The young reporter: A story of Printing House Square

"The young reporter" by William Drysdale is a novel written in the late 19th century. It follows Dick Sumner, a principled printer’s apprentice who breaks into New York journalism, learning fast amid peril, temptation, and the relentless pace of the news. Expect brisk adventures in reporting—from political mishaps and labor riots to prison escapes and storm-tossed chases—told through a young man’s rise on a big-city daily.

The opening of the story introduces Dick in a small-town print shop, torn between staying for low pay to support his family or seeking better work. Sent to cover a governor’s visit, he pivots when the governor is gravely injured, rushes the scoop to a New York daily, and impresses the night editor, earning both payment and notice. Invited back, he’s hired as a cub reporter, stumbles by underselling a riot at a stonecutters’ meeting, and is steadied by a kind mentor. He rebounds with a strong harbor piece about the Vice-President’s near-disaster, then lands a major assignment to Sing Sing, where he crafts a standout account of convicts stealing a locomotive—securing an exclusive detail about a station agent ordered to “open the north switch.” Tempted by late-night camaraderie, he drinks and gambles at a reporters’ club, loses money, and feels the sting of shame, even as he helps move his mother and sister into a modest city flat with a colleague as boarder. Finally, he’s rushed into a high-stakes chase to shadow the police chief in a grave-robbing case, battling a gale on a hired tug, transferring to a rowboat, and clawing up a rotten pier to reach the New Jersey shore—where the scene cuts as he and a fellow reporter push on through the dark.