Pennsylvania Gazette

October 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 2, 1776).

“In gratitude for so extraordinary a cure, I have desired this to be made public.”

Nicholas Brooks peddled a variety of merchandise at his “Dry Goods, Picture and Jewellery Shop” in Philadelphia, including patent medicines.  He devoted a lengthy advertisement in the October 2, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette to promoting “MAREDANT’S ANTI-SCORBUTIC DROPS, prepared only by John Norton, Surgeon, … in Golden-square, London.”  By way of introduction, Brooks described this patent medicine as the “most successful remedy in all scorbutic cases ever discovered,” proclaiming that Marendant’s Drops “have relieved great numbers” of people who suffered from scurvy and related health conditions “in this province, as well as in New-York, New-England, and the Carolinas.”

In case that recommendation was not enough to convince prospective patients to purchase this patent medicine, Brooks included a series of testimonials in his advertisement.  In a letter addressed to Norton, John Attwood, a toymaker in Bath, confided, “I am cured by the use of Maredant’s drops, of a most afflicting disorder of the scorbutic kind, after trying every medicine that could be thought of for my relief.”   That was a common theme in advertisements for many medical providers and many patent medicines.  Those who wrote testimonials first detailed that they had visited other physicians or tried other remedies without relief, making their eventual cure even more remarkable.

Attwood provided all sorts of details about his ordeal: “I first had small pimples come out on my head and face; in a little time after my face was covered with blotches, and on the side of my nose spungy flesh grew, as big as a small nut; the same round my eyes and mouth, though not so large, with blotches on my body, arms, and in the palms of my hand, attended with so violent a pain in my head, that I had almost lost the sight of my left eye, the pain being mostly upon that side.”  Fortunately, a “gentlemen, who was then at Bath, but is since gone to the West-Indies” recommended Maredant’s Drops to Attwood.  Upon taking that medicine, the toymaker reported, “I am now in perfect health.”

In a shorter letter, John Forster, “at the Rose, at Welling in Kent,” declared that he “was afflicted with a most shocking case of leprosy, attended with violent rheumatic pains” that made his life “quite miserable.”  Like Attwood, he “tried every thing that could be thought of for my relief in vain,” but was now “perfectly cured by the use of Maredant’s drops.”  His neighbors knew his “shocking condition” and could also testify to his recovery after taking the patent medicine.

Next, a brief note with no attribution stated, “Mary Copson cured of a scorbutic humour on her head and face, attended with a violent hoarseness and shortness of breath.”

Finally, Brooks inserted a letter from Charles Ashley that rivaled the one from Attwood in length and gratitude for the effectiveness of Maredant’s Drops.  In this instance, it was Ashley’s son who suffered from “a most violent humour [that] settled in both hand, which were so bad that he entirely lost the use of them.”  At the same time, the “humour in his hands was attended with almost as violent a one in his face, which formed an entire scab over the whole, and smelt intolerably.”  Ashley’s sone “was in so much misery, and without hopes of recovery,” even after consulting the “most eminent” physicians.  Ashely “despaired of his life” until turning to Maredant’s Drops.  Now, Ashley expressed “my most sincere thanks [to Norton] for the cure of my son, which was effected by your most excellent drops.”  He felt such gratitude for “so extraordinary a cure” that he “desired this to be made public.”  He also invited the curious to visit his house, “the Talbot Inn, in the Strand,” to learn more and “see the child.”

Readers of the Pennsylvania Gazette would not be visiting the Talbot Inn to learn more about Ashley’s testimonial or assess his son’s recovery for themselves, nor would they interview Forster’s neighbors in Kent.  Norton supplied the testimonials and Brooks published them in his own advertisement as a proxy for such encounters.  Even if prospective customers wanted to learn more, Brooks hoped that the testimonials would entice them to try Maredant’s Drops.  Anyone who suffered as much as Attwood, Forster, Copson, or Ashley’s son might embrace whatever hope those testimonials offered.

