The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-26

ties was about as much
VI like the work of the pres
~ ent day carrier as the old
rattle traps OF printing
nrasses then in use are like the
huge complex devices employed by the
modern newspapers, or as the town or
that day was like the Minneapolis of
1903. 1t is only twenty-five years since
Th u a was started, put even
as the town was a huge, spraWling, I'M
couth village, newspaper methods were
raw and crude in comparison with the
highly developed system of the pres
ent day; and in the same degree the
carriers lot was distinctly different,
Now there are carefully improved
streets, sprinkled for the dust in sum-
mer and plowed for the snow in win
ter, hundreds of miles of stone side
walks, miles and miles of cycle paths,
brilliantly lighted streets, except When
the moon does not connect with the
moonlight schedule" and bicycles
that are priceless friends Of the car
rier boy.
Back in the late seventies the streets
seemed to flow with slush and mud for
much of the year and lie deeply burled
In snow all winter. OF sidewalks there
were none, except some Wobbly Wooueh
plank affairs in the center of town.
which were laid more as an evidence
of progress than with an eye to publlc
convenience. The moonlight sched-
ule," so much abused of late, was
started at that time, but the starlight
schedule was the one which really pre-
vailed, for the street lights were rev
in number as they were deficient in
Illuminating power.
The carriers lot was a hard one,
but strange to say he did not grumble
half as much then as he does now.
II h G our II carriers or the sew
entieS were a good-natured and cheer-
full set of boys, who had as much fun
out of their runs as they did out or
their boyish games. Most of the lads
carried for fun" and to get spend
ing money, not little of which went
to the dealers in postage stamps. but
It is dollars to doughnuts that II the
pampered and petted carrier of the
present day had to buck the weather
and streets and conditions as they were
found when volumes I. and II. of L e
Journ were in process of produc-
ton, there would be some Voclferous
clamor in r h J ur n a alley.
TWAS not entirely the unlighted and
for the most part impossible streets
that made the work of the early car
rier so different from that Of his sue
cessor. If the boys could have found
out when the paper was going to press
each day, all the other discomforts
and annoyanCes incident to life In a
new western town with metropolitan
aspirations would have been forgot
ten. The boys were used to steering
their ways thru the darkness and the
deep mud, and even the still deeper
SHOWS had no terrors for them; but
they were poor hands at killing time,
and when they had to wait, as was
often the case, four hours or longer
for their papers, there were good rea-
sons for complaint. The remarks made
by the carrier boys when a careless
hand joggled the form into "pi,' or
when the rickety old press baked
somewhere, were a great relief to the
circulator, and the whole editorial
force, as well as to the typos; who
usually in those days arrogated to
themselves the right to supply the
language appropriate to such events
AS the writer understands it. the
present day carriers get their papers
at the same time every day, almost to
the minute, and there may not be a
variance of ten minutes from one end
of the year to the other. In the late
seventies the boys would whoop for
Joy if there was any chance of getting
off within half an hour after their ar
rival at the office. They were due
there at o'clock, and they seldom
departed before S, while frequently it
was or even later. Many Of the
old timers can recall delivering pa
pers at homes after the occupants had
retired for the night.
The Journal of those days GER
tainly deserved the modern term
"dinky." 1t was a four-page paper,
with six short columns to the page
and when rolled UP for throwing 1t
carried about like feather. What per-
centage ever reached their proper des-
tinations could not be computed, but
the number of complaints of "didn't
get my paper last night drove several
early circulators out of the business,
or else to the grave.
OF course, folding machines were
unknown in the west in, those days.
Each carrier had to fold his own pa
pers and even help the carriers who
had the big routes, and who by virtue
of that. fact were supplied with pa
pers before the others. The scenes
in the pressroom would throw a mod
ern Circulator into a spasm.
The old press which banged away
in the basement of the Bracket block
is alleged to have had an accredited
speed of about thousand papers an
hour, but no one can recall that II
ever delivered the goods when the car.
riers were waiting. The cylinder
seemed to move around with the celer.
ity of the hands Of the clock anC
periodically it would deposit a shee'
of printed paper on d table. This was
quite an event In the pressroom, anC
the old machine would make as much
fuss over it's feat as a young hen over
her first egg, So fast did the press
speed that an experienced boy COult
fold the paper three times on the table
before the "fy" came down with an
other sheet. ...
That "fly," by the way, was a curl
Gus arrangement. 1t was device con
sisting of a number Of strips of paral
lei wood, and its business was to tak'
the printed sheet from the press AM
place it on table. The manner ii
which 1t performed the simple tasl
will be remembered by all the oil
Journal carriers. 1t rose slowly, an
sedately picked UP the printed sheet
and as slowly descended until whe
within foot of the table it made
surprising lunge downward and hit tn
table with a resounding thwack. Wo
to the knuckles of the careless carrie
whose hand was caught underneath
for the fly could give a very painfr
slap, and the clumsy handed yout
who was learning to fold with tn
press" paid dearly for his schooling.
1t appears that Harlow H. Chamber
lain was the first carrier T h oiu
nal had, and strange to say he
still in the service of this paper, be
ing the only man in any departmer
of the paper who has remained wit
1T from the start. Another who cal
ried No. 1, Vol. I. is Tom Lee, a livel
youth whose record of accidents woul
make Willie VhaIen look inSiQpjficar