T H E S I N S O F N E W Y O R K
As "Exposed" by the Police Gazette
By: Edward Van Emery
P A R T I I
THE RICHARD K. FOX GAZETTE (1876)
Chapter 1
The Pale Pink Picture Periodical
1) RICHARD K. FOX
A) OWNER AND EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE:
Richard K. Fox, when he started as proprietor of the National Police
Gazette in 1876, undertook his obligations as owner and editor with
practically no more than an idea___but it was a valuable one. The idea
being: "If they can't read, give them plenty of pictures." Within ten years
he saw his weekly paper enjoying greater international vogue than any
publication then in existence. It was being subscribed for in no less than
twenty-six countries, and was even going to a part of the world that was
then so remote it received mail from the United States but twice a year.
To the energy and genius of Richard K. Fox must go the credit, not
only of turning the wreckage of the National Police Gazette into a weekly of
exceptional importance in its own peculiar way, but also of being
responsible, in the so doing, of revolutionizing not a few newspaper
standards. For it was the Fox success that eventually made the heads of even
the most conservative of daily papers appreciate the value of brightening
solid pages of newsprint with attractive pictures, and, as well, of the
circulation worth that was to be found in giving increased prominence to
doings in the world of sports.
The late Mr. Fox was a live-wire, a man of ideas and enterprise, and
an early go-getter. What is more, he was a citizen of power and authority in
his particular field of endeavor for not a few years of his interesting
life. Before going further into the history of the modern Gazette some space
should be devoted to the guiding spirit of its pink destinies. Nothing will
give you a truer impression of the man and the essential facts of his
history than to set down what he permitted to be printed of himself in his
own paper in 1885:
B) ESSENTIAL FACTS OF HIS HISTORY
Richard K. Fox was born in Belfast in the year 1846, of that
com-mingled Scotch and Irish parentage which has contributed so much to
America enterprise and energy. The solid grit of the one and the mental
acuteness of the other are both equally represented in him. His first
employment was in the office of the Banner of Ulster, the celebrated organ
of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. After remaining with the Banner four
years, Mr. Fox joined the staff of the Belfast News Letter, the richest and
most powerful newspaper in Ireland. He remained with News Letter for ten
years, rising to the second place in its counting-room service. He arrived
in New York in September, 1874. Although he had but a few shillings in his
pocket, twenty-four hours after his landing he found profitable employment
with the Commercial Bulletin of New York, a situation he left to connect
himself with the Police Gazette____then at a very low ebb of prosperity,
although the oldest weekly in America. Applying the most dauntless courage
and industry to his work the new owner of the property which he had
literally snatched from extinction, in less than ten years has made the
Police Gazette building one of the sights of New York. It towers alongside
the Brooklyn Bridge, and it occupies more space and machinery than any
publishing house in America. The job printing office is a gigantic affair
and turns out the largest and most vivid pictorial work ever printed in this
country. To see the slender, almost boyish proprietor of this wonderful
business moving modestly and good humoredly through its mazes, and to
realize that he is barely forty years old, is to make one convinced that
after all even Monte Cristo was a possible character, with the difference,
however, that Monte Cristo had his fortune made for him, while
Richard K. Fox forced fortune to smile on him by his own genius, good
judgment and indomitable energy of will.
C) FOX UNDERTAKES OWNERSHIP OF GAZETTE UNDER GREAT HANDICAPS:
This rather vainglorious estimate may be excusable to some extent in
view of the fact that Mr. Fox did, beyond doubt, occupy an important
position in the community when the above was written, and that he had
undertaken the ownership of the Gazette under even greater handicaps than
this self-applause revealed. The Gazette had been transferred to him in lieu
of certain monies due him and for a small amount of cash and encumbered by
not a few debts. Fox increased his obligations by several personal loans,
one to the amount of $500. borrowed from William Muldoon, who then had some
prominence as an athlete at Harry Hill's sporting resort, who had lately
become a member of the New York Police Department, and who was soon to
become the wrestling champion of the world.
Hampered by lack of capital the extreme energy which Fox threw into
his property was at first slow in making itself apparent. From the first he
aimed at giving the public the foremost of illustrated papers, yet more than
a year went by before the make-up of the publicationl, which had been
increased from eight to six-teen pages, was close to being typographically
or pictorially what he had in mind. But finally it appeared in its pink
dress and really well printed. Fox giving special attention to his
press-room and bringing in brand new type to its fonts throughout by the end
of 1878. And it was out of this property that he made a fortune which was
close to $3,000,000. at one time. At his death, which came in November,
1922, his estate was valued at more than one and one-half million dollars,
even though his fortune had been taxed by some lean periods for the Gazette
in his closing years, by a heavy losing suit, some dishonesty in his employ,
and other misfortune. And, too, in addition, it is estimated that he must
have given away fully one-quarter of a million dollars in medals, prizes,
stake money, and other expenditures in the popularization and promotion of
sporting events; also he had been very liberal in his charities.
What he made of the National Police Gazette was something that grew
even beyond his own conception, and it is not to be wondered at if Richard
K. Fox took himself and his paper overseriously.
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2) THE POLICE GAZETTE BECOMES A GREAT JOURNAL OF SPORT, STAGE
AND ROMANCE:
In an early editorial, stress was laid on the fact that the paper was
radically different from the old Gazette under its new management.
Under its present management, no illustration and not a line of
printing of immoral tendency is suffered to appear in its columns. So far
from pandering to vicious tastes its object is to delineate vice in its
proper odious character and to further the end of justice by every means of
exposing the personality and doings of the criminal classes, and by giving
wide-spread publicity to transactions of the courts of law.
Which would make it seem very much after the pattern wrought by
Messrs. Wilkes and Camp. And so it was in the first two or three struggling
years of the Fox regime, being little more than a chronicle of criminal
doings and a paper with a more liberal display of illustrations than its
rivals. Later on it was claimed: " When Mr. Fox acquired the proprietorship
of the Police Gazette he had but one policy. This was to make his paper the
greatest journal of sport, sensation, the stage and romance in existence."
