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1994.THE PERIODICAL PRESS
OF BUFFALO
A FEW REMINISCENCES, AND
A BIBLIOGRAPHYWHEN OUR PRESS WAS YOUNG
Reminiscences Written in 1885
BY J. C. BBAYMAN
In 1831 I entered the office of the Buffalo Bulletin as
an apprentice to the printing business. This paper had
been established iajbout a year before by Horace Steele and
was ostensibly a working-man’s organ, with decided irre-
ligious, or “liberal,” as some folks chose to phrase it—pro-
clivities. In 1832 half of the interest in the paper was sold
to J. S. Steele, a distant relative of the proprietor, who-
died about a year afterwajrds.
In 1834 the Bulletin was sold to James Faxon, a nephew
of Charles Faxon of the Republic. I went with the office
for the purpose of finishing my trade, as it was not thought
at that time a boy or young man could become a full-waged
printer in six months or a year. Early in 1835 we began
to issue the Western Star,1 as Buffalo was “out West”
in those days, and not “down East,” as now—a small daily
paper, the first one ever issued in Buffalo. I remember
that an exchange, speaking of the receipt of the first num-
ber, remarked that “it was about as large as a sheet of
tin.” What little editing was necessary I attended to.
General M. Brayman of Wisconsin, then a law student,
1. The Western Star was first issued July 21,1834, but soon became the Star-
See under these names, in the bibliography in pages following.
155156
WHEN OUR PRESS WAS YOUNG
edited the weekly paper and continued to do so after the
union with the Republican, until the spring of 1837. Of
the various changes that took place until the Star appeared
as the Courier, under Mr. Joseph Stringham’s administra-
tion, my memory does not serve me sufficiently well to
enable me to give any connected account.
In 1842 I engaged with my friend, J. H. Lafhrop, Esq.,
Collector of the Port under President Tyler, to superin-
tend the publishing and do the editing of a daily adminis-
tration paper, called the Jeffersoman. ’ The federal office
holders, however, were to furnish the political matter. This
paper was published until the spring of 1843. In March,
1843, Messrs. Salisbury, Manchester and Brayman, com-
menced the publication of the daily, tri-weekly and weekly
Gazette. It was continued about two years, when R. W.
Haskins took the place of Mr. H. A. Salisbury, as one oij
the publishers and editors, and the name was changed to
that of National Pilot. That came about in this way: Mr.
Haskins, who was a “philosopher” and a scholar, was
wha(t was called in those days an Anglo-phobist. He had
had for some years !a hobby that all news, political and
otherwise, from the other side of the water, came to us
filtered through English sources and doctored to subserve
English interests, and thus the American people were
imposed upon and the rest of the world wronged. This he
was bound to correct. His friends raised for him some
two thousand dollars, which he invested in the paper atnd
its name was changed by a two-thirds vote of the pro-
prietors to the National Pilot. That is, we were going to
pilot the nation out of the old way into the new one—going
to get our foreign intelligence from Paris instead of Lon-
don. As I anticipated, but few persons sympathized with
Mr. Haskins’ “advanced thought,” and the enterprise fell
through and Haskins retired.WHEN OUB PBESS WAS YOUNG
157
In July. 1846, the Courier and National Pilot united, the
name of the firm being Stringham, Manchester & Brayman,,
and of the consolidated paper the Courier and Pilot. Mr.
Stringham desiring to go into banking or brokerage busi-
ness, retired within a year, selling out to his partners.
They soon after erected a building on the west side of
Washington street near Exchange, with a business office
connecting at No. 12 Exchange, as a general printing and
job office.
About this time occurred the split in the Democratic
party of the state, the factions bearing the euphonious
names of “Old Hunkers’’ and “Barn-Burners.” The
Courier, believing the former to be in the regular Demo-
cratic succession, kept on the even tenor of its way. The
Republic was started, and as the faction fight had served
the Democratic party, in Buffalo at least, as Oscar Wilde
served his hair—i. e., parted it in the middle—the patron-
age, never over-abundant, dwindled and the Courier was
obliged to sell out. H. W. Rogers, Collector of the Port,
and “boss” as we now say, of the local “Old Hunker” sec-
tion of the party, was the real purchaser. W. A. Seaver, of
Batavia, and Robert D. Poy, were installed as proprietors,
and Duane Doty of Ogdensburg, as editor. In the fall of
1852, Mr. Doty retired and I was again called to the chair
and continued as political editor until I left for Chicago in
the spring of 1854.
