Advertising Rooms of the London Times.
--An interesting sketch is given by a correspondent concerning the advertising rooms of the great
London "Thunderer:"
Turn to the counter: there is a wide space beyond, and many clerks, writing, always writing.
Four favored, or unfavored ones — we know not how to deem it — sit on thrones behind the counter, to take the tribute of the advertising suppliants; from these four we may choose our oracle and judge, but it matters little which we take.
How very silent is the room!
scarce any sound, but the clink of money and the low-uttered fiats of these throned arbiters of advertisers' fates.
Of no avail is remonstrance here; the advertisement has hardly reached their hands-- scarcely has time enough elapsed to skim it over — before the quiet utterance of their judgment; if one should venture to remonstrate at the charge, his lines are given back, and the next comer served; no words — they have no time for words; the first decision is the final one; we mean, of course, in the busier portion of the day — from 11 o'clock till 2.
And how ‘"use doth breed a habit in a man;"’ these peremptory officers rarely or never err; seldom will the printed lines fail to bear out their charge; their practised eye fathoms the mysteries of every conceivable chirography, and like seers of the mighty press, a field of the type rushes back on their sight, soon as their mild orb rests upon the scrawl.
And how the piles of advertisements grow by their side!
As they take them they give a printed acknowledgment to the advertiser, and he then beholds his composition impaled with others which have preceded, upon a wire.
As we look at the business of this office, we wonder where it is to end. Already, in the
London season, when the town is full, the
Times issues, not unfrequently, ten paces of closely printed advertisements, of six columns each, and each column a long one.
Yet there are always enough on hand for several days to come; an advertiser cannot expect to see his lines in print for three days, and sometimes a week, from the period that he gives it in. We ask ourselves why people will consent to wait so long; why pamper still this overgrown favorite of fortune, paying duties to the
Government, as it does, for advertisements and stamps and paper, alone amounting to $500,000 annually, beside giving a livelihood to so many families?
