The Fraud of the 'Write-Up': Seattle's Own Paper vs. The Boom Merchants

It is rare that a day passes which the advertising public is not invited by one or more representatives of journals of one grade or another located in the East, in California, in Oregon or somewhere else to subscribe $5 toward the publication of what in newspaper slang is termed a 'write-up' of this city. The agents promise to set before the world glowing accounts of Seattle, its conditions, resources, recent growth, etc.—all calculated to deceive and cajole.

Often because it is felt that it 'will do no harm, and may do good,' and oftener still from a wish to get rid of some controversy, these invitations are accepted. But thousands of dollars are paid out for a sort of 'advertising' which does vastly more harm than good. The so-called 'write-up' is marvelously 'glowing' indeed, but remarkable chiefly for its extravagance and absurd misinformation and for a style and tone suggesting rather of a speculative 'boom' than of substantial prosperity.

The advertisements which accompany these fulsome articles are almost wholly furnished by real estate men. There is no representation of mercantile businesses, banks, transportation lines—or of the wide variety of business that goes to make up the life and character of this city... These do not patronize the 'special editions.'

Those 'write-ups' do this city, or any other city, more harm than good. They never have the appearance of truth; they are usually the hasty, careless and inaccurate work of strangers who have neither time nor means to be thorough and truthful, and they give an impression not at all to the advantage of the city.

Of a very different worth is the advertising which a city—Seattle or any other city—gets through the circulation of its own newspapers... Nothing is so certain a sign of the conditions, character and spirit of a city as its representative newspaper. With the sake of illustration we will lay aside modesty and speak of the *Post-Intelligencer*'s self. Nothing that may be seen outside of the city itself is so good an advertisement for Seattle as this paper.

We are urged to say these things not from dissatisfaction with the patronage of the public which is always generous to its home paper, but to point out the fraud which is being perpetrated by irresponsible newspaper mendicants. Perhaps the least deserving of these is the St. Paul *Press*'s 'combination,' which is now engaged in 'working' Spokane Falls... A fair illustration of the method of this paper and its representatives was afforded by a special edition gotten out last year for Tacoma, in which Seattle was left off the map of Puget Sound, under the mistaken notion that the fraud would please the people of Tacoma. As a matter of fact, the Tacoma people appreciated the fraud for what it was worth, openly declaring it a very small and contemptible thing.