Journalism in Buffalo, in its early and middle stages,,
passed through many changes of proprietors and editors.
Messrs. Hezekiah A. and Smith H. Salisbury were the
pioneers as early as 1811, when the inhabitants were few
and far between. Of the old Gazette, I have but a dim
amd indistinct recollection. The Patriot, published by the
Salisburys, kept on its course the longest and perhaps it is-
now as formerly the weekly of the Commercial Advertiser.
The Journal, established by David M. Day, about 1820, was158
WHEN OUE PEESS WAS YOUNG
subsequently published by Day, Follett & Haskins (Orren
Follett and Boswell W. Haskins), and still later by Day,
Stagg & Cadwallader (Dr. Henry R. Stagg and M. Cad-
walladeir). After the death of Mr. Day it united with the
Patriot. The history of the Republicm has been given;
the Bulletin was the next. Soon after the issue of the
daily Western Star, four other dailies made their appear-
ance—The daily Journal, Republican, Literary Inquirer
and the Commercial Advertiser. The three first named
passed away about as suddenly as they came into existence.
The Commercial was issued from the Patriot office by
Salisbury and Manchester, with Guy H. Salisbury, son of
Smith H., as editor. Subsequently Mr. Salisbury having
retired from the editorial chair rather suddenly, I was
called to fill it pro tern until a successor was found. In
the course of a few months he came in the person of Dr.
Thomas M. Foote, who subsequently developed into one
of the ablest editors in the country.
Many other papers, daily and weekly, were established,
both in the early and later days of Buffalo, flourished for
a season and passed away. The necrology of journalism
in Buffalo forms a somewhat extensive list since my con-
nection with it in 1831. I recall, as those with whom I
was acquainted and who have passed away:	Smith H.
Salisbury, Hezekiah A. Salisbury, Guy H. Salisbury, J. L.
Steele, Horace Steele, Bradford A. Manchester, Thomas M.
Foote, T. Parmelee, Rufus Wheeler, W. A. Seaver, Charles
Faxon, James Faxon, Henry Faxon, James Stryker, T.
Burwell, Horatio Gates, Daniel Munger, R. D. Foy, David
M. Day, R. W. Haskins, Orren Follett, J. 0. Bunner,
Duane Doty, Stephen Albro, Joseph Warren, E. A. May-
nard, E. P. Smith, M. Cadwallader, H. R. Stagg, William
Verrinder, William Casper, W. L. Carpenter, Seth C.
Hawley, Jesse Clement. There are two or three in the
above list whose names I am not entirely certain of havingWHEN OUB PBESS WAS YOUNG
159
seen in tlie obituary column, while there is quite a number
whom I have lost sight of and who are doubtless not
among the living. Of the older stock I do not call to mind
any except E. E. Jewett whom I 'always regarded as one
of the noblest men connected with Buffalo journalism.
Mr. Manchester had a good deal of journalistic enter-
prise about him. When one of the proprietors of the
Gazette, he established a line of carrier pigeons from an
eastern point (by which we received news in advance of the
mail. Telegraphs were in the future at that time. He
also imported from New York the first genuine newsboys
ever seen west of that city; and we had the first cylinder
press west of Albany at least.
Guy H. Salisbury was a genuine poet, small in person,
gentle as a girl, and as pure in all things as it is given
to man to be. Sad indeed it was that he found his death
beneath the waters of Buffalo creek.
Dr. Foote established a national reputation as editor
of the Commercial. I might go on with a characterization
of many able and noble men who have been connected with
journalism in Buffalo whom I have met in the last 50
years, and who are worthily represented by those who
control the newspaper press of the present.EARLY DAYS OF THE BUFFALO
COURIER1
BY JAMES STRINGHAM.
