about them. They are today supposed to be chic, clever, au fait. What they will seem to be tomorrow is no matter.

On the other hand, certainly this can be said of the Fellows type of designing, that it has printability, and that in abundance, a merit not to be sneezed at, either. Detail is eliminated by the square inch and there are solid tints which have attention value. Among those advertisers who are using the Fellows style of art work at the present moment there are the Mitchell Lewis Motor Co., Melville Clark Piano Co., and several shirt advertisers.

Another interesting freak of the day which is not without its momentary value is the Popini vintage of art. If Popini should some night gain access to the plant where the Benday mechanical stipples are made, he might turn out some freak grains and cross-hatches which would make old Mr. Day turn in his grave!

Popini's strong suit is a fancy for indicating clothing fabrics in freaky, unusual, eye-catching ways. Like Fellows, he, too, was originally a magazine illustrator. For the most part, he and his imitators use pen work exclusively. They depend upon a startling treatment on a coat here or on a dress there. It may be a foot-square check, a grain, a stripe, a diagonal; but, in any event, it is the first (yes, and sometimes about the only) thing one sees. Popini people are loud dressers. In real life they could only be endured the other side of the footlights in vaudeville!

Just at the moment the Popini school is finding a market for its wares with the following, among other, advertisers: American Locomotive Company, La Croix Fils, advertising Riz La Croix Cigarette Papers; the Santa Fe Railroad is using a modification of it.

There is no need at this time to elaborate upon the Coles Phillips illusion type of art work. It is today so well known that in every country cross-corner to which the Saturday Evening Post penetrates it is passed by for its staleness. It once had merits, but today it it is much like a popular song when everybody knows it. Then what once was "Be-eautiful” becomes merely "That old stuff again."

Whatever the merits, past or present, of the Coles Phillips school, it seems probable that it has brought in good money to the artists who have followed its text; and it is not difficult to picture mentally the small army of other artists who have sat them down in quiet corners and said to themselves: "Let's see, what equally distinctive style can I invent?"

We can imagine that Will Grefé thought he had made another financial ten-strike with his style. It, too, is in the freak class. Those of the Grefé School cannot start drawing without both a pen and a brush in their drawing hand at the same time. Then that part of a figure that the brush happens to get to first is put in wash and eventually comes out in half tone. And that part which the pen claims as its own is drawn in ink and comes out in line. If there is any rule for this thing, it must be that heads and arms and some of the properties in the backgrounds shall be in wash, all other things being equal, and that, as for the rest, it shall be an even toss-up between ink, outline or solid black.

The result is different; it is a stunt; it won't last. Let those who would get aboard, do so early. The stanchest user of the Grefé style to date has been the Printz-Biederman Company, advertising Prinzess Coats and suits. Campbell's Soups have also taken a fling at it.

Perhaps the most unusual type of art work that has appeared in the last two years, but one which had its unquestioned value for the short use to which it was put, was a series of newspaper designs used by Marshall Field & Company and drawn in a modification of mosaic work, all of the pictorial subject matter being broken up into squares, with white space between. Necessarily this is a style that is only applicable to decorative subjects because it would be impossible with it to show any articles of manufacture in detail.

The National Lead Company is right at the present moment using a series of designs in its magazine advertising which look as if they had been drawn by an artist using a stick with a blunt end instead of a pen. But it attracts the eye and, after all, that's about its sole mission.

Every once in a while some advertiser makes an attempt to use the style of pen work made famous by Nell Brinkley and it, too, has its pulling value because of its queerness. But, curiously enough, fewer artists seem to be able to imitate the Brinkley way of doing things than is the case with most of these queer treatments.

It would seem that the advertiser who makes up his mind he wants to obtain his pullingpower by the freaky in art work and engrav ings, (a method which is well founded and advisable, if rightly worked out, it must be remembered) would do well not to tie up to any one type permanently, but be willing to

jump from one to another, ahead of the crowd, and as agilely as new features and stunts present themselves.

We can think of several advertisers who, in their first enthusiasm over a new art style of the freak order, tied up to it so firm-and-fast that the style is now inseparably associated with them in the public's mind, with the result that they now cannot well get away from it, whether they appreciate that it has lost that queerness in it which once gave it its original pulling-power or not.

Probably no more profitable source of new inspiration along these lines is to be found than in the humorous weeklies like Life and Judge, in some of the foreign magazines and in the illustrations run with the fiction in our American magazines.

These sources are well worth study by the advertiser who would attract the reader by song-and-dance method. Vaudeville has quite as large and profitable a following as the oldline stage these days, it should be remembered.

D

R. HENRY WALLACE, of Des Moines, world-known and respected editor, and advocate of "right living, clear thinking, good farming," had a birthday March 19th. He has passed his seventy-eighth milestone.

Birthdays are of small account to Uncle Henry, as every succeeding anniversary seems to find him younger in thought and with undiminished energy.

Dr. Wallace's sons, H. C. Wallace and John P. Wallace, who are associated with him in the publication of Wallaces' Farmer, gave their father a birthday party and reception at the home of the former.

The event was attended by a throng of friends and well-wishers, including Des Moines' leading business and professional men and many from out of town who came to pay tribute to the veteran editor and publicist.

On the occasion Dr. Wallace said: "I can't say that I feel any different today than on any other day. The young people seem to, but I don't. I am in perfect health, feel just as well as I ever did. I have ten years of work planned ahead of me. I may not do it all; I may not do any of it, but I am prepared to do it and feel thoroughly able to.

"Old age is the best part of life. The battles of life are past and a man has little to worry him. He has more control of himself. He knows just what he is capable of doing and is less likely to go astray in his plans. His long experience gives him an advantage, and he sees the world more accurately and with a keener perspective."

Hundreds of congratulatory letters and telegrams were received, among which were the following:

From Ex-Gov. W. D. Hoard, Fort Atkinson, Wis: "I congratulate Uncle Henry upon the vigor and mental clearness which is given to him. I cannot discern that he has abated a 'jot or tittle' of his old time grasp upon the things he knows. Of course the years bring increased knowledge, and his editorial work shows that the old engine is working to the same limit of its stroke that it ever did. With best wishes for his continued health and happiness."

Hon. Gifford Pinchot, Philadelphia: "I wish most heartily that I could attend the reception given to Uncle Henry on his seventy-eighth birthday. He stands for so much to me that is right and fine, that it does me good just to get in contact with him. In fact, it does me good just to know that he is alive. I send him my affectionate good wishes and congratulations."

B. B. Ayers, Chicago: "Mr. Wallace's has been a great life, and he is enjoying a Gladstonian old age. Such men as he glorify life in all its stages. He has fought the fight, maintained his faith, and kept himself unspotted. Upon such hang our social fabric of family life and our civilization."

AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING joins Mr. Wallace's hundreds of other friends and admirers in wishing for him many more years of happiness, activity and usefulness.