Romeike, Henry (19 November 1855–03 June 1903), originator of a press-clipping service, was born in Riga, Latvia, the son of a German father, Albert Romeike, a merchant, and his Latvian wife, Henriette Szabries. Henry completed primary schooling in Memel, East Prussia, and at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a draper (dry goods merchant). In 1870, at the age of fifteen, he absconded from Memel to Berlin, where he worked for almost a decade in various draper concerns. Seeking more remunerative employment, Romeike abandoned Berlin in 1880 to seek his fortune in other German and European cities and finally moved to Paris in 1881 or early 1882. According to his friend William Durrant, Romeike found employment in Paris with M. Gallois, who supplied artists and actors with press comments on their work. Gallois was apparently emulating M. Blum, who as early as 1875 provided celebrities with written copies, rather than the cuttings, of notices in foreign papers. However, according to Paul J. Morgan, former chairman of the Romeike and Curtice Press Clipping Service, the Argus de la Presse organization was the first to attempt a world press-clipping service....
