Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-02

less than a. year, stood dry eyed at the bier !
of an evening newspaper For the Item and
the Evening Times had at decent intervals |
preceded the News-Post into oblivion. The
fatality in each instance might be said to |
have been the same-failure to recognize the
peculiar field newspapers have to cover in
Philadelphia. In each instance the end came
suddenly but as all of the journals mem
toned had shown signs Of falling health, the
demise was not unexpected.
T1HOSE who knew the Item only in It's last
i stages of debility can have no adequate
Idea of the immense success that paper once
had here. Il was started by Colonel Thomas
FitzGerald in 1S47 as n weekly. 1t was a
lively sheet, and as the Colonel took a deep
interest in literature, art and music, the Item
stood for something. Colonel FftzGerald
wrote several popular songs and few sue
cessful plays that had a good run at the
Chestnut Street Theatre in Laura Keene's
time.
Afterward he issued Sunday Item which
contained the social gossip of all who would
send 1t in and sometimes the sheet had men
out to gather these news items. There was
no mysterious line of social demarcation; no
north or south OF Market street to test the
social validity OF the parties. But the dances,
balls "sociables" and other entertainments
were reported as fully as their members could
| write OF them.
| TT WASN'T high art in journalism, but 1t
Il made business, and that was what the
Colonel wanted. Then, the Item was pro-
! gressive In its stand on improvements, and
its local news was always told in the fullest
| detail IL the case reported happened to be
sensational good murder was likely to fill
three columns and frst-class suicide was
always good for a column, with nice little,
| air-raising, breath stopping subheads that
seemed to spring from their appointed place
| In the article to become kind of field mar
shal for the type that followed.
In those days the Item used to receive its
general news from the morning papers. 1t
did not have much to pay for telegraph tolls
or cablegrams. I remember hearing that the
Colonel had received permission from George
! W. Childs to get two PUBLIC LEDGERs
| from the LEDGER cellar as he passed every
morning at o'clock on his way to the Item
| office. BY o'clock, when the first of the
printers arrived, the Colonel had columns of
news, with alluring headlines over them,
ready TO be set into type. At times he took
fancy to the editorials in the morning
papers and these also were introduced as the
editorial opinions of the Item the same day.
The Colonel did not believe in disturbing
credit lines.
The Colonel was Strong" on local happen
ings, and these, as I have indicated were
treated In manner that was original with
the Item The paper was regarded as so
sensational that even it's daily readers did
not always place implicit confidence in what
they read in it's columns. In this they prob
ably were unjust, for excepting details of
narrowing accidents, murders or other excit-
ing matters, I believe that an attempt at
truth was always made.
TN THOSE days, say 90 or so years ago, the
J. Item even if it did not have the circula-
tlon figures painted on its many wagons, did
exceed that of all the other evening papers
combined, and this in spl+e of the fact that
the Item was by no means so good as tho
others What was the reason7
1t was the simplest thing in the world but
| it took years for the other evening papers
to discover and appreciate it at its true value.
The reason for this immense circulation OF
the old Item was that in the remote parts OF
the city the Item was the only afternoon pa
per that could be bought. 1t was also dis
tributed regularly at all points within a
radius of 35 or 40 miles from Philadelphia.
And it was the only Philadelphia afternoon
sheet that you could buy when away from
the city. If a traveller wanted Philadelphia
to buy the Item. And he did buy it.
But progressive as the Item in those
days, when it's distribution required probably
more than 30 wagons every day, it neglected
TO spend money on the improvement of the
sheet itself. The newspaper business was
moving at fast pace. but the Colonel did
| not SEQ 1t. He had borrowed his general
news for so long that he did not realize that
the time had come to change.
TT1aE story of the ther two evening papers
i that have recently left us is in some re-
spects very different one. While the Fitz-
Geralds did not recognize the demands that
were being made upon newspapers OF the
better type the owners of the Evening Times
and OF the News Post did not realize that in
the Quaker City they had peculiar problem
10 solve IL they expected a conquest OF the
feld.
1t must have been disturbing to the scripps-
McRae Syndicate to learn that their publica-
tion would not go in Philadelphia. They had
done the same sort OF thing In other parts
of the country, and had made good. The
West had taken their idea TO their satisfac-
tion, and, of course, they very naturally did
not believe that Philadelphia would behave
differently. But 1t did. It is not too much to
say that Philadelphia has always behaved
differently from any other American city.
BECAUSE Philadelphia is so very different
d promoters OF various kinds OF enterprises
fail here while they have made fortunes else
where They then go forth and tell the rest
of the country that Philadelphia is a bach