Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-03-26
How a Newspaper Secured a s'Beat. u


How Newspaper Secured BEAT"
To correspondent of the indianapolis
".Journal." Mr.. Henry L. Stephens has
told the following story. ut was about
1860. The .sIllustrated News published
by Demorest, and Frank I4eslie's Illus
trated Newspaper" had lsen fighting for
several months over Sickle's trial and the
John Brown trial and execution; and it
was about nip and tuck, for the News"
had Mast. Then came the Heenan- Sayers
prize fight, in England. It was 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 News came Out
with the announcement that they had sen!
Mr.. Thomas Mast to England to draw 4
picture of the hight and Mr.. Anthony t.
engrave it on wood, on the steamFl
while coming home, and hat 1T would ~
published on the very day OF the steamer's
arrival. Something must W doue to saw
us from VIZ: OK. Next mDrning the gov
ernor' (Mr. Lrsliel called me to . vacant
room up stairs, and locked the door as
went in We must havea picture OF. the
fight said he, 'on this, aud he laid his
hand on great block on tAe table large
enough for four page pic nle SAD ne
Take this rom. Keep it loci ed Adm!
nobody but me aud the two or three other
artists that you will need, and compel u
to give certain specified 81 quad. We mus
knock the News IS VI of time
s.He told me to call for anythin OR any
man [ wanted. l sent for Perkins. who
was English, and who knew th- low coun,
try around Farnsborough Leslie, who
was English too. thought the fight would
come off on level ground with back
ground of English farms. Perkins was
sworn on the horns Of Highgate, and then
he struck the ring and laid out a vague
perspective with English trees and hedge
rows. q .sNs2
sThen we sent down to "The Pewter
Mug'' for Brown to represent Keenan,
Brown was strapper, standing at least
six feet three inches and weighing not less
! than two hundred pounds. We got Thad.
| Glover to be Sayers. He was lively and
pretty sparrer. They went at it hammer
l and tongs, as waited, crayon in hand, t.
| catch their attitude when it was right.
can see them now Suffering and hopping
around the little room. driving one anoth-
| er into corner, and getting one anOther's
| heads in chancery, aud finally, when Hee
nan-Brown gave Sayers-GlOver a vicious
side wlnder on the ear, taking pains not te
hit him though, the governor cried stop!
and they poised in that attitude. and
caught it on paper. Then the pugilists
| went out and took drink. l drew the
faces of Heenan and Sayers on the bodies
then put q lot of Figures and hes DIS, and
fhon cont for WnI1ir EnnliQhman Qn6
he put in dozen or so typical English
heads, with English hats, ETC.; and then
sent for Twaites, and he added great lot
of English spectators. / took it then and
| finished it up, and the the block was saw.
ed into sixty pieces, and divided among
sixty artists to be engraved About hall
of it was sent to Philadelphia and Boston
OF course, they didn't recognize their OWE
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 an accOun,
of the fight we made it very vague, max
ing much of the preliminaries already
known here, with biographies Of the men
etc. Everything was ready. One morn.
ing 1 came down town and found the
| streets flooded with Frank Leslle's News
paper 1t seemed to me there were mil
| lions of copies. never saw so many pa
pers in my life. 1t was the biggest success
there ever was. The News" with Nast's
picture, was not out till SIX hours after
wards, and then the whole picture made
| only two pages, and looked mean enough
by the side of our four-page cut. And thu
best of it was that we had ten times a.
much landscape and perspective as Mast
his picture showing nothing but the con
ventional tree tops over the heads of thu
| spectators, while we had miles and mile
| of mead and woodland.
Leslie was delighted. never saw hin
in such a happy frame of mind. He mus
have made thousands of dollars that week
Whats the sense of denouncing such pic
lures as bogus said he, when we have
ten times as good a picture as that takel
on the spot?' The beauty OF it was that
by accident, we placed the men right
Heanan's back to the sun, as it actual.
was in the fight, though, of course, w
| couldn't know he had won the toss. Thi
puzzled even those who knew we must hav
made the picture here, and everybody wa
bewlldered.'