You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
-- Gifts for Children -- This is easy. You never have to figure out what to get for children, because they will tell you exactly what they want. They spend months and months researching these kinds of things by watching Saturday- morning cartoon-show advertisements. Make sure you get your children exactly what they ask for, even if you disapprove of their choices. If your child thinks he wants Murderous Bob, the Doll with the Face You Can Rip Right Off, you'd better get it. You may be worried that it might help to encourage your child's antisocial tendencies, but believe me, you have not seen antisocial tendencies until you've seen a child who is convinced that he or she did not get the right gift. -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
An excellence-oriented '80s male does not wear a regular watch. He wears a Rolex watch, because it weighs nearly six pounds and is advertised only in excellence-oriented publications such as Fortune and Rich Protestant Golfer Magazine. The advertisements are written in incomplete sentences, which is how advertising copywriters denote excellence: "The Rolex Hyperion. An elegant new standard in quality excellence and discriminating handcraftsmanship. For the individual who is truly able to discriminate with regard to excellent quality standards of crafting things by hand. Fabricated of 100 percent 24-karat gold. No watch parts or anything. Just a great big chunk on your wrist. Truly a timeless statement. For the individual who is very secure. Who doesn't need to be reminded all the time that he is very successful. Much more successful than the people who laughed at him in high school. Because of his acne. People who are probably nowhere near as successful as he is now. Maybe he'll go to his 20th reunion, and they'll see his Rolex Hyperion. Hahahahahahahahaha." -- Dave Barry, "In Search of Excellence"
-- Thomas Jefferson
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. -- Norman Douglas
2. Advertisements may only be published in the organs of the Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government at Petrograd, and in the organs of local Soviets.
The restrictions on the Press were increased by a decree (See App. XI, Sect. 10) making advertisements a monopoly of the official Government newspaper. At this all the other papers suspended publication as a protest, or disobeyed the law and were closed.... Only three weeks later did they finally submit.
1. The printing of advertisements, in newspapers, books, bill-boards, kiosks, in offices and other establishments is declared to be a State monopoly.
"I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his children over to America with him, so that I found myself without a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but without success. At last the little money which I had saved began to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do.
The duke was thinking _he'd_ been doing pretty well till the king come to show up, but after that he didn't think so so much. He had set up and printed off two little jobs for farmers in that printing-officehorse billsand took the money, four dollars. And he had got in ten dollars' worth of advertisements for the paper, which he said he would put in for four dollars if they would pay in advanceso they done it. The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took in three subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them paying him in advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as usual, but he said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the price as low as he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash. He set up a little piece of poetry, which he made, himself, out of his own headthree verseskind of sweet and saddishthe name of it was, "Yes, crush, cold world, this breaking heart"and he left that all set up and ready to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothing for it. Well, he took in nine dollars and a half, and said he'd done a pretty square day's work for it.
"Yes, ask her for one of her liqueur cellarets, mine is incomplete; and tell her I shall have the honor of seeing her about three o'clock, and that I request permission to introduce some one to her." The valet left the room. Albert threw himself on the divan, tore off the cover of two or three of the papers, looked at the theatre announcements, made a face seeing they gave an opera, and not a ballet; hunted vainly amongst the advertisements for a new tooth-powder of which he had heard, and threw down, one after the other, the three leading papers of Paris, muttering, "These papers become more and more stupid every day." A moment after, a carriage stopped before the door, and the servant announced M. Lucien Debray. A tall young man, with light hair, clear gray eyes, and thin and compressed lips, dressed in a blue coat with beautifully carved gold buttons, a white neckcloth, and a tortoiseshell eye-glass suspended by a silken thread, and which, by an effort of the superciliary and zygomatic muscles, he fixed in his eye, entered, with a half-official air, without smiling or speaking. "Good-morning, Lucien, good-morning," said Albert; "your punctuality really alarms me. What do I say? punctuality! You, whom I expected last, you arrive at five minutes to ten, when the time fixed was half-past! Has the ministry resigned?"
I went on with my day's business tranquilly; but ever and anon vague suggestions kept wandering across my brain of reasons why I should quit Thornfield; and I kept involuntarily framing advertisements and pondering conjectures about new situations: these thoughts I did not think to check; they might germinate and bear fruit if they could.
