HARRY’S NEWSPAPER
[Illustration: ON THE EDGE OF COALVILLE]
HARRY’S NEWSPAPER
or
The Young Publisher
[Illustration]
_By_
Stephen A. D. Cox
Illustrations By
Willard G. Smythe
ALBERT WHITMAN & CO
[Illustration]
_CHICAGO_
HARRY’S NEWSPAPER
Copyright, 1930
Albert Whitman & Co.
Chicago, U. S. A.
ADVENTURE BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
SKIMMER THE DARING
BLUNDER’S MYSTERY COMPANIONS
FIGHTING FOR CUBA
ICEBOUND IN THE SOUTH POLAR SEAS
NOVELTY CIRCUS
Printed in the U. S. A.
FOREWORD
The technical details of the printing business, found here and there
in this story, might at first thought appear too abstruse for young
people to read, or not sufficiently understandable by the majority. But
the truth is that nowadays, in every country town, the high schools
publish a school paper, and the boys and girls come to the printing
offices, the girls with the copy that they have written for their
department in the paper, and the boys to make up the forms. Sometimes
the girls do likewise, and they learn quite a great deal about printing
and the newspaper business. They talk it so much that the children in
the different grades become impregnated by the printing and publishing
aroma.
This story of a young man who started and ran a country newspaper,
even though there is a good deal of technical explanation about the
printing, will, I believe, be well received by the majority of the
young people, and its technical details will not be considered too
obscure nor too dry for them to read.
STEPHEN A. D. COX.
_The prices quoted throughout the book may vary slightly from exact
quotations of prices for similar outlays at this current date._
THE PUBLISHERS.
This book is published as an inspiration
to all ambitious American boys seeking to
establish themselves in a business career
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
Page
I THROWN ON HIS OWN RESOURCES 15
II READY FOR BUSINESS 29
III THE OUTLOOK ENCOURAGING 50
IV MAKING GOOD PROGRESS 64
V A PLEASANT SUNDAY 77
VI BUSY DAYS 89
VII THE COALVILLE NEWS, Vol. I, No. I 111
VIII THE MASS MEETING 136
IX THE MINE DISASTER 152
X PLEASED AND ENCOURAGED 169
XI FIRE 183
XII AT THE END OF A YEAR 197
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
On the edge of Coalville 4
The Coalville News just off the press 14
The old Army press 23
Carried the table down the street 43
“Father told me to invite you to take dinner with us” 83
“Then look out for yourself, young man” 107
“The Coalville News is going to be a success” 179
[Illustration: THE COALVILLE NEWS JUST OFF THE PRESS]
HARRY’S NEWSPAPER
or
THE YOUNG PUBLISHER
Chapter I
THROWN ON HIS OWN RESOURCES
Harry Weston was an orphan at eighteen years of age. He resided in the
town of Dellwood, in southeastern Colorado, about seventy miles from
Denver. After paying his father’s funeral expenses with the money his
father had left in the bank, he was penniless. He hardly knew what to
do. He could not get work in any of the stores, as the merchants in the
town had all the employees they needed. He sat down and pondered. What
should he do? If he went to Denver he might be able to get employment,
and then again he might not. While considering matters, an idea came
to him.
One year previously he had visited an invalid uncle in Allentown, and
Harry had taken care of him till he died. This was over a period of
six months, and during that time Harry had worked in a printing shop,
as his uncle did not need constant attention; and he had learned much
about the printing business. He could set type, make up forms and put
them on the press. He even understood how to do plain commercial job
printing and had printed quite a number of neat jobs on the job-press.
Why not start a little paper somewhere? he asked himself. He knew he
could make a success of it. But having no money was a serious drawback.
He was a youth of ability and resourcefulness, however, and he felt
sure he could overcome this difficulty.
He had a sister, his only living relative and a school-teacher,
teaching at a point about twenty miles distant. He knew she had some
money saved up, as she had told him so when she was at the funeral and
had offered to let him have some to help defray the expenses if the
money in the bank had not been sufficient. He could borrow some of her.
He went at once to see his sister, who told him she would lend him all
the money she could spare, viz., one hundred dollars, but she doubted
its being enough for his purpose. He said he could make it do, and that
he would accept the loan and pay her the money back in due time, with
interest at the rate of six per cent. She agreed to this, and handed
him the one hundred dollars, taking his note for the amount. He thanked
her, bade her good-bye and went back to Dellwood.
Next day he went to a firm in Denver that sold printing machinery, type
and all kinds of printing material. Introducing himself to the manager,
he asked if he would sell him a little printing outfit suitable for
printing a small-sized paper, letting him pay a small sum down and the
rest in six months or a year.
The manager of the firm looked at the youth interestedly and asked
where he expected to start his paper.
“At Coalville,” replied Harry. “That’s a little coal-mining town of
about fourteen hundred population about seventy-five miles from here. I
was there once, and liked the looks of the town. It has no paper and I
think that I may be able to do pretty well there.”
The manager nodded and then asked: “How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“Are your parents living?”
“No, sir. I’m an orphan. My mother died several years ago and my father
died only a few days ago. I have a sister, a school-teacher, otherwise
I am alone in the world.”
The manager of the type foundry looked thoughtful. “What do you know
about running a paper?” he asked. “Have you had any experience?”
“I worked six months in an office in Allentown, and learned something
about the newspaper business. I can set type, make up forms and do most
any work that would need to be done in a small office such as the one I
am hoping to start.”
