Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-01-06
RELICS OF
JOURNALISM DESCRIBED
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3.-The htti'
r sch ,lhouse and the old SWIM
ming hole have been e~ulogized ex-
haustively by poets, after-dinner
speakers, and political ~aspirants. But
it has remained for a single group
of men, the Fossils, to keep green
the traditions of the boys printing
press and the silver-penned boy edi-
tors of so years ago.
According to the dictionary, a fos-
sill is a person, or thing antiquated
| or out of date. The Fossils is a
| cl'b composed of men who were
once, in their boyhood days, amateur
Journalists. Amateur journalism, as
known to the boys Of from 80 to so
years ago is certainly Anticipated
| and out of date. So some years
back the ex-amateurs banded them
selves together and humorousiy dub
bed themselves the Fossils.
So far as amateur journalism 1s
concerned they may be fossils but
name does not seem to describe them
they may be fossils, but the name
does moo seem to describe them
otherwise. Thomas A. Edison is a
Fossil. So are Governor Sproul Of
| Pennsylvania, Senator Moses of New
Hampshire, Cyrus K. Curtis, Charles
Scribner, Josephus Daniels, and
some 200 other men are still march
ing along with the times.
One and all, however, they are
proud of being the fossils of anna
teur journalism. They like nothing
| better than to gossip about the days
| when each was an editor and help
| ed to mold public opinion. One Eos
sill says that when Edison was in
vited to join the club the inventor
went upstairs and came back with
faded copies of his paper that he
had kept since boyhood among his
| most valued possessions.
There are almost no amateur pa
| pers of Il is sort printed today. But
between 1870 and 1890 there were at
least 500. Almost all of them were
the projects OF boys in their teens.
The boys printing press was com
| paratively new, and to own a press
was the great ambition of many a
| boy in those days. The happy own
err at once went into the printing
business, generally combining the
| printing with q literary career in or
| der to have something to print. Most
| often one boy would be the entire
| staff of a publication, from editor,
| business manager, and reporter to
| printers devil and newsboy. The
| little sheets, some of hem contain
ing eight, and even sixteen pages,
were almost always published
| monthly.
A paper of this type enjoyed only
a small and select cir ulation except
when some unusual feature caused a
run on an issue. A story of one rec
ord sale is told by George M. Huss'
who is now Assistant Director Cen
| eral of the Railroad Administration,
and who Is also known as the man
who surveyed the Syria-O Ottoman
Railway from Haifa to Damascus
and built a bridge across the River
Jordan.
The Tale OF a Doctors Dog
Mr.. Huss says that one memorable
month his paper, the Buckeye Boy,
sold to a most gratifying extent
| While newsboy Huss was busily I'LL
ing orders, editor Huss was proud
ly rejecting that his home town had
a. last recognized his literary genius
But a friend explained sudden de-
mand for the Buckeye Boy, and the
Young EDITORS faith in q discriminat'
ing public dwindled.
One item in the paper had read
"It il a curious phenomenon OF ar
instinct that every morning DR.. Far
sons dog runs around the schoo
house,
The reason for this phenomenon
as the entire town well Knew wa
that the doctor had been oourtini
the school mistress, and for q tim
he had made a practice OF VISITING
the schoolhouse each morning ant
walking around it. The doctor MAJ
discontinued these pilgrimages, bu
the dog still visited the school at tn
accustomed time. The tale OF tn
doctors dog, so i~nnoce~tly printe.
by the boy editor, was n whicl
more mature editors OF the com
munity lacked the nerve to print.
That was the Buckeye Boys higl
water mark. For the most part IN
editors of the amateur papers a Z
depend on other youthful editors 9
the country for appreciation, crit
cism and interest.
In those days, MI. Huss say
there was q post office ruling b
which newspapers could be weighe
and postage paid per pound at sec
ond class rate. Under this ruling
great many papers could be sent :
kfhA fopr eognera 81 the ao1lkxx 8pE