Sensational, it surely was, from the outset, and it was as an arbiter
of sports news that the Gazette came into world-wide prominence. But it was
not until late in 1879 that it gave over a regular column to sports items.
And it was a little earlier in the same year that attention was first called
to its newest feature, a theatrical news department. Until then only a few
random paragraphs gave space to doings in the theatrical and athletic world;
actors at first only got their pictures in the Gazette through some unsavory
escapade like Nat Goodwin's emulating John L. Sullivan in the Hoffman House.
As for romance, its fiction features were nearly all second-rate serials.
When it came to general news, its accounts were practically the fore-runner
of our "Untrue Story" magazines, except that the imagination generally dealt
with real people and actual facts in a too personal way in the Fox paper.
Even when it was yet shy of the sports and theatrical features in
which Mr. Fox was to take so much pride, it is only fair to admit that, by
the middle of 1878, distinct gains had been made in circulation.
3) DEPARTMENTS OF THE GAZETTE
A) SAMUEL A. MACKEEVER
Samuel A. Mackeever, who wrote easily and attractively under various
names, among them Paul Prowler and The Old Rounder, and of whose work we
shall in due time give some interesting examples, found many new readers
through his series of articles. Particularly, "Glimpses of Gotham" and
"Midnight Pictures." What is more, his graphic pen pictures of the town's
fast resorts had the effect of stirring the police into action and led to a
number of exciting raids on several "noted dens of vice."
Mackeever was also one of the few to volunteer for the first planned
trip through the air across the Atlantic, which was to have been by way of
balloon____ an idea that created much talk and excitement, but was not gone
through with.
Still another part of Mr. Mackeever's editorial work for the Gazette
was that of dramatic critic. Under the nom de plume of Marquis de Lorgnette
he wrote a column of stage gossip and provided the photos of actresses. I
don't aim to "dish any dirt," but the picture of Miss Pauline Markham
appeared three times in one year in his department.
B) BRACEBRIDGE HENYNG
Another early feature was a serial by Bracebridge Hemyng, which was a
work of fiction on altogether different lines from his famous Jack Harkaway
stories for boys, as can be judged by the title, which was, "Left her Home,
or the Trials and Temptations of a Poor Girl."
C) HOMICIDAL HORRORS
Another department, which had considerable early popularity, was one
given over to paragraphs on crimes and passions of the period," which were
run together under the singular headline of "Homicidal Horrors," In fact
the headlines which graced the various news items were a distinct feature by
themselves and told a story that was liable to excite one's interest, as can
be understood from the samples presented.
In the matter of headlines the Gazette in the early Fox years went in
for effects that were as execrable in taste as they were gruesome. "Human
Hash" topped the story of the Boston railroad horror in 1887, and "Roast
Man" headed the story dealing with the Richmond hotel fire in Buffalo in the
same year. However, before condemning the Gazette too harshly it is well to
remember that one of the great dailies of Chicago, which is very proud of
its eminence in the newspaper field to-day, headlined a hanging story,
"Jerked to Jesus."
D) RELIGIOUS NOTES
Even though the improved Gazette did run a department for a time
devoted to "Religious Notes," it is to be feared that the Fox weekly was a
scandalous and sensational sheet. For its religious department was devoted
only to the mistakes and misdemeanors of the men of the cloth, and even the
ringing of the church-bells was condemned for their "hellish annoyance of
the ill." While the proprietor found it a source of gratification that
commendations of his efforts were often had from contemporaries, and were
even extolled by the Y.M.C.A. branch of Fort Shaw, Texas___which felt that
its pictures on the career and death of the Magdalen, Nellie D. Camp,
constituted a moral warning___it is probable that he took even more pride in
a letter from Sempronius, Texas, which he gave much prominence. It read and
was signed as follows:
Have been on the move so much lately that I have not received the
Police Gazette regularly. Please send me a copy here and oblige.
Jesse James
While this may have been a hoax, the fact remains that those notorious
train and bank robbers, the James Boys, did send their pictures to the
Gazette, with autographs that were generally accepted as authentic.
(Incidentally, it was the lawmakers of the State of Texas who
endeavored to impose a special tax on the sales of the Gazette, in 1882,
which was finally ruled to be unconstitutional.)
4) POLICE GAZETTE HAD ITS TROUBLES
It was hardly to be wondered at that the Police Gazette had its
troubles at times with the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and
that said Society effected the arrest of Mr. Fox on a couple of occasions,
and in time forced the Gazette to pay the sum of $500, as fine for what was
termed indecent advertising. Yet in 1879 we find the editor replying in the
following moral tone in his department devoted "To Correspondents""
William Commons, Asheville, N.C.___Your letter in reference to
informing you where you can obtain vile pictures and publications has been
forwarded to Anthony Comstock, of the Society for Prevention of Vice. He may
be able to attend to the matter as it deserves.
The Gazette was not immoral, Mr. Fox insisted. It was certain ones of
the people who were immoral. Presenting a pictorial record of the day was
strictly within the bounds of legitimate journalism, and the Gazette was
merely an enemy of hypocrisy and cant.
5) GAZETTE'S GRADUAL SUCCESS
However, there was another factor that had something to do with the
gradual success that was being attained in those early days by the Gazette,
and this was nothing less than a deal of genuinely excellent reportorial and
newspaper work. One might turn his eyes away from Mr. Fox's weekly with a
contemptuous glance, but in doing so he was missing much in the way of
artistic workmanship in many of its drawings and some exceptionally clever
writing as well. There was a reason for this last fact.
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6) BEING A HIGH-CLASS NEWSPAPER MAN SEEMED TO INCLUDE A WEAKNESS
FOR LIQUOR.
