I860.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
4,6 3 
The Hew York Sun;—Its Rise, Progress, 
Character, and Condition. 
BY OLIVER DTER. 
On Tuesday morning, the third day of September, 1833, 
the New York Sun first rose, from a dingy office at No. 
222 William street, upon the inhabitants of New York 
City. It did not then, as now, “ shine for all, price two 
centsbut shone for only a limited number, at one cent 
a shine, and was rather a feeble bant¬ 
ling, diminutive in size and measley 
of countenance; but so, also, at his 
birth was George Washington. 
It is almost, if not quite impossible 
for a New Yorker of the present day, 
who was not an inhabitant of the city 
thirty-six years ago, to form any idea 
of the New York upon which the Sun 
rose on that Tuesday morning in Sep¬ 
tember, 1833. There was not only no 
Central Park then, but there was not 
even a Madison Square, or a Madison 
Avenue, or a Union Square, or a Fifth 
Avenue. There was no Croton Water; 
sixpenny dinners were all the go 
among the million; and two jurors 
were fined ten dollars each for falling 
asleep during the trial of a cause in 
the Supreme Court. General Jackson 
was then in the first year of his second 
Presidential term, and the United 
States Bank war was raging with con¬ 
suming ferocity. So fierce were par¬ 
tisan animosities, and so petty the 
notions of even intelligent people, that 
in some cases Whigs refused to pur¬ 
chase their groceries of Democrats, 
and Democrats would not buy their 
dry goods from Whigs. James Watson 
Webb discharged old Uncle McKee, a 
veteran type-setter, from the office of 
the Courier and Enquirer because the 
old man sympathized with General 
Jackson, and then came out with a 
justificatory editorial in which he said 
“ We wish it to be distinctly under¬ 
stood, that whenever we shall have 
occasion to reduce the force in this 
office, the reduction will be made from 
the ranks of those who differ from us on 
questions of national importance!" 
Can any man imagine the editor of a 
metropolitan journal of the present 
day inquiring into the politics of a 
compositor in his office ? or conceive 
it possible for a man of ordinary de¬ 
cency thus to advertise his partisan 
folly and petty vindictivenes? No, thanks to the Inde¬ 
pendent Press (of which the Sun was the pioneer and 
the Herald a mighty member) and to Horace Greeley more 
than to any other man in America, the day for the exhib- 
. ition of such revolting folly has passed, never more to 
return so long as the Sun shall shine. 
Benjamin H. Day, printer, was the founder of the New 
York Sun. Mr. Day has been dead many years, as has 
also his successor, Moses Y. Beach. Mr. Beach laid the 
foundation of the Sun’s permanent growth and fortune. 
He was a man of" 1 sagacity and enterprise ; and before 
the day of railroads and telegraphs, he made pony ex¬ 
presses and carrier pigeons do the work of steam and 
lightning as far as energy and skill could compass such 
results with such means. After his death, the work 
which he had so well begun, was assumed, and earned on 
by his sons until within a recent period. 
But the Sun of the past is a thing of the past; and it 
is of the Sun of to-day—the Sun not of local but of 
national reputation, owned by the SUN PRINTING AND 
PUBLISHING COMPANY, and edited by Charles A. 
Dana, that wo set out to write. 
The Sun Company was organized in 18G7, and pur¬ 
chased the Sun Newspaper in January, 1868. The paper 
was issued for a few weeks from the old Sun office 
at the South-west corner of Fulton and Nassau streets, 
and until the old Tammany Hall building, at the corner 
of Frankfort and Chatham streets, which had been pur¬ 
chased by the Company, could be transformed into the 
model newspaper office which is accurately pictured to 
the eye, by the cut above. This edifice was completed in 
the month of January, 1S6S; the Sun was immediately 
thereafter removed thither, and it now daily radiates its 
beams from the old site which was aforetime wont to 
glow with the camp-fires of the Red Men of Tammany, 
who themselves did glow with the fire-waters of the pale¬ 
faces, and dance the war-dances cf their people with 
aboriginal exhilaration and agility. 
Tho daily circulation of the New York Sun is now 
considerably over 70,000 copies; but. for convenience 
sake, we will call it only 70,000. And the problem is, 
how shall 70,000 Suns be produced every morning before 
breakfast, and laid on our breakfast tables for two cents 
a copy? 
A stupendous piece of business, not only in its totality, 
but also in every one of its details ; and that the reader 
may understand how this business is brought to pass, 
wo wiil in the first place state how the Sun is made, and 
THE SUN BUILDING. 
carried on, and describe the machinery and the mystery 
of its manufacture. 
When one enters the first-floor corner door of the 
spacious and elegant edifice, which is represented by the 
preceding cut of the New York Sun Building, he finds 
himself in 
THE PUBLICATION OFFICE 
of the establishment. This is a spacious room with lofty 
ceiling, running the whole depth of the building. It is 
divided into a front and rear office by a counter stretch¬ 
ing across the centre, from side to side. In the front 
office are desks at which advertisers can write or modify 
their advertisements. One can hardly enter this office 
at any hour between 8 o’clock in the morning and 10 at 
night, without finding it alive with employees and cus¬ 
tomers. There is a constant rush of persons bring¬ 
ing advertisements, and coming for answers to ad¬ 
vertisements, and calling to purchase the Sun or to sub¬ 
scribe for it, and seeking information or bringing in¬ 
formation ; altogether presenting an animated spectacle, 
which is fairly represented in the following picture of 
the scene. 
