What the _Sun_ thought of itself then is indicated in an editorial printed on December 4, when the Beach brothers relieved their father, who was in bad health: We ask those under whose eyes the _Sun_ does not shine from day to day--our _Sun_, we mean; this large and well-printed one-cent newspaper--to look it over and say whether it is not one of the wonders of the age. Does it not contain the elements of all that is valuable in a diurnal sheet? Where is more effort or enterprise expended for so small a return? Of this effort and enterprise we feel proud; and a circulation of over fifty thousand copies of our sheet every day among at least five times that number of readers, together with the largest cash advertising patronage on this continent, convinces us that our pride is widely shared. The _Sun_ that Ben Day had turned over to Moses Y. Beach was no longer recognizable. Fifteen years had wrought many changes from the time when the young Yankee printer launched his venture on the tide of chance. The steamship, the railroad, and the telegraph had made over American journalism. The police-court items, the little local scandals, the animal stories--all the trifles upon which Day had made his way to prosperity--were now being shoved aside to make room for the quick, hot news that came in from many quarters. The _Sun_ still strove for the patronage of the People, with a capital P, but it had educated them away from the elementary. The elder Beach was enterprising, but never rash. He made the _Sun_ a better business proposition than ever it was under Day. Ben Day carried a journalistic sword at his belt; Beach, a pen over his ear. Perhaps Day could not have brought the _Sun_ up to a circulation of fifty thousand and a money value of a quarter of a million dollars; but, on the other hand, it is unlikely that Beach could ever have started the _Sun_. Once it was started, and once he had seen how it was run, the task of keeping it going was fairly easy for him. He was a good publisher. Not content with getting out the _Sun_ proper, he established the _Weekly Sun_, issued on Saturdays, and intended for country circulation, at one dollar a year. In 1848 he got out the _American Sun_, at twelve shillings a year, which was shipped abroad for the use of Europeans who cared to read of our rude American doings. Another venture of Beach’s was the _Illustrated Sun and Monthly Literary Journal_, a sixteen-page magazine full of woodcuts. Mr. Beach had for sale at the _Sun_ office all the latest novels in cheap editions. He wrote a little book himself--“The Wealth of New York: A Table of the Wealth of the Wealthy Citizens of New York City Who Are Estimated to Be Worth One Hundred Thousand Dollars or Over, with Brief Biographical Notices.” It sold for twenty-five cents.