You would like to have me tell you of the early years
of the Buffalo Courier and I will do so to the best of my
ability.
Mr. Charles Faxon founded a paper (weekly) in Buffalo
called the Republican, I think in or about the year 1836,
as the representative of the Anti-Federal Republican party
and opponent of the Anti-Masonic party, which then was
dominant in all the old Eighth Senatorial District of New
York, in which Erie County was included.
It was an almost hopeless venture as the number of
subscribers was few and the antagonism of party enemies
bitter and intolerant. The defeat of Mr. Van Buren in
1840 was crushing to the hopes of the publishers, who had
during that political campaign started a daily paper called
the Star,2 edited by Mr. Horatio Gates, which maintained
a feeble existence for a few years. Meanwhile Mr. Faxon
had been obliged to let the property pass into the hands
of Mr. Theodotus Burwell who took the publication of both
papers (daily and weekly) into his own hands and em-
ployed a young man of fine abilities to edit it—Mr. White—
but his health failed and Mr. Burwell offered the whole
1.	Written in 1896 for the Courier, but here printed from Mr. Stringham’s
manuscript, preserved by the Buffalo Historical Society.
2.	See note under “Star” in the following list.
161i
162 EARLY DAYS OF THE BUFFALO COURIER
property—good will and printing material—for sale. He
had changed the name of the Star to DaMy Mercantile
Courier & Democratic Economist, and of the weekly, to the
Economist.
I was at this time afloat amid the wreckage of the
financial storm of 1836-40, and at the suggestion of my
friend Mr. Edward S. Warren, enquired into and finally
purchased the establishment for $600.
The paper was being printed by Mr. C. F. S. Thomas
on contract, he at the same time running a job printing
office on his own account.
Before making the purchase there was a frank discussion
of the situation between Mr. Thomas and myself, the
result of which was that he agreed to continue printing
the paper for me on the press and with the type belonging
to the paper for a ridiculously low price to be paid for out
of the subscriptions and accounts of the paper and without
any personal claim against me for any deficiency (he hay-
ing the right to stop printing it whenever he should find
it was not paying) giving me the right to use $300 per
annum for editorial services, etc.
I think the circulation of the daily was under 300 .and
of the weekly very small and of little pecuniary value.
Opposed to me was the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser,
edited by Dr. Thomas M. Foote and published by Jewett,
Foote & Co.; strong in its finances, strong in talent and
strong in the support of the whole business community. I
owed much at this time to the cheerful courage of Mr.
Thomas. Being myself entirely ignorant of newspaper
work and printing, I took upon myself without any assist-
ance the drudgery of the editorial and office work and we
made it pay.
As we went along my party friends threw in my way
the offices of county treasurer and city printer and city
clerk; otherwise I never had and never asked for any
financial help from them.EARLY BAYS OF TEE BUFFALO COURIER 163
Small as was the business open to us a contestant for it
soon appeared in the National Pilot started by B. A. Man-
chester and conducted in the interest of the Anti-Van
Buren Democrats and Tyler men. Mr. George W. Clinton,
afterwards Judge Clinton, was then supposed to be the
head and front of that interest and had quite a following
in the city. We had no controversy however; each pur-
sued his own way.
Under my administration the name of the daily was
changed three times, first to Daily Courier & Economist,
then to Buffalo Courier, and last, in 1846, when it was
united with the Pilot, to Daily Courier & Pilot.
This change was made in 1846 and the paper was pub-
lished in the firm name of Stringham, Manchester & Bray-
man, with myself as political editor for a few months when
I sold out to Manchester & Braymam who continued the
publication about a year and sold it to Mr. Robert D. Foy,
from whose hands it passed to Mr. William A. Seaver of
Batavia by whom it was published under the editorial
charge of James 0. Braymam, until it was sold (I think
in 1855 or ’56) to Mr. Warren of New York, Mr. Seaver
having changed the name again to Buffalo Courier.
After the nomination of James K. Polk in 1844, I felt
that it was necessary for me to have assistance in the
editorial conduct of the paper and I engaged the services
of Mr. Charles D. Ferris, an industrious and vigorous
writer, for that purpose. His work in the editorial col-
umns shows by an asterisk. The arrangement closed with
the election and that was the only case in which I had
such assistance.
