country. The store proper is eighty feet deep by fifty feet wide, and is
fitted up handsomely in hard wood.

There is no paint about it, every piece of wood in use presenting its
natural appearance. On the right in entering are the book shelves and
counters, and on the opposite side the desks devoted to the magazine
department. At the rear are the counting rooms and the private office of
Mr. J.R. Osgood, the active business man of the concern. The second
story is elegantly and tastefully fitted up. It contains the luxurious
private office of Mr. Fields, in which are to be seen excellent
likenesses of his two dearest friends, Longfellow and Dickens; and the
parlor of the establishment, which is known as the Author's Room. This
is a spacious and handsomely-appointed room, whose windows, overlooking
the Common, command one of the prettiest views in New England. It is
supplied with the leading periodicals of the day, and choice volumes of
current literature. Here one may always find one or more of the "gifted
few," whose names are familiar to the reader; and frequent reunions of
the book-making fraternity are designed to be held here, under the
genial auspices of the literary partner of the house.

It is not often that men win success in both literature and mercantile
life. Good authors have usually made very poor business managers, and
_vice versa_; but the subject of this memoir, besides winning a great
success as a merchant, and that in one of the most hazardous branches of
mercantile life, has also won an enviable reputation as a man of
letters. His poems have made him well known, both in this country and in
England. Besides the poems recited before various literary associations,
he has published two volumes of fugitive pieces. The first appeared in
1843, while he was still a clerk, and the second in 1858. His poems
abound in humor, pathos, and a delicate, beautiful fancy. One of his
friends has said of him:

"Little of the sad travail of the historic poet has Mr. Fields known.
Of the emaciated face, the seedy garment, the collapsed purse, the
dog-eared and often rejected manuscript, he has never known, save from
well-authenticated tradition. His muse was born in sunshine, and has
only been sprinkled with the tears of affection. Every effort has been
cheered to the echo, and it is impossible for so genial a fellow to fail
of an ample and approving audience for whatever may fall from his lip or
pen."

The following lines, from his second volume, will serve as a specimen of
the "homely beauty" of Mr. Fields' muse, though it hardly sets forth all
his powers:


She came among the gathering crowd
A maiden fair, without pretense,
And when they asked her humble name,
She whispered mildly, "Common Sense."

Her modest garb drew every eye,
Her ample cloak, her shoes of leather;
And when they sneered, she simply said,
"I dress according to the weather."

They argued long and reasoned loud,
In dubious Hindoo phrase mysterious;
While she, poor child, could not divine
Why girls so young should be so serious.

They knew the length of Plato's beard,
And how the scholars wrote in Laturn;
She studied authors not so deep,
And took the Bible for her pattern.

And so she said, "Excuse me, friends,
I feel all have their proper places,
And _Common Sense_ should stay at home
With cheerful hearts and smiling faces."


Mr. Fields has been a frequent contributor to his own periodicals, his
latest effort being a paper devoted to personal recollections of Charles
Dickens, which was published in the "Atlantic Monthly" soon after the
death of the great master.

He has made several extended tours throughout Europe, where he has
enjoyed social advantages rarely opened to travelers. One of his friends
says that, in his first visit to the Old World, "he passed several
months in England, Scotland, France, and Germany, visiting the principal
places of interest, and forming most delightful and profitable
intimacies with the most distinguished _literateurs_ of the day. He was
a frequent guest at the well-known breakfasts of the great banker-poet
of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and of 'Italy,' and listened or added his
own contributions to the exuberant riches of the hour, when such
visitors as Talfourd, Dickens, Moore, and Landor were the talkers." He
also formed a warm friendship with Wordsworth, and, during his stay in
Edinburgh, with Professor Wilson and De Quincey. The writings of the
last-named author were published by Ticknor and Fields, in eighteen
volumes, and were edited by Mr. Fields, at the author's own request.

Mr. Fields is now in his fiftieth year, but shows no sign of age, save
the whitening of his heavy, curling beard. He is still young and active
in mind and body. He is of medium height, and well proportioned, with an
erect carriage. Polished and courteous in manner, he is easily
accessible to all. To young writers he is especially kind, and it is a
matter of the truest pleasure to him to seek out and bring to notice
genuine literary merit. He has a host of friends, and is widely popular
with all classes.




V.

EDITORS.




CHAPTER XXIII.