September 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 25, 1776).

“THOMAS LEIPER, TOBACCONIST.”

In early June 1776, tobacconists Hamilton and Leiper announced that they dissolved their partnership.  Each man set off on a new venture.  Hamilton and Son operated a “Scotch snuff and tobacco Manufactory” on Second Street in Philadelphia, while Thomas Leiper remained “in the house occupied by the [former] company” at the corner of Spruce and Walnut.  Leiper emphasized in his advertisements that he “manufactures in the best manner Snuff and Tobacco of the first quality, equal, if not superior, to any heretofore imported from Europe.”

Leiper advertised aggressively.  He inserted advertisements with identical copy in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, the Pennsylvania Gazette, the Pennsylvania Journal, and the Pennsylvania Ledger.  He aimed to maintain as much of the clientele that he and his former partner had cultivated as he could as well as attract new customers.  To that end, he arranged for his advertisements to run in some of those newspapers for months, making a significant investment in doing so.  Most printers offered a standard package that included setting type and inserting an advertisement in three or four issues before discontinuing it.  Advertisers could pay for each additional insertion if they wished to extend the run of their notices.  Leiper apparently did so.  His advertisement ran in both the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journalon September 25, 1776.  The one in the Pennsylvania Gazette even included a notation – “3 m” – on the final line, likely intended to remind the printer that it was supposed to run for three months.

Leiper competed with his former partner and other tobacconists in Philadelphia.  He likely believed that an advertising campaign that extended for several months would yield the kind of name recognition that would convince prospective customers to give his snuff and other products a chance.  The repetition of his advertisements, appearing week after week in some of Philadelphia’s most popular newspapers, probably made his business familiar to many readers as they perused the advertisements for all sorts of information about commerce and current events.

September 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 11, 1776).

“THE LANCASTER ALMANACK, for the year 1777.”

It was one of the first advertisements for an almanac for 1777 that ran in American newspapers in the fall of 1776.  In the September 11 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Francis Bailey advertised “THE LANCASTER ALMANACK, for the year 1777.”  In some years such notices began appearing as early as the middle of August, but shortages of paper and other disruptions caused by the Revolutionary War may have slowed the production of almanacs.  Still, Bailey and other printers knew from experience that the handy reference manuals did good business.  They sold well and generated revenue.

This almanac was the first that Bailey published since the Continental Congress declared independence.  During the imperial crisis, some almanacs featured items that advocated for the American cause.  Two years earlier, for instance, Bailey listed a poem, “On American liberty,” among the contents of his almanac for 1775.  Yet he did not make explicit reference to current events acknowledge independence in his marketing of his almanac for 1777.  As he had in the past, he highlighted “a number of useful and instructive essays, selected from good authors,” that supplemented “the usual astronomical calculations, and tables.”  Those included “A new method of making hogs grow quickly fat,” “Hints on good manners, by Dean Swift,” and “Verses on the entrance of the new-year.”  Among those items, Bailey inserted “A curious and exact account of the national debt of Great-Britain.”  That touched on politics, but it did not commemorate or celebrate the revolution that continued to unfold in the former colonies that united to form a new nation.  Two years later, Bailey’s almanac for 1779 would be among the first publications to name George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, as “Father of his country,” so the printer did not abandon integrating politics and patriotism in the almanacs he published.[1]  For some reason, he chose not to do so in marketing his almanac for 1777.

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[1] Carl Robert Keyes, “A Revolution in Advertising: ‘Buy American’ Campaigns in the Late Eighteenth Century,” in Creating Advertising Culture:  Beginnings to the 1930s, vol. 1, We Are What We Sell:  How Advertising Shapes American Life … And Always Has, eds. Danielle Coombs and Bob Batchelor (New York:  Praeger, 2013), 9.

June 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 26, 1776).

“A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE.”

