The birthday of the Tribune fell on the date of the funeral parade held in New York city as a mark of mourning for the President. It was a day of sleet and snow, and every Whig heart was bowed down. Friends of the editor had secured for him less than five hundred subscribers in advance, but an edition of five thousand was printed, and of these, Greeley says, “I nearly succeeded in giving away all of them that would not sell.” The first week's receipts were only $92, with which to meet an outgo of $525; but by the close of that week the paper had two thousand paid subscriptions, and this number increased at the rate of five hundred a week until a total of five thousand was reached on May 22, and the growth continued. Writing to Weed in June of that year, Greeley said: “I am getting on as well as I know how with the Tribune, but not as well as I expected or wished,” and he called the giving of the list of letters by the postmaster to Stone's paper, “the unkindest cut of all.” In a note to R. W. Griswold, on July 10, he said: “I am poor as a church mouse and not half so saucy. I have had losses this week, and am perplexed and afflicted. But better luck must come. I ”