JAMES GORDON BENNETT.


James Gordon Bennett was born at New Mill, Keith, in Banffshire, on the
north-eastern coast of Scotland, about the year 1800. His relatives were
Roman Catholics, and he was brought up in a Catholic family of French
origin. In his fourteenth year, having passed through the primary
schools of his native place, he entered the Roman Catholic Seminary at
Aberdeen, for the purpose of studying for the priesthood of that Church.
During the two or three years which he passed here he was a close
student, and acquired the basis of an excellent education.

In 1817 he came into possession of a copy of Benjamin Franklin's
autobiography, which had been recently published in Scotland. The
perusal of this little book changed the course of his whole life. It
induced him to abandon all thoughts of the priesthood, and to try his
fortune in the New World, in which the great philosopher had succeeded
so well before him. A little more than a year later he left Glasgow, and
in May, 1819, being now about twenty years old, landed at Halifax, Nova
Scotia. He had less than twenty-five dollars in his purse, knew no
vocation save that of a book-keeper, and had not a friend on this side
of the ocean.

He secured a few pupils in Halifax, and gave lessons in book-keeping,
but his profits were so small that he determined to reach the United
States as soon as possible. Accordingly he made his way along the coast
to Portland, Maine, where he took passage for Boston in a small
schooner. He found great difficulty in procuring employment, for Boston
then, as now, offered but few inducements to new-comers. He parted with
his last penny, and was reduced to the most pressing want. For two whole
days he went without food, and a third day would doubtless have been
added to his fast had he not been fortunate enough to find a shilling on
the Common, with which he procured the means of relieving his hunger. He
now obtained a salesman's place in the bookstore of Messrs. Wells &
Lilly, who, upon discovering his fitness for the place, transferred him
to their printing-office as proof-reader; but his employers failed about
two years after his connection with them began, and he was again thrown
out of employment.

From Boston he went, in 1822, to New York, where he obtained a situation
on a newspaper. Soon after his arrival in the metropolis he was offered,
by Mr. Wellington, the proprietor of the "Charleston (S.C.) Courier,"
the position of translator from the Spanish, and general assistant. He
accepted the offer, and at once repaired to Charleston. He remained
there only a few months, however, and then returned to New York.

He now proposed to open a "Permanent Commercial School," at 148 Fulton
Street, and advertised to teach the usual branches "in the inductive
method." His advertisement set forth that his pupils would be taught
"reading, elocution, penmanship, and arithmetic; algebra; astronomy,
history, and geography; moral philosophy, commercial law, and political
economy; English grammar and composition, and, also, if required, the
French and Spanish languages by natives of those countries." This
elaborate scheme was never put into execution, as Mr. Bennett did not
receive a sufficient number of applications to warrant him in opening
the school. He next attempted a course of lectures on political economy
at the old Dutch Church in Ann Street, but this enterprise was also a
pecuniary failure. In 1825 he purchased the "New York Courier," a Sunday
paper, but did not succeed with it. He continued to write for the press,
principally for one or two papers, selling his articles where he could,
and in 1826 formed a regular connection with the "National Advocate," a
Democratic journal. To his duties in this position he applied himself
with an energy and industry never surpassed, and rarely equaled, in his
profession. He took an active part in politics, and wrote regularly and
constantly for his paper, acquiring considerable reputation by his
articles against the tariff and on banks and banking. He now embarked in
journalism as the business of his life, and with the determination to
succeed. In order to win success, he knew he must first learn to master
himself. He neither smoked, drank, nor gambled. He indulged in no
species of dissipation, but was temperate and prudent in all things. A
few years later he said of himself, "I eat and drink to live, not live
to eat and drink. Social glasses of wine are my aversion; public dinners
are my abomination; all species of gormandizing my utter scorn and
contempt. When I am hungry, I eat; when thirsty, drink. Wine or viands
taken for society, or to stimulate conversation, tend only to
dissipation, indolence, poverty, contempt, and death."

In 1827 the "National Advocate" changed hands, and, under its new
proprietors, supported John Quincy Adams for President. Mr. Bennett,
being a supporter of Martin Van Buren, then a United States Senator,
resigned his position on the paper, and soon after, in connection with
the late M.M. Noah, established "The Enquirer," which warmly espoused
the cause of Andrew Jackson in the Presidential canvass of 1828. About
this time he became a recognized member of the Tammany Society.

