JOURNALISM BELOW SEA-LEVEL
The printing-press has sought many strange corners in the universe. It
has, in these modern times, led rather than followed civilization. In
the new West it usually is, first the printing-press, then the town.
One of the most peculiar phases of journalism is found in the desert
region of California. There are, in the two great deserts of the State,
four weekly papers, two in each desert. In the Mojave Desert are the
_Randsburg Miner_, published in the gold-mining town of Randsburg, in
the northern part of the desert, and the _Needles' Eye_, issued from
the town of Needles on the eastern confines of the sandy waste.
The Needles is the metropolis of the upper desert country, and the
_Needles' Eye_ is the larger of the two papers published in this
desert. The town has a peculiar history, inasmuch as in the first
fifteen years of its existence it stood upon borrowed ground. In size
the township is one and a half times as large as the State of Vermont.
The village of Needles is about eight miles west of the Colorado River
on the line of the Santa Fé Railroad. The main part of the village is
situated upon Section 29 of the township, which is one of the sections
included in the railway grant to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
The town grew naturally about the station, which was established at the
time of the building of the Santa Fé road, and little thought was given
to titles at that time.
In time the town grew to the dignity of brick blocks, and still the
titles remained with the railway company. Some ineffectual efforts were
made on one or two occasions to secure titles to the lands from the
railway people, but it was not until 1903 that a deal was made whereby
the townsmen, in consideration of $43,000, secured deeds to the lands
upon which stand their homes and business blocks.
Needles has a population of two thousand souls. It is a mine outfitting
town, furnishing supplies for a large and rich gold-mining district
north of that locality. The _Needles' Eye_, which is an eight-page
journal, is a wide-awake organ owned, printed, and edited by L. V.
Root, a native of Michigan, but a resident of the Southwest since 1892.
He formerly edited the _New Mexico Gleaner_ and is familiar with
frontier journalism. His paper is devoted to the local interests of the
town and to the mining districts of that region.
[Illustration: YEAR-OLD WILLOW TREES AT INTERNATIONAL LINE]
Randsburg is a typical mining town with desert accessories. It is the
chief town of the gold-mining district known as the "American Rand,"
and has but one rival in the district, Johannesburg, which is close to
it in size and importance, but which has not yet arrived at the dignity
of a newspaper.
The _Miner_ is a four-page weekly devoted to the news of the mines and
to local items. It has few features of interest outside the locality in
which it is published.
In the Colorado Desert journalism attains an unusual degree of
uniqueness. Both papers published in that region are printed below the
level of the sea.
The _Submarine_ has the distinction of being the first paper in the
world to be printed below the level of the sea. It is still unique in
that it is the "lowest down" of any paper in the world. In order to
hold this record the editor and proprietor, Randolph R. Freeman, was
obliged to move to a new locality a few months after establishing his
paper in the desert.
In 1900, the first paper to be printed below sea-level was issued by
Freeman at Indio, a station in the desert on the line of the Southern
Pacific Railroad. Indio has a depression of twenty-two feet below the
level of the sea.
Later, the Imperial irrigation canal was started across the desert from
the Colorado River, and the town of Imperial had its birth. Then the
_Press_ sprang into existence and was printed in an office situated
sixty-five feet below the ocean's level. The _Submarine_ thus lost
double prestige, for it was no longer the only paper published below
the level of the sea, neither was it the "most low down newspaper on
earth," as the publisher announced in his prospectus.
The editor, in informing his readers of his move, did so in the
following language:
"We have dropped from twenty-two feet below sea-level to
seventy-six feet below sea-level. We hit Coachella with a
dull yet raucous thud. The low, rumbling noise you heard
last Tuesday was caused by our printing-office taking the
drop. It may be truly said that the _Submarine_ is the
lowest down, or the lowdownest, or the most low down
newspaper on earth. As nearly as we can compute the
distance, Hades is about two hundred and twelve feet just
below our new office. The paper will continue to advocate
the interests of all the country below sea-level and we want
you to fire in all the news you know."
The _Submarine_ is nothing if not consistent. It is an eight-page
weekly, printed upon paper of a "submarine blue" tint. Its local
paragraphs are run under the caption of "Along the Coral Strand." It
has a humorous department conducted by "McGinty," the man who fell to
the bottom of the sea. There is still another department entitled, "The
Undertow." The editor owns a span of fine horses, the names of which
are "Sub" and "Marine." In fact there is a flavor of the locality in
everything connected with the establishment.
The Imperial _Press_, owned, edited, and published by Edgar F. Howe, is
conducted strictly on journalistic principles. The paper is somewhat
larger than the _Submarine_. It is an eight-page weekly devoted to the
interests of irrigation and of reclamation of the desert lands, and to
general and local news.
Howe has been connected with various California newspapers, and has a
wide reputation as a commercial editor and an oil expert. He confesses
that the Imperial publishing business has introduced him to decidedly
new experiences. One of the chief difficulties in printing a paper in
so torrid a region is that it frequently occurs that the ink-rollers
melt and the paper is delayed from issuing till other rollers can be
obtained from Los Angeles, nearly three hundred miles away. Summer
temperature in Imperial ranges from 100 to 120 degrees in the shade and
from 20 to 30 degrees higher in the sun. A double set of rollers is
kept on hand when possible, but it frequently happens that rollers
collapse about as fast as they can be adjusted, and the paper is hung
up till a new lot gets in, or till the weather cools off a bit.
Howe has a device of his own invention for the keeping of the rollers
when not in actual use. It is a cupboard with a ventilator in the top
and a box of sawdust in the bottom. The rollers are set in a rack
midway. The sawdust is kept wet, and the rapid evaporation keeps the
cupboard moderately cool.
In one feature the _Press_ and _Submarine_ are peculiar. Each of the
papers has a circulation three or four times larger than the entire
population of the towns in which the papers are published. Another
feature not common with rural publications is that all subscriptions
are paid in advance and in cash. There are no delinquent subscribers,
for the paper is stopped when the subscription expires. Neither are
subscriptions payable in cordwood, for that is a commodity unknown to
desert towns.
Twelve miles north of Imperial, and near the end of the Imperial canal,
there was completed, January 1, 1903, a single board building twelve by
sixteen feet. When the writer visited the place in the following June
he found thirty-six buildings completed and others in the course of
construction. This was the town of Brawley, one hundred and twenty-five
feet below sea-level. One of the first objects to greet his eye was a
printing outfit, the presses, cases, and accoutrements being stacked
upon the sands beside a street of the town and near a tent in which
resided the owner of the outfit. This was the nucleus of a new
newspaper, to be started as soon as a building could be erected for its
occupancy. This paper is destined to be the "lowdownest," unless one of
the other papers moves still deeper into the great sink. It is among
the possibilities of the future to have a paper published three hundred
feet below sea-level, for this depression may be reached in the center
of the basin known as the "Salton Sink."