Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07
MURRAY'S MUSINGS.
Changes in the Newspaper Business Within
Quarter OF a Century-A Keystone
State Legislator Makes a Mistake-The
Football Craxa L., No.

suspender which was fastened with nail, with
hands and face smeared with printers ink. l
stood on an empty shoe-box, roller in hand, and
assisted in getting out a newspaper. Though
was only sub" the thrill of self-conscious i'm
portance that ambled up and down my youth
ful BACK upon that occasion will never be for
gotten. That old Washington hand press
seemed to me a living thing. Since that time
have been identified with the newspaper busi-
ness, with brief relapses, but the constant and
rapid Improvement in mechanical appliances
in this particular field have been the more in
teresting to me because of that early
experience Ten years later sat up
the New York the HgGd gaedt SitOess
the operation of getting out metropolitan
newspaper in the highest style of the art.
Ihose great eight or rten-cylinder presses stood
in an immense cellar, 30 feet below ground. IN
grand imposing row of complicated steel. The
small army of feeders with their stocks of cut
sheets occupied little iron platforms one above
another. and the crash and clatter of the ma
chinery in motion shook the earth for block
around. Another army of folders and paper
carriers and stereotypers pressmens assistants
etc., made up formidable array of busy work
ers, while hundred newsboys, on whom the
paper chiefly depended for its circulation. slept
among the paper bundles and waste. The
place was lighted by gas and hot to sutfocatIop.
The outfit was then the best and most ex-
penslve that could be obtained, and the system
was the most complete that experience and
money could suggest apd buy. To me it seemed
impossible then that the work of and appli-
ances for getting out great newspaper could
be improved upon. The other night, with
many other invited guests, stood in the great
pressroom of the World in its new home, ap-
propriately at the foot of that other triumph
of human progress, the Brooklyn bridge.
twenty-five years had elapsed, and the contrast
of methods and machinery was, to me as great
as when sat up that night In the Herald
pressroom and thought of the old hand press
1t would be just as impossible TO get out the
Sunday edition of to-day by the means of 70
years ago as it would have been then TO do the
work Of the Herald on old Washington hand
presses, The little compact machines that oc-
cupy no more space than country jobber.
print from a continuous roll and cut and fold
as fast as you can count. seem to be the very
acme of mechanical ingenuity and skill. A
dozen of these machines doing this at once
makes less fuss. sputter and noise than single
old fashioned ten cylinder. They alone make
such journal as those of New York possible.
And these modern presses form only part of
the newspaper. The pressroom is model. As
light as day by electricity, roomy and well
ventilated, it makes the life of a pressman
tolerable. The same thing may be said of the
stereotypers' department, rare thing in any
newspaper office-these men usually labor in
deathly hole not unlike that in the bottom OF
an ocean steamship. Aside from all other con-
| siderations the designer of the new newspaper
| quarters has apparently considered the ques'
tlon of the health and comfort OF its employees,
especially those who labor with their hands. II
| anybody is crowded it is the editor and re-
| porter. Indeed, think this is a conspicuous
feature of the Pulitzer building SO far as the
newspaper quarters are concerned. though the
appointments IN every respect are thorough.
handsome and substantial. When the paper
sets up its 100 Rogers typesetting machines it
will be one of the most conspicuous sights OF
the metropolis.
That Baby Hippopotamus.
THERE is one man, at least. in Central Park
who is still making money notwithstanding
the close of the season. He is the keeper of
the building in the zoo which contains the
baby hippopotamus. For some days after the
birth OF this curious little beast and while the
papers were full of him the authorities very
properly barred visitors. Otherwise there
would have been mob, and this mama hippo
would probably have resented. There was a
question as to whether he could be raised"
as it was. After awhile confidence was
partially restored in the latter respect. and it
was decided that few people might be ad-
mitted at a time. This was several weeks ago.
Since that the man in charge has used his
discretion in the matter. his discretion being
extended to the probable tips. To ordinary
visitors this part of the zoo has not yet been
open. Where the party is pressing and prom
ises money the doors open as if by magic. In
asmuch as the same building contains the
rhinoceros the lions, tigers, leopards, pumas,
etc.. about the best of the Central Park col
lection, the disappointment of those who go to
the zoo just now is great. Those admitted are
usually perfectly willing to give the keeper
quarter, under the circumstances, but it is a
tride hard on poor people and others who do
not know the ropes Every time have been
| in the building that thrifty keeper has scooped
81 or more out of the small party and as these
parties succeed each other every few minutes
on Sundays this park official must turn pretty
penny.
Brick Pomeroy Turns Up.
THERE is to be seen on lower Broadway every
day, portly, well-dressed gentleman in a
slouched hat that covers a large and shining
head. who has made a big stir in his time, but
WHO is lost in the general throng here among
ex-Presidents, ex-Cabinet officers, mlllionaires
and ex-millionaires and other big and little
people. This man is probably known to every
adult in the United States as "Brick'' Pomeroy
Brick changes very little with years, but is
the same jolly, good-natured, abstemous, cyni-
cal gentleman of yore. He runs paper called
advanced Ihought, and is. as usual, consider
ably in advance of his constituency and age.
His real business, however. is the completion
of his great project of boring hole through
the Rocky Mountains and his first and best ad-
a very pleasant home in Brooklyn. happy and
charming wife and three of the loveliest chill
dren you ever saw.
A Pennsylvania Legislators Mistake.
WTE were coming out of the Eden Musee.
of Otero and were discussing her points.
There is an unusually fine display of wax
figures on either hand, and these are disposed
of in groups, or singly. in clothes character
istic of those they are made to represent. So
life-like are many that itrequires familiarity
not to mistake them for living persons. To aid
this deception, very cleverly made figures of
policemen, visitors, ETC., are interspersed here
and there as at such places in Paris and Lon
don. A member of the Pennsylvania Legisla-
ture was in our party, bright, handsome
young fellow, who hao seen the great dancer
for the first time.
'She Is no more to be compared with Car
meIcita," said he as we passed out, than this
wax figure is with me-"
The manner in which that supposed wax
figure, which proved to De q well-known man
about-town turned upon the astonished and
embarrassed PENNSYLVANIA was enough to
shrivel up a cornfeld. The polite apology
stuck in the innocent offenders throat and we
fed precipitately-I may aad in tears of exces-
sive amusement
The Boys Owned New York.
THE capacity Of the boy of the period for en-
joyment is practically unlimited. When
that boy is a collegian let loose for day or
two's pleasure along with several hundred
others of the same ilk something has to give
way or he'll burst. That calamity was avoided
here during the recent football match by the
rest of society giving way. If anybody had
told me that it was possible for five or six hun
dred boys between the ages of Is and 25 to over
New York for two days and nights. should not
have believed it. Yet that is just what these
young fellows did. They made New York
howl. 1t was generally good humored and un-
accompanied by brawling, this pleasure, but it
upset the nerves of a good many people. A
shopkeeper on Broadway tells me he did