The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-28 00:00:00

AN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER OFFleg'

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The giant strides which have been made in newspaper
management during the last few years are clearly illustrated
by a work just published in Philadelphia, containing a
description of the Public Ledger building in that city. In
England the major portion of newspaper offices—s 5
especially those in London—are small and mean in si/.
pearance, the rooms as a rule are ill-ventilated, and tif
question of the health of the employCs is generally ignore.'
This state of things is, we are happy to say, not so bad in
America, where noble buildings are springing up in lieu°
the wretched hovels—by courtesy called offices—where Ode
news of the four continents is compiled, put in type, a
distributed daily to millions of our fellow-subjects. TP,°
magnificent edifice which has recently been b*
in Philadelphia deserves a word of commendati°
for more than one reason. In the first Place'
it is mainly due to the incessant exertions
of Mr. G. W. Childs, a gentleman who has risen in life
by his own perseverance ; and, secondly, because it is tu.'
commencement of a new era in newspaper rnanageniel!t...7
To commence with the publication office, some idea of the
labour and skill required in the construction cf this dc'
partment may be gathered when we state that there are
nearly four thousand pieces of wood of various shapes and
sizes in the wainscoting, all fitted and joined together wit',
the nicety and exactness of the most beautiful article s'
cabinet, ware. The press-room is without an equal in the
world. It is of an L shape, 46ft. 6in. wide, and running
east and west 126 ft., while the short arm of the Lis
89ft. by 42. Nine thousand one hundred and eighty
three square feet of space are thus obtained in which t°
place the presses, folding machines, engines, boilers,
steam pumps, and all the appurtenances incident of
the department. The composing-room is one
the best-appointed and most thoroughly-finished
portions of the edifice, instead of a dingy apartment
the
forbidding aspect, located in the least desirable part tPe
building. There is a distance of 1271 t. for the compositors/
who are arranged in such a manner as not to be o'er. /
crowded, as is usual in many establishments, to the great
inconvenience and annoyance of the men. The stereotype
foundry is an apartment 18ft. by 35ft., and in order to
provide against fire, the floor is composed of iron girds'
filled in with brick arches. The editorial rooms, four ill
number, constitute a suite of magnificently-frescoed
apartments, fitted up in a drawing-room style. The Nays
and ceiling are beautifully frescoed in panels, the Pre.
vailing colour being a light green, with mouldings, cornices'
and centre-pieces of imitation walnut, with scroll-welt
running through, picked in with red, and decorated with
the tints necessary to mark the lines in the artist's design'
All the woodwork of the windows and doors is vl3i'
nut, the chandeliers and gas fixtures being bronze",,'
The furniture consists of neatly-framed photographs'
paintings, &c. ; also lounges, mirrors, carved seer::
tary, chairs, and octagon table, all of oiled walllu-A
There are also the book-publication office, the stores, an"
the general offices, all of which are fitted up with lUlr
elegance and prettiness hitherto unknown to a newspar:
staff. Combining stability and graceful architectural
lines, the building, as a whole, may be aptly terrned
huge crystal palace, uniting with the solidity of a Pile °
brown stone all the light and delicate tracery of an edifie'.
of glass. It contains 64,812 square feet of space, and is
s
lighted by 354 windows, with a total of 2,824 panes c'
glass, independently, we are told, "of the sheet glass
un
the first-story fronts on Sixth and Chestnut Streets;
About 500,0001 b. of iron, wrought and cast, were used
the construction of the building ; and some 20,000 feet°
tin (exclusive of slating) were required to cover the flat
portion of the roofs alone. In order to distribute Ps
to
the various rooms in the erection, no less tl'U'a-
-6,500ft. of pipes were brought into requisition ;
an
15,3391 t. of tube were used in tha heating-041
and coils required to distribute warmth over such a as
%
amount of space. Some idea of the size of the structure
may be gathered when it is understood that to P`ls
around the several apartments above the pavement
involves a journey of 1,798 yards, or a trifle over a a"„'
and that upwards of 40,000 days' work was performed erl
the building.
Having given a brief description of this extensiviie
erection, it may be interesting to state a few facts wit
regard to the life of Mr. Childs. He was born in tine
city of Baltimore, about the year 1828. When 14 her
went to Philadelphia and commenced his working cares
as a shopboy in a bookstore. There he stayed four year.'
and soon after, whilst yet a boy, he b •gan business on Pt_
own account in a little nook of an office in one end of the
pile of Ledger buildings, on the spot now occupied by tbe
desk of his cashier. This was in the year 1848, and frcetil
that time he continued to rise until 1864, when the ay
dream of his boyhood—that he would one day b ee"'
the proprietor of the Ledger became a realitPr
Mr. Childs drinks no strong liquors —not even tea
coffee—and neither smokes nor chews tobacco. For twelse_
years of his life he travelled sixty miles a day to and froai
business, and never lost a day on account of bad weather'
rising in winter as well as summer before five o'clock la
the morning. During all his life he has been accustone
to devote not less than 10 per cent. of his income, however
0
large, to charitable objects. Such are a few incidents I,
the life of a man whose name will go down to posterity
a benefactor not only to his native city, but to his country
and the whole world.