The June 26, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette carried an advertisement in which Michael Hillegas announced the publication and sale of “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE, comprehending the first Rudiments of Music, and of the Instrument, in an easy familiar Method.”  That was not all that was in the manual.  This American edition included “the Fife Duty, and the usual Collections of Lessons, Airs and Marches, in the English Edition, [and] a Variety of new favourite ones never before printed.”  Hillegas may have hoped that the promise of tunes not previously available would entice even customers who already knew how to play the fife or had a copy of another edition of the musical manual.

According to JoAnn Taricani, Hillegas is “[p]erhaps best known as the First Treasurer of the United States,” yet he “maintained a number of mercantile enterprises during his lifetime, one of which was the music store he operated from approximately 1759 to 1779.”  At the time he advertised an American edition of “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE,” his music shop, “the first business devoted specifically to musical merchandise in Philadelphia” and “the only specialty store for music in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary war,” had been open for more than fifteen years, likely making it familiar to many residents of the busy urban port.  “Virtually all printed music had to be imported,” Taricani notes, with “only a few efforts at music printing … attempted prior to the war.”[1]  A series of nonimportation agreements interrupted trade before the war, prompting American entrepreneurs to produce and to promote “domestic manufactures” or goods made in the colonies.  Hillegas apparently joined that effort with an American edition of a manual for learning to play the fife, though the advertisement did not make clear whether he published “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE” or merely sold copies of it.  Eighteenth-century readers knew to separate the phrases “JUST PUBLISHED” and “to be SOLD,” with the latter referring to the advertisers but not necessarily the former.  Taricani suggests that the partnership of Hall and Sellers, the printers of the newspaper in which the advertisement appeared, published the musical manual.[2]  While Hillegas did not print “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE,” he may have collaborated with Hall and Sellers in publishing it.  Neither the advertisement nor the imprint allows for a definitive conclusion.  What they do reveal is that the publisher believed a market exited for an American edition of the manual as the Revolutionary War continued and Hillegas attempted to incite even greater demand.

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[1] JoAnn Taricani, “Musical Commerce in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia: The Letters of Michael Hillegas,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 113, no. 4 (October 1989): 609-610.

[2] Taricani, “Musical Commerce,” 618.

June 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 5, 1776).

“A NEW SYSTEM OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE.”

Robert Aitken’s advertisement for “A NEW SYSTEM OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE, FOUNDED UPON PRINCIPLE,” filled half a column on the first page of the June 5, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette.  It featured an introduction to the work, an overview of the contents, and an address “To the PUBLIC.”  It was the newest military manual among the proliferation of such works published in the colonies, especially in Philadelphia, in 1775 and 1776.

In the introduction, Aitken, a printer and bookseller, announced the publication and sale of the book, giving the title and listing the author as “A GENERAL OFFICER.”  That matched the title page, though historians have identified Richard Lambart, the Earl of Cavan, as the author.  Aitken promoted some of the material aspects of the manual: “Printed with a new type, on a good paper, in one octavo volume.”  His advertisement reiterated the price printed on the title page: “Price in boards One Dollar, bound Ten Shillings.”

Many newspaper advertisements for books reproduced lengthy subtitles or a list of contents that appeared on the title page.  This manual, however, had a separate table of contents on the final page.  Aitken reformatted that table of contents into a paragraph about each chapter.  He aimed to demonstrate to prospective buyers the various subjects covered, perhaps hoping that seeing the topics associated with the “duty of the Corporal,” “the “Duty of the Serjeant,” and the “Duty and instructions of the Adjutant” would entice “young officers” with little practical experience.  In addition to those chapters, the manual included a chapter on dress, arms, and accoutrements and a chapter on the “exercise as it is to be performed by signal or word of command from the major or from any other officer.”

