Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1876-09-09
From the London Times, July 25, 1875
American Journalism.
rom Our Special Correspondent

From Our Sf6cadt Correspondent
PHILADELPHIA, July 10.
l have frequently had occasion to
notice the big way in which the
Americans do things, and do not
know that it would be easy to find an
apter illustration of this than that
furnished by the Centennial News
paper Building" in the Exhibition
grounds. Here you may see any one,
or, if you like, all of the "8, l29 news
papers published regularly in the
United States" In England man
thinks it's cheap if he is given his
choice of few score of newspapers
for penny; and as our penny is here
practically represented, as rule, by
FIVE or even ten cent piece (the
smallest shoe-black, for instance, ex-
poets ten cents (5d.) for shining your
boots, a man could scarcely grumble
if asked, say a quarter of a dollar, or
one shilling, for the run of the 5000
papers. Need it be said that in the
Centennial Building he can see them
one and all for nothing? He is not
only permitted as favor to see them,
but he is invited, nay pressed, to con-
fer the favor of entering the building
and calling for what paper he likes.
AS he passes the entrance his eye is
caught by some kindly and courteous
invitation as "Come in see and paper
from your home. write your name
in the register, give your card to the
superintendent, and make yourself at
home" The home into which he is
thus cordially welcomed is, moreover,
a very pleasant one. Without any
pretensions to imposing architectural
effect, it is simple, elegant and neat.
Its length is 81 feet; its width 46 feet;
its height SO feet. It is admirably
lighted and ventilated by long rows of
windows and a large lantern roof
Open on all sides, it catches every
breath of air that ventures in this
weather to stir out, and on one side
the air is cooled by passing over the
lake, on the border of which the build
ing is pleasantly situated. 1t is, in
fact, altogether about as cool and
agreeable a place-quite apart from
its literary attractions-as visitor to
the Exhibition could wish to be offer.
ed chair in. He may at first wonder
how among 5000 papers, among them
such mighty sheets as the New York
Herald, he is to get at the small,
loved print of his home, thousands OF
miles away, it may be, over the
Rocky Mountains. But the manage
ment is SO simple that by consulting
the catalogue any one can at once
find any paper he wants. They are
pigeon-holed on shelves in the alpha
betical order of their States or Terri
tories and their towns, the names Of
which are clearly labeled on the
shelves. Thus the newspapers of Alb.
beville, in Alabama, would be found
on the first shelf, and those in Lara.
ME City, in Wyoming, on the last; but
anybody in difficulties has only to ap.
ply to one of the eight superintend-
ents, who, 'all pineapples of polite.
ness, are ready to execute his order.
as if they bodily belonged to him. Il
he would like to take notes or write
he has, in two galleries which run
round the upper part of the building
his choice of some thirty desks with
pen, ink and paper, all provided, Of
course, gratis; or if he has ladies with
him, or friends with whom he wants to
have perfectly private chat, there
are at his disposal two or three private
rooms comfortably fitted up. The
visitor is, in fact, so spoiled, that be-
fore he has been in the building five
minutes, he begins to feel himself in
jured because he cannot order at the
usual prices of the establishment an
iced cocktail and bath.
1t will not. I hope, detract from
the merits of this pleasant home and
refuge for the warm and weary read
ers Of newspapers to mention that it is
an advertisement, since no attempt is
made to disguise the fact. 1t is fact
which, however harmless in itself, is
in America too often mixed up with
lofty professions and motives, the jux-
opposition with which makes it ludi-
crous, to say nothing worse.
But the proprietors of the Centen-
NAL Newspaper Building are avowed-