A typical small-town newspaper is the News-Commercial, published in Collins, Miss. (pop. 1,100) by a typical smalltown editor: Mayor and onetime Lawyer James Duncan Arlington. Unlike many another small-town newspaper, the four-page, weekly News-Commercial (circulation: 1,350) does not take itself too seriously. Once it printed a list of delinquent subscribers under the head: “Shall the Dead Live Again?” Lately it quipped editorially: “We see … where they have started a new kind of paper [the tabloid, PM] in New York. No advertisements will be carried in it. There ain’t nothing new about that idea—we have been darn near running that kind of paper* for ten years.”
The whimsical News-Commercial recently published some ads for the fun of it. Smeared across two columns on Page 1 were a series of advertisementswhich Editor Arrington printed to “wake up” the people of Mississippi. Samples:
>WANTED—48 STATES IN AMERICA, A. Hitler and Co.. Berlin, Germany.
>BEST BY TEST—Nazi No-Stop Gasoline Gets More Deaths Per Mile. In actual tests made in Belgium and France, tanks and airplanes using Nazi No-Stop gasoline averaged 5,000 dead men, women and children per mile.
>MALE HELP WANTED—Our organization due to recent expansion is in need of additional men in the United States. Applicants must be opposed to democratic forms of government. Apply in own handwriting to: Fifth Column, c/o German Embassy, Washington, D. C.
>FOR SALE-200 MILES OF MAGINOT LINE. Only slightly used. Can be cut up and made into nice comfortable storm pits, wine cellars or foundations for WPA privies.
*An exaggeration. Actually 50 to 70% of News-Commercial space is advertising.
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