Grafitti Art, 1818

[George Thompson]

     *The Police of Newyork*. [sic] -- Within the last year, a most
dastardly mode of libelling has been introduced into this city; that of
selecting the name of a citizen, and connecting it with obscene language or
gross falsehood, and writing the same upon the walls of the houses and
other public places.  Several cases of this kind have occurred within the
last two months, and it is greatly to be wished, that cowardly persons who
employed themselves in this vulgar and detestable *amusement*, might be
discovered, exposed and punished.
     National Advocate, May 11, 1818, p. 2, col. 3, from Columbian

Unfortunately, the vulgar and detestable things these rascals wrote was
news not fit to print, or we might have some antedatings, for the U. S.,
anyway.

GAT

--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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