The Olden Time Series, Vol. 4: Quaint and Curious Advertisements / Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts

16mo. Per vol., 50 cents.
There appears to be, from year to year, a growing popular taste for quaint and curious reminiscences of Ye Olden Time, and to meet this, Mr. Henry M. Brooks has prepared a series of interesting handbooks. The materials have been gleaned chiefly from old newspapers of Boston and Salem, sources not easily accessible, and while not professing to be history, the volumes contain much material for history, so combined and presented as to be both amusing and instructive. The titles of some of the volumes indicate their scope and their promise of entertainment:—
Curiosities of the Old Lottery. Days of the Spinning-Wheel. Some Strange and Curious Punishments. Quaint and Curious Advertisements. Literary Curiosities. New-England Sunday, etc.
It has been the good fortune of the writer to be allowed a peep at the manuscript for this series, and he can assure the lovers of the historical and the quaint in literature that something both valuable and pleasant is in store for them. In the specialties treated of in these books Mr. Brooks has been for many years a careful collector and student, and it is gratifying to learn that the material is to be committed to book form. — Salem Gazette.
For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, upon receipt of price. Catalogues of our books mailed free.
TICKNOR & CO., Boston.
Advertisements are sometimes very amusing. They give insights into the manners of the times no less interesting than authentic. Suppose the ancients had possessed a press, and that a volume of a Roman Post or Chronicle had been dug up at Herculaneum, with what curiosity should we not contemplate the millinery of the Roman ladies, or, Wanted, a Gladiator to fight the last new lion; or, Next Ides of November will be published the new poem of Quintus Horatius Flaccus ! —Leigh Hunt.
Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. —Emerson