USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > History of Savannah, Ga.; from its settlement to the close of the eighteenth century > Part 19
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The Savannah Georgian commenced publication on the 25th of No- vember, 1818, edited by Dr. John M. Harney. Dr. Harney's connec- tion with Savannah journalism was brief. He was a man of considerable literary attainments, but an erratic character, and whose management of the Georgian did not meet with the approval and support of the people of the city. He became disgusted with his failure to receive encourage- ment, and after two years trial sold his paper to I. K. Tefft and Harry James Finn. He was the author of the well-known poem, in which in bidding farewell to Savannah he heaps curses upon the city. Mr. Finn was not long connected with the paper. He came to Savannah in 1818 when he appeared as an actor at the opening of the Savannah theater. After his newspaper venture he returned to the stage, and at the time of his death a few years later he had won wide fame as one of the best rep- resentatives on the American stage in the role of light comedy.
Mr. Tefft edited the paper for some time when he sold it to George Robertson, who associated his brother William Robertson with him. Dr. *
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R. D. Arnold and William H. Bullock became joint editors and proprie- tors in 1832. In 1835 Mr. Bullock purchased Dr. Arnold's interest, and conveyed it to Henry R. Jackson and Philip J. Punch, who subsequently admitted S. S. Sibley as a partner. When General Jackson retired P. B. Hilton became part owner with Messrs. Punch & Sibley. After this sev- eral changes in proprietors occurred, until the Journal and Courier were merged with it, when it came under the control of Albert R. Lamar and a few years later in 1859 its publication was suspended.
The Savannah Museum appeared in 1820 as a daily edited by Kep- pel & Bartlett. It was in existence for some years, but it failed to find the road to success, and was discontinued.
The Morning News made its first appearance on January 15, 1850. It was issued from the premises III Bay street, where it had its quarters until it moved to where it is now published. The gifted and lamented Colonel W. T. Thompson was its first editor, and held that position, with the exception of a few months during the occupation of the city by the Federal army, until he was called to his reward in 1882. It was a vig- orous paper from the first, maintaining then, as it does to-day, the stand- ard of honest Democracy, independent of the dictation of politicians. It passed through the great struggle of 1861-65, and came out, like all . other Southern newspapers, in a rather dilapidated condition. In June, 1867, the present proprietor, Colonel J. H. Estill, purchased an interest in the Morning News, and the following year he bought out the other owners, since which time he has retained the sole control.
Through the trying years, from 1865 to 1870, the Morning News maintained its position as a defender of the rights of the people, then threatened by carpet-baggers. It battled against those Radical leaders and their negro cohorts, who, with the aid of Federal bayonets, had seized the governments of the Southern States. It never compromised itself by in any way indorsing the rule of those plunderers or by recog- nizing their leaders. With the restoration of the government of the Southern States to the control of their people, Georgia became prosper- ous, and at once took her position as the Empire State of the South. The State had passed from under the Confederate rule to that of the United States, and the army being disbanded the people supposed peace was restored. A provisional governor (Johnson) was appointed by Pres-
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ident Johnson. Then an election was held, and the people called that pure statesman, the late Charles J. Jenkins, to the gubernatorial chair. He was removed and General Ruger, an army officer, was made military governor. Under this bayonet government Bullock was forced upon the people. Legislatures chosen by the people were repeatedly dissolved or disbanded by the rough hand of despotism. At last, in 1870, Bullock fled the State. Georgia was reconstructed for the fifth time, but this time on the basis of free government.
These facts are only mentioned as a part of the history of the Morn- ing News. Its fearless course during those trying years gave it a place close to the hearts of the people.
In addition to its political course it was a newspaper without a rival as a news-gatherer. No other paper in the South had as yet awakened to the importance of furnishing live news. It organized the first system of special correspondents, and, for several years, was the only Southern paper that kept a regular correspondent at Washington and New York the year round. The Morning News has never turned aside from its line of duty as a newspaper to engage in personal controversies, but has never hesitated to defend the right or attack the wrong. It has always been its aim to furnish the latest news in the most acceptable form to its readers, and discuss all matters open to discussion in a fair and impar- tial manner. It has never believed that a newspaper was a place wherein any and every man should be permitted to vent his undigested and often prejudiced views on important public questions, but has asserted its right to be its own judge of what should go in its columns and what should not.
