Associated Press, conceived the idea of anticipating the news of each
incoming ocean-steamer by means of a pigeon-express, which he put into
successful operation in the year first named. He procured a number of
carrier-pigeons, and several days before the expected arrival of every
English mail-steamer took three of them to Halifax. There he boarded the
vessels, procured the latest British papers, collated and summarized
their news upon thin paper, secured the dispatches thus prepared to the
pigeons, and fifty miles or so outside of Boston released the birds. The
winged messengers, flying homeward, reached the city far in advance of
the steamers, and the intelligence they brought was at once delivered to
Mr. W.G. Blanchard, then connected with the Boston press, who had the
brief dispatches "extended," put in type, and printed as an "extra" for
all the papers subscribing to the enterprise. Sheets bearing the head
"New York Herald Extra" were also printed in Boston and sent to the
metropolis by the Sound steamers, thus anticipating the arrival of the
regular mail.

It is interesting, in these days of lightning, to read an account of how
the Herald beat its local rivals in getting out an account of the
President's Message in 1849. A column synopsis was received by telegraph
from New York, and published in the morning edition, and the second
edition, issued a few hours later, contained the long document in full,
and was put on the street at least a half-hour earlier than the other
dailies. How the message was brought from Washington is thus described:
J.F. Calhoun, of New Haven, was the messenger, and he started from the
capital by rail at two o'clock on the morning of December 24; a steamtug
in waiting conveyed him, on his arrival, from Jersey City to New York; a
horse and chaise took him from the wharf to the New Haven dépôt, then in
Thirty-second Street, where he mounted a special engine and at 10 P.M.
started for Boston. He reached Boston at 6.20 the next morning, after an