Paper
Manufacturing and Paper Shortages in the South, 1861-1865
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, May 1, 1861,
p. 2, c. 1
Burning
of the Pioneer Paper Mill.
The
paper mill three and a half miles from this place was totally consumed by fire
on Wednesday morning last, together with all the paper and stock on hand.
The origin of the fire, we believe, is considered doubtful.
It may have been accidental, or it may have been the work of an
incendiary. The loss is estimated
at $16,000. There was no insurance.
We believe it is the intention of the stockholders to rebuild--we hope
so, at all events, as it is a great convenience to us to have our paper
manufactured at home.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, June 12, 1861, p. 2, c. 1
We are under the necessity of issuing but a half sheet this week.
It is well to recollect that paper is very scarce, and that unless the
blockade is raised before long, many newspapers will have to suspend for want of
the article, as we understand there is none or very little for sale in Houston
or Galveston. The Countryman
will be as tenacious of life as any of them.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, June 19, 1861, p. 2, c. 1
The editor of the Brenham Enquirer
learned in Galveston, that paper was expected to arrive from England, in
November next, as orders for that article had been forwarded.
The Enquirer will be issued on
a half sheet until Christmas.
AUGUSTA [GA] DAILY CHRONICLE & SENTINEL,
July 2, 1861, p. 2, c. 1
Advance
in Rates of Subscription.
The undersigned are reluctantly constrained to increase the subscription
price of their respective papers. This
necessity arises from the diminished income of their offices, growing out of the
stagnation of business generally, while the expenses are largely increased and
cannot be curtailed without injustice to our readers.
Advertising, ordinarily so large a portion of a newspaper revenue, is
almost wholly suspended and will continue so during the war, while the price of
paper has largely increased, and our telegraphic expenses are nearly trebled.
...
From the 1st day of July our terms of subscription will be--
For the Daily One Year -
- $
8 00
"
" Six Months
- 4 00
"
" Three Months
-
2 00
"
" One Month
-
1 00
For Tri-Weekly One Year -
- 5 00
"
" Six Months
- 2 50
"
" Three Months
-
1 50
The Weekly will be as heretofore, for one year $2 00.
All orders for subscription must be accompanied with the Cash.
James Gardner,
Proprietor Constitutionalist
Wm. S. Jones,
Proprietor Chronicle & Sentinel.
AUGUSTA [GA] DAILY CHRONICLE & SENTINEL,
July 2, 1861, p. 1, c. 2
North
Carolina Paper
Forest Manufacturing Company,
Forestville, N. C.
Manufacturer of Superior
Book and Newspaper, &c., &c.
Respectfully solicit Southern dealers to send them orders.
Samples and prices will be sent (postage paid) by applying to
W. B. Reid, Supt.my16-1m
DALLAS HERALD,
July 10, 1861, p. 1, c. 3
As printing paper is scarce—very scarce—and as there are about
seventy or eighty newspapers in this State, which use from twenty to fifty
quires per week, and merchants and others who use wrapping paper to a
considerable extent, would it not pay to establish a paper mill at Houston or
Galveston?—Colorado Citizen.
We answer yes. We think
several paper mills could be well sustained in our State, and we do hope that
some one will make a start pretty soon.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, July 17, 1861, p. 2, c. 2
We copy the following from the Galveston Civilian.
It is very appropriate at this time:
The Christian Advocate appears on a half sheet, though without
proportionate diminution of interesting reading matter.
The scarcity of paper and of paying subscribers begins to tell on the
newspaper business, and we fear that many papers will not stop the curtailing
process at a half sheet. The
Richmond Reporter gives its present issue the name of the Half Loaf, though we
doubt not the ample crops of Fort Bend county will keep the publishers fully
supplied with the staff of life. No
people appreciate newspapers more highly than the citizens of Texas; and we
trust that they will not neglect to sustain the press in the present crisis.
Good names on a list of subscribers will not do this.
It requires money, or something that will sustain life.
Country publishers can use much of the produce of the farm and workshop
in lieu of money; and subscribers should make it a point to contribute such aid
as is in their power, without waiting for that common bore, the dun, alike
unpleasant to those who give and those who receive it.
AUSTIN STATE GAZETTE,
July 22, 1861, p. 4, c. 5
Contemplated Paper Mill.—As so many questions have been asked us,
recently, in regard to the new enterprise—a paper-mill—we will give a faint
outline of its absolute necessity. There
is consumed, in Louisiana, in the course of one year, paper to an almost
incredible amount, the most of which has, hitherto, come from the north—all of
it outside of our own State; but all supplies are now cut off from the north, as
the article is declared contraband of war.
There are in the Confederacy, some fifteen paper mills that produce,
probably, 75,000 pounds daily, while the consumption is rated at 150,000 pounds
daily, or just double the supply. Now,
if this enterprise is suffered to fall through, from lack of capital, there is
great reason to apprehend an entire stoppage of newspaper publishing in this and
other Southern States, and, also, great inconvenience will result from the want
of even ordinary wrapping paper. There
is an actual cash market now existing for as much paper as a mill can produce in
four months, and the business, besides being cash, is also very profitable.
We are glad to learn that at least two-thirds of the stock is already
taken.—True Delta.
DALLAS HERALD, July
31, 1861, p. 1, c. 8
The Indianola Courier has been compelled to suspend its issue until the
blockade is raised or paper mills are established in Texas.
AUGUSTA [GA] DAILY CHRONICLE & SENTINEL,
August 8, 1861, p. 3, c. 1
Rags.--Save all your rags--cotton, flax, hemp, &c.--and send them to
market, where you can realize three cents a pound.
The South wears out more such goods than two such Norths, and yet the
North saves double the quantity of rags for making paper.
