The state journal. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1883-1885, 1884-11-08
STORIES About STOREY.

The Remarkable Career ct the Deceased
Chicago Journalist.
From the Philadelphia News.
The veteran editor of the Chicago
Times, whose death was announced
few days ago, was type of the aggres-
sive and bitterly personal Journalist.
Tall, angular, with saturnine express
sion of countenance, Mephistophelean
features, piercing dark eyes and silvered
hair, all heads turned to get good look
at ''old Storey of the Times" as his
brougham horses drew up painting before
the Times Office.
Storey had his faults, but not among
them was the fear of danger. His vim
dictiveness and vituperative powers
earned him the hostility of many desper-
ate men. George Trussell, the gambler,
who was afterward shot by the 'soiled
dove" who bore his name, received
severe scoring in the Times for his abuse
OF her. He sneaked up behind Storey
in front of the old Sherman House
and struck him on the head with brick.
Storey was armed in anticipation of an
assault. He drew an old fashioned four
barreled Sharp's pistol from his pocket
and emptied it at Trussell without effect.
One of the bullets struck the chimney on
top of the Sherman House. He apollo.
gized to his readers in the morning for
such wretched shooting, but promised to
do better next time.
But the hottest hot water he ever got
into was during the early part of the
war; His determined opposition to the
war policy of the government caused him
to be classed with the dangerous Copper
heads. An order was issued from Wash
ington to suppress the Times. 1t nearly
caused a riot. Artillery was gotten
ready to disperse the mob. Luckily the
order was rescinded.
Chicago at a later period Of the war
was vast camp. The boys in blue hated
old Storey and made up their minds to
punish him for his fire in the rear. !"
Two of them called on him at the Times
office and opened on him with a volley of
abuse. He seized one by the collar OF his
blouse and the waStband of his trousers
and flung him through the window of the
private Office on the ground floor into the
alley. The man carried the sash out with
him. The other soldier walked out Of the
Office, and Storey was not molested again.
This was a quarter of century ago
Storey was comparatively young then
and possessed enormous physical strength
Where the Union warrior and the reck-
less gambler failed, frail-indeed uery
frail-little woman succeeded. Every
one remembers the cowhiding admins
tered to the old man by the English bur
lesque actress, Lydia Thompson, for his
caustic comments of her performance.
During the affray Lydia's husband, Hen
derson, stood over the struggling group
with a pistol. Storey did not strike
lydia, but wrenched the whip from her
grasp, applying to her as he did so an
expression that even the Times would
have thought twice of before publishing
Storey's enemies howled with delight,
but the cow hiding scrape did not tame
his fiery spirit. His "short ends be-
came more intense, more acrid and ven
omous. Public men feared Storey as
they did the devil. His pen was like the
noxious air beneath the upas tree. 1t
touched but to destroy. Strong passions
wilt a man in time. The sword
wears out the scabbard. The nervous
system, drained, gave way, and the tale
was breathed about that ''old man
Storey" was dying atop. He had but
little to do with the paper during the last
few years of his wretched life, but his
fine judgment in the selection of heads
for departments aused the newspaper to
survive the decay of its chief.