Being a high-class newspaper man in the very early Eighties seemed to
include a weakness for liquor. And many of the star men of the most
important metropolitan dailies came to work for the Gazette in this unusual
fashion: After they had finished with their labors on Saturday on the
various papers with which they happened to be engaged, and had gambled or
drunk their way into low financial state, they knew where and how to pick up
a ten-dollar bill and to have free lodging and plenty to eat until the
following Monday. They could stroll over to the Gazette offices, 2, 4 and 6
Reade Street and later 183 William Street, and find their way into a room
the door of which would not open outward for the time being. And here they
would find a well-stacked lunch counter, enough whisky to keep their fires
of inspiration burning, but not dimmed, and comfortable couches on which to
take their rest. And in this period of incarceration they worked editorially
for Fox and the ten-dollar bill that was given them upon their release
Monday a.m. Going back through the Gazette of Fifty years ago you find its
pages studded with many a gem in the way of newspaper composition.
7) THE STORY OF LIZZIE WINSWEILER
Take, just as one example, the story of Miss Lizzie Winsweiler, who
appeared in Justice Paulin's Court in Newark, New Jersey, against Samuel
Kellum, "a black-walnut-colored gentleman of thirty-five or thereabouts" in
the matter of the paternity of Miss Lizzie's curly-headed baby with a dark
nut-brown complexion. The description of the antiquated courtroom with its
sagging floor and its judicial bench wedged up to a level so that the down
grade of the floor would not "affect the hearing of his honor," is not only
picturesque in its wording but also slyly humorous in its description,
telling how "the walls are decorated with an oil painting of Queen Victoria
in her younger days and an old map of New Jersey."
Unfortunately the story is too long to be given here in its entirety,
though not a bit overwritten. But it gives a graphic picture of the odd
court characters and of a free-and-easy atmosphere where the majesty of the
law seemed to be meted out with more justice than dignity. There is quite a
comical dialogue when the alleged father insists that the shade of Miss
Lizzie's baby is due to the fact that it has been raised on black tea, and
then the nut-brown baby is sent for and His Honor is shown how naturally the
infant takes to its bottle of cow's milk. Upon which Justice Paulin hints to
the lawyers that if it is true that only cow's milk had been given the
child, then the suit had not been properly brought, and that the action
should have been against the cow. And the examination of the witnesses is
also made into a hilarious business.
Here was the work of no petty scribbler. No indeed. What was possibly
a rather offensive news incident picked from out of everyday existence was
turned into a masterpiece of narration, one to touch the risibilities of
even the majority of exacting readers.
One can well picture this gifted man of the pencil at work under a
flickering gas-jet at his littered desk weaving his story from the rather
drab details of a vulgar business of miscegenation that make the report of
the local paper. His eye is agleam with the creative glow, though the good
liquor provided by Mr. Fox may have had something to do with the gleam. And
you can fairly hear him chuckling to himself as he adds some new
embellishment to the yarn which he is building in a round flourishing hand.
8) VANDERBILT'S VELOCITY
We are told that even Com. William K. Vanderbilt smiled over the story
under the heading "Vanderbilt's Velocity," that related how the railroad
magnate's dashing cutter pulled by his "lightning pair, Lysander and
Leander," collided with the family sled of Patrick Sheedy, liquor dealer of
Second Avenue and Eighty-third street. Mr. Vanderbilt drove on gamely,
according to the story, until his pair was under control, and then informed
Mr. Sheedy he would be responsible for all damages. "Sheedy boasted of
having passed Mr. Vanderbilt, but expressed the hope that they would both be
going the same way should they meet again."
9) THE TALE OF THE TORRID WAVE
Another cleverly handled story which was titled "The Tale of the
Torrid Wave," told how two society damsels attempted to keep up a
fashionable appearance during the "heated term" by rigidly closing the front
of the house and camping out on the back roof at night, and how their
pleasant fiction was spoiled by two overinquisitive male acquaintances.
10) EXPERT WRITERS AND FINE ARTISTS ON FOX'S STAFF:
Make no mistake, there was expert writing aplenty within even the very
early pages of Mr. Fox's weekly. And in no very great time he had assembled
the finest staff of artists that could be found in the vicinity of New York.
Among them were George E. McEvoy, Matt Morgan, Charles Kendrick, Paul
Cusachs, George White and others. For all the progress we have made in
modern newspaper pictorial achievement, there is nothing finer in its way
than some of the woodcut effects produced by the Fox artists; there was a
perfection in the shadings, for one thing, that can only be had through the
work of master woodcut artists. Fox procured the best of them, and they
displayed imagination as well as talent.
Mr. Fox apparently placed no restrictions upon his clever staff. They
were no respecters of person or position, or of the power of wealth or
recklessness of character. Owney Geogheghan, Bowery dive-keeper, stormed
the Pearl Street offices because he resented something that was written
about his resort, and came flying down a full flight of stairs. Lorillard,
the great tobacco merchant, gave a ball to rival one given by the
Vanderbilts, and the Gazette "society editor" reported the occasion and had
a lot of lively comment on the sayings and doings, even giving a description
of an imaginary Lorillard coat-of-arms which was "a cuspidor couchant, with
two cigars and a plug of tobacco rampant."
At times the comment on personalities was thinly veiled. Most every
New York reader knew that Barney O'Shane was the particular alderman on whom
the paper pinned a story that once had much popularity. It seems there was
talk of an appropriation for the purpose of importing one dozen gondolas to
ornament the lake in Central Park. The alderman referred to was very Irish
and always very strong for economy and the following words were put in his
mouth:
"Gintlemin, the idea is a good wan, but___I would make an amindmint.
Why should we buy twelve of thim gondolas? I make a motion we buy two of
thim___a male wan and a female wan. Thin, gintlemin, let nature take its
course."
Naturally, there was much going to law seeking compensation for damage
to reputations alleged to have been inflicted through the columns of the
Gazette. This worried Fox so little that he devoted the good part of a page
to a story in which he gave an itemized account of suits brought against his
paper over a course of six months during 1885, with an invitation to try to
collect___which nobody seemed to succeed in doing. The total amount of the
suits threatened was for $3,120,000., which included a demand on the part of
Lillian Russell for $20,000.
