Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/98

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Pounce Boxes, Curious, large Ivory Books and Common ditto, large and small slates, Gunters Scales, Dividers, Protactors, Pocket Com- passes, both large and small, fine Pewter Stands proper for Offices and Counting Houses, fine Mezzotinto and grav'd Pictures of Mr. White- field.

Where may be had great Variety of Bibles, Testaments, Psalters, Spelling Books, Primers, Hornbooks, and other sorts of stationery ware.

Even James Franklin, Benjamin's brother, was a good adver- tiser of the products of his press. Before he started The New- England Courant, and while he was still printing The Boston Gazette for Postmaster Brooker, he inserted this advertisement in the latter paper on April 25, 1720:

nphe Printer hereof prints Linens, Calicoes, Silks, &c., in good Figures, very livily and durable colours, and without the offensive Smell which commonly attends the Linens printed here.

PILLS AND POWDERS SOLD AT PRINT-SHOPS

Even the most successful of the colonial printer-editors had to supplement the income from their presses by work in other fields. Attention has already been called to how frequently they were postmasters, or employed in the postal department. Almost invariably they were booksellers and stationers, espe- cially of their own presses. To read the list of things which might be obtained at the print-shop gives one the impression that the colonial editor practically ran a store. Often he sold over the counter the goods accepted in payment for subscrip- tions. He seemed to make a specialty of selling quack medi- cines : he early discovered the value of his own newspaper as an advertising medium for such nostrums. The colonial editors of New York practically acted as wholesale distributors for such nostrums and encouraged their brother editors in other colonies to put pills and powders alongside of the Bibles and printed sermons on the shelves of the print-shop. Some of these nos- trums " cured diseases not to be mentioned in the newspaper"; for full details sufferers might call at the office of the colonial papers and editors would answer any questions asked. In the North, most of these so-called remedies were imported from Europe and frequently bore the endorsement of royal