Eagle, in Wilson's Lane, now Devonshire Street.

"Running a newspaper" in Boston in 1846 was a different thing altogether
from journalism at the present day. The telegraph was in operation
between Boston and New York, but the tolls were high and the dailies
could not afford to use it except upon the most important occasions.
Moreover, readers had not been educated up to the point of expecting to
see reports of events in all parts of the world printed on the same day
of their occurrence or, at the latest, the day following.

For several years before the extension of the wires overland to Nova
Scotia, the newsgatherers of Boston and New York resorted to various
devices in order to obtain the earliest reports from Europe. From 1846
to 1850 the revolutionary movements in many of the countries on the
continent were of a nature to be especially interesting to the people of
the United States, and this stimulated enterprise among the American
newspapers. Mr. D.H. Craig, afterward widely known as agent of the
Associated Press, conceived the idea of anticipating the news of each
incoming ocean-steamer by means of a pigeon-express, which he put into
successful operation in the year first named. He procured a number of
carrier-pigeons, and several days before the expected arrival of every
English mail-steamer took three of them to Halifax. There he boarded the
vessels, procured the latest British papers, collated and summarized
their news upon thin paper, secured the dispatches thus prepared to the
pigeons, and fifty miles or so outside of Boston released the birds. The
winged messengers, flying homeward, reached the city far in advance of
the steamers, and the intelligence they brought was at once delivered to
Mr. W.G. Blanchard, then connected with the Boston press, who had the
brief dispatches "extended," put in type, and printed as an "extra" for
all the papers subscribing to the enterprise. Sheets bearing the head
"New York Herald Extra" were also printed in Boston and sent to the
metropolis by the Sound steamers, thus anticipating the arrival of the
regular mail.

It is interesting, in these days of lightning, to read an account of how
the Herald beat its local rivals in getting out an account of the
President's Message in 1849. A column synopsis was received by telegraph
from New York, and published in the morning edition, and the second
edition, issued a few hours later, contained the long document in full,
and was put o