The billboard (May 1897)

THE BILLBOARD I am going to devote my attention first. I am going to give them a few pointers — how to make it pay. I will start in wi a few " Don'ts/" To begin with, don't join an association with the idea, that it will bring you work. If you do, you will be disappointed. They are not organized for that purpose. They — the^membe "It is a Condition, not a The- ory, that Confronts us." By {AM W. HOKH. him. If he had ever tried to place bill posting throughout this mighty land of ours, he would have had leu time for duck hunting and for hobnobbing with Pier- pont Morgan. The remarkably large number of cities, towns, villages and cross roads iu these United States wherein the general com niertial advertiser is unable to put out bill posting when he wants to, is truly sur prising to the beginner in this method of A prominent city in the E only one bill poster, I on^e^indivi trifling. This poster in a small town, however, is times burdensome, especially so wh expense arid loss of time involved tending the annual convention is i Very few of the country bill posters who would be a grand thing tor the business if some plan could be had that would and fetttentte^over 1 tEug^thaFth'ey practicable. I would suggest that the next best thing is a free and open discussion in the col- umns of The Bir.r.soiRu. Write letters to the editor. If some few of yon start it np, others wilt follow, and iu time mnch good may result. Any question yon may want to ask me I will answer by mail orin these columns. I am in and out of Cincinnati all the while, and yon can address me in care of Do not forget the fact that paper publisher needs advertising, he does not go toJiis brother publishers for .... i38GSr__ wort today is not surpassed by that of with elaflic Hep Aim •s the youngest employe oM™e cDm«BV°™nd (rood for three more decades of fiuthtuldevouon Purely Although. Louis H. £ »nM*Ut is germlly^McedrdthinL ¥. Hubert it 1'aul Hatfjan should have had Ihe distinction. News from New York. Fig Syrup is putting out a new 4-shcet, a facsimile of their old 20 sheet stand, and also a new design in 16 sheets. The new design is a change, and all changes are improvements; therefore, this is an improvement over the old poster. Scotch Oats 8-sheets are up for a year's showing on M on son's boards. Adtake Bicycles and Sterling Bicycles are also using Munson's boards exclusively. Buffalo Bill takes all the Bamum & Bailey locations in New York, while Bar- aSSS*^ Mr? Dawley has branch^fficeiM 1 Liverpool"Lon- don, and Paris, and will combine business with A well-known city in Iowa is si situated, also one in Louisiana, » * cant lay it to the slothfnlness of the South or the unprogrtasiveneas of the East And the funny part of the tremble is, that a man who should attempt to go into these towns and put np a good ser- vice, and encourage th»> general advertiser to use the billboards, would be given to understand that he was out of place; that the proper work for him was knocking sap from railroad ties; that another man had pre-empted that town and had an as- sociation franchise, and that opposition would not be tolerated For some three months I have been try- ing to get some paper onto the billboards and finally the advertiser -' ' -don with my . ight he would _, _ whirl himself. So he took his pen in hand and wrote out an order, -ind shipped the paper, and in a few days - 1-..— . •«— paper had ford.^^Cheslnut street. Philadelphia, i _*1 a "printing house . . b, unduly severe and un- deserved. While Mr. Stahlbrodt may_ not is entitled f late, too, he has begun to it possibly he is 1 Hfch. has' wi.... „ . word if it is anything.—The Cross Panting Co. of Chicago test the value of our advertising columns this month- -Jim winlerburnls -John Rudolph, of the Courier Co. or Bof- (jiievillc Liltni(raDhin): Co .ire nincti in rvidenrr ^SSt Mead & Baiter, of Richmond, Va., will advertia month wash on the boards. Their first poster is an 8-sbeet, just com- pleted by the Donaldsons, of Cincinnati. They will place the business direct. Bill rasters all over the country will get some to New seed curried c— Mylius. and Jam W. Hoke, both innocents from abroad, ran up against a great game last week. The Singer Sewing Machine Company asked them, among others, to submit sketches and estimates for a whole lot of posters and the posting thereof. I warned both of them that no matter whose sketch was the best, and no matter whose price was lowest, that a certain party would have the order in the end ; that this was so well known that no old lithographing establishment would go to the expense of making sketches, or even to figure on the work if the sketch was submitted. But only experience teaches, and Hoke and Mylius know now that the wickedest thing on earth is "not a dishon- est bill poster. By the way, the bill post- ers throughout the country can begin soliciting the local agents of the Singer Co.; the posters have been ordered, and the locals will place them as they see fit. Mylius seems to be hustling up quite a lot of work for his new employer, Old Crow Rye Whisky being one of the new Kple he has landed. All the solicitors e been up against this article for the past two years, but didn't quite connect. Hoffs Malt Extract has a new 8-sheet, which is being placed throughout the New England States. It is an expensive piece of printing, but not equal in advertising force, to any of their previous posters. Mr. "Springer, the receiver of the old Springer & Welty Lithographing Co., has brought suit against the A. S. Seer Print for copyright infringement. Springer says he caught them at it, and the Seer people own up. and say it was done on Springer's own order. The poster in the case is a scene from ''Black Crook,' 1 and Ihe mat- ter may be further complicated by the Harry Miner Lithographing Co. claiming that Springer copied oneof their pictures, on which Miner holds copyright. At last • suits aggregating $200,000 had A letter was written to aak o posted, and another was sent 10 a salesman who happened to be within a hundred miles of the place, instructing him to go down and see how the paper was placed. The letter from the salesman was a revelation. He found all the paper posted, as charged for; but guess where ? Way out in the suburbs, far from the haunts of men, and every sheet was pasted onto an old bam, covering front, back and both aides. (I am not sure whether both sides meant outside and in- side, or right side and left side.) The bill poster justified his action be- cause all bis boards were used by the thea- ter during the season. It has probably never occurred to him that there is more lumber, and that space can be bad for the " Watcher goin- to do about it f Death of H. J. M. J. O'Neil. the first a of the Sill fbster, and for m ._, tached to the advance forces o! circuses, died at his home in Ci April 17, of an affection of the heart. Mr. O'Neil was a brilliant man, of versa- tile attainments. He was a writer of force, and possessed a vocabulary of al- most tropical luxuriance. At one time he handled al' **■- ~* *—~" rising and co early and phe markableren tributed Is spite their labor saving devices, have not been able to drive the merchant tailor out of existence, and neither will the poster printing establishments ever do away with the sign painter. In other words, will always be a percentage of ad-