I am to speak to you of “The Business End” of the American newspaper; that is of the work of the publisher’s department—­not the editor’s.  At the outset I am confronted with divisions and subdivisions of the subject so many and so far reaching that right regard for time compels the merest generalization; but, as best I can, and as briefly as I can, I shall speak upon the topic under three general divisions: 

First.—­The personal and material forces which make the newspaper.

Second.—­The sources of revenue from the joint working of these forces.

Third.—­The direct office, bearing and influence of these forces.

It is but natural that the general public has limited idea of the personality and mechanism of the publication business, for much of its movement is at night, and there is separation and isolation of departments, as well as complicated relation of the several parts to the whole.  Not many years ago a very few men and boys could edit, print and distribute the most important of newspapers, where now hundreds are necessary parts in a tremendous complexity.  But even to-day, of the nearly 18,000 publications in the United States, more than 11,000 are of that class which, in all their departments, are operated by from two to four or five persons, and which furnish scant remuneration even for these.  Among the thin populations and in the remote regions are thousands of weekly papers—­and you may spell the weekly either with a double e or an ea—­where there are two men and a boy, one of whom does a little writing and much scissoring, loafing among the corner groceries and worse, begging for subscribers, button-holing for advertisements, and occasionally and indiscriminatingly thrashing or being thrashed by the “esteemed contemporary” or the “outraged citizen;” the second of whom sets the type, reads the proofs, corrects them more or less, makes the rollers, works the old hand press, and curses the editor and the boy impartially; and the third of whom sweeps the office weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, inks the forms and sometimes pis them, carries the papers, and does generally the humble and diversified works of the “printer’s devil,” while between the three the whole thing periodically goes to the ——­ level pretty sure to be reached now and then by papers of this class.  Yet there are many of these country papers that Mr. Watterson once styled the “Rural Roosters” which are useful and honored, and which actively employ as editors and publishers men of fair culture and good common sense, with typographical and mechanical assistants who are worthy of their craft.

But the personal workers upon the great magazines and the daily newspapers are for each a battalion or a regiment, and in the aggregate a vast army.  The Century Magazine regularly employs in its editorial department three editors and eight editorial assistants, of whom five are women; in the art department two artists in charge and four assistants, of whom three are women; in the business department fifty-eight persons, men and women—­a total of seventy six persons employed on the magazine regularly and wholly, while the printers and binders engaged in preparing a monthly edition of 200,000 magazines are at least a duplicate of the number engaged in the editorial, art and business divisions.