The sun. [volume], April 28, 1918, Section 3, Page 12, Image 40

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920

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' 'l
J2 8 r THE SUN, StJNDAY, 'APRIL 28,' 19l8.
The Story of f)je
r
ML
MtW YORK, MONDAY, JAHUAaY IT, IMS.
Suti 1833 to 1918
- lyjU 5
Noted New York Men Who Backed
' Mr. Dana in Buying 1 The Sun" and
City Life in the Late '60's
This is the tenth of a aeries of articles narrating the history of
THE SUN, and giving a vital, intimate view ot metropolitan life and
Journalism during more than eighty eventful years. The first article told
the ioundiag ot the paper by Benjamin H. Day in September. 1&33.
mad of its rapid rise to success. Succeeding articles told of the ''paper's
continued prosperity and of changes in ownership, including its purchase
by Charles A. Dana.
By FRANK
'A new newsDarjer. the Dallu Re out
jNran, was started In Chicago a few
week after the close of the Civil War
toy Senator Trumbull and other promi
nent Illlnolsans. They asked Dona to
become Its editor. Ills work In the
War Departments was done, and he
had hoped to go Into business, tor
hla own estimate of hla power as a
journalist was not as flattering as the
opinions of those who knew him. Yet
the Chicago proposition was attractive
on paper, for its capital was fixed at
the large sum of $500,000 an amount
sufficient, in those days, to carry on
any intelligently managed Journal.
Dana resigned as Assistant Secre
tary of War on July 1, 1865, went to
.Chicago and became editor of the Re
publican. No man was moro Intel
lectually fitted for the editorship of a
newspaper in that hour of reconstruc
tion. He had been a real Republican
from the founding of the party. He
cared little for the new President,
Andrew Johnson, and the Republican
was more inclined toward the side of
.Btanton, who differed with Johnson as
to the methods which should be used
in the remaking of the South. Of
Johnson, Dana wrote to Gen. Wilson:
The President Is an obstinate, stupid
nan, governed by preconceived Ideas, by
Whiskey and by women. He means one
thing to-day and another to-morrow, but
the glorification of Andrew Johnson all
the time.
The statement that tho capital stock
of tho Republican was (lxeil at half a
million dollars must now bo quallfled.
It was fixed on paper, but not In the
banks. Little of the money was actu
ally paid in, and some of the sub
scribers wero not solvent. Dana
worked hard with hla pen, but the
Republican had not enough backing
to hold It up. After one year of It
Dana resigned and came East, de
termined to start a paper In New
Tork.
Dana's Distinguished Associates.
He had friends of influence and
wealth who were glad to bo associated
with him. These included:
Thomas Hitchcock Amos K. Eno
Isaac V. England S. II. Chittenden
Charles S. Weyman Freeman Clarke
John If. Sherwood Thomas Murphy
SI. O. Roberts
William XI. Evarts
George Opdyke
E. D. Smith
T. A. Palmer
William H. Webb
Ttoscoe Conkltng
A. B. Cornell
E. D. Morgan
David Dows
John C. Hamilton
Cyrus W. Field
E. C. Cowdln
talent It. Wales
Theron It. Butler
Marshall I). Blake
F. A. Conkllng
A. A. Low
Charles E. Hutler
Dorman 11. Eaton
The most eminent of this distin
guished group was of course William
St. Evarts, then tho leader of the
American bar. He had been counsel
lor the Stato of New York in the
Lemmon slave caso, pitted against
Charles O'Conor, counsel for the State
of Virginia. He became chief counsel
for President Johnson in the impeach
ment proceeding of 18G8, and later
was Johnson's Attorney-General. He
was chief counsel for the United States
tn the Alabama arbitration, senior
counsel for Henry Ward Beecher In
the Tilton case, Secretary of state un
der Hayes, and a United States Sena
tor from 1S85 to 1891.