In the spring of 1828 he went to Washington, where he resided for some
time as the correspondent of "The Enquirer." In looking through the
library of Congress one day, he found an edition of Horace Walpole's
letters, which he read with a keen relish. These suggested the idea of a
series of similar letters to his own paper, and he at once put his plan
into execution. His letters were written and published. They were
"spicy," pleasant in style, full of gossip about the distinguished
personages who thronged the capital every winter, and, withal, free from
any offensive personality. They were read with eagerness, and widely
copied by the press throughout the country. Yet he was poorly paid for
them, and at a time when he had made a "real hit" was forced to labor
hard for a bare subsistence. He did all kinds of literary work. He wrote
editorials, letters, sketches, poetry, stories, police reports, in
short, every thing that a newspaper had use for, and yet his earnings
were barely more than sufficient to afford him a decent support.

In 1829, the "Courier and Enquirer" were united under one management,
and Mr. Bennett was made assistant editor, with James Watson Webb as his
chief. In the autumn of that year he became associate editor. Says Mr.
James Parton (by no means an ardent admirer of Mr. Bennett):

"During the great days of the 'Courier and Enquirer,' from 1829 to 1832,
when It was incomparably the best newspaper on the continent, James
Gordon Bennett was its most efficient hand. It lost him in 1832, when
the paper abandoned General Jackson and took up Nicholas Biddle, and in
losing him lost its chance of retaining the supremacy among American
newspapers to this day. We can truly say that at that time journalism,
as a thing by itself and for itself, had no existence in the United
States. Newspapers were mere appendages of party, and the darling object
of each journal was to be recognized as the organ of the party it
supported. As to the public, the great public, hungry for interesting
news, no one thought of it. Forty years ago, in the city of New York, a
copy of a newspaper could not be bought for money. If any one wished to
see a newspaper, he had either to go to the office and subscribe, or
repair to a bar-room and buy a glass of something to drink, or bribe a
carrier to rob one of his customers. The circulation of the 'Courier and
Enquirer' was considered something marvelous when it printed thirty-five
hundred copies a day, and its business was thought immense when its
daily advertising averaged fifty-five dollars. It is not very unusual
for a newspaper now to receive for advertising, in one day, six hundred
times that sum. Bennett, in the course of time, had a chance been given
to him, would have made the 'Courier and Enquirer' powerful enough to
cast off all party ties, and this he would have done merely by improving
it as a vehicle of news. But he was kept down upon one of those
ridiculous, tantalizing, corrupting salaries, which are a little more
than a single man needs, but not enough for him to marry upon. This
salary was increased by the proprietors giving him a small share in the
small profits of the printing-office; so that, after fourteen years of
hard labor and Scotch economy, he found himself, on leaving the great
paper, a capitalist to the extent of a few hundred dollars. The chief
editor of the paper which he now abandoned sometimes lost as much in a
single evening at the card-table. It probably never occurred to him
that this poor, ill-favored Scotchman was destined to destroy his paper
and all the class of papers to which it belonged. Any one who examines a
file of the 'Courier and Enquirer' of that time, and knows its interior
circumstances, will see plainly enough that the possession of this man
was the vital element in its prosperity. He alone knew the rudiments of
his trade. He alone had the physical stamina, the indefatigable
industry, the sleepless vigilance, the dexterity, tact, and audacity
needful for keeping up a daily newspaper in the face of keen
competition."

Mr. Bennett left the "Courier and Enquirer" in 1832, the cause of his
action being the desertion of General Jackson by that journal. He at
once started a cheap partisan paper, called "The Globe," devoted to the
interests of Jackson and Van Buren. It failed to receive the support of
the Democratic party, however, and went down after a precarious
existence of thirty days.

Undismayed by this failure, Mr. Bennett removed to Philadelphia, and
invested the remainder of his capital in a daily Democratic journal,
called "The Pennsylvanian," of which he was the principal editor,
laboring hard to win for it the assistance and support of the party. He
had rendered good and admitted service to the Democracy, but was to
experience the ingratitude for which political organizations are
proverbial. He applied to Martin Van Buren and other prominent leaders
of the party to aid him in securing a loan of twenty-five hundred
dollars for two years, which sum would have enabled him to establish his
paper on a paying basis, but the politicians turned deaf ears to his
appeals, and his paper failed, after a brief and desperate struggle.

