Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-01

ern and European cities was then as
much a newspaper necessity as the tele- |
graphic dispatches are to the journals |
of to-day and no new venture IN Jour |
nalism could hope to establish itself
without large corps of able letter
writer's. When a new enterprise was
short-handed in this respect, the III III |
Guilty was often tided over by the en-
ployment, in the editorial room, of some |
bright writer who would digest the |
worlds news from the great dallles OF
New York, London and Paris, and fur
nish forth, on order, spicy and accept |
able letters from all points.
/ | remember that poor Pat Hull could |
do great justice to himself and satisfy
the reading public In its craving for !
/ foreign correspondence, except when 1t |
came to "Our Letter from Bombay" !
/ The Bombay and Calcutta files were as |
/ lean of news or suggestion of an idea as
! a MaIacca stick, and Hull, after an I'M |
mensity of labor, would bring forth a
letter which was destined to run the |
gauntlet of then most contemptuous ridi- I
| culp. Pat was one of the best natured /
fellows that ever straddled a tripod. |
! He was made famous years after the de-
mise of the Courier, OF which journal he |
wasthe man of all work, by becoming the |
| twentieth or thirtieth husband of Lola |
| Montez The boys used to say that Pat, !
on first seeing her execute the Iaran- |
! tula dance, became smltten. He was
not long in proposing; but before he |
could reach Lola he had to cOnclllate a |
couple of great grizzly bears, which that |
eccentric character always had with her |
as pets. 1t was said that Pat lost the |
| better part of two pair of trousers be- !
| fore he could make his declaration !
and that when he did so, he had to hug
| the pets before he was allowed to en-
! brace the mistress of his heart. This
marriage eventuated sadly for poor Hull; |
for the Countess of Lansfeldt soon tired
of him. and asked for a bill of divorce !
/ Some of the counts she made against
! her husband were so humiliating that
he took them seriously to heart, and
broke down entirely. He died shortly
afterwards
The local department of the pioneer
newspapers were dished up in a far
more piquant and elaborate style than
nowadays. No city event was too
! trivial to arrest the attention of the
items gatherer and whatever fun was
| going on-and there was no lack of it
at that time-was pungently served up
| to the readers by keen and graphic
pens. A good joke well told was rel
ished by all classes, and many of the
stock funnyisms of the present day had
their origin with the pioneer reporters.
Far more importance was then given
to the legal department than is now &C
| corded, and every paper claiming to be
tirst-class had a special Court reporter,
who gave a syllabus of every case com
ing before the tribunals. Capable men
who made a speciality of this branch of
journalism commanded very high sal
aries, and they really deserved them,
for they made out of what is now very dry
reading a most attractive department.
Having sketched, in an otf-hand man
ner, the leading points III the journal
ism of the pioneer period, | shall now
take a glance at the
INTERIOR PRESS.
The Placer Times was started in this
city, or rather at Suffers Fort, in April,
| 1919. It appeared semi-occasionally up
to June 9th, 1880, when it was published
as a daily by LOring Pickering, j. L.
Lawrence and l.. Aldrich.
The Sacramento Transcript first ap-
peared as tri-weekly April l, 1850. 1t
was published by G. K. Fitch, S. G.
| Upham, J. NJ. Julian now of San Diego,
II. S. Warner, Theodore Russell, and
Ferdinand G. Ever Rev. +. G. Ever,
who recently died in New York after
having achieved high eminence and
undue reputation as an Episcopalian
diyinel. The Piucer Times and I'ran-
script merged June 1G, 1851.
The Sacramento Iader was started on
! December %, 1850, as an evening paper.
1t was edited by J. W. Winans and
Harry B. Livingston, and went out
March II, 1851.
There was also a squatter paper pub
lished here about that time, and the COM
petition became so sharp that the best
printers in the city struck; and some of
them organized an association reproduce
a first-class newspaper that would COM
mand success. The result of this COM
bination was the founding Of the Sacra-
mento Daily Union, the first number of
which was issued March IS, 1851. The
original proprietors Of this great news
paper were Alexander Clark, w. j.
Heating, Alex. c. Cook, Job Court f.
G.. Jetieris, Charles Hansicker, f. II.
Harmon, w. X. Dawson, and Samuel
H. Dosh. Heating died in a madhouse,
and Job Court met with a terrible fate.
B having been burned to death in the old
Western Hotel when it was destroyed
by fire in 1873. The first editor was
DR.. J. T. Morse, man Of fine culture
and strong and graceful writer In
November, 1871, James Anthony bought
into the concern, and from that time
forth the Sacramento Union became not
only a local power, but was recognized
! as the leading aud most influential paper
in the State. From the start il was
model Journal. Sacramento offered
peculiar advantages at that time to
such an enterprise, The great bulk Of
the reading and intelligent population
of the State was then in the mines
Stages radiated from Sacramento to
every important camp, and the Union
reached the miners with news twenty
/. four hours fresher than could be had in
p the San Francisco dailies. The man
ayers of the JaioH We're well aware Of
the advantage of their situation, and
kept a vigilant newsgatherer IN San
Francisco. who put the matter he col
/. lected during the day into type, and
sent it to Sacramento by the evening
boat The forms Of the paper were
kept open till the boat arrived, when
the matter was dumpediu and the paper
sent to press. Jerry Gray, who for a
long time was the San Francisco agent
OF the Union, would generally send up
so exhaustive a report Of the news eX-
tant in San Francisco, that the journals
of that city were completely forestalled
by the Sacramento paper when they
reached the interior towns. 1t will thus
be seen that in the beginning of the
American occupation Of California, and
for a long time afterwards, Sacramento
was by far the best newspaper point in
the State.
It was as early as 1850 that f. B. Cox
started a little paper called the Sopoma
Bp7dis and which lived for number
of years
In 1851 Lewis X Rand, two printers,
took types and n press to Los Angeles
and started the STIR, the first paper
ever issued south Of Monterey.
In the Fall of 1851 Col. Rust and
Hamilton. Ayers II DeCOurcey pur-
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