Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1872-06-18
James Gordon Bennett.
From the New York TRIBUNE of Juue 81

AO"alu buuuOWu on SATURDAY
night, when millions of laborers
were closing the work of the week,
one of the most untirlng workers of
the age finished his life and his labor
together. James Gordon Bennett
bad known little Of the Joy of life
except that which comes from unre-
hitting and successful work. He had
carried the great enterprise aud pur-
pose of his existence forward to the
farthest point he could expect to at
tain. There seemed little left which
was attractive to him in the world
when his end was clearly reached -
In the busiest and most intensely VII
tai city of the earth he had led life
as secluded and solitary as that of
any monk of the Thebaid. There
seemed pathetic fitness in the fact
that the end of a life so lonely should
be passed ia solitude, with the ocean
between him and the children whom
be idolized and the wife of whom he
was so proud and fond. He had al
ready made his arrangements to pass
the Summer with them in Europe,
but his suddenly failing health com.
PEELED him, too late, to recall them.
In his life he had sacrificed social
friendships and intimacies to his in
exorable purpose, and in death the
sport of destiny deprived him of the
ministratioDs of those who were
dearest to him. The great machine
he built through so many toilsom Q
years works on without changing a
pulsation at his departure. At the
head of its columns still stands the
familiar announcement" James Cor
don Bennett, Proprietor" though
the first of the name is in his coffin,
and the second is at sea, not aware
of the altered meaning in the stand
ing types. His heirs will give to
his grave all the dignity and respect
which may lie in massive and costly
marble; but his journal is his true
monument.
1t is easy to build sepulcher of
any form. with any meaning you
please. Even the epitaph is mat
ter depending on your own taste or
fancy, or that Of clever friend
But nothing can change or falsify
the record of a public life, nor make
the monument reared by O mans
lifelong labor anything but true
criterion of his character and test OF
his value. Mr. Bennett will not be
Judged in future by what be was,
but by what he accomplished. The
passions, the hates, the controver-
sizes of the past, will all fade away
from memory in another generation.
But The Herald will remain the per-
manent and visible proof of what
there was in the heart and the intel
lect of bis founder.
Viewing bis life from this poin, of
view it was completely successful
He had no other aim than TO make a
great and lucrative newspaper. In
his days of poverty aud privation, he
boasted with gay defiance that, in
spite of all the malice of his enemies,
he would one day make The Herald
produce $50, 900 annually. He prob
ably thought this prophecy exag-
gerated, but he lived to see it dwin-
died into absurdity, by its tenfold
accomplishment. He attained this
great result by no trick, no luck, no
accident. There was never seen q
more logical and necessary issue of
a given course Of action. He was a
man of extraordinary capacity. He
has written so little of late years
that elderly people have forgotten
and young people never have known
that no journalist in the country ex-
celled him in the power of comment
ing upon current events in the way
most acceptable to large majority
of readers. He had good temper
and geniality which were purely pro-
fessionaI, having no relation what
ever to his toilsome and sober life
AT time when drunkenness was the
rule among people of his craft, he
was as frugal and abstemious as an
Arab. An iron constitution enabled
him to do the work of three ordinary
men, without either fever or fatigue.
To these qualifications was added a
gift which is common enough now,
but which at the time when he be-
gan his career was SO rare that il
partook of the exceptional quality OF
genius. He understood the value OF
news. He may almost be said 10 be
the inventor ofjournalism in it's latest
and highest Development as means
of disseminating all accessible con-
temporaneous intelligence. He was
the first journalist who went TO meet
the news half way. This was the
sole secret of his success. All the
the sensations, scandals, and fierce
wranglings of his earlier years did
very little TO adv nee or retard
the march Of his great newspaper
When he began that long and des'
perate battle with a hostile faith in
the dark Wall-st. cellar, the victory
was assured TO him beforehand by
bis inexhaustible energy and his in,
fallible Journalist instinct.
By adheripg to certain true prin'
ciples of journalism, he made the
greatest material, that is to say, pc
cuniary success, in that profession
which the world has yet seen. Thi:
is perhaps as much In the way Of
example as the world has any right
to expect from any one man. Be-
You'd this, it certainly receives moth
ing more than war ing from the
founder OF The Herald. He attempt
ed no more than the establishment o.
a newspaper. Others have followed
him in the same path with equal sue
cess, and now the only Journalism
which looks TO the future for q con.
stantly widening sphere of power
and influence is that which aims no
only to gather asd edit each day til,
whole worlds history for the proceed
ing day, but, so far as possible, il
addition, TO lead and train the hon.