The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-03-24
How a Newspaper Secured "Beat.

To correspondent of the Indianapo-
lis Journal Mr.. Henry L. Stephens has
told the following story: 1t was about
1850. The Illustrated Netrs, published
by Demorest, and Frank Leslie's luNs-
trated Newspaper had been fighting for
months over Sickles' trial and the John
Brown trial and execution; and it was
about nip and tuck, for the Nea0s had
Mast. Then came the Heenan-Sayers
prize fight, in England. 1t was a mortal
struggle between the two papers. Both
sent artists to England.
About the time the fight was to come
off, and week or two before we could
possibly hear of it, for there was no
cable then, the Illustrated Netos came
out with the announcement that they
had sent Mr.. Thomas Mast to England
to draw a picture of the fight, and Mr..
Anthony to engrave it on wood on the
Vanderbilt while coming home, and
that it would be published on the very
day Of the steamers arrival. Something
must be done to save US from wreck.
Next morning "the governor (Mr.
Leslie) called me to a vacant room up
stairs, and locked the door as | went in.
"We must have picture of the fight" {"
said he, "or this" And he laid his
hand on a great block on the table,
large enough for four-page picture.
Said he: "Take this room. Keep it
locked. Admit nobody but me and the
two or three other artists that you will
need, and compel US to give certain
specified signal. We must knock the
Ne,ps out of time"
He told me to call for anything or any
man wanted. sent for Perkins, who
was English. who knew the low coun-
try around Fransborough. Leslie, who
was English too, thought the light would
come off on level ground with a back
ground of English farms. Perkins struck
the ring and laid out a vague perspec-
tive with English trees and hedge-rows.
Then we sent down to "The Pewter
Mug" for Brown to represent Heenan.
Brown was strapper, standing at least
six feet three inches and weighing not
less than two hundred pounds. We got
Thad. Glover to do Sayers. He was a
very lively and pretty sparrer. They
went at it hammer and tongs. as l
waited, crayon in hand, to catch their
attitude when it was right. I can see
them now skittering and hopping around
the little room, driving one another into
corner, and getting one another's heads
in chancery, and finally, when Heenan-
Brown gave Sayers-Glover vicious
side winder on the ear, taking pains not
to hit him though, the governor cried
"stop!" and they posed in that attitude,
and / caught it on paper. Then the
pugilists went out ana took drink. l
drew the faces of Heenan and Sayers on
the bodies; then I put lot of figures
and heads, and then sent for Violin, an
Englishman, and he put in dozen OF so
typical English heads, with English
hats, etc., and then I sent for Twaites,
and he added a great lot of English
spectators. I took it then and finished
it up, and then the block was sawed into
sixty pieces and divided among sixty
artists to be engraved. About half of
it was sent to Philadelphia and Boston.
Of course they didn't recognize their
own work when the paper was out.
Then the whole was electrotyped, and
an immense edition of the paper was
printed on one side, ready for the type
on the other.
When we came to write out the ac-
count of the fight we made it very
vague, making much of the preliml-
naries already known here, with biogra-
phies of the men, etc. Everything was
ready. One morning came down town
and found the streets flooded with
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. It
seemed to ME there were millions of
copies. Inever saw so many papers in
my life. 1t was the, biggest success
there ever was. The Nea0S. with Nast's
picture, was not out till six hours after
ward, and then the whole picture made
only two pages and looked mean enough
by the side of our four-page cut. And
the best of it was that we had ten times
as much landscape and perspective as
Mast, his picture showing nothing but
conventional tree tops over the heads OF
the spectators, while we had miles and
miles of mead and woodland.
Leslie was delighted. I never saw
him ii such happy frame of mind: He
must have made thousands of dollars
that week. What's the sense OF de.
no,lncing such pictures as bogus" said
! he, "wlen we have ten times rs good 0
picture as that, taken on the spot?" The
beauty of it was that by accident We
placed the men right-Heenan's back tc
| the sun, as il actually was in the tight
though of course we couldn't know he
had won the toss. This puzzled ever
those who knew we must have made
the picture here, and everybody was
| beWildered.