As soon as I saw the first few lines on the folded and wrinkled sheet of paper, I figured the rest was tongue-in-cheek:
IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT
YOUR GIRL’S AGE,
There was a lot more text on the sheet, which was peppered with what looked like faux ink spots. As I read farther, I saw that this was an age-guessing game for a newspaper called the World and its popular “World ‘wants.'”
What the heck were World wants, I wondered. “The Poor Man’s Guide. The Rich Man’s Directory” was printed on the sheet, but those words also left me befuddled. I figured the “wants” were personal things that people desired: a good mate, happiness, lots of money, good health.
The sheet was actually a promo for the New York World’s want ads and was distributed out of its Philadelphia office. It was the same newspaper that in 1889, its “Philadelphia man” C.H. Browning asked Walt Whitman to write a poem (“A Voice From Death”) about the Johnstown Flood. That year, more than 2,200 people died in a massive flood that devastated this Pennsylvania town.
After noting that the newspaper published 651,911 “wants” last year, the sheet got back to the game, with instructions on how to guess “your girl’s age.” Looking closely at the numbers on the back, I saw that the game was for folks 63 and younger. I suppose those older were too old to be called “girl,” (unless you’re 18 and under, no female should be called girl), too old to have a beau or too old to even matter.
I decided to test it with a made-up age by following the instructions:
Tell the guesser what columns your age appears in: The age I chose was in columns 1, 3, 4, 6.
Add up the numbers across the top of those columns: 1+4+8+32.
Answer: 45. Correct.
As I moved beyond the game and began searching the World’s want ads, I found that newspapers across the country seemed to be vigorously promoting these ads around the same time as this game. Newspapers apparently had been producing want ads as we know them since after the Civil War when the Philadelphia Public Ledger set up a separate department for classifieds.
I found two pages from 1888 and 1890 of New York World want ads, separated by gender with more listings for men than women and a difference in the types of work. Ads from this period also included other specifications, including race and age in the absence of bias and anti-discriminatory laws.
There were ads from folks looking for workers and those seeking jobs. A full page from the March 27, 1888, New York World listed want ads for both businesses and households. There were help-wanted ads for bookkeepers, boys to run errands, sewing-machine operators, vest makers, a useful man for country driving and gardening, chocolate-maker, cooks, dressmakers, milliners, nurses, chambermaids for women and salesmen/agents for men.
Situation-wanted ads included a boy living with his parents who wanted to learn a trade and another for a black (“colored” in the listing) boy seeking the same; carpenters, cashiers, coachman and chambermaid.
The newspaper promoted its want ads by offering monetary prizes to advertisers (with conditions): $50 to the advertiser receiving the largest number of answers to any ad during the month of March; $25 for the second largest number, and $10 for third largest.
The publication Printers’ Ink in 1905 schooled newspapers on the importance of showing the “human quality” of want ads by demonstrating to people why they needed them. It offered some examples:
From New York World: “Sunday World wants work Monday morning wonders.”
From the Union, Springfield, MA: “A want advertised in the Union ceases to exist.”
An even better example from the Virginia Pilot, Norfolk, VA:
“Shredded patience is a common ailment. Is your patience worn to shreds – by living in a house which always needs repairs, but whose owner thinks that promises should satisfy you – by a servant who raises your living expenses and lowers your living comforts – by an employee who tries harder to work you than to work for you – by a partner who shares the profits but shirks the pains – by an exorbitant rent for office, or store, or shop – by lack of business capital? An intelligent want ad campaign, costing hardly more than a week’s pocket money, will correct all of these things and put your nerves in proper condition again.”
The want ads make me think of the ads Black people placed in newspapers after the Civil War to look for their missing loved ones. You probably know that Heather Williams wrote a book entitled: Help Me Find My People.
Yes, I do recall the book. Thanks.