pon flour barrels. On
one end of this desk lay a pile of "Heralds" ready for purchasers, and
at the other sat the proprietor writing his articles for his journal and
managing his business. Says Mr. William Gowans, the famous Nassau-Street
bookseller: "I remember to have entered the subterranean office of its
editor early in its career, and purchased a single copy of the paper,
for which I paid the sum of one cent United States currency. On this
occasion the proprietor, editor, and vendor was seated at his desk,
busily engaged in writing, and appeared to pay little or no attention to
me as I entered. On making known my object in coming in, he requested me
to put my money down on the counter and help myself to a paper, all this
time he continuing his writing operations. The office was a single
oblong underground room; its furniture consisted of a counter, which
also served as a desk, constructed from two flour barrels, perhaps
empty, standing apart from each other about four feet, with a single
plank covering both; a chair, placed in the center, upon which sat the
editor busy at his vocation, with an inkstand by his right hand; on the
end nearest the door were placed the papers for sale."

[Illustration: HOW THE "NEW YORK HERALD" BEGAN.]

Standing on Broadway now, and looking at the marble palace from which
the greatest and wealthiest newspaper in the Union sends forth its huge
editions, one finds it hard to realize that just thirty-four years
ago this great journal was born in a cellar, an obscure little penny
sheet, with a poor man for its proprietor. Yet such was the beginning of
"The New York Herald."

The prospect was not a pleasant one to contemplate, but Mr. Bennett did
not shrink from it. He knew that it was in him to succeed, and he meant
to do it, no matter through what trials or vicissitudes his path to
fortune lay. Those who heard his expressions of confidence shook their
heads sagely, and said the young man's air-castles would soon fade away
before the blighting breath of experience. Indeed, it did seem a
hopeless struggle, the effort of this one poor man to raise his little
penny sheet from its cellar to the position of "a power in the land." He
was almost unknown. He could bring no support or patronage to his
journal by the influence of his name, or by his large acquaintance. The
old newspaper system, with its clogs and dead-weights, was still in
force, and as for newsboys to hawk the new journal over the