Lights and Shadows of New York Life Part 14

The _Tribune_ has a daily circulation of about 43,000 copies. It is, in point of ability, the best of the city dailies. It long ago surmounted its early difficulties, and has been for many years one of the most profitable enterprises in the city. It is owned by a joint stock company. It was begun by Mr. Greeley on $1000 of borrowed money. At the formation of the company the stock was divided into 100 shares at $1000 each. The number is still the same, but the shares could not now be bought for many times their original value. In 1870 the dividend declared amounted to $163,000; or, $1630 on each share. At present the shares are owned as follows:

Shares.

Samuel Sinclair, publisher 21 Horace Greeley, chief editor 12 Estate of Stephen Clark, 14 (formerly money editor) Dr. J. C. Ayer (of Lowell) 16 Estate of A. D. Richardson 5 Bayard Taylor 5 T. N. Rooker, foreman in 5 composing room Mr. Runkle (husband of Mrs. L. G. 2 Calhoun) Oliver Johnson (of the 1 Independent) Mr. Cleveland (brother-in-law of 1 Horace Greeley) G. W. Smalley (London 2 correspondent) Solon Robinson (agricultural 2 editor) Two printers in the office 2 Solomon A. Cheeney 3 John Hooper 2 B. F. Camp 2

The _Tribune_ property is valued at over $1,000,000, which includes nearly $300,000 in real estate. The stockholders, it is said, contemplate, at no distant day, erecting a large and handsome printing office on the site of the present unpretending building now occupied.

The profits of the paper do not depend upon the daily edition. The semi-weekly circulates about 35,000 or 40,000 copies, and the weekly about 130,000 copies. The last is sent all over the United States, and has beyond a doubt the largest number of readers of any paper in the world.

The _Tribune_ is the leading organ of the Republican party in the United States, and its influence is tremendous. It is a well written, well conducted paper, and is every year becoming more independent of party control. The chief editor is Horace Greeley, who imparts his strong personality to the whole journal. Many of the country people believe that the Philosopher writes every line on the editorial page. The managing editor is Whitelaw Reid, and the publisher Samuel Sinclair. Mr.

Reid succeeded Mr. John Russell Young, and the paper has profited by the change. Mr. Sinclair is one of the most efficient publishers in the land, and the _Tribune_ owes not a little of its success to his genius--for that is the only name to give it. The editorial staff comprises more ability than that of any other city journal, though some of the others make a better use of the talent at their disposal. Its correspondence, both domestic and foreign, is the best of all the city papers--perhaps the best in the Union--and the list of its correspondents contains some of the brightest names in literature.

The _Times_ is also a Republican journal, and aims to represent the Administration of General Grant. Under the management of the late Henry J. Raymond, a born journalist, it was a power in the land. Since Mr.

Raymond's death there has been a falling off in the ability, the manliness, and the influence of the paper. It is owned by a stock company, and is a profitable enterprise. The chief editor is Mr. Louis Jennings, an Englishman, and formerly the New York correspondent of the London _Times_. Mr. Jennings is a gentleman of ability and culture, and a journalist of considerable experience. His chief needs are a decided infusion of American ideas and sentiment, and a recognition of the dissimilarity between the London and New York mode of viewing matters.

The publisher is Mr. George Jones.

The _Times_, under Mr. Raymond, was one of the freshest and most thoroughly up to the times journals on the continent. Its correspondence, especially that from Europe, was exceptionally good.

There has been a falling off in this respect of late. The circulation of the paper is not known with certainty, but is believed to be about 30,000 or 35,000 copies.

The _World_ is the princ.i.p.al Democratic journal of the city, and aspires to be the organ of the party throughout the country. It was begun about the year 1859 as a religious paper, and is said to have sunk about $300,000 for its projectors. It then became the organ of the Democracy of the city, and has for some time paid well. It is the property of its editor, Mr. Manton G. Marble. It is unquestionably one of the ablest journals in the country. Its editorials are well written, indicative of deep thought on the subjects treated of, and gentlemanly in tone. In literary excellence, it is not surpa.s.sed by any city journal. It aims to be in the front rank of the march of ideas, and makes a feature of discussions of the leading scientific and social questions of the day.

It is lightened by a brilliant display of wit, and the "Funny Man of the World" is well known in the city. The chief editor is Manton G. Marble.

He is the author of the majority of the leaders. In this he is ably seconded by Mr. Chamberlain, one of the most forcible and successful writers on the city press. Mr. Marble is not seen much in the office.

