St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-22
EDITING THE .THUNDERER. ("

How the London Times Was Start
ed and Its Proprietor Pilloried.
M. Blowitz in Art Review
The London Times first appeared on
the 1st of January, 17sS, and the Morn
ing Post is its only senior among Eng
lish dailies, the Post having started ten
years earlier. The history of its birth
and early struggles under John Walter
has often been told: how that worthy
man. being an underwater. lost his
hereditary fortune of 9SO,000 by the
capture OF fleet of English merchant
vessels by French squadron, and. fail
Ing to get satisfaction out of the govern
ment, at once started newspaper called
the Universal Register, primarily in
order to develop wonderful print
ing patent, which has never to this day
been OF any use; how, three years later,
he changed the name of his paper to
the Times; how he endured six months
imprisonment, with the pillory and
fine, for publishing scandalous reports
about the royal dukes, and was on the
point of abandoning journalism in con-
sequence, but. fortunately, did not do
SO. In 1903 John Walter IL, at the age
of twenty-seyen, was intruSted by his
father with the entire management of
Il
and prosperity date, we are told, from
that moment. From the commence
ment of its existence to our day the line
of conduct of the Times has not been
varied, though it has often changed
sides and cOmbatted to-day those it sup
ported yesterday, which is just the case
at this moment
In the present reign of John Walter
IIl.-whO reigns but does not rule-the
real editorial work of the Times begins
about IL p. m. At that hour the outer
sheet, containing the title. advertise
ments and some lengthy articles, is
already printed, and the editor has
given his general orders. He is now
comforting with his leader writers, who
will shortly retire to their rooms. From
1880 O'Clock the printers boys will
come and fetch the copy every ten min
uteSAfancy the strain of writing a
leader under the perpetual interruption
thus indicated-and it is at once set up
by special staff of .cOmpoSitors as
signed to each article.
AS every reader of the Times knows,
there are certain pages unalterably al
lOtted to the same subjects. This must
save lot of trouble, and the same re-
mark applies to the fixed headings in
the columns of foreign news. For how
many weary months were we daily con-
fronted with that same heading,
Egypt, England and the Soudan," and
others of a similar import? Berlin and
Vienna have daily special wires. and
all other European capitals have them,
but without fixed time. Philadelphia
and Calcutta have the wire on special
days. Thus every one knows that a
long Indian telegram will appear in
Mondays edition of the Times, and
that whether there is any important
news to send OF not.
The Times is every day printed with
new type. 1t employs sixteen short
hand writer's in the two houses of parlia-
ment, and the telephone is employed
for transmitting the copy" to the COM
positor; or, rather, no copy is sent.
but the message is set up directly as it
is received by the compositor's ear. For
thirty-twO years John Delane, the cele-
brated editOr-in-ehlef, reached his office
at 1880 p. III. and left at a. M, ju st
when the first printed copy issued from
the press. About 3 a. m. the maker
up stated the amount of matter.
and Mr.. Delane, without looking at
this mass of 100 columns, indi-
Gated from memory what had to
he added to or cut out, paragraph by
paragraph, and almost line for line. At
4 O'Clock he went home, took light
supper, went to bed. and arose about
noon. He Iunched about p. M. dis
patched his correspondence, received
calls, went out about o'clock for ride
on horseback, went to his club, dressed
for dinner, dined nine times out of ten
at the club in the town, took a glance at
what there was to see, and, wherever
he might be, took leave at 1915 and
went to his Office. 81 go into these de-
tails" says M. Blowitz. Ito show at
what cost man can aspire to the honor
of editing the Times"