THE GREAT HIT OP THE TELEGRAPH (DAILY PAPER.)

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3401, 15 November 1879, Page 2

THE GREAT HIT OP THE TELEGRAPH (DAILY PAPER.)

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 Telegrayh:—The first number of the Daily Telegraph appeared on June 22,1855, at twopence. Xt was started by a few military officers with the idea cf humbling the Horse Guards, against whom they had a grievance. Colonel Sleigh was the editor, and nearly everybody wi'oie for it, though very few got paid. For four months it dragged on a wretched existence, and it was necessary to do something. Colonel Sleigh then reduced the price to a penny on September 15, 1855, but the reduction made very little difference in the prospects of the pap:>r, and the difficulties of getting to press were enormous, as saeriffa officers were lying in wait to seize upon the type directly it came out of the office. Sometimes a hearse was made use of, sometimes a cab, which was careful,to go in au "opposite direction. Under such circumstances the paper could not go on, and ultimately Colonel Sleigh was very glad to sell, for a nominal sum, all the right he had in the paper, save a small right on which he had borrowed £GO, and which afterwards realised the enormous sum of £375,000. The great hit of this paper was made over the fall of Delhi. A mail was expected on Saturday night, and Mr E. 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 poukets, aud plying them with beer." The 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. This was the only instance—September, 111855 —of a daily paper being published on Sunday. To show the enormous growth of the paper* Mr Blanchard mentioued that on the previous Thursday, when there was a twelve-page issue, the advertisements were of the value of £2221 8s 6d.