He came back to New York about the beginning of 1835, a little sore
from his unsuccessful battle with fate, but far from being dismayed or
cast down. His failures to establish party organs had convinced him that
success in journalism does not depend upon political favor, and he
determined to make one more effort to build up a paper of his own, and
this time one which should aim to please no party but the public. That
there was need of an independent journal of this kind he felt sure, and
he knew the people of the country well enough to be confident that if
such a journal could be properly placed before them, it would succeed.
The problem with him was how to get it properly before them. He had
little or no money, and it required considerable capital to carry
through the most insignificant effort of the kind. He made several
efforts to inspire other persons with his confidence before he
succeeded. One of these efforts Mr. Parton thus describes, in his _Life
of Horace Greeley:_ "An incident connected with the job-office of
Greeley & Co. is perhaps worth mentioning here. One James Gordon
Bennett, a person then well known as a smart writer for the press, came
to Horace Greeley, and, exhibiting a fifty-dollar bill and some other
notes of smaller denominations as his cash capital, wanted him to join
in setting up a new daily paper, 'The New York Herald.' Our hero
declined the offer, but recommended James Gordon to apply to another
printer, naming one, who he thought would like to share in such an
enterprise. To him the editor of 'The Herald' did apply, and with
success."

The parties to whom Mr. Greeley referred Mr. Bennett were two young
printers, whom he persuaded, after much painstaking, to print his paper
and share with him its success or failure. He had about enough cash in
hand to sustain the paper for ten days, after which it must make its own
way. He proposed to make it cheap--to sell it at one penny per copy,
and to make it meet the current wants of the day. The "Sun," a penny
paper, was already in existence, and was paying well, and this
encouraged Mr. Bennett to hope for success in his own enterprise.

He rented a cellar in Wall Street, in which he established his office,
and on the 6th of May, 1835, issued the first number of "The Morning
Herald." His cellar was bare and poverty-stricken in appearance. It
contained nothing but a desk made of boards laid upon flour barrels. On
one end of this desk lay a pile of "Heralds" ready for purchasers, and
at the other sat the proprietor writing his articles for his journal and
managing his business. Says Mr. William Gowans, the famous Nassau-Street
bookseller: "I remember to have entered the subterranean office of its
editor early in its career, and purchased a single copy of the paper,
for which I paid the sum of one cent United States currency. On this
occasion the proprietor, editor, and vendor was seated at his desk,
busily engaged in writing, and appeared to pay little or no attention to
me as I entered. On making known my object in coming in, he requested me
to put my money down on the counter and help myself to a paper, all this
time he continuing his writing operations. The office was a single
oblong underground room; its furniture consisted of a counter, which
also served as a desk, constructed from two flour barrels, perhaps
empty, standing apart from each other about four feet, with a single
plank covering both; a chair, placed in the center, upon which sat the
editor busy at his vocation, with an inkstand by his right hand; on the
end nearest the door were placed the papers for sale."

[Illustration: HOW THE "NEW YORK HERALD" BEGAN.]

Standing on Broadway now, and looking at the marble palace from which
the greatest and wealthiest newspaper in the Union sends forth its huge
editions, one finds it hard to realize that just thirty-four years
ago this great journal was born in a cellar, an obscure little penny
sheet, with a poor man for its proprietor. Yet such was the beginning of
"The New York Herald."

The prospect was not a pleasant one to contemplate, but Mr. Bennett did
not shrink from it. He knew that it was in him to succeed, and he meant
to do it, no matter through what trials or vicissitudes his path to
fortune lay. Those who heard his expressions of confidence shook their
heads sagely, and said the young man's air-castles would soon fade away
before the blighting breath of experience. Indeed, it did seem a
hopeless struggle, the effort of this one poor man to raise his little
penny sheet from its cellar to the position of "a power in the land." He
was almost unknown. He could bring no support or patronage to his
journal by the influence of his name, or by his large acquaintance. The
old newspaper system, with its clogs and dead-weights, was still in
force, and as for newsboys to hawk the new journal over the great city,
they were a race not then in existence. He had to fight his battle with
poverty alone and without friends, and he did fight it bravely. He was
his own clerk, reporter, editor, and errand boy. He wrote all the
articles that appeared in "The Herald," and many of the advertisements,
and did all the work that was to be performed about his humble office.

