Chapter 2

The printing press has held its own in the rapid advance of that wonderful evolution which, within the last half century, in every phase of thought and in every movement of material forces placed under the dominion of men, has almost made one of our years the equivalent of one of the old centuries. Within average recollection the single cylinder printing machine, run by hand or steam, and able under best conditions to print one side of a thousand sheets in one hour, was the marvel of mankind. In 1850, one such, that we started in an eastern Ohio town, drew such crowds of wondering on-lookers that we were obliged to bar the open doorway to keep them at a distance which would allow the astonishing thing to work at all.

To-day, in the United States alone, five millions of dollars are invested in the building of printing presses, many of which, by slightest violence to figure of speech, do think and speak. Inspiration was not wholly a thing of long-gone ages, for if ever men received into brain and worked out through hand the divine touch, then were Hoe, and Scott, and Campbell taught of God.

Under existing conditions newspapers of any importance, in the smaller cities, use one and sometimes two presses, capable of producing from 7,000 to 9,000 complete eight page papers each hour, each machine costing from $10,000 to $15,000. Papers of the second class in the large cities use treble or quadruple this press capacity, while the great papers, in the four or five leading cities, have machinery plants of from four to ten presses of greatest capacity, costing from $32,000 to $50,000 each, and able to produce papers of the different numbers of pages required, at a speed of from 24,000 to 90,000 four page sheets, or of from 24,000 to 48,000 eight, ten, or twelve page sheets per hour, each paper complete as you receive it at your breakfast table--printed, pasted, cut and folded, and the entire product for the day accurately counted in lots of tens, fifties, hundreds or thousands, as may be required for instantaneous delivery, while, as if to illustrate and emphasize the ever upward trend of public demand for the day's news, quick and inclusive, Hoe & Co. are now building machines capable of producing in all completeness 150,000 four page papers each hour.

All this tremendous combination of brain, nerve, muscle, material, machinery and capital depends for its movement and remuneration upon but two sources of income--circulation and advertisements--the unit measurements of which are infinitesimal--for the most part represented by wholesale prices; from one-half a cent to two cents per copy for the daily newspaper, and in like proportion for the weeklies and monthlies; and by from one-tenth of a cent to one cent per line per thousand of circulation for advertising space. Verily, in a certain and large sense, the vast publishing interests rest upon drops of water and grains of sand. Under right conditions no kind of business or property is more valuable, and yet no basis of values is more intangible. Nothing in all trade or commerce is so difficult to establish or more environed by competitions, and yet, once established, almost nothing save interior dry rot can pull it down. It depends upon the judgment and favor of the million, yet instances are few where any external force has seriously and permanently impaired it.

About two hundred years have gone since the publication of the first number of the first American newspaper. It was a monthly, called _Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestic_, first printed September 25, 1690, by Richard Pierce, and founded by Benjamin Harris. At that time public favor did seem to control newspaper interests, for that first paper aroused antagonism, and it was almost immediately suppressed by the authorities. Only one copy of it is now in existence, and that is in London. The first newspaper to live, in this country, was the Boston _News Letter_, first issued in 1704 and continued until 1776. New York's first newspaper, the New York _Gazette_, appeared October 16, 1725. At the outbreak of the revolution there were 37 newspapers, and in 1800 there were 200, of which several were dailies. In 1890 there were 17,760, of which there were 13,164 weeklies, 2,191 monthlies, 1,626 dailies, 280 semi-monthlies, 217 semi-weeklies, 126 quarterlies, 82 bi-weeklies, 38 bi-monthlies, and 36 tri-weeklies.

The circulations belong largely to the weeklies, monthlies and dailies, the weeklies having 23,228,750, the monthlies 9,245,750, the dailies 6,653,250, leaving only 2,400,000 for all the others.

