Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-01-03
ADMIRAL.
A Boston Journalist u Forty Years
Experience Gives FFs Opinion
Of The Gazette,
What Enterprise Was when Carrier.
Pigeons and Fast Steamers We're
Used...Bennctt's Monopoly
Rrry shyster English Lawyers Are GuEsn z
Anerieans--rhe Rcilcr-skate
Craze Gone.
.neclal Eorreanonsenoe of lhr Gnlellc.

Speclai Ccrrespou6enoe OF the Gazette
Bosr0N, Mass, Dec. 80 "A few days
since mail1d copy OF the Sunday
GAzErrT TO an old journalistic friend of
minc, a man past three score and ton,
who saw f@rty years experiences la Boston
| journalism, but who 10 now living in q
well-carned retirement In Cambridge.
/ His reply acknowledging the receipt of
the paper, Is very apropos. Naturally,
/ also, It is full Of "reminiscences
/ $50 this siXtecn-page metropolitan
sheet Is a Texas prOduetionW he writes
/ "Well, never would nave believed e..
| Fort WORTH OF course might have
known Il came from Fort Worth since II
I is a Texas paper. My stars, how this
world is given to progressiuw / was
never in Fort Worth but once in my lile.
IL WAS fifteen years agoi perhaps
more, perhaps little less.
American cities have such waY OF
spreading out into metropolitan proper
tona and OF acquiring city attachments IN
the way of great hotels, big business
blocks, and able newspapers that / iind q
as difficult to keep track of them asst ie
TO keep track OF all my iast-growing
grandchildren. Among the Southwestern
cities | hear Fort Worth spoken Of al
ways IN terms OF enthusiasm. haVo q
nephew who passes through nearly all the
towns OF that section, and he IL always
loudest IN his praises of Fort Worth
of any thing were needed to prove
that It has already attained TO the proper
tions of u great business aud money center,
the successful publication of such q news
paper as TnE GAZETTE would do IL. One
can pretty accuratelytguage town or city
10y the appearance Of its leading news
paper
"And such newspaper as you send
mel Why, 1t is II perfect marvel of COM
ploteness. When | was FIRST active In
Boston journalism, now over forty years
ago, such perfect mirror of the worlds
doiugs was never dreamed of, aud even
twenty years ago II one had said that in
1885 Texas would bayc produced such Il
journalistic wouder-the news of the
world M Is compact form, as ably edited
aud as neatly printed rs any journal in
AmericH--he would have been taken for a
false prophet that didn't deserve honor,
not even In Il foreign country,
''Aud then such -gatherers as we
Americans have grown to be- That II not
so remarkable, though, considering that
we have the telegraph. Whatever is
worth doing ut all Is worth doing, thinks
an American, little better and a little
ahead OF anybody else. Why, we used TO
have strong rivalry in the old days when
we employed carrler-pigcons TO carry
news. In Boston and New York thirty
years ago the arrival of European steam
ships was q great event TO the newspaper
Offices. There was 10 Atlantic cable
then, and as many Americans then, as
now, were Of European birth, there was
widespread interest in the mails aud tur-
moils OF the transatlantic monarchies
"Evurything went ON well until one day
one of the Boston papers came out with
fresh European dispatches, although the
steamer had not yet arrived, Every
body WAC ustounded. Rival journals
said the news was bogus Familiar
cry, even vet. Well, when the steamer
did arrive, the enterprlsing journals
news was found to have been strictly ac-
curutc. How was it loncP
"EasAy enough. The steamer called
at Halifax, and while there reporter
\ who was provided with three or four car
| ricr pigeons went aboard, and, after care
/ fully reading The latest European eX.
| changes made brief extracts therefrom,
1 which he tied to the pigeons wings, and
1 when hundred miles OF so out he set
I the birds free. II Wss not long before
this system of eXpediting the news came
into general use; She Associated Press
/ provided the pigeons and paid the re-
porter's salary and transportation be-
tween Boston and Halifax. 1t was rare
thut any oil the birds were
lost The news was promptly sent
to New York by the Long Island
sound steamers, Bennett, the elder, OH
tanned monopoly OF it for awhile for
New York by paying the Associated Press
$500 an hour for every hour he lad the
news ahead of rival papers, but It was
finally stopped by the Sun putting presses
and men on board the sou:d boats and
having the matter ready 10 sell in "eXtra"
form the moment the steamer landed.
Gan this reads very funny now, yet
remember when 1t was downright serious
newspaper business.
81 have carefully read THE GAZETTE
you were good enough TO send me, and
think 10 is newspaper OF which either
Texas or Massachusetts, might well feel
proud.n
This estimate, my dear Malone, is .
wholly unsought one, and is given by a
disInterested expert who watches the
progress Of journalism the world over.
~
The natural gas question Is again at
the front. 10 is brought there by the
Standard Oh company, the creates
monopoly this or any other country ever
saw. Not content with its millions and
It's wholly unlimited control Of oil, II is
now seeking to control Hith equal fatality
to opposition, the supply and demand for
natural gas. The company, through its
\ interchangeable president, Mr. John D.,
/ Rockefeller, h buying reproducing
4 lands in Pennsylvania and ohio in vast
tracts. It's idea is TO pipe it TO the large
cities IL Is believed that gas can as
easily be pipcd as oil. II II can, there Is
a field for It's consumption that simply
cannot be measured In Cleveland the iron
foundrles were agitated over the fact that
Plttsburg manufacturers, By using gas
for fuel are able TO produce iron Of less
! cost per ton than they can, and they viii,
/ therefore, grasp eagerly at the proposi-
ton Of abolishlng coal Tor The natural
/ fuel.
! The STANDARD already controls the pipe
! lines Of the National Transit company, so
7 that no new gas line charter VIII be Deces-
/ sary They have lines ~ follows; From
Z the Bradford field, one extends % Bnf
! fai0, distance u 20 miles; another 4
I Philadelphia and Baltimore, nearly 300
miles, and another TO n point In Eastern
/ PennsVlyania, distance 81 10 miles