In this progressive age there is probably no business that has under- gone such great changes or has so much improved within the past twenty years as that of publishing a daily newspaper. A few years since a journal in the South that was provided with what is technically called a fast single-cylinder printing machine, of a capacity of 1,500 to 1,800 sheets per hour, was considered a well-equipped establishment. But few were provided with a machine for folding papers. In 1869 the Morning News introduced the first folding machine ever put to work in a daily paper office in Georgia, and it was considered by many a piece of reck- less extravagance. Now the humblest of the dailies in the South folds
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its issues by machinery. About the same time the machine for putting the addresses of the subscribers on papers was introduced into the Morn- ing News office. This was the first mailer used in Georgia if not in the entire South. The addressing of papers with a pen or pencil, the same names written day after day, was one of the bugbears of a newspaper office. A mail writer who would not occasionally miss a page or two of the mail book was a rara avis. If a subscriber failed to get his mail it was impossible to say whether it was the neglect of the newspaper's mail clerk, or the carelessness of the post office officials. The mailing ma- chine and the daily register of all mail sent out, is an unimpeachable witness as to who is at fault if a paper is not duly received. These fa- cilities for publishing a newspaper came none too soon, as the pressure of the increasing telegraphic service, and the demand of the public for the latest news was already being felt by the newspapers.
A very radical change had also taken place in the editorial depart- ment during the period referred to. Before the construction of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad the fast mail from the North came by steamer from Charleston. The steamers rang their bells as they passed by the Exchange building on their way to the wharf at the foot of West Broad street. The telegraphic service in those days was very limited, and the live news was gleaned from Northern papers. The editors of the Savannah dailies-there were three at that time-agreed that if the steamer's bell rung after six o'clock in the evening they would not take their Northern papers out of the post-office until the following morning. At the time we speak of, however, fifteen years ago, many of the morn- ing papers " closed up " their forms by 10 to 12 o'clock in the evening, except on extra important occasions.
One to two columns of telegraph news was considered a full service. With many it was supposed the zenith of newspaper publishing-at least in the smaller cities-had been attained. It was generally supposed that the limit of judicious expenditure had been reached. It had been with many newspapers. There was a remarkable decrease in the number of papers in the principal cities. The increased expenses could not be met by an augmented income, and the question was solved by the death of many old-time journals. The " fittest survived." The demand for later news caused the single-cylinder presses to give way to the double-cylin-
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ders. Provision was made against accidents, and duplicate presses, fold- ' ing machines, engines and boilers were added to the costly equipments. The telegraph service increased gradually from 1,800 words per day un- til it reached 6,000. These improvements were gradual. Two years ago, with one step almost, an immense advance was made in Southern journalism. This change was necessitated by the fast mails, which placed the large dailies of the North and West on the news stands in many of the Southern cities some time during the day after their publi- cation.
The newspapers had been improving, but the people's desire for news was still ahead of the supply. The first move to meet the new state of affairs was an increase in the service of the Associated Press. The quota of words per day was increased to almost double what it had been, and a better system of gathering news established. Publishers a few years ago growled when their assessment for telegraphing was $50 per week. The cost of this service increased tenfold, and where a column or two of freshly-gathered news sufficed, a page and more now scarcely supplies the demand. The Morning News, for instance, in the place of a few ir- regular correspondents, has now over one hundred and fifty accredited correspondents. To keep pace with these improvements the entire in- ternal arrangements of the newspaper had to be changed. Ways and means for a quicker handling of the immense amount of news accumu- lating after 9 o'clock in the evening had to be devised, and, instead of a paper going to press at midnight, the working hours were advanced clear into the morning. Four o'clock in the morning became the closing hour. Here another difficulty presented itself - that of how to begin printing the edition of a morning paper at that hour and deliver it to all of its subscribers at the usual time. Everybody wants the latest news, and wants it at as early an hour as possible. A paper must not only be printed on time, but delivered on time, for the average reader of city papers would as soon go without his breakfast as without his favorite pa- per. The question of purchasing new and expensive machinery to over- come the time lost in waiting for the latest news was the next to present itself to the newspaper people. Some were in doubt as to the wisdom of investing a large sum of money in a perfecting press, which might scarcely be put in operation before a better one was invented.
