The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1866-05-03
Kew York Newspapers twenty-five
Years Ago.
tFrom the New York Evening Post,


tFrom the New York Evening Post,
April l0.l
The New York Tribune to-day enters
upon its twenty-sixth year. The event is
commemorated by general enlargement
and Improvement of that sheet. and to-
night the association of its owners cele-
brate the completion of it's first quarter OF
century ny dinner at Delmonico's. -
The Tribune was started by Mr.. Greeley
on the 10Th of April, lS4t-the day of Pres
Ident HarrisOn'S funeral. It's capital was
but one thousand dollars, thesmallest sum
nrohahly. upon which any prosperona aai.
ly journal was ever begun. This pitiful
amount, besides, was borrowed money
and SO dismal was the prospect of success
twenty-five years ago that the editor OF
| the Tribune has since frankly avowed that
he would not have started the paper but
| for the tact his prospectus was issued before
| the death ofGeneral Harrison. The sue
| cess which has since attended the Tribune
is the Just reward of the enterprise and in.
dustry with which it h,s been conducted
and although in common with many Others
we have been compelled to differ from
many OF the positions assumed i'm its edit.
orial columns, it cannot he forgotten that
the paper has been bold champion OF
rec labor i'm the days when no inconsder-
fable degree of courage was reouiroi s,i
the expression of unpopular opinions.
The condition ofSew York Journalism'n
quarter OF century ago forms so striking
contrast with the advantages ofthe pres
ent that ii is curious to recall some of the
early memories. Then, there was ~ tele-
graphs nor fast ocean steamers, no "Asso-
ciated Press" to systematize the collection
of News, no lightning" presses, no
schemes for laying cables under the sea,
no contrivances for saving labor. Tn the
spring Of 1871, when the first number of the
Tribune appearedit came into direct rival
ry with the Herald. which was then a Young
paper, while tine oldest journals in the city
were the Evening Post, the Commercial
Advertiser, the Journal of Commerce and
the Courier and Enquirer Levi D. Slamm
published the Plebian, the Sun was con-
Quoted by Moses Y. Beach, and the pres
ent editor of the Times was sub-editor
with Mr.. Greeley.
The World was not thought of, and the
Times did not appear until the Tribune
was ten years old.
In those days pony expresses were run
on election nights, and in times Of great
excitement the Herald and the Tribune
raced locomotive engines against each 9th
er in order to get the earliest news on one
occasion, we remember the sharp reporter
engaged for the Tribune "appropriating''
an engine which was waiting: under steam
for the use of the opposition agent, and so
beating the Herald at it's game. Such
passages as this gave zest to the pursuit of
intelligence, and sometimes provoked ac-
rimonious discussions between tho rival
sheets. Nor was the competition confined
to enterprises like these.
For want OF the borndless facilities now
afforded by the organized enterprises of
the newspaper offices, there were curious
experiments i'm unexpected directions :
type was set on board of the North river
steamboats, by corps of printers, who had
a speech ready for the press in New York,
eight hours after its delivery in Albany !;
-PiSCohss tTdiHeu, Ilew
from Halifax or Boston with the latest
news tucked under its wings, and deliver
ed their charge to their trainer in his room
near Wall street; an adventurous person,
known at the time by the mysterious title
of "the man in glazed cap" made voy-
age across the Atlantic in common pilot
boat twenty years ago, secretly and with
only three or four companions, in the in
terest OF two or three journals which de-
termined to "beat" tho others in their ar
rangements for obtaining early news from
abroad. The hero of this exploit is now
foreman of one of the leading daily Jour-
nails Of this city. He failed in his enter
prise then, but through no fault of his.
In those days, also, the battle with slave
ry was fought bitterly. The "Union-sav-
ers" at the North bowed down TO the south
ern Shareholders, and when nine years had
passed over the Tribune, the compromise
Of 1850 was efiected-not without the stren-