seemed on the point of becoming a success, when it
received a severe and unlooked-for blow. The printing-office was burned
down, and the gentlemen who had printed "The Herald" were so much
discouraged that they refused to renew their connection with it. Mr.
Bennett knew that he was too near to success to abandon the enterprise,
and courageously put his wits to work to devise means to carry on the
paper. By the greatest and most indomitable exertions he managed to
secure the means of going on with it, and bravely resumed its
publication alone.

A few months after this the "great fire" swept over New York, and laid
nearly the whole business portion of the city in ashes. This was Mr.
Bennett's opportunity. The other journals of the city devoted a brief
portion of their space to general and ponderous descriptions of the
catastrophe, but Mr. Bennett went among the ruins, note-book and pencil
in hand, and gathered up the most minute particulars of the fire. He
spent one-half of each day in this way, and the other half in writing
out reports of what he thus learned. These reports he published in "The
Herald." They were free, graphic, off-hand sketches of the fire and its
consequences, and were so full and complete that they left little or
nothing connected with the incidents they described to be added. Mr.
Bennett also went to the expense of publishing a picture of the burning
of the Merchants Exchange, and a map of the burnt district--a heavy
expense for his little journal. The result proved the sagacity of his
views. "The Herald" reports of the fire created a heavy demand for the
paper, and its circulation increased rapidly. Yet its success was not
assured.

When his first year closed, Mr. Bennett found his paper still struggling
for existence, but with a fair prospect of success, if it could follow
up the "hit" it had made with its reports of the fire. About this time
he received an offer from Dr. Benjamin Brandreth to advertise his pills
in "The Herald," and a contract was at once concluded between them. The
money thus paid to the paper was a considerable sum, and proved of the
greatest assistance to it. All the money received was conscientiously
expended in the purchase of news. The circulation grew larger as its
news facilities increased, and for some years its proprietor expended
all his profits in making the paper more attractive.

At the close of the fifteenth month of its career Mr. Bennett increased
the size of "