The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-06-04 00:00:00

PRESS COMPETITION IN AMERICA.

(From "Henry J. Raymond and the Sete York Preps, for

Milt!, years:

By Augu.stris Maveyirk.)

In September, 1854, the Collins steamer Arctic was
lost at sea. Among her passengers were many pro-
minent citizens of New York ; and the news of the
dreadful shipwreck carried poignant sorrow to hun-
dreds of households. Early in October, when the
steamer had been long overdue at the port of New
York, on her return voyage from Liverpool, vague
apprehensions of disaster began to prevail; and, as
day after day passed, without tidings of the missing
vessel, wild rumours filled the air. From day today the
feeling of dread became intensified, and the excitement
hourly increased. Finally, late in the night of the 10th of
October, a rumour suddenly spread through the city to
thee ffect that the Arctic had actually been lost; that there
had been a fearful Lies of human lives; that a solitary
survivor had returned, and that this survivor had
brought authentic intelligence of the disaster. This
report reached the ear of the assistant who was then in
charge of the city department of the Times; but it
reached him at an advanced hour of the night, when all
but himself had finished their labours, and had re-
turned to their homes. Sending reporters out in all
directions, with strict charge to spare no pains in gift-
ing the rumours of the night, he strove to gather au-
thentic intelligence ; but the effort was futile. The
reporters returned with news that no trace of the sur-
vivor's movements could be found. A paragraph was
accordingly written, announcing, in guarded phrase,
that rumours of the total loss of the Arctic hail been
current during the night, lint that nothing of a definite
character was known. This announcement, placed in
• prominent part of the Times, under a displayed
heading, was all that it WAS possible to say,
' Discomfited, discouraged, and apprehensive, the
I head of the city department then departed for his
I home. But the adventures and excitements of the
I night were not destined to be so speedily finished. The
I perturbed editor, instinctively feeling that there was
something yet unrevealed, mused while dozing in a
borne-ear, at the hour of three o'clock in the morning;
and his strung nerves made him sensitive.
Scarcely had the car gone half a mile from its starts
ing•point when a stranger, hurriedly coming down a
side street, jumped upon the rear platform, evidently
in on excited state, and began a conversation with the
conductor, in the hurried and incoherent manner of a
man who had simultaneously heard startling news and
had indulged in conviviality. The disjointed sentences
which fell from the lips of this man furnished a clue
to the watchful editor in the furthest corner of the
I car, whose hearing was as painfully acute as his
professional pride was seriously wounded, for defeat
in the pursuit of news sits heavily upon the soul of
the newspaper man. The words "Arctic"—"only man
who had got in"—" Bnrns "—"St. Nicholas Hotel
"Herald Office"—" all sight"—" tired out ''—"bottle
of wine "—conveyed distinct ideas. The words formed
themselves into this shape in the mind of the weary
watcher in the corner: "A man by the name of
BUM; has escaped from the wreck of the Arctic; he
is at the St. Nicholas Hotel ; lie has pushed on
towards New York ai fast as possible after lauding ; he
has eravated to the if ratd-offiee, knowing that the
Herald i-nyt well for exclusive news; the Herald has
got his story; and there is a trick to keep it away
from all the other pap rs ! "
r Out of the car dashed the Times man; down Broads
way he tore; across the park, and up to the printings
room of the Times he rushed. There he found the
foreman placidly putting on his coat, in preparation
for departure. "Stop the press !" was the first order
uttered. "Why'" inquired the forman. "Because
the Herald has got hold of a survivor of the Arctic,
and is trying one of its old games ' • but we'll beat yet! "
A bell tinkled ; a message went down the speaking-
tube which led from composing-room to cellar; the
great press stopped. A workman in the press-room
was called up, argi these words passed:—" South, you
know the lltrald.office; they've got hold of a story
about the Arctic, which belongs to all the press, and
they mean to keep it, and cheat us out of it. I want
a copy of it. I want you to get it in any way you can;
will you do it?" "how do you know they've pot it?"
The circumstances were recited. "All right! "said
South, " get it, provided you don't ask me any
questions." The promise was given.
South departed, to return a few minutes afterwards
with the information that the Herall-office was all
alight, (the hour was four o'clock in the mi•rning;) that
the press-room was boat locked, and that all the carriers

and newsboys had been excluded. "What shall I do?"
asked South. "Get the tirst copy of the Herald that
conies off the press," was the order instantly given.
" Buy it, beg it, st.al it ! anything, en long as you get
it; and to-morrow you BIWA have fifty dollars for your
trouble." "Enough said," observed South. Tw.-nty
minutes later he appeared in the office of the Times
(then at the corner ~f Beekman and Nassau Street)
with a copy of the Herald, containing Mr. George IL
Burns's narrative of the loss of the Arctic, entire,
printed in double-leaded type.
Meanwhile the whole force of Times' compositors had
been routed out of their beds, by messengers sent in
urgent haste; each man stood at his "cane," "stick"
in hand, and when South returned, waving the next
morning's Herald triumphantly over his head, a mighty
" Hurrah t' went up, which might have been heard
for several blocks. The Herald "copy" was cut up
into four-line " takes ;" in an hour the w hole etory
wan in type; and the people of the Herald, blissfully
unconscious that a copy of that journal had been
adroitly abstracted, withheld all their city ciroilation
until nine, a.m., eroding off only the mail copies con-
taining the long-expected relation of the dreadful
disaster. .

seght o'clock in the morning the Times was pro-
curable at all the news-stands in the city, and its sub-
scribers hal received the news an hour before. IL lition
after edition of the Times was called for, and its
"floe" press run without intermission from seven
o'clock in the morning until two o'clock in the after-
mom, to supply the continual demand. Nor was this
all, for on the following day the Tined gave twelve
columns of statements of passengers who had etcaped
by boats from the sinking steamer, and one column of
editorial comment upon the disaater. Mr. Raymond,
entering fully into the spirit of the occasion, volun-
teered his services as a reporter, and for one day
actually put himself under the orders of the cOy edi-
tor who had the matter in charge. It is needless to
add that ilfr. Raymond's report was the best of all.