Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-21
THE CAMPAIGNS OF A NON.COM-
pATAmU
MT. GEORGE Alfred T~0Wnsend's New
Book.

Book.
Few men, at twenty-five, can look back
upon a career so varied, so exciting, so
closely intertwined with the greatest
events Of history, and eliminating in such
brilliant personal success, as can George
Alfred Townsend. Graduating at twenty,
this gentleman began life as a sub-editor
in aPhiladelphia newspaper office. Thence
he weht forth, in the fall of 1851, to COM
mence the duties of a Especial war cores
pondent." He followed the fortunes of
Mcclellan through the mud of the PENN
sula, and when the campaign of 1862 had
ended in disgrace and disaster, he dis
mounted the bony charger and drew off
the muddy cavalry boots of @our special
correspondent" and took a two years tour
in England and France. He returned in
the spring of 1865, and at once went to the
front as the correspondent of the New
York World. The time was a critical one.
The young writer arrived at Petersburg
Just before the commencement of that
grand series of movements which termina-
ted in the battle of Five Forks, the evac-
uation of Richmond, the surrender of Lee,
and the collapse of the C~onfederacy. His
coming at this juncture was fortunate for
himself and for all newspaperdom. No
battle of the war was desc ibed more cor
rectly and graphically than Five Forks by
him; and no description ever won for its
author broader or mere instantaneous
celebrity. His fluent and fervid style,
which flashes like fireworks, and rings
like a cavalry charge, suited admirably
the character of that brilliant battle.
Townsendisth Sheridan correspondents
AS rapid, as dashing, as lawless and
yet as successful, as the great cavalry COM
mander. His glowing sentences were tele-
graphed over the nation and copied into
the newspapers of every city. His subse-
quent letters, detailing the assassination,
the fight and capture of Booth, and the
execution of the eonspirators, met with
equal success, and in three months Town
send rose from obscurity to the first fame
among newspaper correspondents.
"The Campaigns of a Mont ombatant,"
a handsome volume now in the press, and
soon to be issued by Blelock and Company,
Of New York city, is Mr.. Townsend's
graphic history of these eventful four
years. Gaining its chief interest from the
scenes abroad and the mighty events at
home which it photographs so wildly, it
is not rendered less attractive by the per-
senal incident, adventure and reflection,
which are given us alongside of weightier
matters. We have been favored with
advance-sheets of the earlier portions of
the book, some extracts from which we
print below. They will possess a per-
sonal interest to our readers from the fact
that so many of them have heard the au
thor and formed his acquaintance during
his recent lecturingtou in Northern Ohio:
THE INSIDE OF A METROPOLITAN NEWS
PAPER.
The first chapter is a sketch of life in a
newspaper office, which will be compared
with and pronounced superior to Bayard
Taylor's corresponding description in
John Godfrey's Fortunes. We extract:
To be a subject o fold Hoe, the most vo-
racious of men, l gave up the choice of
three sage professions, andthe sweet alter
native of idling h~usbandry.
The day 1 graduated saw me an attGche
Of the Philadelphia Chameleon. / was to
receive three dollars a week and be the
heir to lordly prospects. In the long
course of persevering years I might sit in
the cushions of the night-editor, or speak
of the s%triplings around me as "1ay re-
porters."
The editors of the Chameleon was an old
journalist, whose face was as a scaled book
of Confucius, and who talked TO me, pat
ronizingly, now and then, like the Delphic
Oracle. His name was Watch, and he
wore a prodigious pearl in hisshirt bosom.
He crept up to the editorial room at nine
o'clock every night, and dashed off an
hours worth Of glittering generalities, at
the end of which time two or three gen
tlemen, blooming at the nose, and with
cheeks resembling a map drawn in red
ink, sounded the pipe below stairs, and
Watch said
"Mr. Townsend, l look to you to lie on
hand to-nigh /; I am called away by the
Warer-Gas Company"
Then, with enthusiasm up to blood-heat,
by this mark of confidence, 1 used
to set to, and scissor and write till three
while Mr.. Watch talked water
gas over brandy and water, and drew his
thirty dollars punctually on Saturdays.
So it happened that my news para
sometimes pointedly turned into
a reflection, crept into the editorial col
when water-gas was lively. Ven
turing more and more, the clipper finally
indited a leader; and Mr.. Watch, whose
nose water-gas was reddening, applauded
me, and told me in his sublime way, that,
as a special favor, 1 might write all the
the mex night. Mr.. Watch was
seen no more for a week, and my three
dollars carried on the concern.
When he returned, he generously gave
a dollar, and said that he had spoken
If me to the Water-Gas Company as a
capital secretary. Then he wrote me a
pass for the Arch Street Theatre, and told I
~ DOHO'NASA w ~ anu AOSS sl1t
hight.
For a month or more the responsibility
,fthe Chameleon devolved almost entirely
lpon me. Child that l was, knowing no !
world but my own vanity, and pleased F.
With those who fed its sensitive love of !
APPRECIATION, rather than with the just and i
l harbored no distrust till one
lay when Axiom visited the office. and l
vas drawing my three dollars from the L
reasurer, l heard Mr.. Watch exclaim,
vsthin the publishers room .
"Did you read my article on the Home .
tead Bill ?" I
ayes" answered Axiom; dit was quite .
your leaders are more live and d
than they were" y
l could stand it no more. 1 bolted into '
he office, and cried d
"The article on the Homestead Bill is {
nine, so is every other article in to-day's a
aper. Mr.. Watch does not tell the =
ruth; he is ungenerous y !,
Whats this, Watch ~ said Axiom. !
"Alfred," exclaimed Mr.. Watch, ma v
"adopts my suggestions very d
and is quite industrious. 1 re- s,
onfmend that we raise his salary to five y
a week. That is a large sum for Il
lad.n V
That night the manuscript was over a
auled in the composing room. Watch's y
ereliction was manifest; but not n word ~
said cOmmendatory of nv labor; il u