The story of the Sun, New York: 1833-1928 / by Frank M. O'Brien ; with an introduction by Edward Page Mitchell ...

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THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

elsewhere. In spite of the new spirit that pervaded the
office, however, it was still possible for the unregenerate
old subscriber to find some little space devoted to the
fistic clashes of Heenan and Morrissey.
The new management made a sort of department paper of the Sun, the front page being divided with the
headings "Financial," "Religious," "Criminal," "Calamities," "Foreign Items," "Business Items," and "Miscellaneous." It was not a bad newspaper, and it was quite
possible that some business men would prefer it to the
Beach kind of sheet; but it is certain that the advertisers were not attracted and that some readers were
repelled. One of the latter climbed the stairs of the
building at Fulton and Nassau Streets early one morning
and nailed to the door of the editorial rooms a placard
which read: "Be ye not righteous overmuch!"
During the Morrison regime the Sun refused to accept
advertisements on Sunday. Of course, the printers
worked on Sunday night, getting out Monday's paper,
but that was something else. The Sun went so far (July
23, 1861) as to urge that the Union generals should be
forbidden to attack the enemy on Sundays. "Our troops
must have rest, and need the Sabbath," it said.
'William C. Church, one of the rising young newspapermen of New York, was induce(l to become the publisher
under the Sun's new management. He was only twentyfour years old, but he had had a good deal of newspaper
experience in assisting his father, the Reverend Pharcellus
Church, to edit and publish the New York Chronicle.
After a few weeks in the Sun office, however, Mr. Church
saw that the paper, though daily treated with evangelical
serum, was not likely to be a howling success; and on