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36-598: The paper was founded in January 1879 by Ernest Harvier as the New York Mirror . In stating its purpose to cover the theater, it proclaimed that coverage of the dramatic profession had been "degraded by having its affairs treated in the professedly theatrical papers side by side with prize fights, cocking matches, baseball, and other sports." This referred to competitors such as the New York Clipper . The word "Dramatic"

72-678: A Third Avenue Railway car. Krauth, the other one-third owner of the paper, died in November 1857. In 1850, William Cauldwell (1824–1907) purchased Paige's one-third ownership stake in the paper for $ 1,200. Cauldwell had gotten into the newspaper field by doing typesetting work, and worked at the New York Sunday Atlas from 1841 to 1849. Cauldwell expanded the paper and increased its coverage of literature, city news, and sports. Sylvester Southworth and Horace P. Whitney (1834 – August 24, 1884) soon joined as additional editors, and

108-598: A historian of American magazines, called the Mirror the "matchless chronicler of the New York stage," though it also included reports from other cities including London and Chicago. Contributors over its history included William Winter ("Dramatic Diary" column), Nym Crinkle ("Feuilleton"), Frank E. Woods ("Spectator" column), Burns Mantle , Mary H. Fiske ("The Giddy Gusher"), and Charles Carroll. New York Clipper The New York Clipper , also known as The Clipper ,

144-399: A new owner. Ochs remained on the lookout for a New York paper, however, and by August 1896, he purchased the then also-struggling New York Times , founded in 1851 by Henry Raymond and several others. The Mercury ceased publishing altogether under that name around late 1896. Some older sources state the paper failed in 1895, but it was still being published well into 1896, though it

180-524: A nickel more. Hall threw out the Mercury title, called the 'new' sheet the Morning Telegraph , hired Leander Richardson (1856–1918) as managing editor, and put it out as a daily sporting and theatrical newspaper." The Telegraph went on to become a successful paper and was published until shut down during a strike in 1972. The Telegraph considered itself a continuation of the Mercury , though along

216-435: Is a heathen." Celebrated actress Adah Isaacs Menken contributed a series of poems to the Mercury in 1860–61, as well as a piece praising Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass in 1860 as "centuries ahead of his contemporaries". Starting in the mid-1870s, John W. Overall (1822–1899) served as literary editor of the paper (until at least 1890). A Southerner, Overall is best known for his pre-Civil War writing supporting

252-540: The Chattanooga Times (and future longtime owner / publisher of The New York Times ) was invited to become editor and half-owner of the Mercury in its "free silver" campaign. Ochs turned the offer down, in part because of his own support for the gold standard . The paper was then offered to Ochs for outright sale, but that also did not come to fruition when it turned out that the Mercury could not assure that its rights to press association copy would transfer to

288-551: The Audit Bureau of Circulations in North America. ) In May 1893, Richard Croker , a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall political machine, jumped into the newspaper field and created The Daily America devoted to politics to trumpet Tammany's views (though it also covered sports; Croker was a big horse racing enthusiast). The other Democratic papers in the city balked at the new competition, however, and Croker turned over

324-574: The Billboard overtook it in coverage. For most of its life the paper carried a circus section and contained both classified and display advertising for circuses. It remains the single best news source for the circus in the second half of the 19th century, and is essential to circus historians. It had its competitors for circus news including the Sporting and Theatrical Journal , the New York Mercury , and

360-510: The Daily Mercury , billed as a Democratic paper, in January 1893. The new venture was quickly losing money, however. Cauldwell apparently began to borrow funds from the estate of millionaire Jason Rogers, of which he was a co-trustee with his son-in-law Thomas Rogers, to try to keep the paper afloat. Some sources reported that it was Jason Rogers' and Cauldwell's mutual grandson (also named Jason Rogers ) who convinced Cauldwell to expand

396-623: The Dramatic News , all of which covered circuses to a greater or lesser degree. The Clipper is also an important source for minstrel shows and popular theater. In 1922, Sime Silverman , the publisher of the rival newspaper Variety , acquired the Clipper and folded it 2 years later. Today, the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress possess nearly complete collections of

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432-874: The New York Clipper in 1853, making it the first American paper devoted entirely to entertainment; the paper eventually shortened its name to The Clipper . The paper was one of the earliest publications in the United States to regularly cover sports, and it played an important role in popularizing baseball in the country. In addition to more popular sporting events, the New York Clipper also wrote about billiards , bowling , even chess . It began covering American football in 1880. In 1894, however, The Clipper dropped its sports coverage and devoted itself entirely to theatre. In addition to entertainment, The Clipper regularly published short satirical pieces written in exaggerated dialects such as African American English or

