London Penny-A-Liners and Cortland Capitalists

The Cortland News, March 28, 1884.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   The Cortland capitalists are preparing to rebuild their burned district. Handsome brick structures will take the place of those destroyed by fire—Syr. Courier. Cortland's misfortunes serve to call out the pluck of her citizens.

   At a meeting of the trustees of the Union School District, held March 20, Col. Place was elected president, Prof. C. S. Sanderson was chosen secretary, and a committee was appointed to select a site for the new school-house.

   Since the failure to adopt the resolution appropriating $60 to pay for gas to illuminate the "opaque moon" in the Squires building, that one-dial arrangement has been so dark that wayfarers have hardly been able to find the post office at night. Sing, in a wishful tone, "Arise and Shine," etc.

   Mr. Charles H. Garrison, of Troy, president of the Cortland & Homer Street Railway Company, arrived in town on Monday. Matters in regard to the crossing of the railroad tracks are to be pushed as rapidly as possible.

   Mr. Doud, the new Street Commissioner, in keeping the crosswalks free from mud, receives the thanks of all pedestrians and makes the right kind of a strike for popularity.

   The annual meeting for the election of officers of the Library Association will be held at the residence of Mrs. M. E. Doud, on Tuesday afternoon, at 4 o'clock. A prompt and full attendance is desired.

   The new Sayings Bank safe is not only fire and burglar proof but air and water proof. The two inside doors shut against rubber; the hinges of the doors are supplied with levers to throw out that end of the doors first, and until that is done the doors cannot be opened; it is supplied with two combination locks and two time-clocks, which act independently of each other; and the entire mechanism is wonderfully fine.

   On the 21st inst. the Court of Appeals handed down its decision affirming the order of the General Term affirming the order of Judge Follett appointing the commissioners to fix the points and arrange the manner of crossing the street by the Cortland & Homer Horse Railway Company's tracks. This substantially ends the fight, although the D., L. & W. Railroad Company have appealed from the report of the commissioners, since it is left entirely with the commissioners to decide the question. Now the street car company can proceed upon a notice of five days to lay their tracks at the crossing, and this will be done as soon as the condition of the roads will permit.

   Mrs. John C. Goodwin, the woman who went to Easton last summer, advertised for sewing girls, secured money from them that they might learn her system of dressmaking, obtained a large amount of goods from merchants and left without paying her bills, has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment by judge Schuyler, for defrauding the Franklin House proprietor out of her board. Judge Schuyler refused to grant her a new trial, because he had no doubt of guilty intent in the woman's mind, and he regretted much that a "miscarriage of justice" had enabled her to escape in the suits brought against her by the sewing girls whom she defrauded. — Agents' Herald, Philadelphia. Our readers will doubtless recognize in Mrs. Goodwin a former resident of Cortland, known at that time as "Cassie Wells." We trust that the sewing girls will be more successful next time, and that the sentence will be for six years instead of as many months.

 

London Penny-A-Liners.

Their Habits and Practices—Bohemian Life in London.

   In a recent letter from London to the Louisville Commercial the writer describes in an interesting and vivid manner a peculiar  phase of newspaper life in the English metropolis. He says:
 

   In describing the London newspaper press of to-day it is no inappropriate beginning, I hope, to descend to the lowest round of the ladder, and to introduce your readers forthwith to the "penny-a-liner." He still exists—poor fellow— and at times plays an important part in the pages of daily journalism. Indeed, with a clear run of luck, I venture to state that the "liner" is the most read man of the day, and when he has chanced to fall on a great sensation, and is successful in retaining the monopoly, his readers are to be numbered by millions, and art limited only by the united circulation of the several prints publishing his "copy."

   The "liner," then, is "the picker-up of unconsidered trifles." As such he is attached to no one paper, but contributes to all. He belongs to no staff and acknowledges no superior. His daily work depends entirely upon his own selection and his anxiety at all hours is for news. When his search is successful, he proceeds to use his "blacks," a carbonized paper, his stylus, and his wits, in order to produce some six or eight "flimsies," which he afterward drops into the respective editors' "boxes" of Fleet street, in the hope that one, two, three, or even more of the journals of the following day may contain his item of intelligence.

   The liner is paid by the line for what is used only, and hence his income is a most precarious one. Perchance some windfall may put a heap of gold in his way, at rare intervals, but in the ordinary course his "flimsies" are thrown into the wastebasket as soon as received.

   Sub-editors are but human, and badly written, almost illegible, horribly spelled, and frantically ungrammatical expressions on commonplace subjects are liable to try their patience unduly. "Boil it down" is a rule which is not to the "liner’s" interest to observe. On the other hand, one of the chief qualifications of his craft is to enlarge, expand, distend, dilate the most matter-of-fact circumstances. Artful "liners" write a small, cramped hand, and leave no margin for corrections or space between the lines.

   If so fortunate as to secure some sort of engagement by one of the morning or evening papers, the "liner" has a stimulus to labor honestly, which most of his fraternity are without. There is every reason to suppose that low-class "liners" make the major part of their incomes out of the douciers they receive for suppressing reports. Provided there be a combination among them, they can safely promise to "keep it out of the papers,'' and they are sometimes bribed to hush up what probably never would have appeared at all, for it is the ignorant man who magnifies his personal affairs that is most desirous of paying hush money.

   The feeling of rivalry is so strong among "liners" that they do not hesitate to betray each other when it serves their purpose.

   An amusing incident is related by Mr. James Grant, formerly editor of the Morning Advertiser. A "liner" who, in those days, was allowed access to the sub-editor's room, placed on the table a report of the romantic elopement of a rich beauty with a stable boy. The sub-editor was absent, and before he returned another "liner" entered the room, saw the heading of the copy and purloined the news. Then he set to work to rewrite the statement, which was a most interesting one, and under his own name took it back to the office. The account duly appeared. Both "liners" sent in their bills, and the dishonest one was first at the cashier's counter, and went his way with his ill-gotten gains. On the arrival of the real author a scene ensued, and the subeditor was called upon to produce the MSS. On his doing so the victimized "liner" was bewildered to find that it was his rival's handwriting.

   A collision subsequently took place, in the sub-editor's presence, between the two "penny-liners,” and by and by the recriminations reached so great a height that the real author, determined to be revenged on his enemy at all hazards, broke out with great energy in these words:

   ''Sir, the article is mine. The man must have stolen the copy I left on your desk, for there is not a word of truth in the story. It was a pure invention of mine from beginning to end."