The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-07-13
ROUND ABOUT GOTHAM.
THE VERY LATEST GOSSIP OF THE
BIG METROPOLIS.

Millionaires and the Daily and Monthly
Press a Vanderbilt May Become an
Editor Soon. or at Least a News
paper Proprietor.
CCopyrightD
NV YORK. July 12.-The millionaire in
/ fluence in newspaperdom is becomit z more
pronounced every year in Gotham. It is
whispered that there will soon be a new
and most distinguished ascension nothing
less tuan Vanderbilt, if Dame Rumor Is
to be creiited-he IS to be the principal
hacker and by no means On inactive figure
in the conduct Of a republican daily of ex-
! tremely conservative tendencies. It is
nearly a decade since the millionaire ele-
ment began 10 make itself felt IN the metro
| politan press, and its experience has not al
ways been happy one. g uld, Hunting
| ton aud Field have each had thei hands IN
up to the elbows-and have paid roundly
! for the privilege of disseminatin z
golden opinions through the medium of
| printers ink. Shepard aud Mills too, have
felt the same fascinating spell, although up
! to the present time none have welded the
quill to the extent that the doughty colonel
himself a related Vanderbilt-ioes IN his
evening paper. The millionaire president
of a very prominent insurance company Is
said to have been figuring at different
times on the cost of practical experiment
IN the same direction; but the Indifferent
fortunes of his predecessors have probably
deferred him thus far from making the
venture. although he may be heard from
any day.
A Vanderbilt in Park Row. however,
would be a veritable sensation, and when
he comes he will have rousing welcome
| 10 - H. s L.,
on a sea that has more shoals and quick
sands surrounding it even than Wall street
Some time ago there was talk of Wander
bilt in connection with projected weekly
publication of character similar to the
Epoch, but nothing ever came of it, Later
still another scheme, having in view the
establishment of society journal to con-
serve the interest OF Murray Hill and
Fifth avenue and the elite of some
half a dozen other cities, was attrib-
uted TO one of the younger Vanderbilts, and
this project, too, hung fire, although it is
said not to be altogether abandoned even
yet.
1t is a pertinent question to ask what
these men of millions want in journalism
Some enter the ranks confessedly to sub
serve business ends; a few have political
views which they consider of sufficient i'm
portance to pay we'll for their dissemination;
the ma jority, probably, do il because they
recognize III the press business and politi-
cal lever combined. Schemes in Wall street.
little and big jobs in congress and state
legislatures, have to be advocated and taken
care of, and the Independence of the daily
press makes this an impossibility so the only
recourse is to control a publication them
selves. This is a growing danger, but it is
one that carries with it its own remedy: for
the moment paper becomes mere vehicle
of personal opinion and an undisguised ad-
vocate of personal interests it ceases to be
attractive to the public and its influence is
gone. The best evidence of the truth of
this statement is to be found in n few New
York newspapers whose millionaire hackers
have sunk fortunes on them with rapidity
that Is simply appalling.
There is, however, a remnant of million
aredOm which finds its attraction in the
love Of literature, pure and simple. These
men are not to be found connected with the
daily press, but with different class of
publications, mainly of the magazine order
When the late Allen Thorndike Rice took
hold of the old fogy North american Re
rieIC and forced it to the front among
American monthlies, he demonstrated W hat
literary millionaire could do. In the same
way, James Brisben Walker, the wealthy
owner and editor of the Cosmopolitan, by
dropping the old lines and branching out in
bold and attractive fields. plucked success
bility.
Easily the foremost among literary mill
liOnaires, if not, indeed, the most prominent
figure in American literature to-day, in
some respects, is William Waldorf Astor,
the picturesque author of valentino" He
is the sole redeeming figure in the pluto
cratic array that can be said to be devoted
to literary work without thought of any
thing but the art of the writer and the
pleasure afforded by its exercise. Mr.. As
tors two novels are not the only
works his pen has finished by any
means, although they are the only ones
thus far given to the world He is said to
have number of manuscripts more or less
complete, and which will see the light by
and-by. Like Sir Walter Scott he has been
n furtive student and composer, stealing
many Of the hours that wealthy young men
usually devote to social relaxation for that
purpose. 1t will be surprising if Mr.. Astor
does not make more commanding figure
in the literature Of historic fiction than his
friends have dreamed for him.
That brilliant cosmopolite Depew, too,
maugre his railroads and his Crosus- like
surroundings, occasionally finds time to do
| more serious work than the making of after
| dinner speeches, although in these, as in
everything else, he is unapproachable. He is
a far deeper student than he gets credit for;
| and what is still better, he prefers to con-
OuCG Ills UUOhlSn TeSedTCueS nlfllSelI, instead
of by proxy. 1t is a fair suggestion that if
Chauncey NJ. Depew hadn't been a railroad
president he would have gravitated to states
manship possibly. but to authorship GER
! tainly. He has all the taste for it, the felicity
of expression. the epigrammatic turn
and the salient touch that give life and
character to the work of tho pen. When he
has written enthusiastically for publica-
ton he has given evidence that strong
and attractive personality was lost to lit
erature when he hound himself down to
railroads. | saw him for moment on the
day he sailed on the Normannia for Europe.
He was speaking to the delegation of In
| dams and cowboys, and the tone heard
Were even more dulcet than of yore,
! before his nose was reamed. What a
sensation he will make in England
when he rises to speak at the innumerabe
| dinners and banquets that await him, and
when the fine metallic quality of his new
voice pervades the rooml How the dull
and prosy British post-prandial takers,
swamped in their own commonplace, will
envy him! Nothing short Of the zen of
Sterne can portray the admiration that
will greet this famous American whose
| journey wherever he goes will, like that OF
| the trumpeter in the Sentimental Jour
ney," be turned into triumph-because of
his reamed nose