CHAPTER XX.

_ADVERSARIA._ During the progress of this book towards completion, we have now and again stumbled across something which would not consistently fit under any of the chapter heads in our plan, nor stand well by itself, and though at first rather puzzled what to do with these trifles, they have in the end accumulated sufficiently to form a chapter of varieties which will fitly conclude, and will doubtless prove neither dull nor uninteresting. In advertising there seems to be always something new springing up, and no sooner do we think we have discovered the last ingenious expedient of the man anxious to display his wares, or to tempt others to display theirs, than another and more novel plan for publicity arrests the attention, and makes its predecessor seem old-fashioned, if not obsolete. At the present moment the plan of an energetic Scotchman is the very latest thing in advertisements. Whether it will be considered a novelty six months hence, or whether it will be considered at all, it would be hard indeed to say, so it will perhaps be enough for us to give the plan to our readers, with the remark that after all the idea is not unlike that of the old newsletters to which reference has been made in an earlier portion of this work. The Scotchman’s notion is to substitute advertisements for the intelligence contained in the ancient letters, and thereby reap a rich reward. For sixpence he sells twenty-four sheets of letter-paper, on the outside of each of which is an embossed penny postage-stamp. He fills the two inside pages with sixty advertisements, for which he charges one guinea each, leaving the first page for private correspondence, and the last page, to which the stamp is affixed, for the address. As the stamp will carry an ounce weight, another sheet of plain paper may be enclosed. He guarantees to the advertiser a circulation of five thousand copies. For the advertisements he receives £63, from which he pays five thousand stamps at one penny each--£20, 16s. 8d.--less received for copies sold (twenty-four for sixpence), £5, 4s. 2d.; total, £15, 12s. 6d., leaving the difference, £47, 7s. 6d., to cover the cost of paper and printing. It will be remembered by many that the plan of giving advertisement sheets away has been often tried--notably with metropolitan local newspapers, some of which at first thought to clear the whole of their expenses by means of the charge for notices, &c. It is remarkable, however, that these journals invariably did one of two things. They either got a price fixed on themselves, or died. It is hard to make advertisers believe that it is worth while paying for a notice in a paper which is itself not worth paying for, and no arguments as to increased circulation seem to have any effect. Parisian advertisements form an item worthy of attention here. Within the past few years a great change has taken place in the system of advertising as known in the capital of France--in fact, as known in all the chief towns of the empire, kingdom, republic--whichever our readers like best or consider the most correct word. Between twenty-five and thirty years ago advertisements were charged at very high rates in the Paris papers, and there were comparatively few of them. The proprietors of journals did not themselves deal with the advertisers, but farmed out their columns at so much a year to advertising establishments or agencies. This was both convenient for the papers and profitable for the agencies. The rates they fixed for advertising in some of the most prominent journals were--_Presse_, one franc per line for each insertion; _Siècle_, one franc fifty centimes per line each insertion for four times, for ten times and upwards one franc per line, special notices three francs per line, editorial items five francs per line; _Nation_ and _Débats_, four lines seventy-five centimes per line, advertisements above 150 lines fifty centimes per line, special notices two francs per line, editorial items three francs; _Galignani’s Messenger_, seventy-five centimes a line each time, one advertisement above 300 lines fifty centimes a line, editorial items three francs. Other papers were lower, some taking advertisements for from twenty-five to forty centimes, and charging from one franc to two francs a line for editorial items; but their circulation was very limited. What are called broadside advertisements were very frequent in Paris papers; they were very ugly affairs to the eye of an Englishman; set up in sprawling capitals, like a handbill, a single advertisement frequently covering half or the whole of a page of a newspaper. This style of advertisement obtains now, but under different principles. The _Presse_ and the _Siècle_ used to make more money than any of the other papers by means of advertisements; in the year 1847 the income of the _Presse_ for its two advertising pages was 300,000 francs. The advertising of the _Débats_ and _Constitutionnel_ was also profitable. Things have very considerably