The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-16
A YOUNG MANS SUCCESS.
Extraordinary Achievements of James
j. West in Seven Years.

From the Philadelphia Press.
CHICAGO, Jan. l3.-LeSs than thirty years
ago boy with high forehead was born in
Cadiz, o. Less than seven years ago a
young man with a head in which ideality
was prominent entered the Office of the
Western Publishing Company, in this city,
and agreed to work ten hours day for IS a
week. He said be came from Cadiz, that he
owed $3.50, that he wanted to earn enough to
pay the debt and resume his study for the
ministry He was pale, diffident and SEEM
ingly colorless character. To-day he is the
controlling owner of the Chicago Times.
He is worth more money than Jay Gould
or Phil Armour had accumulated after seven
years of business life.
The young man is James J. West. Two
years after entering the publishing house
he became its manager. At the end of the
third year he paid sec, 500 for fourth in
terest. The firm published books by sub
scription, and in one year, under Jim"
Vests management, the house sold of
single publication the enormous number of
$50, 600 copies at SO per copy The estab-
lishment is now one of the largest III the
world, with branch houses throughout
the country, in Canada, Europe and Aus
tralia
Since the New York Tribune changed
hands there has been no newspaper purchase
of such magnitude as the one recently eff
fected here Wilbur F. Story left a great
newspaper, rich estate, a dead, a divorced
and living wife; but he died childless.
To his heirs he left, unwittingly, a century
of litigation. The purchase of his paper,
which was only one asset of the estate, in
volved the adjustment Of differences be-
tween litigants Chicagoans who best knew
the hostile claimants to the estate said
a composition of their troubles was
imposSi lie. Several wealthy men
and two syndicates tried it and failed. The
Young man from Cadiz succeeded. There
were domestic threads to be gathered which
were dropped in the days when Stephen A.
Douglas, Clement L. Vallandigham and
Wilbur F. Storey were chums. Details of
the feuds of three families; DEGREES of
courts; partition and alimony suits; con-
ficting claims of litigants which lawyers
had been industriously engaged i'll com
plicating for five years, We're obstacles to
the success of the young man with the pro
tuberant brow, but he was equal to the
EN- REGENCY.
Before advancing he decided upon.a plan
of attack Clinton A. Snowden, of the
Chicago Mdu, who came to this city from
McHenry county, Illinois, was selected as
Vests chief of staff Snowden was man
aging editor once under Storey and made
good record. To reach Snowden. West
bought Frank Hatton's interest in the Mail.
Then the two began to extend olive branches
in the direction of StOrey's heirs. There
were barely enough branches to go around.
This city does not furnish a more striking
illustration of the possibilities of achieve
ment to young man with genius for bust
ness. The poverty stricken theological stu
dent of Cadiz in 1882 and the $Sa-week
Young clerk in '84, owns the lions share of
the stock of the Chicago Times in 1888. In
six years he has thrown together over $780,,
OOO West is college bred, is fertile in ideas,
exact and systematic in his business poll
cies, which reflect original methods coupled
with courage.
Clinton A. Snowden, editor-in-chief of
the Times, is a graduate of the Chicago
University In 1872 he was reporter on
Storey's staff Three years later he became
CITY editor and was rapidly advanced te
the responsibilities of management. During
his administration Canon Farrar preached
his famous sermon on Hell" Snowden
succeeded in enlistlng so many preachers
in discussion of the topic that he was ena-
bled to lay before Times readers columns
and pages of fresh and original news re-
garding that highly tropical locality.
Another stroke of exceptional enterprise
was the publication of cablegram from
London giving all the changes in the text
of the New Testament at the time OF its re-
vision.
subsequently serving as Washington cor
respondent of the paper he resigned to be
come managing editor OF the National
Republican. Later he was managing editor
of the World, and in 1855, with Frank Hat
ton, bought the Mail here, which is now
paving piece of property. West and Snow
den have been friends for years.
The Cadiz man is a brunette, smooth
faced, nervous, quick and energetic, com
pactly built, so that he is large man with
out looking it. an intense worker, and in
some respects diffident and retiring. To
secure the journal West was compelled to
swing the entire estate, which represented
81. go, 600 The natural heirs now own
Storey's unimproved real estate here, in
Guiding the magnificent marble castle which
the editor did not live TO finish.