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The price of the improved machines ranged from $30,000 to $50,000. The increasing circulations of the papers of the Northern and Western cities had long since developed the necessity for faster machines even than the immense eight and ten cylinder presses then used to print the metropolitan dailies, and as "necessity is the mother of invention," the perfecting press was evolved from the thoughts of many brains. The web perfecting press developed new and presumably undreamed of fa- cilities.
These machines print from an endless web of paper, which once started into the machine runs along, as it were, of its own accord. This dispenses with the "feeders," and permits of the papers being printed on both sides at the same time. The idea of printing from a long roll of paper seems to have occurred to manufacturers years before it was suc- cessfully applied. The question of original invention is somewhat dis- puted. A perfecting press was patented by Sir Rowland Hill, the famous advocate of cheap postage in England in 1835, but never came into prac- tical use. Wilkinson, of New York, added various improvements to the Hill machine between 1842 and 1859. In 1849 Jacob Worms, of Paris, patented a small machine for book work, in which he used curved stereo- type plates cast from matrixes made of papier maché. This invention made the perfecting press practicable.
Worms' machine, however, was not a success, because 'it could not deliver the sheets after they were printed. In 1853 Victor Beaumont, of New York, patented an effective cutting blade, which made the deliv- ery of the sheet possible. This invention is now used in all web presses. In 1858 Bullock invented the press called by his name, making at that time a model from which fair work was obtained. This model was fed by rolls of paper at each end, double lines of paper passing each other at the center, but no machine was ever built on this plan. In 1859 Augus- tus Applegate, a well-known English mechanic invented a press some- thing like a Bullock, but made no provision for delivering the sheet. No machine was ever built on this plan. Bullock in the meantime had not been idle, and in 1861 put up his first press in Cincinnati. It was not a perfect machine, but it was a step to the right direction, and he finally improved it so that his press printed and delivered 8,000 sheets per hour. Messrs. R. Hoe & Co. had not been idle. Taking advantage
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of the experiments of others, and with their thorough knowledge of what was needed by newspapers, they set to work and produced a thoroughly satisfactory and rapid perfecting press, which for speed, economy, sim- plicity and good workmanship excelled all other machines then in exist- ence.
The smaller newspapers looked on amazed at the increasing demands upon their capital to meet the expense of such machines. The price simply placed them beyond reach. The few newspaper men of this class who had enough money to buy one were more inclined to retire from business than to spend their all for a press. However, their hopes of a cheaper perfecting press, one suitable to the wants of the lesser dailies, were realized when a few years ago Hoe & Co. invented the perfecting press to print from movable type. This machine, costing about $30,000, was at once put into a number of offices. In 1884, however, the same firm invented a new machine, to print from stereotype plates, of much more simple mechanism. But three of these presses had been built when one was ordered from Messrs. Hoe & Co. for the Morning News. The introduction of the web perfecting press marked a new era in the newspaper business in Savannah.
The Morning News building is six stories high (with a well-lighted basement), and is surmounted by a two-story tower.
The first floor of the building on the corner of Whitaker street and Bay lane is used exclusively for the business department. The space in front of the counter is paved with colored tiles. A neat iron railing en- closes two-thirds of the floor, and inside is divided into the cashier's, the subscription clerk's and the advertising departments. In the rear is the proprietor's private office and another room for business purposes.
Just here it will not be out of place to state that the Morning News consists of the two distinct establishments under one name, and one man- agement, namely the Morning News newspaper and the Morning News Steam Printing House. To those who are not familiar with its businesses it appears to be all one homogeneous concern, but to those who are ac- quainted with the workings it is distinctly and positively two businesses. One half of the building, namely, on the corner of Bay lane, is almost exclusively used for the purpose of publishing and printing the Daily and Weekly Morning Notes, while the other half is entirely devoted to book and job printing, lithographing and blank book manufacturing.