"The Herald" was a small sheet of four pages of four columns each.
Nearly every line of it was fresh news. Quotations from other papers
were scarce. Originality was then, as now, the motto of the
establishment. Small as it was, the paper was attractive. The story that
its first numbers were scurrilous and indecent is not true, as a
reference to the old files of the journal will prove. They were of a
character similar to that of "The Herald" of to-day, and were marked by
the same industry, tact, and freshness, which make the paper to-day the
most salable in the land.

Says Mr. Parton: "The first numbers were filled with nonsense and gossip
about the city of New York, to which his poverty confined him. He had no
boat with which to board arriving ships, no share in the pony express
from Washington, and no correspondents in other cities. All he could do
was to catch the floating gossip, scandal, and folly of the town, and
present as much of them every day as one man could get upon paper by
sixteen hours' labor. He laughed at every thing and every body,--not
excepting himself and his squint eye,--and though his jokes were not
always good, they were generally good enough. People laughed, and were
willing to expend a cent the next day to see what new folly the man
would commit or relate. We all like to read about our own neighborhood;
this paper gratified the propensity.

"The man, we repeat, had really a vein of poetry in him, and the first
numbers of 'The Herald' show it. He had occasion one day to mention that
Broadway was about to be paved with wooden blocks. This was not a very
promising subject for a poetical comment, but he added: 'When this is
done, every vehicle will have to wear sleigh-bells, as in sleighing
times, and Broadway will be so quiet that you can pay a compliment to a
lady, in passing, and she will hear you.' This was nothing in itself;
but here was a man wrestling with fate in a cellar, who could turn you
out two hundred such paragraphs a week, the year round. Men can growl in
a cellar; this man could laugh, and keep laughing, and make the floating
population of a city laugh with him. It must be owned, too, that he had
a little real insight into the nature of things around him--a little
Scotch sense, as well as an inexhaustible fund of French vivacity.
Alluding, once, to the 'hard money' cry by which the lying politicians
of the day carried elections, he exploded that nonsense in two lines:
'If a man gets the wearable or the eatable he wants, what cares he if he
has gold or paper money?' He devoted two sentences to the Old School and
New School Presbyterian controversy: 'Great trouble among the
Presbyterians just now. The question is whether or not a man can do any
thing toward saving his own soul.' He had also an article upon the
Methodists, in which he said that the two religions nearest akin were
the Methodist and the Roman Catholic. We should add to these trifling
specimens the fact that he uniformly maintained, from 1835 to the crash
of 1837, that the prosperity of the country was unreal, and would end in
disaster."

These things served the end for which they were intended. They brought
"The Herald" conspicuously before the public. While engaged in them,
the proprietor was anxiously planning the means of making his paper a
great _newspaper_. He worked sixteen or seventeen hours each day. He
rose before five o'clock in the morning, and gave three hours to writing
his editorials and the witty paragraphs to which allusion has been made.
At eight o'clock he went to his cellar, or "office," and was at his post
there during the morning, selling his papers, receiving advertisements,
and often writing them for those who were not able to prepare them,
doing such other work as was necessary, and finishing his editorial
labors. At one o'clock he went into Wall Street, gathering up financial
news and interesting items of the street. He returned to his office at
four o'clock, and remained there until six, when the business of the day
was over. In the evening he went to the theater, a ball, concert, or
some public gathering, to pick up fresh items for his paper.

All this while, however, he was losing money. He had a heavy load to
carry, and though he bore it unflinchingly and determinedly, the
enterprise seemed doomed to failure for lack of funds. At this juncture,
he resolved to make the financial news of the day a special feature of
"The Herald." The monetary affairs of the country were in great
confusion--a confusion which was but the prelude to the crash of 1837;
and Wall Street was the vortex of the financial whirlpool whose eddies
were troubling the whole land. Every body was anxious to get the first
news from the street, and to get it as full and reliable as possible. At
this time, too, our relations with France were exceedingly critical--a
circumstance which served to increase the trouble in financial matters.
Appreciating the anxiety which was generally felt on this subject, Mr.
Bennett resolved to create a demand for "The Herald" among the business
men of the country. On the 13th of June, 1835, just five weeks after the
establishment of the paper, he printed his first money article--the
first that ever appeared in an American newspaper. It was as follows:


COMMERCIAL.

