1869.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
467 
article try to count 400 a minute on their several fingers, 
touching every finger at every count ; or try to count 400 
pins or 400 peas in a minute; and they will get some 
notion what it is to count that number in that time. 
The fact is, the counting of newspapers in the Sun 
office has been refined into an art as delicate as that of 
piano playing, and it is performed very much in the same 
way. The counter throws a pile of damp papers on the 
table, strikes the heap in the stomach with his left hand, 
twitches np the edges with his right, so that they stand 
slightly apart, and then with the fingers of his left hand 
runs them off in groups of five, almost exactly as a 
pianist runs off arpeggios on his instrument, and with an 
equal precision and delicacy of touch. 
The papers arc usually counted off in bundles of fifty, 
but sometimes in larger quantities. The number taken 
by the different buyers the morning' we were present 
varied from fl to S,800. The six were taken by a little boy 
about Eeven years old, the S,S00 by a Brooklyn news- 
dealer; and we are informed that the whole number 
delivered by half-past 4 o'clock was sixty-nine thousand. 
This scene which comes off every week-day morning 
in the basement of the Sun Building, is one of impress- 
ive interest. What a variety of people— the extremely 
old, and the extremely young; the robust, the decrepit 
and the blind, women as well as men— make their living 
by selling the morning papers. We say the blind, and 
blind men there are, who come regularly for their papers 
at the early hour mentioned. Darkness is nothing to 
them. In fact, it is an advantage. The streets are de- 
serted, and there are neither men to jostle them nor 
vehicles to run over them. But it seems a sad thing for 
a poor blind man thus to have to toil for his bread. And 
the women and children, too I God pity them. But after 
all, let us be thankful that there is even this way for them 
to earn wherewith to keep starvation at bay. 
One of the blind newsmen deserves special mention. 
His name is John Beith; is a Scotchman ; boiler maker 
by trade; lost an eye while working on an iron steamer 
in Glasgow ; came to America in 1S49 ; lost his other eye 
in 1857 while working on the TJ. S. Revenue Cutter Har- 
riet Lane ; went into the news business six years ago ; 
obtains all the morning papers personally at the different 
offices, and goes about town en business all alone. Ho 
usually starts for the Sun office about 2} ' 2 o'clock A.M., 
from his residence up town. He carries a long cane in 
each hand, and on getting into the Fourth avenue, he 
places the end of a cane in each groove of the down-town 
track, and starts briskly on his journey. One morning 
last winter, when the snow had fallen heavily and lay 
thick on the track, one of tho switches at Grand street 
had become misplaced, and 
tha sturdy Caledonian was 
switched from his route, and 
finally brought up away 
over on the cast side of the 
town, a long way from his 
destination ; and being 
thrown completely from his 
bearings, he had a deal of 
trouble to find his way to the 
Sun office. This honest old 
Scotchman asks no favors 
of anybody, but, blind as he 
is, he paddles his own 
canoe with the pluck and 
fortitude which are charac- 
teristic of his race. 
Raving thus followed tho 
New York Sun through its 
entire daily and nightly 
growth, from the first ar- 
ticle written to the point 
where the presses are drop- 
ping six hundred complete 
copies a minute at our 
feet, we now take our leave, 
and go down to the lower 
end of the City Ilall Park to 
Fee the excavation for tho 
foundation of the new Post Office carried on by Drummond 
lights, and then take a Third avenue car for up town. By 
the time the car arrives opposite the Sun office, it is com- 
fortan1viiHcd,and a newsboy comes in crying "Here's your 
New York Snn, 1 ' and sells five papers on the spot. "We 
look at the City Hall clock: it is just 35 minutes past 
3 o'clock. Thus early docs the sale of the Sun in the 
streets commence, arid such is one of the results of hav- 
ing three Bullock Presses which, from the word go, can 
easily deliver GW) complete papers a minute. 