rtoscoe Conkllng was a United
States Senator from New York at the
time when Dana bought The Sun. He
was one of Grant's strongest support
ers, and led the third term movement
In 1880. His brother, Frederick Au
gustus Conkllng, was tho Republican
candidate for Mayor of .New York In
the first year that Dana controlled
Tub Sun. although later he changed
his politics, supporting Tlldcn tn 1876,
nd Hancock In 1880f
Edwin D. Morgan was Conkllng'a
colleague in the Senate, whero he
erved from 1863 to 1860. He was
Governor of New York from 1858 to
1862. He, llko most of Dana's associ
ates, was a Grant man, and It was
Morgan who managed Grant's secoi-J
Presidential campaign.
Alonzo U. Cornell, then only 36 years
old, had risen from being a boy tnlcg.
rnpher to a directorship in tho West
ern Union. He was already prominent
hi the Republican politics of New York
Btate, and was afterward Governor for
three years (1880-1882),
Lincoln man,
"ng yesr, of 182 and 186S.
w. Jtntia nad worn worldwide
M. O'BRIEN.
distinction as the Columbus of modern
times, as John Bright called him. Two
yean before Dana bought The Sun
Field had succeeded, after many re
verses, ln making the Atlantic cable a
permanent success.
Amos K. Eno, merchant and banker,
was the man who had made New Tork
laugh by building the Fifth Avenue
Hotel so far north away up at
Twenty-third street that it was
known as Eno's Folly. This he did
nearly ten years beforo Dana went
to Tub Sun, and in 1868 the hotel was
not only the most fashionable ln the
United States, but the most profitable.
A. A. Low was a merchant and the
father of Seth Low, later Mayor of
New York. William H. Webb was a
big ship builder. Thomas Murphy was
a Republican politician, whom Grant
made Collector of the Port of New
York, and who gavo Grant his place
at Long Branch as a summer home.
At least three of the men in the
list were active In Tub Sun office.
Thomas Hitchcock was a young man
of wealth and scholarship who had
become acquainted with Dana when
both! wtTe Interested in Sweden
borglantsm. He wrote, among other
bookn, a catechism of that doctrine.
For many years he contributed to Ths
Sun, under the name "Matthew Mar
shall," financial articles which ap
peared on Mondays, and which were
regarded as the best reviews ar.d
criticisms of their kind.
Isaac W. England was a friend of
Dana In the Trillion- days. He was
the first city editor of The Sun under
Dana, but soon became publisher, a
place which he held for many years.
Charles S. Weyman got out the
Wetklt Sun, and edited that delight
ful column. "Sunbeams."
Salem H. Wales was a merchant
whose daughter became Mrs. Klihu
Root. Dorman B. Eaton was one of
the pioneers of civil service reform.
Marshall O. RobTts, F. A. Palmer,
David Dows and E. C. Cowdln were
great names tn the business and
financial world of that day.
The Purchase of "The Sun."
Why Dana and his friends did not
start a new paper Is explained In the
ft Slowing letter written by Dana to
Gc. Wilson:
Just as wn were about commencing
our own paper, the purchase of The Sun
was proposed to me and accepted. It
has a circulation of from fifty to sixty
thousand a day, nnd all among the
mechanics and pmall merchants of this
city. We pay a large sum for It $175,
000 but it glveB is at once a large and
profitable bulncf".
If you have 11 thousand dollars at
leisure, you had better Invest It In the
htonk of our company, which Is Increased
to $350,000 In order to pay for the new
Requisition. Of this sum about $220,000
Is Invested In the Tammany Hall real
estate, which Is sure to be productive.
Independent of the business of the paper.
Tho "Tammany Hall real estate-" was
tho building at tho corner of Nassau
and Frankfort streets, where Tam
many kept Its headquarters from 1811,
when It moved from Martllng's Long
Room, at Nassau and Spruce streets,
to 1S67, when Dana and his friends
bought tho building with the expecta
tion of starting a new paper. If Moses
S. Ueach had attracted Dana's atten
tion to Tub fliT.v In tlmo he might have
sold him, as well ns the paper, his own
building at Nassau nnd Fulton streets.
