Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1919-11-04
GROWING GRAY
IN THE SERVICE
Nearing Three-Score Years
in Active J0urna-
lism
GAZETTE HAS BANNER
of Winchester Star on One Job
Forty fears-Employe of Gazette is
Nearing Fifty-Ninth Mile Post.

Forty years on one job was the
record rounded out last Sunday by
Charles w. Brown, foreman of the
mechanical department of the Win
chester Evening Star. He began
work when 1S years old on the Win
chester Times, an old weekly, which
was absorbed by the Star some
years ago. and he succeeded his
father, the late Daniel Brown. as
"boss' of the shop.
The writer, whose name it is un-
necessary to mention to lAlexan-
drians. can claim far more ancient
beginning. Becoming an apprentice
in the Gazette's composing room
December 26. 1860. he has been on
every rung of the ladder of Journal
ism nearly fifty-nine years. during
all of which time he has followed the
fortunes of this paper. Some of
the most trying ordeals through
which the Gazette has passed has
been witnessed by him. He vied
with others in distributing "pi'' and
cleaning up the office in 1861 after
it had been partially wrecked by
federal soldiers. stood by the smol-
dcring ruins of the plant in Febru-
AIRY Of the succeeding year after
the Office had been destroyed by
men wearing the blue Of the United
States. saw the paper rise a sec
ond time from its ashes. cola
bored the same year in
publishing the Gazette in dimuni-
tive form (about the dimensions of
an eight by ten pane of glass;. re-
joiccd in its enlargement in 1865,
saw the paper pass through orCeals
on two occasions similar to those
now facing the entire country the
outcome Of labor broilS. watched
with anxiety from 1879 to 1883
when the political party then in
power in this state attempted to
corral everything in the way Of
newspaper patronage and dStrib-
ute it to favored journals in far
away rural communities, thus fr"eZ-
ing out opposition journals. We'd in
the hurrahs incident to the down
fall Of this organization and the
election in 1884 of Grover Cleyc-
land. the first democratic President
in forty years-in short he has fol-
lowed the fortunes Of the Gazette
through good and evil report unit!
this day, when its circulation has
become quadrupled and its advertis
ing patronage greater than at any
time in the papers history. 1t is
now in its serc and yellow leaf, but
as vigorous as in the days when
Edgar Snowden handled the scs
sors and the quill.
There have been many changes
in the personnel of this office in
all these years. The attache refer
red to is the only person now living
who was in any capacity connected
with the paper in 1861. The
chapel" that is the force in the
type-setting department. has often
changed, as has also the editorial
corps and business management. in
many cases the result of deaths.
The "reminiscences in connection
with the Gazette, the history Of
which is so intimately bound up in
the annals of the city of Alexandria,
afford food for reveries to those
who were eyewitness of the stir
ring events of nearly three-score
years.
In this connection it should be
stated that the late Henry Dulancy.
who died in June. 1890, served go
years of his life as pressman on
IN