USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 65
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The building at the corner of East Sixth and Superior was torn down to make way for the present magnificent new Leader-News Building, which was occupied in 1913. Only the Sunday Leader is now issued, the morning Leader was discontinued by Mr. Hanna before his death. The News and Sunday Leader are published by The Cleveland Company, of which the heirs of Dan Hanna have a controlling interest. M. A. Hanna is chairman of the board; G. F. Morgan, president and general manager ; D. R. Hanna, Jr., vice president and assistant general manager ; J. J. Levine, treasurer, and T. A. Robertson, managing editor. Its printing establishment is second to none. As one item it may be interesting to know that in the sub-basement are tanks containing a carload of ink- 2,500 gallons-which by means of compressed air is forced through the presses. It may be added that Mr. Cowles bought the first perfecting press ever used in Cleveland.
During the management of J. W. Gray the Plain Dealer became an evening daily and then a steam press was bought. From 1851 to 1860 was an interesting decade. The advent of the telegraph, which was intro- duced in the city in 1849, steam railroads, and later electric power, all had a special bearing on the gathering and printing of local and general news.
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During this ten-year period Gray's staff included a number of writers who became distinguished. Among them were J. B. Boughton, who was later famous as an editorial writer for the New York dailies; David R. Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby), editor of the Toledo Blade and author of the Nasby letters; William E. McLaren, later bishop of the Protestant Epis- copal Church ; James D. Cleveland, a leading lawyer ; A. M. Griswold (The Fat Contributor), journalist, humorist and lecturer ; George Hoyt, journal- ist and artist; Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward), world humorist, author and lecturer, J. H. Sargent and George M. Marshall. It was while acting as city editor of the Plain Dealer that Browne adopted the pseudonym of Artemus Ward. The editorial chair used by Artemus is preserved in the museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society on University Circle.
J. W. Gray died May 26, 1862. The paper suffered by this loss. For so long this virile New Englander had been in active management and, as has been said, Gray was the Plain Dealer and the Plain Dealer was Gray. In 1865 William W. Armstrong, journalist and politician, took over the paper. He had had newspaper experience as editor of the Tiffin Adver- tiser. Twenty years later the paper was purchased by Liberty E. Holden, who at the same time bought the Cleveland Herald. Holden made the combined papers the evening, morning and Sunday Plain Dealer. The first morning edition was published March 16, 1885. He moved the plant from Seneca to the corner of Bank and Frankfort, where it remained until 1896. From there it was moved to the corner of Bond (East Sixth) and Superior. On February 2, 1908, the building was burned to the ground but the next issue of the paper came out as usual. The following year there began on the site of the old building a six-story building of gray granite and steel. The original building was later enlarged and now con- tains a model newspaper plant.
Eighty-five or more men set up and make up the Daily and Sunday Plain Dealer, to say nothing of the editorial staff employed by night and day. For the information of some of our readers who may have worked in the early days on the old hand press and for others who know nothing of a newspaper office we include a brief description.
TRACING A PIECE OF NEWS
"Copy" from the editorial rooms is belched out of a pneumatic tube onto the desk of the copy cutter. With shears and blue pencil the cutter splits the copy into "takes" or selections, numbers them and slips them onto spindles at the end of his desk. The printers carry the "takes" to their linotypes, put them through the machines and return the result -- type on metal slugs, each of which holds one line-to the galley bank. The "takes" are assembled there and proofs are made. The proofs and original copy to go to the proof room for reading and correcting. Mistakes noted are corrected on the linotypes and inserted into the right place in the story.
In another part of the room a "head" or headlines has been set up by hand or by machine. Proofs of the "heads" have been taken and read and corrected in the same way. Story and head are assembled. Several hundred of them, large and small, are gotten ready in this manner for the night editor and his make up men. Under his direction the various stories are arranged in the forms of the different pages. Nightly, news copy "dies" or is unused because the night editor finds far more material to put into the paper than he has pages to put it into.