Stocks yesterday maintained their prices during the session of the
Board, several going up. Utica went up 2 per cent.; the others
stationary. Large quantities were sold. After the Board adjourned
and the news from France was talked over, the fancy stocks
generally went down 1 to 1-1/2 per cent.; the other stocks quite
firm. A rally was made by the bulls in the evening under the trees,
but it did not succeed. There will be a great fight in the Board
to-day. The good people up town are anxious to know what the
brokers think of Mr. Livingston. We shall find out, and let them
know.

The cotton and flour markets rallied a little. The rise of cotton
in Liverpool drove it up here a cent or so. The last shippers will
make 2-1/2 per cent. Many are endeavoring to produce the impression
that there will be a war. If the impression prevails, naval stores
will go up a good deal. Every eye is outstretched for the
"Constitution." Hudson, of the Merchants News Room, says he will
hoist out the first flag. Gilpin, of the Exchange News Room, says
he will have her name down in his room one hour before his
competitor. The latter claims having beat Hudson yesterday by an
hour and ten minutes in chronicling the "England."


The money article was a success, and appeared regularly in "The Herald"
after this. It created a demand for the paper among the merchants, and
increased its circulation so decidedly that at the end of the third
month the daily receipts and expenditures balanced each other. Mr.
Bennett now ventured to engage a cheap police reporter, which gave him
more time to attend to other duties.

The paper now seemed on the point of becoming a success, when it
received a severe and unlooked-for blow. The printing-office was burned
down, and the gentlemen who had printed "The Herald" were so much
discouraged that they refused to renew their connection with it. Mr.
Bennett knew that he was too near to success to abandon the enterprise,
and courageously put his wits to work to devise means to carry on the
paper. By the greatest and most indomitable exertions he managed to
secure the means of going on with it, and bravely resumed its
publication alone.

A few months after this the "great fire" swept over New York, and laid
nearly the whole business portion of the city in ashes. This was Mr.
Bennett's opportunity. The other journals of the city devoted a brief
portion of their space to general and ponderous descriptions of the
catastrophe, but Mr. Bennett went among the ruins, note-book and pencil
in hand, and gathered up the most minute particulars of the fire. He
spent one-half of each day in this way, and the other half in writing
out reports of what he thus learned. These reports he published in "The
Herald." They were free, graphic, off-hand sketches of the fire and its
consequences, and were so full and complete that they left little or
nothing connected with the incidents they described to be added. Mr.
Bennett also went to the expense of publishing a picture of the burning
of the Merchants Exchange, and a map of the burnt district--a heavy
expense for his little journal. The result proved the sagacity of his
views. "The Herald" reports of the fire created a heavy demand for the
paper, and its circulation increased rapidly. Yet its success was not
assured.

When his first year closed, Mr. Bennett found his paper still struggling
for existence, but with a fair prospect of success, if it could follow
up the "hit" it had made with its reports of the fire. About this time
he received an offer from Dr. Benjamin Brandreth to advertise his pills
in "The Herald," and a contract was at once concluded between them. The
money thus paid to the paper was a considerable sum, and proved of the
greatest assistance to it. All the money received was conscientiously
expended in the purchase of news. The circulation grew larger as its
news facilities increased, and for some years its proprietor expended
all his profits in making the paper more attractive.

At the close of the fifteenth month of its career Mr. Bennett increased
the size of "The Herald," and raised the price of it to two cents per
copy. His success was now assured, and continued to increase, as, under
his able and far-seeing management, his paper expanded and enlarged its
facilities for securing and making public the promptest and most
reliable news of the day. Since that time his success has been
unvarying. He has made "The Herald" the leading newspaper of the world,
for no other journal upon the globe can compare with it in liberality
and energy in the collection of news or in promptness and completeness
of detail in laying it before the public. Its growth has been slow, but
sure. Every step has been won by hard and conscientious labor, as well
as by the force of real genius. Other journals have been compelled to
follow the example of "The Herald," but none have surpassed it. It still
stands at the head of the newspaper press of the world, and we are
justified in believing that it will continue to stand there as long as
its founder's hand controls it.

