The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-24
a NEWSPAPER STORY.
A Mnlionairo's Son Who Made "a Great
Democratic Daily.
washington Ictier IN baltimore News.


Washington Letter m baltimore News
Among the great newspaper successes
Of recent times none surpaSses that OF tho
! san Francisco Examiner under the own
| ership and management OF William Il.
Hearst, son of the late senator George
Hearst Of California. Young Hearst is
about 80 years old. He was educated at
Harvard University. shortly after his
graduation his father said to him one
| day:
win, what do you want TO do for a
living You have been through college
and you have been to Europe You have
therefore learned and seen about all YOU
can in school and by travel. IL is now
time to settle down 10 your life work The
question is, what do you want to dor
There is my rancho below here ON the
| coast. ltcontains Is, 600 acres and ext euds
ten miles along the coast 1t is stocked
with 1000 head of cattle 1000 horses,
1000 mich COWS, and so on. You could
| make $4,000 a year out Of it, How would
II suit you TO so there and run it,"
Father said young Hearst, 'you have
let me train myself for literary life and
that is the life l want to follow Let me
have the Examiner and will be satisfied
l will ask for nothing more"
entered politics, was the richest demo-
crat in California, and had owned and
supported the Examiner for several years
1t was duh partisan organ and had nev-
er paid its multi-milliouaire owner dol
lar. When his son asked for that property
the senator was very much surprised. As
he said afterwards in relating the story
to his friends here, he was never more
surprised in his life.
hDf do tIx,,
per business" the senator asked bluntly
'You are only "a years old and just out of
college You know nothing about the
business and you had better serve an ap-
premiership before you try to run things.
That's the way look at" commented the
elder Hearst.
But the young man did not look at it
that way. He thought that the best and
quickest way to learn the newspaper
business was to take on the whole re-
spOnsibility at once, just as Grant disci-
plined his army on the march and in bat
tie. OF course the elder gave to the
younger.
Once in control young Hearst was quick
to show that he had the proper ideas of
what a newspaper should be. He reOr-
gained it from top to bottom, infused
new blood into it, adopted new ideas and
brought to it new methods He had
y
the business until the dreaded expert
mental stage had become a part of the
history of the coast. Success came to it
from the start, for the simple reason that
it was made before all else a newspaper
For number of years the Chronicle had
dominated the newspaper field of San
Francisco, growing from a theatrical pro
gramme to one of the great dailies of the
Uuited States The Examiner soon be-
camn rrnod Capond in DOiut of oirCr,la-
ton and business, then ran neck and
neck with 1t, and finally passed in both
points
"Will" Hearst is blonde, over six feet
in height, weighing about one hundred
and sixty pounds, slender, Of course, at
this weight and height, but all muscle,
being a good deal of an athlete as we'll as
yachtman. He doesn't drink or smoke.
He is bachelor, and, of course, would
be good catch. He has great capacity
for work and no member of the splendid
staff he has gathered about him does
more of II.
He has long had an ambition to have a
paper in New York city. but no attractive
opening has yet offered itself He likes
California, where he was born and where
he knows the people, and he will never
part with the Examiner. Nevertheless,
he would like TO have a paper in the me
tropolis of the country, and he may yet
have one. He is young, rich, clever and
ambitious. Papers in New York and San
Francisco would be Of great help in va
rious ways.
In pursuance of his sons ambition, Sen
ator Hearst, the year before he died. tried
to buy one of the old established papers
of Gotham. He sent to James Gordon
Bennett an offer of s., 600, 900 for the Her
aid Bennett laughed at the offer, and
said S20,000,0 900 would not buy the Herald
Then he tried the Sun, only to be re-
pulsed.
yes" said the old senator, eyes,
tried to buy the Sun, only to learn that
Mr.. Dana would not sell at any price He
gets too much fun out Of the Sun to sell
it."
At one time year or two ago there
was a good deal of talk that young Hearst
was going to erect a fine Office building
here for the special use of newspaper cor
respondents, press associations and tele-
graph companies. But he has never
built it,"