45

T.W. McCullough 'Comes Home' to World-Herald
After Half Century of Service on Omaha Papers

By T. W. McCullough
I am coming home again.

Returning to The World-Herald
is really just that, for I
was part of The World-Herald
when Mr. Hitchcock was bending
all his energies to establish a
great family newspaper in Omaha.
I was city editor of the
Omaha-Herald, owned by John A.
McShane, when Mr. Hitchcock,
bought the paper in August
1889, and consolidated it with the
Evening World, so that I have
a lively set of recollections of the
incident and of the public and
private reactions to the transaction
and the predictions that
were made.

At that time Omaha was over-
supplied with newspapers. A
count showed the Omaha Bee,
morning and evening editions;
the Omaha Herald, morning; the
Omaha Republican, morning; the
Omaha World, evening, and the
Omaha Dispatch, evening. Competition
between this array of organs
of opinion (and that is
about what they were, for it was
the golden age of personal journalism
locally) was bitter, and
the scene did not lack for lively
color.

Consolidation of the World and
the Herald foreshadowed what
has happened since. Within a
year Major Wilcox had abandoned
his Dispatch and acquired
the Republican from Fred Nye
and Frank Johnson, and before
another year was out the Republican
had yielded to the inevitable.
Omaha had two substantial
papers, each publishing morning
and evening editions.

Hitchcock, Rosewater,
Greatly Loved Men

The intervening years have
been full of interest and life.
As city editor of the Herald, I
went over to the new ownership
and was soon made night editor.
A year and a half later I was
night editor of the Bee, then city
editor, then managing editor,
then associate editor. One of the
pleasant thoughts I have is that
at no time was my personal
friendship for Mr. Hitchcock or
his associates diminished by the
loyalty and love I bore for Edward
Rosewater, who really was
a great man and loved by all
who knew him well, just as Mr.
Hitchcock was loved in his turn.

It would be remarkable if
the Omaha newspapers had not
gone ahead with the progress of
these years. The World-Herald
of today still has the spirit of
1889, and the name, but that is
about all. An eight-page sheet
during the week and a 12 or 16
page issue on Sunday taxed the
publishing facilities about to
their limit in 1889, and other
elements on the paper were in
proportion.

Yet the papers were good for
their day; infinite pains were
spent in their preparation, just
as prevails today, and no one
needs be ashamed of having been
connected with one of the Omaha
papers when The World-Herald
was born of the confluence, if I
may use that word, of two lesser
streams of journalistic thought.
And just as three lovely mountain
streams combine their
torrents to form the mighty Missouri,
so did the flowing together
of two good Omaha papers in
time produce one of mightier
power and influence.

Unstinted Exertion
to Build Up City

So I am glad to be associated
with The World-Herald again in

(IMAGE)
T.W. McCullough..."like a
lusty winter."

a way that I hope will be useful.
I have spent a long lifetime in
and around newspaper officers,
and while I never was afraid of
one, each passing day has increased
my awe of the potentiality
of the newspaper, its influence
for good or evil, and I
firmly believe that through all
the years I have been in Omaha
the editors of the newspapers
have exerted themselves unstintedly
to build up the city, to
conserve its good name, and to
benefit and protect its citizens.
Difference of opinion has existed
from time to time as to methods,
but the end was always the
same.

In coming home again, as I
cross the threshold, I feel a
breath of the past. I will not see
G.M. Hitchcock, sitting in his
little 8x10 pen at the front of
the office. Nor will "Bob"
Peattie, managing editor, be
there to greet me with his smile;
nor Elia Peattie, whose smile
was as winning as that of her
husband, nor Mary Holland Little,
who was the first girl reporter
in Omaha, an innovation
of the Herald whose city staff
was graced by two clever women,
Mrs. Peattie (who did specials)
and Mrs. Little (who did everything
from "police" to political
meetings), who was lovely as a
woman should be, but who could
write like a man and cover the
toughest assignments perfectly.

