Daily Republican., 1881-02-26
THE CITY DIRECTORY.
Ferris Bros. reply to w. A. Boy q
On tine DireoaOrx Publis hlAg

On tine Direossrx PubSishing
Business.
NxssRs EDroRs A communication
from Mr.. W. Andrew Boyd, in your
issue Of yesterday, seems 10 make prop
sr reply from as. Mr.. Boyd speaks Of an
Article in y0ur paper accusing" him
of taking raousy out Of the city. We
have looked carefully through the COL
umns OF the issue mentioned, and are
unable TO find shat he Is once
spoken Of, either directly or otherwise.
Even In your brief editorial concerning
the City Directory, he is not once refsr-
red to.
Mr.. Boy says: "Rvery directory Of
this city th st have pu blished, from the
first, which was published in 1858, up
to the present time, has been printed
in this CITY," From this remark, one
would suppose that Mr.. Boyd had be-
gun to publish She Directory Of Will
mipg ton in 1858. and continued TO the
present time /; the fact is, that hs has
never, so far AZ our knowledge tx.
tsnds, ever published iirectoTy OF
Wilmington al all, with tbs single ex.
ception Of q "business directory"
which waa part OF work Published
by him in 1879. which he called a
''Stat1 and Peninsula DLrss.ory," aud
which is called hy various names, ofsan
prsfxed with profuss sdjeotives, by
tho Subscribers thereto. Ia order that
the public may understand more fully
how the Directory matter stands, We
will briefly review the history of the
present Directory.
The Wilmington Directory of 1865 81
was published by K. A. Milltken x Co.
that OF le6T-65 by W. J. Divine; in
1868 Jenkins and Atkinson, then pap-
fishers Of the Daily Commercial, began
It's publication, and it was Issued by
them in 1868. 1859. 1870, 1871, 1872,
and 1878; in 1874, 1875 and lS76it WAS
published by the Commercial Printing
Company, their successors: an exami'
nation OF the title pages Of these books
will show the correctness OF our state
ment. In 1877 the Commercial Print.
ing company sold It, with their other
property, 10 tho Evsty Evening Pub.
Ashiug Company, who sold the right
for that year only To Ar. William Il.
Boyd; the father Of Mr.. W. Andrew
Boyd; it was isaued by him for that
ysar. she tisle-page reading, "Compi.-
I'd BY VIM. Il. Boyd; publi0had BY the
Every Hysuing Publishing Company. "
The connection was uniorsanatO--f1E
the company; and vhsthsr he made
enough money 70 last him, or whatever
may have been the Gauss, Mr.. Boyd The
father has since remained away from
Wilmington, for rsasous which srp
don btlass sufficient. In 1878 the Di.
rectcry was published by Ferris Bros,
in partnership with MIR. Howard NJ
Jenkins, they purchasing the privilege
for that year from thu Rvsry Rveuipg
Publishing Company. In 1879 the
copy right was purchased ahso ute!y
by ourselves and We have since consia-
ned to publish the work annually.
With the exception Of the tsSua OF
1877, mentioned above, the only VII.
mtng ton directory which gs can fiud
bearing the naIas Of Boyd is that OF
1865 IS, published by Andrew Boyd"
This is the uuols Of Mr.. W. Andrsw
Boyd-his fathers own brother. who
pablishsd the directory from 1854 back
to 1858, when, 81 Mr.. Boyd states, It
was published by himselt---thsn small
boy--ws do not know. During the
years from 1868 To 1873 Mr.. William II.
Boyd. the father, may have been en-
pioyed BY Jenkins & Atkinson a. a can
vasser; bat Mr.. W. A. Boyd's amusing
claim that all ws know OK tha DirecSo-
~ basiness was learned Ia the capaei-
ty OF competitors on his directories, is,
TO say the least, spreading tho truth
out very thin.
Ia 1873 Mr.. W. A. Bovd pablshed
what he c&lls hia Estate ard Peninsu-
la Directory" This, OF course, he had
a perfect right TO do. but as q number
of persons Who usually subscribed to
our City Directory had ordered Mr..
BoYd's book Ruder the impression that
it was ours, WI TOOK means TO corrsCt
them, and prevent confusion, which
appeaTed to give Mr.. Boyd great Of
tense.
Prom this, however, he 80 far rscov-
cred as TO enter our employment last
year TO manage tas CANVASS; and this
fact has pat many Of our customers I'M
der the impression that he is now em.
ployed by as, and taking orders for our
book. he says in his letter to you that
he has not in any way used our name.
To this We would reply that il such Is
the case, he will doubtless be willing
to prove his sincerity by returning
their orders 70 any who may have
thought they were subscribing for our
book and who still deSirs TO do 80.
10 regard to the respective claims Of
Mr.. Boyd's forthcoming book, and Of
our own directory, we desire to say
that we think the people OF Whining
ton will ind it to be 10 their own iAtes-
eat to support the publication OF a
home directory.
Whatever may be Mr.. Boyd's opin,
ion OF our ability TO make q correct and
full Directory, We are quite willing to
have those We have published oompar-
ed with any Of those published by his
family--if that is, as We suppose, what
he means when he says "ours." We
would also call attention 10 the fact
that while the Wilmington Directory
was gotten up by itinersnt directory
men, its publication was irregular and
unsatisfactory. While published by
Jenkins aud Atkinson, and their auooes-
sors, 1t has appeared regularly, and
been constantly made better from year
to year.
We think these are sound reasons
for continuing to support the home
Directory; and it Is solely on this
ground, and not at all with the childish
expectation Of receiving support mere
l. II ~