The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-11-20
FARGO man, FORMER
DEVIL ON TRIBUNE,
RECALLS OLD Times
Il. a. Mcbride Was in Bismarck
IN 1876, When Custer Made
His Last Stand

When the old Washington arm
strong presses still were in use and
when the makeup man still used
shoot sticks and nlallcts' to lock up
the formS-them were the days. &C
cOrding to E. A. Mcbride.
Mcbride. who resides In Fargo had
a hand in publishing the Bismarck
Tribune when Colonel G. A. Louns-
berry va editor. publisher, reporter.
business manager and what have you.
That was back in 1876, the year that
Custer made his last stand.
Il was a printers devil, about 10
years old. and l guess I did more work.
then than any three printers put to-
gcthcr nowadays" he said. There
weren't any unions in those days and
there weren't any n~cwfanSled type
scttin' machines either. All n type
was set by hand, and believe me, It
was some job"
The Tribune then was publishing
about TOO copies a week, all set ny
hand, all printed OH the old arm
strong tsocallcd because II USED
his arms to operate 1t, II every
copy folded by hand.
Above Peoples Tin Shop
The shop was in a small room
above George Peoples tin shop. Type
cases. stock for the job press and the
old armstrong and all the rest Of
the material was all mixed up to-
gcther. said Mcbride. It usually took
from "a to 26 hours to run the TOO
editions off the press+hours Of hard
labor. The sheets Of paper were laid
out on a flat form and a huge crank
was turned by hand and rollers run
BY hand over the forms. Then the
printed pages we're stacked up and
when the Job was finished they were
folded. The actual printing. however.
was but an incident, Mcbride said.
The real work came with setting the
type by hand. which usually took
most OF the week. It was customary,
he recalled. that after the paper was
.'out' a bottle of whisky was brought
forth to celebrate"
The printing Grew" consisted Of
two men and the devil Frank Boles
was the job foreman and Van Cor
don, who came up from the st. Paul
Pioneer Press. ran the press. Nc
Bride did the dirty work." The
paper consisted Of eight pages and
delivery wal made through the mails.
newsboys having M place In the sun
then.
Report Three Days Late
It was while McBride was working
on the Tribune that new reached
Bismarck of Clusters death. Clusters
horse. .Comanche." Mcbride recalled.
vas found down the river by q boat
crew and brought to Bismarck. When
the animal was found its saddle had
been twisted under It's stomach. hc-
tual news of the Indian victory didn't
reach Bismarck until three days later,
according to Mcbride. The town
was greatly shocked and he recalled
the frantic efforts Of the Tribune
crew to get out an extra. The first
attempt failed. but finally a make
shift edition was. prepared on the job
press and distributed.
Mcbride came to Bismarck in the
spring Of 1874, making the trip with
his parents by OK team. The family
came to Fargo in 1879 and the father
bought some lumber and built a small
shack in which they lived during the
winter. In the spring he bought two
teams of oxen and two wagons and
the trip to Bismarck was begun. It
took them ~ days for the journey.
Mcbride said. There were no roads
and very few trials at that time. he
added.