It is hardly possible for any person at this time [1896],
to understand the difficulty of sustaining a daily news-
paper 50 or 60 years ago in an interior town. There were
no telegraphs. All outside news was brought by the mails,
which would reach the people generally and be read and164
EARLY DAYS OF TEE BUFFALO COURIER
digested before it could be laid before them by the local
papers. There was little local news. The usages of society
at that time would not permit the publication of the details
of private social functions which now take up so much
room in and add so much to the interest of the local paper.
The closing scene in the campaign of 1844 is vividly
impressed on my mind. It was in my office in the third
story of the Sidway Block on Main street at the Terrace,
over the office of the bank of White & Wilkeson. The
election returns had been received from all the states show-
ing that the result depended upon the State of New York
and enough had been received from that State to show
that a considerable defection in the Democratic vote of
the city (which had not yet been canvassed) would give
the State to the Whigs. There was a conductor on the
train which was due that evening who was a Democrat
and we expected decisive news by his train. He had agreed
with us to wave a lantern when the train turned the curve
in the road visible from the Exchange-street depot, if Mr.
Polk’s majority in the city exceeded 3,000; otherwise, to
keep dark. Isaiah Rynders was then a conspicuous figure
in New York and it was feared that his following might
have proved treacherous. Of Silas Wright’s election as
Governor by about 5,000 majority we were satisfied but
we feared for Mr. Polk, as President.
My office was crowded. Messrs. Albert H. Tracy, Dean
Richmond, Warren Bryant, Erastus Sparrow, James G.
Dickie, Philip Dorsheimer, I. T. Hatch, Edward S. Warren,
Henry K. Smith and a number whose names I cannot
recollect, were there awaiting the signal. In due time it
came in a cry brought up Exchange street from comer to
corner: “Hurrah for Polk! Hurrah for Polk!” Pan-
demonium reigned.
Another crowd had been waiting in the Whig head-
quarters. Sadly they dispersed to their homes: Messrs*.EABLY DAYS OF TEE BUFFALO COUBIEM
165
Millard Fillmore, N. K. Hall, Solomon G. Haven, Thomas
M. Foote, Thomas T. Sherwood, E. R. Jewett, W. A.
Moseley, James Davock, H. J. Stow, Lewis F. Allen, etc.;
and so the curtain fell upon a drama which proved the
close of the brilliant career of Henry Olay.THE COURIER IN THE EARLY
EIGHTIES
BY FREDERICK J. SHEPARD.
In midsummer of 1880 an invitation reached me from
David Gray, then editor of the Courier, to join its staff. I
was with the New York World, of which the brilliant but
not irreproachable William Henry Hurlburt was editor,
and the offer came through J|osephj O’Gonnor, whos)e
acquaintance I had made a few years before on the Indian-
apolis Sentinel, and who had also got for me the place on
the World.
As soon as it had been arranged that my salary should
be $27.50 per week I accepted Mr.-Gray’s proposition.
He was assisted in editorial writing by 0 ’Connor and
Otto F. Albing. Thomas Kean, who on account of his
dramatic interest and enthusiasm has ibeen styled the
William Winter of Buffalo, was city editor, but he lived
in LaSalle and took two days off a week, so that a large
share of his work fell on his assistant, George E. Allen;
J. Emerson Locke was telegraph editor; Harry D. Yought
was, I think, “doing” the railroads and police business;
and Simon Fleischmann was assisting Kean with the
theaters and music, though from 1882 to 1889 lie had entire
charge of this department. I am not sure of the names of
any of the other city men when I joined the staff, but a little
later George Ferris came over from the Express and suc-
ceeded Kean as city editor. Among still later acquisi-
167168
THE COURIER IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES
tions were Leslie Thom, Walter Gary, the clever Willard
E. Keyes, whose wit now scintillates in the Youth9s Com-
panion—though chiefly in its business department—
William S. Rann, William D. Barney, Carl K. Friedman,
and Francis A. Clrandall, the last named a very efficient
managing editor during a part of the period of Edwin
Fleming’s editorship, Mr. Fleming having in 1885 suc-
ceeded O’Connor, who had himself succeeded Gray.
