Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-19
THE BEE in BYCONE DAYS.
Recollections of Men and Events of
a Decade Ago.
AN EDITOR IN SEARCH OF A JOB.
A Panoramic View OF the Interior OF
the Old Bee Omces, With Their
Wealth of Vigorous Work
rs--Reminescences.
Recoliections of sevcn,y-Nine.

BEE OF ten years ago. Inc picture OF tne greaJ
pnper ef to-day housed in its palatial quarters
with its score of editors and reporters and
its two hundred newsgatherers in different
parts of the state, the west and the great
eastern capitals, rises before me as l attempt
to sketch the institution on that August
morning when first presented myself as an
aspirant Tor place on It's staff. The time
which has elapsed makes the contrast none
the less vivid, despite the many changes
which have taken place in the interval.
OF the editors, reporters, foremen, clerks
and prints" who IL 1878 helped to make the
Omaha BEE, scarcely a half dozen remain.
The rickety old desks, tables, cases and inn
posing stones are replaced by now and hand
some furniture. The single cylinder Hoe
press which we then thought marvel of
speed aud watched in youthful rapture is
replaced by monster Webb machines
throwing off their thousands of papers an
hour. The little corner in which the
wheezy Baxter engine threatened with in
stant death tho surrounding neighborhood
has given way to an acre of
engines, elevator pumps, switch
boards, wetting machines. and the innumer-
able pieces of paraphernalia with which the
newspaper ID CuuippSu.
Let mo ask some of the sprightly young
gentlemen connected with that newspaper
to-day, and who glide up through seven
story space in the cabs of handsome eleva-
tors to accompany me on visit to the BEE
building and the BEE establishment as il was
ten years. ago.
The dusky two-story red brick structure in
which THE BEE was tnen printed was scarce
ly less inferior to the Office from which it
mas lately moved than it's late quarters are
tn ,syhir 1pin i,,,fy
beehive painted on it's front warned all APP
plicants for positions that work and not style
WIS what was required of inmates. Inside,
on the ground floor the counting room di-
vided with the Job office the honors of gloom
and dirt. A semi-circular counter, sur
mounted by a hideous cast-iron railing, kept
at bay employees dunning for advances on
! their salary and public not too impatiently
rushing to get in advertisements. At the
| rear, q dozen type cases, a battered proof
press, and three or four imposing stones on
! ricketty stands announced the presence of
| the job Office, and pointed the way to the
editorial back stair stairs They @ We're dark
! climbed them and entered the editorial
| rooms / thought that had never seen such
| dingy set OF quarters as those into which
| stepped. The EDITORS den was situated in
the center OF the building, with no light eX-
| cept such as struggled in through glass
| sash partition which divided it from the COM
| posing room in front. The windows were
! thirty-tive feet distance from the desk, and
| the sunbeams were forced to dodge score
| of stands, cases and imposing stones before
| they could reach Mr. Rosewater'S table. On
| the other side was the city EDITORS room,
| similarly situated with respect to the rear of
| the building, and cut off from its windows
| by the job office and editorial room OF the
"Pokrok Zapadu," that exciting Bohemian
| journal, then as now edited by sturdy John
Rosicky. The combination of smells and
noises, the odor OF printing ink, roller COM
INV, tiDn old .lnfh III,
| of Slug Five, does a end even,' and 'Pull
out" the clanking of the proof press the un-
Ineligible iabber of a party of Bohemians
| in the rear room consulting the editor about
| "a marriage License, joined to an acrld contro-
versy between the city editor aud an angry
| subscriber made scene which left an in
! delible impression on my mind.
There were no drones on The BEE of old
| days. Each man was expected to do six
mems work, was willing to do four's, and
| generally compromised on five.
MIR. Rosewater and AL Sorenson consti-
tuted the staff before my arrival, the first
bearing the title OF editor and proprietor and
the latter carrying the burden OF the city
| department MIR. Rosewater was par eX-
cellence the all.around man of the estab-
lishment. He seemed to have obtained the
secret of two of the attributes of Deity; he
was omnipreSent and apparently OmniScient.
He wrote heavy editorials and pungent ed
itorial paragraphs; contributed local polit-
ical news to the city page, clipped selections
for the news columns, selected items for
those startling chestnuts dubbed "Connubial
Bliss" Peppermint Drops" and Honey
for the LADIES'" regulated the business
Office dozen times a day, and took sub
ScriptionS on the streets and advertising con-
tracts from the merchants. | used to think
his only sorrow was that be had not in addi-
tion been born steam engine so that he
could run the presses. They were about the
only thing in the establishment that he did
not move. In addition To his ordinary duties
| nnma1 he cOnGtanfl ly dayn1onpd eff u
interest in local politics, and always
had dozen fights and twice
that number of ward politicians on
his hands. On city or county election days,
THE BEE Office was usually depopulated and
every man, from editor down, after rushing
in copy, early took whirl at the polls. AT
ter hard days work on election day, fol
lowed by an all night session in collecting
returns, the editor would bob up serenely at
| Q o'clock the next morning with his arm full
| of exchanges and his mouth full of sugges-
tions about the paper, the last always perti-
nent but not as uniformly agreeable. His
indomitable energy, his uncompromising per-
| sistency and his invinclble pluck We're al
once the wonder and admiration of the Office
| Carrying the heavy financial burden of 9
paper depending alone upon its excellence
| for popular support and fighting its battles
single handed, in the darkest days he never
doubted its ultimate success, and hopefully
increased expenses with every increase OF
receipts. OverWorked himself, he took his
| own nlRu UcuSlOu uS tuc uOTllS VI WUFk. duI
| found it difficult to understand why all of his
employees could not endure cheerfully thu
same racking. This made him often very
unpleasant as an employer, but it disciplined
his employees who found no difficulty else
where in more than attaining the level o.
| work of other Offices
The city editor was another Journalistic
"Pooh Bah" He had no other copy
to edit but his own, and was ex-
pected, with the aid of ''pait
| locals' to fill five columns daily on thu
fourth page. He was religious and societ,
reporter, reflector of the doings of the courts
and railways, dramatic critic and sporting
fire and commercial editor at one and th'
same time. His duties began at o'clock il
the morning when he commenced to turn II
copy for the morning edition, then printed a
1880, and ended when the news gave out 70
the day. In that interval of from twelve U
| eighteen hours he was expected to cover
, solitary and alone, the twelve scattere
1 square miles of stores ana dwellings whc
, ten years ago comprised the ballwick o
Omaha The early morning round bega
| Immediately after breakfast. 1t comprised
rapid visit to the coroner's and undertaker's
, | the district court, the county clerks Office +
| transcribe the real estate transfers, an In
| terview with all the city and county officials
as brief usually as a society call, and hast
l return To the editorial rooms in order