The largest definitely ascertainable daily average circulation for one year, in this country, has been 222,745. Only one other daily paper in the world has had more--_Le Petit Journal_, in Paris, which really, as we understand it, is not a newspaper, but which regularly prints and sells for one sou more than 750,000 copies. The largest American weekly is the _Youth's Companion,_ Boston, 461,470. The largest monthly is the _Ladies' Home Journal_, Philadelphia, 542,000. The largest among the better known magazines is the _Century_, 200,000. Of the daily papers which directly interest us--those of the city of New York--the actual or approximate daily averages of the morning papers are given by "Dauchy's Newspaper Catalogue" for 1891, as follows: _Tribune_, daily, 80,000; Sunday, 85,000. _Times_, daily, 40,000; Sunday, 55,000. _Herald_, daily, 100,000; Sunday, 120,000. _Morning Journal_, 200,000. _Press_, daily, 85,000; Sunday, 45,000. _Sun_, daily, 90,000; Sunday, 120,000. _World_, daily, 182,000; Sunday, 275,000. Of the afternoon papers, _Commercial Advertiser_, 15,000; _Evening Post_, 18,000; _Telegram_, 25,000; _Graphic_ (not the old, but a new one), 10,000; _Mail and Express_, 40,000; _News_, 173,000; _Evening Sun_, 50,000; _Evening World_, 168,000. The entire circulation of New York dailies, including with those named others of minor importance, and the German, French, Italian, Bohemian, Hebrew and Spanish daily newspapers, is 1,540,200 copies.

Obviously, there is and must be ceaseless, incisive and merciless competition in securing and holding circulations, as well as in the outward statements made of individual circulations to those who purchase advertising space. In this, as in all other forms of enterprise, there are honest, clean-cut and business-like methods, and there are the methods of the time-server, the trickster and the liar.

The vastly greater number of publications secure and hold their clientage by making the best possible goods, pushing them upon public patronage by aggressive and business-like means, and selling at the lowest price consistent with excellence of product and fairness alike to producer and consumer. But of the baser sort there are always enough to make rugged paths for those who walk uprightly, and to contribute to instability of values on the one hand, and on the other to flooding the country with publications which the home and the world would be better without. Every great city has more of the rightly made and rightly sold papers than of the other sort, and the business man, the working man, the professional man, the family, no matter of what taste, or political faith, or economic bias, or social status, or financial plenty or paucity, can have the daily visits of newspapers which are able, brilliant, comprehensive, clean and honest. But all the time, these men and families will have pressed upon their attention and patronage, by every device and artifice of the energetic and more or less unscrupulous publisher, other papers equally able and brilliant and comprehensive, but bringing also their burden of needless sensationalism and mendacity, undue expansion of all manner of scandal, amplification of every detail and kind of crime, and every phase of covert innuendo or open attack upon official doing and private character--the whole infernal mass procured, and stimulated and broadcast among the people by the "business end of it," with the one and only intent of securing and holding circulation.

Take a representative and pertinent example. Eight years ago there were in New York ten or eleven standard newspapers, as ably and inclusively edited and as energetically and successfully conducted, business-wise, as they are now. Even at their worst they were decently mindful of life's proprieties and moralities and they throve by legitimate sale of the most and best news and the best possible elucidation and discussion thereof. The father could bring the paper of his choice to his breakfast table with no fear that his own moral sense and self-respect might be outraged, or that the face of his wife might be crimsoned and the minds of his children befouled. But there came from out of the West new men and new forces, quick to see the larger opportunity opened in the very center of five millions of people, and almost in a night came the metamorphosis of the old World into the new. It was deftly given out that existing conditions were inadequate to the better deserts of the Knickerbocker, the Jersey-man, and the Yankee, and that a new purveyor of more highly seasoned news and a more doughty champion of their rights and interests was hither from the land of life and movement--at two cents per copy. There was a panic in New York newspaper counting rooms, and prices tumbled in two days from the three and four cents of fair profit to the two and three cents of bare cost or less. The new factors in demoralization cared nothing for competition in prices or legitimate goods, for they had other ideas of coddling the dear people. Ready to their purpose lay disintegrated Liberty, waiting for a rock upon which to plant her feet and raise her torch, and the new combination between the world, the flesh and the devil, waiting and ready for access to the pockets of the public, was only too ready to set up Liberty and itself at one stroke, if only the joint operation could be done without expense to itself. The people said, "What wonderful enterprise!" "What a generous spirit!" The combination, with tongue in cheek and finger laid alongside nose, said to itself as it saw its circulation spring in one bound from five figures into six, "Verily we've got there! for these on the Hudson are greater gudgeons than are they on the Mississippi." From then until now, with an outward semblance and constant pretense of serving the people; with blare of trumpet and rattle of drum; with finding Stanley, who never had been lost; with scurrying peripatetic petticoats around the globe; with all manner of unprofessional and illegitimate devices; with so-called "contests" and with all manner of "schemes" without limit in number, kind, or degree; with every cunningly devised form of appeal to curiosity and cupidity--from then until now that combination has been struggling to hold and has held an audience of the undiscriminating and the unthinking. But, further, and worse, a short-sighted instinct of self-preservation has led other papers to follow somewhat at a distance in this demoralizing race. None of them has gone to such lengths, but the tendency to literary, mental and moral dissipation induced by a hitherto unknown form of competition has swerved and largely recast the methods of every New York daily save only the _Tribune_, _Times_, _Commercial Advertiser_, and _Evening Post,_ while the converse side of securing business clientage is illustrated in a way that would be amusing if it were not pathetic, by that abnormal and fantastic cross between news and pietetics which mails and expresses itself to the truly good. These are forms of competition which the business end of legitimately conducted newspapers is compelled to meet. In a certain way these methods do succeed, but how, and how long and how much shall they succeed except by unsettling the mental and moral poise of the people, and by setting a new and false pace for publishers everywhere whose thoughts take less account of means than of ends? Which shall we hold in higher esteem and in our business patronage--Manton Marble and Hurlbut, gentlemen, scholarly, wise leaders, conscientious teachers, with barely living financial income; or their successors, parvenus, superficial, meretricious, false guides, time-serving leaders, a thousand dollars a day of clear profit, housed in the tower of Babel?

