The billboard (Dec 1897)

THE BILLBOARD pa_. ERIE, PA. I ordinance recently pissed at ill posting and dis- land or America lias suffered as muc the hand'of aisthetes. These well meaning bnt misguided p sons, aided by a sensation hunting pre have caused bill posters endless incom the papers, at times it would seem tl they were actuated by something nir than mere motives of reform or ne placency save that which is found in their own columns. It is charged, and not without some color of truth, that they are ever ready to decry posters, bulletins and handbills. The)- are variously branded as cheap, uncoarmendable, ille- gitimate, or what yon will. Occasionally a publication is found, however, that is not edited from the counting room. The Illustrated American is such an one, as witness the following articles wbicb appeared in a recent issue : fg K there not lurking somewhere, unfor- mulated, a natural law which might be beauty? At any rate, in the face of Lord Kel- vin's rec t prop children -ill not L ' The ut :, '*nriau will see, in the subji gallon of the cataract, only the of a vast energy into the chanm duatry and glory? For the wild surging rhythm of the falls we will have therhythmic stroke of mighty pistons, the deep vibrant mur- mur of gigantic wheels. The bright, re- sistless strength of the cataract will still chinery. And it may be that, for the seeing eye. there will be no beauty dead in that day. Directly following the foregoing, and on the same page, they pay their respects to the newspapers in the following vein -. i tbe the god behind the i the advertiser. A few years ago the essential unit in the calculations of the newspaper pub- lisher was the subscriber. To-day the subscriber fills a secondary, though im- portant, place in the economy of the newspaper office. Under tbe old order of things the buyer or the paper paid for the cost of its pub- lication. Now the news sheet lives by its advertising patronage. More particolarly is this true of the big dailies. When the newspaper reader all over the country paid five cents a copy for bis daily journal he was of import- ance enough to the publisher to demand first consideration. But when the shake up came which dropped the price of daily papers to the now generally prevailing rate of one cent a copy tbe snbscrilw's contribution toward the support of tbe ling paper bt an it. The Xe:es of that city has the following to say. viz: The bill poving ordinence recently enacted by the Councils has been ap- proved by the mayor. Tbe new ordinance does not go as far in the reg u' at ion of the distributing of advertising matter as the original ordinance, portions of which were declared illegal by the court. In- deed, there are those around the city ball who think it does not go far enough, an.l at a conference of several -1 ig-wigs" in the omce of the chief of police the de- ficiencies of the new law were pointed out at length. The ordinance had been referred to the city solicitor io draw up a bill that would meet the objections of the court, and as presented by him it was passed by the Councils. Hereafter anj license to do it either, and this applies equally to residents and non residents, the only restraint imposed on them being the restriction against tbe "litering" of with the ordinances of tbe city ami tr laws of the state governing the channti of tbe matter po-tei! or painted, anil t): manner of posting or painting of It Sec. .1, The said licensees, th ell age at officers and employes, while engaj-fl i the act of posting or painting shall an a badge with the following words c.., rsly placed thereon, "License dollars nor more than twenty-five (*3.v dollars, and in default of tbe payment i>! such fine, juch person shall be impris- oned in the lockup or common jail of the city for a period of not less than five uur more than thirty days. Sec. 6. That any ordinance, or pnn thereof, conflicting herewith be and the Clerk Common Council, avember 17, 1897. Rout. J. Busman. is obvious that a ne* source of in- st be tapped—and the day of tbe - adveiiiser began to dawn Be it enacted by the Select and Common Councils of the City of Erie. Pa.: Sition 1. That from and after the passage of this ordinance, no person or persons shall engage in ihe business of advertising by bill posting or paiming in specified, nnless the said person or per- sons shall have Erst been duly liceused by tbe mayor of the City of Erie. C P. RODGERS. C. I'. Rodgers was born in Sidney, n , July 21. 1S5J. At the age or thirteen years he commenced carrying papers for Wm. Yager, and in 1N70 he Iwught Hit' Enquirer and other paper routes from Yagtr and started into the general news business. In 1S7.3 he formed a partner- ship with a Mr. Dowus in the bill posting business. Mr. Downs sold his interest in 18-5 to Wm. Shul, and Mr. Rodgers bought out Mr. Shul. He has since owned and controlled tbe neu-s Olive* P«t Drrubk-Dtcker, in FwdUy, Ohio.