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Under the city editor are something like twenty reporters. About half of them are "beat" reporters. They cover the daily happenings, the court- house, police station, schools, Federal Building, Chamber of Commerce, police headquarters, etc. The completed copy goes to the city editor and then to the copy desk. The telegraph editor has a staff of four copy readers. There is a financial editor. The sporting editor has a staff of four men, besides special correspondents throughout Cleveland and other cities. There are five editors and writers in the woman's department, where society, club and feature news of interest to women is prepared. The Sunday editor supervises the selection and making up of all of the Sunday supplements except the woman's magazine. There are three edi- torial writers, one dramatic critic, one music critic, one photoplay editor and one philosopher of folly. In the library and morgue, where the photo- graphs and clippings are kept, there are two attendants-librarians. Here are kept hundreds of photographs, the work of Plain Dealer staff photog- raphers. There are employed eleven special artists who turn out more than 2,000 pieces of art each month.
The twelve-unit color press, which prints the comic and magazine sec- tions, is the largest of its type between New York and Chicago. There are four sextuple Hoe presses, each of which prints more than 60,000 twelve- page newspapers per hour, all propelled by electricity. The paper is fed direct from the roll, printed, cut, folded and automatically counted into bundles of fifty in one operation. Each of the presses has fifty-eight rollers for distributing ink, making a total of 232. Fifteen barrels of ink are used each week and 175 tons per year. Fifteen carloads of paper are kept on hand all the time.
This description of the Plain Dealer newspaper plant appeared several years ago so that the conditions today would enlarge upon the figures given.
About the beginning of the '90s Mr. Holden leased the paper to Elbert H. Baker and Charles E. Kennedy, both experienced newspaper men, the former being at present at its head, and in point of service the dean of the newspaper publishers of the city. Mr. Holden died August 26, 1913. Of the Plain Dealer Publishing Company, Elbert H. Baker is presi- dent ; George M. Rogers, general manager; Erie C. Hopwood, editor, and John S. McCarrens, business manager.
The history of the Cleveland Press does not date back as far as the other English dailies of the city with the exception of the Times, which is quite young. It is housed in a substantial brick structure on East Ninth Street. It began as a small sheet in 1878 as the Penny Press. At that time the other dailies sold at five cents per copy. On the wall in one of the editorial rooms hangs a framed letter, which reads as follows :
R. F. Paine,
Attorney at Law,
No. 1 Hardy Block, Euclid Avenue.
Cleveland, Ohio, October 23rd, 1878.
Dear Sir :
I learn that it is the intention of certain gentlemen to begin the publica- tion of a new daily newspaper here and that you are to be connected with it editorially. I am not only extremely desirous of but also "cussid anxious" to secure a position on the reportorial staff of said paper. Have acted in such a capacity upon the Plain Dealer and lately served as city editor to the great admiration of the numerous patrons of that deadly sheet,
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"The Daily Advance." Can you do anything for me conscientiously after this insight into my record ? Will you take my case into consideration ?
Yours resp't'ly, Robert F. Paine, Jr.
A note at the bottom of the page reads :
I got the job and still have it. R. F. Paine. June 15, 1922.
Robert F. Paine, the first editor of the Press, was made editor emeritus, which explains the foot note. Six editors have sat in the editorial chair since Paine, Harry N. Rickey being the second. The paper is one of a number in various parts of the country published by the Scripps Publishing Company. Harry N. Rickey began as a "beat" reporter on the Press and grew into the work. His ability carried him up to the chief editor's chair and then further, to the editorial head of all the publications of the Scripps Publishing Company. His successors in their order have been E. E. Martin, Eugene McIntire, Nelor Morgan, G. B. Parker and H. B. R. Briggs, the present editor. Robert F. Paine, as we have said, is editor emeritus, and R. A. Huber, business manager. At the head of its editorial page it announces that it is a Scripps-Howard newspaper, member of the Scripps-McRae League. From the little penny sheet it has grown into a large and influential journal, leading in circulation, and prosperous in a financial way. It has always had an able staff of writers. John M. Wilcox, former sheriff of Cuyahoga County, was for some years and until his death a member of the editorial staff. Mrs. Winnie Paine, writing under the pseudonym of Mrs. Maxwell, built up a department of the paper that attracted nationwide attention. Professedly independent in politics it has usually supported the policies and often the candidates of the democratic party. It has never published a Sunday edition.