Let this be changed hereafter. Save
the rags to make paper, and thereby save money.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, August 21, 1861, p. 2, c. 1
Our War Size.—Until the prospect of getting more paper shall become
better, the Countryman will be published at its present size. We are enabled by this plan to put in more matter than on a
half-sheet, and have less margin.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, August 28, 1861, p. 3, c. 1
The Corpus Christi Ranchero extra, of the 10th inst., says a
large number of wagons from Bastrop arrived there for salt, and were loaded
without delay. The supply is
inexhaustible, and Corpus is bound to enjoy an immense trade.
The Ranchero says Clark is largely ahead in that district for Governor.
The publication of the Ranchero is suspended for want of paper.
AUSTIN STATE GAZETTE,
September 7, 1861, p. 2, c. 2
Scarcity of Printing Paper.—Our exchanges, with, we believe, only two
exceptions, come to us, much curtailed of their late fair proportions.
The exceptions are the Marshall Republican and the Clarksville Standard. These are like giants among Liliputians and are received by
us with a feeling of wonder bordering upon awe; while our editorial pride
revolts at the necessity of attempting to get up a readable weekly paper, in
these stirring times, on a half sheet.
O, lucky, happy, Standard and Republican.
How we sigh for such ample columns as crowd your broad sheets!
AUSTIN STATE GAZETTE,
September 7, 1861, p. 2, c. 2
The Quitman Herald, published by Sparks & Height, formerly one of the
most belligerent, out-spoken States Rights papers in the State, died on the 14th
ult. Cause—lack of health, lack
of paper, lack of money, &c. Since
the Herald was shorn of its Height by the war fever, the light of its Sparks has
been growing dim.
It did not even give us the vote of Wood county, before its demise.
Can't one of its surviving neighbors in Upshur, Smith or Kaufman, supply
the want for Wood and Van Zandt?
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, September 11, 1861, p.
2, c. 1
The Lagrange True Issue says that the States Rights Democrat of that
place has indefinitely suspended.
We learn that the Brenham Enquirer has suspended for want of paper, and
the Ranger has been removed to Washington.
The Richmond Reporter, alias
Half Loaf, has also been suspended.
ATLANTA
SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, October 2,
1861, p. 1, c. 1
Half
Sheet To-Day.
And brown at that.
The paper maker has disappointed us.
We have made every possible effort to get paper, and have failed.
It is not at the mills, or elsewhere within our reach.
We have no assurance of paper--even for a half sheet--for tomorrow.
We have it promised to us for Friday's issue.
We shall get it earlier, if possible; but if you get no paper tomorrow,
you may know it is for the want of paper.
ATLANTA
SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, October 6,
1861, p. 3, c. 2
Rags.--Save all your rags--cotton, flax, hemp, &c., and send them to
market where you can realize three cents a pound.
The South wears out more such goods than two such Norths, and yet the
North saves double the quantity of rags for making paper.
Let this be changed hereafter. Save
the rags to make paper, and thereby make money.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, October 7, 1861, p. 1, c. 2
Our
Reduced Sheet.
To-day
we being to print The Mercury upon a sheet considerably smaller than that which
we have hitherto used. In this
measure of economy we have been preceded by too many of the public journals of
the Confederate and United States, to make any detailed statement of the reasons
which have led us to this step, either necessary or desirable.
It will be enough to inform our readers that, in the present stagnation
of trade, the advertising business, which is the sustaining element of newspaper
incomes, has, in great measure, been cut off.
In view of this fact, we have not felt warranted in continuing the issue
of so large a paper, at an expense at once needless and burdensome.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, October 9,
1861, p. 1, c. 2
Stern
necessity compels us to appear before the public this week on a half sheet.
It is no fault of ours. We
almost "compassed sea and land" in search of paper, but could find
none in the Southern Confederacy, and we were afraid to go to Doodledom after
it. We are indebted to the courtesy
of Mr. Winter of the Bath Mills, S. C., for the loan of a small lot--he had none
for sale.
We may
possibly have to appear again on a half sheet next week; but after that, we hope
to be able to avoid doing so again. We
regret the necessity exceedingly--we never expected to see the Watchman thus cut
down; but it could not be helped. We were obliged to yield.
One
third of the papers in the Confederate States have been entirely discontinued;
while of the remainder, more than one half are published either on a half sheet
or have been reduced in size.
In order to secure a supply of paper, we shall be obliged to reduce our size for
the present. The great decrease in
our advertising patronage, however, will enable us to give our readers more
reading matter than we did in our mammoth sheet in more prosperous times.
We
trust that we shall not lose one subscriber from this cause.
We adopt the plan not to defraud them, but because necessity drives us to
it. It will now cost us more to
furnish them with a smaller paper than it did to supply them with a large one;
while our receipts from advertising have been cut down at least two-thirds, with
a large falling off in job work. As
soon as circumstances will permit, we will resume the large size.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, October 16,
1861, p. 2, c. 5
To
our Patrons.
We
present the Watchman this week on a smaller sheet than formerly.
We regret the necessity which compels us to adopt this course; but it is
imperative. We could not procure a
supply of paper of the large size in the Confederate States--while the increased
price of paper and all other supplies and our diminished receipts from
advertising, which is the main support of newspapers in this country, rendered
it quite impossible to continue our mammoth sheet.
Our
advertisements occupying now so much less space than formerly, we will be
enabled to give our readers the current news of the day *at the old price*,
notwithstanding everything else has advanced.
It will
be perceived, likewise, that although reduced in size, our paper is now larger
than some of the oldest papers in the country, published in large cities.
. . .