Considered in the large, the circulation side of the American newspaper has many indefensible aspects. As "nothing succeeds like success," or the appearance of success, the prestige of not a few newspapers is ministered unto by rotund and deceptive representations of circulation. Then, as few can live, much less profit, on their circulations alone, it becomes greatly important to make the advertiser see circulations through the large end of the telescope, and so the fine art of telling truth without lying is a live and perennial study in many counting rooms. Discussing the circulation question not long ago with the head of a leading religious paper, he told me that the number of copies he printed was a thing that he never stated definitely, because the publishers of the other religious newspapers lied so about their circulations that he would do himself injustice if he were to tell the truth about his own. The secular papers should set an example for their religious brethren, but they do not, for from many of them there is lying--systematic, persistent, and more or less colossal. Not long ago, within a few days of each other, three men who were simultaneously employed on a certain paper told me their _actual_ circulation, _confidentially_, too. One of them put it at 85,000, the second at 110,000, and the third at 130,000, and each of them lied, for their lying was so diversified and entertaining that I felt a real interest in securing the truth, and so I took some trouble to ask the pressman about it. He told me, _very_ confidentially, that it was 120,000--and he lied.

By this time my interest was so heightened that I told my personal friend, the publisher, about the inartistic and incoherent mendacity of his subordinates, whereupon he laughingly showed me his circulation book, which clearly, and I have no doubt truthfully, exhibited an average of 88,000. The wicked partner is nearly always ready to show the actual record of the counting machines on the presses, and "figures never lie" but the truth-telling machines which record actual work of the impression cylinders make no mention of damaged copies thrown aside, of sample copies, files, exchanges, copies kept against possible future need, copies unsold, copies nominally sold but sooner or later returned and finally sold to the junk shop, and all that sort of thing. One prints a large extra issue on a certain day for some business corporation which has its own purpose to serve by publication of an article in its own interest, whereby many thousands of copies are added to that day's normal output, and he makes the exceptional number for that day serve as the exponent of his circulation until good fortune brings him a similar and possibly larger order, and his circulation is reported as "still increasing." Another struck a "high-water mark" of "190,500" the day after Mr. Cleveland was elected, and that has been the implied measure of circulation for the last six years. Another, during a heated political campaign, or a great financial crisis, or some other dominant factor in public interest, makes a large and genuine temporary increase, but the highest mark gained does enforced duty in the eyes of the marines until another flood tide sweeps him to a greater transient height. These are types of the competitions of the circulation liar. At this very hour there are four daily newspapers each of which has the largest circulation in the United States. Of the nearly 18,000 American publications only 103 furnish detailed, open, and entirely trustworthy statements of circulation.

As to the general public this is no great matter, but to the vast number of business men who buy the real or fancied publicity afforded by newspaper advertising it is of exceeding importance. That the large buyers of advertising space are not more and oftener swindled is because they understand the circulation extravaganza and buy space according to their understanding. The time is coming, and it should come soon, when newspaper circulations shall be open to the same inspection and publicity as is now the case with banks and insurance companies, and when the circulation liar and swindler shall be amenable to the same law and liable to the same penalty as stands against and is visited upon any other perjurer and thief.

_(To be continued_.)

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HOW TO PREVENT HAY FEVER.

By ALEXANDER RIXA, M.D., New York.

In the May (1890) number of the _Therapeutic Gazette_ I furnished some contribution to the "Treatment of Hay Fever." I reported therein a favorable result in the treatment of this mysterious disease in the experience of my last year's cases.

