USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 55
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When "The Day" acquired its big type revolving web press in 1883, that machine was considered the highest development in a printing press. It printed from hand-set type imposed in semi-circular turtles, which were clamped onto a large cylinder.
"The Day" was printed on a web of paper by the impression from the type in these turtles or forms. It was a cumbrous contrivance but considered a great advance upon a flat-bed press, as it would turn out papers at the rapid rate of 1,200 an hour.
It was found after "The Day" ceased experimenting with the one-cent paper scheme that in order to handle a sufficient volume of advertising at the low rates current, four pages would not be sufficient, and so the plan of making two press runs of four pages each was adopted and the two sheets folded together by hand to make an eight-page paper.
The type revolving web press soon became obsolete and was superseded by presses using sterotype plates clamped on cylinders, instead of the cumber- some brass turtles containing hand-set type. When printing from semi- circular plates was found practical, improvements were soon made in printing machinery so that a variable number of pages could be printed at will.
Soon after I obtained control of "The Day" in 1891, indication of an evolution in advertising became manifest. Some advertisers began to contract for variable space so that they could run large advertisements on certain days. David S. Machol, a local clothing merchant, I think was the first to use half- page advertisements, one or two days in the week. This practice was more and more observed until it was no longer possible to print a paper with the same number of pages every day.
When I bought "The Day" I immediately put into the press room a Babcock two-feed Dispatch press which would print 2,500 copies an hour. I thought this capacity would be all "The Day" would need for many years. In 1894, three years later, when the plant was moved from the old stone residence in Bank street, opposite Tilley, to the newly built brick building a short distance above on the same street, erected for its use by F. H. & A. H. Chappel, a new press was purchased, called the Cox Duplex, which while it printed from a flat bed, used a roll of paper and was capable of printing ac- cording to the guarantees of the manufacturers, 5,000 complete papers, folded, per hour. This press answered the purpose very well for a few years, but
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as we wanted to get more than eight pages of seven columns each we then bought a Hoe stereotype press, giving us a product of eight pages, eight columns each; printing on this press was from stereotype plates, and we could get a speed of about 10,000 an hour. Making stereotype plates was going into a new branch of the business, and we were doubtful of the result. However, after a period of experimentation, the art of stereotyping lost its terrors. It soon developed that this third press was not up to the require- ments of "The Day's increasing business and so another one was purchased two years later with a capacity of sixteen pages. This press answered the purpose for about ten years, when it was replaced by a press of still larger capacity, the one "The Day" is using at present, a Hoe Right Angle Quad- ruple, having a maximum output of thirty-two pages and printing up to six- teen pages at a speed of 24,000 an hour, and from sixteen to thirty-two pages at 12,000.
During its second year in its Bank street location "The Day" moved its establishment to the Brainard Building on Main street, where it occupied a store on the ground floor and two floors above. The press room was located in the rear of the store.
In 1882, Thomas M. Waller, a New London lawyer and orator and fervid Democrat, was elected governor of the State. Probably that intensified the desire of the Democrats of the city to have a newspaper organ, both of the existing papers being Republican. At any rate, a group of well-known Demo- crats purchased the "Evening Telegram" in 1883 from C. I. Shepard and others who were interested in that paper, and brought one of the writers of the Brooklyn "Daily Eagle," F. Dana Reed, here to manage it for them. Up to this time the "Telegram's" staff consisted of John G. Crump, editor, Julius T. Shepard, Jr., news editor, and Walter Fitzmaurice, reporter. Fitzmaurice stayed with the paper in his former capacity when the Democrats assumed control. Reed was a man of considerable ability, more literary than business- wise, perhaps, and he did his best to put the "Telegram" upon a profitable basis, but he found it increasingly difficult. Both papers at this time were having a hard struggle to meet their expenses and the "Telegram" had the least financial backing upon which to call when the ghost failed to walk.