"Briggs wrote to me of a Jane Eyre:" he said, "the advertisements demanded a Jane Eyre: I knew a Jane Elliott.--I confess I had my suspicions, but it was only yesterday afternoon they were at once resolved into certainty. You own the name and renounce the _alias_?"
DECREE ON THE MONOPOLY OF ADVERTISEMENTS
"I can guess your feelings," he said, "but restrain them for a while: I have nearly finished; hear me to the end. Of Mr. Rochester's character I know nothing, but the one fact that he professed to offer honourable marriage to this young girl, and that at the very altar she discovered he had a wife yet alive, though a lunatic. What his subsequent conduct and proposals were is a matter of pure conjecture; but when an event transpired which rendered inquiry after the governess necessary, it was discovered she was gone--no one could tell when, where, or how. She had left Thornfield Hall in the night; every research after her course had been vain: the country had been scoured far and wide; no vestige of information could be gathered respecting her. Yet that she should be found is become a matter of serious urgency: advertisements have been put in all the papers; I myself have received a letter from one Mr. Briggs, a solicitor, communicating the details I have just imparted. Is it not an odd tale?"
Royal the bookseller was dead. M. Mabeuf no longer knew his books, his garden, or his indigo: these were the three forms which happiness, pleasure, and hope had assumed for him. This sufficed him for his living. He said to himself: "When I shall have made my balls of blueing, I shall be rich, I will withdraw my copperplates from the pawn-shop, I will put my Flora in vogue again with trickery, plenty of money and advertisements in the newspapers and I will buy, I know well where, a copy of Pierre de Medine's Art de Naviguer, with wood-cuts, edition of 1655." In the meantime, he toiled all day over his plot of indigo, and at night he returned home to water his garden, and to read his books. At that epoch, M. Mabeuf was nearly eighty years of age.
Until recent years all legal action concerning labour disturbances was based upon the principles of the common law. Some of the states have now fairly complete statutory enactments concerning labour disturbances, while others have little or no legislation of this class. The right of employés to strike for any cause or for no cause is sustained by the common law everywhere in the United States. Likewise an employer has a right to discharge any or all of his employés when they have no contract with him, and he may refuse to employ any person or class of persons for any reason or for no reason. Agreements among strikers to take peaceable means to induce others to remain away from the works of an employer until he yields to the demands of the strikers are not held to be conspiracies under the common law, and the carrying out of such a purpose by peaceable persuasion and without violence, intimidation or threats, is not unlawful. However, any interference with the constitutional rights of another to employ whom he chooses or to labour when, where or on what terms he pleases, is illegal. The boycott has been held to be an illegal conspiracy in restraint of trade. The statutory enactments of the various states concerning labour disturbances are in part re-enactments of the rules of common law and in part more or less departures from or additions to the established principles. The list of such statutory enactments is a large one, and includes laws relating to blacklisting, boycotting, conspiracy against working-men, interference with employment, intimidation, picketing and strikes of railway employés; laws requiring statements of causes of discharge of employés and notice of strikes in advertisements for labour; laws prohibiting deception in the employment of labour and the hiring of armed guards by employers; and laws declaring that certain labour agreements do not constitute conspiracy. Some of these laws have been held to be unconstitutional, and some have not yet been tested in the courts. Entry: A
The first attack on lotteries was in 1698, against lotteries "by dice, lots, cards, balls or any other numbers or figures or in any other way whatsoever." An act of 1721 prohibited lotteries which under the name of sales distributed prizes in money, advowsons, land, jewels, &c., by lots, tickets, numbers or figures. Acts of 1722, 1733 and 1823 prohibited any sale of tickets, receipts, chances or numbers in foreign lotteries. The games of cards already referred to as unlawful were in 1738 declared to be "games or lotteries by cards or dice," and in 1802 the definition of lottery was extended to include "little-goes and any game or lottery not authorized by parliament, drawn by dice, lots, cards, balls, or by numbers or figures or by any other way, contrivance or device whatsoever." This wide definition reaches raffles and sweepstakes on races. The advertisement of foreign or illegal lotteries is forbidden by acts of 1836 and 1844. In 1846 art unions were exempted from the scope of the Lottery Acts. Attempts have been made to suppress