The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-14
A Humorous Story in
Which E. C. Wood
son Figures.
A PRACTICAL JOKE
Some Incidents Showing How Every
Decade Witnesses Wonderful
Progress in the Art Pre-
sentative of Arts and
in Making News
papers.
papers.

What mammoth newspapers we
have nowadays: and how like light
ming do they fly from the presses; and
what tremendous calculations they
have: and how well are they filled
with news; and what vast influence
they exert. AS compared with the
papers, presses and calculations OF
century ago, they are as mountains to
mole hills or as oceans to mill ponds.
And, yet these great concerns are
Euilt on foundations that were iaid
in other years, by other minds ana
hearts and hands | make the point,
therefore, that the big concerns ol
today are but the outcome of thought
and labor bestowed on the printing
business in the years gone by.
If the argument | make is correct,
it proves that growth is the law of
the scientific as we'll as of the natur-
al world: and that, just as great dls-
coveries and as startling inventions
are ahead of u.s. as have been made
In the past; and also that the TIL
umphs of science, in the future, VIII
depend upon the achievements or TO-
day.
If that be true, who can form any
idea of the magnitude of the printing
business hundred years hence?
Ninety years ago my father was
Irinter boy in the Register office. That
paper was worked on a Rammage
press and the ink was applied to the
t.pe by balls made of deer skin filled
with wool. Those balls had handles
and looked like gourds. The boy who
liked the form had a ball in each
hand, and, while the pressman was
taking off one sheet and putting on
another, he would be patting the form
with his deer skin balls. The Ram
mage press was so constructed that
two pulls were required to the side,
and a paper minute was about the
average speed of the press.
When / went into the newspaper
business fifty years ago, the old
Washington press was the best one
that Raleigh could boast of; and it
was simply an Improvement on the
FRANKLIN Press, as the Franklin had
been on the Rammage.
The Standard office was supplied
with an adams Power Press some
time in the early fifties, which / think
was the first power press that ever
came to Raleigh. The Weekly Post,
published by William ID. Cooke, the
principal of the Deaf and Dumb and
Blind Institution, was also worked on
an Adams Power press, which press
bought in 1858 and sold to John Spell
man in 1860; and which, by the way
was the press broken by the mob that
demolished Spelman's office in 1868
but was mended up and served the
purpose of printing the Daily Confed-
crate" until the close of the war in
1865.
The Spirit of the Age also had a
power press, run with a caloric en-
glne, as far back as the early ffties;
and later on the Register office Sc
cured one. So that the Washington
press which, in 1850, was the best in
use. had almost been forgotten in
1860; or at any rate, had been set
aside. SO, too, the power presses
which pushed the Washington press to
the rear, have themselves been laid
aside, and, in their stead are to be
seen the fine machines which print
thousands of sheets by the hour-as
many as the old-time power presses
did lin a day--while another machine
takes the papers. as they leave the
press, and folds them ready for mail
Ing.
So much for the progress that has
been made in the printing business,
as / have observed, especially as to
presses. For a moment | wish to
speak of The News and Observer,
whose tenth anniversary, under its
present management, is celebrated in
this issue.
1t is useless to say that it is a great
paper and Yields a vast influence; its
rcaders--its friends and it's foes
know that. Nor need it be said that
its circulation and influence, like ma
trre's growth. goes steadily on. That
is too well known to be doubted.
But it is proper to say that its up
ward strides have been rapid and
steady, and, that, as leader in jour
nalism it stands well to the front, and
is constantly gaining. To reach it's
present condition and HIGH St9ndiup
has required wisdom, labor, patience,
zeal courage and fidelity to principle.
The reading public are not slow to
discern what is right and wrong; and
1t should be said to their credit, they
are on the side of right, as rule.
While The News and Observer has
aspired to the highest position as a
public journal, 1T has kept it's ear close
&c the ground that it might catch the
faintest cry of the oppressed, as we'll
as TO receive instruction and encour-
agement from that class of people who
ere too modest and unassumng to
speak in boisterous tone. 1t has,
therefore. kept very close to the la
boring class and they know and APP
preciate it: hence the increase of its
circulation and the constant growth of
its influence.
At the same time it has been fore
most in advocacy of all that will i'm
prove the condition of every class, po-
litically, financially and morally.
1t may have made mistakes, but
my opinion, based upon a constant
reading of it's columns, is that it has
not often strayed very far from the
line of upright Journalism. / there
fore congratulate it's present manage
rIent on the record made in the de-
cade just passed, and invoke upon it
divine guidance, to the end that the
next decade may be an Improvement,
along all lines, upon the successful
work of the years gone by.
=
The News and Observer owes its
--~~Titme to two papers which were pub