Some time previous to the demise of the "Telegram," some bright genius on "The Day" conceived a plan of selling the paper at one cent a copy and giving it a State-wide circulation. This was soon after the establishment had been moved to Main street. The scheme was entirely practicable by reason of the unequalled railroad facilities New London had at that time. Early morning connections could be made with cities and towns in all directions. At this time also a one-cent daily newspaper was a novelty and the field open to "The Day" was unoccupied. The metropolitan papers were not then selling at one cent a copy and had not secured so enormous a circulation throughout this State as they have since.
A startling tragedy befell the paper in 1885. Fred S. Perry, an eccentric individual living on Franklin street, taking offense at a fancied affront in an article that had been printed in the paper, walked into the business office on Main street one morning and demanded of Ezra C. Whittlesey, the business manager, who was counting over some money given him by a newsbov. if he was editor of the paper. Mr. Whittlesey made some reply without looking up, when Perry, without further parlev, pulled out a revolver and shot him in the body. The wound was fatal and the victim only survived the shooting a few days. He was tried, convicted and found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced for life, but subsequently confined in the state insane as, lum.
During the early history of "The Day" a great deal of attention was paid to what is termed newspaper style. Greater thought oftentime was paid to
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the matter of capitalization of words and abbreviations of titles than the gathering of news. The editors and proofreaders were very fussy in requiring a close adherence to the rules they laid down. Since that time there has been much elimination of so-called style in newspaper composition. At one time Italics were used to designate the names of newspapers and foreign words, and small capitals were also used for titles. When linotype machines were brought into use they did not carry italics or small capitals, and, consequently, the use of this special kind of type face was abolished in the interest of speed and economy. There is yet what is called newspaper style, a good many papers having a composition style peculiar to themselves, but everywhere there is more latitude used in newspaper composition than there was formerly.
Newspaper ethics also were peculiar forty years ago, especially in New London and perhaps some other New England communities. It was cus- tomary to leave out the names of non-advertisers in news reports wherever this was possible. If the display window of a State street store was smashed by a runaway horse dashing into it and it so happened that the storekeeper was not an advertiser, the newspaper account would fail to mention his name or the name of his store, and instead merely allude to "a State street store." This would appear as very small and petty at this time, and "The Da:" discarded this kind of journalism many years ago. However, the practice is still in vogue and carried to greater length in certain small newspapers to include individuals who may not stand in their good graces. Such individuals may take a prominent part in public affairs, but in accounts of those happen- ings have their names purposely omitted. This is not true journalism. It is perverting the power of the press. Fortunately, papers which indulge in such absurd tactics have so little circulation that they have no influence and their maliciousness falls flat.
The circulation of "The Day" when it was founded was about 1,000 copies and, as has already been described, it grew at one time to 16,000 as a one-cent paper, and fell back again around 2,000 copies, when the price was put back to two cents. It must have been about this figure in 1885. In 1891, when I purchased the paper, I had difficulty in finding a paid circulation of as many as 1,000 copies. In 1895 the circulation had increased to 3,145. In 1900 it had grown to 4,600. In 1905 it was 6,109. In 1910 the average was 6.892. By 1915 it had jumped to 8,536. Then came the World War and with it a sub- stantial increase in "The Day's" circulation. In 1916 it was 9,140, in 1917 it was 9,780, and in 1918 it had increased to 10.939. In the latter part of 1919 "The Day" was forced by the extraordinary increase in cost of production to increase its selling price to three cents a copy and its average circulation that year was 10,579. The year following, 1920, it slightly increased and was 10,70I.
Evidently up to the time of the great war the growth in "The Day's" circulation represented to large extent the growth of population within New London and vicinity. Since the close of the war all the war-time activities which brought many thousands of people here have ceased and naturally there has been a great drop in the number of transient residents, vet "The Day's" circulation has steadily maintained itself around 10,500. The only explanation for this extraordinary gain, which appears to be permanent, in "The Day's" circulation at the advanced price of three cents a copy is, that it has secured a greater hold upon the confidence and affection of the people of New London and vicinity and that a larger proportion of the inhabitants of this territory have become regular newspaper readers with "The Day" as their favorite. Perhaps it should be mentioned in this connection that "The Day" has never employed any kind of circulation scheme to bolster up its circulation and that all its readers must have been attracted to it voluntarily because they liked its character and its superiority as a news purveyor.