I V
11) GAZETTE MAKES ITS FIRST TREMENDOUS CIRCULATION LEAP (1880)
It was in 1880 that the new Gazette made its first tremendous
circulation leap, and it was a prize fight that sent one of its issues of
June of that year clear up to the 400,000 mark, a record, indeed, a half
century ago. The match in question brought together Paddy Ryan and Joe Goss
in a battle that had at stake the American fistic supremacy. Prize fighting
at this time was still regarded as a most sinful and brutal business in the
way of entertainment, though the matching of Goss, then the recognized
champion, and ryan, the Collar City Giant, had the country greatly
interested. Still, it was given only minor attention by the newspapers and
it remained for Fox enterprise to show the way.
Mr. Fox never pretended to be a sports fanatic himself, but he had
just added a sports department to his weekly, and having a fine sense of
advertising values he was desirous of drawing notice to his new feature.
It is probable he was also inspired by the fact that George Wilkes, of
the original Gazette and while owner of the Spirit of the Times, had covered
the Heenan-Sayers prize fight in England in 1860 and had disposed of a
special edition of 100,000 copies of his paper in this country that had been
printed abroad. Anyway, to cover the Goss-Ryan match, Fox detailed Arthur
Lumley, one of his editors, several artists, and William H. Harding, who had
charge of his new sports department.
It proved a long and an expensive assignment, but got the results; the
Fox presses were kept busy printing their special fight issue for weeks
after the contest to satisfy orders from every art of the United States and
many places abroad. The battle was first arranged to be fought in Canada,
but the contestants and those interested were chased from the scene by an
array of redcoats. Many weeks went by before the two finally fought it out
on the turf with bare knuckles at Collier's Station, West Virginia, under a
gold and purple sky shortly after daybreak of a beautiful June morning and
close to the scene of the bloodless pistol duel between James Gordon Bennett
and Frederick May. At the end of eighty-seven rounds, that lasted one hour
and twenty-four minutes, Paddy Ryan became the new champion. Soon afterward
the Gazette brought out its special edition with the only full acount of the
fight that could be had and with ringside pictures in addition. The demand
for the issue was astonishing to rival editors, who were giving most
attention to the Garfield-Hancock presidential campaign, which got some
attention from the Gazette as well.
From then on the National Police Gazette came into its tremendous
vogue as the one organ which no one claiming an interest in sports could
afford to be without. Its files were kept in hand in practically every
saloon throughout the land, and certainly no barber-shop made any pretense
of being up-to-date unless the latest issue of the "Barber's Bible," as they
called the Fox Gazette, was conspicuously at hand; it was as essential a
part of the appointments as the rack containing your individual shaving mug
with your name thereon in letters of gilt. Forty and fifty years ago, and
even less, the barber-shop was the congregation place in every town,
community or neighborhood from Coast to Coast where the weighty questions of
the athletic world were discussed and decided. The proprietor, through
pronounced loquacity and his opportunity for protracted study of the Gazette
pages, was usually the authority whose opinion decided all arguments
pertaining to sports. And when in doubt, then the "Answer to Correspondents"
department of the Fox weekly was depended on.
In an indirect way, the Ryan-Goss fistic event was responsible for
Richard K. Fox becoming the champion medal, belt and trophy giver of the
world. Following the Ryan-Goss fight the Gazette proprietor then became
known as the backer of the new champion and he matched the latter for
$5,000. for a contest with John L. Sullivan, of Boston, who was just then
beginning to attract some renown.
12) THE BOXING MATCH OF JOHN L. SULLIVAN AND PADDY RYAN:
Sullivan had been brought to New York by William Muldoon in March,
1881. Muldoon, while on one of his early tours as wrestling champion, made
an appearance in Boston, where John L., who had gained some local prominence
for his fistic prowess, was brought to Muldoon's attention. The wrestling
champion sponsored Sullivan's appearance at Harry Hill's resort and the
Boston boy's quick knockout victory over steve Taylor was attended with so
much acclaim that John L. was hailed as the coming champion. Through the
efforts of Fox and wide publicity through his Gazette, the match between
Paddy Ryan and Sullivan was arranged. It was fought at Mississippi City,
Mississippi, February, 1882, and Fox's champion, Ryan, was vanquished in
eleven minutes____a happening that was not without significance to the
future of the Gazette, and that reacted to its prosperity, though to some
dissatisfaction for its owner.
13) GAZETTE OWNER INTRODUCES FIRST OF SPORTING TROPHIES:
It furthered a long-standing enmity between Fox and Sullivan and led
to the Gazette owner introducing the first of his great array of sporting
trophies, the Police Gazette diamond belt for the heavyweight boxing
championship of the world.
This donation was followed up by that of two belts valued at $1,500.
each, one of which went to Jack Dempsey, the Nonpareil, as middleweight
boxing champion, and the other to Jack McAuliffe, as peer of the
lightweights. Then came the featherweight championship belt: cost $1,000.;
holder, Ike Weir, sometimes known as the Belfast Spider.
Another $2,500. diamond belt that proved a valuable advertising medium
was the "Richard K. Fox Six-Day-Go-As-You-Please Trophy." Sir J. Astley, a
British sportsman, had presented a belt for pedestrian racers in 1878, which
was won by Daniel O'Leary at Agricultural Hall, Islington, London, and
lasted from March 18 to 23, during which period a distance of 520 miles, 2
laps were covered. It was an international affair, and the second race for
the belt was promoted in Gilmore's Garden in December of the same year.
Edward Payson Weston went to London the following year, after an English
walker had captured the Astley Trophy, and brought it back to this country.
Then Fox put up his belt, which was far more valuable, and six-day walking
was converted into the go-as-you-please foot racing and this form of
athletic endeavor had a considerable vogue under the Gazette sponsorship.
So much valuable advertising came to Fox and his Gazette as a result
that he followed up with a veritable deluge in his offerings of belts and
trophies and medals. Two of the holders whose names still mean something
were Gus Hill, winner of the club-swinging medal, who later became rich and
renowned in the theatrical world, and Annie Oakley, whose medal pronounced
her the female rife-shooting champion. All descriptions of memorials for
victors were presented, for rowing, wrestling, weight lifting, foot racing,
fencing and every other branch of sport. One of the events Fox promoted, a
swimming race across East River between Butler and Sundstrum, got the
publisher in trouble with the police____because it took place on the
Sabbath.