Those indebted to us, who find it inconvenient to pay in money, may send
us any kind of country produce--corn, wheat, flour, oats, rye, butter, hay,
shucks, fodder, chickens, eggs--any thing that can be eaten or worn, or that
will answer for fuel. Now, there is
no longer any excuse for delinquents.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, October 29, 1861, p. 2, c. 2
Hard Times for Newspapers.--That old and excellent daily, the Nashville Union
and American, has made a heavy
curtailment in the size of its sheet.
SAN ANTONIO HERALD,
November 2, 1861, p. 2, c. 2
The want of bleaching powder is now the chief obstacle to the manufacture
of paper in the South. That which
has been used--"Tennant's--came from New York, where it was had from
England, at a very low price.
Prof. Darby, of Auburn, Alabama, writes to the Houston Telegraph that he
has succeeded in making pure sulphuric acid from iron pyrites, which are in
abundance in Alabama, and he will have no difficulty in making sal soda,
chloroform, nitric acid, muriatic acid, and bleaching powders for paper
making.--[Galveston News.
AUSTIN STATE GAZETTE,
November 9, 1861, p. 4, c. 2
The want of bleaching powder is now the chief obstacle to the manufacture
of paper in the South. That which
has been used--"Tennant's"--came from New York, where it was had from
England, at a very low price.
Prof. Darby, of Auburn, Alabama, writes to the Houston Telegraph that he
has succeeded in making pure sulphuric acid from pyrites, which are in abundance
in Alabama, and he will have no difficulty in making sal soda, chloroform,
nitric acid, muriatic acid, and bleaching powders for paper making.--Galveston
News.
DALLAS HERALD, November
13, 1861 , p. 1 c. 3
The Marshall Republican, says that by the first of May, an abundance of
paper can be obtained from Messrs. Stevens & Seymore, of New Orleans.
This will be good news to newspaperdom in Texas, and we hope after that
time to see no more half sheets, quarter sheets, dirt-colored sheets and such
like make-shifts.
NATCHEZ DAILY COURIER,
December 17, 1861, p. 1, c. 1
Help One Another. Every one
connected with the printing business is laboring under the disagreeable trouble
of procuring a sufficiency of paper. Clean
rags are scarce for the supply of paper-mills.
Now our planters can help us out, if they will but save and bale their
refuse cotton. We understand the
paper-mills will pay three cts. per pound for this article, and that a market
can be found at B. S. Tappan's, Vicksburg, Miss. at the same price.
Let our planters consider this matter, and help us to obtain more paper
and of larger size and better quality.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, January 8, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
We have to reduce our size and dispense with most of our advertisements
in order to economise [sic] in paper, an article that is very scarce in the
Southern Confederacy. We do hope
there will be no great objection to this course, as by discontinuing the
advertisements, we can give nearly as much reading matter as formerly. We intend to use smaller type after an issue or two.
Some will grumble anyhow, when the best is done and we can only ask the
kind indulgence of those who duly appreciate the adversity of the times, until a
more auspicious future dawns upon our land.
Getting more paper than we have on hand is out of the question, until the
blockade is raised, and as we feel ambitious and wish to publish the Countryman
as long as we see another paper published in the State, we have to come down to
our present size. How long we will
have to visit you in this shape we cannot say but hope not a great while.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, January 10, 1862, p. 2, c. 1
Paper Manufactories.--The importance of establishing paper mills
throughout the South is at once obvious. Thousands upon thousands of dollars, invested in printing
materials, are now lying idle and unproductive for want of paper.--No other
branch of business in the South has suffered more than the printing business,
and that mainly for the want of paper, and this too when the manufacture of
paper would be the most princely profitable business imaginable.
The ends of rope, waste cotton, pieces of bagging, and other articles
used in the manufacture of paper, could be procured in quantities sufficient for
all purposes, and would be cheerfully and gladly given.
Sites would be donated, and doubtless premiums could be obtained by
parties wishing to start the business; and yet our capitalists, with a stolid
indifference which is wonderful, make no move in the matter, and to the cry for
paper, which comes from all parts of the South, they remain foolishly
indifferent.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, January 18, 1862, p. 2, c. 1
The newspapers on all sides begin to show the marks of the scarcity of
paper. The New Orleans Picayune has
discontinued its evening edition; the Delta continues to publish twice a day as
formerly, but uses only a half sheet; the Savannah News comes to us printed on
brown paper; and among the journals generally half sheets and all the colors of
the rainbow, are rapidly growing epidemic.
AUGUSTA [GA] DAILY CHRONICLE & SENTINEL,
January 18, 1862, p.2, c. 1
. . . Seriously speaking, however, the deprivation of a full supply of paper is
becoming one of the most serious inconveniences experienced from Lincoln's
blockade. The freighters of the
vessels that so easily and frequently set it at naught, seem to think that it is
unnecessary to supply the wants of the mind. They bring in very little paper, or writing material, but a
supply generally for the few other wants which we cannot ourselves supply.
We suppose nobody was aware, until we were partially deprived of it, how
intimately and continually the "blessing" of paper formed a part of
our lives and happiness, not only has it "brightened as it gook its
flight" in newspapers, but the letter-writer finds the want of it
restricting him to the most scrimp and scanty pattern.
Formerly, when young ladies wrote to each other or to their lovers, their
habit was to commence half way down the first page--to place the lines on all
four pages wide apart--but to give the appearance of writing a letter whose
length was in proportion to their affection, they crossed it in every direction
and viewed their performance, when finished, as a triumph of love and
penmanship. Now they find they can
squeeze the same amount of endearments into the compass of a half sheet, and the
great relief they experience in labor of thought and of hand finds a ready
apology in Lincoln's blockade, which now-a-days forms as many excuses for short
comings as the burning of Redgauntlet's house did to Caleb Balderstone, in
Scott's novel. Nobody can complain
of long bills these days, for the
merchants manage to economize by writing on both sides of their paper, but the
bills, if shorter, are not the less forcible--like a small cannon ball, they
make up in impetus what they lack in size--we had nearly written
"bore" but we despise a pun, and where is the man who ever thought his
January bills a bore?
