Living Signs

How they advertise in New York and Chicago

There seems to be no limit to the ingenious schemes of the Yankee business man to advertise his wares, and the countryman or foreigner who happens to walk along Broadway, New York, or State Street, Chicago, any one of these days finds himself ejaculating, "Well, I wonder what they'll be doing next!" Whilst there appears to be no drop in the number of whole page advertisements in the monthly magazines and daily newspapers, and while there is scarcely a historic spot or famous haunt on earth without its immense signboard about somebody's pills or anybody's soap, the advertising people pay huge sums of money for still newer methods for a "business-fetching ad.," while keeping up their unstinted usage of the old mediums. The latest of these newer schemes is the"living sign."

Described generally, the "living sign" is a person who, while walking about the streets like an ordinary citizen, does something unusual to attract the attention of a large crowd, and then suddenly pulls out a banner containing an announcement that Smith's cigars are the best on earth. Of course everybody laughs at being "taken in" so cleverly. While, on the face of it, one would think that making a fool of a man is a bad way to to try to win his patronage, the living sign has the desired effect, for the striking scene is sure to induce the spectators to tell their friends all about it when they reach their office or their homes.

A few months before this was written, the living sign was practically unknown - unless one includes the time-out-of-mind "sandwich men." To-day, however, nearly every large soap-making firm, patent medicine manufacturer, or cigar maker of New York has one or more living signs constantly parading the streets, and there is scarcely any line of business in which at least one firm has not put forward its living advertisement.
The Royal Magazine, January, 1900

Where Women are Never Loved

Mrs. Archibald Little, the well-known traveller, records some interesting impressions of China. She says:- "In China women are held in the greatest contempt. A Chinaman habitually alludes to his better half as 'my wretched thorn,' and except in the poorest circles the wife never sits down to meals with her husband. Women are completely ignored. When a Chinese mandarin calls on my husband, he pretends not to see me. I may be sitting within a couple of yards of him, but he will still affect to be unconscious of my presence. The Chinese don't make love. Marriages are conducted through agents. As a rule a Chinaman never sees his wife until the wedding ceremony, when she unveils in his presence for the first time."
The Young Woman February 1900.

Things Wives Write in 1917

But you must have it taken, dear. It'll be something for the boy to show in after years - a father in the Great War.
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Whoever thought you'd be a soldier? I shall never forget the first day I saw you in khaki!
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I aired your overcoat today - I doubt if it will fit you when you come home!
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I never closed my eyes that night I got your letter saying you were booked for next draft.
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It's silly, I know, but I always dread to open the papers in the morning.
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Tom always adds to his prayers, "And please, God, let daddy bring home a German helmet!"
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Home Chat magazine. March 24, 1917. (Not strictly Victorian women... but I felt it should be included).

In Captivity

Fast bound in Love's sweet Chains am I,

Yet not a king so free;

O may I fettered live and die

A captive, Love, to thee!

I would not, if I might, arise

So dear my bonds have grown,

For in thine eyes my kingdom lies,

And there I reign alone!

Oh, Love! In all the world's wide space

My one desire art thou;

I would not change they soft embrace

For sceptred freedom now;

and night or day I only pray

Thy captive still to be,

and ever in thy heart to stay

In such sweet slavery!

M. J. Farrah

from The Royal Magazine -February, 1900.

The Tragedy of Fashion

Unhappily, though the truth about these things has been declared persistently for many years past, the fashion in feathers is more cruel to-day than ever. Never was there such an enormous demand for plumes as last year in London. The slaughter of bird life is becoming appalling. In Venezuela alone, more than two million birds were killed last year, and one London dealer admitted a dozen years ago, when the trade was not nearly so flourishing as it is now, that he sold two millions of small birds in twelve months.

Three recent consignments to London included 10,000 birds of paradise, nearly 800 packages of osprey feathers, 6,700 crested pigeons, 5,500 Impeyan pheasants, 500 bird skins, 270 cases of peacocks' feathers, 1,500 Argus pheasants, and 500 various small birds. Fifty thousand ounces of white egret feathers were sold at auctions in London last year. The figures should bring a blush to the cheeks of every gentlewoman. Six egrets must be killed for every ounce of this feather, so that the number of adult birds killed for those feathers was 900,000. That, however, takes no note of the young birds which perished of hunger and neglect. This would bring the number up to at least a million, so that we find that the feathers sold in London alone to deck the hats of the women of "Christian" England involved the torture and death of a million beautiful birds!

Excerpt taken from The Young Woman Illustrated Monthly Magazine - July 1900