Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/178

Rh 1, 1883. Nathan L. Cole, a former St. Louis newspaper man, was the first editor.

In its first number, January 1, 1883, the News published an article which gives at once a glimpse of the Portland business district of that period, a glance at what a newspaper office was like a half century ago, and a few of the names of those engaged in getting out the paper. Here is the heading on the article.

The site was described as at First and Salmon. . . "on the ground floor of the magnificent blue stone front four-story business block of the Oregon Furniture Manufacturing Company, the largest and handsomest block of buildings (with one exception) in the city of Portland."

This is followed by a column-and-a-half description of the build ing and plant. In the course of a short description of the "countingroom," the reader is told that "within this frosted-glass screen are the gentlemanly clerks employed in the business department, which is under the charge and supervision of D. M. C. Gault, one of the most prosperous members of Oregon's legislature. [Years before, he had worked on both the news and business sides of the Statesman at Salem. The reference to "prosperity" of members of the legislature is vague but "intriguing."] The subscription books are under the care of Burnside Cromwell, an accomplished and polite young man from San Francisco, and more recently filling a position in the counting room of the Los Angeles Evening Telegram. . ." The editorial and news staff is now described:

. . Within these pleasant domains the men who make the paper grind out their daily grist, good, bad, or indifferent. They are Nathan Cole Jr., managing editor, formerly of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat; C. B. Carlisle, associate and night editor, formerly of the Virginia City Enterprise and lately of the Walla Walla Statesman; Charles Whitehead, city editor, for many years editor of the Kansas City Times, but lately on the San Francisco Examiner; E. F. Elliott, for some years editor on the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press and the Denver (Colo.) Mining Review, later on the Seattle Chronicle; M. F. Blake, familiarly known in Portland as "Fatty"