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The oldest of them was "The Commercial Advertiser," under the charge of Colonel William L. Stone. Then there were "The Evening Post," edited by William Coleman; "The Morning Courier" of James Watson Webb, and "The New York Enquirer" of Mordecai M. Noah, merged in 1829 into "The Courier and Enquirer"; "The Journal of Commerce," begun under the editorship of David Hale in 1827; "
The Standard" and "The Spirit of the Times," issued by William T. Porter. "The New York Mirror," edited by George P. Morris, in which N. P. Willis first attracted public attention, and "The Knickerbocker Magazine," commenced in 1833, were the only literary papers of the city. The dailies were sixpenny journals, and were distributed to regular subscribers. Newsboys were unknown, and though, upon the occurrence of some unusual event, a hundred extra copies were sometimes struck off, in view of a possible outside demand, the chances for the sale of these were so hazardous that few of the distributors oared to take the trouble and responsibility of offering them for sale."

On October 29, 1832, "The New York Globe," a two-cent paper, was issued by the elder James Gordon Bennett, who had been for several years connected with "The National Advocate" and "The Courier and Enquirer." The two-cent paper experiment proved unsuccessful, and just one month after its birth it died. In 1833 occurred one of the most important events in the history of the city, as well as the whole country—the establishment of the penny press, an institution which opened the way for cheap literature and tended emphatically to make of the people "the greatest reading nation of any on the globe." It originated in the brain of Dr.
Horatio David Sheppard, a young medical student, "rich in hopes, but lacking in money," who vainly endeavored to persuade his friends of the feasibility of the scheme. His idea that a spicy journal, offered everywhere by boys at the low price of one cent, would be bought with avidity was scouted by all the journalists of the city. He succeeded, however, in prevailing upon Horace Greeley and Francis Story, who were establishing a printing office, to get out his paper on a week's credit, but with the proviso that he fix the price at two cents a copy. On January 1, 1833, he issued "The Morning Post," his projected paper, in the midst of
a violent snowstorm, which checked the sale and disheartened the few newsboys engaged to sell it.

At the end of the first week he met the promised payment; the second week his receipts barely covered half his expenses, and at the expiration of the third the printers, almost destitute of capital and finding no way' of getting it from the young publisher,
were compelled to refuse him further credit. The paper ceased publication, and Dr. Sheppard, discouraged at his ill success, abandoned the ranks of journalism and returned to his profession. Another person, Benjamin H. Day, who in 1829 had commenced the publication of "The Daily Sentinel," took up the idea of the penny paper, and on September 3, 1833, issued " The Sun," the first one-cent paper ever published in New York. His paper was sneered at and despised by its more pretentious contemporaries, and Dr. Sheppard, discouraged at his ill success, abandoned the ranks of journalism and returned to his profession. Another person. Benjamin H. Day, who in 1829 had commenced the publication of "The Daily Sentinel," took up the idea of the penny paper, and on September 3, 1833, issued "The Sun," the first one-cent paper ever published in New York. His paper was sneered at and despised by its more pretentious contemporaries, but its cheapness commended it to the masses, and its circulation increased to eight thousand copies in less than a year. As it was the acknowledged organ of no party, and without the subscribers possessed by its powerful rivals, the proprietor of the one-cent paper, to insure a healthful circulation, struck upon the method first projected by Dr. Sheppard of hiring boys to work for him at $2 a week. Each boy was dispatched with 126 copies of the paper to different parts of the city, and was to cry the paper for sale to the passersby. In the course of two or three hours the papers were sold, and the boys came back for a fresh supply, which was given to them at a reduced rate. Thus originated the race of newsboys in New York, now naturalized in almost every city of the Union. Other publishers, seeing the success achieved by Benjamin H. Day, published an extra edition of their papers for the newsboys, while, by way of exchange, several of the regular distributors of these, finding that the profits of the boys amounted to more than their small weekly salaries, set to work to procure subscribers to "The Sun," and to establish newspaper routes as private speculations. And thus were established some of our large newspaper distributing companies.

An authority says: "The most curious fact in the history of this first penny paper was the publication of the celebrated 'Moon Hoax,' or discoveries in the moon, written by Richard Adams Locke, at that time Editor of 'The Sun.' It purported to be an account of Sir John F. W. Herschel's discoveries at the Cape of Good Hope, taken from 'The Supplement of The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' and was written with every appearance of consistency. To disarm suspicion a scientific description of an ingeniously invented telescope by which these discoveries had been made was given. The author then proceeded to delineate the geographical features and the inhabitants of the moon with such graphic power and show of probability that the gravest journals swallowed the bait and took the account as .an historical fact, though they were piqued at the lucky chance which had thrown the earliest intelligence of so important a discovery into the hands of the despised penny paper. One journal, on the day after the story of the lunar discoveries appeared in 'The Sun,' gravely assured its readers that it had also received the account by the same mail, but through want of sufficient space was unable to publish it. The article was copied and commented on throughout the country by other papers, and Sir John Herschel was everywhere extolled as the greatest discoverer of the age. Enthusiasts even began to speculate on the possibility of opening telegraphic communication with their newly described neighbors. When the hoax was discovered universal merriment was excited, but the offence was not soon forgotten or forgiven by the cheated contemporaries of the paper which had issued the canard," In 1838 Day disposed of his paper to Moses Y. Beach for $38,000.

A second one-cent paper, "The Transcript," was published in 1834, and continued until 1839. Then another, "The Moon," was issued, which survived two or three years^ A fourth one, "The Morning Star," soon after made its appearance, as did "The Morning Dispatch," published in 1839 by Day, owner of the first one-cent paper. They proved failures.

Some of the old time journalists made their debut during this period. On March 22, 1834, Horace Greeley, Jonas Winchester and E. Sibbett began the publication of "The New Yorker," printed at first on a large folio sheet and afterward in two forms, folio and quarto, the former at $2 and the latter at f 3 a year. Park Benjamin was a contributor to its columns, and in 1840 Henry J. Raymond, afterward editor of "The New York Times," then a recent graduate of Burlington College, Vt., began his editorial career on it at a salary of $8 a week. On May 6, 1835, "The New York Herald" made its appearance as a two-cent paper, under the auspices of James Gordon Bennett, either of the present owner, and Anderson & Smith, printers in Ann street. A few months after its publication the office and printing establishment were destroyed by fire, Anderson & Smith withdrew from the firm, leaving the paper in the control of the elder Bennett. "The New York Express" was issued in June of the same year by James and Erastus Brooks, and on April 10, 1841, "The Tribune" appeared, edited by Horace Greeley, with the assistance of Henry J. Raymond. It was a daily one-cent paper. The foregoing may be called the senior papers of New York.

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