Most of the gentlemen of this group, with all of whom
it may be said in passing that it was a pleasure to associate,
served the paper at a time later than that concerning which
I am trying to write, <and all of them, except Thom and
Crandall, are still in the land of the living, I am glad to
add. My own work began as exchange reader and editor
of correspondence.
Two Sunday features were Miss Charlotte Mulligan’s
review of the week’s music and Miss Jane Meade Welch’s
social column. The authorship of the latter had originally
been a secret, and as it was then signed “Nemo” the prac-
tice still prevailed of referring to it as the Nemo column.
It was, I am pretty sure, the first attempt of a Buffalo
journal to cover the social field systematically, and was
read very closely. It must be remembered that until late
in 1880 the Courier was the only Buffalo daily with a
Sunday issue, the Sunday Express first appearing Novem-
ber 20, 1883.
The News and Times had Sunday editions only, the
Evening News first coming out October 11, 1880, and the
Daily Times September 13,1883. The offices of the Courier
were on Washington Street, the city force being on the
second floor, the editorial writers on the third, and the
composing room on the fourth.
Probably as a necessary consequence of the fact that
the Courier was a side issue of a great show-printing
establishment, its management was easy-going. It seemedTHE COURIER IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES
169
especially so to a young man fresh from a New York office,
where the force assembled daily wondering for what in
the last preceding issue they were individually to be called
to an account. The very first advice I received was from
George Allen, and was that I should not try to reform any-
thing about the paper. Mr. Gray, who was a sweet and
gentle soul, told me that the Courier was conservative and
old-fashioned. If I remember aright, he put it rather more
strongly than that, and I know he modestly added that
before O’Connor joined the staff it had been dull. On
another occasion he told me—what was evident enough—
that he was a man of peace and proceeded to smooth over
some matter concerning which I had complained. On the
whole, he probably got better work out of his associates
than if he had been constantly finding fault with them,
for what is gained by insistently holding men up to the
exact ideas of their director is likely to be more than lost
by the irritation it causes, with the consequent quenching
of professional enthusiasm.
There is a story which may still be current in newspaper
offices, of the Kentucky editor who thus addressed his
associates: “Boys, you ought to make your papah cawn-
sist. It doesn’t look well to have an article in one column
contradicting an article in another column. Come boys,
let’s go out and have a cawktail.” It is to be feared that
the Courier was not always impervious to criticism of this
sort. Sometimes the Sunday review of musical events did
not exactly jibe with the daily reports of the same matters,
and it certainly amazed the new recruit to find a different
style of capitalization on the local page from that employed
in the rest of the paper. The fact probably was that Kean,
who prided himself on never having worked on any other
paper, insisted on a free use of capitals in his department,
and that Gray let him have his way, thinking justly that
nobody outside the office would ever notice the lack of170 THE COURIER IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES
uniformity and that the matter was not of enough import-
anee to justify friction with Kean, who apparently did not
regard himself as a subordinate. In fact, if Gray exer-
cised any authority over the city department there was
no evidence that such was the case. The controlling owner,
Charles W. McCune, showed rare judgment and restraint
in one in his position by never meddling with newspaper
details. He seldom visited the newspaper offices, and
though he doubtless directed the general policy of the
Courier, he confined his intercourse to the person in
charge, leaving the subordinates unembarrassed by his
interference, for which they should have been grateful, as
is at least one of them to this day.
To a considerable extent, therefore, in the early eighties
things ran themselves in the Courier office, but the paper
compared favorably with its competitors. Its tone was
high, and its treatment of politics and other disputed ques-
tions was fair and reasonable, though probably as a con-
cession to irresistible outside pressure it was apt to go at
election time on what O’Connor called an .annual political
debauch. One feature for which it had some fame was
its kindly tributes to deceased persons, whether prominent
or otherwise. Allen used to make fun of these, constructing
fictitious obituary sketches beginning, “John Smith, long
and favorably known as a driver on the Erie Canal,” etc.