the sale in England of foreign lottery tickets, but the task is difficult, as the post-office distributes the advertisements, although, under the Revenue Act 1898, the Customs treat as prohibited goods advertisements or notices as to foreign lotteries. More success has been obtained in putting down various devices by newspapers and shopkeepers to attract customers by instituting "missing word competitions" and "racing coupon competitions"; by automatic machines which give speculative chances in addition to the article obtained for the coin inserted; by distribution of prizes by lot or chance to customers; by holding sweepstakes at public-houses, by putting coins in sweetmeats to tempt street urchins by cupidity to indigestion; or by gratuitous distribution of medals giving a chance of a prize from a newspaper. An absolutely gratuitous distribution of chances seems not to be within the acts, but a commercial distribution is, even if individuals who benefit do not pay for their chance. Entry: GAMING
At present the wicket consists of three stumps (round straight pieces of wood) of equal thickness, standing 27 in. upright out of the ground. On the top are two "bails," short pieces of wood which fit into grooves made in the top of the stumps so as not to project more than half an inch above them. But the evolution of the wicket has been very gradual, and the history of it is very obscure, since different types of wickets seem to have existed simultaneously. If early pictures are to be trusted, no wicket was required in primitive times: the striker was either caught out, or run out, the fieldsman having to put the ball into a hole scooped in the ground, before the batsman could put his bat into it. A single stump, it is supposed, was sometimes substituted for the hole to save collision between the bat and the fieldsman's fingers. In due course, but at an unknown date, a wicket--a "skeleton gate"--was raised over the hole; it consisted of two stumps each 12 in. high, set 24 in. apart, with a third laid on the top of them. John Nyren, however, writing in 1833, and discussing some memoranda given him by Mr W. Ward, says apropos of these dimensions, "There must be a mistake in this account of the width of the wicket." Undoubtedly such wickets were all against the bowler, who must have bowled over or through the wicket twenty times for every occasion when he succeeded in hitting either the uprights or the cross stump. In pictures of cricket played about 1743 we find only two stumps and a cross stump, or bail, the wicket varying apparently both in height and width. In a picture, the property of H.M. the King, entitled "A Village Match in 1768," three stumps and a bail are distinctly shown. Two stumps are shown as used in 1779, afterwards three always with one exception. Two prints, advertisements, representing matches played between women on consecutive days in 1811, show, one of them a wicket of three stumps, the other a wicket of two. The addition of the third stump, as is universally agreed, was due to an incident which occurred in a match of the Hambledon Club in 1775. "It was observed at a critical point in the game, that the ball passed three times between Mr Small's two stumps without knocking off the bail; and then, first a third stump was added, and seeing that the new style of balls which rise over the bat also rise over the wicket, then but 1 ft. high, the wicket was altered to the dimensions of 22 in. by 8, and to its present dimensions of 27 in. by 8 in 1817." So writes the Rev. J. Pycroft (1813-1895), quoting fairly closely from Nyren, who wrote many years after the event; but Pycroft is wrong in writing 22 by 8, which should really be 22 by 6. It is hard to believe that the 12 by 24 wicket lasted as long as 1775, for in the laws issued after the meeting held at the "Star and Garter," Pall Mall, where many "noblemen and gentlemen" attended "finally to settle" the laws of the game, we read that the stumps are to be 22 in. and the bail 6. "N.B.--It is lately settled to use three stumps instead of two to each wicket, the bail the same length as before." Regarding all the circumstances one is tempted to believe that Small defended a wicket of two stumps, 22 in. high and 6 in. apart, strange as is the circumstance that the ball should thrice in a short innings--for Small only made 14 runs--pass through them without dislodging the bail, even though the diameter of the ball is a trifle less than 3 in. Allusion is also found to a wicket 12 in. by 6, but it is hard to believe in its existence, unless it was used as a form of handicap. It should be recorded that in advertisements of matches about this time (1787) the fact that three stumps will be used "to shorten the game" is especially mentioned, and that the _Hampshire Chronicle_ of the 15th of July 1797 records that "The earl of Winchilsea has made an improvement in the game of cricket, by having four stumps instead of three, and the wickets 2 in. higher. The game is thus rendered shorter by easier bowling out." In 1788, however, when the M.C.C. revised the laws, reference is made to stumps (no number given, but probably three) 22 in. high and a bail of 6 in. Big scoring in 1796 caused the addition next year of 2 in. to the height and of 1 to the breadth, making the wicket 24 in. by 7. That three stumps were employed is shown by a print of the medallion of the Oxfordshire County C.C. 1797, forming the frontispiece to Taylor's _Annals of Lord's_ (1903). In 1817 the dimensions now in use were finally settled, three stumps 27 in. high, and a wicket 8 in. wide. Larger wickets have occasionally been used by way of handicap or experiment. The distance between the wickets seems always, or at least as far back as 1700, to have been 22 yds.--one chain. Entry: CRICKET