Another English daily that publishes no Sunday edition is the Cleve- land Times. This paper is published by the Cleveland Commercial Pub- lishing Company, of which company O. K. Shimansky is president and Samuel Scovil, treasurer. Soon after Mr. Hanna ceased the publication of the morning Leader this paper was founded. Its offices are on Superior, at the corner of West Sixth Street. It is young and has strong competi- tion but is growing in public favor and in circulation. It is a morning paper and published daily.
When the German-speaking population of Cleveland had grown to be numerous and its numbers were constantly increasing, August 9, 1852, the Waechter am Erie (watch on the Erie), a weekly newspaper printed in the German language, was founded by Jacob Mueller and Louis Ritter. Its first editor was August Thieme. In 1871 a corporation was formed called the "Waechter am Erie Printing Company," with a capitalization of $50,000, which took over the paper. Adolph Geuder was president, Louis Ritter, secretary, and Philip Gaensler, treasurer. It became a daily in 1866. In 1893 it consolidated with the Anzeiger, another Cleveland German newspaper, and the publication proceeded under the name of the Waechter and Anzeiger, its present name. Its circulation at one time reached 25,000.
From 1877 until the consolidation Maj. William Kaufmann was presi- dent and business manager, and principal owner, and editor in chief. The present editor is Richard C. Brenner; the president of the corporation,
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Herman Schmidt, and the business manager, F. E. Sommer. During the World war the paper was charged with publishing matter classed as seditious. Copies of editorials purporting to have appeared in the paper were sent to Washington. These contained seditious utterances but it was proved that they were forgeries and no arrests were made and no issues of the paper were suppressed. Charles W. Maedje, a very able newspaper man, was at one time in charge of the publication.
The cosmopolitan character of the population of the city has brought into being a multitude of foreign language newspapers. Among them are Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Hungarian, Bohemian, Roumanian, Russian, Italian, German, Lithuanian, Croatian and Greek. There is the American Roumanian Daily, the American-Jugoslav Printing and Publishing Com- pany, the Americke Deinicke Listy, the Cleveland Daily Polish Monitor, the Courier Polish Weekly, the Dirva Lithuanian News, the Polish Daily News, the Sieb Amer Volksblatt, the Svet Bohemian Daily, the Szabadsag Hungarian Daily, and others. There are over 100 newspapers and maga- zines published in the city.
Of the early writers perhaps Col. Charles Whittlesey was more widely known than any other with the exception of Artemus Ward, who ranks as one of the world's greatest humorists. Colonel Whittlesey published many books-historical and scientific. He was a historian, a geologist, an editor, a soldier, an archaeologist, an interesting and voluminous writer. The New York Herald said of him that his contributions to literature "have attracted wide attention among the scientific men of Europe and America."
Mr. James F. Ryder in his book called "Voightlander and I," and, by the way, he should be included in the list of Cleveland writers, gives much interesting history of Artemus Ward and his mother, while he was on the Plain Dealer. It seems Artemus could have inherited much of his humor from his mother. Mr. Ryder described a visit his mother made in Cleve- land and tells how Artemus and his mother would chaff each other. After a remark of Artemus, that his mother humorously referred to as showing disrespect to his parent, she said: "Now, Charles Farrer Browne, behave yourself, be respectful to your mother ; remember what the Bible says." "Well," said Artemus, "I suppose I ought to, but it is so different from the Plain Dealer, I don't putter with it much." Artemus outgrew Cleveland and accepted a call to New York City as a writer for Vanity Fair and soon became the managing editor. Here he published his first book and later began his career as a platform humorist. For many years there was an Artemus Ward Club in Cleveland composed wholly of newspaper men.
Among the other Cleveland writers of national reputation are John Hay, whose fame as a writer was only exceeded by his fame as a states- man, and whose "Castilian Days," poems and "Life of Lincoln" are per- manent contributions to the world's best literature; Constance Fenimore Woolson, the novelist, grand niece of James Fenimore Cooper, whose works include the "Old Stone House," "Castle Nowhere," "Two Women," "Rodman the Keeper." "Anne," "For the Major," "East Angels," "Jupiter Lights," and other books, and Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, who was born in Cleveland in 1845, and who became famous as a writer of juvenile stories under the pseudonym of Susan Coolidge, but who wrote, as well, histories, and published translations.
