Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-11-30
IKEADAMlIE JOURNALISM.
Antiquarian Researches 1nto the History of
ss.s.. the Boston Post and Its / 81.
Writer'S. 1850 II 8, w -
Newspaper Methods OF the Last Century
Some OF the Novelties Of Early Bos- ~
%& ton Journalism. ~. -. ~

* zs&5%.E ton Journalism. " .~..%e
Nov. Il One evening, recently a number of
the weil-known journalists of this city dropred
into the ''hell-box," one by one, and, after
taking seats, lighting cigars and marking the
location Of the spi.toon, proceeded 10 discnss
the result of the, recent election and the cause
which led to Buffers defeat But what is the
''hell-box"? is probably asked. That is the
name given the room, in the office of a large
Boston daily newspaper where those who have
nothing to do for the time being meet socially.
play poker, spin yarns and smuke borrowed
toharco until the rightful OCCUPANT of she room
gets mad and turns ont everybody most un-
ceremonious :. On the next OCCASION, some
other rom s selected, and go on. Among
those WHO made up the party was Tom Ma
guire, whom l have prrvi 'usly introduced TO
the readers Of the PIONEER Press AZ tho Joe
Howard nf 3 ,ston. Said Ion:
Il think the newspapers Of this city had
great doai to do with the defeat of Butler, es-
pecially the Herald. winch has fought him at
every turn since he has been in politics. OF
the half dozen dailes in Boston but one sup
clud ng the old Post, pi ched into him rcd hot
Speaking of the Post, how it has died out IN
power and prosperity? Once it was the Off
cia organ for New E ,gland Of the national ad-
minlsrration when Democratic presidents &C.
cupied the White House aud made money
rapidly; now it is repudlated by the State
Democracy, with the exception Of the old
liners, and ca scarce y keep it, head above
wa nr,ho he b,ol l. IN; ts
infancy, but not at ITS birth. Col. Char. es
Gordon Greene. who is still alive, WAS
its founder. Col. Greene was born and
bred d journalist and he proved
to be most euccessful Que. When a youth
he w"rSrd on the Boston S atesnan. which was
the predecessor Of the Pos, and later, with
jams A. Jones Il hunk that was his name),
published the first daily newspaper in Penn
sylvania, think at P lila e!phia. jones' was a
Philadclp IAN In 1881 he started the Boston
Pos; aad for over forty yeals worked upon it
in one way or another, principally as editor in
chief. He was iliiaut and witty writer and
",alked sense" H. always tad all opinion,
AMI was never afraid to express it His friend
ship was es eemed by all n en-, ard his private
room was often visited by such mon as Frank
lin Pierce, George Bancroft, David Heushaw,
sets 70 er., and established the CAIN that
jurors Should be the judges Of law as we'll as
OF fact; william Pi t Fessenden, Robert Ran
tout. Jr., Horace Greeley, Nathaniel P. Willis,
tie poet, whos5 career began with the Sta1es-
man. Cal Cushing and others. Col Greene
rarely ever got angry at anything but il any
one tried 10 bu,.doze him, his temper
would get tho better of his Judgment OCCASION
ally He vas always the fighting editor of the
paper. Que morning good many years ago,
well remember the affair, an actor named
Haupt, Of the crushed traged an style, came
into the Office in great rage aud announced his
inten ion to lick the whole chop on account of
an as;verse criticism upon his acting which the
Post had maze. The colonel answered the in
quiry made for the man who tad dared to say
hat about him, and tried to pac;y the irate
actor. He smout: ed him down to tue best of
his ability and gradually led him ous to the
head Of the sta rway. At thai p,iut the actor
saw how he being s,ft-soaped, and be-
coming provoked at tue IDA Of being bowed
into the sire ct without receiving any satisfac-
ton, aimed blow at the colouel. This was too
much for the fighting ed tor. and he gave the
actor daisy under the jaw that
sent him hesd over heels down the entire flight
of stairs. The comp si;ors, hearing the noise
rushed out and ga the cnlonsl running down
stairs pale and friS h tened, while at the bot.
tom lay the &C or perfectly motonless, pale
and apparently lifeless. After moment OF
painful suspense Hsupt sDrang to his feet and
s.oued to the colonel, You shall hear from
me again, sir' whereupou the colonel, after
recovering from his fright, sold wittily:
THANK God, hear from you now, sir;' and
wen, back to his office to cong ratulate himself
that he had not killed. the fol ow.
On another occasion q Chinese musician,
WAC WAS performing in the city, became q l.
most insane over something that had beeu said
about bis performance in tho Post After the
custom Of his country he vi~i ei the ooloners
finish the affair ty killing him. The colonel
COO ly took the ban 10 icau by the collar and the
bosom of his pan "a ,oous aud ran b N out upon
the sidewalk whore be told the China man tnat
If he was in hurry to become angel and fl
back to pig tails land, he could Kill himself
Ano her funny thing I remember about the
c'lone was hls Celebrated notice Of one Of the
Harpe - b 'oks, entitled Atlantis, Story Of
Sea TWAS something like this, and pleased
the Whole city:
We have read seyent;,uine, pages Of this tale,
OF which We can fad neith-r head nor tail For
give u.s. o Time, for wasting thy sands. It seems
70 he kind of dramatic 'talk' in which verse land
blank in everything elsel between two Or three
jack a. !authorus, lot of lightning bugs sud a
fish. written under the inspiration Of carbonic
acid gas aud cold water at 30 deg ahren hsit upon
al iceberg. It is certainly supernatural thing
i devil without /br mstoue.
THE POST EARLY METHODS
In the early days Of the Post there was real
~ but little WORK done iE the securing 0: news
The paper ma My depended upol the journals
printed il New York for it's news outside of
New Eng!and. All other news came by mail,
from day to a week or more old. Blu the
mn Dljr did nor SSN Tunch ahnnf than
"a it does now. Tho only communication be-
tween the uow and old world was by packets,
aud very often nothing was heard from Europe
for m ,utn. Whenever packet arrived in
port, then the papers woula show tneir enter
prise by not going 10 press unll after O'Clock
in the evening, As soon as a packet was
sighted race would be mad. by the represent
tataves Of each paper In boat TO board it first,
and thereby secure the first reading ct tho for
elgl papers. The successful editor WAS bound
by severe rule not to cut the papers, and after
reviewing them was obliged to pass them to
the second Gunner. In case of q scarcity Of
news the same file of paprrs went around q
second tina, and ter that WAS At first
thought 10 he uuimporaut would be printed
for want of better Material Just think Of IL!
News month old, and second-handed at that,
when now we have columns each day from tho
cid world aud nothing is thought of it. For
long time after the Post was established there
wers NO reporters engaged upon It, But little
attention was paid to lecat news. II al item
was brought III 1t was generally printed, but no
one was sent after an item, except in rare
cases. Nearly oil that pertsinsd to local affairs
was stated in an editorial way: When fire
occurred not too far OF it was customary for
one OF the composltors to drop his stick and go
out aud get a paragraph about it Among the
ype-stieksrs who were most successful in
writing up fires. etc, was Thomas Gill, who
sshoweu such an aptitude for that Kind Of
work that he was finally allowed to
do it altogether. He thereby became the
first reporter in 2. Boston. Is = was y his
delight to report the doinIs Of he municipal
witty manner that no was nicknamed Conn-
ssllor GILL A dozen years ago William E.
Sawyer, who was the inventor OF the sawyer
SUSTAIN Of elecsric light distribution. anu who
died quite recently. did that kind OF work for