The San Francisco call., 1896-02-19

and received his early newspaper training
in the cOmposing-room of the st. Louis
Republican.
Il was while there that he accepted Hor-
ace Greeley's advice snd came West to
grow mp with the country
He was found this afternoon sitting on
the veranda at his brother-in-Iaw's home
reading a paper. He said, in conversa-
tion:
believe I can safely say I started the oldest
newspaper IN this State 1t was in 1851 that
Harry DecOrcey, Henry Hamilton and myself
bought printing outfit in Ssn Francisco and
took ourselves 10 Mokelumne Hill, where we
soon had the CalaYeras Chronicle appearing
weekly The camp was large one and very
lively at that time. I was up there about
week ago II is only a ghost Of the camp il
was in those days. l believe that paper is the
only which has been published continu-
ously ever since under the same name. In
% went East on visit, and when l returned,
in company with others, we leased the theater
there and became theatrical manager.
l returned 10 san Francisco in '55, and
began work on the Herald, which wss large
commercial paper up 70 the day the vigilance
Committee vas formed. That committee
formed OF all the decent element OF the City,
and its object was to clear the City OF some OF
It's hard Characters The next dav the Herald
came out III favor OF law and order, and
strongly opposed the action OF the committee.
BY night It's advertisers had all Withdrawn
their support and the subscribers had all
ordered the paper stopped. small sheet,
known as the Town Talk, came out in favor of
the "Yigilants," and IL went ahead like a
rocket. Advertisers rushed 10 il and the sub
scriptions rolled in.
This left vacant the field for a small and
cheap paper l saw the opportunity and was
not slow in grasplng it. There were five OF US,
practical printers and newspaper fellows, so
pooled our issues and formed cooperative
company TO get out daily at 1212 cents per
week we named it the MoRNING CALL. which
name i retained until its present proprietor, l
believe, changed the name TO the San Fran
cisco CALL was chosen editor and was 10
assist in setting type when not otherwise en-
David W. Higgins, now a wealthy but retired
publisher al Victoria, B. c., was my assistant
IN both capacities. That was our editorial and
reportorial force. George Edwards Barnes was
our business manager. He was assisted by
Peter B. Forster now passed away. Charles f.
Johnson was the chief composltor. he, too,
has gone the way we viii all have to 60
In those days g paper never had but two
men the editorial and reportorial staff
combined, and they ranked as editor and as
sistant. We had success from the start and in
g few weeks had TO enlarge our paper. When
we started il was a little smaller than the front
page OF The CALL to-day. The original plan
on which the paper was laid out was to con-
dense and TO tell everything in the most con-
else manner possible. There were no railroads
or telegraphs in those days but we did not lack
for sensations by any means. There was al
ways some excitement TO keep up the interests
OF readers as there is to-day. we often had
duels TO report, politics were lively and then
mining news was always a source OF great in
terest
Every two weeks the steamers arrived and
we would receive q lot OF old Eastern pa pers
with the doings of the people in the States.
We would go through them and get the most
interesting news out for the next day. Then
later as we had more time, we could go over
them again and get out more that was OF in
terest. Our policy was to issue q clean family
rewsDarer Ii was well conducted and thor
ourhlv representative, square and honest pa
peY Naturally advertising came IN to US and
We built up, enlerging as became necessary,
until al the end of ten years 1t was the best
paving paper on the coast. AT that time we
had subscription OF IL, 600 in population OF
10000.
The manner OF how the paper was named has
been told but it may be new TO many OF its
readers TODAY We had ,elked the matter over
together and decided tnat We didn't want any
OF the old names; we wanted TO nave some
thing entirely new. One Sunday morning we
were all standing on Kearny street, when a
till-poster came along and put up the an
nouncement that Julia Dean Hayne would ap-
uear as Parlhenia in "Ingomar, ana the per-
torrance would close with the roaring farce,
The Morning Call" "There we are, poys, j
exclaimed. ave viii name our paper The
MORNING CALL" That is how one paper Sc
cured its meme.
Mr.. Ayers has written book called
Golden Sunshine. an AutoblographlcaI
II STORY of California. 1t IS out OF the
usual line of books treating OF the argo-
nautic DAYS 1t is full of sketches OF the
incidents that went TO make up the early
history of the State and of the prlnc1pal
men OF that day with whom he came III
daily contact.
On invitation of the Society OF Pioneers
he Will address that organization frlday
evening upon the subject-matter OF his
book. which has not yet been publish d.
The address will be in the Pioneer Hall,
San Francisco, and will be highly inter
tanning to both young and old.
This pioneer editor continued IN the