Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
also employ translators, who put into English such extracts as it may be
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[Picture: PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE.]
The amount of labor thus expended upon a morning newspaper is immense.
It is followed by an almost equal outlay of mechanical work in putting
the paper in type and printing it. The principal papers are stereotyped,
and are printed from plates. Formerly the Eight and Ten Cylinder Hoe
Presses were used, but of late years the Bullock Press has become very
popular. It works quite as rapidly as the Hoe press, prints on both
sides at once, and is said to spoil fewer sheets. The paper is put in in
a large roll, and is cut by the machine into the proper sizes and
printed. Only one feeder is necessary.
Nearly all the city newspapers are located in or around Printing House
Square, immediately opposite and east of the City Hall. One of the
greatest curiosities of this square is a huge engine, which runs a large
number of presses. It is situated in Spruce street, between William and
Nassau streets, and occupies the basement of the building in which it is
located. There are two engines here--one of 150 horse power, which is
used during the day, and a smaller one of 75 horse power, which relieves
it at night. Shafting and belting carry the power in every direction
from the engine. One hundred and twenty-five presses are worked by these
engines--each being estimated at so much horse power, and charged
accordingly. They turn three-quarters of a mile of main shafting,
besides a mile or more of connecting shafts, and as much belting. One of
these belts, an India rubber one, 120 feet long, connects a fifth story
press on Nassau street with the main shafting on Spruce street, across
the intervening yards, and another of leather, on Beekman street, 140
feet, perfectly perpendicular, connects the sub-cellar and the attic.
Some of the shafting passes under and across the streets. Over fifty
newspapers and literary papers, besides magazines and books innumerable,
are printed by this monster engine.
The salaries paid by the newspapers are not large. Those who receive
what is seemingly high pay do an amount of work out of proportion to
their compensation. Mr. Greeley receives $10,000 per annum. Mr. Reid,
the managing editor of the _Tribune_, receives $5000. Mr. Sinclair, the
publisher, receives $10,000. These are considered good salaries. Any
one familiar with the cost of living in New York will not think them very
much in excess of the wants of their recipients, who are men with
families.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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