The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-01-26
GEO. ID. PRENTICE.
HIS LAST HOURS on EARTH
His Habits OF Industry and Com.
position.
From the Courier ournal, Jan. .


For the last six or eight months
going to his sons every Saturday and
remaining until Monday morning,
when he would return to the Office
and resume the labOrs of the week.
On Saturday, the 18th of December,
he went down as usual, was taken
sick there with pneumonia, and there
he remained until his death.
Soon after the death Of his mother,
Col. Clarence Prentice purchased a
beautiful farm lying on the Ohio,
about nine miles below the city; the
splendid residence on Walnut Street,
In which Mr.. Prentice had lived for
many years, passed into other hands,
and his home here in the city was
broken up. From that time forward he
lived principally in his editorial room,
first in the old journal Office and
afterWard in the Office of the Courier
Journal, where one of the most com.
Portable rooms in the building was
assigned him. Here he remained
almost constantly, seldom going upon
the street, and spending his whole
time, beth night and day. In the dis
charge of his editorial duties, to which
he was greatly devoted up to the mo-
ment he left the Office to return no
more. He seemed to have an antipa-
thy to boarding houses and hotels,
and after he ceased to be q house
keeper he always had his meals served
in his editorial room, which was also
his bed room. He was also very fond
of sWeetmeats and other d~elIcacies,
and with an abundance of these he
was almost daily supplied by his many
friends among the ladies of the city,
with whom he was ever q great favor
tie. To them he was always as gentle
and kind and chivalrous in his de-
pertinent, and they esteemed him ac-
cordingly.
1t was his custom to rise early Ia
the morning some hours before his
younger associates were aWake-and
to begin at once the labors of the day.
As soon as it was light enough to see
how to work, he usually began the
task of overhauling the large pile of
exchanges which had been carried to
his room the night before from the
room of the news editor. He looked
over every newspaper as it came, and
whenever he found an article sug-
gestive of an editorial or a paragraph
suggestive Of a witticism, he tore 1t
out, seldom ~resorting to the use of the
scissors, unless he found them lying
conveniently at hand, and laid it upon
his table, ready for use when the time
for writing came. By nine or ten
o'clock in the morning he was ready
for his amanuensis, who usually came
to his room about that hour, and he
began the serious work of the day,
which he generally kept up until early
in the afternoon, when he dismissed
his amannensis to dinner. BY that
time he had often written two or
three columns of editorial matter
far more than it was necessary to
write, for he was so indefatigable as a
writer that he generally had IN type
from one to two columns of lover
matter that Is, matter which had
been left over, for want of room, from
the last issue.
Mr.. Prentice rarely failed to become
attached to his amanuensis, and al
ways treated him with great kindness,
sometimes scolding him a little for a
blunder in photography, or for an un-
necessary roughness of p~enmanship,
but rarely failing to. make amends for
his asperity Of language by increased
kindness thereafter. He was very pc
culiar as to the artistic appearance of
the manuscript produced by his aman-
uensis. If the lines were a little too
far apart, or a little too near together,
he would call attention to the fact, in
very kind tones, and request his
amanuensis to be a little more careful
in the future. He was almost fault
less as a grammarian, and his punctu-
alton was perfect. Many of the best
editors of the day pay little attention
to punctuation in their editorials.
leaving it, in a great measure. TO the
taste and judgment Of the proof read
or, who is always presumed to under
stand 1t thoroughly, and whose duty
1t. Is too see that every article he reads
Is properly p~unctuated. But Mr..
Prentice trusted nothing to the
proof reader. He dictated to his
amanuensis every comma, semicolon
dash, period and paragraph In his ar
t%icles, and never failed to read over
the manuscript carefully and make all
the corrections he thought necessary.
The printer then had to follow copv'
to produce the article thoroughly cor
rect in the paper Of the next morning.
A few years ago he employed to write
for him 4 young man from the coun-
try, whose education had been wholly
neglected. He could read as unedu- |