Page 28 : Beale Ciphers Analyses
The smoking gun
The following article appeared in the Lynchburg Daily News, the town's second newspaper, on April 11, 1885. It is notable as the only known comtemporary reference to The Beale Papers pamphlet that was not published in the Lynchburg Virginian.
This web page, based on extensive research by Richard H. Greaves over many years, presents more detailed information than previous pages on the events and personalities surrounding the publication and sale of The Beale Papers.
The cover page of The Beale Papers identifies its publisher thus:
At the time of publication in April, 1885, both The Virginian Book and Job Print company and the Lynchburg Virginian newspaper were owned by Charles W. Button. The two businesses were co-located in the Virginian Building at 1001 Main Street, Lynchburg. The town then had a population of about 22,000, and the newspaper had a circulation of 16,000.
Beginning in 1876, John W. Sherman was employed by Mr. Button, successively as apprentice, journeyman printer, and local and news editor.
On November 17, 1885, J. W. Sherman and his brother purchased the newspaper portion of the business from C. W. Button, and fifteen months later, on February 17, 1887, published a bitter bankruptcy announcement. He stated in part:
Note the debt of $10,000.
The following day, November 18, C. W. Button published a long rebuttal stating (note the highlighted portions):
John W. Sherman owed a large amount to C. W. Button. He was in arrears and, despite concessions by Button, was in default at the time of bankruptcy. This ultimately ended in a court battle in which Charles Button prevailed.
We now have a simple and clear motive for the events immediately preceding the bankruptcy declaration, as described below.
The role of James Beverly Ward
J. B. Ward's father was a lawyer. James himself received a military education at West Point and served in the army as a payroll clerk. During this time he injured a leg and was unable to serve in the Civil War, but he offered his services as a courier for the Confederacy. He was also a Mason for some time.
Clayton Hart interviewed some of Ward's acquaintances and received positive reports on his character. We have no reason therefore to think that he perpetrated a self-serving hoax, nor to doubt his word that he acted as "agent for the author".
The original newspaper reviews in the Daily News and the Virginian, on April 10, 11, and 15, 1885, cited Ward as the contact for the purchase of the pamphlet, presumaby at the published price of fifty cents. His probable motive for these services may have been an act of charity for the victims of the Lynchburg fire of 1883, in concert with his cousin Sherman. This same motive may also explain how the Daily News was induced to print the book review above, for otherwise they were promoting a product from their main competitor.
Alternatively, Ward may have been lending a hand to his cousin to build a nest egg for his purchase of the newspaper the following year.
Regardless, nothing further was published about The Beale Papers in 1885.
The advertisements
Beginning April 14, and ending May 21, 1886, five months after the purchase of the newspaper, this advertisement, appeared in the Lynchburg Virginian thirty-one times.
Note "Care Virginian" discussed below.
And who were Watts and Coomes?
The following is from the 1880 Lynchburg census:
Aged 8 in 1880, the son of a printer, he was 14 at the time of the advertisement. Also from the 1880 census, Coomes was Joseph R. Coomes, age 9, the son of a local grocer. He was 15 in 1886. Both were office boys/apprentices.
A month later, from June 24 until August 27, 1886, this ad appeared almost daily, six days a week, just over nine weeks, or fifty-two days, excluding Mondays, for a total of fifty-three times.
In total there were 84 ads over five months.
On Agust 22, 1886, the Virginian published its advertising rates, including the following:
REVISED ADVERTISING RATES
Per square of one inch, Nonpareil, 75 cts, or per week $3.
Less than One Square, TEN CENTS PER LINE
Yearly advertisements contracted for at special rates
From advertising and journalism publications of that era, we have determined that a "square of one inch" does not mean a geometric square of one inch, but a column height of one inch. Based on a column width of two inches, the ads above are 1.1 and 1.25 inches high respectively. Multiplied by the frequency of their appearance, this adds up to 100 column inches, for a total cost of $75.00. Add to this the production costs of the booklet itself.
It would require the sale of 750 booklets just to pay for the ads, in a town of 22,000 or approximately 4000 households, after some of those people already bought the book the previous year at the price of 50 cents. Is this commercially justifiable?
Of course, if the advertiser is the newspaper owner, he didn't have to pay.
The smoking gun
The day after the declaration of bankruptcy, Sherman's employees held a meeting during which they agreed to publish and jointly sign the following:
Two names are conspicuous by their absence: W. W. Watts and J. R. Coomes.
They were not Sherman's employees, leaving only one option: they were employed by Charles W. Button. Note also, from the 1880 census notes above, that Watts' father James was a printer, and is also absent from Sherman's employee list. We can safely conclude he worked for Button and had his son engaged as an apprentice.
Here then is the smoking gun. Sherman was in arrears in a large debt to Button. This was a fortune in those days. For example, the total annual payroll for the Virginian newspaper, for 10 employees listed above, was $8,000. Sherman was under great pressure to do something. In an effort to pay he negotiated a deal with Button to publish free (or very low cost) advertisements for the booklet, with the resulting sales revenue being paid to Button.
In his rebuttal above, Button states "(I had) given them all the help I could; refrained from pressing them to full compliance with their contract; endorsed their paper to the amount of hundreds of dollars - which notes are still uncancelled; and finally, at the request of Mr. Ford, their business manager, agreed to rebate a considerable amount of my unsatisfied claim...".
It could be inferred that Button was the proprietor of the booklet, that he had it written by someone else, or wrote it himself, and that Sherman's only contribution toward the debt were the ads. But three facts suggest otherwise:
Sherman was a playright
For years, in Button's employ, and now for himself, he was the principal writer for the newspaper
J. B. Ward "acted as agent" as a favor to his cousin Sherman; he had no relationship with Button.
The phrase "care Virginian" is important because it tells us that Watts & Coomes were Virginian (eg. Sherman) employees, and that the money went to Sherman.
Final observations
James B. Ward did not participate in the events of 1886. This should be sufficient proof that he neither owned nor wrote the booklet.
Some of my correspondents have disputed that The Beale Papers was a dime novel because there is historical evidence of the existence of Thomas Beale. Wyatt Earp, Billy The Kid, Annie Oakley, and Wild Bill Hickock were also real people, but the exploits attributed to them in the dime novels of the late 1800's were pure fiction.
