Evening star., 1902-02-15
OLD NEWSPAPER ROW
CHANGES THAT HAVE TAKEN
PLACE IN LATE YEARS.
It Was Once the Home of the Clan
and Is Now All but
Deserted.

MY, my, how the place IS changed
Old Newspaper Row has almost van
ished"
The speaker stood on 14th street just
above Pennsylvania avenue and gazed re-
gretfully at the signboards in front of the
shops along the street.
This was once the principal office sec
ton for the Washington correspondents.
Laundries, tailor shops, brokers' offices and
other business places now occupy the
quarters formerly devoted to the represent
atives Of the influential press Of the coun-
try. What a gathering Of good fellows
bright minds and hard workers 1t was, to
be sure.
Looking along the street recalls them
all to my mind. These old buildings were
ablaze with lights Of nights, and the clat-
ter OF the telegraph instruments made q
merry din. for many of the correspondents
had special wires. The Row was a ia
nous lounging place for statesmen in those
days: They would come around in the
evening and talk with the correspondents.
All Of the larger bureaus devoted space to
reception room for visitors Of this kind.
That big building there, 515, was a hive
OF newspaper industry when | was here. in
the Fo.ty-ninth Congress. On one side of
the lower floor was the office of the old
United Press. now extinct. 1 remember
+. V. DeGraw and O'Brien, a bright fell
low. long since dead, and Burhans and
Austin. On the other side Of the hall was
the New York Times office. with. Dunnell
and DuPuy. Upstairs were DIR. Habercom
Of the St. Louis Westlichs Post. who,
praises be. is still with us; William f.
Ringwalt OF the New York Commercial
Bulletin, now dead; Frank Howe Of the
Baltimore Herald, now on the editorial staff
OF The Star; Charlie Murray Of the Pitts
burg Dispatch. Charlie Ogden Of the Cali
fornia Press Association, ]. A. Truesdell,
Frank II. TrueSdell and others
Just below. at 511, was the bureau of the
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. in those
days a power In Ohio. with Murat Hal
stead in the editorial chair, and Gen. H.
V. Boynton at the head of the Washington
bureau. With him were Bob Wynne and
Fred Mussey, two royal fellows. Poor
Mussey is gone, but the recollection Of his
cynical wit will linger long after him. The
Commercial Gazette office was lively
place In those days, and if anything that
happened in Washington was not known in
that office 1t was because it was not worth
printing.
The st. Louis Globe-Democrat bureau
was also in 511, with Walter b. Stevens in
charge. 1 believe it was after the Forty
ninth Congress that George Apperson Joined
the bureau. He. too. is gone from us now.
Down there on the corner was another
newspaper hive. That was known as the
B. and o. building, and the upper floors
Offices o. P. Austin had his syndicate es-
tabliShed in the second floor corner suite
He was. l believe, the originator of the
syndicate system for daily newspapers and
he had string of papers in those days.
Bright and Genial.
Here also was O'Brien Moore, the caus-
tic Irishman who made the Washington
dispatches of the st. Louis Republic We
hicle for many a roast on western states
men. But his chickens came home to
roost. When the Spanish war broke out
O'Brien Moore, who had drifted away from
the city. came back and secured a commits
sion in the army. Some of the representa-
tives whom he had attacked years before
were then In the Senate and MooreS con-
frmation was opposed.
"Then there was Tom Hannum of the
Pittsburg Post. He was a bright one
remember when Tom came to town he was
imbued with some ideas antagonistic to
corporations. After he had enjoyed for
awhile the courtesies Of the railroads his
views changed, and upon one notable trip he
exclaimed, in his enthusiasm, Well boys,
il the railroad wants to make round
house out of the rotunda, I'm with en-
John CROWN and Fred. Handy, repre-
senting the Chicago Times, were in this
building. Then there were Major Kirby. a
great writer on financial topics and a good
fellow in his leisure hours; George Gilliland
and MacBride Of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
I'm 513 was another notable office. the
Philadelphia Ledger, with Major John NJ
Carson and Billy Annin That was a busy
Office. and I may say is still keeping up
the lick In other quarters, however.
II see that some of. the correspondents
still cling to the row, although In the main
they have scattered to more commodious
quarters. I cannot understand why some
one, encouraged by the success Of the
Wyatt building, does not put up con-
venient Office structure for the 200 busy
workers who now compose the corps of
Washington correspondents. 1t is good
thing to have them together, and l believe
the scneme would be profitable"