But the Tammany Hall building was a
better placed home for Tub Sun than
Its eild quarters. It faced City Hall
Park and was a part of Printing House
Square.
Dana was right about tho produc
tiveness of the real estate, for no spot
In Now York sees more pedestrians go
by than tho Nassau -Frankfort street
corner. Tub Sun lived there for forty
three years, and Its present home,
taken when the old hall becamo too
small and ancient, Is only a block
away.
The first number of Tun Sun Issued
under Dana Monday, January 27,
1S6S contained a long sketch of Tani
many Hall and its former home, con
cluding: Peace succeeds to strife. No
Ilalleek can sing:
new
There's a barrel of porter at Tammany
Ilsfi,
And the nucktalls are enjoying It all
the night long:
In the time of my boyhood 'twas pleas
ant to call
For a seat and cigar 'mid the Jovial
throne
tea gfHTy is, . sJy:
as. it "j 5Ts
...
M It
So far as the comer of Nassau and
Frankfort streets Is concerned, L'Emplrt
tt palx. Thb Sun shines for all; and
on the site of old Tammany's troubles
and tribulations we turn back the leaves
of the past, dispel the clouds of dis
cord, and shed our beams far and near
over the Regenerated Land.
Dana changed the appearance of
The Pun over night. He kept it as a
folio, for ho always believed ln a four
page paper even when he was print
ing ten pages, but he reduced the
number of columns on a page from
eight to seven, widening each column
a little.
The principal headlines, which had
been irregular In size and two to the
page, were made smaller and more
vniform, and four appeared at the top
of the front page. The editorial
articles, which had been printed in
minion, now appeared a s'.xe larger, in
brevier, and tho heads on them were
changed to the simple, dignified full
faco type of the siro that is still used.
Dana changed the title head of The
Sun from Roman, which It had been
from the beginning, to Old English,
as it stands to-day. He also changed
the accompanying emblem. It had
been a variation of the seal of the
State of New Tork, with the sun
rising in splendor behind mountains;
on the right Liberty with her
Phrygian cap held on a staff, gailng
at an outbound vessel; on the left
Justice with scales and sword, so
facing that if not blindfolded she
would see n, locomotive and a train of
cars crossing a bridge. Thes classic
figures were kept, but tho eagle the
Statu crest which brooded above tho
sunburst ln Beach's, tlmo was re
moved so that the rays went skyward
without hindrance.
Dana liked "It Shines for All," The
Sun's old motte everybody liked It,
but only one newspaper, the Herald,
ever had the effrontery to pilfer it
but he took It from the scroll in the
emblem and replaced there the State
motto, "Excelsior."
The New Muster of "The 9nn.'
The Sun under Its new master rose
auspiciously master, not masters, for
in spite of tho number of his financial
associates Dana was absolute. The
men behind him realized the folly of
dividing authority. The Sun, whether
under Day or one of the Beaches, had
always been a one man paper. Thein
fore It succeeded. Just as the Herald,
another Journal governed by an auto
crat, went ahead; but with the 7'rift
tinr, where the stockholders ruled and
argued, things were different.
Dana was the bors. As Gen. Wilson
wrote In his biography:
From this time forth it may bo truth
fully tald that Dana was Tun Sun and
Thk Sun Dana, He was the sole arbiter
of Its policy, and It was his constant
practice to supervise every editorial con
tribution that came in while he was nn
duty. The editorial page was abso
lutely his, whether he wrote a lino In
It or not, and ho gave It the character
istic compactness of form and directness
of statement which were ever afterward
Its distinguishing features.
