The Washington critic., 1888-01-21
A YOUNG MANS SUCCESS
Extraordinary Achievements Of james
y. West In Seven Years.

Extraordinary Achievements Of james
j. West In Seven Year,.
Less than thirty years ago a boy
with high forehead was born in
Cadiz, Ohio. Less than seven years
ago young man, with head in
which ideality was prominent entered
the Office Of the Western Publishing
| Company in Chicago and agreed to
work ten hours day for S. a week.
He said he came from Cadiz, That he
owed $3.50, that he wanted TO earn
enough TO pay his debt and resume
his study for the ministry. He was
| pale, diflident and colorless character.
To-day he is the controlling owner OF
the Chicago Times. lie 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 publish
| ing house he became its manager. At
the end of the third year be paid
| S66, 500 for a fourth interest. The
| firm published books by subscription,
| and in one year, under "Jim" Vests
management, the house sold Of q
single publication the enormous NUM-
Der of $50, 900 copies at 50 per copy.
| The establishment is now one of the
| largest in the world with branch
houses throughout the country. III
| Canada, Europe and Australia.
Since the New York 7iibUpe
changed hands there has been no
newspaper purchase of such magni-
tude as the one recently effected here.
WILDER +. Storey left great news
paper, rich estate,a dead, a divorced
and living wife, but he died child
less. To his heirs he left, unwit-
tingly, a century of litigation. The
purchase of his paper, which was
only one asset of the estate, involved
the adjustment of differences between
litigants. Chicagoans who best knew
the hostile claimants to the estate
said composition of their troubles
was impossible. 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 Ste
phen A. Douglass, Clement l.. Nallan-
digham and Wilbur f. Storey were
chums. Details of the feuds OF three
families, DEGREES of courts, partition
and alimony suits, conflicting claims
of litigants which lawyears had been
industriously engaged in complicating
for five years, were obstacles TO the
success of the young man with the
protuberant brow, but he was equal
to the emergency.
Before advancing he decided upon
plan of attack. Clinton A. Snowden
of the Chicago Mail, who came TO this
: city from McHenry County, ILL.,, was
,, selected rs Vests chief of staff.
Snowden was managing editor once
, under Storey and made a 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
S to 60 around.
0 This city does not furnish q more
{ striking illustration of the possibilities
of achievement to q young man with
= genius for business. The poverty
stricken theological student in Cadiz
3. in 1882 and the $S-a-week young clerk
in 1883 owns the lions share of the
0 stock of the Chicago Times in 1888.
, In six years he has thrown together
over 100000 West is college-bred
is fertile in ideas, exact and sys-
tematic in his business policies, which
reflect original methods coupled with
courage.
Clinton A. Snowden, editor-in-chief
of the Times, is graduate OF the Chi
/, cago University. In 1872 he was 81
reporter on Storeys staff. Three
years later he became city editor
and was rapidly advanced to the re-
! sponsibilities of management. During
! his administration Canon Earrar
: preached his famous sermon on
. "Hell." Snowden succeeded in en-
listing so many preachers in discus
sion Of the topic that he was enabled
: to lay before the Times readers col
umns and pages of fresh and original
news regarding 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 revision.
Subsequently serving as Washing
ton correspondent of the paper, he
resigned to become managing editor
of the National Republican. Later he
was connected with the World
and in 1885, with Frank Hatton,
bought the Mail here, which is now
paying piece of property. West and
Snowden have been friends for
years.
The Cadiz man is brunette, smooth
faced, nervous, quick and energetic,
compactly built, so that he is large
man without looking it, an intense
worker, and in some respects difident
and retiring. To secure the journal
West was compelled to swing The en-
tire estate, which represented u ESQ.,
600. The natural heirs now own
Storey's unimproved real estate here,
including the magnificent marble
castle which the editor did not live 10
finish. IN. Y. Press.
THE DAUGHTER OF A KING.