The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

DANA'S FIRST BIG NEWS MEN

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read copy continuously, Dr. Wood performed the remarkable feat of condensing through a reader. Willis
Holly read copy to him for months, six hours a night.
Holly might read three pages without interruption,
while Wood sat as silent as if he were asleep. Then"Throw out the introduction down to the middle of
the second page, begin with 'John Elliott killed,' and
cut it off at 'arrested him.'
Joseph C. Hendrix, who became a member of Congress
and a bank president, was a Sun cub reporter. One
night he was assigned to read copy to Dr. Wood. He
picked up a sheet and began:
"'The application of Mrs. Jane Smith for divorce
from her husband, John Smith —"
" Cut out 'her husband,"' said Wood.
' -who alleges cruelty,'" Hendrix continued, " in
that he —'" Here the reporter's writing was blurred,
and Hendrix, who could not decipher it, said " Damn!"
" Cut out the ' damn,' said Dr. Wood.
In keeping news down to the bone Wood was of
remarkable value to the Sun in those years when Dana
showed that it was possible to tell everything in four
pages. New York was smaller then, and display advertising had not come to be a science. The Sun got along
nicely on its circulation, for the newsdealers paid one
and one-third cents for each copy. With the circulation
receipts about fourteen hundred dollars a day, the advertising receipts were clear profit. Amos Cummings
had such a fierce disregard for the feelings of advertisers
that often, when a good piece of news came in late, he
would throw out advertising to make room for it.
The city editors of the Sun under Cummings were, in
order, John Williams, Lawrence S. Kane, Walter M.
Rosebault, William Young, and John B. Bogart. Williams, who had been a Methodist preacher, left the Sun