Dana was a man whoso natural In
tellectual gifts had been augmented
by his travels, his experience on tho
Tribune, his exploits In tho war, nnd
his association with the b!g men of his
time. Add to nil this his solid finan
cial backing and his acquirement of a
paper with a large circulation, and tho
combination seemed an assurance ejf
success. Yet had Dana lacked tho
peculiarly human qualities that svero
his, the Indefinable newspaper Instinct
that knows when a tomcat on the
steps of the City Hall l.s more Im
portant that a ctlsls In tho Balkans,
Thk Sun would have, set.
Only genius could enable a lofty
minded Republican, with a Republican
aristocracy behind him, to take over
Thk Sun and make a hundred thou
sand mechanics and tradesmen, nearly
all Democrats, like their paper better
than ever before. . And that Is what
Dana did. except that he fcddod to
Tut: Sun'h former readers n new army
of admirer recruited by tho magic of
IiIh pen.
When Dana camo Into control of
Thk Sun Hie city of New York, which
then Included only Manhattan nnd The
Bronx, had less than a million popu
lation, yet It supported or was asked
to support almost as many news
papers as It has to-day.
That was the day of the great per
sonal editor. Bennett had his Herald.
with James Gordon Bennett. Jr.. as
managing editor. Horace Qretlsy vas
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CHAS. A. DANA TOOK CONTr?OL. AND SOME Or THE.
MEN WHO WERE ASSOCIATED WITH MR. DANA IN
THE ENTERPRISE. THEY
CTKU5 W. rlcLwicrV WHO
f CABLE,c?ff A. A. IcmfiCUTj
known throughout America as the
editor of the Tribune. Henry J. Ray
mond was at the head of the 7'imc.
Manton Marble who died in Kngland
last summer was the Intellectual
chief of the highly Intellectual World.
Tho greatest Republican politician of
that (Uy, Thurlow Weed, was tho edi
tor of tli 2 Commercial Advertiser, He
had Just changed his political throne
from the Astor House to the compara
tively now Fifth Aenuc Hotel. Weed
was 71 years old, but not the Neftor
of New York editors, for William Cul
In Bryant was three years his senior
and still the active editor ot the nrcn
l0 Post,
The Itvrnlno Exprcm, later to be In
porporotfd with the Matt, was ruled by
the brothers Urooks, James as editor
In chief and Hiastus ns manager.
David M. Stone ran the Journal of
Commerce. Hen Wood owned the only i
penny paper ln town--tho livening
Sewn. Marcus M. Pomeroy, butter
known as Urlck Pomeroy, had Just
started his sensational shct, tho )cm
ni'rnf. on tho strctiRth of tho reputa
tion he had won In the West ns editor
of the I.a Crosse Democrat. Ijater he
changed the title of the Democrat to
Vomcroy's Advance Thought.
These wero the men uho assailed or
defended the methods of the recon
struction of the South: who stood up
for President Johnson or cried for his
Impenchment; who supported tho
Presidential ambitions of drain, then
the looming llgure In national politics,
or decried the elevation of one who.se
fame had been exclusively military:
who hammered at the wicked gates of
Tammany Hall or tried to excuse its
methods.
Iletgn of "no" Tweed.
Tweed had not yet committed his
magnificent atrocities of loot, but he
was practically the boss of tho city,
at the sme time a State Senntor and
the Street Commissioner. John Kelly,
then 46 two years tho f-enlor of the
boss was Sheriff of New York.
Richard Croker, who was to surcced
Kelly as Kelly succeeded Tweed at
the head of the Wigwam, was then a
stocky youth of 25, engineer of a fire
department steamer nnd the lender of
tho militant youth of Fourth nvenue.
He was already actively concerned In
politics, allied with the Voung Dcmoc
racy that wus rising against Teed.
In the year when Dana took Tm: Sl'n
Croker was elected an Alderman.
