self one of the first Sunday newspapers in this city, the Sunday Courier, which lasted several months, and contained some very curious articles. But the project was rather premature, and we declined prosecuting it in order to engage in other avocations. The present Sunday Press has sprung into existence during the last six years, the first paper of the class being the Atlas, which originated in 1838, if we recollect right.

The third Sunday Courier was born in 1845. It was edited by Thomas L. Nichols, afterwards known as a "Water-cure Physician," and the husband of Mrs. Gove, who created a sensation in New York at one time by her lectures. Nichols had been a reporter on the Herald, and edited a lively little paper in Buffalo called the Buffalonian, where he got into difficulty, and suffered some from libel suits.

The Sunday Age, in which Grattan, the actor, and Thaddeus W. Meighan were interested, came into life, but soon disappeared from the foot-lights.

The Sunday Times was next established by John Dillon and John M. Moore. John Hooper, the advertising agent, also became connected with the paper. They published a small evening paper called the Tattler. William J. Snelling, of Boston, wrote for the Times. Major M. M. Noah, as we have already said, united his Weekly Messenger with the Times, and he became the responsible editor of the newly-arranged concern. This occurred in 1845. The Times and Messenger is now published, in 1872, by E. G. Howard & Co. Colonel Jo. S. Du Solle, once of Philadelphia, and Fanny Hobart, write for its columns.

The Sunday Dispatch made its debut in 1846. Amor J. Williamson and William Burns were the publishers and editors. When the latter died, the establishment became the property of Williamson. He made it a sort of tender to the Whig and Republican parties, and its proprietor was elected to municipal offices, and died a wealthy man.

The fourth Sunday Courier made its appearance in 1848. It was published by Smith, Adams, & Smith. Harry Franco Briggs and John E. Durivage were its editors. The latter was at one time a reporter on the Herald, and had been connected with a brother, F. A. Durivage, with the Boston press. He had also been an attaché of the New Orleans Picayune. It is stated that he edited the first daily paper established in California. He was a nephew of Edward Everett.

Other Sunday papers were published. The Sunday Bulletin, Sunday Galaxy, Sunday Chronicle and Sporting Register, Sunday Reflector, Sunday News or Extra, Sunday Era, Sunday Age, and Sunday Leader, are among the names of those that made their entrée and Of all these papers, the only ones now in existence are the Courier, Times and Messenger, Atlas, and Dispatch.

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The Leader suddenly died in December. It was a bright, ablyedited Democratic organ. Its last editor was J. C. Goldsmith. Mayor A. Oakey Hall largely supplied it with wit. The Dispatch was the antithesis of the Leader in politics. These papers have found politics, when properly mixed with poetry, to pay better than when they confined themselves to literature and local news only.

THE SPORTING PRESS.

Bell's Life in London, established many years ago, gives one an idea of a sporting paper. It is an authority in all matters connected with the race-course, the ring, the hunt, and the stream. Its word on these subjects is law. Its editor is the Coke, the Blackstone of the sporting world. When a paper to represent a particular class or interest is established, there is a good deal of satisfaction in finding it an authority-in finding that it is up to the mark, and worth its subscription price. Such is the reputation of Bell's Life.

Have we any paper of this kind in the United States?

In the days of Colonel William Johnson," the man with the white hat," and of John C. Stevens, who did so much for the race-course and for yachting in years gone by, the public were but meagerly supplied with information of the turf and the field. The monarchs of the Union Course were a little exclusive at first, but Stevens, when he comprehended the value of the press, expanded a little, and the fast trotters became more popular, and more numerous, and better known. When such matches as that of Eclipse and Henry created an excitement which extended from the Penobscot to the Mississippi, more attention was paid to such matters.

William T. Porter, a printer in New York, whose tastes and instincts all run in the right direction for the enterprise, then established the Spirit of the Times. This was in 1831. It was the Bell's Life of America. It was the first weekly sporting paper published in the United States. It was acceptably managed and edited by Porter till 1853 or thereabouts. He became widely known throughout the country as a judge of horses and stock of all sorts. His opinion was sought by every one interested in sporting, from catching a trout with a fly, and shooting a canvas-back on the Delaware, to the capture of a buffalo on the prairies. "The Tall Son of York,” as he was familiarly called, became the most genial of companions, and suffered immensely thereby, but he made the Spirit of the Times an oracle in the sporting world. Owing to some differences, Colonel Porter left the old concern in 1853 or '54, and, in company with George Wilkes, established what was known for some time as Porter's Spirit of the Times, and which continued to keep up the

character of sporting journalism. Colonel Porter died in 1858, when the paper passed into the hands of Mr. Wilkes. It is now called The Spirit of the Times: the American Gentleman's Newspaper. When the war broke out in 1861 its present editor run into politics, and mixed the rebellion and the race-course in fair proportions in his columns.

One of the curious incidents of life in New York is related, in connection with the Spirit of the Times, by Mr. Raymond, of the Daily Times, as having come under his observation :

While walking down Broadway one afternoon, before I had begun to earn much money, I fell into the wake of a tall, handsome, splendidly-dressed young man, displaying himself, in all the luxury of white kids and diamond studs, to the general admiration. I fancied him one of the nabobs of the town, and fell into a train of wondering thought as to how he had probably reached his present height of dazzling splendor. Of course, I could not wholly forbear contrasting my own position with his, though without any feelings of special envy. The next day Mr. Greeley asked me to go to the office of Porter's Spirit of the Times, then in Barclay Street, and get him a copy of the paper. While waiting at the desk, the door opened, and my magnificent friend of the day before, all accoutred as he was, sailed in. He walked into the back part of the office, took off, folded, and put away his white gloves, hung up his hat and coat, put on an ink-stained linen jacket, and set himself busily to work writing wrappers. I felt decidedly encouraged as to the prospects of New York life!