My experience of this year is far more gratifying, and worthy of receiving a wide publicity.

I treated six cases in all, four of which have been habitual for years to hay fever proper without complications, while the other two used to have the disease aggravated with reflex asthma and bronchial catarrh. I succeeded in preventing the outbreak of the disease in every individual case. The treatment I applied was very simple, and consisted of the following:

From the fact that I had known all my patients from previous years, I ordered them to my office two weeks before the usual onset of the disease. I advised them to irrigate the nose with a warm solution of chloride of sodium four times a day--morning, noon, evening, and on retiring; and, a few minutes after the cleansing of the parts, had the nares thoroughly sprayed with peroxide of hydrogen and c.p. glycerin, half and half. Those subject to a conjunctivitis I prescribed a two per cent. solution of boric acid as a wash. At this period no internal medication was given, but three days previous to the usual onset of the disease I prescribed phenacetin and salol, five grains of each three times a day.

On the respective expected days, to the great surprise of all the members concerned successively, who have been in the habit of getting the disease almost invariably at a certain date, no hay fever symptoms appeared, though everyone had been the victim of the disease for a great number of years, varying from five to nineteen years' standing.

It is self-understood that this treatment was kept up all through the season, and, as no symptoms developed, the applications were reduced, toward the termination, to twice and once a day. The internal medication, however, was stopped after the expiration of the first week, and all the patients could attend to their various respective vocations, something they never have been able to do in previous years.

In two cases, though no nasal symptoms developed, about two weeks after the calculated onset, slight symptoms of asthma made their appearance. However, I could easily suppress them at this time with the aid of the hand atomizer and ozonizer, a very ingenious little apparatus, of which I gave a thorough description in my last year's article. I used the ozone inhalations every four hours, in connection with the internal administration of the following prescription:

Rx Iodide of ammonia, 8; Fl. ex. quebracho, 30; Fl. ex. grindelia robusta, 15; Tr. lobelia, 12; Tr. belladonna, 8; Syr. pruni, virg., q.s., ad 120.

Sig.--Teaspoonful three or more times during twenty-four hours.

However, toward the end of the fourth week, especially in one case--a stout, heavy-set gentleman--very grave asthmatic symptoms developed, which compelled me to apply Chapman's spinal ice bag, as well as resort to the internal administration of large doses of codeine during the paroxysm, with the most beneficial result.

I gave also oxygen inhalations a fair trial in the two cases. I find them to act very soothingly in the simple asthma, facilitating respiration after a few minutes; but during the paroxysmal stage they cannot be utilized, for the reason that respiration is short and rapid, and does not permit of a control in the quantity of the gas to be inhaled. Consequently, it is either of little use as a remedy; or, if too much is taken, a disagreeable headache will be the consequence.

During the catarrhal stage, which, however, was very mild compared with last year, I derived great benefit from the administration of codeine, in combination with terpine hydrate, in the pill form. The codeine has the advantage over all other opium preparations that it does not affect the digestive organs, and still acts in a soothing manner. While during last year's sickness my patients lost from ten to twenty pounds of their bodily weight, this year but one lost eight pounds and the other five pounds.

As the etiology of this troublesome disease is yet enveloped in obscurity, we may fairly conclude, by the success of my treatment, if it should meet with the confirmation of the profession, that the much pretended sensitive area, situated, according to Dr. Sajous, "at the posterior end of the inferior turbinated bones and the corresponding portion of the septum," or, according to Dr. John Mackenzie, who locates this area "at the anterior extremity of the inferior turbinated bone," need not necessarily be removed or destroyed by cautery, in order to accomplish a cure of hay fever proper.

I examined my patients twice a week, and the closest rhinoscopical exploration would not reveal the slightest pathological change in the mucous membrane of the nares.

Now, what is the etiological factor of the disease? Is it a specific germ conveyed by the air to the parts and--_locus minoris resistencia_--deposited at the pretended area, or is the germinal matter present in the nasal mucous membrane with certain persons, and requires only at a certain time and under certain conditions physiological stimulation to manifest periodical pathological changes, which give rise to the train of symptoms called hay fever? Dropping all hypothetical reasoning, I think some outside vegetable germ is causing the disease in those predisposed, and peroxide of hydrogen acts on them as it does on the pus corpuscles, _i.e._, drives them out when and wherever it finds them. I hope the profession will give this new measure a thorough trial and report their results.--_Therapeutic Gazette._

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THE SOURCE OF CHINESE GINGER.