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? tician, no doubt," replied the other. the information.

Was he with Hall? Some poli-
Another by-stander volunteered

"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?"

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

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.

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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

compete with many new evening journals, and its circulation has probably suffered a little in consequence, although, with all wellmanaged papers, an increased number of journals in a city like New York is not without its advantages. The Gazette, the Mail, the Globe, the Republic, the Free Press, the Telegram, the Leader, the Commonwealth, have been started since 1865, but only the Telegram and Mail are left to compete with the Express, the old Post, and the older Commercial Advertiser. These new papers are a spirited class, and may yet somewhat affect the morning journals, with their telegrams from all parts of the world.

The Express was the first paper of that name, pure and simple, in the United States. With the establishment of this paper and the Cheap Press, a great necessity was met in the organization of the express lines. There was no connection between these lines and the Express newspaper. There was only a coincidence. The express lines were originated more in the spirit of the Sun and Herald. These papers were sold to news agents in other cities, and delivered by special express messengers, while the Express was established on the old system of credit and mail subscriptions, and did not come into the new plan, originating with the Sun, Transcript, and Herald, till years after, when circumstances forced the change upon the proprietors. But the express lines were commenced shortly after the Express was started. Harnden, then Adams, then Dinsmore, then Sanford, then Wells, then Fargo, appeared at the head of this new enterprise, one of the business marvels of this country. Harnden and Adams made their appearance on the Providence and Worcester railroads in 1838. The Harndens, two brothers, had been conductors, and had often been requested to carry small parcels for immediate delivery at the other end of their routes. Passengers by the steam-boat lines would be importuned by merchants in Boston and New York to carry letters and money parcels. These facts suggested the express business, which is now so extensive throughout the United States. Harnden and Adams extended their lines to Philadelphia. In 1841 a line between Albany and New York was established. Now, in 1872, lines run

from the metropolis to the rest of the world. They became useful in bringing the latest papers to the newspaper offices. Stimson, the clever historian of this wonderful enterprise, in speaking of this part of the business, states that "the newspaper editors who conducted the New York Press in 1841, '42, '43, and '44, will remember, as long as they live, we presume, a sandy-haired, rosy-cheeked, bright blue-eyed lad, who used to rush into their sanctums once or twice a day with the 'latest news from Boston,' and desire them to give credit to Adams & Co.'s Express. That was John Hoey."

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Well, he performed his part admirably, and is now a millionaire and a happy man. William F. Harnden, Alvin Adams, William B. Dinsmore, and Edwards S. Sanford performed the more arduous part of running locomotive expresses with the latest news from Europe. Dinsmore, and Sanford, and Adams have many a time covered themselves with coal-dust and glory in running a mile a minute on a locomotive for the New York and Philadelphia journals. Dinsmore, black with coal-dust, and brilliant in wit and good humor, once made the run from Boston to New York in seven hours and thirty minutes, the quickest at that time on record. Those were sparkling days in journalism. Sanford will relate incidents by the volume in his genial, pleasant way, of the competition between Adams and Harnden. Those were times of lively enterprise among the newspapers. They were days to remember. Adams and Dinsmore, with their magnificent farms, and herds of Alderney and Guernsey cows, now eclipse the farmers on the field as they did the old stage-coaches on the roads. Sanford became the righthand man of Secretary Stanton during the rebellion, and military supervisor of telegraphs. Harnden was gathered to his fathers many years ago.

These express lines are of great importance to the Press as newspaper carriers. They deliver the Suns, Heralds, Tribunes, Times, Worlds, Ledgers, Travellers, and Telegrams of the various cities along the railroads of the United States as the carriers in a particular city delivers them along the streets of that city. News agencies, such as Zeiber in Philadelphia, Jones in Albany, and Williams in Boston, branched out and extended into colossal news companies as a part of the spirit, and energy, and necessity of the age. Huge parcels of Heralds, and Tribunes, and Times have been conveyed in bulk to these agencies by these express lines, and distributed every where. Along our railroads, news agents on the early morning trains throw out parcels at every cross-road and at every dépôt. With the extension of railroads and express lines the circulation of city journals becomes greater, and will become larger every year. Thus these tri-enterprises work together for the general good. But in the course of time the pneumatic parcel-tubes will be laid, and then the rapidity of the delivery of newspapers to distant points will be second only to the telegraph in speed and importance in our intellectual development and journalistic progress. En avant!