Instead of the little penny sheet of thirty-four years ago, "The New
York Herald" of to-day is an immense journal, generally of twelve, and
often of sixteen pages of six columns each, making a total of from
seventy-two to ninety-six closely printed columns of matter. From four
to nine pages are filled with advertisements, classified with the utmost
exactness. No reader has to search the paper over for the article or
advertisement he wishes to see; each subject has its separate place,
which can be discovered at a glance. Its advertisements have reference
to every trade, profession, or calling known to civilized man, and are a
faithful mirror of the busy age in which we live. Its news reports are
the freshest, most complete, and most graphic of any American journal,
and are collected at an expenditure of more time, care, and money than
any other journal sees fit to lay out. It has its correspondents in all
parts of the world, and when news is worth sending, these are instructed
to spare no pains or expense in transmitting it at once. During the late
war it had a small army of attaches in the field, and its reports were
the most eagerly sought of all by the public. During the Abyssinian war
its reporters and correspondents furnished the London press with
reliable news _in advance of their own correspondents_. Any price is
paid for news, for it is the chief wish of Mr. Bennett that "The Herald"
shall be the first to chronicle the events of the day.

"The Herald" office is now located at the corner of Broadway and Ann
Street. The building, of white marble, is five stories in height, and
is one of the handsomest in the country. It is the most complete
newspaper establishment in existence. It has two cellars, in which are
placed the two steam-engines that drive the huge presses which strike
off the various editions of "The Herald." Every thing is in perfect
order, and the machinery shines like polished gold and silver. The
proprietor's eye is upon the whole establishment, and he is quick to
notice and reprimand a fault. The street floor contains the business
office of the journal, a magnificent room, gorgeous with marble,
plate-glass, black walnut, and frescoes. The editorial rooms are above,
and near them are the reporters' rooms. The top floor constitutes the
finest composing room in the world, from which speaking-tubes and
vertical railways communicate with all the other parts of the building.
Every department of the paper has a responsible head, and the most rigid
discipline prevails throughout the office. There are twelve editors,
thirty-five reporters, and four hundred and fifty-three other employes,
making a total force of five hundred men engaged upon "The Herald." The
circulation of the various editions of the paper amounts to tens of
thousands. It is to be found in every town of importance in the land,
and its daily receipts from advertisements alone are counted by tens of
thousands of dollars.

Mr. Bennett rarely writes for the paper now. He assembles his editors in
his council at noon every day, hears their suggestions, decides what
topics shall be treated in the next day's issue, and assigns to each man
the subject upon which he is to write. In his absence his place at the
council-board is filled by his son, or by the managing editor. Mr.
Bennett in this way exercises a close supervision over all the articles
that appear in "The Herald," and imparts to them a considerable share of
his personality.

Mr. Bennett is married, and has two children, a son, James Gordon
Bennett, jr., who will succeed his father in the ownership of "The
Herald," and a daughter. He lives on Fifth Avenue at present, his
favorite residence, at Washington Heights, having been recently
destroyed by fire. He is said to be a courtly and agreeable host, and
one who rarely fails to send away his visitors with a pleasant
impression of himself.

In person he is tall and firmly built, and walks with a dignified
carriage. His head is large, and his features are prominent and
irregular. He has a thoroughly Scotch face, and is cross-eyed. His
forehead is broad and high, betokening great capacity and force of
character. His expression is firm and somewhat cold--that of a man who
has had a hard fight with fortune, and has conquered it. He is reserved
in his manner to strangers, but always courteous and approachable. To
his friends he is genial and unreserved. He is finely educated, and is
said to be a man of excellent taste. His favorite studies are history
and biography, and he still pursues them with a keen relish. His home is
one of the most elegant in the city. He is proud of his success, as he
may well be, and very proud of the fact that he owes it to himself
alone. While he was building the new "Herald" office, he was waited on
by the president of one of the national banks of the city, who said to
him:

"Mr. Bennett, we know that you are at great expense in erecting this
building, besides carrying on your immense business. If you want any
accommodation, you can have it at our bank."

"Mr. ----," replied Mr. Bennett, "before I purchased the land, or began
to build, I had on deposit two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the
Chemical Bank. There is not a dollar due on 'The Herald' building that
I can not pay. I would pay off the mortgage to-morrow, if the owner
would allow me to do so. When the building is opened, I shall not owe
one dollar to any man, if I am allowed to pay. I owe nothing that I can
not discharge in an hour. I have not touched one dollar of the money on
deposit in the bank, and while that remains I need no accommodation."




CHAPTER XXIV.

ROBERT BONNER.