Sarah K. Bolton made Cleveland her home after her marriage with Charles E. Bolton. Her first publication was a small book of poems, which was put out by the Appletons and this was followed by a serial novel published in a New England paper. Her articles appeared in over forty leading journals and she has written many books. In Cleveland
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she was active in philanthropic work and continued her publications. Mrs. W. A. Ingham published the "Women of Cleveland" in 1893. She is now a resident of California, but keeps up her interest and membership in the Early Settlers Association of Cleveland.
B. F. Taylor, the poet and Chicago editor, whose poem beginning "There is a magical isle up the River of Time," was published in the school readers, and attracted wide notice, spent the latter years of his life in Cleveland. His widow served for several terms as a member of the Cleveland School Board. Eugene Walter, the playwright, was born in Cleveland in 1874, and began his literary career as a "beat" reporter on a daily paper at some $30 a month. He has achieved wealth and fame. His plays are numerous and all have been successful. They include "Sargeant James," "The Flag Station," "The Undertow," "Paid In Full," "The Real Issue," "The Wolf," "The Easiest Way," "Just a Wife," "Boots and Saddles," "The Assassin," "Fine Feathers," "The Trail of the Lone- some Pine" and "Just a Woman."
Alfred Henry Lewis (Al) was born in Cleveland in 1858. He was admitted to the bar and at the age of twenty-three elected police prosecutor. Here arose some controversy between himself and the judge as to the administration of the court and the young prosecutor published some articles in regard to it that gave evidence of literary and journalistic ability. His subsequent career included a cowboy in the West, a lawyer in Kansas City in partnership with his brother Will, the Washington correspondent of the Chicago Times, then connected with the Hearst papers, then organ- izer and editor in chief of the Verdict, a political weekly, published by Perry Belmont in New York, then a contributor to various periodicals and a writer of books.
As an attorney he advised Harry K. Thaw that no crime would be committed if he escaped from Matteawan Insane Asylum.
His books include "Sandburs," "Wolfville Days," "Wolfville Nights," "The Black Lion Inn," "Peggy O'Neal," "Sunset Trail," "Confessions of a Detective," "Story of Paul Jones," "The Throwback," "When Men Grow Tall," "Wolfville Folks" and "Faro Nell."
He died in 1914. His fame rests chiefly on the Wolfville stories. They portray life in small border towns, with which the author became familiar in his cowboy experience. As a political writer his pen was dipped in the vitriol of intense partisanship.
Avery Hopwood is another Cleveland man, who, like Eugene Walter, has achieved fame as a playwright. He went to school on the West Side. He began his career as a writer when he worked as a reporter on the Cleveland Leader in his college vacations and after graduation, until going to New York to pursue his literary work there. He is the author of a number of successful comedies. His first great success came with "Fair and Warmer," which had an unprecedented run. "The French Doll" and "Nobody's Widow" are other successful plays. "The Bat," which he wrote in collaboration with Mary Roberts Reinhardt, still holds the boards as one of the most successful of present day comedies.
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, for many years a Cleveland woman, is best known from her history of the Western Reserve, which was published by the American Historical Society. Elroy M. Avery, as an author, first became known from a series of school text books which he published while engaged in school work. His history of the United States, while not yet brought up to the present time, is remarkable for its careful delineation of the events detailed and its painstaking accuracy. His latest publication,
COLONEL CHARLES WHITTLESEY
Historian of early Cleveland and one of the founders and first president of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Reproduced from an oil painting by courtesy of the Western Reserve Historical Society.
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"History of Cleveland and its Environs," in three large volumes, has only been off the press a few years.
