USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 22
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of the canvass of 1836 with Webster in the running. It probably scored its high record for truculence and partisan bias in 1840. Midway between campaigns the paper abandoned Webster for Harrison. The office tradi- tion was that the editor carried the proof sheet of the first editorial in which this swap was considered to Webster at his home in Summer Street, and that "after a first violent reaction" he agreed to take no notice of it. Would that a reporter might have been present at that interview ! At least one historian, William Schouler, who was later to be an owner of the paper, considered Harrison's nomination to have been due to the efforts of Richard Houghton, owner of the "Atlas" at the time, and to Richard Hildreth, its editorial writer. Webster was the idol of the Whigs of New England, but somebody else must have the nomination if the Whigs were to put a man into the White House. Such were the counsels of expediency.
But the "Atlas" was something more than the organ of the Whigs of New England. It was an energetic, virile newspaper, fulfilling fairly well most of the functions of a daily, and performing some of the duties of the press better than any of its contemporaries. For instance, it led the country in the collection and distribution of election returns. The "Atlas" system was begun in 1832 and continued through a number of cam- paigns. "Special expresses" were used to bring returns directly to the office of the paper from every town in Massachusetts and sometimes from important centers outside the State. Horses were employed until 1840, when railway locomotives were substituted whenever possible. In 1840 it appeared that the result in Pennsylvania would be of vital importance to the Whigs. The voting for President was not all done on a single day at that time. Pennsylvania voted that year on October 30, New England a few days later. The "Atlas" arranged for an express from Philadel- phia. It arrived in Boston on Sunday, November I. In a total vote of 287,693 Pennsylvania had gone for Harrison by less than 500. That was news. The "Atlas" got out an extra-on Sunday! That week the paper had an express every day from New York, bringing news from that State and from the West and Southwest.
The first number of the "Boston Daily Atlas" bore the date July 2, 1832. The publisher was John Eastburn, for years the city printer of Boston. The first editor was Richard Houghton. The original price was $5 a year, advanced to $8 in 1850. The paper was rather small in size, four pages and five columns to the page. The very first editorial was a computation of the electoral vote which might be expected the following November, showing how Jackson would lack two votes of the necessary 145, even with Pennsylvania and South Carolina, and how without them, but with New York, he still would lack a single vote. Major Richard
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Houghton continued for nine years as editor. He was imported from New York, where he had been connected with the "Journal of Com- merce," and he began in Boston with a salary of $800. No man of his time was better qualified to do the work of a political editor. At the out- set he had the assistance of an "Association of Gentlemen" to whom was entrusted the general oversight of the paper. Among these men, known to the irreverent as "the 'Atlas' clique," were R. C. Winthrop and James T. Austin. Houghton died in his room in the Tremont House of apoplexy in 1841. He had bought the paper from Eastburn in 1834, and had made it famous throughout the country for zeal in the collection of political news and for boldness in the expression of political opinions.
The "Atlas" now passed into the possession of an intimate friend of Houghton's, William Hayden, and of the former assistant editor, Dr. Thomas M. Brewer. In 1847 Hayden sold his share to William Schouler, the editor of the "Lowell Courier," and Brewer and Schouler stayed together for several years. Many of the most widely read editorials were written by Richard Hildreth, for example, the series in 1837 in opposition to the effort in the Southwest to separate Texas from Mexico. A few years later Hildreth began the writing of his history of the United States. In the 50's Charles T. Congdon served the paper ably in an editorial capacity. Several times the size of the sheet was enlarged, and by 1847 it had reached the eight-column form, having doubled in size in fifteen years. In 1832 it began the publication of a daily "Strangers' List" for the benefit of the merchants of the city. The paper organized a corps of correspondents "at home and abroad" in 1835. Among these contribu- tors was Ben : Perley Poore, then almost at the outset of his long career, whose "Peregrinations" from European cities began in 1846.
For years there were produced at the "Atlas" plant, besides the daily, a semi-weekly and a weekly paper. In 1858 the daily was united with the "Bee," and the two were continued as the "Atlas and the Daily Bee," only later to be incorporated with the "Traveller."
