Los Angeles herald., 1890-12-05
GRABBED FOR DEBT.
A Newspaper That Has Sunk
$150,OOO.
The Tribune in the Hands of
the Sherif's Men.
After Four Years and Two Months
Existence 1t Suspends.
The Trombone's Manifold and Great Trib-
ulations Land 1t at Last in the
Journalistic Graveyard.

Dleu, III IlllS ClIy ldSG llSHI, lTOm
malnutrition, the Bone Trombone Trib-
une, aged years and 2 months to a
day.
If so soon I have been done fer,
What the deuce was I begun for?
The subject of this sketch, whose
nomen is The Los Angeles Tribune,
cognomen Trombone and agnomen Bone,
was born four years and two months ago.
The infant was always sickly, and was
not skillfully nursed at any period of its
short career. Born OF rich, and, let US
say, honest parents, there has been Law
ished on it during it's brief sojourn in
this vale of tears a handsome fortune,
but all in vain There was too little
vital force in its delicate organism,
and therefore it had at last to
succumb to the rough buffets of
a hostile world. The circulation OF the
infant was weak at all times; it was
particularly lacking in mental force, and
the physicians who had the case in
hand were lacking in skill, while its
nurses were bungling and the atmos-
phere surrounding it unhealthy,
As suitable to the occasion, the choir
beg pardon the band will play that
touching refrain
''Down went McGinty."
In plain language, the Los Angeles
Tribune is defunct. For some days past it
has been an open secret that the paper
was in another difficulty. 1t has
been in so many that unlike the famous
Caddy in Erminie, it can neither set up
the plea of first offense, nor yet that
OF an alibi. But so often has it pulled
out of the clutches of the sheriff that it
was expected to do 80 again, until late
last night. By evening matters had
come to such pass that the sheriff had
once more assumed complete control of
the Office and plant; but the printers
were told to stand by and see what
might turn up i'll the way of rescuing
party on the stormy sea of tinan-
cial ruin. 1t was futile
watch, for by midnight all hope seemed
lost. Two executions had been levied
on the plant, one by the Bank of Cali
fornia, on a judgment obtained some
months ago for $500, and one by j. G.
Kiel, on a similar issue for $500. The
only way to dispose of these difficulties
was to satisfy the judgments, or at
least those who hold them. Confer
ences were held, lasting up to midnight,
but without any visible results. At that
hour not type had been set, or other
step taken to issue a paper for this
morning; and as more than half the
work is usually done by that hour, it is
hard to see how anything could be done
of an effective nature after that
The history of the Tribune may inter-
est people not acquainted with the work
of running such business. Its publi
cation was undertaken not because OF
the existence of a field for such an enter
prise, but because of the chagrin of cer-
tain people against the Times. That
paper did not suit a small wing of its
party, and the kickers set the Tribune
on foot. The people who undertook its
publication were utterly unframed in
the newspaper business, and they gath
erred around them a corps of down
right amateurs. The boom then
at it's height, and the unwise policy pur-
sued by the Times in vigorously adver-
tising the new rival, enabled it to eke
out living for while, but when hard
times came and the other paper learned
the wisdom of letting it alone, then
came dark days. Its first block of stock
OF $25, 900 had been unwisely spent in a
plant. Another block of equal amount
was floated. That was spent, and still
the sheriff was on the Threshold of the
door. A third block of sos, 900 was put
on the market, and 10 $75 900 in hard
cash had been sunk in the paper,
and still the ledger balanced on the
wrong side. H. H. Boyce, Henry T.
PAYNE, and all their sisters and cousins
and aunts, and all their wives relatives,
who had embarked in the enterprise, lost
all their money In the case of Boyce
this was handsome fortune. So it was
in the case of others. Col. F. A. East
man was drawn into the venture and he
dropped another fortune.
The last attempt to make this balky
journalistic mare go by the use OF money
was when the present manager, Mr..
Morrow, and his friends took hold of it
last spring. The flowers were all abloom
then, and now the melancholy days
have come, the saddest of the year.
Mr.. Morrow is reported to have dropped
nearly cool $40, 600 in the sink whence
it will not return. 1t has been rumored
that Senator Stanford's long purse has
been tapped not infrequently for the ben
eft of the Bone, and it has been known
that Governor Waterman has tried
to keep it in flesh. The Republican
city, county and state officials, and the
candidates and would-be candidates of
the G. o. p., have been subscribers more
or less voluntary for its support Alas
1t would not do. The sum of $150,O0O
has been sunk in the journalistic grave
where sleeps the Tribune the sleep that
knows not waking.
No further seek its merits to disclose,
Nor draw its frailties from their dread abode.
But the moral is plain. When anna
teurs set out to start new paper where
there is no field for such an enterprise,
it would save them no end of trouble to
tie their money up in sack and throw
it in the sea, or give it to the might-be
reporters to take a trip to Europe on.
Amateurs hereafter in this line of bust
ness should say nothing, but saw wood.
RESURGAT.
An hour later runners came in from
some rear alley off Broadway, with the