Charles E. Kennedy, whom we have mentioned as being associated with Mr. Baker on the Plain Dealer, is a writer of great merit. He has published a "History of Cleveland" and "The Bench and Bar of Cleveland," and is engaged on a book at the present time which is said to be, to some extent, autobiographical. He has for some years given up editorial work. William R. Rose, special and story writer for the Plain Dealer, and Benjamin Karr, whose "Events and Comments" are a feature of the Cleveland News, deserve a prominent place in any list of Cleveland writers. James B. Morrow, who rose from a reporter to be editor in chief of the Cleveland Leader and is now a syndicate writer of note, was asked by Mr. Kennedy to state the policy, politics and principles of the Cleveland Leader, of which paper he was editor. He replied that the "policy of the Leader is to get and print the news and treat all men and all classes with exact justice." That is the character that Morrow endeavored to put into his paper. As a writer he is candid and fair. He takes high rank as a writer. Ezra Brudno, a lawyer, has published several successful novels- "The Fugitive," "One of Us" and "The Jugglers." The last named is autobiographical and, under fictitious names, portrays a number of Cleve- land characters. Farther back, A. G. Riddle, once a member of Congress from Cleveland, wrote several successful novels. Among them were "Bart Ridgley" and "The Portrait." In one book he introduces Judge Ranney as a character. His books were widely read. Charles W. Chestnutt has written novels dealing with the race question. They are well written. "The Conjure Woman" and "The House Behind the Cedars" are among his books. He is now a practicing lawyer in Cleveland. Archie Bell, musical and dramatic writer for the Plain Dealer for many years and now on the Leader, has published a novel. It is quite recent. C. A. Seltzer, a Cleveland man, is a producer of fascinating fiction.
Edmund Vance Cook, a poet of more than local fame, is a resident of Cleveland. Ted Robinson, the creator and nourisher of the "Philosopher of Folly," a department of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, at the insistence of his friends, has published a volume of poems. Harry H. Hudson has written more than a thousand short stories for magazines, but has never published a book. We must include in this incomplete outline Samuel P. Orth and W. Scott Robinson, who each published a history of Cleveland ; M. S. Havens, who wrote "Old Valentines"; Daisy Anderson, C. E. Bolton, C. S. Brooks, F. E. Bunts, L. D. Cracraft, J. E. Farmer, I. H. Gilmore, Hershel S. Hall, K. B. Judson, E. H. Neff, Samuel Walter Kelley, W. G. Rose, I. B. Roberts, C. F. Woolson, B. L. Pennington, Mr. Rhodes, D. C. Paine and Judges Martin Foran and William B. Neff, the latter writing the opening chapter to a history of the bench and bar of Northern Ohio, which work bears his name.
John T. Bourke, political writer for the Cleveland Sunday News- Leader and the News, could write a book if he ever had time, but his pen has been constantly busy through a long period of years. His wide acquaintance with public men has given him material for an interesting contribution to permanent literature. Theodore E. Burton has contributed a book of interest, and should be mentioned among the writers, as we have already included him among those who have honored Cleveland in public life.
Elmer Bates and Tom Knight have distinguished themselves as star reporters in that particular field where the qualities of a detective, clever, persistent and clear-headed come into play. Both had a born ability in
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writing up after the quarry had been landed, and both are now out of the newspaper game. It was before Mr. Bates came to Cleveland that he in the guise of a hack driver got the interview between Conklin and Garfield in that memorable campaign for President. This interview at Mentor when it appeared as written up by Mr. Bates was as much a surprise to the two chief actors in the drama as it was to the nation at large. Tom Knight figured in two episodes, one of intense local interest and the other of which attracted national interest. The first was that of the engagement and second marriage of Mayor McKisson. Persistent denials by the mayor and his friends did not deter Knight from following his subconscious lead and when the marriage was finally solemnized Knight was a legal witness to the ceremony and when he published his "scoop" it created a local sensation. The second was the investigation of a murder that occurred at Lorain, Ohio, when Knight was a reporter on the Leader under Morrow, as in the one just mentioned. The sister of a Catholic priest, who was his house- keeper, was brutally murdered while the clergyman was absent from his home. Another priest was arrested charged with the murder under most suspicious circumstances. He was locked up and the authorities were con- fident that they had the right man under arrest and awaited the trial. Knight spent some four weeks on this case in connection with two re- porters assigned from New York papers. They brought about proof of the innocence of the man charged with the crime and discovered the actual murderer, who made a confession.
Ben Allen, as a local reporter and as a Washington correspondent, took front rank. His untimely death occurred in the West in connection with a reception to President Wilson. The automobile in which he and other correspondents were riding was overturned. Jake Waldeck of the past and Walter Buel of the present have written from Washington many interesting articles.
There are numerous local writers of books that make up the list of Cleveland authors, Levi F. Bauder, L. G. Foster, W. H. Polhamus, Charles S. Whittern, and others in poetry ; Dr. James Hedley, William J. Gleason, Edward A. Roberts and many others in other lines.
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