and foreign politics,
etc. That such a great
newspaper as the Herald, wherein the elucidating comment
is kept up from day to day by cultivated writers trained
in journalism, must perform many of the functions
of a university is clear. The news columns of
the Herald are a perfect mirror of the great world’s
busy life. The ocean-cable is employed to an
extent which would have seemed recklessly extravagant
ten years ago. It has its news bureaus in the
great capitals of civilization; its roving correspondents
may be found, at the date of this writing, exploring
the Panama Canal, the interior of Mexico, studying
the railway system of Great Britain, investigating
Mormon homelife, scouring the vast level stretches
of Dakota, traversing the great Central States of
the Union for presidential “pointers,”
making a tour of the Southern States to secure trustworthy
data as to the progress achieved in education there,
and journeying along the coast of hundred-harbored
Maine for the latest information as to the growth of
the newer summer resorts in that picturesque region.
In large and quiet rooms in the home office a force
of copy-readers is preparing the correspondence from
all over the world for the compositors; at the news
desks trained men are working day and night over telegrams
flashed from far and near, eliminating useless words,
punctuating, putting on “heads,” and otherwise
dressing copy for the typesetters. The enormous
amount of detail work in a great paper is not easily
to be conveyed to the non-professional reader.
From the managing editor, whose brain is employed
in inventing new ideas for his subordinates to carry
into execution, to that very important functionary,
the proof-reader, who corrects the errors of the types,
there is a distracting amount of detail work performed
every day. The Herald is managed with very little
friction; the great machine runs as if oiled.
With an abundance of capital, an ungrudging expenditure
of money in the pursuit of news, a great working-force
well disciplined and systematized, it goes on weekday
after weekday, turning out nine editions daily, and
on Sundays giving to the public sixteen closely-crowded
pages, an intellectual bill-of-fare from which all
may select according to individual preference.
The organization of the Herald force is almost ideally
perfect. Its three proprietors, all of whom are
still on the ascending grade of the hill of life,
share in the daily duties of their vast establishment.
Colonel Royal M. Pulsifer is the publisher of the paper,
and has charge of the counting-room, the delivery,
press, and composition rooms, the three last departments
being under competent foremen. A large share of
the wonderful business success of the Herald is due
to his sagacity and liberality. He is a publisher
who expends at long range, not expecting immediate
returns. Under this generous and wisely prudent
policy of spending liberally for large future returns
the Herald has grown to its present proportions.