With a beehive between the "The" and the "Bee" of its title, and with the motto, "Industry Must Prosper," above the hive, and with the word "Daily" above the motto, "The Daily Bee" entered the newspaper field in Boston on April 25, 1842. An "Association of Practical Printers," numbering in all eight equal shareholders, considering their practical training to be of value for the publication of a newspaper even though their capital might be small, issued the new daily from a building in Tre- mont Row, under the firm name of Howland, Bradbury, Harmon & Com- pany. The first editor was C. J. Howland. The paper was in size medium, six columns to a page, very neatly printed, newsy. It remained neutral in politics until Ben : Perley Poore came to the editorial chair,
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when it assumed a moderate Whig position. It started with two editions a day and went to three in 1850. On the last day of the year 1848, which was a Sunday, the editor started "Perley's Sunday Pic Nic," as a Sunday edition of the regular weekly, which was also published by the owners of the daily. A daring innovation. As yet there were but few Sunday papers. These had not prospered. The "Bee" was fairly popular and reasonably enterprising, and it achieved a greater measure of success than might have been expected from the smallness of the resources with which its bold projectors began their venture.
"The Traveler" celebrated its centenary in 1925, but it did not become a daily until 1845. It was established as a semi-weekly, whose special function is intimated by the name it still bears. The first number, dated Tuesday morning, July 5, 1825, contained a "Prospectus," signed by the publishers, Willard Badger and Royal L. Porter, announcing its design to supply travelers with information about routes, facilities for travel, inns and stagehouses. Said the publishers :
Notwithstanding the press at the present day abounds in numerous public journals, the main object of the proposed paper, though one of entire novelty, is deemed of suffi- cient importance fully to warrant its establishment.
A large and valuable portion of the community, including the proprietors of both stages and steamboats, and the keepers of stage houses and public inns, in view of the vast interest in traveling and the means of conveyance, have felt strongly the want of a publication which regularly should furnish them and the public all necessary informa- tion of the means of travelling.
Such a publication has often been contemplated, and as often abandoned, from con- sideration of the labor and expense necessary to render it sufficiently correct to be useful. The plan now proposed-to connect a STAGE REGISTER with a semi-weekly jour- nal-is believed to be the best, and the only one, by which the object so much desired can be effectually accomplished.
For this purpose the AMERICAN TRAVELLER like other newspapers of the day shall contain all foreign and domestic news, the proceedings of our national and State legis- latures, remarks upon the current literature of the time, reflections upon prominent events, marine intelligence, prices current, and as much of every sort of information, useful to the traveller, the man of business, and the scholar, as industry and opportu- nity may enable the editor to furnish. . . .
Thus the idea would seem to have been to produce together a register for travelers and a newspaper. The ideals of the publishers as to the general news function were also explained at some length. For instance :
As to politics, the TRAVELLER will pursue a straightforward independent path. Though we decline entering into the arena of party feuds and contentions, or adhering to the destinies of any man, we shall readily give place to the discussion of such subjects as may be calculated to illustrate the doctrines of civil liberty and our republican institutions.
The Stage Register was to be a supplement issued every two months and always in connection with the "Traveller." The price of the news-
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paper was $4 a year, or $5 with the Register. The place of publication was 72 Market Street, at the corner of Court Street, or the present Corn- hill. The printer was J. C. Parmenter. The paper contained four pages of six columns each. Let us look over the first issue. On the first page besides the "Prospectus," in column one was an article on fruit trees, a column on the divining rod, another on the progress of machinery, an article on the summer season, and in the place of honor in column six an account of Grand Island in the Niagara River. Page two contained the publishers' additional announcements, an account of the celebration of July 4 and some editorial paragraphs. On page three were advertise- ments, a half-column stage register with six items respecting mail coaches and stages, and about two-thirds of a column of marine intelligence. One of the "ads" was for a Rhode Island lottery. The hotel cards included Union Hall and Congress Hall at Saratoga Springs, the Winston Hotel and Stage House, and the Union Village Hotel five miles from the Hud- son River. The last page contained a column of poetry and five columns of miscellaneous literary matter.
