Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1916 — “HOME PUBLICITY” VERY LOW AT BROOK [ARTICLE]

“HOME PUBLICITY” VERY LOW AT BROOK

Once Thrived and Was Pride of Community But Now Has Fallen From Grace and May Die. Brook Reporter. The .past week has seen one of our oldest and most respected citizens on what appears to be his death bed. He has been ailing for many years and while rallying at times it has always been to sink again into deeper despondency until it looks like the end has come. Two physicialfe, one oliopath and one homeopath, attended him and a few of the old friends are gathered around, one a veterinary surgeon, one a coal merchant and the others are grain men. •. As he has always been closely associated with this office we went to see the old man. It was shocking to see old Home Publicity lying there, a mere skeleton, when we had known him in his prime. “What’s the matter old man,” we said, “can’t you take a brace and get out again?” “Nothing doing,” remarked the old man. “I’ve outlived my time. Once I was a power in this community. When I came here twenty years ago some of these'youngsters were just breaking into the business game and they needed me. I used to occupy fifteen columns in your paper when it printed only four pages at home and half of that was boiler plate. Your circulation was only about 250 and if you had five columns of news, business was humming. After (while they enlarged the business and put in some new presses and the circulation jumped a couple of hundred, and I kept busy. We even put a thousand a year into street fairs and had a few drawing contests. Broke loose and celebrated the 4th occasionally. Why, everybody was on my staff. The banker and barber, the coal man, the lumber merchant, drayman and lawyers and real estate merchants used me and there wasn’t any function in town that didn’t ask for my help. Then they began to drop off. First went the barbers and it was tough to go without a shave. Then the restaurants and my meal ticket. Then the lawyers left me without any legal advice, but I was still hopeful until the banker left me. Bein’ without money ain’t no crime, but associating with a banker gives a man some prestige and loafin’ in there occasionally looks like a man had money in the bank. Then the grocerymen and general merchants began to drop out. Some of ’em have never come back. Baseball died out, and we haven’t had anything doin’ for five years, except band concerts with icq cream cones and ginger ale.” “Ah, cheer up old Pub,” we said. “You ain’t sick, you’re just discouraged.” “I ain’t, ain’t I, well, I’ve had enough in the last three years to make a well man sick. Didn't I have the stomach trouble last summer?” “You mean gastritis?” “No, I mean goffitis, had it there months, and I’d just got over the foot and mouth disease the winter before, and now I’ve got one of them high fevers.” “Pneumonia, you mean,” we suggested. “No, not pneumonia, PINOCHLE, yes, that’s what I mean, PINOCHLE. How’d I get it? Why when I was around tryin’ to drum up trade for the town they told me there wasn’t any in the day time and there was no use in keepin’ open nights and we’d better close and play pinochle of evenings and I haven’t done anything else for six weeks and my temperature’s a hundred and four, and I’ve got six weeks yet to play.” “Wait ’till spring comes, Pub, then business will open up.” “It used to but it don’t any more. They say the farmers are too busy plowin’ and plantin’ to come to town, and when that’s gone they’re too busy riding around in their machines to come to anything but band concerts in the evening. No sir, my business is gone, and you needn't stand there trying to cheer me up. What you got to brag about. You come here bout three years ago and threw a couple of thousand more into that publicity mill and tried to spread your gray matter over eight pages instead of four and today you ain’t got a blooming ad in your paper. Yes, you made a record. I’ve seen this paper run for twenty years and I never seen that before. »

“Course you got a good paper. I wasn’t sayin’ you hadn’t. I heard a business man say last summer you got out the best country paper he ever read, cause he could sit down and read all evening and not be bothered by the advertising. No, it ain’t any use soliciting these fellows. Didn’t I go out last spring and the first one I struck told me he had to go out and play golf and he’d give me an ad next week, and the next , one told me he had to go down and put the new carburetter on his machine and another fellow said he had to see about puttin’ up a silo on the farm, but he’d give me a little editorial on the mail order business as you would like to have that dope.