The address “To the PUBLIC” required a little more work on the part of the printer, though Aitken did not compose it by himself.  Instead, he went through the preface, selected key passages from the General Officer’s descriptions of the purpose of each chapter in the manual, and made minor revisions to string them together into a summary of what readers would encounter when they put the New System of Military Discipline to use.  Aitken did add a final paragraph that he apparently wrote as a final appeal to prospective customers: “This work is written upon a new plan, and is peculiarly adapted for the use of young officers, shewing the particular duties of each, and the most easy method of training their men in order to become expert soldiers.”

As the war continued, Aitken believed that a market existed for yet another military manual, though he did not consider that enough that merely announcing its publication would yield sales.  Instead, Aitken designed his advertisement to boost existing demand as colonizers prepared for an uncertain future.

May 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 22, 1776).

“AN approved new edition of the Laws of New-Jersey.”

An advertisement in the May 22, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette alerted the public that an “approved new edition of the Laws of New-Jersey (including those of the last session)” had been published and was available for sale.  Some readers apparently anticipated that volume since the advertisement indicated that it “has been largely subscribed for” because it was “much wanted.”  In other words, there had been so much demand for an updated compendium of the laws of the colony that the printer distributed a subscription notice announcing his intention to publish such a work and inviting those who wished to reserve copies to do so.

Publishing by subscription was common in eighteenth-century America.  It allowed printers to assess the viability of a project and avoid printing too many surplus copies that would never sell.  Local agents often assisted in collecting the names of subscribers to transmit to the printer and distributing the books after publication.  In this instance, the advertisement declared that the books were “now sent to those persons who took in the subscriptions, ready for delivery to the subscribers, who are desired to call for the same.”  In addition, “not many more volumes than subscribed for were struck off,” so “those who are desirous of having this body of laws, may do well to apply speedily, or they may not be able to furnish themselves.”  With a limited supply, anyone who had not previously reserved their copies needed to act quickly.

The advertisement did not definitively indicate who printed this new edition, only that local agents sold the remaining copies.  Joseph Crukshank did so in Philadelphia, along with Samuel Allinson in Burlington, New Jersey, and Elias Boudinot in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.  This advertisement most likely referred to Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New-Jersey, from the Surrender of the Government to Queen Anne, on the 17th Day of April, in the Year of Our Lord 1702, to the 14th Day of January 1776, printed in Burlington by Isaac Collins, Printer to the King, for the Province of New-Jersey.”  A note on the title page reported that the laws had been “Compiled and published under the Appointment of the GENERAL ASSEMBLY, and compared with the ORIGINAL ACTS, BY SAMUEL ALLINSON,” one of the local agents listed in the advertisement.  Collins advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette because New Jersey did not have its own newspaper.  Newspapers published in New York and Philadelphia were regional newspapers that served readers in several colonies, including New Jersey.

May 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 15, 1776).

“PREMIUMS … to be given by the Managers of the Contributions for promoting the culture of Silk in the province of Pennsylvania.”

At various times in the eighteenth century, Americans sought to establish and expand silk production in the colonies.  During the first years of the Revolutionary War, for instance, the “Managers of the Contributions for promoting the culture of Silk in the province of Pennsylvania” advertised “PREMIUMS” to be awarded to those who engaged in the enterprise.  Their notice appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal on May 15, 1776.

Silk production depended on raising silkworms.  Four of the premiums recognized those who presented the “greatest quantity of Cocoons” that were “raised in the province of Pennsylvania and brought to the Filature at Philadelphia for sale, or to be reeled for the Claimant’s own use” between August 1 and November 1.  At the filature, an establishment for reeling silk, filaments from the cocoons would be drawn and spun into thread.  The managers offered a premium of fifteen pounds for the most cocoons, provided that they amounted to “not less than Sixty Thousand,” and premiums of ten pounds and five pounds for the next greatest quantities, “not less than Fifty Thousand” and “not less than Forty Thousand.”  They gave one more premium, “a SILK REEL and COPPER KETTLE on the best construction,” to the fourth largest quantity of cocoons, “not less than Thirty Thousand.”  Setting such thresholds required industriousness on the part of those who wished to claim the premiums.

