Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/550

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ican papers.

countries at war, as are also maps, photographs, and plans of cities; advertisements call for cooks for the army and electricians

for the navy. The advocates of war urge that it develops courage, manliness , and all the cardinal virtues, but the advertisements of the press record quite different developments and they reflect the very worst traits in human nature, - every opportunity is improved to take advantage of thenecessities of others, and every necessity is magnified in order to impose on the generosity of others; gifts

of motor-cycles are solicited in order that the recipients may join the motor-cycle corps, and the gift of an aeroplane is desired ; loans of harriers or beagles to be used by officers until ordered abroad are asked for; an agency announces to clergymen that it will supply them with sermons every week, “ new , fresh ,

simple , and drawing lessons from the war;" " A Continental chaplain unable to return to his work on account of war would

be grateful for temporary hospitality for Wife and Himself;" “ Gentleman, Austrian by birth , but naturalized British subject since 1908, debarred through present war from use of his club (a leading West End Club) would like to join a club offering

similar conveniences ;” many bare-faced advertisements asking for personal gifts of all kinds are signed Pro Patria. Even more sordid conditions are recorded in the advertisements for the return of stolen goods and offers from legal owners to buy at

full value stolen surveying instruments or other implements of

a profession or trade. Numerous fortune tellers ply a lucrative trade in time of war, hedge lawyers offer their services on all

“ war questions,” and “ fences " seem immune in advertising columns.

But it is the advertising that also unconsciously reveals the very real sufferings and privations entailed by war. The Swiss boarding -schools for boys that advertise in Berlin papers and hold out as a special inducement for patronage “ abundant food ;” the photographers who furnish life-size photographs of

those who have fallen ; the compulsory auction sales of household goods; the small business for sale cheap because the husband is at the front; the insurance against explosion , bombardment, and riot, and life insurance without restriction or