ent and modern times, which,
according to Webster's definition, may be called "humbugs," inasmuch as
they were "impositions under fair pretences."

In writing of modern humbugs, however, I shall sometimes have occasion
to give the names of honest and respectable parties now living, and I
felt it but just that the public should fully comprehend my doctrine,
that a man may, by common usage, be termed a "humbug," without by any
means impeaching his integrity.

Speaking of "blacking-makers," reminds me that one of the first
sensationists in advertising whom I remember to have seen, was Mr.
Leonard Gosling, known as "Monsieur Gosling, the great French
blacking-maker." He appeared in New York in 1830. He flashed like a
meteor across the horizon; and before he had been in the city three
months, nearly everybody had heard of "Gosling's Blacking." I well
remember his magnificent "four in hand." A splendid team of blood bays,
with long black tails, was managed with such dexterity by Gosling
himself, who was a great "whip," that they almost seemed to fly. The
carriage was emblazoned with the words "Gosling's Blacking," in large
gold letters, and the whole turnout was so elaborately ornamented and
bedizened that everybody stopped and gazed with wondering admiration. A
bugle-player or a band of music always accompanied the great Gosling,
and, of course, helped to attract the public attention to his
establishment. At the turning of every street-corner your eyes rested
upon "Gosling's Blacking." From every show-window gilded placards
discoursed eloquently of the merits of "Gosling's Blacking." The
newspapers teemed with poems written in its praise, and showers of
pictorial handbills, illustrated almanacs, and tinseled souvenirs, all
lauding the virtues of "Gosling's Blacking," smothered you at every
point.

The celebrated originator of delineations, "Jim Crow Rice," made his
first appearance at Hamblin's Bowery Theatre at about this time. The
crowds which thronged there were so great that hundreds from the
audience were frequently admitted upon the stage. In one of his scenes,
Rice introduced a negro boot-blacking establishment. Gosling was too
"wide awake" to let such an opportunity pass unimproved, and Rice was
paid for singing an original black Gosling ditty, while a score of
placards bearing the inscription, "Use Gosling's Blacking," were
suspended at different points in this negro boot polishing hall.
Everybody tried "Gosling