Treaty between the Press and the Telegraph. 615

"The Newfoundland line leased to the New York Press? Nonsense! I don't believe a word of it," said one of the most persistent promoters of the contemplated combination.

But he was ocularly satisfied of the truth of the statement; and in this way, and by this arrangement, the backbone of the threatened monopoly was broken. Those interested in the telegraph saw the danger. One or two of those in the scheme retired, and new officers were elected. Such men as Professor Morse, Colonel E. S. Sanford, and Cambridge Livingston took an active interest in the matter, and the result was a proposition, inspired by Colonel Sanford, for a Telegraph Committee and a Press Committee to meet in consultation on the twin interests.

On the night of a monster torch-light procession of the unterrified democracy of the metropolis, marshalled under the renowned Captain Isaiah Rynders, illuminating and enlivening that grand city with its bengola lights, its Roman candles, its music, its rockets, its cheers, its Drummond lights, and its enthusiasm, there met, on an early November evening in 1860, at a room at Delmonico's, on the corner of Chambers Street and Broadway, Amos Kendall, Edwards S. Sanford, Cambridge Livingston, and Zenas Barnum on the part of the telegraph companies, and the executive committee on the part of the Associated Press. These gentlemen, comprehending the situation, at this and three or four subsequent meetings concluded a treaty and a contract by which the rights of the public, of the telegraph, and of the Press were fully recognized. On the basis of this arrangement the harmony and efficiency of these three great interests were secured; and in accomplishing this happy result too much credit can not be given to Colonel Sanford for the efforts he made to preserve the entente cordiale between the telegraph and the Press.

To make this Newfoundland line efficiently useful to the Press, it was necessary to extend the arrangements at Cape Race so that the European steamers passing that point could be intercepted. Obtaining the news off that cape shortened the time between Europe and New York from forty to sixty hours. On the great circle, a majority of the steamers would pass within sight of that station. The first attempt to get news in this way was previous to this time, and when the Collins steamers commenced their trips. Tin cans were prepared with small flag-poles. The news parcels were placed in these in Liverpool, and when the steamers arrived off the Cape the pursers would throw them overboard. If the news-boat was not in sight, a gun would be fired in the daytime and in foggy weather, and a rocket or two sent up in the night. Captain Ezra Nye, of the Pacific, successfully initiated the enterprise off Halifax. On his second trip, not seeing the news-boat, he threw Halifax into a state

of great excitement by running almost into that harbor, firing guns His news reached New York forty-eight hours in After this there were inter

all the way up.
advance of the arrival of his steamer.

cepted off Cape Race,

In 1859, 13 steamers.

"1860, 31

In 1861, 34 steamers.
"1862, 46

Fifteen or twenty steamers outward bound were also intercepted, and two days' later news from all parts of the United States placed on board for Europe. Arrangements such as these displayed the marvelous energy of the Press of the country.

But nothing is permanent in this ever-shifting world of ours. When the ocean cable was laid and in working order, these tin cans and flag-poles, these guns and rockets, ceased to be of value; and with these changes others came. The Press-telegraph embroglio, so nicely adjusted in 1860 at Delmonico's and at the Astor House, has experienced some of the perturbations of the day, and a portion of the Press and the present telegraph managers have had their doubts and differences, their trials and troubles, their heart-burnings and heave-offerings. The Associated Press has another general agent, and Mr. Craig is now devoting his experience and energy in developing the power of Little's Automatic Telegraph, capable, it is asserted, of transmitting sixty thousand words per hour. Editor David M. Stone, of the Journal of Commerce, is the present president of the Associated Press, his much-respected predecessor, Gerard Hallock, having been gathered to his fathers. James W. Simonton, once connected with the New York Times, once a correspondent in Washington, and now a proprietor and editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, and a proprietor, we believe, of the Morning Call, of that magnificent city with a Golden Gate, is the general agent. It is a vast machine, with its local agents in every nook and corner of the United States, and its correspondents scattered over the wide, wide world. It serves two hundred daily papers with telegraphic news, and pays over $200,000 yearly for cable telegrams alone.

Is this extensive news organization to last forever? It was not, probably, expected or intended by its originators to make it a permanent institution. It was an expedient. It originated in the necessities of the time-in the want of capacity of the telegraph lines. It came into life when horses, and steamers, and carrier pigeons ceased to be available; it will go out of existence as soon as the network of electric wires and cables are capable of transmitting easily, and without delay, the news correspondence of the Press and the business dispatches of the public. Already an independent combination has been formed. In January, 1870, several new and

The Future of the Association.

617

cheap papers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, shut out of existing arrangements, organized the American Press Association. This organization met in Boston in July, 1870. Its president is Joseph Howard, of the New York Star. The principal journals in this association are the Evening Mail, New Yorker Journal, and Daily News, of New York; the Day and Bulletin, of Philadelphia; the Star, of Providence; the Eagle, of Brooklyn; the Times, of Boston; and the News, of Washington. Its general agent is John Hasson. News is furnished to eighty-four daily papers in the United States. There is also the New York News Association. Other local organizations are in existence. Others will be formed. Special telegrams will be received by individual papers that will neither be paid for nor used by others; and this disintegration, thus commenced, will go on till each leading journal will have its own special dispatches from its own correspondents stationed in all parts of the world, transmitted for its own exclusive use and benefit. There will be news associations to sell news to any one who will purchase, but they will be comparatively small concerns, and overshadowed by the great newspaper establishments in the news centres of the Union.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE NEW YORK TIMES.

