The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-05-03
OLD-TIME NEWSDEALERS.
CHARLES II, DAY WRITES OF
OLD DAYS.

4'N" maven when Tie weekly Story
Papers Were in Immense Demand
Very Interesting "Reminiscences.
ion ,Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., he started a
boom in weekly serial literature that
made fortune for himself and several
other publishers. Bonners strongest
cards We're Cobb, jr., and Mrs. E. D. N.
N. Southworth.
From the day that Bonner stepped
Into the trade Boston lost it's hold on
clean sensational literature Caldwell
q whitney, Of the New York Mercury,
captured Ned Buntline and Dr.. J. A
Robinson from the Flag of Our Union
fold, and the New York Dispatch
doomed Francis S. Smith until they
succeeded in enticing Colonel E. B. C.
Judson (Ned Buptline) away from the
Mercury. The Mercury employed the
famous Dudley to Illustrate their sto-
RES. The country edition of the Dis
patch became the New York Weekly
and was disposed Of to Street & Smith.
James Elverson, of Philadelphia.
bought out Saturday Night, and the
New York Munroe had several imita-
tive publications, all of which save one
have decayed. Elverson dropped the
once profitable Saturday Night years
ago and invested in the Daily Inquirer
OF his staid town. The New York Ledg-
er prospered and petered and revived
and renewed until it died dead"
One who was on earth at the time can
understand the excitement created by
the ito be continued" stories in the
popular sheets; on their arrival the To-
cal news offices were filled with anxious
purchasers seeking to discover if 1.-THE
villain still pursued her" The publish
ers Of the Ledger, Mercury Weekly and
Saturday Night were tremendous adj
yertisers, using newspapers and bill
boards lavishly, and also distributing
millions of the opening installments of
their thrilling tales At the start a fa-
vorite method of Bonner's was to insert
the first chapter of a story in the local
papers, Informing the readers that the
remainder of the story could be found
in such and such an issue of the New
York Ledger. One paper rebelled at
this style of advertising, and that was
1.-THE New Haven Register; it declined
Mr.. Bonner's patronage in that form,
AS Bonner succeeded he gathered all
the available stars of the pen, includ-
ing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Charles Dickens, Mrs. Sigourney and
bishops and statesmen galore, but the
star of all the stars in general esteem
was Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., who could
graphically tell tale and make read
er lay awake for the next installment.
Bonner had such an appreciation OF
Cobb as a co-Worker in the building up
of his fortune that he gave him life
pension of four thousand dollars year.
The success of these story papers was
profitable to all the local newsdeaers;
perhaps Mr.. Pease preferred TO sell an
Atlantic Monthly or an Eclectic (scrap
book Of pictorial articles from foreign
reviews or a Harper's New Monthly,
but some people who lived on Hillhouse
avenue read the Ledger or one or more
of the rest of them on the sly. Fiction
was not looked upon with much favor
In New Haven outside of Cooper, Dick
ems and Scott the pulpit expounding
and pointing against the story, the sto-
ry-tellers. and the story reader alike.
Still many a rigid New England
and you may make it local and say that
many a New Haven-home was made
endurable by books of fiction. maya
zines and story papers read under COW
er.
When Frank Leslie's got into the field
in New York and swung eleven period
play room on the news counters.
With the hurrah times of the civil war
Leslie ground out yellow weekly Illus
trated publications under the names of
Days Doings and the Last Sensation.
Pease wouldn't sell them and the best
way to inspect them was with a pair of
tongs. Frank Leslie was years in adj
vance of Hearst and Pulitzer in yellow
Journalism. SO was John Stetson of
Boston, who issued three of kind,
1.-THE Varieties" Sporting Times" and
| the Police News" out of which he
made a sudden fortune. One newsdeal-
er in Church street sold one thousand
copies weekly of the Police News alone.
Perhaps conscientious newsdealer
should have "edited" his counter, but
that was difficult thing to do and not
discriminate oneself out of the business
by losing all Of customers trade. The
Rev. Samuel H. Elliott engaged in the
news business on Chapel street after
his retirement from the pulpit; he was
the author of a couple of novels and
could not without reIbuking himself
vanish the story sheets; whether to re-
tain the Boston Pilot Roman CaItho-
lie organ, on the counter cost him q
struggle, as did the Banner of Light,
spiritualistio. He also had his doubts
about the sporting and theatrical pa