Mad Men Gangam Style in the Year 1797

Empires rise and empires fall, but advertising may be here to stay. In the service of whatever you got.

Here's a circular ad from Boston, August 18, 1797, unveiling locally the newest and most amazing thing ever:

THE

Elephant,

Truly old school style -- before Rail, Telegraphy, Photography, Telephony, Television, Radio, Internet, or mass Electricity -- with a single large illustration and text-rich content designed to excite curiosity and ticket sales (ONE QUARTER OF A DOLLAR.---Children, NINE PENCE.)

Even a faux warning is designed to titillate: The Elephant having destroyed many papers of consequence, it is recommended to visitors not to come near him with such papers.

Ha! Note the "Long S" still in use, confusing in that it looks like an "f."  Its days were numbered -- within the US, printers switched over in the early 1800s, though it continued in some use in longhand writing until around the time of the American Civil War, depending on the age and preferences of the scribe.

Jim Carroll once sang, "It's too late / to fall in love with Sharon Tate." The same can be said of Juliette Récamier, as depicted here by François Pascal Simon Gérard just a few years after the elephant circular appeared. Neo-Classical in the manner of Greeks and Romans -- Retro Fashion! What goes around comes around. Can you dig?

Mad Men season ender tonight -- it's now 1968, okay? All across the USA . . .

Today's Rune: Fertility.