Since lotteries have become illegal there have been a great number of judicial decisions defining a lottery. In general, where skill or judgment is to be exercised there is no lottery, the essential element of which is chance or lot. There are numerous statutes against lotteries, the reason being given that they "tend to promote a gambling spirit," and that it is the duty of the state to "protect the morals and advance the welfare of the people." In New York the Constitution of 1846 forbade lotteries, and by § 324 of the Penal Code a lottery is declared "unlawful and a public nuisance." "Contriving" and advertising lotteries is also penal. The following have been held illegal lotteries: In New York, a concert, the tickets for which entitled the holder to a prize to be drawn by lot; in Indiana, offering a gold watch to the purchaser of goods who guesses the number of beans in a bottle; in Texas, selling "prize candy" boxes; and operating a nickel-in-the-slot machine--so also in Louisiana; in Massachusetts, the "policy" or "envelope game," or a "raffle"; in Kentucky (1905), prize coupon packages, the coupons having to spell a certain word (_U.S._ v. _Jefferson_, 134 Fed. R. 299); in Kansas (1907) it was held by the Supreme Court that the gift of a hat-pin to each purchaser was not illegal as a "gift enterprise," there being no chance or lot. In Oklahoma (1907) it was held that the making of contracts for the payment of money, the certainty in value of return being dependent on chance, was a lottery (_Fidelity Fund Co._ v. _Vaughan_, 90 Pac. Rep. 34). The chief features of a lottery are "procuring through lot or chance, by the investment of a sum of money or something of value, some greater amount of money or thing of greater value. When such are the chief features of any scheme whatever it may be christened, or however it may be guarded or concealed by cunningly devised conditions or screens, it is under the law a lottery" (_U.S._ v. _Wallace_, 58, Fed. Rep. 942). In 1894 and 1897 Congress forbade the importation of lottery tickets or advertisements into the United States. In 1899, setting up or promoting lotteries in Alaska was prohibited by Congress, and in 1900 it forbade any lottery or sale of lottery tickets in Hawaii. In Porto Rico lotteries, raffles and gift-enterprises are forbidden (Penal Code, 1902, § 291). Entry: LOTTERIES
In England the earliest lotteries sanctioned by government were for such purposes as the repair of harbours in 1569, and the Virginia Company in 1612. In the lottery of 1569, 40,000 chances were sold at ten shillings each, the prizes being "plate, and certain sorts of merchandises." In 1698 lotteries, with the exception of the Royal Oak lottery for the benefit of the Royal Fishing Company, were prohibited as common nuisances, by which children, servants and other unwary persons had been ruined. This prohibition was in the 18th century gradually extended to illegal insurances on marriages and other events, and to a great many games with dice, such as faro, basset, hazard, except backgammon and games played in the royal palace. In spite of these prohibitions, the government from 1709 down to 1824 annually raised considerable sums in lotteries authorized by act of parliament. The prizes were in the form of terminable or perpetual annuities. The £10 tickets were sold at a premium of say 40% to contractors who resold them in retail (sometimes in one-sixteenth parts) by "morocco men," or men with red leather books who travelled through the country. As the drawing extended over forty days, a very pernicious system arose of insuring the fate of tickets during the drawing for a small premium of 4d. or 6d. This was partly cured by the Little Go Act of 1802, directed against the itinerant wheels which plied between the state lotteries, and partly by Perceval's Act in 1806, which confined the drawing of each lottery to one day. From 1793 to 1824 the government made an average yearly profit of £346,765. Cope, one of the largest contractors, is said to have spent £36,000 in advertisements in a single year. The English lotteries were used to raise loans for general purposes, but latterly they were confined to particular objects, such as the improvement of London, the disposal of a museum, the purchase of a picture gallery, &c. Through the efforts of Lord Lyttleton and others a strong public opinion was formed against them, and in 1826 they were finally prohibited. An energetic proposal to revive