changed since then, and Parisian advertising may fairly be said to have become developed into a flourishing, though at the same time a very unique, system. The remark, “Show me the advertisements of a country, and I will tell you the character of its inhabitants,” is not yet current among the choice sayings of great men, yet it or something similar might well be said with regard to modern Parisian notifications. Perhaps in no country so much as in France are public announcements and advertisements so thoroughly characteristic of a people. An important law recently introduced compels all announcements fixed or displayed in public places to bear each a ten-centime stamp, and the Government reserves to itself the right of alone using a perfectly white _affiche_. All posters, playbills, and placards unconnected with State matters must be printed on coloured paper, though a small portion may remain white. The Parisians are proverbially neat in everything but their personal habits; and ugly, gaunt, straggling hoardings like those of London are quite unknown to them. The principal vacant places in front of building ground are usually purchased by one of the principal Sociétés de Publicité. A large frame of wood and canvas is affixed to the hoarding and divided into a number of squares, which are painted a neutral tint. Then in all these squares different announcements are made in gay colours. When completed, the structure resembles the boards of advertisements placed in railway carriages and omnibuses, the scale of course being considerably larger. A well-executed painting of some country seat or park to let frequently figures in these spaces; and few stations are without some well-known and familiar advertisement, the French having like ourselves some firms which make it their business to be on every hoarding and in every paper. A large tailoring and drapery establishment which advertises as follows is perhaps the best known of any:-- MAISON DE LA RUE DE PONT NEUF HABILLEMENTS PR HOMMES ET ENFANTS ON REND L’ARGENT DE TOUT ACHAT QUI À CESSE DE PLAIRE =LA MAISON N’EST PAS AU COIN DU QUAI=. This advertisement is so well known that recently a _revue_ bearing the title “La Maison n’est pas au Coin du Quai” was played at a well-known theatre, and in the recent version of “Orphée aux Enfers” at the Gaîté, the “on rend l’argent” portion is made the peg for a joke by the Monarch of Hell. The following also persistently arrest the attention of the traveller: “Au Bon Diable,” “Eau Melisse des Carmes,” “Chocolat Ibled,” and “Old England British Tailors.” The “Piano Quatuor” is also everywhere typified by the picture of a gentleman with hideous long fingers and pointed nails stretching over the strings of four violins. The theatres usually display their programmes on large columns specially constructed for the purpose, which are fixed about every two hundred yards along the principal Boulevards. As these bills are renewed nearly every day, this department alone must be very remunerative to the Government. No playbills are sold in the theatres, but many of the daily journals publish the programmes of all; and three papers, the _Vert-Vert_, the _Orchestra_, and the _Entr’acte_, are specially printed to serve as bills of the play. One peculiar circumstance connected with theatrical advertisements is worthy of notice. In each of those places of public convenience known to Parisians as “Les Colonnes Rambuteau,” some mysterious individual has for years pasted a little piece of paper announcing the drama at the Ambigu Comique and the principal performers therein. Here is an exact copy of the one appearing during the month of June of the present year (1874):-- [Illustration: _Mm Vannoy Mont-bars et M^{d.} Ribeaucourt L’Amant de la Lune drame en 7 tableaux de Paul de Kock. L’Ambigu Comique tous les soirs_ ] For years some unknown person has thus maybe gratuitously advertised the house in question, and his identity is one of the mysteries of Paris. Two well-known Parisian journalists, piqued by the eccentricity of the advertisement, lay in wait one whole night and day for the purpose of discovering its author, but their effort was fruitless. While on the subject of these _colonnes_, we may note the fact that their exteriors are covered with advertisements, the most conspicuous among them being the bill of fare of the “Dîner de Rocher,” a three-franc ordinary on the Boulevard Montmartre. The interior announcements are not of a nature for publication, and in that respect resemble kindred establishments this side the Channel. Next in importance to the hoardings and “spectacle” columns are the kiosques, in which the newspaper trade of Paris is chiefly carried on. The front is open, with the paper stall before it; but the remaining sides are of coloured glass, and each square contains an advertisement painted or stained upon it, generally in large letters. At night the light in the interior gives the kiosque a very gay and festive appearance. There