The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-30

confident youth, indeed, but the eager
manner and look of determination COM
PEELED the assent of the strange proposal.
Mcclure went out and, at the first BIZ
cycle shop, rented a wheel. All night
long he practiced and early the next
morning presented himself at the pavil-
ion to take up this work.
Not long after this experience Mr.. Me
Clure met Col. Albert A. Pope, and the
acquaintance led the young man INTO the
editorship and management of 1.-The
Wheelman, a position in which he con-
tinued a year and a half. Then he went
to New York and for year was various
ly engaged with the Century Company,
in post graduate work, etc.
1t was in the fall Of "a that his great
idea came to him. He was recovering
from a serious illness, when suddenly the
thought came to him.
why not buy stories of we'll known
authors and sell them to several papers
for simultaneous publication? The AS
ISOLATED Press had been syndicating
news-mere brute factor thirty years.
Why not create and supply market for
the very best in literature?
Clure had the brilliant conception at
just the right time; paper was rapidly
falling in price, increased facilities for
printing brought about a demand for new
matter, and success fell to him because
his capacity for organization joined his
ability to see at once the valuable and
available in manuscripts. Rudyard Kip
ling once said that Mr.. Mcclure was the
only man he knew who could tell where
an author was going to be three years
hence.
1t is difficult to estimate the results
which have followed the original syndi-
eating idea. The business grew beyond
tie first dreams of it's originator. The
work which was begun as a means of
placing a short story in several newspa-
pers simultaneously expanded into a vast
system for delivring in the largest news
paper offices of the country, specially il
Illustrated articles of timely interest, Wo-
men and youths pages, short and serial
fiction of all kinds.
From the authors point of view the
idea was revolutionary in its effect They
were paid better for their work and their
names were given q sudden and wide
publicity. a new audience had been dis
covered. For Mr.. Mcclure, however, this
was but a step to another and greater
achievement
Difficult as had been his task before,
(many other things might have been ac-
cOmplished as much) few would have
ventured the next step, the establish
ment without capital of the magazine
out of which McClure's has grown. The
first number appeared in June, 1893. In
four months 10000 subscribers had been
secured, but the struggle was a hard one.
Finally the tide turned. Now 100000
copies of the magazine are turned out
monthly from one of the best equipped
plants in this country.
All this has come to a man just forty
five. He has found the way hard but
that is part of the game. The con-
quest of so great territory is neces-
sarily wearying, and it is not all strange
that Mr. Mcclure has reiinquished to his
colleague Mr.. John S. Phillips the direct
management of the business.
AT the present time Mr. Mcclure
spends most of his time abroad with his
family Mrs. Mcclure and four children,
three girls and a boy.