the system was made before the select committee on metropolitan improvements in 1830, but it was not listened to. By a unique blunder in legislation, authority was given to hold a lottery under an act of 1831 which provided a scheme for the improvement of the city of Glasgow. These "Glasgow lotteries" were suppressed by an act of 1834. Art Unions were legalized by the Art Unions Act 1846. The last lottery prominently before the public in England was that of Dethier's twelfth-cake lottery, which was suppressed on the 27th of December 1860. As defined at the beginning of this article, the word lottery has a meaning wide enough to include missing-word competitions, distributions by tradesmen of prize coupons, sweepstakes, &c. See _Report of Joint Select Committee on Lotteries, &c._ (1908). The statute law in Scotland is the same as in England. At common law in Scotland it is probable that all lotteries and raffles, for whatever purpose held, may be indicted as nuisances. The art unions are supposed to be protected by a special statute. Entry: LOTTERIES
The cost of the public training referred to would be small, as the elementary part would simply be included in the schoolmaster's work, and the Press matters could be easily managed in the fire brigade office. Payments would have only to be made for advertisements, such as the official warnings, lists for fire-call points, &c., and perhaps for the publication of semi-official hints. Self-help, as far as inspection and drills for amateurs are concerned would be under the control of the fire brigade. There would, however, be an extra expense for the purchase and maintenance of the street first-aid appliances referred to. Entry: 1843
Grose's works include _The Antiquities of England and Wales_ (6 vols., 1773-1787); _Advice to the Officers of the British Army_ (1782), a satire in the manner of Swift's _Directions to Servants; A Guide to Health, Beauty, Riches and Honour_ (1783), a collection of advertisements of the period, with characteristic satiric preface; _A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_ (1785); _A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons_ (1785-1789); Darrell's _History of Dover_ (1786); _Military Antiquities_ (2 vols., 1786-1788); _A Provincial Glossary_ (1787); _Rules for Drawing Caricatures_ (1788); _The Antiquities of Scotland_ (2 vols., 1789-1791); _Antiquities of Ireland_ (2 vols., 1791), edited and partly written by Ledwich. _The Grumbler_, sixteen humerous essays, appeared in 1791 after his death; and in 1793 _The Olio_, a collection of essays, jests and small pieces of poetry, highly characteristic of Grose, though certainly not all by him, was put together from his papers by his publisher, who was also his executor. Entry: GROSE
Betting in connexion with horse-racing is of two kinds: "post," when wagering does not begin until the numbers of the runners are hoisted on the board; and "ante-post," when wagering opens weeks or months before the event; though of this latter there is far less than was formerly the case, doubtless for the reason that before the introduction of so many new and valuable stakes attention was generally concentrated on a comparatively small number of races. Bets on the Derby, the Oaks and the St Leger were formerly common nearly a year before the running of the races, and a few handicaps, such as the Chester Cup, used to occupy attention months beforehand; the weights, of course, being published at a much longer interval prior to the contest than is at present the rule. As regards ante-post betting, bookmakers have their own ideas as to the relative prospects of the horses entered. A person who wishes to back a horse asks the price, and accepts or declines, as the case may be. If the bet is laid it will probably be quoted in the newspapers, and other persons who propose to wager on the race are so likely to follow suit that it is shrewdly suspected that in not a few cases bets are quoted which never have been laid, in order to induce the backers to speculate. According to the public demand for a horse the price shortens. If there is little or no demand the odds increase, the market being almost entirely regulated by the money; so that if a great many people bet on a certain animal the odds become shorter and shorter, till in many cases instead of laying odds against a horse, the bookmaker comes to take odds, that is, to agree to pay a smaller sum than he would receive from the backer if the animal lost. Post betting is conducted on very much the same principles. When the numbers are hoisted bookmakers proclaim their readiness to lay or take certain odds, which vary according to the demand for the different animals. Backers are influenced by many considerations: by gossip, by the opinions of writers on racing, and in many cases, unfortunately, by the advice of "tipsters," who by advertisements and circulars profess their ability to indicate winners, a pretence which is obviously absurd, as if these men possessed the knowledge they claim, they would assuredly keep it to themselves and utilize it for their own private purposes. Entry: BET