Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-16


tween the bound covers of its files.
some of the pages yellow now and brit
tie with age. lies the story of it's
growth. a story written by the men
and women of Washington.
Many of them have told their tale
and gone away. leaving it for their
children and their children's children
to take up and carry along. 1t is
long story, of which The Star is
proud. 1t cannot be retold as 1t has
been told. But a seventy-fifth birth
day anniversary is one which lends it.
self TO retrospection, as brief as 1t
may be.
Started In 1852.
Seventy.five years ago today. De-
cember I6, 1852, there issued from a
one man press, housed in a building
on Sixth street between Pennsylvania
and Louisiana avenues. a newspaper
which carried on its first page the
title. or great head" of Daily Eve
ming Star. 1t contained four pages
and there were five columns to
page. The page forms measured l6A
by IL inches. and at it's masthead
was tackled a "salutation" to the
40. 900 people of Washington explain
ing that To-day the Daily Evening
Star appears on the horizon OF the
newspaper world and greets. with
warm and kindly beam, metropolis
tan public. Whether it shall be
a fixed or a wandering Star depends
upon the patronage which it will at
tract e"
The Daily Evening Star, which IS
wears ago this afternoon was strug-
Cling for a foothold on the slippery
grade which has sent some 900 jour
nalistic enterprises in Washington to
the bottom and oblivion, had good
reason to plead for the patronage
upon which it's position in the tirma-
ment would depend. That it has re-
ceived this patronage is indicated in
the fact that today it is observing its
seventy.fifth anniversary and that Its
fixture as a Washington institution is
as secure as the Police Department.
for instance, which was born only a
few months before The Star.
Patronage Increases.
Something of what this patronage,
growing as The Star has grown, has
meant to the paper may be Indicated
briefly by some interesting compari-
sons between The Star of today, De-
cember 16, 1927. and that first Star
of December 16, 1852. The type for
the first Star was set by hand. There
were five compositors and two APP
prentices in the composing room, at
Eighth and d streets. 1t is interest
ing to note, in this respect, that the
grandson of one of the five original
compositors, who served as foreman
for a number of years and was sue.
ceeded in that position by his son, to-
day holds a position of trust and re-
sponsibility in the present composing
room, and that when The Star OBJ
served its fiftieth anniversary rs years
ago, one Of the original compositors
was still on the pay roll of the news
paper.
The type was set at Eighth and
D, and the forms carried to the
presscoom between Louisiana and
Pennsylvania avenues on Sixth street,
seveitl blocks away. There the paper
was printed on a press operated by
one man and capable, at high speed,
of turning out $50 copies an hour.
The first edition of The Star was
1000 copies. In addition to the com.
posing room and press room crew,
there was the editor and proprietor,
Capt. Joseph B. Tate; an editorial
writer, Rev. Charles w. Dennison; an
editorial and poetical contributor.
Frank f-cNerhany. and one reporter.
w. w. Tucker. Their Star contained,
as mentioned above, four small pages.
on which were printed 1920 lines of
type.
81 Pages Today.
Your Star today contains So pages,
which represent no special edition, but
portrays the days demands in news
and advertising In place of the II
men whose combined efforts produced
that Star of Is years ago. 1856 per-
sons iabored in Washington today to
produce and deliver The Star at your
door this evening. The 3,120 lines of
type contained in that Star Of Is years
ago have grown to 144.160 lines OF type
In your Star today, of which 112.72S
lines portray advertising by the mer-
chants of Washington and elsewhere,
and 81. 1872 lines carry the news of
Washington and of the world.
The five men and two boys
who set the type for that first
paper have been replaced by 1877, who
are regularly employed in The Star
composing room today. and they
turn out their daily product of type
from 43 linotype machines. any one
of which could have set in IA hours
composing room crew something over
Is hours to set. If today's com.
posing room crew were turned loose
on the matter which went into that
| first Star. it could put it in type in an
hour--yet the composing room today
at The Star must run almost "a hours
| day to set the type which goes into
the paper these days.
In the place of that one reporter,
| who covered the news of Washington
| for the first Star. 81 members Of The
| Star staff were getting news out of
| Washington for your Star today, and
| IL others supervising their work and
editing their copy. But in every ham,
let. village, town and city of the
United States. and scattered in every
corner of the globe. other men, thou
sands of them, were combing the
earth for news and sending it over
the wires of the Associated Press and
| other famous news services to go into
the columns of your Star today.
81 Men i'm Press Room.
In place of that one man who linked
his rollers and his forms by hand and
by the strength of his good right arm
turned out the 1000 printed copies OF
that first Star. 81 men are working
in the press room of The Star today,
climbing and darting like agile sailors
over the four big octuple presses, the
average running speed of each being
about 2S,200 papers an hour. 1t re-
CURED about eight ounces of ink to
| print that first Star. Today's Star
required some LOO pounds of ink.
The paper that went into the first
1000 copies of The Star must have
weighed about 80 pounds. The paper
required to print your Star today
weighed about 101,lS4 pounds. OF
$3.50 tons.
The first Stars were sold over a
counter in small building on the
south side of Pennsylvania avenue
near Sixth street. Today, 10 minutes
after the presses were started on the
first edition of The Star, big bundles
of them were on their way to Union