The Increase of Clubs.

665

ing. I feel somewhat as might a very respectable and very courteous old bachelor if he should kindly consent to hold a small bundle for a few minutes while the lady stepped round the corner, and should then find himself the responsible holder of a strange baby, growing to be a very big elephant on his hands. This chair, just vacated by my side, belongs to the gentleman who should have responded for the New England Press-our excellent friend, Sam. Bowles, of the Springfield Republican, the model newspaper of the Provincial Press. But there will be one merit-brevity—in what I shall have to say. One still July afternoon the city items man of the journal upon which I worked, in despair of matter for his column, sat meditatively observing a small boy climbing up to and upon the figure of Madame Justice upon the State-house cupola. Said he, "If that boy should fall he would make about so much"-measuring a "stickful" on his finger. If I were to speak of and not for the New England Press, perhaps I may claim that New England has spoken already, and speaks for herself through her newspaper men every where. The honored chairman [Mr. Greeley] is one of our New England boys; and so also is the gentleman who has just spoken so eloquently upon the right of our distinguished guest. [Mr. Raymond shook his head.] * Well, we certainly educated him, and I thought from his versatile and characteristic ability that he must be one of our own Yankees. The venerated senior of the Post, whose absence we all regret, went from us, and the able editors of the World and the Journal of Commerce, and the other eloquent gentleman upon my left [Mr. Curtis], were ours. There is then little necessity that I should continue. But I am right glad and proud to have an opportunity of gratefully acknowledging our indebtedness to Mr. Dickens. Twenty-five years ago, as a school-boy, I hung upon the timbers of a bridge that I might have a fair opportunity to look upon the man whose books were my delight beyond all others, and I could not have dreamed that after such a lapse of time I should have the happiness of thanking him. It is sometimes said that there is something rigid and severe in the traditional New England character, though we have been unable to see it as clearly as some of our critics outside. Whether it be so or not, I do most heartily thank him in behalf of many thousands of Yankee boys who have grown up his devoted readers and admirers, and whom he has for a generation wonderfully delighted and greatly instructed, whom he has taught to look tenderly upon the weaker side of humanity, whom he has taught that it is not unmanly to cry, and certainly not to laugh most heartily. Those who have preceded me have spoken of the debt we owe him. Newspaper men owe no small share of it. What a deal of trouble it saves us, for example, to say of an opponent that he is a Pecksniffian! You anticipate me by seeing at a glance the numberless instances in which a word from Dickens, by a sort of stenographic system of allusions and characterizations well comprehended by a universal public, saves you whole columns of writing.

states.

Out of this club, and in sympathy with the idea originating it, Press Associations have been formed in many cities and in many The Press of New Jersey has its annual dinner; the Press of Boston its annual supper; and the Press of the interior of New York enjoy the same sort of pleasure. There is the Maine Press Association; the New England Press Association; and the Western Press Association. There is also the Massachusetts Editors' and Publishers' Association. There is an organization in New Orleans called the Association of American Medical Editors. They throw their "physic to the dogs" the day before their banquet. The members of these associations have their regular meetings, where they talk over the business of their profession, eat the most recherché dinners and suppers, plan pleasant excursions to distant parts of the country, and are happier mortals.

These organizations are entirely distinct from what is known as the Associated Press. That is purely a news institution, and has been nearly a quarter of a century in existence; that deals in facts, and not in fricassee; that originated in the introduction of the magnetic telegraph as a news-carrier. The clubs are social gatherings. Besides those formed of editors and proprietors, the reporters have organized separate associations of their own, not only for mutual enjoyment, but for mutual benefit in the event of illness, or accident, or death.

None of these social circles are destined for a long life, but they are useful while they last.

The New York World.

667

CHAPTER XLII.

THE NEW YORK WORLD.

HOW IT WAS STARTED.-ITS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.-TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS LOST IN THE ENTERPRISE. ITS CHANGE OF BASE. - ITS UNION WITH THE COURIER AND ENQUIRER.-THE BOGUS PROCLAMATION. -SUSPENSION OF THE WORLD BY THE GOVERNMENT.-ITS REAPPEARANCE AND MANIFESTO. REPUDIATION OF SEYMOUR AND BLAIR. -THE LITERARY CHARACTER OF THE PAPER. ITS ENTERPRISE.-MANTON MARBLE, ITS EDITOR.

THE New York World appeared in June, 1860. Why was it started? What has it accomplished?

The Herald, Tribune, and Times were active and had large circulations. The Journal of Commerce, the Courier and Enquirer, the News, the Sun, and the Express were published every morning; the Commercial Advertiser, Evening Post, and Express appeared every evening. They represented all classes apparently; where was the place for the World?

It was at this period that the Times, Herald, and Tribune had become representative papers. The Herald had its own community of readers, and the Tribune its peculiar class; the Times represented the juste milieu. It was thought that these famous journals met the wants of the community; and if not, the remaining papers, the staid Journal of Commerce, the impulsive Courier, the semi-religious Commercial, the poetic and free-trade Post, the plebeian Sun, and the democratic News would meet any deficiency. But all the journalists of that day were in error. What was wanted was a daily religious paper-a daily moral paper-to give all the news, to shut out the wretched criminal police reports, to ignore the slander-suits and prurient divorce cases; not to shock the public with the horrid details of murders, but to give the news, such as ought to satisfy any reasonable being—indeed, it was to publish a paper conducted on high moral principles, excluding advertisements of theatres, as the Tribune for a time had done; excluding all improper matter, as the Times for a time had done; and giving all the news, as the Herald always had done.