The _World_ rooms are connected with his residence in the upper part of the city, by a private telegraph, by means of which he exercises a constant supervision over the paper. The managing editor is Mr. David G.

Croly (the husband of "Jennie June"). He is a genius in his way. He does not write much, but gives the greater part of the time to superintending the work of the office. He is said to be extremely fertile in suggesting themes for treatment to his brother editors. The great faults of the _World_ are its devotion to sensation journalism, its thick and thin Roman Catholic partizanism, and, strange to say, a little too much looseness in the tone of its Sunday edition. Its circulation is variously estimated at from 15,000 to 30,000. The exact number is known only to the publisher.

The _Sun_ a.s.sumes to be the organ of the working cla.s.ses, and claims a circulation of 85,000 copies. It is a bright, sparkling journal, issued at a cost of two cents. It is four pages in size, and has a fine list of advertis.e.m.e.nts. It is owned by a stock company, who bought it from the late Moses Y. Beach, its founder. The chief editor is Mr. Charles A.

Dana, a journalist of long experience, and one of the most thoroughly cultivated men in the profession. He has made it a great success. It is piquant, forcible, and good-natured. Mr. Dana is a.s.sisted by a corps of able editorial writers and reporters, who are thoroughly impressed with the wisdom of his policy. He is very sanguine of making a still greater success of the Sun, and claims that he will yet run its circulation up to 200,000 copies.

The _Standard_ is the property of Mr. John Russell Young, formerly the managing editor of the _Tribune_. It is a Republican organ, and is struggling to reach an established and prosperous position. It is well managed, and is conducted with considerable editorial ability.

The _Journal of Commerce_ is one of the few old-style papers left in New York. It is a ponderous four-page sheet, depending more upon its advertising than upon its circulation for its profits. It is edited with ability, and as it employs but few editors and reporters, and cares but little for general news, its publication is inexpensive. It is supplied by a regular carrier, and is not sold on the news-stands. It is taken by the leading hotels and by the down-town merchants, to whom it is valuable because of its commercial reports. The general reader would find it dull reading. It is one of the best paying papers in the city.

The _Star_ is a two cent paper, and was started at the time of the sale of the _Sun_ to Mr. Dana and his a.s.sociates, with the hope of securing the patronage of the working cla.s.ses. Its managing editor is Mr. Joseph Howard. It is a sprightly paper, intensely Democratic in tone, and is said to be prosperous.

The evening papers are much less influential than the morning journals, but the best of them are very successful.

The _Evening Post_ heads the list. It is owned by William Cullen Bryant & Co., and Mr. Bryant is the princ.i.p.al editor. It is the ablest and the most influential of all the evening papers, and is one of the purest in its tone of any of the American journals. It is taken chiefly in the families of cultivated and professional men. Its book notices are considered the most reliable. Its circulation and advertising patronage are large, and it is a very profitable investment.

The _Commercial Advertiser_ is now under the control of the venerable Thurlow Weed, and is a good paper.

The _Evening Express_ is the property of the brothers James and Erastus Brooks. It is well managed, and well edited, and is regarded as ranking next to the _Post_ in ability and general excellence. It is said to be worth $40,000 per annum above expenses to its proprietors.

The _Evening Mail_ is younger than either of the others, but not far behind the best of them in ability and interest. It has a decided literary tone, and is one of the most enterprising news purveyors in the city. It is now a thoroughly successful enterprise, and it deserves its good fortune.

The _Telegram_ is little more than an evening edition of the Herald. It is owned by James Gordon Bennett, jr., and is a lively sheet, full of news and gossip. It sells for two cents, and has a large circulation.

Its first page always contains a rough, but sometimes spirited cartoon, caricaturing some notable event of the day. It is a paying paper.

The _Evening News_ is a penny paper. It claims to have the largest circulation in the city, and is said to be very profitable. It is devoted almost exclusively to police news, and descriptions of crime, and finds its readers chiefly among the lower and rougher portion of the community. It is owned and conducted by Mr. Benjamin Wood.

The evening papers are generally issued in four editions, at one, two, four and five o'clock in the afternoon. On occasions of unusual interest, they often issue extras every hour until late in the night.

The evening papers contain the latest news and gossip, and a variety of light and entertaining reading matter, and are bought chiefly by persons who wish to read them at home after the cares and fatigues of the day are over, or to kill time in the cars on their way home.

There are three daily morning papers published in the German language, the _State Gazette_, the _Democrat_, and the _Journal_, and one evening paper, the _Times_. The _Courier of the United States_, and _Franco-American Messenger_, are issued in the French language. They are also daily morning papers. All are well supported by the citizens speaking the language they use.

