The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-15

brilliantly, with every prospect OF business
prosperity. seems to be realized. The linger-
ing winter, which has been more severe than
we have known for many years, has at last
yielded to the gentle influences of nature. and
even the long, bleak and bitter weeks which
have postponed so many enterprises, the
natural operations of business, commerce and
agriculture, give the spring unusual activity
As we are late in everything, as We have been
debarred from many duties by the snow, the
ice and the rain, now that there is seemingly
gain what we have lost
In estimating the prospects Of the spring
the surest criterion is that which we ind IN our
own experience. The HERALD is SO repre-
sentative in its character that its col
umns have become the mirror Of each
days business, information and de-
sires. The true journal is that which
prints all the news and all the advertise
ments. Custom has made the advertise
ment, through the universal publicity Of the
leading newspapers, the medium OF communi-
cation between man and man. There is
nothing less interesting to the ordinary reader
than advertisements which concern other
people. There is nothing more interesting to
him than those which concern himself. What
affects one class of readers to-day will interest
another class tomorrow so that the interest
changes from day to day and never dies.
Consequently the newspaper which would
claim to be leading, without publishing the
necessary advertisements Of daily life would
be like the man who would insist upon cut
ting off his right leg because he preferred to
use the left one. There are many able jour
not print advertisements some be-
cause they do not want them; others
for more suggestive reasons. Our wish
is that every journal published in New
York accepting advertisements would contain
as many as it could accommodate We have
observed that in journalism, like oil other
callings, the more competition in business
the more prosperous business becomes. 1t
would be better for the HERALD, even consd-
ering the point from our own selfish interest,
if there were fifty journals in this city, each
crammed full with advertisements.
But there is no controlling public taste.
The common sense of the multitude arrives at
just conclusions quicker than the genius of
its most accomplished individual member In
the growth of our journalism it has come to
be believed by the majority of the people that
the HERALD is the one newspaper which all
classes must seek, not only when they wish to
read the news, but when they have an errand
with the public. Consequently there is no
better criterion, no more accurate barometer
pages OF the HERALD. Yesterday, for instance,
we published o quadruple sheet, containing
sixty-three columns of advertisements.
We printed circulation OF one hundred
and sixty thousand copies. This is only
al ordinary transcript of our daily business.
Our circulation did not exceed the average
and our business merely responded to the
prosperity of the time-a prosperity that will
no doubt increase until We have eighty col
umns Of advertisements and quintuple sheets.
Of course newspapers will more or less
answer to special influences. A scandal case,
peculiar sensation, certain aptness in edi-
torial power or specialties in news topics will,
from time to time, give journals valuable
prominence. But when this influence dies
away the prosperity which results from it dies
with it. We, of course, like our contempt
raries, feel these influences, but generally
speaking-aud this is the result of long expe-
rience and has been observed by us season
after season-the advertising columns of the
HERALD and our circulation represent the
business prosperity of the hour and fre not
really affected by any other cause. Accord
ipgly we congratulate our readers by present
ing them the evidence that the prospects of
the spring are better than they have been
since the end of the long, dead winter, and the
panic which threw over our business life the
Arctic shadows of depression and despair. The
prosperity in which the HERALD rejoices is not
SIMPLY our own, but that of the people; for so
intimately are we connected in our social re-
lations that what benefits the richest mer-
chant in New York is an advantage to the
poorest workman who serves him. In other
words, prosperity is like the sunshine, which
falls upon the lofty and the lowly, the rich
and the poor, and bahes the world in uni
versal glow.
There is not an industry which does not
show evidences of activity. The farmer be-
gins to arrange his crops and to rejoice in the
torrents that come sweeping from the hill
sides bearing their fertilizing volume The
merchant Is busy receiving and fulfilling
orders from ell parts of the country. Our
railroads are taxed to carry the freghts that
have been accommodating for weeks past A
walk up Broadway or through some of the
business streets of the lower part of the city
Will show the plethora Of industry and
enterprise Instead of the silent, al
most abandoned, highway which might