The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1 | Page 9

Only a
man of pluck, push and perseverance, of courage, sagacity and industry,
could have done this; and he who has accomplished it need point to no
other achievement to establish his title to a place among the strong men
of his time.
Mr. Clarke is a native of Atkinson, where he was born January 30,
1820. His parents were intelligent and successful farmers, and from
them he inherited the robust constitution, the genial disposition, and the
capacity for brain-work, which have carried him to the head of his
profession in New Hampshire. They also furnished him with the small
amount of money necessary to give a boy an education in those days,
and in due course he graduated with high honors at Dartmouth College
in the class of 1843. Then he became principal of the Meredith Bridge

Academy, which position he held three years, reading law meanwhile
in an office near by. In 1848 he was admitted to the Hillsborough
county bar from the office of his brother, at Manchester, the late
Honorable William C. Clarke, Attorney General of New Hampshire,
and the next year went to California. From 1849 until 1851 he was
practicing his profession, roughing it in the mines, and prospecting for
a permanent business and location in California, Central America, and
Mexico.
In 1851 he returned to Manchester and established himself as a lawyer,
gaining in a few months a practice which gave him a living; but in
October of the next year the sale of the MIRROR afforded an opening
more suited to his talents and ambition, and having bought the property
he thenceforth devoted himself to its development.
He had no experience, no capital, but he had confidence in himself,
energy, good judgment, and a willingness to work for the success he
was determined to gain. For months and years he was editor, reporter,
business manager, accountant, and collector. In these capacities he did
an amount of work that would have killed an ordinary man, and did it
in a way that told; for everymonth added to the number of his patrons;
and slowly but steadily his business increased in volume and his papers
in influence.
He early made it a rule to condense everything that appeared in the
columns of the MIRROR into the smallest possible space, to make
what he printed readable as well as reliable, to make the paper better
every year than it was the preceding year, and to furnish the weekly
edition at a price which would give it an immense circulation without
the help of travelling agents or the credit system: and to this policy he
has adhered. Besides this, he spared no expense which he judged would
add to the value of his publications, and his judgment has always set
the bounds far off on the very verge of extravagance. Whatever
machine promised to keep his office abreast of the times, and increase
the capacity for good work, he has dared buy. Whatever man he has
thought would brighten and strengthen his staff of assistants, he has
gone for, and if possible got, and whatever new departure has seemed

to him likely to win new friends for the MIRROR he has made.
In this way he has gone from the bottom of the ladder to the top. From
time to time rival sheets have sprung up beside him, but only to
maintain an existence for a brief period, or to be consolidated with the
MIRROR. All the time there has been sharp competition from
publishers elsewhere, but this has only stimulated him to make a better
paper and push it succesfully in fields which they have regarded as
their own.
In connection with the MIRROR a great job printing establishment has
grown up, which turns out a large amount of work in all departments,
and where the state printing has been done six years. Mr. Clarke has
also published several books, including "Sanborn's History of New
Hampshire," "Clarke's History of Manchester," "Successful New
Hampshire Men," "Manchester Directory," and other works. Within a
few years a book bindery has been added to the establishment.
Mr. Clarke still devotes himself closely to his business six hours each
day, but limits himself to this period, having been warned by an
enforced rest and voyage to Europe in 1872 to recover from the strain
of overwork, that even his magnificent physique could not sustain too
great a burden, and he now maintains robust and vigorous health by a
systematic and regular mode of life, by long rides of fifteen to
twenty-five miles daily, and an annual summer vacation.
In making the MIRROR its owner has made a great deal of money. If
he had saved it as some others have done, he would have more to-day
than any other in Manchester who