It is a matter of some
astonishment, that we would be in straits for paper when the South furnishes to
the world the materials for its manufacture.
The enigma is explicable in this way—materials are plentiful enough,
but there are parts of the machinery and chemicals of a paper mill which cannot
be made or had here—therefore the number of mills is necessarily restricted.
We would suggest, therefore, that those who are benevolently fitting out
vessels to import English or Yankee goods (we say Yankee goods, because we
suspect that these vessels do not always bring in the pure productions of John
Bull’s industry, we notice that one of them lately had a large consignment of
cod fish on board) should turn their attention to the importation of paper, or
what would be still better, to the importation of paper making machinery.
Either, at present prices would pay a most exorbitant profit, perhaps a
thousand per cent., and the importers would have the gratification of having
done a good and benevolent deed to editors and the whole letter writing
community—and that comprises every man and woman, girl and boy over sixteen
years of age in the Confederacy.
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, January 27, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
Newspaper Mortality.—Seventeen of the twenty six newspapers, that were
published in Florida twelve months since, has been forced to suspend, by reason
of hard times. The remainder, with
the exception of one, a Semi-Weekly paper, have been reduced in size.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, January 28, 1862, p. 1, c. 2
Newspaper Mortality.--Seventeen of the twenty-six newspapers that were
published in Florida twelve months since, have been forced to suspend, by reason
of hard times. The remainder, with
the exception of one, a Semi-Weekly paper, have been reduced in size.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, February 12, 1862, p. 1, c.
6
Newspapers in Texas.--The San Antonio Herald says:
"We cannot count more than ten papers now published in this State,
out of some sixty a year ago. War
and blockade are death to newspapers."
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, February 18, 1862, p. 1, c. 6
Newspapers in Texas.—The San Antonio Herald says:
"We cannot count more than ten papers now published in this state,
out of some sixty a year ago. War
and blockade are death to newspapers.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, February 22, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
The Dallas Herald has subsided; out of paper.
We regret the demise of this excellent journal, and cannot see how the
frontier people can do without it. The
editor is going to the war.
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, February 26, 1862, p. 4, c. 2
To
the Public
Savannah, June 24th, 1861.
The undersigned are constrained to increase the subscription price of
their respective papers. This
necessity arises from the diminished income of their offices, growing out of the
stagnation of business generally, while the expenses are largely increased and
cannot be curtailed without injustice to our readers.
Advertising, ordinarily so large a portion of a newspaper's revenues, is
almost wholly suspended, and will continue so during the war, while the price of
paper has largely increased, and telegraphic expenses are nearly trebled.
It is not reasonable to suppose that the Proprietors of papers will
continue their publication at a loss when there is no immediate prospect of a
change for the better. We have too
much reliance upon the sense of justice of our subscribers, to apprehend that
they will complain at our course; on the contrary, we hope for and need a
generous support from them, and cheerful efforts on their part to increase our
subscription lists. It is only upon
this support and those efforts we can now depend to maintain the usefulness and
value of our papers as full and reliable vehicles of information at this most
critical period in the affairs of the country.
From the 1st day of July, our terms of subscription will be
For the Daily, one year
8.00
" "
" six
months
4.00
" "
"
three months
2.00
" "
"
one month
1.00
" "
Tri-Weekly, one year
5.00
" "
"
six months
2.50
" "
"
three months
1.50
The Weekly will be as heretofore, for one
year
2.00
Apart from existing exigencies, it may not be generally known that the papers of
Savannah and Augusta have long been furnished at a price far below that of the
journals of other commercial towns in the South, and on terms wholly
unremunerating. In proof of this,
we refer to the following statement of terms. It shows that we do not ask more for our labor and capital
than is promptly conceded to others engaged in the same business.
Charleston.
Daily.
Tri-Weekly.
Courier
$10
$5
Mercury
10
5
Evening News
8
4
Mobile
Daily
Tri-Weekly.
Advertiser & Register
$10
$6
Tribune
8
New
Orleans.
Daily Picayune
$12
Crescent
10
Bulletin
12
Delta
10
Memphis.
Daily
Tri-Weekly.
Avalanche
$10
$5
Bulletin
10
5
Appeal
10
5
Nashville.
Daily
Tri-Weekly.
Union & American
$8
$5
Banner
8
5
Montgomery.
Daily
Tri-Weekly
Advertiser
$8
Mail
8
$5
Contracts for subscriptions unexpired on the day indicated, will be
completed at our former rates.
All orders for subscriptions MUST BE ACCOMPANIED WITH THE CASH.
F. W. Sims,
Proprietor Republican.
Theodore Blois [?]
Proprietor Morning News.
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, March 15, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
The proprietors of the paper Mills of Greenville district, (the one
formerly owned by B. Dunham, deceased,) will in a few days, commence the
manufacture of writing paper.
WASHINGTON
[ARK] TELEGRAPH, March 19, 1862
...commence with this number, issuing a half
sheet, preserving the size of the pages, for uniformity in binding or filing.
...But now, the Paper Mill at Nashville is in the hands of the enemy, the
blockade still exists, and the unexpected course of England and France leaves
little hope of its being raised for months.
