Evening star. [volume], December 16, 1902, Page 4, Image 82

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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for the adequate punishment of reporte4
who published their proceedings in sacre
secret session. They would have liked
cook the offenders in boiling oil. but had 4
content themselves with imprisoning the
for a season and having to pay a heaN
bill in the end for the luxurious entertail
ment of the prisoners.
All that has been changed aow and Co:
gress and the correspondents are on tern
of the most distinguished consideration m
tually. An efficient press committee reg
lates tMe reporters' galleries and .keeps o
the lobbyists and black sheep generally.
The successful evolutin of the Gridir
Club from the numer'us press clulls th
have sprung up from time to time. and di
out through internal dissensions or b)
management, has been one of the ma
causes for the higher standing of the cor
and the better feeling existing between pu
lie men and the correspondents. The m.
distinguished personages in the land, fr(
the President down. are glad to necept
Invitation to a Gridiron dinner, where th
Mr. Joseph Gales.
are royally entertained with things good
eat and drink, and treated to a good-ter
pered carnival of song. fun and frolic. la.
ing from the start until midnight. A
every entertainment is declared to be t
very best possible, until the next one con
and proves that there is no ultimate
limit to the Infinite variety of resources
the Gridiron boys.
Newspapers in Washington Fifty-si
ty Years Ago.
The bull of the Irish historian who head
a chapter
"THE SNAKES OF IRELAND,"
and went on to say "there are no snakes
Ireland," Is closely parodied by the adde
Gum to angsticle under the head of "T
14ewspap~ of Washington Fifty-sI'
Years Ago. There were, properly speakii
DANIEL WEBSTEP.
!
JOHN C CALHOUN
rs no newspapers in Washington at that time.
,d They were vigorous party organs, devoted
Lo to politics and depending for their support
to on party patronage. They expended noth
m ing for news. During the Mexican war, the
'y most important news event of the period.
ri- every scrap of intelligence concerning that
contest, was copied by the Washington
1- journals from outside papers. They ig
1s nored both general news and local happen
- ings. The National Intelligencer. the paper
L- most closely identified with the city and its
ut people. instructed its single local reporter
to limit his matter to "half a column of re
mn spectable commonplace."
It On that lirst Oiy of January. 1848. when I
Ad entered Washington, the Intelligencer con
od tained a government advertisement of mail
in lettings covering six pages, a belated re
ps port of the Secretary of the Navy, not a
b- word of news, and the following editorial
st announement:
m "No southern mail yesterday and there
in fore no news. Neithr House of Congress
ey was In session and therefore nothing from
our reporters. The army court-martial (on
General Fremont) did not sit in consequence
of the illness of the president.
"We had intended to insert today the of
licial report of Thursday s debate In the
Senate. but we were not able to obtain a
copy of it yesterday until our columns were
otherwise occupied. It will be inserted in
Monday's paper."
The Daily Union, the Polk organ. of the
same day, January 1. 1848, had the con
gressional proceedings of the previous
Thursday, the long advertisement of the
mail lettings. two or three columns of pon
derous editorial and not a line of news, local
or general.
The editors of that time were not only
slow in publishing the news, but slower yet
in making editorial comment upon news
events or any other important current
topics. They required time for incubation
before hatching.
The Intelligencer of March 20, 1848, gave
the news of the revolution in France and
the abdication of Louis Philippe, without a
word of editorial comment. but on the 27th
of March. a week later, it had an editorial
on the subject covering the whole of one of
its wide pages and a column on the next
page. Then, after a week's further consid
to eration. the Intelligencer, on the 7th of
n- April. had another editorial on "The Revo
t- lution in France" four columns long.
nd Hudson. in his "History of Journalism."
he referring to the length of time taken by
es the editors of old for reflection and consid
or eration before they made up their minds
of what to say on public matters, mentions
that the annual message of President Jef
ferson of 1I81 was published in the New
York Evening Post on the 12th of Decem
ber. and it was the 17th before any edi
ed torial notice was taken of It.
Of the great party organs of old, the
ablest,.most dignified and longest lived was
in the National Intelligencer. At a time when
~n- coarse vituperation and foul personal abuse
he were the choice weapons of the editorial
ty armory, the Intelligencer always m'tlntaine 1
gits calm judicial temper. And when an ad
versary resorted to this line of attack and
"hit below the belt." the Intelligencer
dropped the controversy then and there
and would take no further notice of the
offender.
Joseph Gales and William W. Seaton did
much to raise the standard of journalism
in their paper, as in their honorable, useful.
kindly lives they helped greatly to elevate
the tone of Washington citizenship.
Francis P. Blair and Amos Kendall were
the strongest of the political writers of their
time, and the Globe in their hands was the
most trenchant, savage and powerful party
organ that has ever existed in this country.
