["Mr. CAINE (who advocates prohibiting open-air advertisements
in rural places) forgets that a good many people are unable to
see that an advertisement of soap and pills mars the beauty of
a landscape."--_Illustrated News._]
Oh, Mister CAINE--not Sugar-CAINE, but bitter
'Gainst alcohol and opium and field-signs--
Why put poor Advertisers in a twitter
By laying thus hard legislative lines
In the defence of merely pastoral Beauty,
By levying on Field-Signs a fine or duty?
Good gracious! what _are_ meadows, rocks and trees
Compared with the necessity--_absolute_, Sir!--
Of advertising Silks and Soaps and Teas,
POPKINS'S Pickles, BOODLE'S Bottled Fruit, Sir?
Or how should he King Mammon's heavy hand 'scape
Who'd sacrifice great £ _s. d._ to--Landscape?
A Nuisance? Nonsense!!! Posters and Placards,
In field or forest, serve the Public better
Than all the blatant bosh of bleating bards.
The Advertising Art would you thus fetter?
What _is_ the worth of rivers, rooks, and hills
Compared with SMUGSON'S Soaps and PODGER'S Pills?
Soap, Sir, means Cleanliness, and Pills mean Health;
And Sanitation's surely more than Scenery!
Subordinate the claims of Health--and Wealth--
To sentimental love of rural greenery?
No, Mister CAINE. I wonder _you're_ not wiser,
Pan is at present the great Advertiser!
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[Illustration: THE MODERN MEDUSA.]
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