With this high purpose in view, a large sum of money was subscribed by some of the best men in the metropolis. Alexander Cummings, formerly of the North American, and afterwards of the

Evening Bulletin, of Philadelphia, was selected as its manager. He had evidently full powers. He was editor plenipotentiary and journalist extraordinary in this new enterprise. His chief assistant was James R. Spalding, a classmate of Henry J. Raymond, and for some time a writer on the Courier and Enquirer. He was a tall, dignified, scholarly editor. Hoe made one of his fastest lightning presses for the new establishment. The splendid new building on the block with the Times was leased. One of the largest and most dangerous looking signs ever seen was erected on its roof. Park Row and Beekman Street were excavated for deep vaults for press-room and paper-room. Besides all this, the new concern unwisely became a member of the Associated Press. Editors and reporters were engaged. All the arrangements were made and completed, and one bright morning in 1866 the World made its appearance.

It was a dignified and a moral sheet. When we take the religious statistics of New York City into consideration, we find a religious community large enough to support such a paper as the World was intended to be, and to support it handsomely-magnificently; but it lacked something; it did not fill the eye of the religious portion of the public; they would look at the World, but they would not go to bed without reading the Herald, or the Times, or the Tribune. There was evidently something wrong. What was it? The World had all the telegraphic and all the shipping intelligence that the other papers had, and, with its contemporaries, it had the world, physically and mentally, before it—as full of events, as full of news, as full of meat, in a word, as an oyster. But the universal world was Pandora's box to the New York World. It refused to give any details of the evils that filled the box, and waited patiently and expensively for the appearance of that sleeping beauty, Hope, which was so snugly and cosily coiled up at the bottom.

Two hundred thousand dollars, it was maintained, were spent in the effort to make the World a success. Those who subscribed this money became disgusted. No wonder they did. Alexander Cummings became not only disgusted, but he afterwards became Governor of Wyoming Territory. The World changed hands. It then became a secular paper—a worldly World, and has not since deviated from its new path. The Herald, after this, in speaking of its three contemporaries, called them "the world, the flesh, and the devil."

masses.

No better men than the originators of this paper ever lived. They wished to inculcate sound principles and sound morals among the Their intentions were excellent, but difficult to carry out. Colonel Cummings was a journalist of great experience in Philadelphia; he was educated under the wing of the Hon. Simon Cam

Union of the World and Courier and Enquirer. 669

eron; he was shrewd, active, intelligent; every one supposed that, if any one knew the requirements of a first-class paper, he did; but he failed. The Tribune was started on high moral grounds; so was the Times; but the managers of these papers found that they could not ignore the facts of the day. They live. So it was with the World; but its financial supporters, in the fullness of their own integrity and honesty of purpose, would not consent to a change of policy in that paper for all the pecuniary gain in the world. They preferred to sink the two hundred thousand dollars. Their motto was Principles with Principal, or nothing.

On the 1st of July, 1861, the World and the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer were united, and appeared on that morning under the double name of the two papers. The Courier and Enquirer of the 27th of June, 1861, thus announced its partial disappearance from the field of journalism:

*

TO THE PUBLIC.

On Monday, July 1st, the Courier and Enquirer will change its form from folio to the more popular quarto shape. This change of issue we have long had in contemplation, having several years since advanced so far in that direction as to cause a portion of the necessary machinery for such a change to be prepared, but the advice of timid friends dissuaded us. The intended change will not affect our business relations with advertisers in any respect, except that, for the future, their favors will have the important advantage of an immensely increased circulation. Our advertising and publication office will continue, as heretofore, at No. 162 Pearl Street; and in the absence of the senior editor, General Webb, from the country, he will be represented by his son, Mr. Robert S. Webb, who has been actively connected with the Courier and Enquirer for the last twelve years, and who has justly won the reputation of being the equal of any associate editor ever employed on the Courier and Enquirer. Fashions change, and so do the tastes of the public; and in nothing has this change been more apparent than in regard to newspapers. The folio form of the Courier and Enquirer is less attractive than formerly, and a very large majority of the public demand cheap newspapers, which may be purchased at the corners of the streets and upon every thoroughfare of the country. We have long felt the necessity of conforming to this change in public taste, but, in consequence of the number of competitors already in the field, we have hesitated to make an experiment which would necessarily involve a very large outlay of capital, and greatly increased labor in the mechanical department of the paper. We are happy to announce, however, that we have completed an arrangement with the World newspaper, which, while it accomplishes in a single day all that we have desired, secures to the readers of the Courier and Enquirer, and all who favor us with their advertisements, every advantage which energy, enterprise, and an enormous outlay of capital could have promised them. In one word, from and after the 1st day of July, the Courier and Enquirer and the World become one newspaper, and will be published as the World and Courier and Enquirer in the form and on the terms and conditions of the World.

We need not dwell on the advantages of this union to the readers, and the friends and advertisers of the Courier and Enquirer. There is not one of them who would not greatly rejoice to know that we had received an addition of some THIRTY THOUSAND to our subscription list, and it certainly would not be cause of regret to them that the price of subscription to the joint paper is, at the same time, reduced more than a third. And such is precisely the intelligence which we this morning have the pleasure to communicate.

The leading feature of the Courier and Enquirer has been its identification with the commercial interests of our city, and for years past the question has been