A chapter of "Recollections of the Metro
politan Press," by Colonel Claiborne, print
ed in the New Orleans Delta in 156, gives
some interesting particulars concerning the
leading men of the two great organs. the
Intelligencer and the Globe. Commencing
with the Intelligencer he says:
"It is certainly entitled to the merit of
consistency, and there is no leading press,
in either hemisphere, conducted with the
same dignity, forbearance and decorum. In
this respect it is a model to the newspaper
world, while in point of ability it stands in
the highest rank. Mr. Gales is now long
past the meridian of life. He is a living
political autobiography, having known in
timately the statesmen, the diplomatists,
the belles and the intrigues of three gener
ations. What amusing memoirs he might
write! He is generous and hospitable to a
fault. A professed epicure. and fond of a
rich cellar, the pleasures of the table, and
the facility with which his purse opens to
every application, have always kept him
comparatively poor.
"Mr. Seaton is the junior editor and late
mayor of Washington-an agreeable gentle
man. of great public spirit and fine collo
quial powers-a man of business and thrifty
In his circumstances.
"Francis P. Blair, better known as 'Blair
of the Globe,' commenced his career as an
editor at Frankfort, Ky. Amos Kendall
was at one time his associate. Originally
friendly to Mr. Clay, and connected with
him by marriage, he subsequently, with the
great body of what was then called the
new court party in Kentucky, attached him
self to General Jackson, and followed the
fortunes of that great man to Washington,
where he established the Globe. It speedily
became the national organ of the democratic
party and a prevailing influence at the
White House. It maintained its ascendency
(notwithstanding occasional and violent op
position in the democratic ranks) to the
close of the next administration. Mr. Blair
was constantly consulted by both Jackson
and Van Buren. It is certain he never be
trayed them, though he had been charged
with treachery to Mr. Clay. His paper was
ultra from the outset, and gradually be
came radical, never exhibiting, at any crisis,
the slightest hesitation or timidity. It
never went for half-way measures. Its tone
was bold, dogmatical and defiant, Its de
nunciations savage and ferocious. Its sar
casms bit like vipers, and friends and foes
alike dreaded its fangs. As a partisan jour
and with rare fidelity and courage. It never
betrayed its party, or was ungrateful to its
friends. On the opposition it made indis
criminate war-it charged at the point of
bayonet, and neither submission nor flight
arrested its merciless tomahawk.
"Mr. Blair is considered a remarkably ugly
man. I think otherwise. His features are
hard, indeed, but his countenance evinces
benevolence; nor does it belle him. His
manners are bland-his temper mild: and
one would never suppose that he could in
dite the terrible invectives that di.ily ema
nated from his proliflic and vigorous pen.
Mr. Blair wrote with singular facility. His
most powerful leaders were jotted down
upon his knee, in the office, on scraps of
paper, and passed immediately to the com
positor-mental daguerreotypes leaping from
a brain of prodigious energy.
"During his residence in Washington he
accumulated a handsome fortune. He lived
In, elegant style; and his mansion, conse
crated and adorned by household divinities,
whom to see was to worship, was constant
ly crowded with distinguished guests.
"If the Globe owed its reputation to Mr.
Blair, he is mainly indebted for his fortune
to the indomitable energy and financial
talent of his partner, Mr. John C. Rives,
who was charged with the business con
cerns of their extensive establishment. Mr.
Rives is a huge, burly figure. from Frank
lin, the roughest county in Virginia. He
has a strong and masculine matter-of-fact
mind, a shaggy exterior and very brusque
manners. Many of your Mississippi readers
remember the late Robert Cook of Lexing
ton, Holmes county, adjutant general of
the state-an ungainly, rough-hewn, awk
ward man, of noble heart. He and Rives
were cousins, and much alike, except that
Cook was an Apollo compared with Rives.
He is one of the shrewdest of men. His
mind was originally purely arithmetical;
but the printing office, the best school in
the world. poured its radiance into it. and
if he does not adorn everything that he
touches, he has the gift of Midas, and turns
things into gold. He made a large fortune
@ut of the old Globe establishment. and
still coins money out of the Congressional
G3lobe. He never made but one failure;
that was. when he bought the Bladensburg
lueling ground. where Decatur fell, and
turned gentleman farmer. In his office he
is a colossus. but on his farm he was like
Mr. Thomas Affleck, of 'our diggin's' and
other agricultural quacks. a mere theorist.
with the shabbiest stock, the meanest
fences and the poorest crops in the coun
try.
"Mr. Rives is a man of warm and humane
heart. Merit in misfortune finds in him a
steady friend. He is one of the few rich
men I know who recur with pride to their
former poverty; and it is his boast that,
after he acquired- wealth. and was looking
around for a wife, he chose one from the
hindery of his own office, where sixty young
females were employed; and well may he
boast, for, with characteristic good sense,
Mr. Wm. W. Seaton.
he selected one whose grace, beauty and
virtue would ornament and honor the most
elevated sphere.
"The career of Amos Kendall is so well
known I shall merely glance at it. The
son of a plain farmer-a hard-working stu
dent at a New England college-tutor in
the family of Mr. Clay-a party editor in
Kentucky-Postmaster General and biogra
pher of Andrew Jackson-chief director of
the National Telegraph-now quietly com
posing memoirs of his times for posthumous
publications. He is universally known for
his talents as a writer, his capacity for or
ganization and details, his unconquerable
indiustry and ability to labor. WVhen I first
saw him he had a whooping voice, an asth
matic cough, wIth a stooping frame and a
phthlsicky physiognomy, reminding one of
Madame Roland's dneription of the gtreat