Frigate Mahonesa, of superior force, in the action of the 13th of October last."

Those were trying days for the Postmaster-General, as well as for the Foreign Secretary. Here is a pathetic reminiscence of the times when all the Manchester letters went into one bag :

:

General Post Office, Dec. 17, 1796.

The Post-boy, carrying the North Mail from Warrington to Chester, was stopped on Monday evening, the 5th inst., between 7 and 8 o'clock, within a

mile of Chester, by a Man on foot, who took from him the Mail, containing the Manchester, Warrington, and Frodsham bags of letters.

The Robber was dressed in a blue jacket and white trowsers, and had an oilcase cover to his hat.

Whoever shall apprehend and convict, or cause to be apprehended and convicted, the person who committed this robbery, will be entitled to a reward of TWO HUNDRED POUNDS over and above the reward given by Act of Parliament for apprehending of Highwaymen; and if any accomplice in the robbery, or knowing thereof, shall surrender himself and make discovery, whereby the person who committed the same may be apprehended and brought to justice, such discoverer will be entitled to the said reward of Two Hundred Pounds, and will also receive His Majesty's most gracious pardon.

By command of the Postmaster-General.

ANTH. TODD, Secretary.

Letters often miscarried in that way. Just a fortnight before, the same official advertises that :

THE Bags that should have arrived this morning from the following Towns are missing:

:

The

Much is to be learned from the theatrical advertisements. great hat question must be at least a century old, for we read that "the Public are earnestly requested to observe that Ladies dressed in bonnets, or Gentlemen in boots, cannot be admitted into the pit of the Opera." That was at the King's Theatre, where the prices were: pit, 10s. 6d. ; gallery, 5s. The pit, of course, corresponded to today's stalls. Italian opera-forgotten things by Guglielmi, Bianchi, Sacchini, and others whom the advertisements call "Masters "-held the boards. It seems, however, that the performances were subject to interruptions of a kind which are now out of date, for the advertisement goes on:

Gentlemen are most earnestly entreated not to remain upon the Stage during the representation of the Grand Ballet, in which so many persons are necessarily employed, that the effect will be utterly destroyed if the performance is interrupted by the presence of persons upon the Stage who are not engaged in the business of the Ballet.

At the circuses, where the gallery was Is., and you could get a box for 45., there were more exciting things than Guglielmi. "The celebrated Mr. Smith," for example, "will, for this night only, take a most. surprising Leap over Twenty Soldiers, with shouldered firelocks and fixed bayonets, and will take a most surprising Leap through a long Shower of Fire." Another gentleman was to dance a tight rope, and

beat two drums at the same time, "balancing one on his chin, the other fixed to his middle, accompanying the Band to several favourite tunes, the same never attempted by any other Performer."

The tradesmen's advertisements read oddly to-day. It suggests Arcadia to read that Mr. Hutchins has, out of a sense of his duty to the Public, resolved "to keep a number of Cows at his Wharf, in Water Street, Strand," where the said Public was respectfully requested to come and see them milked. Mr. Mackay, of 29 Princes Street, Soho, alludes to his Potted Shrimps as "the above combination of Nature and Art," and remarks that "Sandwiches of them are much resorted to by gentlemen in a forenoon, particularly by those who may have made too free with the Bottle on the preceding evening." The ingenious vendor does not seem to have seen that the fact of a gentleman munching a shrimp sandwich cast grave suspicion on his yesterday's behaviour. Our great-grandmothers can hardly have resisted the temptation to invest in "the Italian Paste," which there is the authority of its maker for pronouncing "the most efficacious and infallible thing in the world for the speedy and certain extirpation of those destructive animals, rats and mice; for, by its wonderfully attractive quality, those rats, &c. which are destroyed by the effects thereof are frequently eaten in the most voracious manner by the surviving animals to obtain the composition." What a theme for a poster! But, unhappily, posters were not then invented.

The lucky owner of a Rattlesnake-" just arrived from America, the only one alive in this kingdom "-indulges in a little scientific dissertation :

Among the many wonderful productions Nature has been so lavish as to distribute over the globe, none deserves the attention of the curious more than the RATTLE-SNAKE. Most writers agree as to the baneful effect of its bite; and that it is attended with instant death is beyond dispute. Its progress when enraged and pursuing is next to flying; but what must surprise and astonish is that the above snake was caught on the 3rd day of May last, since which time, till within the space of ten days, it has existed without any kind of sustenance whatever. Admittance 6d. each person at No. 4 Capel Court, Bartholomew Lane.

This appeared on October 4, so that the Rattlesnake must have been an economical, if somewhat responsible, luxury.

Drapers' announcements include that of Messrs. Dyde & Scribe of Pall Mall, who "beg leave to observe that their warehouses are warmed with good fires and the floor covered with mats." A mourning warehouse mentions materials, some of which are unfamiliar to the modern ear: "Rasdimores for widows' mourning, black Armo zeens, lustrings, double and single taffities, cypress, &c."

One reads much of Dr. Solander's Sanative English Tea, what

ever that was. He harps much on the patriotic string. "By the nobility and gentry," he says, " this Tea is much admired as a fashionable breakfast, being . . . . in every respect preferable to foreign tea, which the Faculty unanimously concur in pronouncing a species of slow poison." The ingenious doctor does not mention where his tea is grown, though it was to be obtained of "Mr. Fuller, Covent Garden, near the Hummums." Even in those happy days there were no tea plantations in Kent.

Mr. Charles, of 108 Strand, "Sworn Miniature Painter to His Majesty the King and to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales," advertises his ability to take "strong likenesses" in one hour at a charge of from one to ten guineas; and a Strand firm offers for the inspection of the Nobility and Gentry a "Magnificent Barrel Organ.” So does the luxury of one century become the superfluity of the

next.

What is an "American Creeper ? " One would at the first blush suspect it of a connection with botany; but it appears from an advertisement that it is "a simple but very useful Invention, for effectually preventing the possibility of slipping in walking over the frozen Pavement, and consequently the dangerous falls to which all persons are subject, when business or amusement takes them into the streets at this inclement season. A large assortment," we are assured, "are ready for sale at Savigny's, No. 28 King Street, Covent Garden."

Not only were the tradesmen of a hundred years ago more polite in the public prints, but so were the officials. It is not so long since all the West End was grumbling about the unconscionable time for which Piccadilly was "up." What should we have said to see an advertisement in the papers like one which appeared on November 28, 1796 ?

TEMPLE BAR AND SNOW HILL.

THE Public, unacquainted with the circumstances, having great reason to be dissatisfied at the slow progress of these improvements, the Committee think it but justice to themselves to state that from the commencement of the business they have, without any pecuniary benefit to themselves, regularly attended every week, and no exertions have been wanting by them and their officers, yet so many and so various have been the demands for the different interests in the premises, so complicated the titles, and so large and unexpected the claims for goodwill, &c., that they have had much difficulty to get so forward as they are. The Committee goes on at great length to explain the nature of the obstacles, so anxious was it to clear its good name of the allegation of laggardness. The County Council could not be more polite.

There is both sarcasm and mystery about this intimation on October 5. The sarcasm is obvious:—

VOL. CCLXXXIV. NO. 2009.

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