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The room next to the business office is the headquarters of the job departments. Reams of papers of all kinds, and the variety is legion, are piled upon the tables and shelves-cards and card boards, envelopes, and everything needed in a business which includes the printing of a visiting card to a big three-sheet poster, or from a city directory to a mammoth ledger.
Speaking tubes connect this floor with each workroom, and an Otis passenger and freight elevator gives ready communication with the floors above and below. Speaking tubes and a dumb waiter also give ready means of communication between the counting room and the editorial, reportorial and newspaper composing rooms.
The Savannah Daily Times which is the first successful evening daily ever published in Savannah, was founded December 1, 1882, by Richard - son & McNulty. Mr. B. H. Richardson had been connected with the Morning News for several years, most of the time as city editor. Alexis McNulty had been bookkeeper for the publisher of the same paper. They started by issuing a four-page, six- column paper. The first of the year they increased the number of columns to seven. Afterwards it was . enlarged to an eight-column paper. In the course of a year or two Mr. Richardson's name appeared alone as the publisher, his associate having retired. E. M. W. Johnston, a brilliant young writer occupied the chief editorial chair for a year or more, and then Captain W. T. Waller filled it, Mr. Richardson acting as business manager and managing editor. After changing the form of the paper to eight pages, six columns to a page, and publishing it in that form for two years he sold his interest and Gazaway Hartridge, esq , took charge on January 1, 1887. Mr. Hart- ridge is managing editor and president of the Savannah Times Publish- ing Company. The Sunday morning edition of the Times was discon- tinued in 1885.
Under its present management the Times has been markedly im- proved. It is Democratic and has a reputation for reliability, impartialty and independence. The measure of its prosperity may be judged by the fact that within fifteen months after it passed into the control of the present management, it had built a handsome new home, three stories high, on Bryan street, near Drayton, and was fitted out with new presses, new type and new machinery, so that it is now fully equipped. It receives
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the United Press dispatches and has the largest city circulation of any paper daily or weekly.
For over thirty years William T. Thompson was editor of the Morn- ing News. He was a man of well-known literary ability and author of " Major Jones' Courtship." Associated with him at different periods as editorial writers were Major T. A. Burke, E. O. Withington, J. N. Car- doza, Dr. James S. Jones and Z. W. Mason. For a number of years Joel Chandler Harris of world-wide reputation as a humorist, was associate editor upon the News.
The Evening Journal made its appearance in 1851, edited by J. B. Cubbidge. The following year the Savannah Daily Courier was started by S. T. Chapman, and the Evening Mirror by W. B. Harrison. The Mirror had but a brief existence, and the Journal and Courier were merged into one paper, known as the Journal and Courier and published by Chapman & Cubbidge. Mr. Chapman died in 1854, when the paper was suspended for a short time until it was purchased by R. B. Hilton. In 1857 it was merged in the Georgian and the consolidated papers were published under the name of the Georgian and Journal.
In 1859 the Evening Express was started by Ambrose Spencer and J. H. Estill. Its publication discontinued in 1860.
The Daily Advertiser, a free circulating journal was first issued in September 1865, by Theodore Hamilton and M. J. Divine. George N. Nichols soon after purchased the paper, and under his management it was twice enlarged. In January 1868, it was again enlarged and changed to a subscription paper under the editorial management of S. Yates Levy. Mr. Levy was a bold and vigorous writer and during the reconstruction period so keen were his articles upon the tyrannical action of the military that an order was sent from General Meade to either suppress the paper or moderate the tone of its editorials. Soon after Mr. Levy was obliged through military pressure to retire from the editorial chair. Edward L. Beard and George G. Kimball then took control of the paper and con- ducted it for a short time as a free journal.
The Georgia Familien Journal is an eight page German weekly. It is published every Saturday, and has a large circulation in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida and Alabama.
