persons;
in the South, most of the proprietary medicines offered for sale
by local printers were manufactured from herbs after prescrip-
tions furnished by Indian doctors. Typical of the latter The
South Carolina Gazette advertised in January, 1744:
Hphe Seneka-Rattle-Snake-Root, so famous for its effectually curing of Pleurisy; and an excellent Eye-Water, to be sold by the Printer hereof.
TALES TOLD BY ADVERTISEMENTS
Save for their headlines, advertisements were frequently set up like regular reading matter. They were usually small in size, and not infrequently limited in size by the'printer. Occasionally, one finds a colonial printer using the margins for an advertise- ment which came in late. Strange as it may seem, however, these advertisements when read to-day are almost as interest- ing as the text. They tell a story which needs but little by way of interpretation. They tell us of the fads and fancies in the matter of dress of the colonial period. If there were no mention of the prevalence of smallpox in the colonies, one would know that it was common because the word "pock-fretten" was used in describing a slave who had run away and for whom a reward was offered in the local press. The advertisements of servants and apprentices, who, like the slaves, had run away from their masters, recall a time when people were sold in bondage for a limited time until the money owed for their passage across the ocean, or for debts incurred after their arrival, was paid in full. The amount of the reward offered was often small six cents. Such small rewards, however, are explained by the fact that masters were required by law to advertise runaway servants and slaves.
The advertisements of the colonial department stores if that term may be used correctly need to-day a glossary in order that articles described may be intelligible, even to women. How many readers of this book, for example, are familiar with the items listed by Isaac Jones, when hi 1752 he advertised in The Pennsylvania Gazette to be sold cheap the following things?
Boiled and common camblets, single and double alopeens, broad and narrow shaloons, tammies, durants, plain and corded poplins, duroys,
