The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-04
8 BACK-NUMBER BUDD"
The PROSPEROUS BUSINESS OF An
ENTERPaIsGNc COLORE0 MAN
Over Million Copies Of Old Newspapers
Collected On Al Original Capital
Of SS-ReIiez Of Old
New York.



Pore-+N Bufd Back Number Budd
h L called Is : co.ored man and was born
u V ashI1 E-ou thirty Two years ago. rive
years szo he came 20 New TCrkwith s. In
his packet and opened boot backing stand
where WaLacks theatre now l. chreWd,
EMBARRASSING and industrious, he got along
and soon bTancLed out into the newspaper
business Like other new sdealers ne some
rir1es found himself with GnsOld copies OF
he daily uaDers Oh his hands The ire
cue1t inquiry for old papers suggested an
ffez 20 Ar BUdd, ard MS present 0usl-
ness & the Carrying out Of the idea-the
keeping Of complete Hles OF all New I ork
UeDerz % a. 10 be able 70 furnish back
numbers az any time
In The basement Of 1872 Broadway.
OF The east side u the street, z few doors
above Thirty second, Budd has his place
He srih dos business Is Z bOotDlack, but
NUMEROUS signs inform the public that
here they nay subscribe for any publica
oticn desired At one side Of the entrance
% the DARK basement Is this notice Back
numbers q al daily papers for every day
Il the year, while opposite Is another
sign Boots BACKED ) cents Still
another informs the public that the place
i open every day in the year from
z II % 10 Q. IL. and that while seven
boot backing tickets may be bought for
- cents, the proprietor Is not willing 70
labor On the Lords day for nothing and
therefore charges 10 cents for backing
boots after s 2 II On Sunday.
PAPERS ~ FILE.
When a reporter visited the place it was
very dark except at the foot Of the stairs,
and dim Iet Of gas u the back part Of
the room Only seemed 20 add TO the gen
eraI gloom. All about the room, on
shelves, tables and counters, were piles Of
newspapers The proprietor. tall, good
natuTed young fellow, was busy writing
II book, stopping now and then TO sort
out some particular paper from loose
pile behind him
yes. +" be said, @Tm Back Number
BUdd That nickname helps 10 advertise
my business. 90 l don't mind I've been
here since FEB %, 1852; began with less
than wagon-load Of old papers, and now
l have !, 800, 900.
What DO l charge for these old pa
persZ That depends on how old they are
and how much they are wanted My
prices run from cents up. Sometimes
these lawyers want a paper TO use in
court, and they have To pay for it The
most / ever charged for a single paper
was so. 4 lawyer paid me $40 for two
copies Of The sun published in 1861.
Newspaper men often borrow papers,
look them over here in the shop and pay
me 81 cents or 81 i large part Of my
II d'AE = Al bllE Country Dub i uEFEI 5Suu
papers out until they are paid for. Gen.
Grant has bought papers from me. In
June, 11S4, he came and got months
file of the papers containing an account Of
the Grant q Ward failure and the next
day his wife got The World and Tribune
for the same time.
How do | keep track? Oh, that's easy
enough. The papers are arranged by
dates and tied in bundles Of one month;
then each paper has its own particular
shelves, and the bundles are stored in reg
ular order and each bundle is tagged
Here, for instance" pointing to pile of
papers, A" is The World GU see they
are arranged in double rows of six; that
gives twelve bundles, one year on each
shelf You ask for The World Of July 4,
1853. Here's the '83 shelf; July is the
month, you know, and the paper you
want is the fourth from the top of the
bundle. The only trouble is that Pm
getting crowded and will soon need more
room This pace is 24xG5, and it's full
already. / keep files of twenty five
dailies, two Sunday papers and eight week
lies
CUSTOMERS AND BUSINESS.
"Who are your best customers?"
Newspaper men and lawyers, but l
have calls from all sorts Of people-lots of
them from out of town.
docs the business pay2"
well, / have l., 300, 900 old papers
you can put any value on them you please
and ! guess I've got the value of the IS
started out with. Next year | want to
buy a lot somewhere and put up build
ing TO store my stock in. l haven't room
for many more here. Yes, the business
pays, but I'm not too proud TO black boots
yet awhile.
Here are some old papers, placing
before the reporter a pile dusty and brown
with age. The first was Herald of May
%, 1874. The leading article was headed,
Squire Boggs Great Letter Against
James Gordon Bennett and the New York
and Erie Railroad Company. A Police
Gazette of May 20, 1865, had on its first
page wretcbed woodcut of the capture
Of Jeff Davis; a Frank Leslie's of April
30, 1863 showed Booth shooting Lincoln,
while the issue of May contained pic |
lures of Lincoln's funeral and week |
later, fullpage picture of two men in a
boat dumping sheeted figure into the
sea, was entitled, The Assassin's End.
Other papers were Herald of Aug 20,
1860, containing an account of the open |
ing of Central park; Tribune of Nov
:, 1874, with a two-column leader |
headed. "Can Conscientiously Vote for
Christian; a bound volumn of The Sun |
for the year 1884, including a copy of
June 20, of that year, with turned
column rules for the death of Lafayette
The Sun of those days was four-page
sheet, with three short columns to the
page The editors were Benjamin II.
lay and George w. Wisner
The Gar in Finland.
[Cor. London Standard
The Russians, it must always be re-
are cordially detested in Fin