TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14986, 5 June 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Tiie Father of Advertising. If tho English-speaking world was not familiar with the name of the late Mr. T. J. Barratt, it was with his work. He was one of tho "best sellers." For Mr. Barratt was for many years head of A. and P. Pears, Ltd., and to his enterprise and energy wae due that huge advertising campaign which brought to everybody's notice "You dirty boy!" and "Bubbles," and set the world greeting its friends with "Good morning, have you used Pears' soap?" Founded in 1789, the business of Pears apparently did not receive any great impetus until after Mr. Barratt joined it in 1865. Its capital was then £7000, and it -was spending about £80 a year on advertising. Mr. Barratt, who had been a traveller for the firm, was a born advertiser. As a boy he noticed in the window of a fruiterer a card stating the price of some apples, whose rosy appearance ho admired. He went homo and painted an illustrated card calling attention to tho virtues of | tho apples, and ho traded this advertisement to tho shopkeeper in exchango for some of 'the fruit. In telling this story to an interviewer Mr. Barratt remarked, "I bogan by advertising apples and I ondod by advertising Poars." It was mainly his advertising schemes that mado the Pears' business what it is to-day. Large epace announcements, posters, puzzles, optical illusions, and catch words, wero some of his weapons, but most potent of all was hie iiso of art. It was he who bought Millais' "Bubbles" (the price was £2200) and turned it to advertising purposes. The baby in the bath—"He won't be happy till ho gets it"—was reproduced from a y>ainting in tho Paris Salon. Ho had a great belief in catch words, hence his use of "matchless" as tho ideal epithet for his eoan—his idea j beinc that as everybody used matches, the word would stick—and his "Good morning" advertisement. To his lasting regret he neglected one nniquo opportunit" of a preat. advertisement. "Visiting tho Houso in Gladstone's time ho passed with the crowd of members into the Chamber, and was threatened with dire penalties by tho shocked officials. He allowed himself to bo led out, and friends pacified tho outraged dignity of the House. Mr. Barratt bitterly lamented that lie had not mndo a scene, and so secured tho blissful publicity of arrangement at the Bar of the House. But it was eomo satisfaction to him to hear Gladstone later on refer to amendments "ac thick as leaves in Vallombrosa or as plontiful as tho advertisements of Pears' soap." During -a long oeriod of his control tho annual expenditure of his firm in advertising varied from £100.000 to £130----000, and tho aggregate -was in the neighbourhood of three millions. "Sealers." Tho bugbear of the taxi-driver is the "sealer," tho slippery individual who hires a cab, and by some device more or less ingenious evades payment. In Australian cities the "sealer," who is ia most cases of a respectable-looking and Trell-dressed typo, has reduced his hobby to something of an art. Instances of the ingenuity "employed by some "sealers" wore given a meeting of tho Melbourne Taxi-cab and Hire-car Owners' Association a week or so ago. The commonest trick was said by the president to be for the "sealer" to telephone to a hiring garago, and, using the name of a prominent man, ask that a car be sent to a leading hotel. Tho "sealer" is waiting on tl:o steps of tho hotel, and he orders the driver to take him to some address in on=> of the suburbs. The destination reached, tho fare dismisses tho car with "My name is So-nnd-So I have an account with your firm." In due course tho account is forwarded, aiid is of course, repudiated by the person whose name has been borrowed. Oases of this kind, the president said, were occurring every other nisht in Melbourne. A taxi-cab owner then fold a tale against himself. A young man rang up a garage late one night, and ordered a car .in his name. A few days later he received an account for £fi for the hire of the car. Aii amusing trick Tvas played by another "sealer," who drove down from tho suburbs with a lady passenger, whom he "dropped" in one of the main streets. "No sooner had the lady dfnartod than the man turned to the driver and risked htm to slow down. "T am a vorv nervous man," ho explained, "but I didn't like to say so while the lady was hero. Please drivo mc elowly ,no\v." Tha driver did so, and for a while the car moved quietly on. Presently tho. driver, surprised at receiving no orders, looked round. The man had gone, taking advantage of the slow speed to leave by the back of the car.

Vanished Vegetables. Many vegetables which appeared daily on the tables of our ancestors are now seen and eaten no longer. They have- vanished from tho kitchen garden, succumbing to tho law of the survival i': the fittest, and few people to-day have even so much, as heard of their names. A writer in tho "Standard" discusses the causes for the disappear-

ance of these vegetables, many of whirh are wholesome and were once considered delicious, and iouches on the likelihood, or the reverse, of their undergoing a resurrection in popular esteem. One factor that has to be reckoned with, of course, is that of fashion, which demands change in everything, even /•n vegetables. But the chief reason why such plants as salsify, scorzonera, skirret, chervil, chives, egg-plant, and tarragon, have been discarded, is probably because gardeners nowadays can find no room for them in the ordinary garden, while the time and labour required for their proper cultivation- are now devoted to something else. Then again, a good many of these old-fash-ioned vegetables ;, went under" because they did not give any opportunity for interesting improvements in quality or cropping properties, whereas such things as pe.Ts, beans, and potatoes seem capable of indefinite improvement. Probably maay gardeners would bo Had to esqwriment with sorro of the best of theso obsolete vei-et.'blos, the seed or. roots of which can still ho obtained, but the difficulties in their way great. Nobody knows anything how to grow them, modern handbooks either pass them by in silence or dismiss them in a few words, and the only source of information about thorn i- contained in a few old and out-of-date treatises on horticulture. However, this ; s distinctly an ago of crazes for tho novo' and unusual, and somo enterprising horticulturist might.make a small fortune for himself and win the undying regard of epicures if he could coax ono of these forgotten vegetables into popular favour once- again. Tho vogue of tho banana and tho tomato is comparatively recent, and th'ero is no reason why salsify, scorzonera, tarragon, .and many other strange names should not figure regularly on the menus of the future. • ' .