The term "Ballyhoo" is used multiple times by Oscar Putney with the modern meaning ("extravagant publicity or fuss"), but there's no record of the word being employed that way until the twentieth century. At the time of Penny Dreadful (c. 1891), the word (typically spelled "ballahou" or "ballahoo") would have referred to a nautical vessel, usually an ungainly one, though less commonly, it was used as a synonym for a schooner. The modern form of the word dates to early 20th century circus slang. The first recorded use as "ballyhoo" was in 1901 where it meant "a short sample of a sideshow". By 1908 or 1910 it had evolved into its modern meaning and had entered common parlance, but that puts it a good fifteen years after the show is set.