Many Brilliant
Newspaper Workers

Al Fairbrother will not be
there, nor Sands Woodbridge, nor
Dick Metcalf, nor "Doc" Tanner.
Dave Cartan will not bring in his
brilliant critiques of the current
play at the Boyd or the Grand
theaters; Charlie Perrin will no
longer cover general sports, nor
will Carl Smith provide his classical
accounts of baseball games.
Major John Corey, whose veneration
for the "flimsy" was so
sublime he thought a press report
could not be condensed, and
who was horror stricken at times
when he saw what I did to mere
words, I will no longer edit the
night telegraph news. Nor Long
who did the work on the day
side, nor Lee Helsley, nor Dan
Shelley, nor Charlie Connor, nor
Raymond Austin Eaton, of whom
a thousand stories, all true,
might be written. Nor Will Bert
Fowler, Roger Craven, Frank
Morrisey or Jim Crawford, be
there to greet me as I enter.
Gallant gentlemen all, and lovely
ladies. Many of them went on to
much higher places, but all were
good newspaper workers, brilliant
and capable.

In the counting room was
Frank J. Burkley, who acquired
some permanent wrinkles worrying
over problems that didn't
bother the editorial department,
and Andy Bethge, who passed
out the pay envelopes with a
never failing smile, Billy Dox and
"Humpy" Smith saw that the
papers were properly mailed or
counted out to the carriers;
"Billy" Crounse kept track of the
circulation details. Among the
advertising solicitors were big
John Oliver and Bob Douglas,
whose ambition to be the best
dressed man in Omaha was nearly
realized. In the composing
room was William "Bagpipes"
McDiarmid, in a class by himself;
W.J. "Scotty" Scott, and
Bill Boyer, splendid printers, always
ready to help in any emergency.
Jake Reiner and Frank
Wallace looked after the presses
and Matt Reiner and Lou Conoly
did the stereotyping.

Carl Smith's Extra,
an Omaha Sensation

Some real feats of journalistic
endeavor were accomplished
by the "gang." Carl Smith's high
effort was when he produced an
extra, single-handed, giving the
story of the murder of "Charlie"
Poore. "Smithy" was working
late, after the night force had
gone, when the story broke,
about 4 in the morning. He assembled
some printers, the pressmen
and stereotypers being already
there, and then went after
the story. He had the extra on
the streets before 7 a.m., and
Omaha seldom has been treated
to such a bit of real sensation
as it was that morning.

Dick Metcalfe's apogee came
when he "covered" that famous
all-night sitting of the joint session
of the legislature in January,
1891, George D. Meiklejohn,
lieutenant governor, and
Samuel Marshall Elder, speaker

BRANDEIS

ALL - ELECTRIC AND ONE OF THE MOST
"VERSATILE" SEWING MACHINES KNOWN!

WHITE

of the house representatives,
both claimed the right to preside,
and a double-header "chairman"
failed to keep any semblance of
order in the chamber. Metcalfe
was the only reporter present
during the night, and the front
page of The World-Herald the
following morning showed how
well he functioned.

My own high contribution to
the gaiety of nations was the collaboration
with Al Fairbrother,
editorial writer, when between
us we dragooned Governor John
M. Thayer into calling an extra
session of the legislature in the
winter of 1890, to relieve the
farm situation by reducing
freight rates. The railroads soon
had the call recalled, but Fairbrother
and myself at least attained
our objective, even if we
were unable to consolidate and
hold the ground.

Great Motives
of Paper Unchanged

Thomas H. Tibbles roamed the
state and brought in news of the
"green uprising," the revolt of
the farmers, which it was my
pleasure to chronicle for the
readers. Other Nebraska papers
took pride in "playing down"
the movement, but the vote in
November, 1890, showed that
Tibbles knew what he was talking
about.

The World-Herald was going
places. The road was not easy,
but the Hitchcock eye was fixed
unswervingly on the goal, and
the record of almost a half century
of achievement shows how
well the effort was expanded.

For myself, I hope that I have
not lagged in spirit. At all
times I have tried to keep up
with the parade, never getting
out of touch with what is going
on around me. New faces have
moved into the picture, new ways
of doing things have been devised,
new methods bring better
results. Yet the great function
of the newspaper, to inform, to
instruct, to entertain; to present
facts, to interpret thought, and,
as far as is humanly possible, to
analyze motives, remains unchanged.

So I come home again, not in
the heyday of young, but with
what Shakespeare described as
"old age, frosty, but kindly, like
a lusty winter," hoping that the
days that remain for me will be
like those whose recollections
crowd on me as I write this,
full of action.