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"The Day" remained in its Main street quarters until 1891. In 1889 Major Tibbits finally secured something like adequate recognition of his services to his party by appointment as United States consul at Bradford, England. Upon his departure Samuel T. Adams was made managing editor, John McGinley reporter, and Charles W. Whittlesey business manager. Somes, the preceding news editor, had left some time previously and been replaced by John G. Lynch. The spirited rivalry of its morning contemporary, established in 1885, was making itself felt and the business of "The Day" was not profitable. In fact, it never was profitable. One move to reduce its expenses was to transfer its quarters to Bank street into a stone dwelling owned by the Chappell Company. This was about the last place one would pick out for a newspaper office, but it had to do. One side of the lower floor was occupied as a dwelling and "The Day" had its business office on the other side, its composing room on the second floor, its job office in the rear of the business department, and the press room was in an addition in the rear. The big press was moved on a truck from Main street to Bank without taking it apart and that was considerable of a mechanical accomplishment. Here is where I found it in the fall of 1891, when I took possession.
My connection with "The Day" had been spasmodic. I had been em- ployed in various capacities in the job printing department and in the com- posing rooms, both on the "Penny Press" and "The Day" until 1883. Then for about a year I worked in the composing room of the "Evening Telegram." Upon the demise of that paper, four of us, John G. Lynch, Walter Fitzmaurice, George A. Sturdy and myself, began the publication of the "Morning Tele- graph." This paper paid more than expenses at the start and for quite a number of years afterwards. In 1890 I disposed of my interest. John G. Lynch had already dropped out of the concern. Later George A. Sturdy also sold out his interest. I bought it in 1901 from Walter Fitzmaurice, conducted it five years at a loss, then gave it, free of all incumbrances, to my editor, Frank J. Brunner. He couldn't make it pay expenses, and finally disposed of it. The "Telegraph" passed through many vicissitudes later. It suspended in 1920.
In September, 1891, I secured control of "The Day" and the subsequent history of the paper was told by me five years ago, when "The Day" issued a special edition commemorating twenty-five years' progress under my man- agement. It will not be necessary at this time to repeat the history of the paper during that time, as it is familiar to "Day" readers.
There is not much to add to the history of "The Day" since 1916. The period between 1916 and 1921 has been a trying one for newspapers. There was a paper shortage during the war and a great increase in the cost of pro- duction generally. The payroll of "The Day" has jumped from $600 per week in 1914 to $1,600 in 1921. Its paper bill rose from $12,000 in 1914 to $36,000 in 1920. These costs seem likely to remain permanently.
In 1918 it had to increase its selling price to three cents a copy, and at various periods it was forced to increase its advertising rates. The loyalty of its readers proved remarkable. The number lost by the increase in price to three cents was negligible. Advertisers also responded cheerfully to the increased rates, realizing that the service rendered them by "The Day" was worth the rate charged.
The volume of business done by "The Day" in its early life I have no means of ascertaining, but in 1891 and 1892, the first year of my ownership, the gross receipts were less than $25,000. By 1900 they had increased to $37,532.12, and in 1910 to $61,042.31. By 1920 the business had expanded so that the gross receipts of that year were $219,771.23.
It has been the constant aim of "The Day" to keep fully up to the times in the handling of news. It has sought every means to make its contents and
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appearance pleasing to the people of Eastern Connecticut. That it has suc- ceeded, is evidenced by its constantly increasing circulation. "The Day" has added many improvements in the past five years ; it has strengthened its news and feature service, increased its force of workers, installed the newest ma- chinery and labor-saving devices in place of some less efficient, and only recently added one column to each page, thus giving its readers each day from twelve to twenty columns additional reading matter and illustrations. "The Day" feels that the public looks to it to supply it with a complete, up-to-date newspaper, and that the paper will be remiss in its duty if it fails to do so.
