sickened in the service of the Tribune; and, as has too often. occurred in Mr. Greeley's establishment, hard service was inadequately rewarded. Some time elapsed before Greeley went to inquire about his assistant, the loss of whose aid was beginning to tell upon the paper. Then a conversation occurred,

something like this:

"When will you be well enough to come back?" said Greeley.

"Never, on the salary you paid me!" replied Raymond. Greeley inquired how much Raymond wanted. "Twenty dollars a week!" said Raymond. Greeley protested angrily that he could pay no such price; but he finally yielded, and the previous relations were restored.

Mr. Raymond, in conversation with the writer of these pages, ten years later, alluded to this tilt with Mr. Greeley; and in speaking of the Times-then on the eve of publication - observed that he desired no man to perform services for his own paper for the inadequate remuneration he had himself received during his connection with the Tribune. When Raymond took his stand for pay equivalent to the value of the services rendered, Greeley yielded; but so long as the subordinate did not rebel, the chief did not relent. It is the misfortune of some men to be too patient; of others, to be exacting and ungenerous. The relative positions of Henry J. Raymond and Horace Greeley at this period of their lives furnish striking illustrations of the result of such conditions.

A pleasant reminiscence of Mr. Raymond's connection with the Tribune was given by Mr. Thomas McElrath, at a dinner given at Delmonico's, in New York, on the 10th of April, 1866, in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth of that journal. Mr. McElrath, alluding to the gentlemen originally engaged upon the Tribune, said that Mr. Raymond had contributed greatly towards securing the recognition of the journal as a leading newspaper of the day. He spoke of Mr. Raymond as an able and graphic reporter, who possessed the faculty of presenting to his readers a pen-picture of events as they transpired, in a manner scarcely ever equalled by any journalist. Mr. McElrath" alluded particularly to the reports

made by Mr. Raymond of the celebrated Colt murder case, which at the time occupied the attention of the whole country, and also to the equally celebrated Mackenzie trial. These cases were sketched at length in the columns of the Tribune by Mr. Raymond, in an elaborate and attractive manner. Mr. McElrath said that these reports added several thousand subscribers to their list during the pendency of the trials, and that nearly all who were thus induced to become patrons of that paper, continued until the journal became an established institution."

In 1843, however, wearied by long and ill-paid service, and somewhat disgusted withal, - Mr. Raymond accepted a good offer from the proprietors of the Courier and Enquirer, and turned his back forever upon Mr. Greeley and the Tribune. A new phase of his life had begun.

Here let us pause, to undertake a passing review of the course of New York Journalism. In order to arrive at a correct understanding of the radical changes which Mr. Raymond was instrumental in introducing into the conduct of great newspapers in New York, it is essential to remember the characteristics of the journals which had existed for many years before his appearance in the field of contest.

CHAPTER V.

PROGRESS OF JOURNALISM IN NEW YORK-1840 TO 1850.

66

EASY-GOING NEWSPAPERS-THE OLD BLANKET SHEETS

-EDITORIAL DUELS AND HORSE-WHIPPINGS- MR. W. C. BRYANT'S REMINISCENCES—THE COURIER AND ENQUIRER THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE — THE EVENING POST THE COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER THE HERALD — HOW BENNETT STARTLED THE CITY OF. NEW YORK THE SUN — THE TRIBUNE AS A CHEAP AND RESPECTABLE PAPER — FIERCE RIVALRIES OLD METHODS OF GETTING NEWS SHARP PRACTICE -PONY EXPRESSESSETTING TYPE ON HOW RAYMOND REPORTED WEBSTER'S SPEECH — THE VOYAGE oF MONROE F. GALE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC -THE PILOT-BOAT WILLIAM J. ROMER IN THE ICE PERSONALITIES JAMES WATSON WEBB'S RIDICULE OF HORACE GREELEY'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE — GREELEY'S REPLY THE TRIBUNE'S " SLIEVEGAMMON HOAX BURNING OF THE TRIBUNE OFFICE THE TIDE CHANGING.