A slender boy of 10 played In those
days ln Madison Squnre Tnrk, hard by
his home in Kast Twentieth street,
Just east of Broadway, His name was
Theodore Roosevelt,
, New York's richest man was Will
ON JAN. 27, 1868, THE DAY
ARE WILLIAM M. EVARTS A0lJ
LMO THE. flK&I AWN I O
FATHER OF 5ETH LOW.
iam B. Astor. with a fortuno of per
haps fifty million dollars. Ho was
then 7C years old, but ho walked every
day from his home ln Lafayette placo
from Its windows he could see the
Uowery, which had been a real
bouwerio ln his boyhood to the little
otflco In Prince street where he
worked all day nt the tasks that fell
upon the shoulders of the Landlord of
New York. He probably never had
heard of John D. Rockefeller, a pros
perous young oil man In the middle
West.
Cornelius Vandcrbllt, only two
years younger than Astor, wns preil-1
dent of the New York Central Rail
road, and was linking together the
great rallwiiy system that Is now
known by his name, battling the while
against the strategy of J.iy Oould and
his MniMrr associiitc.". liy fur the
moM imposing llgure In' financial
America, Vanderbllt had everything
In tho world that he wanted except
Dexter, and that sreat trotter was in
tho stable of Robert Bonner, who was
not only rich enough to keep Doxter
but could afford to pay llnnry Ward
Beecher $30,000 for a novel", "Nor
wood." to be printed serially In the
Ledger.
Only one other New Yorker of 1S0S
ranked In wealth with Astor and
Vanderbllt Alexander T. Stewart,
whose yearly Income was perhaps
greater than that of cither, lie wns
then worth about thirty million dollars,
and he had astonished the business
world by building a retail shop on
Broadway between Ninth nnd Tenth
streets now half of WnnamakerV
at a cost of $2,750,000.
In Wall street tho big names were
August Belmont, Larry Jerome, Jay
Gould, Daniel Drew and Jlni Kisk.
Gould and Fisk wero doing what they
pleased with Erie stock. They nnd
the leaders of Tammany Hall, like
Tweed and Peter II. Sweeney and Slip
pery Dick Connelly, hatched schemes
for fortune as they fat either in tho
Hoffman House, whero Klak some
times lived, or nt dinner In the house
in West Twenty-third street, where
tho only woman nt tablo was Joslc
Mansfield.
Of the great hotels of that day not
more than one or two are left. The
Fifth Avrnuo then took rank not only
us tho finest hostelry In New York,
but perhaps In the world. The Hoff
man House wns running as a Euro
pean plan hotel. It had not yet bo
come a Democratic! headquarters, tor
the Democrats still preferred the New
York, on, the American plan.
Tho other big "everything Included"
hote'.s were the St. Nicholas, where
Middle West (oik ataraa; aad the
BTMatatmiMB
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Metropolitan, where the exploiter of
mining stock held forth. Among the
smaller and European plan hotels
were the St. James, tho St. Denis, the
Everett and the Clarendon, all more
or less fashionable, and the Brevoort
and the Barcelona, patronized largely
by foreigners.
The restaurants were limited in i
number, for New York had not ac
quired tlx restaurant habit as strongly
as It has It now. When you have men
tioned Dlmonlco's, Taylor's, Curet's
and the Cafe de l'Unlverslte, you have
almost a. complete list of the places
to which fashion drove In its brougham
after tho theatre.
Theatres of Fifty Years Ago.
The playhouses were plentiful enough,
considering the sire of the city. None
was north of Twenty-fourth street.
Wallack's, at Broadway and ,Thlr- j
tcuiii nnvk, nan vuiiDiumru nit? uvn.
theatre In America. The Grand Opera
House at Eighth avenue and Twenty
third street was called the handsom
est. Surely It was costly enough, for
Jim Fisk, who had his own way with
Erie finances, paid $$00,000 of the rail
road stockholders' gold for It. to buy
it from the railroad later with some
of Its own stock, of problematical
value.
The Academy of Music, at Fourteenth
street and Irving place, housed Ttallan
opera. The Theatre 'Yancals. also on
Fourteenth street, but near Sixth ave
nue, was tho original home ln this
country of opera boufTe. Opera bur
lesque prevailed nt the Fiftli Avenue
Opera House on West Twenty-fourth
street.
