THE GREAT HIT OF THE TELEGRAPH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 6, 12 September 1879, Page 3

THE GREAT HIT OF THE TELEGRAPH.

« Mr Blanchard when lecturing lately before a crowded meeting of the London Shorthand Writers Association upon his Literary Recollections, gave an interesting summary of the Daily Telegraph : — The first number of the Daily Telegraph appeared on June 22, 1855, at twopence. It waa started by a few military officers with the idea of humbling the Horse' Guards, againsl which they had a grievance. Colonel Sleigh was the editor, and nearly everybody wrote for it, though vet y few got paid. For four months it dragged on a wretched existence, and it was necessary to do something. Colonel Sleigh Mien reduced the price to a penny on September 15, 1855, but the reduction made very little difference in the prospects of the paper, and the difficulties of getting to press were enornvus, as sheriffs' officers were lying in wait to seize upon i he type directly it came out of the office. Sometimes a hearse \yas made use of, sometimes a cab, which was careful to go in the opposite direction. Under such circumstances the paper could not go on, and ultimately Colonel Sleigh was very glad to 1 sell, for a nominal sum, all right he had in the paper, save a small right upon which he had borrowed £60, and which £60 afterwards realised the enormous sum of £375,000 ! The great hit of the paper was made over the fall of Delhi- A niaif^as expected on Saturday night', and Mr It. Hanson and Mr Pearson, who were then working the paper, got eight compositors to stay on the premises by paying them overtime out of their own pockets, and plying them with beer. 'I he mail arrived, and the paper was published on Sunday morning with the news. The sale, by 11 o'clock, had reached thirty thousand, and the fortune of the Telegraph was made, jvas the only instance - September U, 1857— that a daily paper was published on a Sunday. To show the enormous growth of the paper, Mr Blanchard mentioned that on the previous Thursday, when there was a twelve-page issue, the advertisement^ wore of the value of £2221 8s 6d; V .: : I