The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-03
CbirfieD BiFfbddy
of Salt Lake
BeFaId.

paper with The Herald Of today,
is like comparing the condition of this
intermountain region on those two
dates-June ., 1870. and June .. 1900.
The Herald of now is as representative
of the progress. the enterprise and the
accomplishments of the community in
its day as was The Herald of thirty
years ago. From the very first issue
the paper has never failed to be fully
abreast of the times and in advance
of it's surroundings.
No enterprise ever sprang into life
under more humble auspices than did
The Herald. It's place of birth was
dingy little room in the old Constitu-
ton building on upper Main street.
reached by very rickety stairs. The
surroundings could not have been more
unpromising. The old building in
which the paper was born has been
swept away in the march of progress
and lives now only as a memory.
The outfit for getting out the paper
at first was most meager. A portion of
il consisted of type and printing ma
: terial that had been brought across
the country in OK carts and had been
used in printing the defunct Telegraph;
another portion consisted of type Dor
rOwed from the Office of the Noun
taineer: the press, an old-fashioned
Washington hand press. was borrowed
from the Deseret News. The makeup
Of that little paper that saw the light
of day for the first time on that Sun
day morning thirty years ago gives
plain evidence of this poverty of print
ing material. The first issue had but
four pages and each page had but six
short and narrow columns, and yet The
{ wrong font type and the abundance of
white space tell the story of the early
struggles to make both ends meet
Figures Show the Progress.
It is only by considering the facts
and figures that clear idea can be
had of the revolution that has taken
place in the three decades that have
slipped away since The Herald was
born. The first issue was printed UPON
press whose limit per hour was 100
copies Of a four-page paper. The Goss
perfecting press now in use, the first
machine Of the kind brought into the
intermountain country, viii print and
fold from 5000 to 10000 copies of an
eight-page paper in an hour. If The
Herald were still printed on the same
press that brought the first issue into
life, it would take ten days of eight
hours each to get out a single ordinary
issue of the paper.
There was no type-setting machine in
eight of these machines now and the
do the work OF forty-fve men setting
type by hand. These machines would
have set up paper twice as large a
the first issue of The Herald in less
than and hour and it would have been
. solid reading matter from the first line
TO the last. They viii set eighty col
umns of The Herald Of the present size
in eight hours.
There were no illustrations in the first
issue of The Herald, not even a picture
of Lydia Pinkham. There were no IA
cilities then for making pictures. and if
any appeared in the columns of the pa
per for years after the start they were
shipped in from other cities. Now the
art department of The Herald is one
Of The important factors IL the success
OF the paper. Last year there appeared
:. in The Herald $4,000 square inches of
illustrations. Four men are kent busv
doing nothing else and this department
alone cost last year an amount
greater by far than the total cost of is
suing the entire Herald for the first
year. Perhaps no department of the
/lnOdern newspaper shows greater prog
Sress than the art Of making pictures
From the pen and ink sketch, through
all the stages of photOgraphing. trans
ferring to glass, etching, routing and
making ready for the press-it IS a most
interesting process, and had not been
thought of. much less brought into use
in the newspaper office of thirty years
ago. The Herald at the beginning was
totally innocent of anything like illus
trations.
There are 10000 words Of Associated
Press news received in Salt Lake. each
day. OF course. this is not all
used. and must be carefully culIed to
get the best; but that is, 10 doubt. more
telegraph news than The Herald got in /
a month in the start. There were no /
electric lights when The Herald was /
ushered into life, and tallow dips were /
still in vogue for night work. Now the I
whole Herald building is a blaze of /
light from top to bottom, while all I
of the machinery is run by this mys- +
terious force. which was still running /
wild thirty years ago. The first issue
of The Herald was printed upon paper
that came in bundles and had to be
wet down in order to get a good print. /
Now The Herald is printed from great
rolIzs shat come to the Office in car loads.
Growth in Circulation.
Thus the comparisons could be /,awn
IN every department Of the work of get
ting out a paper until the brain would
grow weary and the wonder would arise
as to how a paper was issued at all in
the olden days But. of course. the
greatest contrast of all is TO be found
in the circulation of the paper at the
sart and now. and the relative strength
Of its influence, In the beginning the
circulation of the paper was confined
10 salt Lake and to a small part of
Salt Lake. Now IL goes each morning (
into every city and hamlet in the entire
tnferfnountain region: out it flies ia al |
directions each morning like a messen-
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