Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-28

pointment to the librarians chair in 1854 but
the most unique type of copyright ever known
at the Office has only developed within the last
year.
1t is in the shape OF copyrighting the daily
issue of a newspaper. and the New York Sun
enjoys the distinction OF being not only the first
journal in America, but far as Mr.. Spot
| ford knows the only one in the world to make
| each days publication exclusively its own and
! prevent the pirating Of scoops" verbatim by
| less enterprising newspapers about Gotham.
For this privilege Mr.. Dana pays Uncle Sam 81
| per day, and newspaper copyright fees have
| enriched the treasury to the tune of nearly
$500 for 1892. But after the daily issue reaches
the Congressional Library the typographical
! document is accorded no more prominent berth
among the files than its 200 fellow dailies. and,
| with few exceptions. the great crypt at the
Capitol Is the home of them all.
| GREAT COLLECTION OF NEWSPAPERS.
The average visitor to the big white pile has
no desire to examine the architecture of the
basement, for the guides are very apt to try
| earning their fees as quickly as possible
and announcing that only committee rooms are
the card of attraction in that particular locality
The Goddess OF Liberty on top of the dome
hasnta word to say, Of course. SO the sight
! seer Is never informed tina: far down in the
| gloom beneath the rotunda there is a crypt, and
| lection OF newspapers in the world. But the
CORRECTION is there just the same. Ask the man
bHsiiy engaged sorting into volumes the stacks
oil printed matter under Pickering gas jet next
| the crypt and he will tell YOU that the library
already has 16, 500 bound volumes of newspapers
among these musty tones, and that the mass il
| increased every year by the addition Of 70. 900
individual issues. This man Is Capt. Van Ness.
and he Is as proud of the files he has Just put
into shape since 1888 as spring poet with his
| latest ebullition ON that subject
Mice are death on paper files and the official
library car wakes fat in keeping the crypt and
surrounding rooms free from the pests. The
black and white specimen of the feline family
| il generally the only sign Of life visible after
Capt. Van Ness has left his post for the day. and
| into this almost Ssygian gloom and silence the
shouts of Mr.. Speaker" and The Senator
from Kansas has the floor never penetrate
Nevertheless 1t is the place where many a fine
piece OF rhetoric displayed on the floor of the
Senate or House finds It's fgurative oratorical
| ammunition. and since 1874 that collection Of
newspapers has been veritable magazine for
| the legislators above stairs
SUBSCRIPTIONS TO NEWSPAPERS.
Eighteen years ago Congress passed bill
authorizing an annual appropriation to be ex-
pended in annual subscription for two daily
newspapers published in each state and with
opposite political faith Previous to that time
accumulated at the State Department, until
Office space was al premium and the Con-
gress1onal Library received only comparatively
Few dallles and weeklies literary addition
TO Mr.. Spofford's sanctum. The new wrinkle
however. brought about desirable change
The valuable files at the State Department were
sent to the Congressional Library bound and
put INTO presentable shape for future reference
Those already in the librarians possession and
being daily received We're classified to cor
respond. and at tie end of each session
the Senate and Houss files were raided to sup
ply missing numbers in the library ranks. This
policy has been regularly followed since and
| the daily invoice from all sources amounts to
200 papers.
The accumulations have not been confined to
| American journals either, with the result that
leading English, German and French publica-
| tions are among Capt. Van Ness treasures, with
| every issue as far back as the seventeenth CEN
fury. The flies for papers this side Of the
Atlantic are equally if not more complete and
certainly more unique. As showing the grad
uai development OF modern progressive jour
| nalism from the standard of ''news a month
Old, clippings and no editorials Of q century
ago, this ~articular part OF the congressional
| library down Ill the crypt is q whole museum in
| itself.
JOURNALISTIC GRAVEYARD.
Washington as q journalistic graveyard has
been standing newspaper joke for three
decades When the ill-starred Critic joined its
| deceased fathers two years ago the capital was
left with the only daily that continued its pros
perlty from before war times to date The
STAR forty years OF existence as newspaper
make an interesting picture, painted by the
dozens OF volumes Mr.. Spofford exhibits in
bound form on tine library shelves. From the
miniature four-pager to the enlarged thirteen
EN- column. eight-page and double sheet issue
now is fair type OF the progressive theory
W. aalo, = Al
and the ads. and telegraph matter are
rather conspicuous by comparison. The
gradually increasing sizes of the different
volumes on the shelves look the numerous
progeny of a backwnodsman. each a head taller
than his neighboring scion of the house, but
this Is not the cemetery where the deceased
Washington newspapers inferred. Those
that still move and have their being around the
capital NJ. Spofford keeps in the library proper,
and the crypt Is devoted TO the sheets which
nourished when stereotyping plates and Is, 900
copies an hour were unknown.
There hundreds OF very lively dailies
stored there, too, because cramped quarters
above stairs prevent their public exhibition
Ihe crypt Is, therefore. tomb and storehouse in
one. and the old National Intelliqencer has the
Largest headstone. From 1900 to 1869 is fairly
long stretch for newspaper work. but the files Of
the Intetigencer are complete from its birth of
| the beginning of the century to the suspension
after Grants Inauguration. There is a wealth
OF historical matter in those volumes, with all
their accounts Of the British raiding and burn
Ing OF Washington in 1914, the stirring leglsla-
tive rows at the Capitol in jackson and Clay q
time, and finally the civil war and Lincoln's as
fascination. At the same time the Inteiliqencer
| Is not the Oldest specimen Of American Journal
| Ism on file in the crypt.
| THE FIRST DAILY IN THIS COUNTRY.
The palm for that belongs to the first daily
paper published in this country. 1t is now
known as the Phila delphia North American,
but as the first daily it appeared September 81,
1854, under the hyphenated title OF Dunlop 5
ana Leopotds Packet and Advertiser. Capt.
van Ness has every issue Of the intervening
| 10y years slowed away in the various volumes.
and the initial number was sem-in those
days; The paper was founded as q tri-
weekly October %, iii. but Altar
| changing hands several times finally
lowered the street and subscription price per
issue from sixpence to four and started in As A
full-hedged daily. Local news must have bean
at premium and editorial matter unknown.
for clippings from foreign papers two months
| old did duty in the main, and to ceiebrste the
new dress twelve of the sixteen columns were de-
voted to advertising A paragraph from the pub
| hsners announced that strict impsrtiality
would be observed in printing ada, but imme-
diately below appeared the trade splurRe of one
merchant OF the day, named John MurRatroyd.
This dealer had lately imported . barrel organ
from abroad and had the article for sale. n
PLAYED, so said the ad., "Rule Brittanis and
CIV Psalm. But perhaps the Packet and ADDER