A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times.Sampson, Henry
History
A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times.
Sampson, Henry
Advertising -- History
We will leave this without further comment than the expression of a sad
idea that this young gentleman knew what was marketable, as well as a
belief that he and others like him may have done much to prevent the
titles and fortunes of noblemen and gentlemen who married late in life
from passing to remote branches. We have no wish to intrude our
opinions, which are strong as our faith in human nature is weak, but the
advertisement is only a specimen of many others, and, like its
congeners, appears in one of the highest class daily papers of the time.
Folk are not so outspoken now as was the fashion a hundred years ago,
yet is there any one who will venture to state that we are more
virtuous? It will be the natural impulse of many who read the next
advertisement, which is also from the now fashionable and severely
virtuous _Post_ (date January 21, 1775), to cry out against the
unnatural guardian who offers to sell his ward. Perhaps though, if they
take time to reflect, they may remember instances of marriage for money,
which, if not so public, were quite as iniquitous. Listen to a gentleman
of honour of the last century:--
A GENTLEMAN of Honour and Property, having in his disposal at present
a young Lady of good Family, with a fortune of Sixty Thousand Pounds,
on her Marriage with his approbation, would be very happy to treat
with a Man of Fashion and Family, who may think it worth his while to
give the Advertiser a Gratuity of Five thousand pounds on the day of
Marriage. As this is no common advertisement, it is expected no
Gentleman will apply whose Family and Connections will not bear the
strictest enquiry. The Advertiser having always lived retired from the
World, immersed in business, is unacquainted with those of that Rank
of Life that the Lady’s fortune entitles her to be connected with,
for which reason he has made this public application. Letters
addressed to L. M., at Tom’s Coffee House, Devereux Court, near the
Temple, mentioning real Name, and places of Abode, will punctually be
attended to.
This is not so bad for a poor innocent who has lived retired from the
world. And doubtless, though he was unacquainted with those of that rank
of life to which a lady with sixty thousand pounds might well aspire, he
was not to be deceived by even the most specious of fortune-hunters,
Irishmen included. But here is another notice quite as interesting,
though of a very different kind. It is also from the _Morning Post_, and
appears a few days after that we have chosen to precede it:--
To the LADIES on MONEY AFFAIRS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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