Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-03-18
How Newspaper Secured a ''BeAt. 9

How a Newspaper Secured "Beat."
To A correspondent of the Indianap-
oils Journal Mr.. Henry L. Stephens has
told the following story: cit was about
1860. The Illustrated Nea0s, published
by Demorest, and FrGab Leslie Illus
trGted 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 Ne0Os had
Mast. Then came the Heenan-Sayers
prize-fght in England. 1t was a NOR
tal struggle between the two papers.
Both sent artists to England.
"About the time the fight was to
come off, and q week or two before we
could possibly hear of it, for there was
no cable then, the Illustrated NeaOs
came out with the announcement that
they had sent Mr.. Thomas Mast to En-
gland 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 Gov
ernor' (Mr. Leslie) called me TO a va
cant room upstairs, and locked the
door as / went in. 'We must have q
picture of the fight, said he, on this.
And he laid his hand on 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 art
lists that you will need, and compel us
to give certain specified signal. We
must knock the NeaOs out Of time
"He told me to call for anything or
any man | wanted. l sent for Perkins,
who was English, and who knew the
low country around Farnsborough.
Leslie, who was English too, thought
the fight would come off on level
ground, with a background of English
farms. Perkins was sworn on the
horns of Highgate, and then he struck
the ring and laid out vague perspec-
tive with English trees and hedgerows.
"Then we sent down to The Pewter
Mug for Brown to represent Heenan.
Brown was a strapper, standing atleast
six feet three inches and weighing not
less than two hundred pounds. We
got Thad. Glover to do Sayers. He
was very lively and pretty sparrer.
They went at it hammer and tongs, as
waited, crayon in hand, to catch their
attitude when it was right. | can see
them now skittering and hopping
around the little room, driving one an
other into corner, and getting one an
others heads in chancery, and finally,
when Heenan Brown gave Sayers Glover
a vicious side-winder on the ear, taking
pains not to hit him though, the Govern
or cried stopp and they posed in that
attitude, and caught it on paper. Then
the pugilists went out and took a drink.
| drew the faces of Heenan and Sayers
on the bodies, then put a lot Of figures
and heads, and then sent for Violin, an
and he put in q dozen or
so typical English heads, with English
hats, etc., and then I sent for
Twaites, and he added great lot of
English spectators 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 Philadel-
phia and Boston. Of course they didn't
recognize their own work when the pa
per was out. Then the whole was cleo
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 prelimina-
ries already known here, with biogra-
ohies of the men, etc. Everything was
ready. One morning | came down
town and found the streets flooded with
FrGqa6 LesIGe's Newspaper. 1t seemed
TO me there were millions of copies.
never saw SO many papers in my life.
It was the biggest success there ever
was. The N6aOs, with Nast's picture,
was not out till six hours afterward,
and then the whole picture made only
TWO pages, and looked mean enough by
Jhe 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
tree tops over the heads Of
jhe spectators, while we had miles and
miles of mead and woodland.
Leslie was delighted. never saw
lim in such a happy frame of mind. He
must have made thousands Of dollars
hat week. What's the sense of de-
louncing such pictures as bogus said
ne, "when we have ten times as good a
picture as that, taken on the spotg
The beauty Of it was that by accident
We placed the men right Heenan's
pack to the sun, as it actuallywas in the
light, though Of course we couldn't
Know he had won the toss. This puz-
lied even those who knew we must have |
made the picture here, aid everybody |
vas bewildered.
A Missing Mans Fate.