Another paper of this class, called the New York Clipper, was started in New York about 1853. It is also an authority. It is owned and edited by Frank Queen. It has been quite prosperous, and recently its proprietor erected a fine building in Centre Street, an ornament to that noted thoroughfare, for the transaction of his increasing business. The Clipper is a large quarto, handsomely made up and printed. It has the additional title of the Oldest American Sporting and Theatrical Journal, but the Spirit of the Times is more When such men as Tom Hyer and than twenty years its senior. John C. Heenan prepared for a fight in the ring, the stakes were deposited at the office of the Clipper.

The Turf, Field, and Farm is yet another publication devoted to the kindred subjects of its title. It makes its weekly appearance in the metropolis, and is also successful. This is not surprising, for there is so much wealth and time now expended in horses that there is every desire to know all about them.

These papers indulge in learned and edifying articles on racing, angling, base-ball, cricket, la crosse, yachting, skating, shooting, rowing-indeed, in all outdoor sports. They give an impulse to openair enjoyments, and do a great deal towards improving the physique of the human family, and towards throwing away the physic of the family physician.

There are other publications in the Union devoted more or less to horses, and hunting, and fishing, but these take the lead, and are specialties in this kind of journalism. John S. Skinner, as far in the

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rear as 1818, published a Turf Magazine in Baltimore, and paid attention to the breed of horses. The Western Stock Journal is a paper now printed at the West devoted to the improvement of all sorts of animals. No country surpasses this in attention to this subject. Our daily papers are also interested in all matters connected with the turf, field, and water-courses-the prize ring, the race-course, pigeon shooting, buffalo hunting, mains, and similar sports—but they do not confine themselves to these matters. Occasionally, it is true, a sporting paper takes higher flights-Wilkes's Spirit of the Times, for instance-and makes suggestions to politicians, statesmen, and generals, and sometimes brings down such game with a shot or two.

The interest exhibited in the success of these papers is also to be seen in the improvement of our horses, in our game-laws, in the introduction of fish-ways on rivers and streams where factories had driven away or destroyed the trout, shad, salmon, black bass, and alewives, and in all farm animals. When Dexters sell for $30,000 apiece, and Flatbush mares for $20,000, and the value of horses that make their magnificent appearance in Central Park, on Bellevue Avenue, and on the Brighton Road in one day, for pleasure alone, is estimated at a million of dollars, need there be any surprise at the erection of handsome stone edifices for publication offices of sporting papers?

These class papers have their value. Their circulation is not, comparatively, large; it is necessarily limited to the particular interest it represents; but these papers unquestionably give more information on the subjects they treat than the general newspaper can. It may be impossible for a daily paper to embrace within its space all the movements of the day-science, fashion, politics, history, philosophy, literature, theatres, art, music, sporting, yachting, inventions, discoveries, religion, law, poetry, agriculture, trade, finance, morals, education-all in full and complete. News on all these points are given, but the elaborate and scientific details go into the class papers, where each particular interest can learn all that has been developed on the subject, and frequently illustrated with superior engravings of plans, machinery, horses, cows, models, instruments, and diagrams.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE BLANKET SHEETS OF NEW YORK.

THE MORNING COURIER AND NEW YORK ENQUIRER. -JAMES WATSON WEBB.- NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE.-SIZE OF THE SHEETS.-THE CILLEY DUEL-THE WOODS RIOT.-THE MARSHALL DUEL-SENTENCE OF COLONEL WEBB.-WILLIAM L. MARCY AND JAMES GORDON BENNETT.-THE MACKENZIE PAMPHLET.-WEBB AND NAPOLEON. THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE. ITS ORIGIN.-HALE AND HALLOCK.-NEWS SCHOONERS AND PONY EXPRESSES.-ABOLITION RIOTS IN NEW YORK.-ORIGIN OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. THE BOGUS LINCOLN PROCLAMATION.-SUSPENSION OF NEW YORK PAPERS.

THE "blanket sheets" made their appearance in the city of New York in 1827. The Morning Courier and Journal of Commerce were established in that year, and became leading metropolitan journals. They did not come under the cognomen of "blanket sheets" for several years after that period, but this is the title they enjoy in journalistic annals. They made some noise in Gotham in their day. They were commercial and political papers. They pretended to look after the interests of the mercantile classes. They acquired their influence mostly, however, from their politics, negative and positive. In their early days, one was Democratic, the other Abolition. In their later life, the Democrat became a Whig, and the Abolition a Democratic organ.

THE COURIER AND ENQUIRER.

First in order is the Morning Courier. It was established in May, 1827. In the following December it passed into the possession of James Watson Webb, a brother-in-law of its originator. Webb had been an officer in the army, a graduate of West Point, and was young and fresh in the fields of journalism. Thirty-four years after this event, in speaking of his debut as an editor, he said:

We left the army a mere boy, to take charge of a political press at the commencement of the political campaign which terminated in the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828, and, in a party point of view, we possessed not a solitary qualification for the position. We brought into political life the one leading characteristic of the army, a determination on all occasions to speak not only the truth, but the whole truth, and in practicing upon this, to the mere politician, ridiculous theory, we, of course, became in a short time a target at which our political friends were as fond of firing as were our political opponents; and to this we may justly attribute the somewhat well-known fact that we have been considerably the best-abused personage connected with the American Press. Jack