The Story of the Sun: New York, 1833-1918O'Brien, Frank Michael
History
The Story of the Sun: New York, 1833-1918
O'Brien, Frank Michael
Sun (New York, N.Y. : 1833)
We received last night and publish to-day what purports to be
the message of Queen Victoria, congratulating the President of
the United States on the successful completion of the Atlantic
telegraph. We are assured that the message is genuine, and
that it came through the Atlantic cable. It is not surprising,
however, that the President, on receiving it, doubted its
genuineness, as among the hundreds who crowded our office last
evening the doubters largely preponderated.
The message, accepting it as the queen’s, is, in style and
tone, utterly unworthy of the great event which it was designed
to celebrate.
The message is so shabbily like royalty that we cannot believe
it to be a fabrication.
Perhaps that was written by John Vance, the Irish exile. And perhaps
the editorial article which appeared the following day was written by
Beach himself:
Victoria’s message ... in its complete form, as it appears in
our columns to-day, is friendly and courteous, though rather
commonplace in expression and style.
New York had a great celebration over the laying of the cable that
week. The _Sun’s_ building bore a sign illuminated by gaslight:
S. F. B. MORSE AND CYRUS W. FIELD,
WIRE-PULLERS OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.
The first piece of news to come by cable was printed in the _Sun_ of
August 27, 1858, and ran:
A treaty of peace has been concluded with China, by which
England and France obtain all their demands, including the
establishment of embassies at Peking and indemnification for
the expenses of the war.
It will be remembered that this first cable was not a success, and
that permanent undersea telegraph service did not come until 1866; but
the results produced in 1858 convinced the world that Field and his
associates were right, and that perseverance and money would bring
perfect results.
After the war, when paper became cheaper, Beach preferred to enlarge
the _Sun_ rather than reduce its price to one cent. He never printed
more than four pages, but the lost columns were restored, with
interest, so that there were eight to a page. Even at two cents a copy
it was still the cheapest of the morning papers; still the beloved of
the working classes and the desired of the politicians. Just after the
war ended the _Sun_ declared that it was read by half a million people.
On January 25, 1868, when the _Sun_ had been in the possession of
the Beaches for about thirty of its thirty-five years, a new editor
and manager, speaking for a new ownership of the _Sun_, made this
announcement at the head of the editorial column:
THE SUN
THE OLDEST CHEAP PAPER IN NEW YORK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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