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, April 15, 1862, p. 1, c, 8
Demise of Newspaper.—The Red Land Express thus sums up the demise of
our old Texas exchanges:
The days of the "Chronicles" are past; the shrill notes of the
"Clarion" no more heard; the stalwart strokes of the
"Pioneer" have ceased to greet our ears; the "Banners"
(Carthage and Beaumont) no longer unfurl their bright folds to the sun; the
"Times" gave place to revolution; the "Enquirer" long since
ceased his questionings; the "Printer" has yielded up the ghost, and
there is not even an "Echo" to tell us where they are gone. We can but "Express" our deep grief at the early
loss of our boon companions, and pray that our fate be not too soon like theirs.
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, April 22, 1862, p. 2, c. 2
Extortion.—The paper mills yesterday took another hitch upward in their
prices. Last Wednesday paper for our little daily stood at $6
00—Monday, $8 25. What will it be
Saturday? We shall always retain a
fond affection for those fellows. When
a man gets you into his power and shows that he can appreciate and approve the
advantage to the utmost, he entitles himself to everlasting remembrance.
[Macon Tel.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, April 23,
1862, p. 2, c. 1
We
Can't Help It!
Our
readers will discover that our sheet is much smaller this week than usual.
None can regret it more than we do.
We could not help it. It is
no fault of ours or of our readers. They
have furnished us with the means to purchase paper--we ordered it three weeks
ago, but up to the time of going to press have *not received* it.
Luckily, we had a sufficiency of a smaller size for this week's issue and
have done the best we could, under the circumstances.
Next week we must be able to resume our usual size.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, April 30,
1862, p. 2, c. 1
Paper.
We
have again got a lot of paper, but oh! what a price!--$7.50 per ream!
Good paper only cost us $3.25 twelve months ago.
With such prices for paper, and every thing else proportionally high, how
are we to furnish our sheet at $2 a year? And
yet, strange to say, many persons who are indebted to us one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, ten, and even twelve years, refuse or fail to pay
that!! Is there justice in such
treatment?
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, May 13, 1862, p. 3, c. 6
Paper.—The scarcity of writing paper drives to all sorts of shifts.
We learn that a letter has been received here from Hillsborough, written
on a leaf cut from an account book of a mercantile house in this town just one
hundred years ago—1762.—Fay. Obs.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, May 14, 1862,
p. 2, c. 4
Pioneer
Paper Mill.
We are pleased to
announce that this establishment has been re-built and is again in operation.
We trust we shall not be again disappointed in getting a supply of paper.
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, May 17, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
The Pioneer Paper Mills, near Athens, have been rebuilt, and are now in
operation. There are many newspaper proprietors who will receive this as
welcome news. The article of
printing paper is extremely scarce, and while many journals have been compelled
to suspend from the impossibility of procuring supplies, others have kept up
only by the most extraordinary shifts. There
is a paper in Mississippi that came to us in five different colors by the same
mail.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, May 19, 1862, p. 2, c. 1
Newspapers and the War.--These are terrible times for the newspapers.
The scarcity of paper, and the enormous prices charged for it when
obtained, are everywhere forcing the first class daily newspaper of the South to
curtail their dimensions. Three out
of the four dailies in Richmond, viz: the
Whig, Enquirer and Examiner, are now printed upon a half sheet.
All the newspapers of Mobile, Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans, also
issue a half sheet only.
AUGUSTA [GA] DAILY CHRONICLE & SENTINEL,
May 19, 1862, p. 3, c. 1
The Pioneer Paper Mills, near Athens, have been rebuilt, and are now in
operation. There are many newspaper
proprietors who will receive this as welcome news.
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, May 20, 1862, p. 2, c. 2
We notice that two new Paper Mills have gone into operation within the
last few days—one at Athens, Ga., and the other at Mobile, Ala.
Two or three more in Georgia would supply the demand and correct the
prevailing extravagant prices.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, May 21, 1862,
p. 2, c. 6
Paper.
The
paper upon which our present issue is printed is the first made at the Pioneer
Mill, near this place, since its re-construction. It is not such as that establishment formerly furnished, nor
does any other paper-mill supply such paper as we had before the war.
We trust that our Pioneer friends may have a prosperous time in future.
WASHINGTON
[ARK] TELEGRAPH, May 28, 1862
PAPER.--The stock of writing paper in our town is entirely exhausted. There is not a sheet for sale.
We have used up all the supply of our editorial office, and invaded our
stock of law stationery. At length
we have destroyed all our legal blanks by writing editorials on their backs, and
we now used the yellow ruled leaves, we have torn from an old ledger.
Our subscribers who pay us deserve all this trouble on their account.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, June 20, 1862, p. 2, c. 1
Half Sheets.--The Richmond papers are now all printed upon half sheets.
The Dispatch, which, pecuniarily, has been perhaps the most successful
newspaper in the South, comes out, in its issue of Wednesday, upon a half sheet. Indeed, printing paper has become so dear and so difficult to
obtain, that the publication of papers of any kind is now a matter attended with
great embarrassment. In such times,
to waste paper in display of profitless advertisements is sheer folly.
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, July 2, 1862, c. 2, p. 5
Rags,
Rags!
Five Cents per
pound will be paid for clean Linen and Cotton Rags delivered at any Railroad
Depot in Georgia or South Carolina. Address
Bath Paper Mills Co.
Augusta Ga.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN BANNER, August 6, 1862,
p. 3, c. 6
New Music, Paper & C.
My
Maryland; There's Life in the old Land Yet; Bonny Blue Flag and other Patriotic
pieces.
Also--100 reams assorted letter paper.
One size as low as 50 cents per quire. Most
of it made in Southern Paper Mills. Just
received.
July 2.
Wm. N. White.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN BANNER, August 13,
1862, p. 1, c. 5-6
The
Cost of Printing Papers.
People,
generally, have very crude ideas as to the cost of printing newspapers and the
labor bestowed upon them. No class
of men in the South has suffered more, perhaps, from the war, than publishers.
