Walking Advertisements

You have probably heard the legend of the fashion in which the blacking of a certain eminent man rose into universal fame. The eminent man hired four footmen, of brazen countenance and loud and fluent power of expression. He arrayed them in gorgeous liveries; that of each being quite different from the other three. Then each alone, from morning till night they pervaded London, and this is what they did. – When each footman saw a shop in which blacking appeared likely to be sold, he rushed into it with great appearance of excitement, and exclaimed in a hurried manner. “Give me some of Snook’s blacking instantly.” “Snooks’s blackin?” said the shopman; “we never heard of it.” “Not heard of Snooks’s blacking!” exclaimed the footman; “Why my master won’t let me brush his boots with any other, and just now he is roaring at me for brushing them with that of Stiggins. I must be off elsewhere and get Snooks’s blacking forthwith.” This interview naturally startled the man in the shop; he began to think, “I must get some of Snooks’s blacking;” and the last, in crimson livery, “his Majesty won’t use anything but Snooks’s blacking,” – the man in the shop took his resolution. He found out the factory of Snooks, and ordered a large quantity of his blacking. – {Rev. A. H. Boyd.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 2