Editorially the Courier was very strong, being easily the
leading democratic journal of the state outside of New
York; and it is a question whether even this limitation is
deserved. Of Gray’s own work as a writer I do not
remember much, and he had probably done the best of it
before I knew him, but even after his breakdown in health
and final departure from the office, which occurred in the
summer of 1882, he was able to turn off excellent things,
as witness the touching article he wrote on the death of
Judge George W. Clinton, which occurred while the oldTHE COURIER, IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES	171
lawyer was gathering wild flowers in an Albany cemetery..
The first marked evidence of Gray’s illness shown in the
office was his inability to recall the name of the type in
which the editorials were set, a word he had been writing
on the margin of his copy a dozen times a day for years.
As for his two associates, 0 ’Connor 'and Albing, both were
uncommonly able writers. Indeed, the former had few, if
any, equals in the country. With the widest information
possessed by any man I ever knew, a very keen literary
sense, a memory rivalling in retentiveness that of Macaulay,,
and a genial style all his own, he could turn off in daily
profusion, on all sorts of subjects, articles so informative
and so well put that most of them were worthy of per-
manent preservation, a distinction that some of them of a
much later date and written for another newspaper have
received. He was also the author of a volume of verse
which deserves wider acquaintance than it has obtained.
He was the only newspaper writer I ever knew who was
never at a loss for a subject. So wide were his interests
and so general his knowledge that it is difficult to name
any particular theme on which he was best, but his infor-
mation was especially minute regarding the Civil War
(which he had followed from a Rochester newspaper office),
the text of Shakespeare, his acquaintance with which must
have begun almost in his cradle, and the history of England
in her relation to Ireland and the Roman Catholic church.
He was even interested in sport, and had at his fingers’
end the chronicle of the British prize ring, discoursing hum-
orously of Molyneaux, the black, and Sam, the Jewish
phenomenon, though nothing would have induced him to
witness an actual contest. Of the charm of his conversa-
tion and the lovableness of his character this is not the
place to speak, but the place he filled in the hearts of those
who knew him was evidenced by the throng that followed
him to his grave in a Eochester cemetery in 1908, and which.172
THE COURIER IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES
represented all grades of society from college professors
and congressmen to scrubwomen. One poor woman whom
he had befriended and who fancied that she had no clothes
befitting her attendance at the funeral waited until the
mourners had departed and then took her place beside
the grave, where she spent the afternoon.
Albing was a Hanoverian by birth and had studied at
three German universities, which gave point to a story he
used to tell of trying to converse during a railroad journey
with la Pennsylvania Dutchman, who finally despairingly
exclaimed: “I cannot your Plattdeutsch understand,” to
which Albing promptly responded: “And I certainly do
not understand your high German.” Because when a
European princeling died or did something else worth
noticing Albing came out with a minute account of his
life, with mention of all his kindred, some readers of the
Courier got the idea that his knowledge was confined to
European matters. As a fact he limited his writing almost
exclusively to political and historical subjects, though there
were other themes, such as life insurance, of which he had
made a study, that he could have discussed with value to
his readers. He was a master of American political history,
and towards the end of his life began writing a history of
the Reconstruction period, which was unfortunately never
finished and never printed.
Speaking of this work, he gave a curious illustration of
his love of accuracy. “I gave a certain date,” he said,
“as that on which Alabama adopted the constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery on the strength of Secretary
Seward’s proclamation announcing such action. That
ought to have been pretty good authority, but it was
wrong.9 9
His knowledge of the American Constitution was won-
derfully thorough, and he used to amuse himself iby specu-
lating on the effect of changing a clause here and there inTHE COUBIEB IN THE EABLY EIGHTIES
173.
that instrument. But the most remarkable thing about
his knowledge was its precision, for he rarely found it
necessary to refresh his memory by recourse to books. In
fact, his associates had more confidence in his recollection
of political history than in the encyclopedias. He showed
a feeling that was almost distress when he found in a
handsomely illustrated book a picture of Napoleon taking
his farewell look at England’s shores, for the inscription
underneath confused the Bellerophon, to which Napoleon
surrendered, with the Northumberland, which took him
to St. Helena. O’Connor maintained that Albing’s proper
place was the chair of a university professor, and he would
have won recognition there both by his learning and by his
clearness in demonstration. Moreover, we do not usually
expect in a learned German such a keen sense of humor as
was his. He once said that there was a certain stupid
sincerity about the Democratic party which the Republi-
cans lacked, but perhaps he balanced this by confessing at
a later and politically depressing period—say about the
time of Roosevelt’s election to the Presidency: “Sometimes
I think it would be a good thing if the Democratic party
would disband. And I say this after writing Democratic
editorials for forty years.”