The proprietors of the Southern Recorder, in order to avoid loss, have been compelled to
advance their subscription price from two to three dollars a year.
They prefer to do this, rather than reduce the size of their sheet.
We suppose at this time, that many papers do nothing more than pay
expenses, and some not even that. Advertising
and job work amounts to almost nothing, and yet we find but few papers have
raised the price of subscription. We
append an extract from the Recorder,
which will give the readers of the Banner
an idea of what it costs us to furnish them the paper.
"The blank paper on which we print the Recorder has advanced one hundred
and fifty per cent., and is still on the increase, so that it is impossible to
conjecture where the manufacturers will stop their prices. The present charge is at the rate of one dollar and twenty
cents for the blank paper alone to each subscriber, leaving but eighty cents, on
two dollar subscriptions, to pay for setting the types, press work, ink,
folding, wrapping and mailing, besides the wear and tear of materials, office
room, and the expenses of the editorial department.
All these items enter into the cost of furnishing the paper to our
patrons. Such being the case, we
are compelled to make a change in our terms in order to avoid loss.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, August 16, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
The Ranger, not being disposed to remain longer out of fashion, has come
down to a half-sheet. A full sheet
newspaper has been out of fashion for a long time.
MOBILE REGISTER AND ADVERTISER, September 10, 1862, p. 1, c. 7
Home Manufactured
Writing Paper!
Writing Paper!
Writing Paper!
We are permanently engaged in the
Manufacture of Writing Paper,
And are now prepared to fill ORDERS for larger and smaller sizes.
S. H. Goetzel & Co.
Booksellers, Publishers and Stationers
83 Dauphin street, Mobile, Ala.
SAVANNAH [GA] REPUBLICAN, October 13, 1862, p. 2, c. 1
Georgia Letter Paper.—Mr. George N. Nichols has presented us with a
sample of buff letter paper, manufactured at one of the mills in this State, a
supply of which he has on sale, at his Job Office on the
Bay. It is a very fair
article, does not blot through, and with a good pen offers a smooth surface for
writing. He sells it at about half
the cost of Yankee or English letter paper.
GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS,
October 15, 1862, p. 2, c. 1
We are sorry to learn from our friend Robertson, of the Huntsville Item,
that the impossibility of getting paper is likely to cause the suspension of
that paper. We regret this
sincerely, for the Item has always been among the most interesting of our
exchanges, and there is not an editor in the South who has been more true to our
cause, or more bold and consistent in defending it.
But in such times as these the existence of all our journals is very
precarious.
DALLAS HERALD, December
6, 1862, p. 2, c. 2
The editor of the Confederate News (Jefferson) has just returned from
Georgia, where he has made arrangements for a supply of paper, and announces in
his last issue that he will, on the 1st December, commence the
publication of a semi-weekly, in addition to the weekly.
NATCHEZ DAILY COURIER,
December 13, 1862, p. 1, c. 1
"Driven to the Wall." We
never saw this old adage more fully illustrated, than by a copy of the
"Confederate States," published at New Iberia, La., for which we are
indebted to Lieut. E. W. Lindsley. It
is printed on the white side of wall paper--the other side being beautifully
covered with fancy paintings. The
proprietor was verily "driven to the wall" for the want of printing
paper.
MEMPHIS
DAILY APPEAL [Jackson, MS], December
23, 1862, p. 1, c. 6
Owing to the failure of a supply of paper of our usual size, which has been in
transit several days, to reach us, we are compelled to lay before our readers a
smaller sheet than heretofore. The
difficulty will be overcome in a short time, and meanwhile the quantity of
reading matter will not be lessened, as we shall fill our present space with as
small type as possible.
MEMPHIS
DAILY APPEAL [Jackson, MS], December
23, 1862, p. 2, c. 2
Having exhausted our supply of our large sized paper, and owing to the
difficulty of procuring freight for it from the mills, we will be compelled to
make our appearance for some days upon a small sheet.
We have an agent at the mills in Georgia, and hope, in a short time, to
be enabled to greet our readers again on a sheet of our usual size.
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, January 6, 1863, p. 2, c. 2
Our
Advanced Rates.
It will be seen that all the newspaper proprietors of this city,
following the example of the press everywhere else, have advanced their rates of
subscription. We have held out as long as possible against this
disagreeable expedient, but must resort to it at last.
Its necessity is so forcibly presented in the following plain
statement of facts and figures, made by the Macon Telegraph on publishing
a letter from a paper mill notifying it of another advance in the price of
paper, and on announcing an advance of its Daily subscription rates to $10, that
we need not add a word to it:
"The paper used on our Daily and Tri-weekly editions weights 25
pounds to the ream. The price
therefore per ream (at 25 cents per pound) will be $8.75 at the mill, and
transportation will make it cost at the office $8.90 or thereabout.
There are, or ought to be, in each ream of paper, counting imperfect
sheets, 480 sheets in all—worth, at this price, a little over 18 ½ mills per
sheet. We issue to each subscriber
of the Daily in the course of the year 312 sheets, and counting wastage,
imperfect sheets, duplicates, &c., it would be only safe to average 400
sheets to the subscriber. 400
sheets at 18 ½ mills per sheet, amount to seven dollars and forty cents for
precisely the cost of the blank paper alone to each subscriber, leaving all
other expenses—typesetting, printing, ink, fuel, wear and tear, rent of
office, editors, telegrams, mailing and all other multitudinous incidentals, all
of which have been in our experience equal to three-fifths of the whole
expense—to be met out of the odd sixty cents and advertising in these times.
It is needless to say the case is hopeless—it can't be done.
CHARLESTON
MERCURY, January 13, 1863, p. 1, c. 5
Save
Your Rags.
