New-York tribune., 1877-06-02
A LONG SERVICE.

In The ErDreSS OF last evening, aueT IL
wears of service upon that journal, Mr. ErastlS
Brooks makes his valedictory address to us
readers. Mr.. Brooks remarks with COM
placency certainly quite pardonable that during
his prolonged career as a New York Journalist
112 daily journals have appeared In this city
and have disappeared. There are not so many
regular journals, he says, In New YORK as
there were % years ago; and he ventures the
opinion that there will not be as many news
papers published here % years hence as there
are now. His theory is that (within probable
limits) the fewer newspapers there are, the
better and cheaper they will be. 1t has been
Mr.. Brooks's fortune to see them grow
fewer. better, and cheaper, and so far his
theory is sustained by experience. The
truth is. the wel-cOnducted journal OF
to-day was entirely unknown when, in 1886,
Mr.. Brooks began his long professional ca
reer There was no electric telegraph. There
was no great system of connecting railways.
Ocean steam navigation was in its infancy
The literary features of newspapers might be
clever, but they were limited. No New York
journal had anything like a well organized
editorial staff. None of them discussed pubic
affairs promptly and cOmprehenslyely. The
methods of obtaining early intelligence were
resorted to with spirit, but compared with
those now in vogue they were clumsy and
nadeQuate Most of the important journals
were the organs of party, and carried on
partisan warfare without too much regard for
truth or for deccncy, while every editor de-
voted generous portion of the space at his
command to the discussion of his personal
grievances and to coarse and yirulent attacks
upon his rivals in business. The public made
no distinction between the newspaper and the
man who managed it. Mr.. Bennett was The
HcraH Mr.. Stone was The Commercial Adrer-
tiser. Col. Webb was The Courier and En-
q,,irer, Mr. Bryant, or in his absence Mr..
Leggett, was The EUeRiRg Post. One result OF
this was a still beginning, never ending series
of personal quarrels III which the public was
supposed to be interested, and perhaps was so
The taste of these times was not specially good,
and Mr. Dickens's caricatures of Mr.. jefferson
Brick and Col. Diver, though little Iil-na-
tured, Were not altogether without yeTislmll-
tudc
Mr.. Brooks has lived to see this state of the
press pretty nearly obsolete, and to help him
self to make it so. Belonging. almost to past
generation of journalists, he has ably accom-
m0dated himself to present pecullartles and
acouirements, and, while intelligence from all
sources has almost immeasurably increased IN
bulk and variety, he has, without much en-
largement of the proportions of his Sheet
managed to give daily good compendium OF
current news. He has also taken pains to fur
nsh his readers with fair abIidgment OF
the discussions in the morning newspapers.
Published at a busy period Of the day, when
men, as a matter of business are anxious for
the freshest intelligence, with much necessarily
not printed in the morning issues, The Eren-
ina Express has naturally been in demand not
ony down town but in the uptown private
houses. Nor has Mr.. Brooks, though his po-
litical procliyties have been well marked,
made them so aggressive as TO repel readers
of other parties. He consequently retires,
after so many years OF editorial work, without
having created many enemies either among
editors, politicians, or the people generally.
He does so with the kind wishes of the great
majority, aud with the good will of all whose
good will is worth having. He has earned the
privilege of retirement, and We trust its
pleasures will not escape him.