are various minor methods of attracting public attention practised by the Parisian traders. The managers of the Louvre and Pygmalion, establishments similar to our Shoolbred’s and Meeking’s, give to each of their customers an air balloon with the name of the establishment from which it is issued painted upon it. Thousands of these are constantly bobbing about along the principal thoroughfares. The tickets given to seat occupiers in the public gardens and parks are beautifully illuminated cards covered with trade announcements. Some of the restaurants give each of their lady-customers a fan in summer, which is prettily ornamented with advertisements. At Duval’s famous eating establishments the backs of the bills of fare are sold for a large sum to advertising contractors. It is calculated that this firm issues 30,000 _cartes_ a day. Space will not allow us to enumerate the further thousand-and-one plans--some sensible, some silly--which the Parisians adopt for attracting public attention; we therefore pass on to the last and most important medium for advertisements--the Parisian newspapers. In French journals, as in some English, the _réclame_, or editorial puff, is eagerly sought after; and for unblushing effrontery in selling their pens to pushing tradesmen, we must yield the palm to our brother scribes across the water. “They order this matter better in France.” Only a short time since M. de Villemessant, the editor of _Le Figaro_, gave a delightful specimen of the art in his own columns. He commenced by relating the history of the Duke of Hamilton and the sheep’s wool left on the brambles. Then came a long description of the homes of the Highland shepherds, and their spinning wives. The English word “homespun” being thus introduced, the article wound up by advising _les gentlemen français_ to rush to a certain shop in Paris where homespun was sold, and be measured for suits. A few days after the article had been published, its author was sauntering along the Boulevards clad in a homespun suit of the latest cut and pattern. We present a choice specimen of the _réclame_ cut from the pages of the Parisian _gommeux’s_ favourite journal:-- _Le Figaro_ n’oublie pas que son aïeul était coiffeur, aussi ne dédaigne-t-il pas de parler des chevaliers du démêloir, surtout lorsque ceux-ci se recommandent à l’attention du public par des qualités hors ligne. Nos lecteurs du quartier de l’Arc-de-Triomphe, y compris les Ternes, l’avenue de l’Impératrice, Neuilly, etc., ne se doutent pas qu’ils possèdent dans leur voisinage, 47, avenue de la Grande-Armée, un expert en fait de coiffures de femmes et d’hommes... Il se nomme Rivals et n’en connait pas (pardon!) pour la dexterité du peigne et la légèreté du rasoir. Here is another of these exquisite specimens of artistry in puffing. It is from _La Vie Parisienne_ of a short time back:-- --Les voyageurs pour la ligne d’Italie montent en voiture. --Une minute, sac à papier! je n’ai pas pris mon café. --Un qui se croit encore au temps des diligence: le chemin de fer n’attend pas. --N’est-ce que cela, cher? monte dans mon compartiment, et tu n’auras pas à regretter la chicorée du buffet. Le sifflet fait entendre son son strident. Nous voici partis! Nous avons tiré de son sac de voyage un flacon d’_Essence de café Trablit_. Il me fait un mazagran que je sirote avec autant de délices que si Tortoni l’eût préparé. En crème, a l’eau, au lait, en grog, l’_Essence de café Trablit_ est chose exquise. Recommandée aux voyageuses, dans leur intérêt. 1 fr. 60 le flacon (67, rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau). Besides writing up the goods of energetic and aspiring tradesmen, the French journalist is frequently employed by a third or fourth rate actress to write her into notoriety. To do this he carefully avoids any mention of her histrionic abilities; but whenever he gets an opportunity, he describes her dresses, her equipage, her _petits soupers_, and occasionally places in her mouth some clever repartee or daring joke. Once in vogue, a lady of this kind has obtained the object of her ambition, and many a queen of the _demi-monde_ owes her success in the realms of guilty splendour to the constant puffing of some hireling scribe. Hireling though he be, the scribe is also an artist, and his work bears an immeasurably favourable comparison with that of his clumsy English rival; for he has rivals in England, and _réclames_ are finding their way rapidly into the most pretentious of our papers. Hitherto they have succeeded in deceiving none so much as their waiters and those who pay for them; but there is yet hope. Occasionally the French _réclame_ mania is worked up into a good joke, as in the following:-- Une maison de blanc portant pour enseigne: _Au bon petit Jésus_, avait pour caissier un affreux gredin qui disparaît un jour avec la grenouille tout entière. Tous les journaux sont pleins du vol commis au _Bon petit Jésus_. Le patron court affolé et met la main sur son employé au moment où celui-ci prenait tardivement le chemin de fer. Il lui saute au collet: --Miserable! tu m’as ruiné! L’autre répond, sans s’émouvoir: --Oui, monsieur... mais quelle réclame pour la maison! Sometimes the advertisement is given in an indirect manner: thus the public read the following in the day’s paper:-- Un détail amusant. Sur le rideau d’annonces des Bouffes on peut lire ce qui suit: _Mesdames, souvenez-vous que les vieilles robes et les ameublements fanés teints par la maison X... sont plus beaux que neufs!