The manager pondered a few minutes and then said: “It would be unusual
for us to sell a minor an outfit, and chiefly on credit, but still as
you look like a bright, honest young man, we might sell you a small
equipment, you paying twenty per cent cash and we taking mortgage notes
for the balance, you to take up one of these notes each month, with six
per cent interest added. How would that do?”
“That would be splendid, sir,” said Harry, his face lighting up.
“Only--I have only one hundred dollars, and that would buy such a small
outfit, even if I only pay twenty per cent cash, that perhaps you would
not care to bother with it.”
The manager smiled. “That makes the deal all the more logical,” he
said, “as when we take a risk like this, we are glad it is not a large
one. What size paper do you plan to start in this little mining town
you mentioned? It won’t need to be very large, as there won’t be such a
great amount of news to print.”
“A seven-column folio paper ought to be big enough,” agreed Harry. “And
I expect to have one side of it already printed, with foreign news on
that side--‘ready print’, as such papers are called--and I will print
the local news on the other side.”
The manager nodded. “That might do,” he said. “You may be able to print
a very good little paper, seeing that you can print it on an army hand
press, and such a press we can sell you cheaply--only eighty-five
dollars. We have a lot of second-hand body and job and advertising type
we can let you have cheaply also, and such other material as you will
need. We will sell you the complete outfit to the amount of two hundred
dollars, and you can pay us forty-four dollars cash. The rest we will
divide up into twelve mortgage notes of thirteen dollars each, payable
one each month, with six per cent added. That will be satisfactory,
will it?”
“Oh, yes indeed, sir.”
“Very well.”
The manager of the type-foundry liked the looks of this youth who had
such sound business qualities. He went with him through the salesroom
and showed him the press and other material, and annotated what Harry
selected for purchase. The press was of interest to the youth, as they
had a cylinder press in the office where he had worked, while this army
press looked scarcely too heavy to be tucked under the arm of a strong
man to be carried in that manner. It consisted simply of an iron bed
for the type-form to rest on, while by turning a crank at one side, the
bed and form were moved from one end of the iron frame to the other,
passing at the same time underneath an iron cylinder about five
inches in diameter, this making sufficient pressure on the paper placed
on the type and held in place by a thin metal flange around the edges,
called a friskit, to print the paper very nicely. The type first had to
be inked by hand, so an ink-roller was necessary, and this was added to
the list of material for the outfit.
[Illustration: THE OLD ARMY PRESS]
Harry picked out the type he liked best, of the second-hand kind the
manager had mentioned, of both body type,--the size used for the
reading matter--and advertising and job type, the large-sized type. He
bought a lot of leads and slugs also, and some wooden reglets--these
being strips of maple one-eighth inch thick and half an inch wide, to
be sawed up into different lengths that he might need at any time. He
also purchased a ten-gallon can of ink for printing the paper, and some
black and color inks in collapsible tubes for use in job-printing.
A full-sized stand, to put the type-cases on, and with flanges
underneath, for the advertising and job-printing type-cases to rest on,
was added to his purchases. Also an imposing stone for the forms to
rest on, and a stand for the stone were included. A little job-press,
7 × 11 inches (inside chase measurements) was selected, twelve brass
column rules, and other brass rules, short lengths, or “labor-saving”
kind, as it is called. Some brass-bottomed galleys, a mallet, planer
and a benzine can were added, and then he told the manager to figure up
his bill. The manager did so, and it amounted to $198.50.
“I would have liked to have bought a paper-cutter,” said Harry, “but
I won’t have to cut much paper and can do it with an ordinary hand
paper-cutting knife--like this one here in the catalogue,” and pointed
to a picture in the catalogue.
“Yes, that will do very well,” said the manager, “and you can have the
people at the paper house where you buy your paper cut it to the proper
sizes, ready to print. Poster paper, cut 6 × 9 and 8 × 12 inches will
be the sizes you will need most, and all the cutting you will have to
do will be on jobs that require paper of small size, such as receipts,
and so forth.”
Harry started and looked disconcerted. “Goodness!” he exclaimed. “I
don’t know what I’ll do. I forgot that I will have to have job stock,
and I won’t have money enough to pay for it, as I’m spending it all
with you, excepting enough to pay freight on the presses, type and
other material. Do you suppose the paper house people will send me
paper on credit?”
“The ‘ready print’ people will,” he said, “as they carry advertising on
the side that they print and they want a big circulation so they can
get bigger prices for the advertising. I judge the people that sell
paper for the job-printing department will do likewise.”
“Thanks for that information,” said Harry, and then he turned to
finish the purchasing of the outfit. He told the manager to include
the paper-knife and some border to put around advertisements, making
the amount an even two hundred dollars. The manager did so, after
which Harry paid him the forty-four dollars and signed the twelve
mortgage-notes of thirteen dollars each,--and the transaction was
completed.
“We’ll box up your outfit and ship it to-morrow,” said the manager.
“I am glad you came to us and bought of our firm, Mr. Weston,” he
continued, “and I most heartily hope you will make your paper a great
success.”
“Thanks, sir, and thanks for having sold me the outfit on such
favorable terms,” said Harry, and took his departure.
A visit to the firm that furnished papers to country publishers with
one side of the paper already printed, and to the house that sold job
stock, as paper is called that is used in job-printing, yielded good
results, for each of these firms told him they would send him what
paper he needed, and he could pay the first of each month.
Having accomplished the business on which he had gone to Denver, Harry
boarded the train and went to Coalville, which was to be the scene of
his newspaper-publishing venture.