Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-04-07
R A POTTER.
The ate Editor of h Cincinnati
COmmerciaI-SOmethinS of his His
tory.

The hardest worked men in the world
are the editors of irst-class papers. Their
labors are incessant and wearing on brain,
bone and muscle. Half the ability, appli-
cation and personal attention to details
required of journalists, would, if devoted
to auy other pursuit, command the high
est success and the fullest measure of fame.
Unfortunately, these are not always the
results in newspaper life; but Mr.. Potter,
if he had not acquired a wide reputation
personally, had given character to his
paper, and advancedit to the first rank of
American journals. OF his early life, the
Commercial says;
"He was born in Clinton county, Ohio,
November q, 1919, and consequently al
the time of his death was in the 47th year
of sge. In his early boyhood his family
moved to Yicksburg, Mississippi, and his
father died. Though not enabled to take
a thorough urs of study, he had the ad-
vantage of an attendants during a portion
of two years, at the then fourishing acad
of Georgetown, in the District of Column
bia. Another and not less important part
of his education was obtained in the office
OF the jackson MiSSiSSipiGn, edited at the
time by Henry +. Foote, since distin-
guished as O politician. Here Mr.. Potter
learned the art of type-setting, and be-
came a good practical printer, a circum-
stance that was afterward influential in
determining his course of life. BE mar
=. - a. -. -s4a.- - --,-zI
in business in jackson, Mississippi, but
was unsuccessful in it, and tried bis for
tune again with the same result in St
Louis, Missouri. His experience, how
ever, was invaluable, and when at twenty
five years of age he became a citizen of
Cincinnati, his capital consisted of his
clear head and ready hand-his will to
work and capacity to direct labor"
He entered the Commercial Office twenty
years since, taking charge of the counting
room; but in a little whilo secured a pro-
prietary interest in the job printing of the
concern, and shortly after borrowed $4,000
of the banker Smead, on his notes without
security, and purchased half the Office.
In course of time he became sole proprie-
tor.
ain his business management he main
tanned an iron discipline, but that rigorous
and constant discharge Of duty which he
exacted Of others WIS but what he him
self performed. His intolerance of negli-
gence was happily tempered by a fine
sense of justice, that made his apprecia-
ton of an ambition to do more than the
appointed task, right generous. He was,
in the true sense of the word, THE EDITOR
of the Commercial; not writing largely
for its columns, but thinking what should
be written, directing, supervising, decid-
ing everything, from the substance and
temper of a leading article to the style of
advertising; and from the bearing of a
great public question to the judicious turn
ing of a sentence. For years, except upon
rare occasions, be saw the last proof-sheet
before he left the Office at night; an 1 there
was crowded into his brief span of life,
labors and responsibilities that might well
have filed and occupied three score and
ten years"
abe was not unconscious that he was
everlasting himself, for no one of all
who demonstrated with him knew il bet
ter. But the war came on, and a multi
tude of n new and exciting subjects came
thronging with II, and, under such cir
c~umstsnces, though life itself was threat
ened, it was impossible to get out of the
harness.
"When at last his thoughts turned TO
himself, and he set about obtaining rest
and relaxation, in the hope of regaining
health, it Was too late.
@By the lakes and the mountains of the
East and on the prairies andby the rivers
Of the West, Mr.. Potter sought in vain
the restoration Of his shattered health, at
tended everywhere by his devoted wife,
and maintaining always his indomitable
resolution and cheerful h~opefulness. On
the l4th of December last, he left US, to
try, as a last resort, whether there were
healing influences in the Southern climate.
He visited New Orleans and Havana, but
ever the soft airs of the Gulf were with
out help and consolation for him, broken
and wasted as he was. The difficulty was.
organic, the heart being affected, and des-