Henry Romeike

Background

Henry Romeike He was was born in Riga, Latvia. He was of mixed German and Lithuanian stock, the son of Albert and Henriette (Szabries) Romeike.

Education

After a fragmentary common-school education in Memel, East Prussia, he was apprenticed to the dry-goods trade at the age of thirteen, but two years later ran away and went to Berlin.

Career

he worked in dry-goods shops for about ten years, but he did not like the business, and finally gave it up and drifted about Europe two or three years, looking for something congenial. During a conversation over a newspaper with a chance acquaintance on a park bench in Paris in 1883, he was struck by the idea that persons of prominence might like to be supplied in a comprehensive way with clippings of newspaper articles regarding themselves. Romeike was almost entirely without funds, and he therefore had great difficulty in getting copies of newspapers sufficient to launch his business. He introduced it by making personal calls on the individuals he wished to serve, leaving small batches of clippings with each. He found that the suggestion pleased many of them, and his business slowly developed. But after about a year in Paris, he decided that the English read more newspapers than the French, and removed to London, though he continued to serve his French customers. Here he took in a partner named Curtice. His clipping bureau was the first in England, and it found many clients there, eventually acquiring patronage even among the nobility and royalty. But reports of advancement in America and the prosperity of its daily newspapers again made him restive, and in 1885 he sent Samuel Leavitt to the United States to make a survey. Leavitt reported that there was more newspaper reading done there than in England, and under Romeike's direction, he established a clipping bureau in New York. Romeike sold his interest in his London business to his partner Curtice and came to New York. In America, even more than in the other countries, he seemed to have filled a long-felt want, and his business, after a slow and modest start, presently brought him emolument and even a measure of fame. Politicians, persons of social prominence, actors, writers, and musicians quickly took to the new idea, and professional and even business men followed them. Romeike was credited with having made America more self-conscious. His novel business brought about the coining of a new slang verb; an article or a book compiled from press clippings was said to be "romeiked. " His service was extended to many foreign countries, and not a few titled personages were among his patrons.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Wife Beaters' Manual: A Guide To Husbands' Connubial Corrections, With A List Of Prices Attached (1884)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Wife-beaters' Manual, Compiled From Statistics, Ed. By C.w. Barker...

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

Connections

Romeike was married in London, September 26, 1884, to Jane Sarah Mary Ganther; on July 12, 1892, he was married in New York to Suzanna Dayes. There were two children by the latter union, but the marriage was annulled in 1902. Romeike died about a year later, at the early age of forty-eight.

Wife:

Jane

Romeike was married in London, September 26, 1884, to Jane Sarah Mary Ganther

Wife:

Suzanna

On July 12, 1892, he was married in New York to Suzanna Dayes. There were two children by the union, but the marriage was annulled in 1902.