Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-06-18
COL. PATDONAN.
An Editor OrNOte on His Travels,

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last visited Memphis about the year
1867 or 68, if we mistake not, when he
was connected with a metropolitan
paper. His career has been more than
ordinarily eventful for an American
journalist. A native of Missouri and
only a youth when the war broke out,
he joined the confederate army as a
private and was in nearly all the cam
paigns west of the Mississippi river,
at times marching barefooted with
Prices brave but skeleton army over
the forest roads in northern Arkansas
and northern Missouri. But the last
eighteen months of the war he was on
special service connected with the
war department at Richmond and
came in contact with all the promi-
nent men gathered at the
Confederate capital. When the
war was over he was not reconstructed
to any great extent, but sprang at
once into prominence as one of the
most satirical and pungent writers Of
the times. His style and boldness
aStonished the carpet,baggers and up
starts generally, in Office and out,
produced by the upheaval of the war.
His walls of wrath were distributed
with the evenness of poetic justice
among those who deserved it most.
Colonel DOMAIN started a paper at st.
Joseph, called the indicator. 1t
was a red-hot sheet, and seemed
to burn all who fell under its
condemnation. Gen. Sherman in a
speech from the balcony Of a hotel in
st. Louis referred to it and said that
he did not generally advise mob-law,
but if he were a citizen of that town,
he would help to throw that man,
Donan, and his Office into the river.
A battalion Of troops was sent
up, the paper was suppressed
and Donan dispersed. He went
to New York and became prom
inently connected with the press
and with the democratic party. After
ward he established the Caucasian
at Lexington, No, and in a short time
made quite a fortune. The paper had
an immense circulation and reached
distant parts Of the world. Ar article
in the Caucasian brought out the letter
from Horace Greeley that caused his
nomination for the presidency,
though DOnan neversupportedhim
more than he does Tilden, whom he
heartily despises now. The crash of
1873 wound up the career of his paper.
DOMAIN went to North Carolina, took
charge Of the Raleigh Sentinel and
had much to do with counting the
democracy that had always been at
war, and in rescuing the state
from the hands of the republicans.
This being accomplished and the
excitement over, he sought other
fields, became identified with the
press of Arkansas for a time, and
finally went to Daootah territory and
assumed a leading position on the
Pioneer, the leading paper of Dead
wood city. He is merely off duty a
few weeks, on a jaunt down south
among his old friends. Very few men
are better acquainted with current pol
itics and the public men of the coun-
try than Col. Donan. OF late
years he has read up the history Of the
causes of the wicked war in which he
was engaged, and his views have I'M
dergone quite a change. He regards
it now as a folly if not a crime on the
part Of the leaders and has DC patience
or excuse for the extreme democrats
of the south, such as Ben Hill, Black,
burn & Co. An ardent friend of the
south, he urges a new and
progressive departure and q
cutting loose from dead issues.
We had the pleasure of meeting him
and hearing him deliver an eloquent
address at the press convention in
Little Rock last year and hope to see
him at the LEDGER office before he
leaves the city, if he is still here. In
person, Col. Donan is anything but
the ideal frontiersman. He is ovel
six feet high, has a blonde beard and
a fair soft blue eye and manners as
gentle as one of the sweet graduates
we sometimes see bowling to receive hel
diploma. This betokens the culture
reserved force and indomitable vii
of the man. lie is in a field in thu
great northwest where talent, dasf
and enterprise are appreciated-aielC
that is lucrative, and at the same time
one Of usefulness. The price Of thu
Pioneer, in advance, is SIG per yeal
in gold. All subscriptions left at tn,
Ledger Office will be promptly for
warded.
Seidenberg's Reg. Chica and variou.
other brands, Key West and i'm
ported cigars just received, at