The "Norwich Bulletin" thus told the story of its beginning and career, in its fiftieth anniversary issue :
The Norwich Bulletin, at the age of fifty years, appears this morning before its many friends and readers, extending kindly greetings and sincere good wishes to all. As the rudder guides the ship, so will the lessons learned of experience, that most severe yet kindest teacher, influence its future course, inducing it to be not only abreast of the times, to be at once clean, bright and reliable, and to so well fill its allotted place that its influence will be for good and the best interests of mankind.
This paper, of Norwich birth, has been of, with and for its city, its peo- ple and the great public by which it is surrounded since first it saw the light. It has been of, in, and with the community, through war and peace, through trial and triumph, through adversity and prosperity, it has grown with its growth, matured with its development and ripened with its unfolding until it stands today upon the firm foundation established not alone by its own efforts, but by the kindly reciprocal favors of its clients and friends, whom it has endeavored these many years to faithfully serve.
The Norwich Bulletin at this time, taking as it does the full reports of the Associated Press, printing special telegraphic news, reporting fully sports and all items of interest in this and neighboring towns, publishing up-to-date domestic departments, special papers and correspondence, and pre- senting in miscellaneous articles the best thoughts obtainable from other and original sources, supplying the needs of the financial, commercial, scientific. literary, artistic, musical, political and religious interests, and in short, re- flecting in every issue all that can be gathered from the four corners of the earth, is in the fore ranks as a model newspaper. Contrasting this modern development with that of more than a century ago, it may be interesting to return to those times and learn of conditions prevalent in the days when the Bulletin's ancestor, the Weekly Register, began its life in 1791.
When the old-time paper appeared amid "these struggling tides of life," less than nine years had elapsed since the close of the Revolution. George Washington was serving his first term as President of the United States, and John Adams his single one as Vice-President; the thirteen orig- inal States, with the addition of Vermont, which had been admitted March 4, 1791, comprised the Union; Connecticut's Senators, then serving in the Second Congress, were Oliver Ellsworth of Windsor, and Roger Sherman of New Haven ; Samuel Huntington, Esq., was the Governor of Connecticut ; and Benjamin Huntington, LL.D., was then in office as the first Mayor of Norwich, a portion of which place had been incorporated as a city in May, 1784. The population of the country was then 8,929,214, of the State 237,846, and of Norwich (after the division of the town) 3,284, the center of the United States being twenty-three miles east of Baltimore. The President's Cabinet was composed of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Secretary of State; Alexander Hamilton of New York, Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Knox of Massachusetts, Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph of Virginia,
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Attorney-General. Samuel Osgood of Massachusetts was Postmaster-Gen- eral, but was not included in President Washington's official family.
At that time the Sabbath began at sun-down on Saturday and ended at the same hour on Sunday; travel was by stage-coach, sailing vessels, and locally by the "one-hoss shay"; wood was the universal fuel and was burned in open fireplaces before which in the wintry time our ancestors could warm but one side of their persons at a time, the other portion being subjected at times to a temperature in the vicinity of the zero point; flint and steel served the purposes of the later lucifer match, and tallow dips furnished the neces- sary artificial light. Norwich Town and Bean Hill supplied the social, religious, political and commercial life of the town, the former being fur- nished with the meeting-house, postoffice, flag-staff, half a dozen stores con- taining all useful commodities, the court-house, whipping-post, pillory, jail, several printing establishments, and Lathrop's, Peck's and Brown's taverns, the latter presenting several stores and the wayside inns known as Hyde's and Witter's, both sections being possessed of various small manufactories. Rev. Joseph Strong, pastor of the First Church, officiated in the fourth build- ing of that society, which was completed in 1790, stood on the site of the present edifice, and succeeded that which previously crowned "ye summit of ye Greate Rocke." African slavery was in vogue, but although the prac- tice of holding human beings in bondage gradually abated, the system was not legally abolished in Connecticut until 1848-thirteen years before the outbreak of the Civil War. Middle or Main street at the Landing had been opened at an expense of £100 in 1790, one year before the birth of this paper, that section being in the vicinity of the confluence of the Yantic and "Show- tucket," which forms the Thames, and distinct from the portion first called the Landing, which was at the head of the cove below Yantic Falls, near which at an earlier date stood John Elderkin's flour mill, which was accessible from the town through Mill lane (now Lafayette street) and which point was the original landing place for Indian canoes. This paper had been in existence less than a year when the old Indian trail from Norwich to New London was shortened to a distance of fourteen miles and opened in a crude and primi- tive way to public travel as the first turnpike in the United States. Toll began Tuesday, June 26, 1792, the rates ranging from Id. for man and horse to gd. for a four-wheeled vehicle. No bank was established in Norwich until June 21, 1796, and the insurance business, which has become a factor, was of but two years' earlier birth.