Robert Bonner was born in the north of Ireland, near the town of
Londonderry, about the year 1824. He came to this country when a mere
child, and was brought up in the State of Connecticut, where he received
a good common-school education.

Manifesting a decided liking for the printer's trade, he was placed at
an early age in the office of the "Hartford Courant," where he took his
first lessons in the art of setting type. He entered upon the business
with the determination to learn it thoroughly, and when he had mastered
his trade soon acquired the reputation of being the best workman in
Hartford. As a compositor, he was not only neat and thorough, but was
remarkably rapid as well. On one occasion, when the "Courant" was
endeavoring to publish the "President's Message" in advance of all its
competitors, Mr. Bonner is said to have worked at the rate of seventeen
hundred ems an hour--a feat absolutely unparalleled.

In 1844, he removed to New York and engaged in the office of a new
journal, called the "American Republican," then lately established as
the organ of the American party in that city, upon which he worked
steadily during its brief career. His wages were small, and it was only
by practicing the most rigid economy that he could live upon them.

When the "Republican" suspended publication, Mr. Bonner was employed in
the office of the "Evening Mirror," published by Morris, Willis &
Fuller. Here he made himself so useful, that the business of getting up
or displaying advertisements attractively was soon left entirely to him.
His taste in this department was almost faultless, and the
advertisements of the "Mirror" soon became noted for their neat and
handsome appearance.

At this time there was published in New York a small, struggling paper,
exclusively mercantile in its character, called the "Merchants' Ledger."
This paper was almost entirely dependent upon its advertising patronage,
and the attention of its proprietor was called to Mr. Bonner's skill, as
exhibited in the "Mirror," in displaying advertisements to the greatest
advantage. The result was that Mr. Bonner received an offer, which he
accepted, to take charge of this paper. This was the origin of his
connection with the journal which he has since rendered famous.

Being fond of composition, he made frequent contributions to the
editorial columns of the paper, which were well received by the general
public, but which seem to have aroused the petty jealousy of the
proprietor of the "Ledger."

Soon after forming his connection with the "Ledger," Mr. Bonner
purchased it. From his boyhood up, it had been his ambition to become
the proprietor of a journal which should be carried out upon his own
ideas, and he believed that the "Ledger" offered him the best means of
doing this. It was generally doubted at that time that a literary paper
could flourish in New York--Boston and Philadelphia having apparently
monopolized such enterprises. Mr. Bonner, however, had a clearer view
of the matter, and was convinced from the first that the great center of
American industry was the very best place for such an undertaking. He
proceeded very cautiously at first, however, changing the character of
his paper very gradually, from a commercial to a literary journal.

At this time Fanny Fern was the great literary sensation of the day. She
had just published her "Ruth Hall," which had attracted universal
attention, and had given rise to a sharp discussion in the public press
as to whether she was the sister of N.P. Willis or not. Mr. Bonner
resolved to profit by her sudden notoriety, and requested her to write a
story for the "Ledger," for which he offered to pay her twenty-five
dollars per column. She declined the proposition. He then offered her
fifty dollars a column, and, upon a second refusal, increased his offer
to seventy-five dollars a column. She was pleased with the energy
exhibited by Mr. Bonner, and flattered by his eagerness to secure her
services, but declared that she would write no more for the newspapers.
A little later Mr. Bonner was offered a story from her, about ten
columns long. He at once accepted her proposition, and upon the receipt
of the manuscript sent her a check for one thousand dollars.

With this story began that wonderful career of the "Ledger" which seems
more like a dream than hard reality. The story was double-leaded, and
made to fill twenty columns of the paper. The "Ledger" itself was
changed from its old style to its present form, and made a purely
literary journal. The price paid for the story was unparalleled in the
history of American journalism, and Mr. Bonner spread the announcement
far and wide that he was publishing a serial for which he had given one
hundred dollars a column. His advertisements were to be seen in almost
every newspaper of respectable circulation throughout the Union. In form
they were different from any that had preceded them. "Fanny Fern
writes for the 'Ledger.'" "Buy the 'New York Ledger,'" etc., appeared,
dozens of times repeated, until men were absolutely tired of seeing the
announcement. Nothing had ever been brought to the public notice so
prominently before. For awhile people were astonished at the audacious
boldness of "the 'Ledger' man." Then they began to buy the paper. Since
then the demand for it has steadily increased.

The venture was successful. Fanny Fern's reputation and Mr. Bonner's