I Saved The New York Times

The New York Times Historic Records almost lost!

I'm sure my claim of saving The New York Times will meet with mixed reaction, especially when I emphatically insist I did it single-handedly. Most will say I'm a liar, not only a liar, but an arrogant senile old man that runs around shouting the sky is falling, not that it isn't. Yet, I know in my heart that it was I that personally saved The New York Times. It happened during the course of my newspaper publishing days thirty years ago in Southern California.

My mission in rescuing The Grand Ole Gray Lady of The Fourth Estate began with an urgent phone call to my newspaper office in Simi Valley from, John, a friend that figured I was the only person he knew to reach out to. My friend John lived in a little trailer park by the ocean just south of Santa Barbara, California. He drove a cab to maintain his lifestyle in the trailer park. He insisted I drop everything and hurry up the coast to his place to take a look at what had been dumped behind his twenty foot long travel trailer.

I was reluctant to leave my work in the middle of the day and drive the sixty miles to his low class neighborhood. But, after he explained the content of his newly acquired trash I was in my Chevy Luv truck and on my way to claim the trash for my own. I'd soon learn I'd stumbled upon a treasure trove tossed by someone that was obviously a complete idiot.

I was amazed when I looked at the stacks of elaborately bound volumes of The New York Times with the N.Y. Times masthead(logo) with respective dates published on each huge binder. Original copies of The New York Times dating back from 1916 up into 1921. They were soaking wet and I wondered if all that history could be salvaged. There were so many binders(over fifty) and I had to make two trips to deliver them to the garage at my house.

In time they dried out and the pages remain in the same condition as they would have even if they hadn't been soaked. These old papers have been my most valued possession since I rescued them from the trash off the coast of California over thirty years ago.

So, when I say I saved the New York Times I have placed the proof right here on the Internet. And, at age 73 it is time I found a good home for this historic era as seen by The New York Times. Serious collectors are invited to contact me anytime, initially at my e-mail address: ShoalCreekSage@aol.com Please include a relative reminder in the Subject Line so I don't delete your mail; something like, N.Y. Times Collection

President Wilson sends 100,000 troops to Texas,
Lt. George Patton assigned to capture Pancho Villa.

These pages are but .00001 percent representative of the extensive vault of photos in these bound editions of The New York Times with an estimated weight of several hundred pounds. In addition to the awesome photos there's the news content and advertising of the historical era of President Woodrow Wilson. Special sections feature topical circumstances of the times such as the Russian Revolution with articles by Trotsky, himself.

I've found interesting articles about persons prior to their full rise to fame. For example, a young Army Lt. by the name of George Patton was sent to the Mexican Border with orders to kill or capture Pancho Villa. There's coverage of WWI, President Wilson ordering 100,000 U.S. Army personnel to Texas to help Lt. Patton deal with Pancho Villa. Once trained, these unsuspecting soldiers were sent directly to
Europe to help end the war.(NOTE: These comments here are from my memory from reading the pages thirty years ago. Don't hold me responsible for having read the minds of President Wilson, young Lt. George Patton, or Pancho Villa.)

My recollections are admittedly likely to be biased, affected by how Pancho Villa with an army of less than 200 would justify 100,000 troops to stop his raids along the border. My suspicion is President Wilson used Pancho Villa raids as an excuse to train American recruits for combat in Europe.

A collection of history
as it was happening;

These photos show the bound daily editions in binders chronicled in order from one day to the next. The cabinet is one that I built from 4x8 sheets of plywood to arrange the volumes from 1916 up into 1921. My best estimate these editions contain a combined number of incredible photos that exceeds 250,000. The special section inserts that ran weekly are filled with full page phototography covering society, cultures, and WWI battles as they were happening.

F.W. Woolworth; a success story

Born to a poor farm family in upstate New York, F. W. Woolworth began his career by clerking in a general store in the local market center. Impressed with the success of a five-cent clearance sale, he conceived the novel idea of establishing a store to sell a variety of items in volume at that price. With $300 in inventory advanced to him by his employer, Woolworth started a small store in Utica in 1879, but it soon failed. By 1881, however, Woolworth had two successful stores operating in Pennsylvania. By adding ten-cent items, he was able to increase his inventory greatly and thereby acquired a unique institutional status most important for the success of his stores.

The growth of Woolworth's chain was rapid. Capital for new stores came partly from the profits of those already in operation and partly from investment by partners whom Woolworth installed as managers of the new units. Initially, many of the partners were Woolworth's relatives and colleagues.

The success of the chain between 1890 and 1910 was phenomenal. The company had 631 outlets doing a business of $60,558,000 annually by 1912. In that year Woolworth merged with five of his leading competitors, forming a corporation capitalized at $65 million. The next year, at a cost of $13.5 million, he built the Woolworth Building in downtown New York, the tallest skyscraper in the world at the time.

By 1915 Woolworth spent much of his time in Europe. When he died in 1919, the F. W. Woolworth Company, with over 1,000 stores, was perhaps the most successful retail enterprise in the world.(facts gathered from Internet)

Years before radio and television, the New York Times and other great newspapers throughout the world was the only way the population could know what was going on in the world. Large photos in special sections was extremely popular.

News coverage from down the street, around the town, across the state, the nation and around the world, that was the assumed duty of the papers like The New York Times at the turn of the last century. News was priority over advertising and commentary, although the political cartoonists were as brutal if not moreso than today.

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke, the Fatima Brand!
Cigarette advertising was mostly focused on elitists identity. The brand you chose in the early 1900's identified your social status. The Fatima brand was a lesser priced brand that overcame elitism by advertising taste as the most important aspect of any cigarette.