The Story of the Sun: New York, 1833-1918 — John Shaqi
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)
On September 14 the _Sun_ printed its first illustration--a two-column
cut of “Herschel’s Forty-Feet Telescope.” This was Sir W. Herschel,
then dead some ten years, and the telescope was on his grounds at
Slough, near Windsor, England. Another knighted Herschel with another
telescope in a far land was to play a big part in the fortunes of the
_Sun_, but that comes later. In the issue with the cut of the telescope
was a paragraph about a rumour that Fanny Kemble, who had just
captivated American theatregoers, had been married to Pierce Butler, of
Philadelphia--as, indeed, she had.
Broadway seems to have had its lure as early as 1833, for in the _Sun_
of September 17, on the first page, is a plaint by “Citizen”:
They talk of the pleasures of the country, but would to God I
had never been persuaded to leave the labor of the city for
such woful pleasures. Oh, Broadway, Broadway! In an evil hour
did I forsake thee for verdant walks and flowery landscapes
and that there tiresome piece of made water. What walk is so
agreeable as a walk through the streets of New York? What
landscape more flowery than those of the print-shops? And what
water was made by man equal to the Hudson?
This was followed by uplifting little essays on “Suicide” and
“Robespierre.” The chief news of the day--that John Quincy Adams had
accepted a nomination from the Anti-Masons--was on an inside page.
What was possibly of more interest to the readers, it was announced
that thereafter a ton of coal would be two thousand pounds instead
of twenty-two hundred and forty--Lackawanna, broken and sifted, six
dollars and fifty cents a ton.
On Saturday, September 21, when it was only eighteen days old, the
_Sun_ adopted a new head-line. The letters remained the same, but
the eagle device of the first issue was supplanted by the solar orb
rising over hills and sea. This design was used only until December 2,
when its place was taken by a third emblem--a printing-press shedding
symbolical effulgence upon the earth.
The _Sun’s_ first book-notice appeared on September 23, when it
acknowledged the sixtieth volume of the “Family Library” (Harpers),
this being a biography of Charlemagne by G. P. R. James. “It treats of
a most important period in the history of France.” The _Sun_ had little
space then for book-reviews or politics. Of its attitude toward the
great financial fight then being waged, this lone paragraph gives a
good view:
The _Globe_ of Monday contains in six columns the reasons which
prompted the President to remove the public deposits from the
United States Bank, which were read to his assembled cabinet on
the 18th instant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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