_ Comme c’est bien en situation! The next time the reader goes to the theatre the advertisement alluded to catches his eye, and the address is fixed in his memory. The _réclame_ is at present an important feature of French journalism. It generally pays all parties concerned in its manufacture, and its existence is therefore likely to continue for long. The reader has only to pick up _Le Gaulois_, _Le Figaro_, or any of the Parisian lighter papers, and he will be enabled to see for himself to what an extent commerce has infected the Gallic press. Turning from the _réclames_ to the advertisements proper, we find there are five distinct specimens of the latter, so far as style is concerned. Each one of these has its modifications, but the following samples will be found very near the mark. The first will serve a double purpose, as it seems to point out that despite the ridicule cast on English costumes by Parisian satirists, there are not a few who wear them, though they have every opportunity of appearing in the Frenchest of French fashions:-- =PANTALONS ANGLAIS= =FAITS SUR MESURE: 19 fr 50= =OLD ENGLAND= _35, boulevard des Capucines_. The second specimen is intended for the ladies, who may believe what they like of the statement made about its salutary action, and its adding to the natural beauty:-- =La Veloutine= _est une poudre de Riz spéciale préparée au bismuth, par conséquent d’une action salutaire sur la peau. Elle est adhérente et invisible, aussi donne-t-elle au teint une fraîcheur et une beauté naturelles. Ch. FAY, inventeur, 9, rue de la Paix._ Our third refers to something which has been fashionable as long as there has been such a thing as fashion, and which is likely to continue till _la mode_ itself has an end:-- =MARIAGES= DEMANDEZ LE =TRAIT D’UNION= RÉPERTOIRE COMPLET ET DISCRET DES DEMANDES ET PROPOSITIONS DE TOUS PAYS, ADRESSÉES A M. et à M^{me} ROULARD, 72, rue de Rivoli. =DOTS DEPUIS 10,000 FR. Jusqu’aux plus grandes fortunes.= (Timbres pour réponse.) Our fourth selection refers to a stomachic which is rather fashionable just now:-- _Saint Raphaël_, _vin fortifiant_, _digestif_, Tonique reconstituant, goût excellent, plus efficace, pour les personnes affaiblies, que les ferrugineux, que les quinas. Prescrit dans les fatigues d’estomac, la chlorose, l’anémie, les convalescences. Dose: un demi-verre à bordeaux après les repas.--Principales pharmacies 3 fr. la bouteille. And our fifth is the following:-- [Illustration: AVIS AUX DAMES A LA =MAGICIENNE= 129, RUE MONTMARTRE. La plus grande spécialité pour Dames. 20,000 =Confections= à choisir. 2,000 =Collets cachemire=, ornés soie et guipure, à 12^{F.} 1,500 =Jacquettes cachemire=, ornées faye et guipure, à 15^{F.} 800 =Tuniques cachemire=, ornées guipure, valant 50 fr., à 25^{F.} 1,000 =Fichus= Marie-Antoinette, ornés passementerie et guip^{re} 29^{F.} 500 =Dolmans= cachemire, tout brodés, garnis guipure, à 45^{F.} 2,500 =Dolmans= fantaisie, brodés toutes nuances, à 17^{F.} 1,000 =Robes= fantaisie, modèles nouveaux, à 39^{F.} Tous les =Costumes= et =Confections= sur mesure au même prix. _Les Magasins sont ouverts les Dimanches et jours de Fêtes._ A LA =MAGICIENNE= 129, RUE MONTMARTRE. ] An ingenious method of obtaining notoriety, and one which has paid pretty well recently over some theatrical matters in this country, is to fall foul of the official censor. The announcement that “la Censure a interdit ‘Palotte’ dans les gares” has caused “Palotte,” a rather dirty novel, to be an immense success. Why it should be forbidden in the railway stations, and allowed everywhere else, we are not sufficiently behind the scenes to say. We have now glanced hastily at the leading aspects of French advertising, and after remarking that _Galignani_ and the _Gazette des Etrangers_ are the great mediums for English and American advertisements in Paris, that a certain American manager who has a theatre in London advertises it and his angular histrionic wonder regularly in the former, and that the principal advertising contractors of Paris have made vast fortunes, we get fairly back to our original remark, that the whole system of advertising in Paris is characteristic of the Parisians--a strange mixture of neatness, effect, frivolity, and childishness. Who shall deny that these four words suit the character of the great mass of the people? The fact that the authorities reserve to themselves the white _affiche_ is characteristic to a degree of French Governments, and