The Portland daily press., 1897-02-03
THE BOSTON BEE.
A Portland Mans Paper at the Boston
Pre- SIS Club Diner.

To the Editor Of the Press:
As had received cordial invitation
with all old time printers, to attend til e
annual banquet of the Poston Press
Club, to be at the American House on
the afternoon and evening of January
Goth, I was very much pleased at the
opportunity of attending and it proved
the most inter esting of any previously
held by the club. 1 prepared paper
upon the eighteen years of publication Of
The Boston Daily Bee, beside something
about the old time method of printing
newspapers on hand presses which may
be of enough interest to have published,
which will foll,w later. One interest
ing incident happened during the
the publication of Bee there suddenly in
Boston an exeentric man named George
Jones, the Count Joannes" the "Bee"
published an editorial pretty thoroughly
denounciug him as fraud, etc.; he was
rather indignant and sued the Bee Co. !"
for $l0 900; he handled his own case and
Lawyer Joseph Nickerson for the Bee.
The court brought in the munificent sum
of one cent for the damage.
It is wonderful to note what vast i'm
proyement has Teen made in the last
seventy five years in my time in tn g
newspaper line alone. AT about 1880 whe n
I went to my trade, it Was the day OF
hand presses. They were then d1scard1ng
the way of distributing the ink on the
two page form of the type it consisted OF
circular piece of sheepskin, Tiled with
cotton, about as large as mans head,
Uho tncE RA WOODEN
handle, and distributing the ink thiniy
on table, then using two Of the balls,
striking them together on table, SO as
to he well distributed with ink to cover
the two page form of tpye.
Then came the composition rollers,
long enough to cover two page form,
with high table and piece Of board
about four inches wide, considera bly,
raised on the back, with trough at the
side Of the table to hold ink, with three
inch composition roller to distribute INK.
One man to put on the ink with roller,
and one to do the pulling, as it WAS
called, each man changing positions
about oncs an hour. Next came the
Hoes power press, and since that there
have been several more improvements,
until at this day there can be many
thousands struck of. cut and folded IN
an hour.
At the timo of the old hand presses
they had to have two Impressions to com
plete "A paper, and the average Of about
two hundred and forty impressions in
making ~ completed paper, one hundred
and twenty an hour. Truly we live in q
wonderful ags. Where is the room for
as much lncreage in the next fifty or
seventy five years in this one pnrticu-
Lar field.
Very late in the evening President
Alexander announced to the club that
they had visitor from Portland whom
the club would be pleased to hear from
hut as the hour was so late. it would he
impossible AS he introduced me l re-
marked was very much pleGscd to be
present and was very gratefully obliged
to the CLUB for their very generous re-
ception.
The whole programme was grand in
every respect, especially the Cover nor's
speech, to whom l had the honor to
be introduced with kind greetings.
Another grand feature CT the occasion
was Mr e. w. Hazeweu fof the Tran
script) by very humoro recital of
how he edited the London Times for one
night after hearty snpper. 1t could
hardly be appreciated without hearing 1T.
Speaking of Mr.. Hazswell. was we'll
a-uuninted with his father, who was for
q lo1g time 'connected with the Traveller.
The Bee often engaged him to write obit-
usries of prominent men and many inter-
esting events occurring, foreign OF
domestic.