The San Francisco call., 1897-11-13
FOUADING o. "IHE GALL."

Colonel -4yers' -iccount Of the Successftts
Newspaper VentHre.
In an article written for and published
IN The CALL in February of last year
Colonel Ayers told of his newspaper Ca
reer IN California and OF the founding OF
HE CALL. The article is ere re produced
believe I can safely say I started the Oldest
newspaper In this State II was IN 1851 that
Harry Decorcey. Henry Hamilton and myseIt
bought printing Ou;ht iii San Francisco an d
took ourselves 10 Mokeiumue Hill. Wnere we
soon had the Ca4Hveras Chronicle pDea ring
weekly. The camp was a large one and yery
lively at that time. l was up there ABOUT a
week ago 1t Is only ghost OF he camp IL
was in those days. l believe that paper is the
only one which has been published continu-
ouSly ever SINCE under the same name. In
% l went East on Il visit, and when I re-
turned, in company with others, we ieased
the theaier there, and l bet ame a theatrical
manager
I returned to San Francisco in '55. and be-
gan 10 work on the Herald, which was large
commercial paper up 10 the day the "Vig-
lance e CUmmittee" was formed That com
OF the city, and lis objsct was to clear the city
OF some OF its hard Characters. The next day
the Herald came out in favor OF law and or
der and strongly opposed the action of the
committee. b night is advert h
al Withdrawn thrir support and the SUBJ
scribers FAD g ordered tile per stopped. A
Smdll SuSet, known SS tne- Town Talk, came
out in favor OF the "V giianis. and it went
ahead like II rocket. Advertisers rushed to it
and the su descriptions rolled fu.
This left vacant the field for small and
cheap paper. saw the opportunity and was
nOtsIow Il grasping il. There were FIVE OF u.s.
practical prln ers and newspaper fellows, so
we Dooled our issues and formed co-opera-
tive company TO get out daily At l2% cents
per week. We named il the MoRNING CALL
which name il retained until its present pro-
prletor, believe, changed the name TO the
SAN FRANCISCO CALL. l was chosen editor and
was TO assist Il setting type when not other
wise emp oyed
David W. ii ggins, now q wealthy but retired
publisher at Victoria, B. G., was my assistant
IN both capacities. That was our editorial ana
reportorlal force. George Eustace Barnes was
our business manager. He was assisted b.
Feter b. FORSTER, now passed away Charles
Johnson was the chief C IN pos tor He too
as gone the way We viii all have to go.
In those day u paper never had but two
men on the editorial and reportoriGl staff COM
DlneQ, ana tney ranked as editor and assis tant
we had success from the start, and in q few
weeks had TO enlarge our paper. When we
started IL was little smaller than the front
page OF The CALL to-day. The original plan
on which the paper laid out was TO con-
dense and 10 Tell every thing IN the most con-
else manner possibl There were no rail-
roads or telegraphS IN those days, but we did
not lack Tor SEN atlons by any means There
was always some excitement 10 keen mn the
Interests OF readers, as there is TODAY We
often had duels to report, politics were lively
and then mining news was always a soprce of
greatiutsrest.
Every two weeks the steamers arrived. and
we would receive a Let of old Eastern pape rs
with the doings OF the people IN the States
We would go through them and get the most
interes ting news out for the next day Then
later, ss we had more time, we would 20 over
Them again and get out more that was OF in
terest. Our policy was 10 Issue can family
newspaper 1t was well conducted and a thor
oughIy representative, square and honest
paper Naturally advertising came in to US,
and we built up, enlarging as became neces-
sary, until at the end OF ten years it was the
best paying paper on the coast. AT that time
we had scription OF II 900 and popula-
tion OF 10000.
The manner of how the paper was named
has been told, but it may be new to many of
It's readers to-day. We had talked the matter
over, and decided that we didn't want any of