The Olympic, on Broadway near
Houston, had been built for Uiura
Keene; it was there that Edward A.
Sothern first appeared under his own
name. Barney Williams. Thk Sun's
first newsboy, was managing the
Broadway Theatre, In Broadway near
Broome street. Edwin Booth was
building a fine theatre of his own at
Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street
destined to score an artistic but not
a financial success.
Clabi and Clabmen.
Club life was well advanced. In
the house of the Century Club, then
In East Fifteenth street, the member
would como upon Bayard Taylor,
George William Curtis, Parke Godwin,
William Allen Butler, Edwin Booth.
Lester Wallack, John Jacob Astor,
August Belmont. The Union League
was young, and was Just about to
move from a routed homo at Broadway
and Seventeenth street to tho Jerome
house at Madison avenue nnd Twenty
sixth street, where It remained until
1 SSI. then to go to its present home
in Fifth avenue at Thirty-ninth
street. In the Union Lengue could
1h sesn John Ja Hornrn (iro'ev.
William E. Dodge nnd other enthusi
astic Republicans. Upon occasion Mr.
D.ina went there, but he uus not an
indent clubman.
All In all. the New York of Dana's
first year as an absolute editor was an
Interesting island, with Just about as
much of virtue and vice, wisdom and
folly, sunlight and drnbness, as may
be found on any Island of 900,000
people. Ho did not set out to reform
it. Ho did not try to turn the general
Journnllsm of that day out of certain
deep grooves Into which It had sunk.
lie had his own Ideas of what news
was, how It should be written, how
displayed; hut they wero Ideas, not
theories. He was not perturbed be
cause Thk Si'n had not handled a big
story Just tho way the Herald or the
Tribune dished It upt nor was It of
the slightest consequence to him what
Mr. Bennett or Mr. Grec'.ey thought
of the way Thb Sum used the story.
Dana's Views on Joa rami Ism.
Dana made no rules. Other news
papers have had printed command
ments for their writers, but The Sun
has never wasted a penny'B worth of
paper on rules. If there ever was a
rule In that ottlco It was "bo Interest
ing," and It was not only an unwritten
rule, but generally nn unspoken one.
Dana's realization that Journnllsm
wns a profession which could bo
neither guided nor governed by set
rules was expressed In a speech made
by him before the Wisconsin Editorial
Association at Milwaukee In 1888:
There Is no system of maxims or pro
fessional rules that 1 know of that Is
laid down for the guidance of the jour
nalist. The physician has his system of
ethics and that sublime oath of Jllppoc
rata whloh human wisdom has nerar
Principles of Journalism as Established
by This Paper Laid Their Impress
on Press of the Entire Country
transcended. The lawyer also has his
code of ethics and the rules of the courts
and the rules of practice which he Is
Instructed In ; but I have never met with
a system of maxims that seemed to me
4o be perfectly adapted to the general
direction of a newspaper man. I have
written down a few principles which oc
curred to me, which with your permis
sion, gentlemen, I will read for the bene
fit of the young newspaper men here to
night: Get the news, get all the news, get
nothing but the news.
Copy nothing from another publication
without perfect credit.
Never print on Interview without the
knowledge and consent of the party In
terviewed. Never print a paid advertisement as
news matter. Let every advertisement
appear as an advertisement; no sailing
under false colors.
Never attack the weak or the defence
less either by argument, by Invective or
by ridicule unless there Is some absolute
public necessity for so doing.
Kliht for your opinions, but do not be
lieve that they contain the whole truth
or the only truth.
Support your party. If you have one;
but do not think all the good men are
ln It and all the bad ones outside of It.
Above all, know nnd believe that hu
manity Is advancing; that there is prog
ress In human life and human affairs,
and that a" sure as God lives the future
will be greater and better than the pres
ent or the past.
In other words, don't loaf, don't
cheat, don't dissemble, don't bully,
don't bo narrow, don't grouch. Mr.