The Savannah Local was first issued as a free journal in 1877, by Mr.
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Ely Otto. In 1878 its name was changed to the Penny Local, when it became a subscription paper. In January, 1885, its name was changed to the Savannah Local. It is published weekly as an independent family journal, but favors the prohibition cause. Ely Otto is editor and pro- prietor.
The other newspapers of Savannah are the Savannah Independent and Brotherhood and the Savannah Tribune. Both are weekly publica- tions. The former is devoted to secret society news and is published by W. Orr & Co .; the latter is published in the interest of the colored people.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
LITERARY, ART AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS AND SPECIAL FEAT- URES OF ATTRACTION.
Georgia Historical Society - Catholic Library Association -- Telfair Academy, Arts and Sciences -- Savannah Parks and Suburban Attractions -- Forsyth Park - Parade Ground-Beaulieu -- Tybee Island-Thunderbolt-Isle of Hope-Jasper Springs -- Dau- fuskie Island-Bonaventure-Laurel Grove Cemetery -- Cathedral Cemetery-Greene, Confederate, Gordon and Jasper Monuments.
JUST eighty years ago, on January 6, 1809, a meeting was held in the J Exchange attended by men of all professions and callings-the law- yer, the physician, the minister, the merchant, the plain citizen-called together for the purpose of establishing a public library in Savannah. There were seventy-one gentlemen present, among them we find the names of Rev. Henry Kollock, Dr. Lemuel Kollock, John M. Berrien, Dr. J. Bond Read, James M. Wayne, Charles Harris, Dr. John Cum- ming, Dr. John Grimes, George Woodruff, William T. Williams, Alex- ander Telfair, James Bilbo, Dr. J. E. White, William B. Bulloch, George Jones, A. G. Oemler, D. T. Bartow, Alfred Cuthbert, John Bolton, Will- iam Gaston, A. Low, J. P. Williamson, Dr. William Parker, Hugh Mc- Call, Thomas Young. These names are intimately associated with Sa- vannah history. They, as well as the remainder of the seventy-one,
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have all passed away but the work they inaugurated has been fruitful for good beyond the power of calculation. The assemblage of such a num- ber of prominent citizens out of as small a population as Savannah then possessed is a proof of an interest in literary matters at that period, which it is doubtful has grown with the city's growth and strength.
This meeting was the initiatory step toward the formation of the Sa- vannah Library Society, and at a subsequent meeting held on the 6th of March, following, a constitution and by-laws were adopted. Dr. John Cumming was elected chairman, A. G. Oemler, librarian, and the name of the Savannah Library Society was adopted. A room in the second story of the Chatham Academy was secured for library purposes which they were permitted to use free of charge.
Hon. John MacPherson Berrien succeeded Dr. John Cumming chair- man, in 1810 by the title of president and continued in that office until 1818 when he was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Henry Kollock. After the death of Dr. Kollock, the presidents were in succession, Alexander Tel- fair, John C. Nicoll, R. W. Habersham, A. Telfair, W. W. Gordon, Dr. Cosmo P. Richardsone, M. H. McAllister.
The society did not flourish. In 1837 it nearly collapsed. In 1838 a new impetus was given it principally through the exertions of Captain William Crabtree, jr., and Homes Tupper. In the latter year the follow- ing officers were elected : President, H. M. McAllister ; vice-president, William Crabtree, jr., ; secretary and treasurer, W. Morel; managers, Rev. George White, R. W. Pooler, A. G. Oemler, R. D. Arnold, Homes Tupper.
In 1838 Mr. William Morel resigned as secretary, treasurer and libra- rian and Captain William Bee was elected in his place. In 1839 the same officers were elected, except that J. Wray was substituted as man- ager in place of Rev. George White.
Georgia Historical Library .- It was in the spring of 1839 that a new movement was inaugurated to establish another society for the purpose of rescuing from oblivion the records of the past and furnishing authen- tic data for the history of Georgia. The origin of this society is given in the second volume of the "Georgia Historical Collections," from which the following is quoted :
"The necessity of some historical institution had long been felt by
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