II. WEEKLY PRESS.

Exclusive of the weekly editions of the daily journals, there are about 133 weekly papers published in the city of New York. Some of these are literary journals, some political, some the organs of the various religious bodies, and some devoted to the interests of trade and manufactures.

The best known weeklies are the literary, religious, and political papers, and of these the most noted are, _Harper's Weekly_, _Harper's Bazaar_, _Frank Leslie's Ill.u.s.trated Newspaper_, the _Nation_, the _Chimney Corner_, the _Ledger_, _Home Journal_, _Weekly Review_, _Sunday Mercury_, _New York Weekly_, _Hearth and Home_, the_ Sunday News_, the_ Albion_, _Dispatch_, _Sunday Times_, _Citizen_, _Revolution_, _Spirit of the Times_, and _Police Gazette_, among the secular papers. The most prominent religious journals are the _Independent_, _Examiner_, _Evangelist_, _Methodist_, _Observer_, _Tablet_, _Liberal Christian_, _Christian Advocate_, _Christian Union_, _Christian Inquirer_, and _Church Journal_.

The _Ledger_ has the largest circulation, having an actual sale of 300,000 copies per week. It is so well known throughout the country that it would be superfluous to describe it here. It is the property of Mr.

Robert Bonner, who has reaped a large fortune from it. Next in popularity is the _New York Weekly_, which is much inferior to the _Ledger_, but which claims a circulation of over 200,000 copies. There are about a dozen ill.u.s.trated papers of various degrees of merit, _Harper's Weekly_, the _Bazaar_, and _Frank Leslie's Ill.u.s.trated Newspaper_ head the list in popularity and worth. The first and second claim a circulation of over one hundred thousand, and Frank Leslie claims about seventy-five thousand for his paper. Some of the other ill.u.s.trated journals are simply indecent sheets, and should be suppressed. The _Nation_ is regarded as the highest critical authority in the country, and holds here very much the position of the _Sat.u.r.day Review_ in London.

The literary journals are well conducted, and one will often find articles of genuine merit in some of the most unpretending. The reason is that journalists are unable to live on their salaries, as a rule, if they be married men, and are forced to make up the deficiency by contributing to the magazines and weekly papers. As a matter of course, they must dispose of their wares wherever there is a market, and where they are sure of being paid, even at starvation rates, for their labors.

From $2.50 to $5.00 per column is the rate of payment with the most of the weeklies, and many men and women with whose names and labors the literary world is familiar, are glad to write for them at this beggarly price as a means of increasing their legitimate incomes. The number of writers is very much in excess of the demand, and literature offers a th.o.r.n.y road to the majority of its followers in the metropolis.

The Sunday papers are generally high priced and nasty. They are entirely sensational in character, and are devoted to a cla.s.s of news and literature which can hardly be termed healthy. They revel in detailed descriptions of subjects which are rigorously excluded from the daily papers, and abound in questionable advertis.e.m.e.nts. All of which they offer for Sabbath reading; and the reader would be startled to see into how many reputable households these dirty sheets find their way.

XV. WALL STREET.

I. THE STREET.

WALL STREET begins on the east side of Broadway, opposite Trinity Church, and terminates at the East River. It is about half a mile from the extreme southern end of the island, and about the same distance from the City Hall. It is a narrow street, about fifty feet in width, and slopes gradually from Broadway to the river. It is lined on both sides with handsome brown stone, yellow stone, granite, marble, iron, and brick buildings, and the Treasury and Custom-House rear their magnificent fronts about midway between the termini of the street. They are diagonally opposite each other. The buildings are covered with a multiplicity of signs, rivalling the edifices of Na.s.sau street, in this respect. Scarcely a house has less than a score of offices within its walls, and some contain at least three times as many. s.p.a.ce is valuable, and rents are high in Wall street, and many of the leading firms in it have to content themselves with small, dark apartments, which a conscientious man would hesitate to call an "office." The rents paid for such quarters are enormous, and the buildings yield their owners large incomes every year. The streets running into Wall street, on the right and left, are also occupied for several blocks with the offices of bankers and brokers, and are all included in the general term "Wall street," or "The Street."

[Picture: WALL STREET.]

Wall street first appears in the history of the city as a portion of a sheep pasture which was used in common by the inhabitants of New Amsterdam. Its natural condition was partly rolling upland and partly meadow of a swampy character. The name of the street originated thus: About the middle of the seventeenth century, the English in the New England colonies began to press heavily upon the Dutch in New Netherlands, and kept the worthy burghers of New Amsterdam in a constant dread of an invasion. Influenced by this feeling, the city authorities resolved to fortify the place, and in 1653 constructed a wall or stockade across the island, from river to river just beyond the line of the village. This wall pa.s.sed directly across the old sheep pasture.

