Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

Franklin edited and published this paper for a number of years, and then sold it to his grandson. Meanwhile six other papers of all sorts had been born in Philadelphia, all having as part of their title the word Gazette. So in 1821, to avoid a constant confusion of names, the name was changed to The Saturday Evening Post, August 4, 1821.

The spirit of enterprise of that early day must have been put into the venture, for in 1839, it had a circulation of thirty-five thousand copies, the largest circulation of that day of any weekly in the United States. The most famous statesmen and writers of the time were among its contributors, and it ranked as the most important publication of the time.

The Saturday Evening Post, like other old newspapers, frequently passed into various ownerships, nearly all of whom were Philadelphians, but a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., owned it for a time, although the place of publication remained at Philadelphia, and finally it passed into the possession of Albert Smyth, of Philadelphia, whose publication it was when Mr. Curtis went to Philadelphia in 1876, to begin the career which has made him the most successful and most beloved of all publishers in all the world.

During the time that Philadelphia was in possession of the British, under Lord Howe, the publication was suspended, but after the last British “Tommy” marched away, the paper was revived and from that time to this day it has never missed an issue. With this record of over a century Mr. Smyth was justly proud and its ownership was a matter of pride, as well as the distinguished record of long service. He was fond of its history and tradition, and as he and Mr. Curtis were friends, it is not improbable that the latter’s interest in this old paper was fostered during these chats, and he began a little search on his own account for the intimate history of the paper, and before long, Mr. Curtis knew quite as much about it as did its proud owner.

Yet the paper was losing out, the circulation was steadily and surely diminishing, no one seemed to care. The editorship was entrusted to a reporter of the Philadelphia Times, who devoted his odd moments upon The Saturday Evening Post, at the elegant salary of ten dollars a week, and the articles published were just what a ten dollar editor would be expected to use.

A man with the vision and patriotism of Mr. Curtis could not help feeling regret that a paper with such traditions was allowed to run down, and he began to bargain with Mr. Smyth.

True it was only a name, but it had a long history and valuable heritage. Best of all, Benjamin Franklin had founded it, and that was an asset upon which Mr. Curtis could build.

Mr. Smyth went to Chicago, where he was interested in a gas project, and left The Saturday Evening Post in charge of a friend named Brady, but in 1897 Smyth died, leaving a sister as his only heir. She could not or would not finance the publication, and Brady turned to Mr. Curtis for the money to get out that week’s issue.

To Brady’s surprise Mr. Curtis told him that the name of the paper was not protected with a copyright, and that if the sister did not put up the money and an issue was missed anyone could take up the name.

Brady’s lawyer confirmed the statement. Mr. Curtis said he would not do anything like that, but told Brady he had nothing to sell. “However, I'll give you one thousand dollars for the paper, type and all.”