Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-05-04
GREELEY TO DANA.
Some of the Lutter's Characteristics AS
Revealed by Letters Written by the
Great Editor.


Some of the Lutter's Characteristics as
Revealed by Letters Written by the
Great Editor.
New York Evening Post.
The Journalistic purveyors Of scandal
and filth of the present day will find
some shrewd observations upon the
nature of their business in letter
which Horace Greeley wrote to Charles
a. Dana nearly 40 years ago. Mr.. Dana
was at the time editing the Tribune in
Mr.. Greeley's absence in Washington.
In one of his almost daily letters which
he sent to Mr.. Dana complaining
querulously of the way in which the
latter was editing the paper, Mr.. Greeley
wrote:
If you received on Friday night nv
letter on lIale's and TOolnbs'. Kansas
speeches, Yet allowed it TO be crowded out
ny the immortal scandal of the Griswold
divorce case, why then, YOU failed to con-
slder fairly what is and what is not PERISH
able. My letter would have been middling
on Saturday, while it was sour as whey
and flat as cold dish-water OH Monday
while the Griswold business would have
peeh rolled as a sweet morsel under the
tongues OF all the old maids of New York
any day you might see fit to print it, But,
even II not, your new allies, the feminine
literati OF our borough, would have sworn
the legs on an iron pot for you IN defama-
tion OF RUFF any day you might ask EN-,
aud guess they could draw from their
storehouse other scandals against that
reverend divine quite as racy as these.
Isn't that so?
MS letter, which appears in volume
containing many Others, just published
under the editOrship OF Joel Benton, is
instructive i'll various ways. In the
flrst place 1t shows that the journalistic
competition over scandals was not so
fierce i'll those days as it is now, No
great editor of to-day would think of
complaining because serious news had
Deen crowded out by an ''immOrtal scan
dal, for he would be fully Conscious of
the TACT that it would never do to have
MS paper beaten on such matter.
hder The journalistic news discrimina-
tlon OF the period, all scandals must go
IN lrst' alter they are in, with pictures,
the news OF the day which is not scan
dalous can go in, provided there be any
space remaining. Mr.. Greeley was en-.
tlrely accurate in his estimation Of the
productive powers of the scandal
Producers-thcy are always able to turn
IN iresh chapters quite as racy" as those
that have gone before. Like the market
they cater for, their powers are mex
haustible.
In all OF his letters to Mr. Dana Mr..
Greeley was struggling with the former
u induce him to curb those natural pro-
ccliVltles which have in recent years en-
JoJed unrestrained freedom in the coll |
ulhhs OF the Sun. In one letter he saws |
~ want you 10 caution your folks not to |
mt out at everything and everybody |
here, but consider our POSITION" in |
another: Let us try to cultivate a zen. |
eTous spirit in all things" in another: |
Il shall have to quit here or die, unless |
you stop attacking people here without
me. \ ia srnd snme
one here and kill me if you cannot stop |
this, for | can bear it no longer. Nv life |
is torture TO me;'ln another: "Your
savage, laundering attack upon Benton's |
putrefying carcass has raised it out of |
the grave and terminated il with a
power for mischief" inanother: "For
Gods sake, speak the truth to me. The
IfIbnhe is cursed all over the House as
having beaten us by your most untimely
article; must give it up and 20 home: !
all the border ruttians from here to lhe
lowest pit could not start me away, but
you must do ii and | must give It M.
you are getting everybody to curse me-"
There is "a constant stream of this kind
OF wailing, ending, near the close of the
in this pathetic burst of
truth; ''Oh, my friend, the
which teaches what should not
be said, that is the hardest to acquire of
all | confess my own deficiencies
therein, but you must gain more of it,"
There has never been any sign that this
solemn adjuration produced the slightest
effect.