The Portland daily press., 1897-04-08

OlQ6f p6RdES-uuASi Ao0s UOO, E6fn6D6
they will do likewise. At any rate it is
worth trying" the man In search of a
vocation SAID to himself. Then be paid
for his breakfast. adding tip ''for
luck" and sourried Of to make the round
of the studios. It Ia needless to PARTON.
larize further. The clippings bureaus
had their beginning in just this hap.
hazard fashion.
the man had complete establishment in
Paris, another In LONDON, ana thifd IN
by letters patent, of course the bureaus
increased and multiplied. Now the
whole world 10 their pariah-evsn outly-
ing regions like Cape Town, In oontn
Africa, and Melbourne, Austraaa. oah
boast item In plenty. AS for europe,
India, and these United States, they are
blotohed and spattered with them. N3r
is that the whole extent Of the IDEA 8
growth. The railways aud express COM
pauies have taken 1t home to- themselves;
Once they were among the steadiest ana
best paying patrons Of the regular
bureaus. Now they have learned trick
worth two of that. 1t Is to collect, pre-
serve, and classify clippings for them
selves. Their agents all over the country
have Orders to preserve and send to head
quarters everything touching their own
life, or railway matters in general, which
appears in the local papers. The clip
pings are tsbulated and put into books,
duly indexed at the city Offices. where
other clerks nre kept busy collating and
running down railway items in the big
city sheets. Often the scrap books have
proved of great value Ia damage cases.
With the express companies 1t Is much
the same.
Outside this great branch it is now COM
puted that the business OF furnishing
newspaper clippings employs a capital
aRRregatinR fifteen million dollars, and
gives employ ment to something like
thirty Thousand people. Pretty substan-
tial fruit that for an insu bstantial idea.
Nor Ia it, as cynic might declare.
wholly a harvest of vanity. 1t gives enc
new and vivid comprehension of the
enormous reach and tremendous range
Of the press to glance over the book OF
latesGsorders In q well established bureau,
Here man wants everything about the
x rays. Below him fnancier is down
for Nicaragua and Panama canal mat
ters. In the next column XYZ wants
reports of divorce cases everywhere. and
right underneath an anonymous person
is eager for Southern outrnges. Matter
on spiritualism is another order, the
North Pole another, and electric inven-
tions third. Several people want South
African clippings. There are Cuban
orders, too, not to name a dozen or more
upon all manner of religious topics.
This, wholly aside from the personal
success. Still large part of their busi-
ness come from these who would please
tbs public-actors, artists, the makers OF
books, particularly poets.
AS the shadow of great rock in q
weary land, 80 IL the obituary habit to
the men Of clippings. Thence come some
of their fattest jobs. bout any nan OF
moderate prominence they are reasona-
bly, sure of gathering from five hundred
to thousand clippings. There is a sort
of correlation among certain of the
bureaus, which enables them to get
whatever is printed anywhere on the
globe, within very brief space. Promi.
nent men are nearly always among clip.
pings bureau subscribers. If they are
not, either tie grief or the joy of those
they leave Behind suffices to insure &
market for the m1rtuary harvest. Per
haps the biggest nollect!on of such things
Jay. Gould. His heirs ordered "every
thing" but withdrew the order when
within the space of three weeks, the en-.
terpr1sina bureau man had corralei
eleven thousand odd. Evsn that numhe
was exceeded In the case of George W
Child, whose widow gave clipping mar
similar order The end of the clip
pings was a set of scrap books. zach BIZ
Of print, great OF small, was pasted ac
curately III the middle ofa great square
Of grayish Bristol board, and then the
boards were bound into big volumes
covered In black morocco, tand 1ettered.ir
gold upon the backs, In Memory o.
George W. Childs." There was shelffu
of the Volumes. The cost Of making
them went away up in the thousands.
Social. struggles are another fruitful
field. People on the fringe, or the fringe
of the fringe. feel their footing ever 81
much more secure when they are men
ton in cold print-even if the mention II
bare "also present" Further liberia
patrons are schools, colleges and institu
tions of every sort. Then there.are law
yers who want the probate of wills every
where, lists of heirs, and notices Of acoi
dents.