The offerings were not confined to athletic prowess. The champion
singer was favored, so were champion dancers of various styles, and the
avalanche even included the champion rat-catcher, one-legged dancer,
oyster-opener, steeple-climber, and almost everything imagintion could
conceive. Medal contests that made for much interest and hilarity were those
where the rewards were bid for by the champion claimants among the
bartenders and the barbers. The one to decide the champion mixer of drinks
was a pronounced success, only that bids for the positions of judges to pass
on the virtues of the various concoctions were so numerous they almost drove
Fox and his assistants to drink. Even then, it was hard to find a judge who
was able to give a calm and unbiased opinion as to the most palatable
mixture of the bartender's art after the connoisseur had put in a couple
earnest hours at his task. A man could not be expected to be "as sober as a
judge" under the conditions.
And the hair-cutting tournament had its drawbacks as well. Those on
whom the tonsorial experts were permitted to display their speed and
workmanship had the inducement of free admission to the contests and a
hair-cut gratis. The use of clippers was not permitted during the operation,
and only the regulation scissors could be used under rules. But when the
barbers came dashing with implements bared toward those ready to make the
hirsute sacrifice, in more than one instance the man in the chair made a
hurried leap from the platform and made his exit with a yell of dismay. The
winning performance was done inside of thirty seconds, so maybe the person
having his hair cut was taking something of a chance.
14) FOX'S LIBERALITY AS A DONOR OF TROPHIES AND BACKER OF
ATHLETES ATTRACTS ALL MANNER OF CRANKS:
Mr. Fox's liberality as a donor of trophies and a backer of athletes
drew the attention of all manner of cranks in no time and things got so
annoyingly bad in this way that the Gazette owner, in an interview for the
New York World, said he was seriously thinking of starting a crank's
carnival.
One chap wrote from Chicago: "I propose to walk seven hundred (700)
miles in one hundred and thirty-four (134) hours, covering this distance by
walking around an ordinary flour barrel four thousand one hundred and
ninety eight (4198) laps to a mile." All Fox had to do was to pay the rent
of Madison Square Garden for one week and stand all training expenses and
"please send $50." He would furnish the barrel. The Gazette publisher was
inclined to favor this proposition providing the sport from Chicago would
guarantee to do his walking inside, instead of outside, the barrel.
Try to figure this one out. Fox could not. It was a letter from
Baltimore, dated February 28, 1882, and read as follows:
"me and George Kassidy an dan Kollyer is willin to bet $10. that you
ain't got the nerve to back me for $50. that I don't cut the hart out of any
man that says I can't walk from Baltimore to N.Y. without swimmin."
A party from Washington, D.C., desired backing to fight any man a duel
at forty yards with buckshot. "The toughest man in the world" wrote from
Norfolk, Va.: "I have been kicked three blocks just the same as if I was a
football, had three ribs broken, and lost one eye, yet ten days after I was
around better than if I was new." From Leadville, R.O. Tuttil requested
backing to meet any man in the world: " I am the man that fought 48 hours
with his throat cut and then his heart near broke because his sekonds would
not let him fight 48 hours longer." Promptly on receipt of this the
proprietor of the Police Gazette, so we are informed, sent Tuttil a ton of
coal in an envelope. Maude de Viere, P.O. Cincinnati, desired backing as a
pedestrian, having had much experience as a member of several disbanded
barnstorming troupes. She was advised to join another company that made
longer jumps.
When Sullivan knocked out Ryan there came a deluge of offers from
would-be pugilists. "Nibsey" Guff, of Denver, stood ready to bet "his
insides" he could do the trick of besting the champion. But the prize
proposition came from John T. Errotin, Baltimore:
"Now that Sullivan has defeated your representative I suppose that you
are thirsting for satisfaction. I can show you how to get it. You remember
that after the fight between John C. Heenan and Tom Sayers and the former
was skinned out of the belt he was to receive, Heenan offered to take Sayers
by the hand and jump off the top of a house together. I am prepared to jump
off the top of the Police Gazette building with Sullivan, provided you agree
to my terms.
" 1st____you must give me $2,500. to leave to my family.
" 2d____You shall print my picture on the front page of the Gazette
with the line "Champion Jumper of the World" beneath."
V
15) THE RICHARD K. FOX BUILDING
In a little more than five years from the day Fox had made his modest
start as an editor, the National Police Gazette had become such a pronounced
success that even the spacious quarters of the six-story building at 183
William, corner Spruce Street, had been outgrown, and in 1881 he saw the
foundations laid for a new building, seven stories high, on the corner of
Pearl and Dover Streets, which signaled the fact that the Gazette was now to
have a home of its very own. Mr. Fox was a very proud man when he moved into
the Richard K. Fox building shortly after the New Year, 1883. Its cost had
gone beyond the quarter-million mark in dollars, a considerable fortune at
the moment.
As he stepped into his private offices Mr. Fox knew that he was
standing above historic ground. For the earth beneath had once been the site
of the private cottage of another great editor, Benjamin Franklin, in whose
honor the adjacent elevated railroad station had been given the name of
Franklin Square. Looking through the windows to the opposite corner he
could see the spot where the first mansion ever built for a president of the
United States had stood. Where George Washington had once made his official
home a tremendous gray column of stone had arisen, the anchorage of the new
Brooklyn Bridge, which marvelous engineering feat was close to completion.
The gigantic span that made the first foot passageway between New York
and Brooklyn was very soon to provide the Gazette with a news and pictorial
feature that made for one of the prize numbers of the paper. On Memorial
Day, 1883, two days after the bridge had been officially thrown open to the
public, and while the structure was black with people, a panic was started
by a couple of pickpockets and there came frightened cries that the
suspension bridge (which many considered a fool undertaking) was giving way,
and in the mad rush and confusion that followed twelve persons were fatally
injured. From the roof of Mr. Fox's building his artists were able to get
views of the horror that gave much work for their able pencils and added
considerable to the realism of the pictures they gave to the world.