This would perhaps, in ordinary times, be quite an unnecessary piece of
advice, but at this moment it is of vital importance.
As our readers know, the price of paper has advanced enormously, and as a
consequence, publishers have been compelled to make a corresponding advance on
their prices. One great reason of
this increased tariff on paper is the scarcity of rags with which to manufacture
it. The manufacturers inform us
that rags are exceedingly difficult to obtain, even when, as is the case, the
rates paid are higher, by at least 800 per cent. than formerly.
We write this article solely with the view of calling public attention to
the scarcity, that it may, as far as possible, be remedied, and that speedily.
The press is one of the most potent auxiliaries of this Government in
carrying forward its objects, and subserving its interests.
As a medium of communication, in times like these, when every day adds
some memorable event to our history, the newspaper is as indispensable as our
daily food. And it is essential to
our individual intelligence, and as a record of current events.
And as we sit down to read the pages of the favorite book or journal, let
us not fail to remember that the materials for its manufacture must be obtained,
or we shall have no book or newspaper. Until
the blockade is removed--a desideratum altogether among the uncertainties--we
must rely upon our own resources. Let
then every family carefully save up all the rags--all the shreds--all the
scraps--either linen, cotton, or woollen, and furnish them to the Paper Mills,
and the proprietors of those mills will pay them handsomely therefore.
Husbands, tell your wives to see to this--and not only the wives, but let
every member of the family, white and black, commence the saving of rags to make
paper. The possible contingency of
a country like ours deprived of newspapers is shocking to contemplate.
And we will not believe but what, as we have thus sounded the note of
alarm, every one interested (and who is not?) will do all in his or her power to
keep the mills supplied with rags, that the press may thereby continue to
dispense intelligence to the people.
Augusta Chronicle.
ATLANTA
SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, February 1,
1863, p. 2, c. 3-4
The
Complaining World.
.
. . As we enter our office in the morning, the confidential clerk who opens our
letters hands us a short communication, quietly remarking that "them
fellers at Marietta have ris again in
the price of their paper." We
hastily glance at the contents and find that the paper mills have made a heavy
advance upon us. We indignantly
pass on to the press-room and find a good portion of the floor flooded with
water. We ask Billy what is the
matter and he replies, "Nothing but a chip
in one of the flues and the engine boiled over." We then ask Billy how there came to be so many waste
papers; (about 200--mostly on the floor, under the press or tables.) "Well,"
says he, "the last paper you got at Marietta ain't no account.
About a fifth of it is split up, so it won't run through." . . .
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN BANNER, February 4,
1863, p. 3, c. 6
Save Your Ashes. The Pioneer Paper
Manufacturing Company, will pay 25 cents per bushel, for good Oak and Hickory
Ashes, delivered at their Mill, four miles from Athens.
Feb. 4
Albon Chase, Agent.
DALLAS HERALD,
February 11, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
We cannot receive any more subscribers for the present, in consequence of
not having received a supply of paper, that we expected.
Until we are assured that we can get paper to continue, we do not desire
to receive subscriptions. We have
at present only paper enough to last us some five or six weeks, but expect more
soon. We hope we shall not be
disappointed.
MOBILE REGISTER
AND ADVERTISER, February 12, 1863, p. 1, c. 7
The Boston Journal is now printed on paper made of wood. The high price of rags compelled it "to take to the
timber," literally, and it is well pleased with the result.
The paper is soft and firm, with a smooth and clean surface, and
admirably fitted for newspaper work.
GALVESTON WEEKLY
NEWS, January 14, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
Necessity, for which they say there is no law, is about this time the law
paramount to us, and compels us to reduce the size of our Weekly for one or two
issues.
GALVESTON WEEKLY
NEWS, January 28, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
We are sorry we have to issue our present Weekly on such paper as this,
but the supply we have been expecting has not yet arrived.
We trust, however, we shall soon be able to send out a better looking
sheet.
GALVESTON WEEKLY
NEWS, February 11, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
Being still disappointed in getting our Weekly paper, we have to make
another issue on paper unsuitable in size and quality.
We are sparing neither efforts or money to do better for our patrons, and
hope they will extend us their indulgence.
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, March 5, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
A rich reward in money and fame awaits the inventor who discovers a new
source and mode of supplying paper. Cannot
some ingenious citizen establish a paper mill for the use of corn shucks or
other material that can be found in abundance?
MOBILE REGISTER
AND ADVERTISER, March 12, 1863, p. 1, c. 5
An Illustrated Paper in Louisiana.—We have received a number of the
Pelican, a paper published in English and French at Marksville, La., by A. La
Fargue. The inside is occupied by
an admirable view of an edifice of some kind or other, situated inside a high
wall—it may be a jail—in front of which is an open carriage, containing a
party of officers and a lady, and attended by two cavaliers.
In the foreground is a ship at anchor.
The picture is evidently by one of the masters----of the school of
paperhangers. The pattern is quite
an improvement on the calico designs of the Franklin papers.
Avoyelles is decidedly ahead of Attakapas.
BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, March 21, 1863, p. 1, c. 1
The editor of the Huntsville Item has received a lot of white printing paper, and is ready to receive the names of new
subscribers.
DALLAS HERALD, March
25, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
For several weeks past we have been compelled to print our paper on brown
paper, and we shall probably be compelled to do so for several weeks to come.
We have purchased a supply of white paper, which will cost us over $50
per ream by the time it reaches us, and this we expect in the course of three or
four weeks. We shall, as a
consequence, be compelled to raise the price of subscription, from $2,50 to $5
per annum. We do this reluctantly,
but we cannot pay the above price for paper, and make a living for ourselves
without an increase in price. All
subscribers who are paid to a future period will be continued until the time is
out, but new subscribers hereafter will have to pay the advanced rates.
