Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1891 — Page 4 Advertisements Column 2 [ADVERTISEMENT]

authorizes. It has pained us to sea it reported in your press that there was a secret treaty between King Leopold and Germany. The truth is that is a pure invention. I am authorized to say no such treaty ever existed. Our people love France, but we shall never renounce that rule of neutrality which is the sure guarantee of the independence of our country'” There are ugly reports that come from China to the effect that the people of tha’t country are up in arms against the Christ fan missionaries and residents sojourning there. The conduct of the mob is such as to excite the resentment of every civilized and Christianized country on the face of the globe. It is something that will not be tolerated. Unless it is stopped and restitution made gunboats as thick as mosquitoes will be getting around Chinese ports and vengeance swift and terrible will be the result. All this conceded. It might be well here to pause and reflect on the causes which produced the outbreak to the end that a recurrence of the ugly scenes may be avoided. As far as this country is concerned we are at a disadvantage. We have solemnly excluded the Chinese* and with an inhospitality quite unparalleled and strangely at variance with our Fourth of July claim to be the “refuge of the oppressed of all countries.” We have treated the Celestials rather roughly in many instances, not always stopping short of wholesale slaughter. Then we are sending missionaries to convert the so-called heathen—a piece of impudence on our part unexampled—while the heathen within our borders can see that our charity is long-ranged and blind to the wants of the needy’ at home. We go forth to save souls and with a magnificent assumption claim that— By many a rushing river. Through many a palmy plain. They call us to deliver The land from error's chain. While at the same time there are millions undelivered from error’s chain in our own country. With so many conflicting creeds, all entitled to the most profound respect, and with the teachings of the Savior interpreted in so many ways, it would be more seemly for our missionaries to remain at home until their differences were settled, and let the Chinese heathen take care of themselves.

When the social geologist of the future lays bare the stratum iff which we live to-day, and examines it, he will doubtless name it “The Age of Bill Boards.” He will find layer after layer of bill boards, thousands upon thousands of feet of advertising, and very little else; for that is the great tendency of to-day—the tendency to advertise. Not in a commercial way particularly, for the legitimate display advertisement of the regular merchant is the most modest of them all. But take up any paper you may choose, any magazine you may’ find or book you can name, and cast out all that is simply an advertisement of some man or other and how much remains? The magazines and books are worse in this regard than the newspapers,. Pick up your favorite magazine; look at the title page. What do you find? Names, names, names. Names of men and women who are trying to get notoriety. Turn over the pages. What do you read? Is it literature? Is the diction clear and pleasing? Is the thought particularly deep? Is the thought of any consequence save in connection with the man whose name is under it? Isn’t it merely an opinion? An opinion of whorti? Of an advertiser to be sure, and nothing else. Look at your favorite book written to-day. If you did not know of the author, would you read it? If he were not alive toi run his advertising bureau would his book find readers** What great preacher's sermon% would sell under an unknown name, any more than would Jimson’s soap under like circumstances? What great doctor’s remedies would find favor if they came from a more learned but less notorious physician? Half the lawyers who win cases would lose them if their names were changed. In former days the “Great Unknown” was a mascot; to-day he is a Jonah. And this only shows the extent to which advertising has become a part of our existence. But there is this good fortune in it all. There is no divine right to advertising. It is democratic in its favors, and he who possesses the secret of the art of advertising has his hand upon the door which leads to success; but woe is he if he try to open when he is unworthy; for if the world worships her heroes—sooner or later she unmercifully crucifies her quacks.