The fourth issue of the new paper carried a Stage Register of a column and a third in length, in the tenth issue the Register filled two full col- umns. The quantity of such matter varied with the seasons. New routes were announced from time to time. A good deal of news came in the form of travel letters from. travelers in the United States and abroad. In 1827 there were items about the Erie Canal packet boats. The names of many of the old hotels are familiar today, as the Tontine Coffee House at New Haven as well as those at such places as Niagara and Saratoga. Occasional editorial paragraphs called attention to the publication of the Stage Register "with an increased amount of information and a General Directory for Travellers."
As an outgrowth of the "American Traveller" the "Boston Traveller" was founded, the first two-cent evening paper in the city, published by Upton, Ladd & Company, and edited by Ferdinand Andrews and the Rev. George Punchard. In the initial issue of April 1, 1845, the editors said :
It is our intention to secure such correspondents-domestic and foreign-as shall furnish the earliest and most authentic information of a mercantile and general char- acter ; we hope to make our marine list and our record of city affairs satisfactory, and we intend to provide such information for the travelling portion of the community as will realize the leading design of the American Traveller; we shall strive to make our paper such a one as intelligent, sober-minded men shall read with satisfaction. In a word we shall hope to make the Traveller a good newspaper.
In October, 1845, Henry Flanders became a partner in the firm and the style was changed to Upton, Flanders & Company. Flanders was a hurry-scurry business man, described by a contemporary as "short, red-
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faced, very peppery and loud-voiced, reminding one of 'Dodson and Fogg' in Pickwick. He was always in strife with his employes during edition hours and the rest of the time he spent 'on change.'" The Rev. George Punchard was a Dartmouth graduate, born in Salem, and pastor of a New Hampshire Congregational Church from 1830 to 1844. He was with the "Traveller" from 1845 to 1857, and again from 1867 to 1871. There were a good many changes in the name of the publishing firm dur- ing the early years of the daily. In December of that first year Albert Bowker came into the company and the style became Bowker, Flanders & Company. He retired the following year and the name was made Henry Flanders & Company. In 1851 Roland Worthington became a member of the firm, and in 1856 Curtis Guild, whose name later became associated with the "Commercial Bulletin." The company title ran through such shifts as these: Worthington, Flanders & Company, Worthington, Flanders & Guild, and Roland Worthington & Company. Colonel Worthington had been connected with the paper for many years. He possessed both originality and energy and he introduced many inno- vations that produced both gossip and prestige. "The Boston Daily Republican" in December of that year ran a complimentary notice of the enterprise of its contemporary in obtaining and printing a full report, covering two pages, of a lecture by Agassiz. But the "Traveller" earned the applause of the entire community by one manifestation of the spirit of the newspaper of today. In the campaign year of 1848 which carried Taylor into the White House, the opinions of Daniel Webster were sought with intense interest by all Boston. For weeks he kept silence. Then in August he gave notice that he would speak to his fellow- townsmen in Marshfield on the political situation. Worthington per- ceived his opportunity. With a stenographer, Dr. J. W. Stone, he attended that meeting. The two returned "by express" to Boston and they had the entire speech ready for the public the following morning. Newsboys sold the extra all day on the streets. From Boston the speech was forwarded to the "New York Herald" and thence to the country at large. Marshfield is only a few miles from Boston, yet that was a great feat eighty years ago.
In August of that same year occurred the burning of the American emigrant ship "Ocean Monarch" off North Wales with the loss of 200 lives. Luck befriended the "Traveller" in obtaining another important "scoop." It happened that George O. Houghton, just out of college, had "signed on" with the paper-at a salary of $5 a week-and it happened also that while still almost a tyro he had to serve for a little while as a substitute for the editor-in-chief, and it further happened that he fell in somehow with a passenger on the ship recently burned at sea, and
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obtained from him a long account of the cowardice of the captain and of the courage of the colored stewardess who risked her life to enter the hold and prevent an explosion that would have destroyed the vessel. Houghton wrote an article that created a sensation-and sold a lot of papers.
The public assumed that a "clergyman connected with the paper" had written the article. The other papers asked what a minister could be expected to know about a ship. But when the British newspapers arrived they confirmed the "Traveller's" story and were as severe on the captain of the unfortunate vessel as Houghton had been.
