The Pen is mightier than the Sword. 515

6th of June, 1869, the Duke of Cambridge, the commander-in-chief of the English army, presided at a dinner in aid of the Newspaper Press Fund in London. In his remarks the duke said:

Professionally I am placed at the head of one of the great services of the state not connected with any politics, and who may be supposed not to take that great interest in the institutions of the country which every citizen of a state ought to take. Now I am come here this evening to prove, as far as lies in my power, that the army and the other institutions do take interest in these matters. fact of the head of one of these professions coming here to-night is an earnest and visible proof that such a view is no mere matter of phrases and words, but is a fact and a reality.

The

Honi soit qui mal y pense and Dieu et Mon Droit look very pretty and sound very valiantly on the English coat of arms, but a place will now have to be made for "The pen is mightier than the sword,” since the royal family have been so remarkably convinced of the fact as to have one of its members, the man of the sword, preside at a Press dinner. Additionally to this evidence in favor of the pen, one day in March, 1872, President Grant, leaving his victorious sword in the White House at Washington, visited Philadelphia, and, while there with his family, was the guest of editor Childs, of the Ledger, who gave one of his splendid entertainments to the chief magistrate of the nation, which was a brilliant affair in every respect.

Among the good things Mr. Childs has done in his bailiwick has been the establishment of the Printers' Cemetery at Woodlands, the giving of a handsome sum for a fund for the widows and orphans of printers, and the insurance on the lives of ten of his leading employés for the benefit of their families. Once a year, on a national birthday like the Fourth of July, or on a universal birthday like Christmas, he brings all the newsboys of Philadelphia, with big patches on their jackets and big hearts under them, together at a feast, making them feel as if some one of them, in the future, would loom up as the proprietor of an influential newspaper, or as a member of Congress, or as occupant of the White House. Instar omnium. Thus the newspaper in proper hands, and out of its own abundance, becomes a great almoner, a great educator, and a great elevator. The Public Ledger may yet wield a greater power than ever. With a growing city the influential journalist can do much good and accomplish important results, and his work is never finished.

The Dollar Weekly, which Mr. Swain clung to till the last, is now the property of Mr. Childs, and is published under the name of the Home Weekly, and Mr. C. brings out native talent by offering premiums for the best stories. American intellect is in this way developed by such publishers as Bonner, Childs, Bennett, and Greeley.

Such writers as Coleridge, Swift, Addison, and Dickens were brought out by the Chronicle, the Post, and other papers of London, and our journals are to develop and make the literature of America.

There is an Almanac issued from the Ledger office that is quite valuable. It is sixty pages in size, and filled with useful matter of reference. Ninety thousand copies are published annually, and a copy is given gratuitously to each subscriber of the Ledger.

The New York Express.

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CHAPTER XXXII.

THE EXPRESS NEWSPAPER AND THE EXPRESS LINES. THE NEW YORK EXPRESS.-WILLIS HALL AND JAMES BROOKS.-THE ExPRESS LINES.-HARNDEN, ADAMS, DINSMORE, AND SANFORD.-IMPORTANCE OF THE Expresses to NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS.

ONE beautiful soft morning late in the spring of 1836, while the brokers, bankers, merchants, shipmasters, and gossips were talking over the affairs of the day in the vestibule of Hudson's News Rooms, in the Old Tontine Building in Wall Street, New York, Willis Hall, Esq., with his rotund body, glowing face, and shaggy eyebrows, was seen ascending the steps of that building, accompanied by a man with a long nose, a long face, dark features, and a very large head, with an enormous bell-crowned hat thereon. They entered the private office of the Hudsons, who had, the previous year, established an Exchange News Room, and had in successful operation at that time a Shipping List, on the plan of Lloyds, and a Prices Current. The great fire, which had, a few months before, laid waste acres of buildings in front of the Tontine, did not touch that ancient and plain edifice.

"Who is that rosy-cheeked, pleasant-looking man, with the heavy eyebrows?" asked a gentleman standing in the vestibule.

"That man? Why, that is Willis Hall, one of the magnates of the Whig Party," answered a by-stander, who seemed to pride himself on his superior knowledge and acquaintance with distinguished

men.

"Well, my friend, since you are so well acquainted here, who is the gentleman with him-he with the big hat and swarthy face?" asked the gentleman.

"The man with the big hat? Was he with Hall? Some politician, no doubt," replied the other. Another by-stander volunteered the information.

"That man," said he, "is James Brooks."

"James Brooks? You are mistaken," said gentleman No. 1. "I know James Brooks. He was one of the editors of the Courier and Enquirer, and is now, I believe, editor of the Albany Advertiser. You are mistaken, my friend."

