The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-03-26
BREEZY JOURNALISM.
THE FIRST DAILY PAPER ESTABLISH
ED IN LEAoWLLE.

Its Pathway Was Rough and 8t0ny--Twen-
ty Hoars' Work o Nay For Editor and
Manager-The Job me waaa veratable
Bonanza-Prices No object.
In 1878 Leadville had no newspaper
worthy the name, and people were
gathering there by the thousands. AT
that time I was the foreman of the Dem
yer Tribune, and In looking the situa-
tion over l became, In common with
scores OF others, possessed of d desire to
fill one of the long felt wants OF the new
community. After talking 1t over with
a couple Of fellow printers and figuring
up the cost we agreed on q local habi-
tation and q name.
There was no such thing as d house to
be had in Leadville at that time. /
couldn't even find o room. Finally / So
cured q lot from q squatter ont on Har-
r1son avenue. It was way OF in the sage
brush, and / selected it because it was
cheap. After a great deal Of difficulty
and using what influence ! could with
the sawmills / got together lumber
enough to build aone room house to ac-
commodate the paper. 1t wal almost
impossible to get carpenters or people
who would do any kind of labor. Ev-
erybody was in pursuit Of carbonates.
However, after something of a strug-
gle the house was put up, and / was no
titled of the shipment OF the Office ap-
purtenances from the st. Louis type
foundry. Being a practical printer and
aware OF our somewhat straitened finan-
cial condition, the purchasing partner
had bought just enough OF the various
kinds of material to get out 3 small
daily, which we called The Evening
Chronicle.
One partner was made business man.
ager, a second took the mechanical de-
partment, while ! was selected TO do the
editing. I was managing editor, city
editor, telegraph editor, set mp a little
type, made up forms and attended to a
few other trifies. All of as worked to-
gether almost increasingly day and
night.
Hundreds of firms were being estab-
lished in Leadville with not q line OF
printed matter in any shape-not a let
terhead or even q card. We had less
than $25 in our treasury when we print
cd cur first issue and knew we must de-
pend on our job Office for arevenue. We
got it.
It was not How much does itcostY''
in Leadville at that time, but How
soon can ! have it?" We knew how to
give it, and we learned how to charge.
Everybody else was doing the same
thing, each i'm his own line OF business.
Our stock of job papers was limited,
and correspondingly short counts were
given to customers. The editor and
business manager assisted with the job
work at night, ran presses, sawed wood
and kept mp fires. As a sample 81
charges I win tell you of one order we
filled.
We had no particular hours or labor,
but were generally on feet from 10
to 30 hours ont Of the "a. After q day
work Of this kind we were just shutting
down one night when q gentleman came
I'm and said he wanted % cards printed
immediately. He was running some sori
of a game at Tom Kemp's theaters and
this game required cards with figures,
one figure to a card. He said he didn'i
care what they cost 30 he had them by I
o'clock. IT was then about 2, and VI
accommodated him. He was waiting
when the messenger, who was armed
with the bill, arrived. 31s
".Haye you got them2'' he said. "How
much are they2"
The messenger was afraid the mar
would fall down If he pronounced ths
amount, 30 he handed over the bill. Tbs
sporting man pulled from his pockets
wad Of greenbacks and handed over two
tens and a fye-$25 for 25 cards. Al
the messenger started to go away thu
man said: Hold ON. Now, look here
I'm a gambler-that's the way / max,
my living-but isn't this bill just q lit
tie high?"
You needed to know something abou'
running a newspaper in those days
There was no lack Of material, but 4
was not all easy sailing In q mixet
crowd aggregating some 40, 600 peopl.
from all parts of the world and I'll
classes Of society. There was not wha
could be called a large proportion d
eyangelists In the crowd either.
One day we were notified that WI
would have TO move. In fact. force d
men presented themselves and declares
their willingness and intention to assis
as in the speedy transfer of our good
and chattels to green fields and pasture
new. They didn't have furniture vans
but they had some very ugly looking
guns sticking ont of their pockets. w
didn't see IL that way, so Davis slippei
out and got two or three rifles and q
many more revolvers and came back.
We closed the doors and announces
our intention Of remaining where W
were. This kind of thing was repeate,
several times, but finally quiet waa re
stored, u title resting In our firearms
I had paid 800 for that lot, and III wa
now worth $10, 900; hence the conten
ti0n.
I believe / have written more murder
and shootings in . given length of tim,
than any other newspaper man In I'll
country. One day we had four. whicl
- m~m~~A ~m& $1,000 So E-1&GrxAA &M AZ