Dana's maxims were as applicable to
any other business as to his own. In
a lecture delivered at Cornell Univer
sity tn 1S94 three years before his
death Mr. Dana uttered more maxims
"of value to a newspaper maker":
Never be In a hurry.
Hold fsst to the Constitution.
Stand by the Stars and Stripes. Above
all, stand fcr liberty, whatever happens.
A word that Is not spoken never does
any mischief.
All tho gnodneks of a good esg can
not make up for the badness of a bad
one.
If you find you have been wrong, don't
fear to say so.
All these maxims were quite as use
ful to the merchant as to the news
paper man. They related to tho broad
conduct of life. They counselled
against folly, so far as the making of
newspapers was concerned, but they
did not convey tho mysterious pre
scription with which Dana revived
American Journalism from that trance
in which it had forgotten that every
body is human and that the English
language Is alive and fluid.
No Kales for Staking a Newspaper.
If there had lieen rules by which a
living newspaper could be made from
pen and Ink nnd woni pulp Dana
would have known them, but there
were none, nor are there now. The
present editor of The Sun. E. P.
Mitchell, who knew Dana better thnn
any other man knew him. said In an
address at tlio Pulitzer School of Jour
nalism a few years ago:
Mr. Dana used to lecture on Journal
ism sometimes, when he was Invited, hut
in the hottdin of my heart I don't believe
ho had any theories of journalism other
than rnmmcn wnse and free play for In
dividual talent when discovered and
available And I do remember distinctly
that when he sent Mr. Joseph Pulltlrer,
then fresh from St. Ixuls, on to Wash
ington to teport In seml-cdltorlal cor
respondence the critical stage of the clee.
toral controversy of 1378, Mr. Dana did
not think It necersary to Instruct tint
rorreipondnt to assimilate his style to
Tub Sun's methods and traditions.
Never was a Job of momentous Journal
istic Importance better done In the sb
fence of plain sailing directions: but
that, perhaps, was due partly to the fact
that Mr. Pulitzer was somewhat of an
Individualist himself.
For the ancient common law of jour
nalism, as derived from England, and
perhaps before that from away back In
IVrotla, Mr. Dana didn't care one comlo
supplement. If anybody had asked Mr.
Dana to compile a set of specific direc
tions for running a newspaper, his re
ply, I am sure, would have been some
thing like this:
"Heaven bless you. young man. there
aren't any rules! (Jo ahead and write
when you have something to say, not
when you think you ougjjt to say some
thing. I'll edit out the nonsense. And
by the nay, unless there happens to
have been born Into jmir noddle a little
bit of tho native aptitude, you ought to
go nnd bo a lawyer or a farmer or a
banker or a great eUtesman."
Mr. Dana had no regard fur typo
graphical gymnastic-. To him a head
line was something to fill tho mind
rather than tho eye. Ho knew the
utter Impossibility of trying to startle
the reader eight times In as many nd
Jacent columns a feat which Mr.
Bennett and some of his Imitators
seemed to consider feasible. Surprise
is not tha only emotion upon which
I
a newspaper can play, Tm Bus
stretched all the human octaves from
horror to amusement, but the keys of
horror were only touched when It
was necessary.
Make rules for news? How Is It
possible to make a rule for something
the value of which lies In the fact that
it Is the narrative of what never had
happened ln exactly the same, way be
fore? John Bogart, a city editor of
The 6un svho absorbed the Dana Idea
of news and the handling thereof, once
said to a young reporter:
"When a dog bites a man, that ii
not news, because It happens so often.
But if a man bites a dog, that Is
news."
Thb Bf always waited for the rata
to bite the dog.