Undoubtedly the Fox Building was one of the landmarks of New York City
almost half a century ago. It was one of the tallest then thrown against the
skyline, also a not unimposing example of architecture, and the adornments
of the exterior structural ironwork which portrayed athletes in action drew
their share of comment and observation. In addition there was one other
feature that made it familiar to countless eyes and that added to its
prominence: on the Dover Street side of the building was a clock that
overlooked the bridge and that was an object of no little fame. At one time
there were four prominent timepieces on the Manhattan river fronts by which
the day of a vast number of people was regulated. Those passing along the
North River side were greeted by the clock over the Pennsylvania Railroad
ferry-house and another above the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad
depot. On the East River shore the dial on the Long Island Railroad station
and that on the home of the Gazette could be scanned. Back in the eighties,
when such a great percentage of the daily human traffic was diverted in the
direction of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Gazette's illuminated clock was
probably the best known of all. One day it chanced to be a few minutes
behind time and indignant letters of complaint came to the Fox offices "by
the hundreds" from those who had been made late to their work, and care had
to be taken from then on that the clock should be kept correct to the
second.
One flight up through a spacious entrance and a wide-staired hallway
finished in oakwood with landings of the new tile composition, the whole
being nothing short of elaborate, we came into the offices, reception
parlor, and general business quarters of the publication. Its appointments
were described as better fitted to some dignified banking institution than
the editorial sanctum of a newspaper. "All its furnishings," we read in the
Gazeete, "are befitting a palace, the walls and ceilings are finished in
rare and costly woods, while the chandeliers which illuminate this scene of
business splendor are marvels from the hand of the skilled artificer in
metals and glass-work. The furniture in the main office was imported and is
modeled on rare old articles in the Louvre...everything is rich and costly
yet restrained within the bonds of the most rigid taste."
Mr. Fox was "putting on the dog," as the slang-slinging element would
put it today.
And here was the spacious room that had been arranged into a sort of
museum for the display of the numerous Fox trophies; a place that was the
mecca of not only those having the sportive interest, but of countless other
visitors from all parts of the country. Such was its popularity that a
uniformed attendant was stationed at the door to make one welcome and to
give such information as might be desired concerning the various prizes and
unique objects and pictures on display. The walls were hung with paintings
in oil of the new fistic wonder and champion, John L. Sullivan, of Buffalo
Bill, and of the other heroes of the day; Richard K. Fox, of course, was
also in this gallery. Set against stands of plush or velvet there was on
view the collection of medals and prizes about to be donated to the winners
of some new contests projected by the progressive proprietor. The fighting
colors of all the ring notables were suspended about and conspicuous space
was given to the huge Police Gazette dumbbell, which was said to weigh one
thousand and thirty pounds, and on which numerous strong men had tested
their muscular ability in attempts to raise it a record number of times. The
new steam bicycle," forerunner of the motorcycle, was exhibited here for a
few days. Here all the noted ones of the sports world were wont to assemble,
and here through at least two decades practically every important match was
arranged that touched on the interest of the athletically inclined.
There is no question but that the Fox Building was the sporting center
of the world, and that this fact, together with Mr. Fox's annual trips
abroad, had much to do with making the name of Fox and his Gazette
internationally famous. The man had a genius for advertising, or "selling
himself," as we would put it now. He had a uniformed corps of newsboys whose
regalia was patterned after that of the members of the metropolitan police
force. There was a baseball team known as the Fox nine which took part in
contests all about the vicinity. He paid Jim Keenan, the Boston sportsman,
$10,000, for his fast trotter and changed the name of this equine beauty
from Emma B. to Police Gazette. On the window of your place of business you
were liable to find a sticker pasted which advised you to "Read this week's
issue of the Police Gazette"; you were even liable to find such a sticker
on the sweatband of your hat when you removed it from its peg in the place
where you chanced to dine.
VI
16) THE GAZETTE WAS IN VERY LITTLE DEMAND AS ADVERTISING MEDIUM
FOR QUITE A FEW YEARS.
And yet, for all its leaps in circulation and the furore its pink
pages created, it was in very little demand as an advertising medium for
quite a few years. Even after the Gazette had established itself in Franklin
Square, not more than one of its sixteen pages was taken up with
advertising, and, what is more, a full column and a quarter of the four
columns that made up a page was devoted exclusively to bringing your
attention to the publications of the Fox offices. In the fifth year of the
Fox regime most of the Gazette features had been accorded literary
distinction by being put into book form. There were then over twenty of
these books in circulation, with four more titles promised for early
circulation, the "Mysteries of Mormonism," "Folly's Queens," "Paris by
Gaslight," and the " Assassin's Doom" being in preparation. "Glimpses of
Gotham," to which reference has already been made, and which was described
as "the best and cheapest book ever published," was soon in its fifth
edition and had already a sale of 150,000 copies. The price was thirty cents
by mail.
Though one of the advertisement columns had the heading,
"Amusements," and the Gazette made some pretensions to being a theatrical
organ, not one of the so-called legitimate playhouses bought space here,
which could be had first at fifty and now at seventy-five cents per line.
Owney Geogheghan's paid notice took up the most prominent position and ran
thirty-five lines, telling of his new summer garden, 105 Bowery, which was
described as "free and easy." Attention was called to its boxing and
wrestling hall equipped with three regulation rings. McGlory's Variety and
Dancing Hall, 105 Hester Street, claimed to be "the liveliest resort in
Gotham." Harry Hill's was advertised as the rendezvous of all the champions
and featured a grand sacred concert every Sunday night. Cremorne Gardens,
104-108 West 32nd Street, laid stress in capital type on its "fifty
beautiful lady cashiers." Seven other similar places were mentioned,
including "The Old Wooden Rocker," and the "The Old Basket," which were in
the Bowery vicinity and also called attention to their "lady cashiers."