Naturally, with his limited range of work, he did not
find subjects for his pen so readily as did his colleague,
O’Connor, and he was known to exclaim: “I wonder what
I will write about tonight! I believe I will have a con-
troversy with the Troy Times/9 knowing the journal in
question was always game for a “scrap.”
Not only had he a store of humorous German stories, but
he hugely enjoyed those of his adopted country, though
sometimes he had to study them for a while or even to
appeal to his associates for their explanation. He inquired
the meaning of the phrase, “a little tin god on wheels”;
and when Congressman Wise stepped back to let ex-Senator174
THE COUBIEB IN, THE EABLY EIGHTIES
Edmunds precede him into the Senate chamber, exclaim-
ing: 4‘The x’s always go before the y’s,” Albing asked:
“I understand about the ex-senator, but why y’sf” He
used to say that he never knew but one German who came
to this country as an adult that mastered the English
language, namely Carl Scliurz. He was never himself, at
least so long as I was on the Courier, quite safe on the
perfect tense, though the spelling of English words never
troubled him; indeed, his American-born associates have
been known to appeal to him in such matters, just as they
did on historical points. It is only justice to add that a
more patriotic American never lived. He not only heartily
admired the American Constitution and our form of gov-
ernment, but he even preferred some American social
customs to those of his native land, criticising the eagerness
of some Americans to introduce German notions. In fact,
his sympathy with Germany seemed to foe confined to the
patient workpeople of that country, for he used to say
that they had not even yet fully recovered from the devas-
tation wrought by the Thirty Years War. A tribute to
Albing’s remarkable qualities, which at the same time
illustrates the writer’s literary charm, was paid by O’Con-
nor in the Rochester Post Express of August 18, 1905, and
is preserved in the Buffalo Public Library.
Of the other men on the Courier who have passed away,
Locke is remembered chiefly as a veteran who did not boast
of his military service, but who had marched with Sherman
to the sea, as a bugler, I think. Leslie Thom, of Scotch
extraction, was a fluent writer who could on demand pro-
duce a column on almost any subject without materially
adding to the reader’s enlightenment, though not without
a clever way of putting things, as when he described the
sturdy park superintendent, William McMillan, as “a per-
fect tank of poetry. ’ ’ Under the grotesque name of 4 ‘ Car-
bolic C. Maginnis,” which he borrowed from a misprintedTHE COUEIEB IN THE EAELY EIGHTIES
175
death notice—first and last the Courier was guilty of some
notable typographical infelicities—Thom conducted an
elaborate newspaper correspondence under the guise of
a local Republican politician and contractor, giving away
supposed party schemes and even going so far as to use a
printed letterhead, with of course an address that repre-
sented an empty lot. Then there was poor John Schrader,
promoted from proofreader to ship news reporter, who was
killed by falling through the hatchway of a vessel, whose
captain had invited him to dinner. Another proofreader,
named Spencer if memory serves, occasionally contributed
odes, in one of which the street car authorities graciously
granted a plea for the heating of their vehicles by consent-
ing to add another wisp of hay to the floor covering then
in vogue. Another described a proofreader's funeral, at
which the only mourner was the office towel, a bit of face-
tiousness appreciable only by those familiar with an old-
fashioned newspaper office.
In the earliest eighties the Courier had an evening
edition, the Evening Republic, which came as near editing
itself as ever a newspaper did, for aside from having head-
lines written for fresh telegrams and the addition of a few
local items, it was made up entirely in the composing room
■of matter lifted from the columns of the morning Courier.
Naturally this arrangement did not long continue.