The rear office in the Publication Room is fitted up 
with desks for the cashier, advertisement clerks, mail 
clerks, and other employees, and with the ponderous 
safes of the establishment. It also contains the inner 
and private office of Hie publisher, Isaac W. England, 
Esq., who, though not old in years, is a veteran in news¬ 
paper affairs. Mr. England is a stockholder in the Sun, 
and cherishes an enthusiastic affection for the paper and 
the enterprise, which vitalizes and reinforces all his 
faculties and enables him to thrive bodily on his enor¬ 
mous labors, as well as pecuniarily on his enormous 
profits. 
Having taken an account of stock in the Publication 
Office, let us now ascend to the 
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT, 
or “ Brain Box,” as printers call it, of the establishment, 
This is situated on the third floor, and consists of a 
suite of four spacious rooms, forming an L, fronting on 
Printing House Square, and running along Frankfort 
street, the whole depth of the building, from front to 
rear. We enter the rear room, which is occupied by the 
reporters and editorial attaches of tho Sun office—all 
young men, full of vitality and enthusiasm, who love 
their work and are proud of their paper. They shirk 
nothing, but are always ready to start forConey Island or 
California, for Alaska or Australia; to take part in a rail¬ 
road collision or a steamboat explo¬ 
sion ; to go down in a diving-bell or 
up in a balloon. These young men 
contribute much to the vivacity and 
vitality of the Sun, and are to be esti¬ 
mated among the elements of its 
success. 
From the reporters’ room, we pass 
into the apartment of the Managing 
Editor. (See cut on next page.) 
The position of Managing Editor on 
the Sun is a most important and 
onerous one. The gentleman who 
holds that position not only performs 
the functions of that office but also 
those of the City Editor and the Day 
Editor. He has to keep a wide-awake 
eye not only on the entire city, but 
also on the Union at large. The whole 
reportorial force of the Sun is under 
the Managing Editor’s command, and 
he wields it with consummate skill, 
lie prides himself upon being able to 
take a baud at anything appertaining 
to his department; and if he strikes 
an important trail and no reporter is 
at hand to follow it, he will himself 
run the game to earth. It was thus 
that the trail of the gold conspirators 
was struck,—a “ strike” which result¬ 
ed in the Sun’s smoking that wily old 
fox Corbin from his hole, and driving 
General Butterfield from the Sub- 
Treasury. 
The members of the editorial force 
of the Sun, sixty-two in number, are 
loyal to the paper, and to one another, 
from the Chief to the lowest member 
of the staff. The reporters stand by 
tho Sun ; the Managing Editor stands 
by the reporters; and the Editor-in- 
Chief stands by the entire force. This 
is an important point, and gives a 
unity, and enthusiasm,and self-reliance 
to the men which nothing else could 
inspire. It is a common thing for City 
officials whom tho reporters have ex¬ 
posed, to procure false affidavits 
| charging them with all manner of crimes and derelic¬ 
tions ; and armed with such baleful weapons they 
enter the editorial office and seek to have the reporters 
discharged. The Managing Editor of the Sun al¬ 
ways gives such visitors a dose which sends them 
from the office with a flea of unusual size and activity be¬ 
hind each ear; and if, as it sometimes happens, one ofihe 
rebuffed applicants has the temerity to appeal from the 
Managing Editor to the Editor-iu-Chief, he is apt to find 
the fleas suddenly turned to wasps. 
With the exception of such persons as the Editor-in- 
Chief admits to an audience, the Managing Editor of the 
Sun has to meet all inquirers, and pacify or discipline all 
grumblers, and dispose of all comers who, having axes 
to grind, visit the editorial rooms of the Sun for the pur¬ 
pose of having them brought to an edge. 
It must be apparent to every one that the man who can 
fill such an office as that of managing Editor of tho New 
York Sun with comfort to himself and to those who ap¬ 
proach him, must possess an inexhaustible fund of pati¬ 
ence and good nature, and have rare executive faculties. 
These qualities the Managing Editor of the Sun possesses 
in such an eminent degree that he steadily bears his 
burdens with elasticity and cheerfulness ; and yet we 
have sometimes thought that the genial smile which al- 
ways stands porter to his countenance, occasionally ex¬ 
hibits an air of fatigue, and looks as though it would 
like to nestle away in the inmost recesses of his silken 
moustache for a good long rest. 
Another important member of the editorial force of 
the Sun, is the Night Editor. The Night Editor comes 
on duty at four o’clock P.M., and stays till the last page is 
made up, ready for the stereotypers. He finds out what 
has been done by his associates before he came in ; looks 
over the proofs, makes needful corrections and decides 
what must go in the paper and what can be omitted; 
examines and condenses correspondence which comes 
by the night mail, and also the late telegrams; writes 
notices of important matters and gives directions as to 
