of The Times a minute, without being touched by hand, the papers coming from the press folded and ready for delivery. Every other improved article that can be put to use about a first-class newspaperoffice may be seen in the building. The employés of the company are given every accommodation. There is plenty of room to work, and yet such was the economic forethought in the erection of the building that the rents from it, exclusive of the room occupied by The Times, pay the interest on the investment. Though it had started without a list of subscribers, The Times within a year circulated, with a single exception, more than all the other morning newspapers of Philadelphia combined. Such skill in suggestiveness and such original thought were put into the make-up of The Times that its typographical features were soon acknowledged as without a superior. It has since served as a model for a number of newspapers which have been established in various parts of the country. In March, 1877, the management having long felt the want of extending the influence of The Times into very distant fields, issued the initial number of the Weekly Times, twice the size of the daily. A special feature of this weekly edition was the introduction of a series of papers upon various incidents and experiences of the Rebellion, written by leading participants in both armies, entitled "The Annals of the War." These articles, which are still continued, have been the means of saving to future historians of the great civil strife valuable material which otherwise would probably have been lost. Such of these annals as appeared in the first three or four years of the weekly have been published in a large octavo volume. In the following year The Times managers determined to make another advanced stride, by the publication of a Sunday issue. This purpose was carried into effect with some misgivings as being against all tradition, which had long ruled that no reputable daily paper could be issued on the Sabbath. In this new sphere The Times prospered from the outset, being the first daily paper of Philadelphia to successfully establish a Sunday issue. This was attempted by Col. Forney after his retirement from Washington to resume control of The Press, but he found public opinion so deeply set against it that his advertising was menaced, and he had to give the Sunday issue to outside parties. With the boldness of a paper whose advertising was yet in great part to be won, The Times came into the Sunday field at a period when the Quaker community had been liberalized by the Centennial Exposition, and now the Sunday issue of The Times is thought by many to be its strongest issue.

The Times, whose prosperity has hardly been precedented in American journalism, has not made itself, however. Its creators have been the master-minds which have given it intelligent editorial direction, and have made it a facile instrument in the moulding of public opinion.

Alexander K. McClure, the editor of The Times,

was born in Sherman's Valley, Perry Co., Jan. 9, 1828, and spent the early years of his life on his father's farm. He divided his time with his elder brother week about at the country school whenever it was held. Of his early school-days, a friendly biographer has said,—

"He was a leader in all the mischievous deviltry in the neighborhood and in the school, and one of his associates once told me that it was next to a standing custom with the country teacher 'to have prayers, and then thrash Alexander McClure. I have often known him to get whipped eight times a day.'

When fourteen years of age he left school and entered the service of James Marshall, of New Bloomfield, as an apprentice to the tanner's trade. During his apprenticeship, which came to a close in the spring of 1856, he had been in the habit of making frequent visits to the office of the Perry Freeman, where he used to rummage among and read the exchanges during odd moments. It was in this little printing-office that he had learned much more that was useful to him than he had gathered at school. He read a great deal there and often talked Whig politics with the well-informed editor, and before his apprenticeship with Mr. Marshall ended he had scribbled a few articles for the paper and they had been printed. Judge Baker, who now, as then, owns and edits the Freeman, had taken an interest in the boy while he was learning to be a tanner, and encouraged him not only to read the exchanges but to write. To the accident of this association he is indebted for his initiation into the sphere of journalism in which he is now so prominent.

Within a few months after the completion of his apprenticeship, the Whigs of Juniata County had written Judge Baker, the editor of the Freeman, asking him to recommend a good man to start a paper for them at Mifflin. He advised young McClure to undertake the task. The lad expressed grave doubts of his ability to edit a newspaper. He was not yet nineteen years old, and was only a tanner. The judge expressed perfect faith in his capacity. Gratified as he was at Mr. Baker's confidence in him, he still distrusted his power to successfully conduct a newspaper. He therefore asked the advice of the plain old man who had taught him the tanning busi