Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1880-03-19
A NEWSPAPER $4,000"
How One OF Those Things wiAccOm.
plIshed by Frank LesL
New York Letter to Indianapolis urnsl.

pllshed by Frank LesL
New York Letter to indianapolis urnsl.
1t was about 1860. The Illustrated
Ners, published by Demort, and
Frank I.eslie's Illustrated Mspaper
had been fighting for mons over
Sickles' trial and the John BWn trial
and execution; and it was abotnip and
tuck, for the Ne,Ds had Ma. Then
came the Heenan.Sayers priz fight in
England. II WAS moral sagge be-
tween the two papers. Bothsent ar
fists to England.
About the time the fight VITO come
off, and week or two beforGe could
possibly hear of it, for Their was no
cable then, the Illustrated GaOs came
out with the announcement nat they
had sent Mr.. Thomas Mast England
to draw picture Of the 6ghtand Mr..
Anthony TO engrave it on wdi on the
Vanderbilt while coming jme, and
that it would be published orthe very
day of the steamers arrival. omething
must be done TO save us fin wreck.
Next morning "the governor { Mr. Les
lie) called me to vacant room up
stairs and locked the door az went in.
"We must have picture ofhis fight,
said he "on this" And Ii laid bis
hand on great block on thelble, large
enough for four-page pierre. Said
he, Take this room. KeeTit locked
Admit nobody but me andhe two or
three other artists you wilneed, and
compel us TO give q certa specified
signal. We must knock To Neaos out
of time"
He told me to call for aything or
any man | wanted. | sent r Perkins,
VINO was English, and who knew the
low country around Farnsboough. Les
lie, who was English too, bought the
fight would come off on levi ground,
with background of Eglish farms.
Perkins was sworn on tB horns of
Highgate, and then he strut the ring
add laid out vague perspective with
English trees and hedge row.
Then we sent down to "Kwter Mug"
for Brown to represent Heaan. Brown
was strapper, standing at least six
feet three inches and weighing not less
than two hundred pounG. We got
Thad. Glover to do Sayers He was
very lively and pretty sprrer. They
went at it hammer and toys, as wait
ed, crayon in hand, to cath their attt
tude when it was right. ian see then
now skitterring and hopping around the
little room, driving one andher into ,
corner, and getting one an,ther's heap
in chancery, and finally, when HeenaF
Brown gave Sayers. Glover b victoriou
side-winder on the ear, taking pains nd
to hit him though, "the governor" erie,
"stopW and they posed in that attitude
and | caught it on paper, Then tie
pugilisis went out took drink. drey
the faces of Heenan md Sayers ON tie
bodies; then put lot of figures and
heads, and then sent for Violin, an FL,
glishman, and he pIt in dozen or O
typical English heads, with Engllh
hats, etc, and then sent for Twaits,
and he added u great lot of Englih
spectators. took it then and tinishd
it up, and then the block was sawed u
sixty pieces and divided among Sky
artists to be engraved. About half oft
was sent to Philadelphia and Bostn.
OF course, they didn't recognize thdr
own work whon the paper was ol.
Then the whole was electrotyped, All
an immense edition of the paper WIS
printed on one side, ready for the tye
on the other.
When we came to write out the ~
count of the fight we made it vey
vague, making much of the preliminI.
ries already known here, with biograpl.
les of the men, etc. Everything w#
ready. One morning came down tow
and found the streets flooded with Fram
Leslie's Newspaper. 1t seemed TO ne
there was millions of copies. | nevd
saw so many papers in my life. 1t WIZ
the biggest success there ever was. TIN
Ntms, with Nast's picture was mot ont
till six hours afterward, and then TIM
whole picture made only two pages
and looked mean enough by the side q
our four-page cut. And the best of !
was that we had ten times rs much
landscape and perspective rs Mast, ht
picture showing nothing but Convert
tional tree tops over the heads Of thu
spectators, while we had miles and
miles Of mead and woodland.
Leslie was delighted. | never saw
him in such happy frame of mind
lie must have made thousands of dol
lars that week. "What's the use OF de-
nounoing such pictures MS bogus" sud
he, "when we have ten times NJ good q
picture NJ that taken on the spot2" The
beauty of it was that by accident v,
placed the men right-Heenan's back
to the sun, rs it actually was in The
fight, though of course we oouldn
know he had won the toss. This puz
aled even those who knew we must have
made the picture here, and everyhod,
was bewildered.