468-521: The Sunday Mercury . It initially gained some notice for its theatrical coverage and so-called "machine poetry" (a 19th century euphemism for slavishly following the "rules" of poetry without any inspiration). By the fall of 1842 the paper had a circulation of 3,000, ranking it third among New York's growing Sunday papers, trailing the New York Herald ' s Sunday edition and The Atlas . By

504-516: The New York Sunday Mercury . In 1873, Rowell's American Newspaper Directory stated that with a circulation of 45,000, "the circulation of the Sunday Mercury exceeds that of any other Sunday or daily newspaper in America without exception, and more than triples the combined issues of all the other Sunday journals published in New York." Southworth retired from the paper before the end of

540-572: The editorial duties. The paper also dropped the Daily America title, although it remained a Democratic paper. The paper continued to lose money (reportedly about $ 2000 a week), and in March 1895 Cauldwell sold out to William Noble in a somewhat unusual exchange, where he received a hotel called the Hotel Empire (a project which Noble had bought out of foreclosure in 1893 and completed) in exchange for

576-606: The extensive war correspondence from soldiers it published during the Civil War . Before 1825 no American newspapers published editions on Sunday, out of respect to the Sabbath , religious day of rest. Over time, however, this created a niche for new weekly newspapers published on Sunday to flourish. The Mercury originated as the Sunday Morning Visiter , and was first published on May 12, 1839. By 1840, it changed its name to

612-410: The highest-circulation weekly newspaper (at least by its own claims) in the United States at its peak. It was known for publishing and popularizing the work of many notable 19th-century writers, including Charles Farrar Browne and Robert Henry Newell , and was the first Eastern paper to publish Mark Twain . It was also the first newspaper to provide regular coverage of baseball, and was popular for

648-635: The newspaper. Many other research libraries have microfilm copies. Many issues are available online at fultonhistory.com, an archive of historical newspapers from New York, in the University of Illinois digital newspaper collection and at archive.org. Sunday Mercury (New York) The Sunday Mercury (1839–1896) (sometimes referred to as the New York Sunday Mercury ) was a weekly Sunday newspaper published in New York City that grew to become

684-469: The operations of the Mercury were taken over and redubbed the New York Morning Telegraph , focusing on sporting (especially horse racing) and theatrical news much as the Mercury had been doing at that point. According to one account published in 1940, the name change came about when Tammany Hall gave $ 10,000 to writer Blakely Hall, "to run it with the understanding that he was not to get

720-513: The paper (from its outset) under the pseudonym "Dow Junior" (a reference to famous eccentric preacher Lorenzo Dow who died in 1834), which literary magazines such as The Knickerbocker lauded for their odd and original wit. Paige left the paper in 1849 and went to California, where he continued to publish Dow Jr. sermons in The Golden Era , but ultimately was unsuccessful there and is said to have died in extreme poverty in 1859. Nichols

756-581: The paper began to prosper. Cauldwell and the Mercury are credited as being the first newspaper to regularly cover the sport of baseball as news, starting in 1853 with a report on a game between the Knickerbockers and the Gothams. (For some time, this 1853 report was thought to be first game ever reported on by the press, but later 20th century scholarship has located an 1845 report in the Herald .) The paper

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792-474: The paper in the first place. The younger Rogers, for his part, later blamed the failure of the paper on a decision by the "boss" to launch the daily edition as a morning paper, upsetting carefully laid plans and a large number of advance subscriptions for a paper based on afternoon publication. (Rogers later went on to transform the Commercial Advertiser into The New York Globe , and helped found

828-485: The paper made an announcement inviting soldiers to send in their reports about the war, and over 3,000 were published during the course of the war as a weekly feature. The soldiers would receive a free copy of the paper for their contributions. In 2000, Civil War historian William B. Styple compiled 500 of the soldiers' letters in a book, Writing and Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to

864-574: The paper to the Mercury by the end of the year. In January 1894, The New York Times reported that the two papers had "consolidated" (and that some of "the gentlemen" involved in the America would retain an interest) and would henceforth be published as The Daily America on weekdays with the Sunday Mercury below in small type, and reversed on Sundays. In August 1894, Cauldwell, now almost 70, gave up editorial control with his grandson Jason Rogers stepping in as publisher, and James F. Graham taking on

900-495: The paper. News reports from mid-1895 reported that " silver men ", whose support in the East had been limited, had now purchased the paper to be their house organ. Although the paper did advocate in support of free silver in 1895, it appears the anticipated sale to "silver men" fell apart, as Noble had to file for bankruptcy in 1899 due to his Mercury debts. During this same period (early–mid-1895), Adolph Ochs , then-editor of

