Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-25
EDITOR WILLIAM t. STEAD.

LAM T. STEAD.
| to his house and rang the bell. In a mo-
ment the door opened and a little fellow,
whom I took for General Gordon's butler,
asked me in and helped me of with my top
coat and hung up my hat. asked him if
| General Gordon was in, and he replied that
he was and motioned me to go into the next
! room. ] went in and the little man fol-
/ lowed me. I took seat and then told the
little man to please tell General Gordon
that Mr.. Stead, of the Pail NaT Gazette, was
there and would like to see him. Where
upon the little man said:
"T am General Gordon, and he reached
me his hand and then took a chair and sat
down beside me. We then went over the
whole situation together, and his ideas
were such that they resulted in en- entire
change of Government policy. listened
to them and when went back to London /
laid them before the Government Ministers
and they decided to accept them and to
send him to the Soudan. / urged them to
let him carry out his ideas in his own way,
and had they done so in all probability the
war would have been speedily closed. It
was his idea to have taken a camel and to
have gone alone to the camp of the Mahdi
and to have discussed matters with him.
But mo- the Government would have its own
way, and the result was the death of Cor
| don.
1.-THE best interviews have ever had"
continued Mr.. Stead, "are some which have
never been published. One OF the most re-
markable 1 have ever had was with the
Gar of Russia, but the Gar insisted that
no mention of it should be made in print,
and though wrote long series OF letters
| on Russia for the English and American
newspapers and published book on Rus
| sia the public do not know to this day
| that 1 met the Emperor and talked with
him.
His Interview With the Car.
''The Countess NovikoF arranged the
meeting" continued Mr.. Stead, land the
audience was given me much to the surprise
| of the English Minister at st. Petersburg,
| Sir Robert Morier, and the other diplomats.
1t is, you know, not considered proper for a
| Minister to present one of his countrymen
to a monarch unless he has been presented
at court at home have never been pre-
| sented to the Queen, and have never con-
| sidered it worth the trouble and expense of
| buying a court dress, and it seemed to me
at st. Petersburg that our Minister did not
want me to meet the Gar. l did meet him,
| however, and he received me in one of the
rooms of his palace at Gatchina. He sat at
| one side of table during our conversation
| and sat at the other, facing him, and the
conversation was free and open, and there
was an entire absence of red tape about my
reception. The Gar smoked q cigarette
during the talk, though, by the way, re-
member he Jailed to offer me one. He
knew of me, for had been writing in favor
of Russia for the past 20 years, and began
my conversation by SAYING:
Your Majesty, 1 am accredited in Eng
land with being your agent. 1 am said to
have been fighting your battles for years,
and if this is so 1 want a supply of cart
ridges from headquarters. You know am
predsposed in favor of Russia, and 1 think
1 ought to understand the situation and
want you to give it to me as it really is.
am willing to work, but want the straight
tip from you
'"rhe Gar then began to talk and he went
over the whole situation with me and with
out reserve gave me his ideas. found him
a broad man, and left him believing that
he would do right in every case as his own
judgment dictated"
Not a Very Pleasant Talk.
s'Tell me something about your interview
with the King OF Belgium, Mr.. Stead"
said /.
"That was rather curious experience"
was the reply. 81 vent to Belgium especi-
ally to see the King and he came in to his
capital to meet me. He is, you know, a
yery tall man and a very pompous one.
When was presented to him he stood up
very stiff and straight and said in lGbored
English; Il do not speak the English, so We
will have our conversation in French.
"But, Your Majesty said 1, L do not
speak French
L" 'Then do not see how we can talk to-
eether,' said he.
"'Well, Your Majesty said I, 7 an
sure if you cannot speak English you know
enough tor me to make you understand
what want to say, and will speak it in
English
"He could not object to this, and though
he was very angry az me he listened. He
did not ask me to sit down, and we both
remained standing throughout the talk.
Alter a while he began to speak English in |
reply to me, and / saw that he couli speak
English as well as / could. have since |
understood that he was not at all pleased |
with my actions, but they served my pur-
pose. 1 said what wanted to say and he |
gave me in reply just what 1 wanted to get. |
He came, as I say, into the city to give me |
the interview, and L have often wondered |
why he was not more gracious during it.
What Made Mr. stead WOrld-FamOus.
In referring to the English newspapers |
Mr.. Stead deprecated their lack of enter
prise and push and said that they badly |
needed independence aud spice. l asked
him to tell me the story of the "Malden's
Tribute to Modern Babylon" and he re-
piled that the sensation was not sprung as
a newspaper sensation and that every word
of the story of vice told in It was true 1t
was written to influence Parliament to cor
rect one of the most horrible evils OF Lon
don, which Parliament would not touch
because its participants were largely among
the members of Parliament. Its publica-
tion secured this result, and though the
social evil still prevails in London to
greater extent, perhaps, than in any other
city in the world, this sensation took the
the young girls off OF the streets.
GAS Il newspaper enterprise the publica-
tion injured rather than helped the circula-
tion OF the Pail Hall GGzsts," said Mr..
Stead concerning it. 'The day it was pub
lished Henry Labouchere told me it would
ruin the paper. During the sensation our
circulation ran up to more than 100, 600.
We could have sold 1000, 900 if we could
have printed them, and as it was the papers
sold for half q crown upon the streets.
When the thing died down the reaction
came. Our circulation dropped Oft and our
advertisers rushed IN to take their ads out
of what they called the unclean sheet
Henry Irving was one of the first to with
draw his advertisement and the other
managers followed. As fnan-
cial enterprise it was not success but as
accomplishing just what it set out to do it
succeeded admirably, for Parliament passed
the bill in q jiffy."
FRANK G. CARPENTER