anklin Square. The community were
astonished. 'The Harpers are waking up!' 'This is the Bonner style!'
'This is the way the Ledger man does it!' were heard on all sides. The
young Harpers were congratulated by the book men every-where on the
enterprise with which they were pushing the new publication. They said
nothing, and took the joke in good part. But it settled the
respectability of the 'Ledger' style of advertising. It is now imitated
by the leading publishers, insurance men, and most eminent dry goods
men in the country. The sums spent by Mr. Bonner in advertising are
perfectly marvelous. He never advertises unless he has something new to
present to the public. He pays from five to twenty-five thousand dollars
a week when he advertises."

Mr. Bonner well knew that all his advertising would be worth nothing in
the end unless he made the "Ledger" worthy of the public patronage, and
he exerted himself from the first to secure the services of a corps of
able and popular writers. In his arrangements with his contributors, he
inaugurated a system of liberality and _justness_ which might well put
his rivals to shame.

When Mr. Everett was engaged in his noble effort to assist the ladies of
the Mount Vernon Association in purchasing the home and tomb of
Washington, Mr. Bonner proposed to him to write a series of papers for
the "Ledger," for which he offered him ten thousand dollars, the money
to be appropriated to the purchase of Mount Vernon. Mr. Everett accepted
the offer, and the celebrated Mount Vernon Papers were the result. This
was a far-sighted move on the part of Robert Bonner. Under ordinary
circumstances Mr. Everett would probably have declined to "write for the
'Ledger;'" but in a cause so worthy he could not refuse. The association
of his name with the journal was of incalculable service to it, and the
Mount Vernon Papers were to its proprietor his very best advertisement.
(We are viewing the matter commercially.) The sale of the paper was
wonderfully increased, and a golden harvest was reaped.

This connection of Mr. Everett with the "Ledger" led to a warm personal
friendship between himself and its proprietor, which was broken only by
the statesman's death--a circumstance which speaks volumes for the
private worth of the younger man. Mr. Everett continued to write for
the paper after his Mount Vernon articles were finished, and is said to
have earned over fifty thousand dollars by his able contributions