Distribution-"The pennies," as they were called, had begun to employ boys to hawk newspapers about the streets, but the more dignified pub- lications had frowned on the practice as not quite the correct thing. It was Colonel Worthington who started the general movement which made the newsboy respectable. One noontime he boldly sent a boy on the streets with an armfull of "Travellers." Flanders at the moment was out at luncheon. In this instance, as it happened-so General Taylor of the "Globe" used to tell the story-Flanders presently returned, carrying almost the entire bundle of papers. He said to his partner: "I found a boy out on the street trying to sell these, and I knew you wouldn't like it, so I bought them all." An event which helped to establish the boys as a convenience for the public was the flight from Paris to Louis Philippe. When the news reached Boston an early afternoon extra was put out by the "Traveller." To meet the demand for copies the press ran until eve- ning and the sales were made chiefly by active boys. To the "Traveller" also belongs priority in the use of the office window bulletins which now are so commonplace. Such displays were not considered permissible until this paper demonstrated their value and managed to survive the shock of surprise and the volleys of criticism with which its rivals greeted the innovation.
During that period the "Traveller" gave special attention to travel news, printing much detailed information about railroads, express com- panies, shipping news, and more time-tables than any of the other papers of the city. Said the "Transcript": "The 'Traveler' is conducted with decorum, industry, and ability, and it is gratifying to see that those good traits are duly appreciated." In matters political the paper refused to take sides and it gave relatively slight attention to Congressional and legislative news.
"Decorous" the "Traveller" may have been, but it surely was alert and energetic. Frank B. Sanborn said that "the Calvinistic minister without a parish" made the paper a "sort of organ of the 'orthodox' religionists." The publishers objected to theatrical advertising. Sanborn described
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Worthington as "a kind of Swiss in politics." He did abandon the neu- trality avowed by the paper from time to time. He helped the Know Nothings to elect Gardner as Governor in 1854. During the Kansas trou- bles he stood strongly with the Anti-Slavery party. He tried to put Amos Lawrence, the friend of "bleeding Kansas," into the executive chamber on Beacon Hill. During that period he employed as corre- spondents in Kansas two English radicals, Richard Hinton and James Redpath.
In later years a "Traveller" feature which added about 5,000 for a single day each week to its normal circulation, was the Saturday Review of the Week, prepared by the veteran editor, Charles Creighton Haze- well, who died in 1883. The Review usually occupied six columns. Legend has it, and quite probably the tradition is true, that the editor prepared the copy for this weekly department without any consultation of files or other authorities. He was an omnivorous reader and gifted with a remarkable memory. When E. H. Clement was a boy in Chelsea he used to visit Mr. Hazewell at his home two miles away in North Revere, and in after years he found no occasion to revise the opinions he then formed of the omniscience of the old editor. These visits confirmed the lad in his ambition himself to become a newspaper man.
In 1857 the "Traveller" made a great strike to become a metropolitan paper of preeminent worth and influence. On April 13 this statement was printed :
The grand idea of the new paper is that of universality, a full presentation and a liberal discussion of all questions of public concernment, from an entirely independent position; and a faithful and impartial exhibition of all movements of interest at home and abroad.
The new "Traveller" was to unite with itself the "Atlas and the Bee" and the moribund "Telegraph and Chronicle." Its editor was to be Sam- uel Bowles, later famous for his identification with the "Springfield Republican." Worthington was to be in charge of the business office. The venture was abandoned after only a few months. Bowles withdrew on September 10. Yet the short episode is historically extremely inter- esting. The scheme as originally projected seemed most alluring. Bos- ton was to be provided with such a paper as the city never had seen, such a paper as no city could surpass. Bowles was approached early in the year. He did not hesitate long. It was arranged that he should have a tenth of the company's stock as a bonus, and a salary of $3,000. In addi- tion he bought stock to the value of $10,000. The "Traveller" was trans- formed into a quarto, an unfamiliar form in Boston. A few days before the formal launching Bowles said in a letter : "My editorial staff is about made up, and is rich and abundant, though not in all respects to my taste.