Three more premiums went to those “who shall produce to the managers the best specimen of sample of Raw Silk, of his or her own raising and reeling.”  Whoever produced the “best specimen … not less than Thirty-two ounces” received a silk reel and a copper kettle.  The “second and third next best samples of Raw Silk, not less than Sixteen ounces,” each received a silk reel.  Finally, another trio of premiums went to those “who shall raise [cocoons] entirely on the White or Italian Mulberry-tree, of the Claimant’s own planting and cultivation.”  Raising “Twenty Thousand Cocoons” yielded a premium of five pounds with two more premiums of three pounds each for raising “not less than Fifteen Thousand Cocoons each.”  A nota bene at the end of the advertisement indicated, “The Italian Mulberry-Seed to be had gratis by applying to JOHN KAIGHN.”

This contest was part of an effort to encourage “domestic manufacture” and local industry during the era of the American Revolution, but attempts to produce silk did not emerge because of the imperial crisis.  Instead, colonizers had been striving for decades to establish silk production in North America.  The premiums offered by the “Managers of the Contributions for promoting the culture of Silk in the province of Pennsylvania” were part of a longer history of seeking to make silk production a viable enterprise in the colonies.

May 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 8, 1776).

“It hath been a noted and good-accustomed store for looking-glasses near 14 years.”

At the same time that John Elliott promoted a “CONSIDERABLE assortment” of looking glasses available at his store on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, he also aimed to sell the entire business to an entrepreneur who would purchase his complete inventory and the location that had been familiar to residents of the bustling port for more than a decade.  To draw attention to his advertisement in the May 8, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, he included a woodcut depicting “the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass” that, according to previous advertisements, marked his location.

Among his inventory, Elliott had “Pier and Sconces GLASSES” as well as “a large choice of neat Dressing GLASSES, together with a great number of smaller sizes.”  He made retail sales, but he also hoped to supply “country stores and shopkeepers” who would make wholesale purchases to augment the merchandise they had on hand in their towns and villages.  The consumer revolution, after all, extended far beyond major urban ports, reaching eager consumers in the countryside.  Elliott hoped that the enthusiasm for acquiring goods would convince someone to purchase his entire store, despite the uncertainty of the war.  After all, even if consumers shifted from purchasing imported textiles and accessories to homespun fabrics, they still wanted to assess how they appeared in looking glasses.  As fashions changed, due to either tastes or politics, consumers continued to strive to make themselves presentable to others and depended on looking glasses in their efforts to do so.

That made selling looking glasses an attractive venture.  At least Elliott hoped that was the case.  He announced that he planned “to sell the house he lives in, which is properly fitted up for carrying on the LOOKING-GLASS business, particularly for quicksilvering.”  A prospective buyer did not need to have previous experience peddling looking glasses. Elliott declared that he was “willing to communicate to any person who may purchase” his house, store, and “the remaining stock on hand” the methods of the “art” of quicksilvering and “all other instructions for carrying on said trade.”  To sweeten the deal, he also assured prospective buyers that the location “hath been a noted and good-accustomed store for looking-glasses near 14 years.”  Elliott offered an opportunity for an entrepreneur interested in running their own business to take over a successful enterprise, one that he would “sell very low.”  For a small investment, a new owner could benefit from all the advantages that Elliott accumulated over the years.  Did those advantages outweigh the risks? Elliott tried to convince prospective buyers that they did.

March 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (March 6, 1776).

“Whoever doth him safely secure, / Of a reward they may be sure.”

William Moode wanted to increase the chances that his advertisements about his runaway apprentice attracted attention when he ran it in the March 6, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette.  Instead of the usual paragraph of dense text he composed more than a dozen rhyming couplets that told the story of the young rascal: “Thomas Stillenger he is called by name, / His indenture further testifies the same.”

