The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-03

Mr. Benefits reputation as o light lance among
the poetry and the love stories which lowed nom
MS pen during his leisure hours. BY these exer-
OF twelve dollars week, and was an object Of ad.
mlratlon ana envy 10 other reporters who had
Fired by q great idea, he returned to New York
and urged upon General Webb, the proprietor OF
the I,sQ4frer, the policy Of uniting it with the
the measure was actually carried These were the
ya!my days OF that paper. Its circulation was con-
which it repressn.ed boasted over their sani.
Cruz that 1t printed 1850 copies daily. And its
advertising amounted to SIS day ON the average
NAMED with the paper hobnobbing with Senators
and on the friendllest terms with Van buren,. The
no writer, but only brilliant manager OF journal
ISM This is great mistake. During these three
years criticize after article brilliant witty poured
from his pen, and he was accepted a. one or the
brght particular stars Of what was called Journal
Ian IN those .days. Nay, more he caused the great
@ildsvsd fss win nnd, without douDs s that hat
latt0n. When General Webb resolved to desert
General Jackson, and to espouse the cause OF
Nicholas Biddls, this man with . nun heart again
not write against his convictions. BENNETT per-
haps, he'd some hopes that his Senatorial friends
he started the oos paper devoted eve e t to tSs
interests Of General Jackson and Martin Van buren,,
sSs HIM s s nss Ia a
his paper to be altogether the slave or party IL
proved by his introductory editorial. In which
AK no man the liberty Of doing aO os
me TIE n sss Rap S%
sSsg :Ssnsssss s 5
Sr sS y the party put
shaped itself In Benefits mind He refused TO be
party hack and yet had not thought Of going to|
They admitted his services they feared his biting
sarcasm, but they would not help hun So they let
yet be Independent oft. BE had some money len
out Of the savings Of the three years on the Courier
independent stand point advocate the measures s
a' he S e to sEn to %
Buren, for loan Of 81 500 for two years. "Help me
to he SAID ad the shall be on self
This made Bennett almost despair i He S'S had
bear to. be rejected BY them in this fashion, on
John Mumford he knew. had been helped
refused him. man who had done ten emu ti snsy
as much for them, paltry $500. 1t was gan ana
wormwood. He wrote to friend In the following
the way that have been treated" But this was
u
been completed. He had cut loose from party dis
cipline, and he resolved to cut loose nom party
Of the began To assume s 1ee9 sase ana
Conference He resolved to make q paper that
should have no master but the public, and should
York in the winter OF 1884, after battling with his
rsnnsylvanfan for nearly two years, and expend-
Ing every cent he had In the world.
ON the 9th OF May, 1885, Bennett, with the aid of
two young printers, published the first number or
n. in al CTR
whose sole furniture was counter, which served
as desk, consisting Of plank. stretched across
on which sat Mr.. Bennett now thirty Eight years OF
age. writing busily and selling newspapers taking
tlsers who had not the faculty OF composition. But
sturdy battsr with the world stood Success, in.
eyes to see her radiant form NJ nor a1 ears qs'- to
hear the musical rustling Of her wings. The paper
M shoqt p sna
sasiabis artieie It SOLD wen from enc rsi day,
m stu The hsS rs St the 's papss
rendered him absolutely dependent upon
his and yet he dared or not
square OF sixteen lines. SO he had to cut down
the expenses to minimum. He did every
RED the paper to the few subscribers II pos
ssssed in the morning, he wrote the editorials
done. He sat behind his barrels and his plank, l.
paper he newer looked up but s s iaS put
Snss q e 5S sS SS e. Ts1iV 1s
ing the business hours he was in the cellar engaged
In ordinary routine OF editorial work. About one
O'Clock, having provided abundant copy FOR the +
compositors, he sailed forth into Wall street to
compile stock tables and to get matter for spicy .
paragraphs. From four to six he was at his ofice
again, winding up the business OF the day. In the
n n Or
ball or public meeting, which were faithfully written
up and banded TO the printers before he went to
his world upon his own brave shoulders.
The stock lists and the money article were great
sensation, and gave the little HERALD Kind Of
Just what they wanted to know, but what other
Journal had thought Of telling them. At the end OF
the third month the receipts greater than the
Expenditures. But during the fourth month the !
printing office was burned down, and the printers,
his partners, were quite discouraged and aban-
doned the enterprise But not Bennett He felt /
that he had touched bottom, and that the worst |
was for him. He raked the HERALD out Of the
Fortune was now tired ofpersecuting the brave man,
and turned In his favor. Four months after the +
street and ali the adjacent business streets low in
one common ruin. And here Bennett at once
showed the world what he knew about Journalism.
He engaged every reporter whom he could come
across (and there were not many III those days.,
and he spent half the day himself in the ruins note
during the other half lie spread before the public
mental bird's-eye view OF the whole scene, with
such happy descriptions and In such easy language
that 1t was a grand success. He went to the ex-
pense OF getting a woodcut of the burning Ex-
change, and presented map OF the burned dis
trict, which made sensation. 1t is simple JUS
tice to say that the spirit and enterprise
displayed upon that occasion has always continued
to mark Mr.. Benefits paper. This dashing jour-
nalism opened commercial eyes to the value Of the
HERALD as an advertising medium, and DIR. Bran
dreth entered into contract with the paper which
made 1t paying concern. Bennett In the fifteenth
month, ventured to raise the price to two cents.
That day the HERALD took its place In the Journal
ism Of the country, and has kept 1t steadily. In|
the editorial which he wrote announcing the
increase Of price. he skctched the course
which he intended to pursue and the ex-
penses he was going to incur. People doubted
then, but every part Of the programme was car
ried out to the letter. Finding the ordinary course
Of collecting and transmitting news too slow he
organized force OF carrier pigeons and stan OIL
pony expresses to beat the malls. SO, when the
Mexican war broke out, the HERALD was able to|
give the news OF battles, the lists OF killed and
wounded and all the points OF the campaign not
only before other papers, but before the official &C
counts had been received In Washington. This
naturally gave to the DaDer enormous imDetug.