The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-03
THE HERALD'S FIRST DEVIL
TELLS OF THE FIRST ISSUE
BY R. W. SLOAN.

Yes. I remember the publication of
no. 1, Volume of The Daily Herald
To some it was a never-to- be-forgot-
ten event
salt Lake City had then much less
than 10000 population. Many an
afternoon Ike seen Main street
so depopulafed that cannon
might be fired its entire length
and nothin would have been
teuched, hardly the street, for there
seemed 50 much more of street then
than now, because there were fewer
people and the business done was vastly
less per capita than today.
NY Iatner tdea0 in ie.4) and W. c.
Dunbar, still living, though I regret to
say, by no means hearty, started me
hetaid on considerable nerve, very lit
tie money and OdOs and ends of ma ter
ial FROM the then recently defUnct
Daily Telegraph. Mr.. Dunbar was bust
ness manager and my rather editor
positions both had neld on the Daily
Telegraph under T. B. II. Stenhouse.
was the printers devil and believe
gave a fair return of appropriate ser
vice for the name bestowed.
Where the present big Constitution
block stands was the original Con
sulunou buiiding, a long twO-story
structure Of lath and plaster, ! think.
At any rate it was plastered and white
washed outside, and had been occupied
as the store of Hooper & Eldredge,
then leading merchants. On the second
floor of this structure the composition,
editorial, business, press and other
rooms Of the anticipated Herald were
located.
Mr.. Joseph Z. McEwan, now a MEM
Der of the council Of Provo City, was
the press man and 1 had much to do
with him in the early days of The Her
aid. His work was performed on a
weil-wOrn Washington hand press,
while the work of rolling the type with
ink was done by me.
From mechanical point of view, as
the work will show, the paper was
fearfully and wonderfully made as to
its first numbers.
The original issue of the morning pa
per was TO he gotten out on an after
noon and many an amusing occurrence
can be recalled of that morning paper
going to press before 8 o'clock in the
evening and containing dramatic crit
iciSm of performances that were never
given and of lectures never delivered.
But as to the first issue, il was to ap-
pear during the afternoon. 1t was a
warm day, even for June. Brother
Dunbar-We were all Brothers" if old
enough, in those days-wOre a light
striped cotton coat All the others. my
father included, were shirt-sleeved. A
man named COwley was foreman. All
the type had been set proofs read, and
the matter was ready to be placed in
the forms, to be taken later to the old
hand press and thence issued to the
world as a new force, to endure-how
long? Who could tell? And to go forth
as a power for good or evil-perhaps
for both, since the-fives of papers, even
as the lives of individuals, are neither
all of saint nOrall of sinner.
Brother" COwley was a short man,
not very heavy. light of color and scant
of hair-a good man-but nervous to a
painful degree, and, perspiring this af-
ternoon with heat, anxiety and impa-
thence. A daily paper was something in
those days.
Gathered about the imposing stones
were all the compositOrs, Brother"
Dunbar, my father, Joe McEwan and
myself. With what speeches. intent
we watched the imposition of the mat
ter can only now be conceived. Then
came the adjustment of the columns
and with 1t the rub. for the paucity of
material was a profoundly conspicuous
fact. OF course we used leads" and