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. ... It will number in all some fifteen, and will be such as no Boston journal ever yet dreamed of . But the launching was not attended by any tidal-wave splash. The paper did cover more ground than its rivals, but it fell short of "universality." The editorial page was good, but not as striking and individual as had been that of the paper whence Bowles had come. The first issue was submitted to the public on April 13. On May 14 Bowles said : .... Our daily circulation is 21,000, about neck and neck with the 'Journal,' and no more; weekly, 16,000; semi-weekly, 4,000 to 5,000." Yet within a few weeks it could not be doubted that the paper as reconstructed must fail. It was good, but it did not justify the blare of bugles which had heralded its advent. Its acquisition of several weak journals brought it no increment of strength. The advertising went to the "Advertiser" and the "Post." The several papers in the merger were "morally incongruous," as Bowles put the case. There was incongruity in the management also. The owners dif- fered radically over the principles that should control their policies. The authority of Bowles over the editorial departments was only nominal. The company had but a moderate amount of capital to do with. The business departments and Bowles were bound to divide over the extent to which financial needs should control policies. Only the most skilled management could have obtained success and that management needed to be backed by the unanimous approval of the member of the company. So it came about that in hardly more than four months Bowles resigned, leaving his investment until it could be withdrawn without hampering the business office. A fresh organization was speedily formed. There was no receivership. Bowles printed this farewell :
The explanation of this change lies in the different principles of newspaper economy held by the respective parties. Mr. Bowles, finding from this cause and his own health, that the expectations under which he was induced to take the editorship of the "Trav- eller" were not likely to be realized, has insisted on withdrawing, in justice to himself, and in order that his associates might without embarrassment conduct the paper after a policy in which they have great confidence, but which he cannot approve.
Next day there appeared a notice from the continuing members of the company attributing the fiasco to the dislike of the public for the eight- page form and affirming their satisfaction with the "principles of news- paper economy" which had guided them thus far. The "Traveller" imme- diately resumed its old style and became its old self. Bowles had opposed Governor Gardner, but before the end of September the paper had become active in advocacy of his reëlection. Bowles always was sensitive over this disappointment. He went back to Springfield with results which the world well knows.
By 1871 the old-new "Traveller" was printing five editions a day and advertising itself as the largest evening paper in New England. It had
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its ups and downs in circulation and prosperity. In 1891 it sold some- thing more than 10,000 copies, in 1895 almost 27,000, in 1899 more than 40,000, the sworn statement for 1899 showed a sale of 87,230. As the evening edition of the "Herald" it now has the largest circulation in its history. There were several changes of ownership also before the sale to the "Herald." For a brief time in the 90's a "Committee of One Hun- dred" published it. There followed Mr. George Litchfield, then John H. Fahey in 1900. In 1912 the interests in control of the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" acquired the Boston paper. On July 1, 1912, it was pur- chased by and consolidated with the "Herald." The "Traveller" has occupied several buildings. The office for years was in the Traveller Building at 31 State Street, once the Newspaper Row of the city, and later the Wall Street of Boston. The "Traveller" was the last paper to leave that street. It tarried for some time at 307 Washington Street, and for a long period at 76 Summer Street, and now abides in the Herald Building at 171 Tremont Street, and at the corner of Mason and Avery streets.
Just at the end of the century the paper modified the spelling of its name. It reduced the double "L" to a single "L." It had been the "Traveller"; it became and now remains the "Traveler."
Mr. E. P. Mitchell in his agreeable volume of "Memoirs" refers at some length to that now seldom mentioned but once extremely popular issue of a Boston daily which made a real bid for applause on December 25, 1871-the Christmas number of the "Boston Journal." Why not devote the holiday issue to literature alone, literature in the main appro- priate to the season of good cheer, original not borrowed, and contributed free of charge by the authors? Why not for once leave out all the news? Edward King proposed the scheme. The plan "took." John Boyle O'Reilly backed it. Hilary Skinner, who is well remembered in London as an English correspondent of ability, heartily went into it. The result astonished the town. A poem about "the terrible ophidians in the Australian bush . very tragic" was O'Reilly's contribution. King, who was then a star correspondent and editorial writer, told a thrilling tale of the siege of Paris in 1870-71. A "Transcript" writer produced "a most humorous theatrical narrative." Skinner furnished a novelette deal- ing with the British aristocracy. Mitchell refers to his own contribution as "a jejune tale called 'Tarbucket' which the author has not the courage now to investigate." That innocent effort to oblige cost the owners "not one cent except for paper and ink." And it was like the "Journal" to do such things. The paper had been doing surprising things at intervals for years. Besides, that Christmas number was good advertising.
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