William Alexander Linn, Horace Greeley Founder and Editor of The New York Tribune

[24] idea of seeking work at the national capital occurred to him, but while he had employment he had treated himself to a suit of clothes --a second-hand suit of black, bought of a Chatham Street dealer, in which, he says, he found “no wear and little warmth” --and this had so depleted his capital that he had not money enough to pay his way to Washington. In the following January, however, he found work in the office of the Spirit of the Times, which had just been started by W. T. Porter and James Howe, two newcomers from the country, with scant capital. This enterprise was a discouraging one from the start, but, while Greeley found it difficult to collect his wages, he also found opportunity to show his skill in writing articles for the paper, thus keeping in practise what he had learned in Vermont. Later in the year he secured employment in the office of J. S. Redfield, afterward a prominent publisher, and remained there until he was induced to join a fellow printer in setting up a printing establishment of their own. That experiment came about in this way:

Francis Story, the foreman of the Spirit of the Times composing-room, numbered among his acquaintances S. J. Sylvester, a leading seller of lottery tickets, and Dr. H. D.