Not even one entire column was then devoted to "Medical"
advertisements, a type which was later so prevalent in the Gazette, and
which was to be the means in time of getting the paper into difficulties
with the postal authorities. Several patented compounds which promised to
cure very personal male disorders, including " Dr. Fuller's Youthful Vigor
Pills," invited attention to their wares. J.C. Allan Co., though avoiding
all mention of what their medicine prescribed for, promised "No. 1, will
cure any case in four days or less. No. 2, will cure the most obstinate
case, no matter of how long standing." Which was as far as their numbers
apparently needed to go.
Under "Miscellaneous" there was a message "To Ladies Only," which had
to do with the "Magic Beautifier" dispensed by Mrs. M.B.T. Gouraud, 48 Bond
Street. H.O. Brown, Salem, N.H., recommended that his "Secret Helper" be
sent for, providing "you want to win at cards. It will beat old sports." If
you sent thirty-five cents to W.Fox, box 33, Fultonville, N.Y., you were
privileged to see the picture of your future husband.
In all, not more than forty persons or concerns advertised through the
pages of the National Police Gazette in 1883. Take a look a couple of years
later!
17) THE GAZETTE INCREASES SPACE ALLOTMENT IN ADVERTISING SECTION:
Now, two entire pages were given over to advertisements and only two
or three were concerned with Fox offerings. And advertising rates had jumped
to one dollar per line. Gazette books now had but slight mention, but Fox's
"cabinet size, exquisitely finished photographs" monopolized a column and
listed for ten cents each the likenesses of prominent sporting men and
actresses "in tights" or "otherwise"; that is to say, in costume or bust
pose. There were fully one hundred each of the photos of pugilists and
baseball players. Among the pugs were Sullivan, Jake Kilrain, Charley
Mitchell, Billy Edwards, Peter Jackson, Prof. Donaldson, Mike Donovan and a
few old-times like Yankee Sullivan, John Morrissey, John C. Heenan, and a
couple of the newcomers, James J. Corbett, George Dixon, and also Miss Alice
Jennings, the chmpion female pugilist of New York. Of the ball players
Adrian Anson, Mike Kelly and Dan Brouthers are probably names still on the
lips when the so-called national game is in discussion; though Darby
O'Brien, Mickey Welch, Billy Nash, Mike Tiernan, Buck Ewing, Roger Connor,
and such company are names that ought to be still green in the memory of all
lovers of the diamond. Also among the ball players we find John K. Tener,
who became the Governor of his State, and Charles Comiskey, now a major
league magnate; also Billy Sunday, then referred to with more dignity as
William A. Sunday.
William Muldoon headed the list of the twenty wrestlers pictured, and
Fred Taral that of the jockeys. Jacob Schaefer and George Slosson still
carry significance to the cue wielders, but mostly through the achievements
of their namesakes. As to the then noted among the bike champions (male and
female) and the pedestrians, swimmers, oarsmen, runners, fighting dogs and
fighting cocks, and such others as were given place in this photographic
Hall of Fame, few, if any, of these names count today.
Under the head of "Miscellaneous," though hardly to be counted as
prominent sporting personages in all cases, we find that the pictures were
to be had of Rev. H.W. Beecher, Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, Chief Inspector
Byrnes, Henry George, P.T. Barnum, Abe Hummel, Bob Ingersoll, General
Sheridan, President Harrison, W.E. Gladstone, William H. Cody, Steve Brodie,
and Queen Victoria.
Every other week the actresses were listed. In costume; Lillian
Russell, Mary Anderson, Rose Coghlan, Mrs. Kendal, Marie Wainwright,
Modjeska, Ellen Terry, Sara Bernhardt and one hundred others. Some of them,
like Lotta, Pauline Hall, Clara Morris, Sara Jewett, Camille D'Arville,
Marie Halton, Marie Jansen, Kate Claxton and Lydia Thompson, ought still to
be remembered. Actresses, showing bust: Corinne, Ada Rehan, Letty Lind, Mrs.
Langtry, Minnie Maddern, Ida Siddons, Marie Tempest, Rosina Vokes, Cora
Tanner, Fanny Janouschak and La Belle Fatima. Actresses, in tights; Pauline
Markham, Anna Boyd, Annie Summerville, Fanny Rice, Nellie Farren, Vernona
Jarbeau, Laura Burt, May ten Broeck and several scores of others who could
fill the requirements, if you know what I mean. Five Spanish dancers were
also pictured, including the Senoritas Carmencita and Otero.
Only forty-one photos of actors were listed, of which, just to mention
a half-dozen or so, we note Edwin Booth, Neil Burgess, Digby Bell, J.K.
Emmett, Gus Williams, Tony Pastor, Lester Wallack and N.S. Woods___do you
remember N.S. Woods, the youthful actor who used to stir the gallery gods in
"The Boy Detective," and "The Streets of New York"?
Richard K. Fox also advertised other wares in which he was interested.
The firm dealt in boxing-gloves and also in magic lanterns. About the
latter, which ran in cost from $15. to $100., we will quote just a few lines
from the advertisement: " To heighten the joys of the family fireside,
nothing excels the advantage offered by our Magic Lantern, Dissolving View
Apparatus, or a Stereopticon with appropriate slides offering a charming,
sociable evening entertainment, combining amusement and instruction. As a
money making business...only make an intelligent public aware that you are
prepared to give such entertainments and you will have little difficulty in
procuring engagements."
Let us look a little further through the advertising page. Miss
Flossie Lee, who could be addressed at Augusta, Me., concedes, "I am the
acknowledged belle of my own city, and have beaux by the score, but wish to
extend my acquaintance over the whole country." She offered full-sized
cabinet pictures of herself and one dozen photos of "charming young lady
friends, sweet bewitching girls, making in all 13 exquisite pictures for 25
cents."
F. B. Teel offered a photo of your future husband or wife for six
cents; of course, one could not expect too much for six cents. Under "Agents
Wanted" the Standard Silverware Company, Boston, offered a horse and buggy
free to their representatives. The Standard Card Co., Oswego, New York,
through the "Sporting Goods" notices, offered "readers and strippers for all
games, fine holdouts, loaded dice, crap ringers, etc." The Pedine Co.
advertised a remedy to make the feet smaller among "Toilet Articles," and
another medical concern described the efficaciousness of a cure, in language
that indicated that the word halitosis was not then part of the dictionary.
