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)
(Enter A.)--“I missed my paper this morning, sir, I don’t want
to take it--”
(Enter B.)--“There is a letter ‘o’ turned upside down in my
advertisement this morning, sir! I--I--”
(Enter C.)--“You didn’t notice my new work, my treatise on a
flea, this morning, sir! You have no literary taste! Sir--”
(Enter D.)--“Sir, your boy don’t leave my paper, sir--I live in
a blind alley; you turn out of ---- Street to the right--then
take a left-hand turn--then to the right again--then go under
an arch--then over a kennel--then jump a ten-foot fence--then
enter a door--then climb five pair of stairs--turn fourteen
corners--and you can’t miss my door. I want your boy to leave
my paper first--it’s only a mile out of his way--if he don’t,
I’ll stop--”
(Enter E.)--“Sir, you have abused my friend; the article
against Mr. ---- as a candidate is intolerable--it is
scandalous--I’ll stop my paper--I’ll cane you--I’ll--”
(Enter F.)--“Mr. Editor, you are mealy-mouthed, you lack
independence, your remarks upon Mr. ----, the candidate for
Congress, are too tame. If you don’t put it on harder I’ll stop
my--”
(Enter G.)--“Your remarks upon profane swearing are personal,
d----n you, sir, you mean me--before I’ll patronize you longer
I’ll see you in ----”
(Enter H.)--“Mr. ----, we are very sorry you do not say more
against the growing sin of profanity. Unless you put your veto
on it more decidedly, no man of correct moral principles will
give you his patronage--I, for one--”
(Enter I.)--“Bad luck to the dirty sowl of him, where does he
keep himself? By the powers, I’ll strike him if I can get at
his carcass, and I’ll kick him anyhow! Why do you fill your
paper with dirty lies about Irishmen at all?”
(Enter J.)--“Why don’t you give us more anecdotes and
sich, Irish stories and them things--I don’t like the long
speeches--I--”
(Devil)--“Copy, sir!”
The day after this evidence of unrest appeared the _Sun_ printed,
perhaps with a view to making all manner of citizens gnash their teeth,
a few extracts from the narrative of Colonel Hamilton, “the British
traveler in America”:
In America there are no bells and no chambermaids.
I have heard, since my arrival in America, the toast of “a
bloody war in Europe” drank with enthusiasm.
The whole population of the Southern and Western States are
uniformly armed with daggers.
At present an American might study every book within the limits
of the Union and still be regarded in many parts of Europe,
especially in Germany, as a man comparatively ignorant.
The editorial suggested that the colonel “had better look wild for the
lake that burns with fire and brimstone.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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