Chapter XVI: Journalism Below Sea-Level

The printing-press has sought many strange corners in the universe. It has, in these modern times, led rather than followed civilization. In the new West it usually is, first the printing-press, then the town.

One of the most peculiar phases of journalism is found in the desert region of California. There are, in the two great deserts of the State, four weekly papers, two in each desert. In the Mojave Desert are the _Randsburg Miner_, published in the gold-mining town of Randsburg, in the northern part of the desert, and the _Needles' Eye_, issued from the town of Needles on the eastern confines of the sandy waste.

The Needles is the metropolis of the upper desert country, and the _Needles' Eye_ is the larger of the two papers published in this desert. The town has a peculiar history, inasmuch as in the first fifteen years of its existence it stood upon borrowed ground. In size the township is one and a half times as large as the State of Vermont. The village of Needles is about eight miles west of the Colorado River on the line of the Santa Fé Railroad. The main part of the village is situated upon Section 29 of the township, which is one of the sections included in the railway grant to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. The town grew naturally about the station, which was established at the time of the building of the Santa Fé road, and little thought was given to titles at that time.

In time the town grew to the dignity of brick blocks, and still the titles remained with the railway company. Some ineffectual efforts were made on one or two occasions to secure titles to the lands from the railway people, but it was not until 1903 that a deal was made whereby the townsmen, in consideration of $43,000, secured deeds to the lands upon which stand their homes and business blocks.

Needles has a population of two thousand souls. It is a mine outfitting town, furnishing supplies for a large and rich gold-mining district north of that locality. The _Needles' Eye_, which is an eight-page journal, is a wide-awake organ owned, printed, and edited by L. V. Root, a native of Michigan, but a resident of the Southwest since 1892. He formerly edited the _New Mexico Gleaner_ and is familiar with frontier journalism. His paper is devoted to the local interests of the town and to the mining districts of that region.

Randsburg is a typical mining town with desert accessories. It is the chief town of the gold-mining district known as the "American Rand," and has but one rival in the district, Johannesburg, which is close to it in size and importance, but which has not yet arrived at the dignity of a newspaper.

The _Miner_ is a four-page weekly devoted to the news of the mines and to local items. It has few features of interest outside the locality in which it is published.

In the Colorado Desert journalism attains an unusual degree of uniqueness. Both papers published in that region are printed below the level of the sea.

The _Submarine_ has the distinction of being the first paper in the world to be printed below the level of the sea. It is still unique in that it is the "lowest down" of any paper in the world. In order to hold this record the editor and proprietor, Randolph R. Freeman, was obliged to move to a new locality a few months after establishing his paper in the desert.

In 1900, the first paper to be printed below sea-level was issued by Freeman at Indio, a station in the desert on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Indio has a depression of twenty-two feet below the level of the sea.

Later, the Imperial irrigation canal was started across the desert from the Colorado River, and the town of Imperial had its birth. Then the _Press_ sprang into existence and was printed in an office situated sixty-five feet below the ocean's level. The _Submarine_ thus lost double prestige, for it was no longer the only paper published below the level of the sea, neither was it the "most low down newspaper on earth," as the publisher announced in his prospectus.

The editor, in informing his readers of his move, did so in the following language:

"We have dropped from twenty-two feet below sea-level to
seventy-six feet below sea-level. We hit Coachella with a
dull yet raucous thud. The low, rumbling noise you heard
last Tuesday was caused by our printing-office taking the
drop. It may be truly said that the _Submarine_ is the
lowest down, or the lowdownest, or the most low down
newspaper on earth. As nearly as we can compute the
distance, Hades is about two hundred and twelve feet just
below our new office. The paper will continue to advocate
the interests of all the country below sea-level and we want
you to fire in all the news you know."

The _Submarine_ is nothing if not consistent. It is an eight-page weekly, printed upon paper of a "submarine blue" tint. Its local paragraphs are run under the caption of "Along the Coral Strand." It has a humorous department conducted by "McGinty," the man who fell to the bottom of the sea. There is still another department entitled, "The Undertow." The editor owns a span of fine horses, the names of which are "Sub" and "Marine." In fact there is a flavor of the locality in everything connected with the establishment.

The Imperial _Press_, owned, edited, and published by Edgar F. Howe, is conducted strictly on journalistic principles. The paper is somewhat larger than the _Submarine_. It is an eight-page weekly devoted to the interests of irrigation and of reclamation of the desert lands, and to general and local news.

Howe has been connected with various California newspapers, and has a wide reputation as a commercial editor and an oil expert. He confesses that the Imperial publishing business has introduced him to decidedly new experiences. One of the chief difficulties in printing a paper in so torrid a region is that it frequently occurs that the ink-rollers melt and the paper is delayed from issuing till other rollers can be obtained from Los Angeles, nearly three hundred miles away. Summer temperature in Imperial ranges from 100 to 120 degrees in the shade and from 20 to 30 degrees higher in the sun. A double set of rollers is kept on hand when possible, but it frequently happens that rollers collapse about as fast as they can be adjusted, and the paper is hung up till a new lot gets in, or till the weather cools off a bit.

Howe has a device of his own invention for the keeping of the rollers when not in actual use. It is a cupboard with a ventilator in the top and a box of sawdust in the bottom. The rollers are set in a rack midway. The sawdust is kept wet, and the rapid evaporation keeps the cupboard moderately cool.

In one feature the _Press_ and _Submarine_ are peculiar. Each of the papers has a circulation three or four times larger than the entire population of the towns in which the papers are published. Another feature not common with rural publications is that all subscriptions are paid in advance and in cash. There are no delinquent subscribers, for the paper is stopped when the subscription expires. Neither are subscriptions payable in cordwood, for that is a commodity unknown to desert towns.

Twelve miles north of Imperial, and near the end of the Imperial canal, there was completed, January 1, 1903, a single board building twelve by sixteen feet. When the writer visited the place in the following June he found thirty-six buildings completed and others in the course of construction. This was the town of Brawley, one hundred and twenty-five feet below sea-level. One of the first objects to greet his eye was a printing outfit, the presses, cases, and accoutrements being stacked upon the sands beside a street of the town and near a tent in which resided the owner of the outfit. This was the nucleus of a new newspaper, to be started as soon as a building could be erected for its occupancy. This paper is destined to be the "lowdownest," unless one of the other papers moves still deeper into the great sink. It is among the possibilities of the future to have a paper published three hundred feet below sea-level, for this depression may be reached in the center of the basin known as the "Salton Sink."