the savage attack which the French journals made upon the letters of apartments, because their poor little notices “Chambre à louer” were exempted from the ten-centimes tax, was a fair specimen of the frivolous and vexatious spirit which animates the children of _la Grande Nation_. For their neatness they are proverbial; and any one walking through the streets of Paris cannot fail to notice the admirable order in which the various stations are kept. No rain-soaked bills peeling off, no mud-plashed announcements of pieces which have been withdrawn for weeks--all is neat and fresh, and corrected to date. The gay colours of the posters, the many-tinted sides of the _kiosques_, the illuminated “spectacle” columns, the gilt-lettered balconies, the quaint gas devices, and the thousand-and-one pretty and ingenious ideas which are pressed into the service of the modern goddess Publicity, are all items in one lovely and harmonious whole, the most beautiful and the best-arranged city of modern times, Paris. We can teach France many things, probably she can teach us one certainly--which is, that art, even genius, may be successfully applied to such a very small pursuit as that of advertising. The consideration of _réclames_, which are now regarded as so essentially French, has reminded us, not alone that they were fashionable, though under a humbler name, in this country many, many years ago, as we have already shown, but that they are again coming into fashion. But the “puff-pars” of old England--which may fairly be represented by those which emanated from the establishment of Rowland, the Kalydor man, in his palmy days of advertising--were always clumsy when compared with those _réclames_ we have been studying, it being impossible, apparently, to make a British advertiser understand that an advertisement is more valuable in proportion as it looks less like what it really is. The cloven foot always shows forth under the wrapper of fine words; and when we say this, we do not refer to the paragraphs written in odonto or ointment establishments by young men at a pound a week, who are bound to put so many hard words in a line, and keep their productions within the compass of so many lines, whether syntax is agreeable or not; but to the friendly and more able notices which now and again find their way into some daily and weekly papers. The _réclame_, in its best form, is a highly-cultivated flower--an exotic, in fact--and is at present a little over the heads of the advertising public, who like to see plenty for money. One paragraph which approaches much nearer the true _réclame_ than most attempts, we stumbled across the other day. It is an attempt to convey to a wondering world how Perry Davis’s Pain Killer came to be used both internally and externally. By it we find that much internal discomfiture had been destroyed by the specific, when one day, in conducting some scientific exploration, its patentee became sadly burned. In his agony he threw the contents of the nearest bottle--which happened to contain Pain Killer--over the injured parts, and as much to his surprise as satisfaction, he became in a short time perfectly cured. Of a rather more ambitious kind is an attempt made by Messrs Piesse and Lubin in the same direction. It is quite unique, and deserves a place here. At all events we came upon it in a fashionable morning paper, and read some little way before noticing that we were deep in an advertisement:-- On Tuesday evening Countess Wallflower resumed her usual assemblies after the recess, at her residence in the Laboratory of Flowers. Among the members of the diplomatic corps present were the Ambassadors from the principal Gardens of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, Muskrosa Bey, from the Hanging Garden of Persia, Mdlles. Muskrosabud, Otto Rose, Ambassador from the Balkan and Adrionople Flower Farms, the Countess Hoya Bella, Madame Mignionette, Magnolia Fulgans, the Florida Ambassador, the Countess Flagrant Orchids, the Italian Minister, the Countess Bergamotte, Mdlle. Neroli the Mexican Minister and the Marchioness de Vanille, the Brazilian Minister and the Odorous Opoponax. The general circle comprised, among others, the Princesses Jessamine, Violet, Tuberose, the Viscount Stephanotis, and the Marchioness of May Blossom. Previous to the assembly the Countess and the Right Hon. Sir Scented Stock received at dinner the Duke of Frangipanni and a select party. The company separated by midnight, and rose in the morning more fragrant than ever. It may be as well to mention here that Messrs Piesse and Lubin claim to be the originators of the enigmatical form of advertising. It was they who started the “Opoponax” mystery, which aroused public curiosity at the time, and has been considerably imitated since. Localities are sometimes used in advertisements as typifying the quality of the articles advertised; Mayfair Sherry is the chief representative of this class, and we suppose that the district is