Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/228

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194
HISTORY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM

one cent a copy and consequently its circulation brought in only a very limited revenue. The Sun and The Transcript objected to being printed at the same plant as The Herald and soon withdrew from Anderson & Smith. A big fire on Ann Street August 12, destroyed the printing-plant and caused The Herald to suspend until August 31. But The Herald continued to grow and had to seek larger quarters. On April 6, 1836, it moved again, this time from Broadway to Clinton Hall Building. Four months later the price per copy was increased to two cents.

At the end of the year 1836 the following résumé was published:—

The surprising success of The Herald has astonished myself. I began on five hundred dollars, was twice burnt out, once had my office robbed, have been opposed and calumniated by the whole newspaper Press, ridiculed, contemned, threatened, yet here I am, at the end of fifteen months, with an establishment, the materials of which are nearly worth five thousand dollars, nearly all paid for, and a prospect of making The Herald yield in two years a revenue of at least thirty thousand dollars a year; yet I care not, I disregard, I value not money. I rise early, and work late, for character, reputation, the good of mankind, the civilization of my species. It is my passion, my delight, my thought by day, and my dream by night to conduct The Herald, and to show the world and posterity, that a newspaper can be made the greatest, most fascinating, most powerful organ of civilization that genius ever yet dreamed of. The dull, ignorant, miserable barbarian papers around me, are incapable of arousing the moral sensibilities, or pointing out fresh paths for the intellectual career of an energetic generation.

For the sake of comparison and for the purpose of showing the aim of the paper the following quotation is made from Volume I, Number 1:—

James Gordon Bennett & Co. commence this morning the publication of The Morning Herald, a new daily paper, price $3 a year, or six cents per week, advertising at the ordinary rates. It is issued from the publishing office, No. 20 Wall Street, and also from the printing-office, No. 34 Ann Street, 3d story, at both of which places orders will be thankfully received.

The next number will be issued on Monday morning—this brief suspension necessarily taking place in order to give the publishers time