An inquiry into the state of the river Mersey
its tributaries was opened in Manchester on Monday bs t"-
Rivers Pollution Commissioners.
THE GREAT CENTRAL GAS COMPANY.-She
select committee of the House of Commons appointed.%
inquire into the various bills affecting the gas conillania.es
of the metropolis, have further considered the Gre"
Central Gas Bill. They agreed that the preamble of OS
bill had not been proved, and to make a special report t°
the House.
MURDER BY A YOUNG LADY. —A telegram fro 11:
Baltimore, dated the 12th instant, says • " On Saturds7
evening, at Jarretsville, Harford county, Maryland, MI
Cairnes shot and killed Nicholas M'Comas. .14-b„°:
twenty persons were seated on the porch of the vin3:sl
41
hotel, when Miss Cairnes suddenly appeared, and a„rii
a pistol, and fired three shots at M•comas.
alleged cause of the murder was seduction. to
Cairnes had previously brought a suit against g`C°l`.; c
for breach of promise of marriage. Both parties We'
highly respectable."
THE SUN.—There are at present two clusters
large spots passing towards the western limb of the °ft.;
The largest consists of three spots. The diameter a
group, inclusive of the deep dark penumbra, which nisi
„et
the whole appear almost as if it were ore large spot, is e
least three times the diameter of our globe. The two la
Iric
g
spots are jagged round the edges, and of no regu'ar
The other group, about some 24,000 miles distant fiber -
former, consists of four smaller well-defined spots. rf
two groups will in a few days become smaller in ale"

ante as they pass off on the western side.
STRANGE CASE OF SMASIIING.—The Tunbridge
'magistrates have committed a man named Gordon, sttl'gt
himself to be a naval cook of Greenwich, to take his "0
at the sessions on two charges of passing counterfeit O. lb
to tradespeople of the town. The novel way in whic •
he is alleged to have disposed of one halfcrown was 01)%
Ken
what remarkable. Superintendent Dance, of the
county constabulary, the dread of prizefighters And.
:g
horse-sneakers, saw him go into a shop, and, susPectl-ri,
him, tried the halfcrown he had passed to the shopw°lne
and finding it to be a bad one detained him. Ntif•
Dance was searching him the shopwoman laid the 05p,
crown on the counter, and the prisoner, snatching it, 'leo
it is said, instantly swallowed it. For a week he has r'eco
carefully and strictly watched, but he has not yet 1)314
with the coin.

, THE PUBLIC HEALTH. —The period:cAl rectal-
the Registrar-General is of a satisfactory character. hill
,
week the deaths in the fourteen principal towns of tel
United Kingdom skewed a decline 446 upon the it)rtf
l ious seven clays, and the annual rate of mortality fell'. g
24 per 1,000 persons living ; whereas in the five prece6jit(
weeks it had ranged between 27 and 30. The deatlrilti,
in these towns was considerably lower than in any Previfo
week this year. The rate of mortality in London Wg;
psr 1,000 ; in Birmingham it was as low as I-6, aisil;", ht
Glasgow as high as 37. In the metropolis 2,208 t
and 1,377 deaths were registered. The latter fe1156,10°1
of the estimated number by 113, and were less 2
by ° "eAts
the deaths recorded in the previous week. Ibe
13e"- fratvee 0
temperature wa above the average. het;
the highest days and the lowest night temp
_e „atur°
rm,o, range of 33'4 clolrM