As Moode told it, Stillenger had never been an ideal apprentice (“He has always been a vexatious lad, / One reason he is so meanly clad”) but instead a troublemaker who told lies (“Believe him not, if you be wise, / He is very artful in telling lies”) and stole goods from the fulling mill that Moode operated (“He is also guilty of another crime, / Of taking cloth from time to time”).  Punishing him, Moode claimed, had no effect (I whipt him, I thought severe, / But did not make him shed one tear”), though perhaps it played a part in Stillenger’s decision to run away.  Like other aggrieved masters of runaway apprentices and indentured servants, Moode offered a reward for capturing and returning the boy (“Whoever doth him safely secure, / Of a reward they may secure”), though he also indicated his willingness to be rid of Stillenger if anyone would purchase his remaining time (“Or clear me of him for ever, and mine, / And his indenture away I will sign”).

When setting the type, the compositor indented all but the last two lines of the poem, creating a significant amount of white space along the left side of the advertisement.  Most lines ended far short of the right side of the column rather than being justified too it like other advertisements.  That allowed for even more white space that distinguished Moode’s advertisement from all the other news and notices in that issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette.  That likely drew attention.  Readers may have become even more intrigued when they saw the rhyming couplets.  Although the Pennsylvania Gazettewas not one of them, some newspapers had a regular feature, the “Poet’s Corner” on the final page, with poems of no better quality than the one Moode wrote.  Readers may have taken note of the advertisement for its novelty and entertainment value.  For his part, Moode may have derived more pleasure from writing this poem than from any of his interactions with Stillenger when the apprentice worked in his mill.

February 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (February 28, 1776).

“Lancaster … JUST PUBLISHED … by FRANCIS BAILEY … COMMON SENSE.”

Readers encountered advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense on the first and final pages of the February 28, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette.  Two of those advertisements looked familiar to anyone who had been perusing the public prints in recent weeks.  One of them promoted the “NEW EDITION OF COMMON SENSE: With Additions and Improvements in the Body of the Work.”  Paine penned that material as well as “an APPENDIX, and an ADDRESS to the People called QUAKERS” for an edition that he worked with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford to publish.  The Bradfords and other members of the book trades in Philadelphia stocked and sold Paine’s approved edition.  Meanwhile, Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition, continued hawking “Large Additions to COMMON SENSE,” a collection of essays drawn from newspapers, none of them by Paine, to accompany his unauthorized second edition of Common Sense.  The compositor conveniently placed the advertisements one after the other on the final page, seemingly not taking a side in the dispute.

Another advertisement for Common Sense appeared on the first page of that issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette.  It announced the publication of a local edition published by Francis Bailey in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It was the first time that an advertisement for Bailey’s edition appeared in any newspaper.  Bearing the dateline, “Lancaster, February 24, 1776,” it informed readers that Bailey sold “COMMON SENSE; Addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA.  With the Additions, APPENDIX, and Address to the People called QUAKERS” at his “Printing and Post-Offices, in King-street.”  Although other publishers of Common Sense provided a preview by listing the pamphlet’s section headings the first time they ran advertisements, Bailey did not do so.  Perhaps he did not consider it necessary considering that the Pennsylvania Gazette and other newspapers printed in Philadelphia that already carried advertisements for the various editions by Bell and the Bradfords circulated in Lancaster and served that town as local and regional newspapers.  Lancaster would not have its own newspaper until John Dunlap temporarily relocated his Pennsylvania Packet during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777.  Bailey’s advertisement and his edition of Common Sense were for residents of Lancaster and nearby towns, not readers in Philadelphia who had ready access to other editions, but since they shared local-regional newspapers that already carried many advertisements that included the contents of the pamphlet Bailey did not need to incorporate that information into his own advertisement.  He saved money on advertising by publishing a streamlined notice.