The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-11-07
HIo1arslr Ee1EspnRars.

indispe pensable part OF the meal, stops
to reflect what it Is and how it is
:sado. BE feels his paper /. n mat ter
or necessity, while he yet tlooks upan
it as o matter OF course; and the con
slant, steady and nnyielding strain
upon the body, brain and pocket o!
ITS producer never once enters into
his calculation. IS
And this necessity for newspapers
has been of growth so gradual that
the public has failed to appreciate
the vast increase in the machinery of
"paper-mnking" TO satisfy the greatly
increased demand. Forty years ago,
the newspaper that to-day is as neces-
safy as the mornings washing or the
breakfast of every town man, was q
luxury indulged in by the few. The
/! journal itself was sheet the size of
ket-handkerchief, its news was
not quite month old, and its typo
graphical beauty brought back the
early days when ''the Devil first
taught the art to Doctor Faustus, "
or, Mt least, when Benjamin Franklin
1aborious worked his one man power
engine.
Fifty years ago. the newspaper
man was his own editor, type-setter,
pressman, Office boy, proof-readcr.
foreman, reporter, book-keeper and
correspondent. Except in the latter
case-which is still rigidly adhered
to in many. offices-everything is Mt
terly changed. Tho corps of a great
daily, in q large city, is as thorough
~ organized and about rs numerous
as regiment in the field. Euch edi-
tor, reporter, critic and writer in
every branch, has his own clearly de-
fined duties; and he must perform
these with unfailing promptitude and
precision. Agenernl controlling spirit
combines these varying masses and
fuses them into the amalgam, we ac-
cept as SO satisfactory and think so
simple.
The mechanical part, too, that puts
this material into form, bears little
trace OF the parent system. The
magic wand of progress has waved
over the printing press, and its hun
dred wheels and bands and cylinders
fly before the heath of steam in a
way that would cause Guttenburg
to grow yellow with astonishment.
In ''the good old times" the pay
ment for q paper was, as BuNy Bot
tom hath it, "Bless us, thing of
naught!" The editor of all work
took payment (when he could get it)
in kind. He would receive chickens,
eggs, cabbages and garden sass, over
his counter in exchange for the lumi-
nary he handed across it. Cord
wood, peanuts and knit socks were
currency to him; and in many cases
he had to wait for these till they
either grew or were made to order.
lake the system of great daily of
the present, with its news from every
quarter--its gossip from Pekin, it's
accurate history of the row in the
back alley, its perfect biography of
the "wickedest man" in its city; the
reliable quotations of sale five mi
nutes before in Liverpool, and it's
thoughtful leaders upon vital ques-
tions of the hour.
what is it but map of busy life
its fluctuations and its vast con-
GERMS"
And then reflect upon the great
power of such a journal, conducted
on principles of perfect fairness and
as perfect fearlessness. The great
metropolitan journals of New York
are very kings among their people;
and the tribute they demand is paid
promptly and ungrudgingly. For
the city man knows the value of his
paper, its great power to aid him and
to return every dollar he pays it n
hundred-fold. He knows it Is COM
plicated machine that eats up money
with insatiate NAV; and he willingly
gives his mite-among ten thousand
that it may lack no sustenance and
keep its vigor and its power to help
him unimpaired. But even the CITY
man who advertises by the $4,000,
does not know all the thousand leaks
by which the means of q great daily
trlckle off. How singular will it sound
to our readers then, if we tell them
that paper like the Herald costs
dally-for composition, paper, tele-
grams, pay of workmen, editors, cor
respondentsand eporters-from four
thousand to .Jice thousand dollars?
And this is the great secret of the
wonderful success of such paper-tho
great secret of its power-that it has
the circulation to demand this great
daily outlay. With that circulation.
and with that influence, such journal