The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-03-22
A Natnhle Triumph.


A Notable Triumph.
The newsdealers have achieved nota-
BILE triumph over the New York Herald in q
contest that, the SUNDAY TATTLER said at
the start, could not but result in their IA
vor. When the great metropolitan papers
made the reduction in their price. they all.
with the single exception Of the Herald,
supplied their prints to the newsdealers at
prices that left reasonably fair margin for
profit. The Herald exacted from them as
much, however, to within quarter of a
cent, as they were expected to get from
their patrons for it. This pitiable margin
was all that was allowed them for hand
ling it. which means getting up at
o'clock in the morning to get supply OF
papers, folding a, frequently. is and ~
page sheet, carrying it in bundles twice the
size the same number OF any other paper
would make, and carrying it to the houses
OF the readers. They were not permitted
to return the copies they couldn't sell, SO
that the failure to sell single one ate up
the profit of many. The dealers asked
better terms. Young Gordon Bennett re-
fused to listen to them. They could ham
die the Herald on just those terms or none.
Then the fight commenced. They refused
to sell the two cent paper for less than
three cents. Lord Bennett jingled his
money bags and gave notice that he would
crush them with his gold. Honest men
fighting for q principle working men
fighting against the gluttony of purse
proud oppressor, they refused to yield.
And he started in to carry out his threats.
A large part of the handling at the news
paper offices in New York is done by mid
dlemen who are paid commissions by the
men they serve. The Pfeiffer Brothers,
who do business on Newark avenue near
Five Corners, for instance, take the orders
of the hill dealers, have them filed at the
Offices in New York, and deliver each deal
er's papers in a bundle at the stand before
daylight each morning. II. G. Wicket
does the same kind of service for many of
the dealers in other parts of the city. The
middlemen save the several newsdealers
the labor of going to New York early. and
of carrying back larger bundles than their
shoulders can support. The Herald first set
up opposition new stands all over the
neighboring cities, and then struck at the
middlemen by establishing similar agencies
that offered to carry for nothing to the
newsdealers. With view of forcing the
dealers to patronize these new agencies,
the old middlemen were refused supplies
of the paper. An expensive headquarters
for the new agency was fitted up in New
York. Valuable teams were purchased,
and whole retinue of servants hired. In
this city, however, they won only one
dealer from his allegiance, and the Herald
delivery wagons carried only to the Heralds
own stands. The old time Hewsdealers
took only enough Heralds to supply patrons
who could not be persuaded to take other
papers in its stead. Hundreds of readers
sympathized with the newsdealers and
dropped it. Hundreds of others dropped
it because the handlers would not deliver
it for less than three cents. It was not ac-
cess BILE everywhere, as it had been, and
the circulation of the Herald declined
week after week till now its sales in New
York and vicinity are less than one-half
what they had been before the strike
Meanwhile the delivery agencies were not
supporting themselves, and a month or SO
ago Lord Bennett, coming to his senses,
refused to support them longer, and, so,
practically dropped the fight. The agencies
passed into the hands of newsdealers
again. The Herald will probably besold now
to the newsdealers at prices that afford
living profit. Bennett viii before long be
begging them to give him the aid, the
withdrawal of which threatened him with
ruin. But it is too late The Heralds cir
culation has gone. People are reading
other papers and find them more readable.
The habit of reading it, that was the
Heralds stronghold, has been broken. Its
advertising patronage, for which countless
readers purchased it, has been impaired,
and the newsdealers have dealt the man.
who set out to crush them beneath his
money bags, blow from which he can
never recover.
Every reader OF the SUNDAY TATTLER
knows that it is not nor ever has been the