An important notice at the top of the advertising pages called
attention to the fact that the Gazette would not under any circumstances
publish advertisements of a "lewd, obscene or fraudulent character," and
then added a line: "The proprietor will not hold himself responsible for the
advertiser's honesty."
Despite these assurances we discover that this form of advertising
constituted more than fifty per cent of the Gazette advertising notices.
There were more than a half-hundred charlatans apparently finding it
profitable to utilize the expensive Fox pages, some to the extent of a
quarter of a column or more. They dealt in the main with exaggerated
promises in the cure of venereal diseases, and with libidinous pictures and
reading matter.
"Do you want to know all about it?" queries the Universal Publishing
Co., Box 156, Moorehead, Minn. "Then send 50c. for the illustrated and
handsomely bound "The Mysteries of Marriage," very choice and piquant
perusal, giving more information than you could obtain in ten years of
married life."
Through the Climax Publishing Co., 55D, Chicago, an advertisement
advises that a lady who admits to having a turned-up nose and who is
likewise "plain looking" wants a husband who must be good and affectionate.
Such a mate will collect $5,000. and "one year later, if we are living
together, I will give him $10,000 and $20,000 in real estate." The paper
recommends itself to ladies and gentlemen "for Amusement or Matrimony."
"Marriage and its results with 14 Vivid pictures," photo of your
future husband or wife, together with a "teasing love letter" and 15
valuable secrets, could be had for 25c. for the lot, by addressing the West
Supply Co., St. Louis, Mo.
Of the Half-hundred advertisements that dealt with cures for venereal
diseases and with "sexual invigorants" and the like, the wonder is not only
that the Gazette managed for so long to evade a legal knockout for the
things they put in print in the way of advertising, but that these
advertisements should find so many gullibles to part with their money for
such fraudulent promises, as:
"Dr. Sanden's Electric Belt, cures Nervous Debility, Seminal Weakness,
Impotence, Lumbago, Rheumatism, Kidney and Bladder Complaints, Dyspepsia,
Malaria, Piles,"____and might have added "what have you" if the phase had
then been in vogue. "We positively guarantee it to cure or money refunded.
Beware of imitations. Our $5. belt contains 26 degrees of strength; our $10.
one four times stronger." Sanden Electric Co. 822 Broadway, N.Y., or 169 La
Salle St., Chicago. Dr. Sanden had opposition in the same line from Dr. W.
Young, 146 E. 19th street, N.Y., and Dr. Owen, 191 State Street, Chicago,
but Dr. Young did not promise anywhere near as much in his catalogue of
cures, and Dr. Owen's cheapest contrivance was $6. and offered only 10
degrees of strength.
"Weak Men whose Vitality is Failing, Brain Drained and Exhausted will
find a perfect and reliable cure in the French Hospital Remedies....free
consultation (office or mail) with six eminent physicians Free. Civiale
Agency, 174 Fulton Street, N.Y."
Sexual power positively and permanently increased by "delicious
Mexican Confection....Restores Vigor, Snap and Health of Youth. Address San
Mateo Med. Co., P.O. Box 481, St. Louis, Mo."
Youthful Indiscretion (self-abuse or excess) resulting in loss of
memory, spots before the eyes, "defective smell," nervousness, weak back and
quite a few other ailments, should get in communication with Dr. Jas.
Wilson, Box 156, Cleveland, O., mentioning this paper, for an "instrument
worn at night, and this never failing remedy" will enable one to affect a
cure without a doctor. This advertisement points out that "all men, young
and old, suffering from above afflictions lead a life of misery." We should
think they would, particularly from "defective smell."
Something for nothing cn be had from J. H. Reeves, P.O. Box 2320, N.Y.
He promises to send victims of youthful imprudence a simple means of
self-cure which he has chanced to discover "after having tried every known
remedy in vain. Free to fellow sufferers."
Married Ladies or those contemplating marriage, send 10c. for postage,
&c., for a sample package of Hart's Celebrated F.P., particulars regarding a
"Boon to Woman" and information to every lady. Union Specialty Co., New
Haven, Conn.
From these excerpts one can form a good idea of what was once a very
profitable source of revenue to the Police Gazette and can be regarded as a
sign of the times. Today this type of advertising, even if passed by the
censor, would hardly receive the same space allotment. Have we become more
moral, or less gullible? or both? A nice question for the historian and
sociologist.
Anyway, that was one distinct phase of the National Police Gazette in
its heyday. Before going into more detailed review of the various Fox
features in the way of reading matter and pictures, and as bearing on the
sinfulness of the metropolis, we must mention one other feature that had to
do with its popularity. Each week the leading barber, saloonkeeper, or hotel
proprietor of some little community had his picture presented in a special
column along with a few lines which made the reader acquainted with the
basis of his fame. Here was renown indeed, to be thus singled out above
your fellow man. For example:
The above portrait is that of George W. Mann, the baseball playing
barber of Birmingham, Conn. Mr. Mann is well known in the Nutmeg State as a
skillful tonsorial artist and an excellent ball player. He is pitcher of the
" Clipper," whose success is due to his good work.
Frank Class, whose portrait appears in this issue is proprietor of the
Track Hotel, Pine Brook, N.J. His place is the resort of all the sporting
fraternity of Paterson and Newark. Mr. Class is also the champion pigeon
shot of his State and has issued a challenge to shoot any man in New Jersey
of Pennsylvania.
What proud days for Mr. Mann and Mr. Class! And what prosperous ones
for Mr. Fox!
The National Police Gazette had a half-million circulation. Richard K.
Fox had his first million dollars.
Sins of New York
As "Exposed" by the Police Gazette
By Edward Van Every
Publisher: Frederick A. Stokes Company--New York
Copyright: 1930 3 Printings October 15, October 23 and October 30.
Prepared and Transcribed exclusively for the Brooklyn Information Pages: by Miriam Medina
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