Mr. Bushnell was born in Lebanon, September 13, 1757, a son of Ebene- zer and Elizabeth (Tiffany) Bushnell of that place, and a descendant in many lines of the Puritan fathers of New England. He graduated at Yale in 1777, studied law, returned to Lebanon, and there married for his first wife, August 14, 1780, Tryphena, a daughter of Dr. John and Jerusha (Hunt- ington) Clark, of that town. He located in Norwich as an attorney, where he married his second wife, November 18, 1876, Susanna, a daughter of Capt. Russell and Mary (Gray) Hubbard of New London, and subsequently of Norwich. He was a man of ready wit. of varied information, of fluent tongue and facile pen, bright, well-balanced and enterprising. After his retirement from journalism, he entered the United States nav' and became paymaster of the ship "Warren." While serving in this capacity he died at Havana, Cuba, in July or August, 1800, at the early age of 43. His widow married for her second husband and as his third wife, January 30, 1803. Deacon Robert Manwaring, formerly of New London, but then of Norwich, who died March 29, 1807, and was survived by her until April 9, 1814. Both are interred in the old burying ground at Norwich Town, near the enclosed Huntington lot, where memorial stones indicate their graves.
The Weekly Register's natal day was November 29, 1791, when Ebenezer
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Bushnell issued the first number "24 rods West of the meeting-house," in a building at Norwich Town which stood on the home-lot of Sergt. Thomas Waterman, one of the thirty-five original proprietors of the town, whose deed bore date November, 1659. The house was built by Elijah Adgate about the year 1779, had successive owners until October 25, 1781, when Ephraim Baker of Norwich in consideration of £100 deeded to Mr. Bush- nell "about thirty rods of land, be the same more or less, with a dwelling house thereon standing, on the south side of the meeting-house rocks (so . called) on the south side of the town street." This building stood nearly opposite John Trumbull's printing office, whose newspaper, the Norwich Packet, was still in existence. The Weekly Register was a twelve-column, four-page journal, 10 x 17 inches in size, which was changed to one of six- teen columns, Tuesday, February 14. 1792, the dimensions remaining un- altered.
Chelsea in Norwich, a district so well established in early days, but now so vaguely understood, and to many of the inhabitants of the present day so utterly unknown, was of indefinite and unestablished bounds, extend- tending from about the Norwich Town line southerly to the Landing, easterly to the Shetucket and westerly along the bank of the Thames. East Chelsea, originally a most unattractive portion, was subject to inundation with every freshet, and the receding waters, leaving an accumulation of stones, boulders, ice and rubbish on the swampy slopes of the rivers, became known also as Swallowall. West Chelsea developed into the ship-building center, the high ground in the vicinity being called at varying times Oak Spring Hill, Baptist Hill and Mount Pleasant. The commercial center, a part of the West Side, the Falls district and the choicest residential portion were included within the limits of Chelsea.
The first number of the "Chelsea Courier," a four-page, sixteen-column paper, 11 x 18 inches, appeared Wednesday, November 30, 1796, and con- tained the following "conditions":
I. The Courier will be printed at Chelsea, on Wednesday, and delivered to city subscribers in the forenoon.
2. It shall be printed on good paper of Royal size.
3. It shall contain the most important Foreign and Domestic intelligence, to- gether with such original productions, &c., as shall be thought deserving of public attention.
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