The New York herald., 1874-10-06
Girardin.

Girardin.
1t is not alone in America that we are about
to return to that state of primitive simplicity
and trustful confidence when only the aged
are allowed authority 1t would seem 30 from
\ the honors paid to Centennial Dix, not to
| speak of his venerable contemporaries, Have
meyer and Tilden, who are also in Office or
candidates for Office at an advanced period OF
life The same thing is observed in France,
where Girardin is announced as having as
sumed care of a new newspaper. Girardin is
not as old as these venerable statesmen, being
only in his seventy-second year; not an ad-
vanced age in country where Theirs was
President at seventy-six while Guizot died, an
aspirant for the Presidency, at eighty-seven.
Disraeli, approaching seventy, governs Eng
land, although Jenkins tells US he has to sit
in fur boots to keep his feet warm, and Lord
Russell would welcome an opportunity to sue
ceed Disraeli, Notwithstanding his eighty-two
years Our liveliest and youngest politician
is Thurlow Weed, whose years go back to the
administration Of Washington, while the three
most important men in Europe are Gortscha-
koff, the Chancellor of Russia, who is seventy
six; Kaiser William, now seventy seven, and
the Pope, who is eighty-two.
We can understand how Girardin, who is
one of the keenest Of living men, would feel
comforted as he studies these facts, and
believing that the world is at last coming to
worship experience, buckle on his editorial
armor and begin another newspaper.
In some respects journalism is like the
tarantula Of whom Poe wrote weird story.
Whoever is once bitten by it must always
dance. Whoever smells the lampblack and
the midnight oil, or knows what it is to edu-
cate public opinion at two o'clock in the
morning to the chorus of q laundering press,
can never escape the fascination Dickens
tells us in one Of his stories that when Newgate
was burned the prisoners who escaped were
nearly all retaken, because they would linger
about the ruins So with journalism. The
editor may wander off into all manner Of
follies He may enter Congress or the Senate,
or become soldier, or run for the Presi-
dency, like poor, dear Greeley; but he will
always come back to his first and most fervent
love- Girardin has been an editor all his
life. Greeley once said of him that he was the
greatest living journalist, and that at time
when many great journalists were alive.
What more natural than that no should renew
this career at seventy-two?
This renewing our life in our career is not
without it's compensation. We forget who it
is that tells US we live our own lives over
IN, ~ oh
probably it is Byron for that poet also tells
us that our children are ourselves reformed in
finer clay. An EDITORS children are his news
papers. They spring from his intellectual
loins. When he loses one or it grows beyond
him he seeks for another with the overmas
tering instinct Of paternity. Girardin has
created many journals. There was lie Voleur,
which, unlike many journals, told the truth
in its name for it copied from the other
newspapers Then came La Node journal
OF fashion and taste, which fourished under
the smiles Of the Duchess de Berry More
than forty years ago he printed his Journal
deS Connaissaece Ulile, q newspaper of useful
information, a monthly affair, sold for about
six cents number, and which reached vast
circulation. Like his admirer, Greeley, Gil
rardin had farming fancies, and established
model farms, which we're more profitable than
Chappaqua Then came almanacs, an atlas
with penny maps-a literary Pantheon, which
best literature of all countries. His genius
and industry were insatiate. But his real
career as journalist began when he founded
the Press, in 1886, daily paper at eight
dollars year. This brought upon him the
wrath of his rival editors, who were as un-
did not content himself with calling his an
tagonists pigs. He conquered his peace with
a pistol and kept his career.
The Press became vast newspaper was
the beginning Of cheap newspapers on the
Continent and reached q hundred and fifty
thousand circulation daily. 1t was the most
famous newspaper of the period. Its motto
was, in clear English, one thought day, or
one idea at time, and its success arose from
the fact that the editor knew the mind of
France. Girardin discovered the great jour
nalistic secret that q newspaper is printed
every day. Critics called him inconsistent
and grieved that he supported at one period
or another all dynasties, all parties, all gov
ernments He basked under the Bourbons,
counselled Louis Philippe, was radical in the
Revolution Of 184S, powerfully aided Louis
Napoleon's election, only to oppose the En-
peror SO resolutely that he was banished from
France. But he printed newspaper every
T..
Then came his career in La Lben<,
his effort to make the Empire popu-
lar, his loyal exertions for France when the
dark hour came, his support Of Theirs and
his present advocacy Of O republic. As poll