Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-12-09
Horace Greeley and His Paper-Recollec-
tiona OF q Busy Life.

GranQ MarSn0l OF the paIdue, uleu NV
long afterward of exposure to its in.
clemencies. On that leaden, funeral
morning, the most inhospital of the year,
| issued the first number Of the New
York Tribune. 1t was a small sheet,
for it was to be retailed for cent, and
not much of newspaper could be
afforded for that price, even IN
those specie.paying times. l had
been incited to this enterprise
by several Whig friends, who
deemed cheap daily, addressed
more especially to the laboring class,
eminently needed in our city, where the
only two cheap journals then and still
existing-the Sun and Herald-were in
decided, though unavoided, and there
fore more effective, sympathy and afili'
alton with the Democratic party Two
or three had promised pecuniary aid ifit
should be needed; only one (Mr. James
Coggeshall, long since deceased), ever
made good that promise, by loaning me
$1,000, which was duly and gratefully
repaid, principal and interest l pre-.
sumo others would have helped me had
| asked it; but never did. Mr.. Dudley
S. Gregory, who had voluntarily loaned
me $1,000 to sustain the Neio Yorker in
TIE very darkest hour of my fortunes, in
1887, and whom had but recently re-
paid, was among my most trusted friends
in the outset of my new enterprise, alsoi
but / was able to prosecute it without
taxing U no longer needed to test his
generosity.
presume the new journals lin Eng
lish) since started in this city number
not less than one hundred, whereof barely
two-the Times and the WOrld-ean be
fairly said to be still living; and the
World is a mausoleum wherein the re-
mains of the Erening Star, the american
and the Courier and Enquirer, he in
urned; these having long ago swallowed
sundry of their predecessors. Yet sew
eral Of those which have meantime lived
their little hour and passed away, were
conducted by men of decided ability and
ripe experience, and were backed by a
pecuniary capital at least twenty times
createn than the fearfully inadequate
sum whereon ! started the Tribune.
On the intellectual side, my venture
was not so rash as it seemed. My own
fifteen years devotion to newspaper
making, in all its phases, was worth far
more than will be generally supposed;
and had already secured first assistant
in Mr.. Henry j. Raymond. who-having
for two years, while in college at Bur-
lington, Vt, been valued contributor
to the literary side of the New Yorker
had lied to the city directly upon gradu-
ating, late in 1910, and gladly accepted
my offer to hire him at So per week until
he could do better. | had not much for
him to do till the Tribune was started; f;
then | had enough and | never found
another person, barely of age and just
from his studies, who evinced SO
much and so versatile ability in journal
ism as he did. Adler and stronger men
I. may have met; a cleverer, reader,
more generally efficient journalist |
never saw. He remained with me eight
years, if my memory serves, and is the
only assistant with whom | ever felt re-
ouired to demonstrate for doing more
than any human brain and frame could
be expected long to endure. His salary
was, of course, gradually increased from
time to time but his services were more
valuable in proportion to their cost than
those of any one else who ever worked
on the Tribune
Mr. George NJ. Snow, friend of my
own age, who had had considerable
mercantile experience, took charge of
the financial and Wall street department
(then far less important than it now is),
and retained it for more than twenty two
years; becoming ultimately a heavy
stockhoder in and trustee of the con-
Germ resigning his trust only when (in
1861 he departed for Europe in i'll
health; returning but to die two years
later. A large majority of those who
aided in preparing or issuing the first
number had preceded or have followed
Mr.. Snow to the silent land; but two
remain, and are now foreman and engi'
neer respectively in the printing depart
ment-both stockholders and trustees.
Others, doubtless, survive who we're With
us then, but have long since drifted away
to the West, to the Pacific slope, or into
some other employment, and the places
that once knew them know them no more.
Twenty-six years witness many changes,
especially in city like ours, position
like mine; and | believe that the only
man who was editor of New York daily
before me, and who still remains such,
is Nr. James Gordon Bennett, of the
Herald.
The Tribune as it first appeared, was
but the germ of what | sought to make it.
No Journal sold for a cent could ever be
much more than dry summary of the
most important or the most interesting
occurrences of the day; and such is not
a newspaper, in the higher sense of the
term. We need to know not only what
is done, but what is purposed aud said,
by those who sway the destinies ofStates
and realms; and, to this end, the prompt
perusal Of the manifestoes of monarchs,
presidents, ministers, legislators, ETC., is
indispensable.
The Tribune, for example, now pays
more than 100000 per annum, for in
tellectual labor (reporting included) IN
and about its office, and 100000 more
for correspondence and telegraphing-ln in
other words, for collecting and tranSmit-
ting news. And while its income has
been largely increased from year to year,
its expenses have inevitably been sweled
even more rapidly; so that, at the close
Of 1866, in which its receipts had been |
very nearly equal in amount, leaving no
profit beyond fair rent for the premises
il owned and occupied. And yet
its stockholders we're satisfied that
they had done a good business -
that the increase in iha patronage and !
value Of the establishment amounted TO
a fair interest on their Investment and |
might Wi be accepted in lieu Of a divl |
denA In the good time coming, with |
nhc.har nnnnr and les rTnrhlianf |