Citizens were forbidden to build within 100 feet of the stockade, this open s.p.a.ce being reserved for the movements of troops. It soon became a prominent highway, and the eastern portion has since remained so. The antic.i.p.ated attack on the city was not made, but the wall was kept in good condition. Houses crept up close to the wall on the city side, and began to appear on the opposite side just under the wall. Thus a new street was formed, through which ran the old stockade. The open s.p.a.ce along the wall was originally called _The Cingel_, signifying "the ramparts." Soon after the town reached the limit of the military reservation, persons residing here were spoken of as living "long de Wal," and from this the street came to be called "the Wall street," which name it has ever since borne. The wall having fallen into decay, was demolished about the year 1699, and its stones were used in the construction of the old City Hall, which stood at the intersection of Wall and Na.s.sau streets, the site now occupied by the Sub-Treasury of the United States. The old building was used for the various purposes of the city government until the close of the Revolution. It contained, besides the council and court rooms, a jail for the detention and punishment of criminals, a debtors' prison, which was located in the attic, a fire-engine-room, a cage and a pillory. A pair of stocks was set up on the opposite side of the street, wherein criminals were exposed to the indignant gaze of the virtuous public.

At the close of the Revolution, the City Hall was enlarged and improved for the use of the General Government. It thus became the first capitol of the new Republic, and was known as Federal Hall. The first Congress of the United States a.s.sembled within its walls in the year 1789, and upon its s.p.a.cious portico, in the presence of an immense mult.i.tude, George Washington took the oath to support and defend the const.i.tution as first President of the United States.

Wall street was originally taken up with private residences, and the old views represent it as well shaded with trees. Even as late as 1830 it presented a very rural appearance between Broadway and William street.

Prior to the Revolution, the lower part of the street had been built up with stores as far as Front street, and had become the centre of mercantile affairs in the city, the row of stores on Wall street being the first erected beyond Water street. About the year 1792, the old Tontine Coffee House was erected on the northwest corner of Wall and Water streets, and this became the favorite rendezvous for the city merchants, by whom, indeed, it was erected and controlled. In 1791 the Bank of New York was located at the corner of William street, and marked the first encroachment upon the strictly private portion of the street.

It was also the first effort to make this locality the centre of the financial operations of the city. Other inst.i.tutions and private bankers soon followed, and the character and architecture of the street began to undergo a change. The work of improvement went on steadily, and the Wall street of to-day is the result. Famous lawyers have also had their offices in this street. Alexander Hamilton's sign might once have been seen here, not far from where his humble monument now stands in Trinity Churchyard, and the name of Caleb Cushing is still to be found near a doorway just below Broadway.

[Picture: UNITED STATES SUB-TREASURY.]

"In 1700 a house and lot on the southeast corner of Wall and Broad streets, 16 x 30, sold for 163 pounds. In 1706 a house and lot on the north of Wall street, 25 x 116, sold for 116 pounds. In 1737 a house and lot on the north of Wall street, 62 x 102, sold for 110 pounds. In 1793, the dwelling and lot of General Alexander Hamilton, on the south of Wall street, 42 x 108, sold for 2400 pounds. In 1794 a house and lot, 44 x 51, sold for 2510 pounds." At present the ground included in these sites is held at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The street fairly began its present career in the days of Jacob Little, "the great bear of Wall street." He opened an office here in 1822, and by dint of such labor as few men are capable of performing, placed himself at the head of American operators. His credit was good for any amount, and his integrity was unimpeachable. He could sway the market as he pleased, and his contracts were met with a punctuality and fidelity which made "his word as good as his bond." Efforts were made to ruin him, but his genius and far-sightedness enabled him to defeat all his enemies with their own weapons. His gains were enormous, and so were his losses. The civil war brought upon him disasters which he could not surmount, and he died poor in the early part of 1861, leaving behind him one of the names of which New York is proud.

At the corner of Na.s.sau street, and looking down into Broad street, is the Sub-Treasury of the United States, a handsome white marble edifice.

It is built in the Doric style of architecture, and its ma.s.sive flight of steps and imposing portico give to it a striking appearance. It is constructed in the most substantial manner, and has a rear entrance on Pine street. The interior is handsomely arranged, and tasteful but secure iron gratings protect the employees from surprise and robbery.