HOW IT ORIGINATED.-NEGOTIATIONS ON THE ICE. THE TILSIT RAFT OF THE TIMES. — HENRY J. RAYMOND ITS EDITOR.—HIS ABILITY As a RePORTER. HIS EARLY CAREER IN POLITICS.-WHY HE WAS CALLED "LITTLE VILLAIN" BY HORACE GReeley. — TroubLE WITH JAMES WATSON WEBB.-THREATENED DUEL WITH THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER-SHARP CONTROVERSY WITH ARCHBISHOP HUGHES.-THE ELBOWS OF THE MINCIO. -THE DRAFT RIOTS.- FORTIFYING NEWSPAPER OFFICES. MANNERS IN JOURNALISM.-SUDDEN DEATH OF MR. RAYMOND.-HENRY WARD BEECH. ER'S EULOGY.-THE NEW MANAGEMENT OF THE TIMES.-THE GOLD SPECULATIONS OF 1869.-THE WAR ON THE TAMMANY RING.-ITS GREAT AND IMPORTANT RESULT.

THE Times originated on the Hudson. In a walk across the ice at Albany, in the winter of 1850-'51, it was arranged by several gentlemen to establish a new journal in the metropolis.

The Tribune had boasted of its large profits. Ninety thousand dollars it claimed to have divided the previous year among its stockholders. "That boast," said Greeley, "started the Times." Henry J. Raymond was then Speaker of the Assembly. George Jones, a publisher, E. B. Wesley, a banker, with two or three leading politicians, furnished the money for the new enterprise. One hundred and ten thousand dollars were subscribed for the undertaking, and such was the feeling created at the time by the large dividends of the Tribune, and the acknowledged prosperity of the Herald, that two or three times that amount were offered. The first number of the Times appeared on the 18th of September, 1851. It was a onecent paper.

Its editor, Henry J. Raymond, had been connected with the Press for a little over ten years. While at Burlington College he wrote for the New Yorker over the nomme de plume of Fantome. On gradua ting, and while studying law in New York, he became a constant contributor to that paper, receiving from Horace Greeley, its editor, a salary of eight dollars per week. He also wrote news letters to the Cincinnati Chronicle at five dollars per week. When the Tribune was started in the spring of 1841, he was installed its assistant editor and chief reporter at ten dollars per week. He remained with Greeley till 1843. He then determined to be journalist, and bent all his energies to accomplish this great end. Although not a ste

a

Henry J. Raymond as a Reporter.

619

nographer, he was an accomplished reporter, and was unquestionably the swiftest writer connected with the Press. He held his own with such stenographers as Robert Sutton and James A. Houston, the two best reporters in the country at that period. But with marvelous rapidity in writing Raymond displayed great tact. If the Herald, or any other newspaper, succeeded by any especial method. in accomplishing an important result, it was not despised by him.

On one occasion, when Daniel Webster was to speak in Boston, several reporters were sent from New York to report his speech. Raymond attended for the Tribune. There were no telegraphs then. On his return, instead of losing time, he engaged a stateroom, where he wrote out his long-hand notes. While the reporters were in Boston, types, cases, and printers were quietly placed on board the Sound steamer, and as rapidly as Raymond wrote out the speech the printers put it in type. On their arrival at New York the speech was in type and ready for the press, and appeared the same morning in a late edition of the Tribune, much to the mortification of the other reporters and the surprise of the other journalists.

Mr. Raymond was also a very accurate reporter. Mr. Webster always preferred him to any other to take down his speeches. When he intended making one any where, he sent for Mr. Raymond to be present.

"Why does Mr. Webster prefer your reporting to others?" asked a journalist one day of Mr. Raymond; "I am told that you are not a stenographer."

"Well," replied Mr. Raymond, "I once asked that question myself of Mr. Webster, and he said I always reported him correctly, and that I never spoiled his quotations. Webster, you know," continued Raymond, "is very apt in his quotations. They are full of meaning. His most beautiful and telling illustrations were from old classic authors. I disliked to see these beautiful images broken by execrable Latin, and I therefore took pains to have them correct. Mr. Webster appreciates this. Hence he sends for me, I suppose." The most wonderful incident in reporting occurred after Mr. Raymond became attached to the Courier and Enquirer. Mr. Webster made an important speech in the Senate. Raymond was present. All the other papers were represented. Looking at the clock, it just occurred to him that the distinguished senator would finish about the hour of the closing of the mail. He therefore prepared himself. Webster began his speech. Raymond took every word down in long-hand. The other reporters, of course, in short-hand. Webster, it is true, was a slow, deliberate speaker, but as the average speed of an orator's tongue is six uttered to one carefully written word, our readers can imagine the rapidity of Raymond's writing. Webster