936-492: The speech of the New York Bowery b'hoys . For example, this letter is from a fictitious Irish travel writer named "Shamus McFudd": After me an Tim had seen the illiphant, an exhamined his trunk to see how many klane shurts he had, we wint to see a grate big snake, wid a body the size iv a whale, a tail that wud wind 3 times around Pat Clansey's cow stable. Och! sich a monster I niver want to clap me ises on agin. His mouth

972-501: The summer of 1844, the Herald took note of the growth of the Sunday papers, calling them "partly literary, partly gossiping, partly silly, partly smart, partly stupid, partly namby-pamby." Elbridge Gerry Paige (1813–1859) and Samuel Nichols (1809?–1854) were the two key editors of the Mercury in its early years, and Augustus Krauth joined them as a one-third owner in 1842. Paige had success with his Short Patent Sermons published in

1008-595: The time. Mark Twain's first writing published in the East appeared in the Mercury in 1864 (prior to his success in 1865 with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ), and a number of additional pieces were published in 1867. Newell, who wrote under the name "Orpheus C. Kerr" (a play on "office seeker"), served for a time as the literary editor of the Mercury , until around 1862. His satirical weekly columns started in Mercury and gained national fame, so much so that President Abraham Lincoln once remarked of Kerr's writings that "anyone who has not read them

1044-494: The war, and Whitney departed around 1876 due to poor health, leaving Cauldwell solely in charge. In addition to running the paper Cauldwell also held political office, serving in the New York State Senate from 1868 to 1879, and also serving as The Bronx county supervisor. By the early 1890s, competition with the New York daily papers had increased. The paper responded by introducing a one cent daily newspaper dubbed

1080-768: The way it somehow backdated its claimed date of founding from 1839 to 1833. Aside from the Short Patent Sermons which brought acclaim to Paige's "Dow Jr." pseudonym in the 1840s, the Mercury went on to publish the work of many leading 19th-century writers, and was at times the first to introduce them to New York and national audiences, including Mark Twain , Josh Billings , Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward), Robert Henry Newell (Orpheus C. Kerr), Ella Wheeler Wilcox , Charles Godfrey Leland , David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby), Ned Buntline , and Mortimer Thomson (Doesticks). Though most of those names are not familiar today, all became well-known popular writers of

1116-467: Was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses , dance , music , the outdoors , sports , and theatre . It had a circulation of about 25,000. The publishers also produced the yearly New York Clipper Annual . In 1924, The Clipper was absorbed into the entertainment journal Variety . Frank Queen began publishing

New York Dramatic Mirror - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-583: Was born in Hampstead , England around 1809 and after coming to New York City was eventually installed as the editor of the New Times , an organ of the "Conservatives" political party. After that venture failed, he joined the Sunday Mercury and grew it with Paige. His work focused on the theater. Nichols stayed with the paper until his death in September 1854, when he was run over after unsuccessfully trying to board

1188-666: Was certainly on its last legs. On September 20, 1896, the New York Times reported that the office of the Mercury "was still closed last night" and the Chicago Tribune printed on September 28 that the "free silver sentiment in New York was not even warm enough to prevent the fail of the New York Mercury." When Cauldwell died in 1907, the New York Tribune called him "the father of Sunday journalism." By end of 1896,

1224-458: Was inserted in the title in 1889, and the "New York" dropped in 1917. Harrison Grey Fiske started contributing in 1879, and eventually obtained ownership of the paper. Fiske's involvement ended in 1911. Frederick Franklin Schrader and Lymon O. Fiske then took over. The paper published until April 1922, after changing from a weekly publication to a monthly at its very end. Frank Luther Mott ,

1260-491: Was so big that he cud take me an Tim at wan swaller widout openin it at all; and when his 2 jaws cum together, the Whole house wud shake as it is had a fit iv the ager. They feed him on broiled pavin stones, an whin he takes dhrink, feth he laves the river so dhry that all the ships ran aground. The divil a wurd iv a lie I'm telling ye. The Clipper was the paper of record for the circus business from its founding until about 1902 when

1296-658: Was the first to use the phrase "national pastime" to describe the new sport in America in December 1856. In 1858, Cauldwell hired rising star Henrick Chadwick , later dubbed the "father of baseball", to cover the sport for the paper. By early 1861, the Mercury ' s circulation was 145,000, but the advent of the American Civil War cut off about 90,000 of them located in the seceded southern and more isolated western United States. Cauldwell hit upon an idea for expanding their war coverage with little expense. In April 1861,

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