named as evidence of high tone and elegant bottling. Still another kind of advertising is that adopted by Brinsmead, who seems to be a regular champion among pianoforte-makers, and who makes curious little extracts bracketed opposite the names of papers and celebrities that give him testimonials, throughout a long newspaper column, all about his patent check repeater-action gold medal pianofortes. Sir Julius Benedict, the _Examiner_, Brinley Richards, the _Standard_, and Sydney Smith are among many other men and papers quoted. We are not aware who Sydney Smith may be nowadays, but should hardly think the great wit and essayist who died thirty years ago could have known enough about Brinsmead’s pianos to enable him to say “their touch is absolute perfection.” Notwithstanding all that has been written and said about the value of newspaper notices as distinguished from advertisements, there is no reasonable room for doubt that a representative of the general advertising class would far sooner see his shop paraded in a pantomime, or hear himself referred to by a low comedian, than be recipient of really valuable attention at the hands of a newspaper writer. There are, of course, exceptions, and these reap the reward their rivals despise. The elder Mathews was a victim to the rather illogical rage for that phase of theatrical advertisement to which we have just referred. Amongst the extraordinary effects of his popularity, were applications made under every kind of pretext, letters being sent to him from all sorts of professors and tradesmen about town. One man offered him snuff for himself and friends for ever, if he would only mention the name and shop of the manufacturer. Another promised him a perpetual polish for his boots upon the same terms. He was solicited to mention every sort of exhibition, and to puff all the new quack medicines. The wines sent to him to taste, though alleged to be of the finest quality, nevertheless required “a bush,” which was to be hung out nightly at his “house of entertainment.” Patent filters, wigs and waistcoats, boots and boothooks, “ventilating hats” and “bosom friends,” all gifts, used to stock Mathews’s lumber-room. An advertising dentist one day presented himself, offering to find Mathews’s whole family in new teeth, and draw all the old, if the comedian would only in return draw the new patent mineral masticators into notice. In fact, Mathews was so inundated with presents, that his cottage sometimes looked like a bazaar, and his wife had frequently occasion to exercise her ingenuity in contriving how to dispose of the generally useless articles forced upon their acceptance. Though this was a great many years ago, things remain much the same, and such popular entertainers as Fred Maccabe, and patterers as J. L. Toole, could doubtless sell themselves for large sums in the interests of vocal advertising. Managers invariably avail themselves of the opportunity whenever a chance occurs, as it does now and again in realistic drama, and very frequently in pantomime. Actors are, though, not alone the admiration of the advertiser--they are by no means above making a shrewd bid for popularity themselves by means of the papers. It is not so very long ago that a tragedian, more distinguished in the provinces than in London, and anxious to meet that metropolitan recognition which he felt sure he deserved, gave a small _récherché_ banquet to his early friends at a well-known house near Lincoln’s-Inn Fields. Those who were invited must have felt very much like Mr Twemlow used whenever he visited the Veneerings, and those who were in a condition to think when they came away must have felt puzzled to account for the fact that all Mr ----’s early friends had taken to the dramatic-critic, the leader-writer, or the editor line of business--all but one, a kind of literary tradesman, who, however, possibly paid his half for the privilege of being admitted into such splendid society on equal terms, and who had, moreover, made out the list of diners, written the invitations, and maybe provided some of the clean linen. We tell the story as it was told us by two of the invited early friends, who added, that until the night of the dinner they had never seen Mr ---- off the stage. Taking a long stride from London to a Chinese seaport, we come upon this choice sample of Flowery Land English:-- [Illustration: ‮祥泰隆記‬ Chong thie Loong kee. Most humbly beg leave to acqu : aint the Gentlemen trading to this kort that the above mention : ed chop has been long established dnd is much esteemed for its Black and young Hyson Tea but fearing the foreigners might be cheated by tho : se shumeless persons who forged this chop he therefore take the liberty to pallish these few lines for its remark and trust. ] To those who are interested in a peculiarity of advertising unknown in this country, we present the following from the _Berlinische Zeitung_:-- ^~Verlobungen~.^ ^Als Verlobte empfehlen sich^ ^~Minna Bock~,^ ^~Fritz Engelhardt~.