STEALING LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES CARRIER-PIGEONSBOARD OF STEAMBOATS

THE easy style of journalism prevailed in New York prior to 1840. The heavy, old-fashioned, "blanket sheet" newspaper, with which the steady merchant of pure Knickerbocker descent had been accustomed to season his morning cup of coffee, and the equally huge evening sheet which conduced to his post-prandial repose, were the best he or his fathers had known. Those days were serious. No flippant flings disturbed the equable flow of journalistic inanity. When two editors differed, one shot the other, quietly, in a duel; or else there was a lively horsewhipping scene in the public streets, a full description of which appeared, on the following day, in the newspapers owned by the horsewhipped men.* There was no telegraph before the year 1843; there were no fast ocean steamers till a period still later; no Associated Press organization simplified the processes of obtaining news. In fact, and justice requires it to be said, it was not until James

See the Commercial Advertiser, the Courier and Enquirer, and the Herald of the period.

Gordon Bennett set the example, in 1835, that the conductors of public journals cared to publish intelligence too freshly. Like epicures, they waited for the food to age. All the old and heavy-weighted journals, which lazily got themselves before the New York public, day by day, thirty years ago, were undeniably sleepy. Their dulness and inaptness had become traditional by long custom; and a remarkable illustration of this is afforded by a passage in Mr. William C. Bryant's "Reminiscences of the Evening Post," — a very readable review of the first half-century of that journal, — which was first published in its columns in November, 1851, and was subsequently reprinted in a shilling pamphlet, now out of print. Mr. Bryant wrote:

"In the Evening Post, during the first twenty years of its existence, there was much less discussion of public questions by the editors than is now common in all classes of newspapers. The editorial articles were mostly brief, with but occasional exceptions; nor does it seem to have been regarded, as it now is, necessary for a daily paper to pronounce a prompt judgment on every question of a public nature the moment it arises. The annual message sent by Mr. Jefferson to Congress, in 1801, was published in the Evening Post of the 12th of December, without a word of remark. On the 17th, a writer, who takes the signature of Lucius Cassius, begins to examine it. The examination is continued through the whole winter; and, finally, after having extended to eighteen numbers, is concluded on the 8th of April. The resolutions of General Smith, for the abrogation of discriminating duties, laid before Congress in the same winter, were published without comment; but a few days afterwards they were made the subject of a carefully written animadversion, continued through several numbers of that paper."

The ruthless Bennett shocked the staid propriety of his time by introducing the rivalries and the spirit of enterprise which have ever since been distinguishing characteristics of New York newspaper life. The only cheap papers, in 1840, which pretended, with any show of reason, to publish all the news of the day, were the Herald, and Moses Y. Beach's Sun; and

although the former of these was low and often scurrilous, and the latter silly, they attracted readers among the younger inhabitants of New York, who had begun to tire of the Dutch phlegm.

It was a shrewd movement of Horace Greeley to take advantage of this change in popular sentiment. He says of the first number of the Tribune, issued April 10, 1841: "It was a small sheet, for it was to be retailed for a cent, and not much of a newspaper could be afforded for that price, even in those specie-paying times. I had been incited to this enterprise by several Whig friends, who deemed a cheap daily, addressed more especially to the laboring class, eminently needed in our city, where the only two cheap journals then and still existing the Sun and the Herald-were in decided, though unavowed, and therefore more effective, sympathy and affiliation with the Democratic party. Two or three had promised pecuniary aid if it should be needed; only one (Mr. James Coggeshall, long since deceased) ever made good that promise, by loaning me one thousand dollars, which was duly and gratefully repaid, principal and interest."

Cheap papers three in number- having thus come into existence, the sixpenny mammoths began to gasp. Their day was done. From 1843 to 1850, indeed, Raymond made a strong effort to restore to Webb's Courier and Enquirer some measure of its departed glory, and his celebrated discussion with Greeley on the subject of Socialism gave it a temporary revival; but he became discouraged with the effort, and finally established the Times. The Times lived, and the Courier and Enquirer died. In the eternal fitness of things, hoary age thus gave place to lusty youth. The old Journal of Commerce,. which still exists, lives because the older men died out of it, or left it, and the red blood came in; and it is to-day one of the four papers* in New York which return enormous profits.

Between the extremes of dull respectability and bold indecency, of portentous heaviness and unsubstantial froth, came

*The Herald, the Times, the Journal of Commerce, and the Evening Post, each of which made clear annual profits of from fifty thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, in 1868-9.