Here is Mr. Dana's own definition
of news:
The first thing which an editor moit
look for is news. If the newjpaper hn
not the news it may have everythlrr
else, yet It will be comparatively un
successful; and by news I mean evfr
thing that occurs, everything which Ii
of human Interest, and which I? of suf
ficient Interest to arrest ar.d nbrorh tH
attention of-the public or of any consid
erable part of It,
There is a great disposition tn im
quarters to say that the newparrs
ought to limit the amount of news tha:
they print; that certain kinds of r.f
ought not to be published. I do no:
know how that Is. I am not prepared to
maintain any abstract proposition In that
line; but I have always felt that what
ever tho divine Providence perm'.ttej to
occur I was not too proud to repor.
Brat Training? for Newspaper Mta.
A belief has been accepted ip rr.f
quarters that The Pus- of 1 .ina 3 titr.a
preferred college men for Its taff This
was In a way fals-c, but it is tn: 'ha'
a great many of Tur Su'. our.r mtn
came from the rollee". Mr IMra
views on the matter if educational
equipment were quite plainly ex
pressed by himself:
If I could have my way CTtrj yosr.i
man who Is going to ho newspaper
man, and who Is nr.t nbso!utly rebel
lious against it. should lean Orff' ani
Latin after the giod old fashl"-.. I had
rather take a young ffiiow who know"
the "AJsx" nf Sophocles nnd has rfal
Tacitus and can scan every oils of
Horace I would rather take him to re
port a prlie fight or a hpe'hng mater
for Instance, than to take one who ?.a
never had those advantages.
At the same time the cultivated rrar.
Is not In every case the bet re.portar
One of the best I ever knew ua.' a rr.aa
who could not spell four words ciirreCly
to save his ll'e. and h's ert did rot
always agree with the subject In rerrov
and number; but he always pot ths fft
so exactly, and he saw the pictures!'
the ..i:nw"tilig, the Important nxpect rf
It so vividly, that It was -north nnoiher
man's while, who paiesie.l tho knowl
edge of gramtner and epell rt, fa "
over the report and write It on'
Now that was a mil1 who h 1
he had n talent the must induhi'aSi
and he got handsome. v p.i I n e o'
his lac' of grammar, l''M .?' r"
work had been done .iior v a '
It was teady bjaut.ful V " "1S
who Is sincere ard earner a I ' a
ways thinking aho-jt ' 'n e ' m h 1
good reporter. He ca- le.n f
tain the truth; he can aqu re t'O ""-i1'
of feeing.
When he looks at a fire Wis' Is if
mo.st Important thine: a'o'i "'a' r-"
Here, let us 'ay, are the hnn" bin -Ing;
which Is the greate-t? ior
Is that which Is burninc'" And u
met w Itli the greatest low' It"- "
Individual perished in the eonCat"' nr
Are there any very Interest nn; r"',T
stances about the t'.re" llo v I "
cur? Was It like Chleairo. v.hrt a "W
kicked over a Rplrit lump a d hj" '1 '
the rty"
All these things the rprtr t-s
Jlldse about. He is the of t t"1"'
and he Is there to see :i 'i t1-" '
fact In ths etorv. and '. i ''
tell It, write I', out.
Dana saw the usefulness '' a
porter of certain qualit.es ' '
acquired neither nt school r-r f.
office:
In the first place, he niu-t
truth when he hears ! n l '"s
There nro a sreat manv wi 1,1
nri
"is
tv-o
born without that faculty. ') "
But there are some men t'.mt a l e
not deceive; and that li a ir : re
gift for a reporter, hh we i ' "
body else. The man s:m : '
to live long and propei . rve- '
he Is able to tell i'io tp.' i w
fees, to Hate tlm f.v
that hn has bceii n-nt I'll' "
clear and vi- ld ai d Inteie-'ii '
The Invariable law : the - .'.
to he Inii'iest'iiK .n;
the truths of i'nrt In a w '
the render: what is the ! ' ' '
don't stay In the m.i d, i
thinks any the better or"
you huo told the truth tul. i
reporter must give lit Mor1 '
way that jon know ho ffelt I' n 1
and events and ic Interested in "iv"
T cosftao In nrrf Sufi4y'a W.
I
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