The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-04
HoNoLUIU HAWAIIAN ISLANDS WEDNESDAY MARCH l. 1885.
GEORGE W. SMALLEY.
Incidents in the Life of this Well
known Journalist.
One of the Famous Few Who Re
call the GIorIes Of GFeeley's
T1me-What "FIghEIng IOeS'
Hooker Said OF Him.
lOripinAI.l

COriginaLl
George w. Smalley, the G. w. s. Of The
New York Tribune, is one of the few famous
journalists who recall the glories of Horace
GreeIey's time. Yet he is comparatively a
young man. In appearance Mr.. Smalley is
scarcely over forty, though it is possible
that his athletic but graceful figure and easy
carriage have cheated time out of a few
years.
He was born In Worcester, where his
father was a well-known clergyman, and is
a graduate Of Yale college.
An anecdote told of him during a college
vacation shows that even in his youth he
was of great originality.
His mother had sent him to buy a bushe1
of apples, bidding him take care and get
good measure. Eager to show his college
shrewdness, he asked the grocer how much
he charged apiece for apples. 1.-TWO cents. "
'Well," said the young collegian, count me
out a bushsl of them" He watched the
grocer count them, and had no fault to find
with bis measure. Indeed, it is safe to say
that there was never before 80 large bushel
of apples sold in this country. His mother
was at first delighted at her sons shrewd-
ness, but when she learned what he had paid
for the apples, her admiration weakened .
little.
On leaving college Mr.. Smalley entered
the Suffolk bar, where he would have
achieved a great success had not his devo-
ton to the cause of abolition drawn him
away from his profession. An associate of
Wendell Phillips, whose adopted daughter
he afterwards married, Mr.. Smalley for a
few years before the war was conspicuous
leader of that cause on every occasion of
danger. He was well known as an athlete,
and at the later meetings carried his own
life and the lives of some of his enemies in
his hand. He has said of Wendell Phillips
that he was the only man he ever knew who
was absolutely without fear.
During the war he was our best known
correspondent, and his account of the battle
Of Antietam, though necessarily written in
great haste, stands unrivalled in our volu-
minous war literature. Some of the reasons
Of its excellence have never been made pub
lie. Mr.. Smalley always took care to follow
Joe Hooker in any battles in which that
General was engaged, as he was sure by
doing so to be in the thickest of the fighting.
In the battle of Antietam, Hooker, who
used up a good many aids, asked Mr. Small
the man who ordered tho advance of one of
Hooker's wings, riding along the line with
the bullets Kidding his coat tails, and call
ing on regiment after regiment to advance.
Gen. Hooker on that day said Mr. Smalley
was the bravest man he had ever known this
remark coming from ''Fighting Joe" carries
some weight One trait about Mr.. Smalley
is impressive, and that is a GOODNESS that no
thing can disturb
After the war Mr.. Smailey went to Lon
don, where he was the first American to in
spire Englishmen with a high respect for
American journalism. Indeed, Englishmen,
during the first few years he was in London,
read The Tribune to learn the European
news.
Since Mr.. Greeley's death, Mr.. Smaley's
position has not given so free a scope to his
great talents as the public could wish.
WILLIAM WASHBURN
NEW YORK,