, 1881-09-21

graph offices, and Ia a few minutes in
every hamlet In the country where there is
a teIegraphic instrument. The news was
also Immediately sent from the Western
Un'on office up the stairs to the Associated
Press office, and soon u despatch was
thrown down on the counter OF the bust.
ness office OF the Sun. 1t was at first
dlscredlted, and q hoax vas suspected.
Soon, however, q boy came running with
another dispatch giving a few of the par
t~lcu'arS, aud shortly after the pneumatic
underground tube between the Western
Unlon olice aud the Sun editorial rooms
began ejecting short messages.
Preparations were at ouce made for
getting out an extra edition. There were
enough prluters on hand to set The type,
Notwithstanding the %lateness of the hour,
out how was the stereotyplng to be done,
slnce The s%tereotypers had all quilted, as
usual, at 4 O'Clock IN the morning. The
difficulty was solved by the appearance of
one OF the sterentypers VINO hnd been
delayei IN the cliy and who came into the
Sun office to learn the particulars of the
Shooting. He was seized aud put to work,
messengers were seat to the homes of his
fellow wo.kmeu, and by the time they
began ID arrive, ne had the matfix ready
Tor casting. The extra was soon after.
wards issued, aud 1t contained three-ouar.
tets OF a column Ut news about thesltten nm.
ted assassination. NJ pressmen were in
the press room, but the machiuist and
carpenter, with the help of feeders, ran
the edition of.
Thereafter the entire Office resemoled a
hive OF bees. Editors aud reporters were
busy night aud day. The news brancheG
into a hundred directions. Reports that
came TO the otiice by telegraph, by hesrsay,S
by letter, and III o.her shapes, had to be
verified, arranged aad jlgesteJ 10 make up
Tie maolIVII story that covered column
at,er column OF the S4a, aud grew aud
multiplied n 9un.ber as Tie hours hurried
by. There was no hour in the day or
Light w0en the Sun was not a working
Office Editors aud reporters got sleep as
they could. % Saturday there were five
extta editions, on sunday one, Monday six,
90 Tuesday three, aud on Wednesday Que.
II was compensation tor this ~tireless
work that the result justified it. Ga
Saturday morning, before the shooting,
AT, 200 copies OF The Sun were sold Oh
Sunday Tue circulation Jumped to III, O93;
on MOniay 1t was I65,3O3j on Tuesday,
l5S,@l2; on "Wednesday, 1898 on
Thursday, 14I,l46. snd on Friday, 1881
OF The weekly Sun 65,465 copies were
sold. II is hard 10 get a realiz .tion OF
these figures 1t was uuquestiouably
the largest regular weekly edition of IA
daily newspaper ever printed in America.
An ordinary copy Of the Sun IL thirty six inch
% long and twenty three inches wide. III,
Sunday aud weekly editions are double this
size. 1T every copy sold during the seven
days mentioned We're spread out fat and
placed one on another, doubling 10 the weekly
aud Sunday papers to make them u0iturm III
Size with tho others, they would make a
Column sc inches long by % inches wide and
153 feet taller than twice The height of Eli
nl'y church s~teeple, which, without it's GROSS,
is 264 feet tall. Ii the papers were spread
out and laid end to end they would * end
7o7 miles, or as far as from New York on
an air Hue TO a point nearly 100 miles beyond
Chicago. Fifteen copies OF The Sun weigh
a pound. The number. issued during the
seven days mentioned would weigh over forty
six tors.
TIE work done by the correspondents at
Washington was arduOus in the extreme.
No one who simply reads the reports from
day to day can have any idea of The immense
amount of toll, care, vigilance and energy
that We're expended in preparing them. 1t
has required constant attendance at the White