"But I am right. This James Brooks is not that James Brooks. This James Brooks is of the Portland Advertiser, and the writer of

the letters from Europe published in that paper and copied all over the country. Why, my dear sir, I know all about him. He traveled over Europe on foot-he never rode; he walked over England, Ireland, Scotland, up the Rhine, over the Alps, into the crater, and wrote letters. Willis is not a circumstance to him, sir; Willis used Cologne and the stage coaches. I don't mean Willis Hall, but N. P. Willis. Your James Brooks is James G. Brooks, a smart man,, a smart editor, and a smart poet. You see, sir, I know all about these men."

This settled the matter, especially when Hall and Brooks came out of the office and passed up Wall Street.

"That's the man," said the walking directory. "I know him, sir. That's the man. What an enormous hat! Is that the latest Paris fashion, do you suppose?

e?"

With these remarks the conversation between these two strangers ended. But the result of this visit of Hall and Brooks to the old Tontine was the establishment of the New York Express, now known as the Evening Express. Its first number appeared on the 20th of June, 1836, and its proprietors then announced that "the political character of the Express" would "be decidedly Whig." Hudson's Prices Current and Shipping List were merged with the Express, and all appeared as one publication. On the 1st of November, 1836, the Express was united with the old Daily Advertiser, an organ of the followers of the Hartford Convention, which had been published by Theodore Dwight, William B. Townsend, and John A. Walker. Dwight was the secretary of the Hartford Convention, and wrote a history of that remarkable convocation of New England opponents

of the War of 1812.

The Express has been remarkable for its politics, its numerous editions, and its strangers' lists. It started as a Whig paper, and adhered to the fortunes of Henry Clay as long as that statesman lived. On the appearance of Know-Nothingism James Brooks went to Europe, leaving the paper under the management of his brother, the junior editor, Erastus Brooks. The Express then became one of the organs of the new party, and Erastus Brooks was elected state senator in New York. When that meteoric party went out of existence the Express drifted into the ranks of the democracy, and James Brooks, the senior editor, was elected to Congress from one of the metropolitan districts, and is now a leading Democratic member of that body.

The numerous daily editions of the Express, containing the spirit of the morning and evening papers, the latest telegrams to the Associated Press, and the arrivals at the hotels, gradually destroyed its regular morning issue, till it was decided to make the paper an

The Political Course of the Express.

519

evening one exclusively, and the original New York Morning Express thus disappeared in 1864 or thereabouts. The strangers' list, or the daily arrivals at the several hotels, has always been a feature of the Express. It has ever been considered useful to merchants constantly on the watch for customers, and the Herald one time, from envy probably, called that paper the Drummers' Gazette.

The Express has a character of its own. It is made up not like any other paper. Its editorials seem hurriedly written, and have a sort of homely vigor about them. Every thing about the paper looks as if it had been thrown together in great haste.

Its " Spirit of the Press" is always fairly given. It will take news wherever and whenever it can get it, but it has little or no individual enterprise outside of the Associated Press. It has never spent very large sums of money in this way. Whenever attacked, it fights stoutly and persistently, and its editors possess the merit of courage in their editorial course. James Brooks has had the Know-Nothing policy of the Express violently attacked in Congress because of his zealous democracy now. One of its contributors for many years was a son of the well-known Theodore Dwight. He was a small man physically, with bright black eyes and an active intellect; he was always a fluent writer. On one occasion the Express was severe in its remarks on the famous Empire Club, of which Isaiah Rynders and John S. Austin were the master spirits. One of the members of the Club called at the office of the Express to seek satisfaction for its strictures. He met Mr. Dwight, and with eye full of fire and fight, said,

"I am a member of the Empire Club. Are you the editor of this paper?"

"Have the kindness to be seated," mildly answered Mr. Dwight ; "I will send for him."

Calling a messenger-boy, he dispatched him for James O'Brien, the manager of the engine-room of the establishment. O'Brien, standing nearly seven feet in his shoes, and with breadth of shoulders in proportion, soon made his appearance.

"Mr. O'Brien," said Mr. Dwight, with a twinkle in his eye, "this gentleman is a member of the Empire Club, and desires to see the editor. Will you please receive his message?"

The member from the Empire Club thought discretion the better part of valor, and prudently retired.

The circulation of the paper is largely confined to the numerous railway cars and steam-boats running to and from and within the limits of the city, where a numerous class engaged in business in the metropolis do all their reading. It has outlived a number of evening papers. Within the last four or five years it has had to