^ ^Berlin, den 13. März 1872.^ Which informs us, under the head of Betrothal, that Minna Bock and Fritz Engelhardt beg to announce their betrothal, with compliments. The date is plain. Another announcement in the same paper, and under the same head, is this:-- ^Die Verlobung unserer ältesten Tochter ~Margarethe~ mit dem kaiserlichen Post-Inspektor Herrn Richard ~Raab~ in Magdeburg beehren wir uns ergebenst anzuzeigen.^ ^Stendal, im März 1872.^ Dr. ^~Goldscheider~ nebst Frau.^ ^Margarethe ~Goldscheider~, Richard ~Raab~, Verlobte.^ ^Stendal und Magdeburg.^ Which means that Dr Goldscheider and his wife do themselves the honour of most humbly announcing the betrothal of their eldest daughter, Margaret, to Herr Richard Raab, of Magdeburg, Inspector of the Imperial Post. Then follow the signatures of bride and groom, and the whole winds up with the happy conjunction of the two towns, Stendal and Magdeburg. From the _Journal do Commercio_ of Rio de Janeiro, April 4, 1872, we take the following:-- [Illustration] Fugio da rua da Alfandega n. 297 o preto Mariano, crioulo, estatura regular, rosto compride, pouca barba, com falta de dentes na frente, tem uma fistula debaixo do queixo, costuma trocar o nome, des-confia-se que fosse para os lados de Nitherohy e tem signaes de ser surrado nas costas; quem o apprehender e levar á rua e numero acima ser á gratificado, e protesta-se contra quem o tiver acoutado. Credulous persons, who believe that with the cessation of the war between the Northern and Southern States of America slavery went right out of existence, except amongst the most barbarous nations, may be astonished to discover that the foregoing, when turned into English, reads thus:--“Ran away from 297 Alfandega Street, the negro Mariano, a half-caste of ordinary stature, long visage, slight beard, has lost some front teeth, and has an ulcer in the lower jaw. He is accustomed to change his name, and is believed to be in the outskirts of Nitherohy. He has marks of flogging on his back. Whoever captures him, and brings him to the above address, will be rewarded, and persons are hereby cautioned against harbouring him.” From the same paper we extract another announcement:-- Antonio Luiz Fernandes da Cunha e sua mulher D. Manoela Pereira Fernandes da Cunha, Leopoldino José da Cunha e sua mulher D. Balbina Alves Pereira da Cunha, convidão ás pessoas de sua amizade para acompanhar o enterro de seu querido filho e neto o innocente Carlos, que ha de sepultarse hoje, ás 10½ horas da manhã, no cemiterio de S. João Baptista, sahindo o corpo da rua da Bella-Vista n. 3, no Rio Comprido. Which means that Antonio Luiz Fernandez da Cunha and his wife, Donna Manoela Pereira Fernandes da Cunha, Leopoldino José da Cunha and his wife, Donna Balbina Alves Pereira da Cunha, invite their friends to accompany the funeral of their lamented son and grandson, the innocent Carlos, who will be buried to-day at half-past ten in the morning, in the Cemetery of St John the Baptist. The place of rendezvous concludes the melancholy announcement. Funeral advertisements seem very popular in Rio, the following being extracted from among a large number of similar announcements in the _Journal do Commercio_:-- [Illustration] D. Joanna da Silva Maia da Conceição e Procopio de Jesus cordialmente agradecem ás pessoas que fizerão o caridoso obsequio de acompanhar os restos mortaes de seu muito prezado esposo e compadre Olegario da Silva; e de novo rogão ás mesmas pessoas e aos amigos do mesmo finado para assistir à missa de sentimo dia, que se ha de celebrar, amanhã 5 do corrente, na matriz de Sant’Anna, ás 8 horas; pelo que desde já se confessão summamente gratos. This is from Donna Joanna da Silva Maia da Conceição and Procopio de Jesus, who cordially thank those friends that performed the charitable office of following to the grave the mortal remains of their very dear husband and godfather, Olegario da Silva. Those and others are again requested to attend the seventh-day mass, which is to be performed on the morrow, in the mother church of St Anna, at eight o’clock, for which attendance the advertisers will be very thankful. There are so many of these notices, all of which are evidently looked forward to with interest, that the reader cannot help thinking a particularly healthy season in Rio would be regarded as quite a public misfortune. FINIS. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON _BOOKS PUBLISHED BY CHATTO & WINDUS._ [_Post-Office Orders payable_ _at Piccadilly Circus._] [NOVEMBER, 1874. [Illustration] ^A List of Books^ PUBLISHED BY CHATTO & WINDUS, _74 & 75, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W._ [Illustration] SUMPTUOUS GIFT-BOOK. THE TURNER GALLERY: A Series of Sixty Engravings, From the Principal Works of JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER. _With a Memoir and Illustrative Text_ By RALPH NICHOLSON WORNUM, KEEPER AND SECRETARY, NATIONAL GALLERY. 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