The amount of the weekly salaries and wages paid to 
the immediate employees of the New York Sun ia 
$2,743^44. If we divide this by six, the quotient is $457.21 
which is the daily cost of the literary, business and 
mechanical force of the paper. The average daily cost 
of the regular telegraphic news is (83.45, without count- 
ing the extras, which now and then amount to several 
hundred dollars in one day. The daily cost of gas, fuel 
and materials actually consumed, not including ink or 
paper, is $38.33. In addition to thin arc taxes, interest 
on the capital, and wear and tear, which daily amount to 
$108.36. This makes a total daily expense, exclusive of 
the cost of ink and paper, of $687.23 ; which is the exact 
sum it costs to get ready to give the first buyer of the 
paper Jus copy of the Sin for two cents. 
It is plain, therefore, that if there were but one buyer 
of the Sun, nothing could be made on the sale of it ; nor 
in that case, is it probable that advertisements would 
pour into its columns at thirty cents a line. But inas- 
WETTrNG DOWN PAPER. 
much as the first buyer is reinforced by seventy thousand 
fellow-buyers of the Sun, money is made on the sale of 
it, and advertisers do rush to its columns. The amount 
received for one day's advertisements, (October 21st.) 
was $1200.50. The amount received for sales of papers 
(72,300 copies) on that day was $903.75. The cost of ink 
and paper, used on that day, was $049.30. Now let us 
see on which side the balance stands. 
Cost of getting ready to print $687.28 
Cost of ink and paper 649.3G 
Total cost $1,830.04 
Amount received for advertisements $1,200.50 
Do. " '* sale of papers 903.75 
Total receipts $2,104.25 
Deduct total cost 1,330.64 
Total profits on day's business $767.61 
We have not given the largest day's business either in 
sales or advertisements. On tho third day of November 
S7,800 copies of the Sun were sold, and the receipts for 
sales alone were $1,097.50. Our object is to give simply 
a fair average, and so we take what we understand to bo 
an average day's business. 
In addition to their enormous daily issue, the Sun 
PniN-Trxc Company publish tilt' SEMI-WEEKLY SUN, at 
$2 a year, and the Weekly Sun at $1 a year. The 
NEWSPAPER DELIVERY KOOM. 
Weekly Sun is intended more particularly fur country 
circulation, and is filled only with the choicest news of 
most interest and value to those who do not care to take 
the New York daily papers. Great care is bestowed on 
its agricultural and market reports; the farmer and the 
country merchant are provided with such items of in- 
telligence as most closely enter into the warp and woof 
of their prosperity; and the matrons and children are not 
forgotten, but are supplied with such genial and instruc- 
tive reading matter as one loves to peruse in the family 
circle and enjoy with those who sit around the same 
hearthstone. Costly premiums are given to subscribers 
and clubs to the Weekly Sun, embracing a vast variety 
of subjects, from the choicest agricultural products to 
first-class pianos. The publishers of the Weekly Sun 
are in this way doing more for the agriculture of the 
country than is accomplished by the Agricultural Bureau 
at Washington. They have sent out tens of thousands of 
premiums, embracing the choicest new varieties of agri- 
cultural products; and the results have been not only 
highly advantageous to those to whom premiums have 
been sent, but also to the general interests of the country. 
One man writes that he raised a bushel and three pecks 
of potatoes from one potato of a choice variety which he 
received (among other things) as a premium on his sub- 
scription to the Weekly Sun. Limitation of Bpace for 
bids further enlargement on this topic; but the reader 
can send to TnE Sun office for a circular and specimens, 
which will give him full information on the subject. 
Under its present management, the New York Sun is 
having greater success than ever before. It is emphati- 
cally the people's paper. It always stands by the working- 
men, the trades unions, and all movements for the im- 
provement of the condition of the masses, when they 
need support ; and it also stands by them in an effective 
manner. It does them downright, substantial service. 
For these, and many similar reasons, The Sun has a 
strong personal hold on the affections of the masses. 
And then the fact that it gives all the news of the Asso- 
ciated Press at one-half the price which the other papers 
of the Association charge for it, in addition to what its 
own exclusive enterprise furnishes, and the fact that it 
gives the combined results of the labor and brains of one 
hundred and forty-four men, winnowed of all chaff, 
skimmed of all scum, and purged Of all sediment— the 
fact, in short, that it every morning gives every one of its 
buyers $637.28 for two cents, places the ever-growing 
prosperity of the New York Sun beyond all question. 