Advertisements will be charged at the rate of $2, per square for first
insertion, and $1 for each continuance.
GALVESTON WEEKLY
NEWS, March 25, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
Like most of our contemporaries, we are compelled to advance our terms of
subscription, not for the purpose of increasing profits, but to save ourselves
from loss. Having now to pay for white paper just about fifteen times
the price when our terms of subscription were established, our readers will
readily see the utter impossibility of continuing the same rates.
We had hoped, ere this, to have received paper long since sent for by a
special agent, and that the cost would not have been so high as to make this
advance necessary. But we now see no immediate prospect of getting the paper we
have been looking for, and the increasing scarcity and cost of paper even east
of the Mississippi, and the enormous charges for transportation, with all the
attendant difficulties and delays, will probably bring that paper, when it
arrives, (even if it ever does,) nearly to the price we are now paying.
Subscriptions from this date to the Tri-Weekly News will be charged $12
per year, or at the same rate quarterly, and for the Weekly News $5, always in
advance, and present subscribers will be charged the same when the time for
which they have paid has expired. We
should state for the information of subscribers in arrear that they will be
charged at the above rates from this date, and if they wish the paper
discontinued, they have only to notify us and pay up all arrears.
We have not made arrangements by which we believe the News will always
give its patrons all the important and reliable intelligence from the seat of
war and elsewhere, at the earliest possible moment.
We have been subject to many embarrassments, as our readers are generally
aware, from heavy losses by the war, by fire and otherwise, but by the continual
support of our patrons and our own unceasing labors, we hope not only to be able
to continue our paper through the war, but to improve it from time to time.
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN WATCHMAN, March 25,
1863, p. 2, c. 3
Rags!
Rags!
Are
our friends in the up country aware of the fact that the paper mills throughout
the Confederacy will have to stop unless they can procure a larger supply of
rags? This is even so.
The Pioneer Mill near this place has adopted a new rule.
They sell paper to those alone who will furnish them rags.
We now want to purchase all the clean linen and cotton rags that can be
brought to us. Send them by bag
fulls--by wagon loads, or in any other manner you please; but by all means send
us rags. If you want to see the
Watchman survive, send us all the rags you can gather up.
Don't be afraid of overstocking the market. We will insure a speedy sale of all that can be brought here.
Send them on, then, in large quantities and send them quickly!
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, March 27, 1863, p. 1, c. 4
Profits of Extortion.—That our readers may have some idea of the
enormous profits now being made by a certain class, we take the following
extract from the Richmond Enquirer of the 3d instant.
For instance—take the Crenshaw Woolen Factory and the Belvidere Paper
Manufacturing Company. Those
concerns were lately examined before a committee of the Virginia House of
Delegates on extortion, and business facts of a startling character were brought
to light.
President Crenshaw deposed on oath, that his company, on a cash capital
of $200,000 had declared and divided a dividend of $530,000, with $100,000
"subject to dividend, should the directors think it desirable."
President Whitfield, of the Paper Mill, deposed on oath, that the net
profits for the year 1860, 1861, and 1862 combined, amounted to $235,750,"
on an "actual capital of $41,000," and he added, that fully
three-fourths of the dividend mentioned above, was made in 1862, or $172,000
profits in one year on $41,000 of actual capital.
A stock-holder of the Belvidere Manufacturing Company informs us that
since the war began he has received dividends on $1,000 of shares, amounting to
$6,460—an amount which he considered, if not extortionary, at least improper,
and he donated [illegible]
ATHENS
[GA] SOUTHERN BANNER, March 27, 1863,
p. 4, c. 1
How
to Get Cheap Newspapers.
--The Columbus Sun
says:
"If you would like cheap newspapers, a good supply of writing paper and
envelopes--all of which are almost as indispensable as clothing--save your rags.
Let the rag bag become a recognized institution in every household.
Nothing would tend more to increase the quantity of paper, and cheapen
its price, than the general institution of the rag bag.
Let every scrap of cloth, rope and thread, refuse cotton, flax or hemp
forms the fibre [sic?] be diligently saved, and sold to the paper mills and
paper will become abundant and be furnished at reduced rates.
"People of the South, if you would read and write, save your rags."
SAVANNAH [GA]
REPUBLICAN, April 6, 1863, p. 2, c. 1
Rags!
Rags!
We desire to purchase any quantity of clean linen and cotton rags, to be
made up into paper, and we are willing to pay the highest market price in cash. They will also be received in payment of all dues to this
office.
Will our subscribers everywhere interest themselves in this subject.
Every family can save a good supply of rags during the year, just how few
do it even when such economy can be made productive.
It has now become a question of life or death with the newspapers of the
country, and they must go down if the people do not come to the rescue.
To save the Press they have only to save their rags.
All parcels forwarded to this office will be faithfully weighed and
accounted for. Let all send what
they can—even small packages will not be despised.
Let the children do it, if the grown people are too much engrossed with
the war or scheme of speculation.
COLUMBUS [GA]
ENQUIRER, April 7, 1863, p. 3, c. 7
Bath Paper Mill Destroyed.—We regret to learn that the
Bath Paper Mill, situated on the South Carolina Railroad, six miles from
the city, was destroyed by fire about 2 o'clock, p.m., yesterday. The roof of the building was discovered to be on fire, when
every possible exertion was made to extinguish the flames; but owing to the
prevalence of a high wind, all efforts to overcome the fire was of no
avail—the entire building being consumed.
This is a severe loss, and in the present scarcity of paper will most
seriously interfere with the publication of the journals that are dependent on
the Mill for a supply of paper.—Augusta Const., 3d inst.