Its compactness is also a strong point in its favor. One 
can attack its contents with a fair hope of being able to 
master them within a reasonable period. 
In the antediluvian days, when human beings lived 
away up towards the thousands, such a feature would not 
have been of so much importance. In those long-drawn 
times a sprightly girl of sixty, or a robust youth of nine- 
ty, or even a middle-aged man or woman two or three 
hundred years old could take things moderately; but it 
is ordered otherwise in this day, and especially in this 
Metropolis. Here life is cut short at both ends, and 
crammed to choking in the middle: "the day's hurly 
burly' s never done," and there's only time to read the Sl t n. 
[Advertisement.] 
Publisher's Announcement. 
Daily Sun, by mall, per month, 50 cents, per year, SG.OO 
Semi- Weekly Sun, per year, - - - £.00 
Wkickly Sun, per year, - - 1.00 
To promote our country circulation we have covenanted 
with Mr. Anihiew S. Fuller, our agricultural editor, to 
prow for us a select list of plants, vines, and tubers, of ap- 
proved value, a choice of winch is offered i o every full-pay- 
ing subscriber to the "Weekly or Semi-Weekly editions, 
at $1 or %'l a year, whether singly or in clubs. These plants 
are carefully labeled and packed, and sent free in the spring 
to all such as desire them. Among these arc 
150 of the Choicest Varieties of Potatoes. 
Some of them cost as last spring- fifty dollars a tiober. For 
25 subscribers, with $2.~>, we will send 2.". copies of V. ekki.v 
for one year, and 25 named varieties of potatoes, includ- 
ing: the newest and most costly kinds. For fifty dollars, 50 
copies and 50 varieties. For one hundred dollars, 10) copies, 
and 100 varieties. 
For the ladies wc have grown 
30.000 Choice Lilies ami Gladioluses. i 
In ordering; tho gilts it Trill bo only necessary to mention 
the number. 
1. Two Rllisdale Raspberry. 
2. Two Clarke, do. 
8. Two Philadelphia, do. 
4. Two Brinckle's Or'gc do. 
5. Two Davison's Thornless 
Black do. 
r.. Two Seneca Black do. 
'7. Two Mammoth Cluster do. 
8. Two Monthly Black do. 
9. Two Summit Yellow do. 
30. One Sable Queen Black- 
berry. 
11. Two Early "Wilson, do. 
12. Two Kittatinny do. 
13. Two Cherry Currants. 
14. Two White Grape do. 
15. Two ConcordGrape- Vines. 
16. Two Hartford Prolific do. 
17. One Delaware do. 
is. One Ion a do. 
19. One Japan Lily, Lous- 
flowered (Wliilei. 
20. One Japan Lily, Iiubrum 
(Red). 
'21. One Japan Lily, Roseum 
(Rose-colored i. 
22. One Japan Lilv, Album 
(White). 
23. One Lilium Candidnm 
i Fragrant Wliiiri 
24. One Choice named variety 
of Gladiolus. 
25. One package of Lilium 
Aurntuni seed, the new 
gold-banded lily from 
Japan. 
2fi. Bresee's Prolific. — Best 
late potato. 
27. Climax. Large, early, ex- 
cellent potato. 
2S. Early Prince.— A new va- 
riety of great value. 
29. Early Mohawk.— Large, 
productive, early potato. 
."tf. Enrlv Rose.— Unsurpassed. , „„ , . 
31. Ktii'i of tho Earlies.— Tubers sold at faO hist spring. 
Large, white, early as the Hose. 
Great Inducements to Canvassers, 
TO GET UP CLUBS ■ 
$1,000 full paid up Life Insurance Pol- 
icies, Chickering Pianos, Sewing 
Machines Bnckeyc Mowers, Parlor 
Organs, &c, &c, given away. 
For details, see American Agriculturist for November, 
or send for specimens, posters and prospectuses, to 
I. W. EXGLAXD, Publisher, 
Sun Office, New Tork. 
