The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-06-08
WINE AND WIT.
Gath Tells Of a Chicago Banquet
for Journalists.
Some "reminiscences of Newspaper Work
In War Days-Publishers Scott and
Kohlsaat as Comrades-Someth;ng
About French Papers
COPYRIGHT, 1893. !


After the worlds fair had been well
under way, was invited to dinner,
at the Union club, in North Chicago, by
Moses P. Handy, to meet some persons
OF the foreign press and in the art de-
partment, and as we mingled together
from half-past seven o'clock until one
in the morning, and I may not have
leisure soon for another such bout, l
will narrate the appearance and ad-
ventures of some of these persons. We
had of foreign journalists Mr.. Villiers,
Mr.. Senior and Mr.. Millet. Mr.. Millet
is also an artist, who resides about
equally in England and the United
States. He is the author of an adven-
turous trip down the Danube river, in
to the Turkish regions. Then, we had
Mr.. Atwood, the chief architect of the
worlds fair, and the only author of
the magnificent Art building, which is
the admiration of all beholders, and
turns out to be equally happy in it's in
ternal arrangements. Mr.. Atwood is
q fne-looking man, rather youthful,
with an expression of moral decision
in his face, yet mild, and looks like an
artist as much as an architect. Then,
we had an eminent Holland artist, Mr..
Vos, who exhibits in the fair, and has
also been teaching art classes in
America. Two Of the newspaper pub
fishers in Chicago, Mr.. Kohlsaat and
Mr.. James Scott, were present. The
portly and frank Sam Raymond, of
Chicago, dashed the occasion with his
strong sentiments. Mr.. Haynie, who
has lived a long time in Paris, as an
American correspondent, was at hand.
1t would have appeared in a few
minutes to any novitiate that
all the persons at that large
round table, somewhere in the
intricacies of the club house, were of
the American race, though Mr. Senior
told me that he had been twenty-five
years on the London News, and had
never seen the United States until the
opening of this exhibition. These men
of the world had no pronounced Eng
lish accent. l believe that one Of them,
indeed, was an Irishman, for the Irish
have always made the best English re-
porters. w. H. Russell, who had the
first opportunity as a special correspon-
dent during the Crimean war, and
handsomely improved it, was an Irish
man. Macgahan, who was q good deal
spoken of during the night, and who
was the favorite of the Russian camps,
both from his sociability and his writ
ing, was another 1rishman of Ameri-
can or Irish stock. Intercourse is such
a talent in the newspaper profession,
that the Irish with their superior So
ciability easily surpass the Danish and
Saxon members, who have to be
thought out before they can know any
body. The British elements get even
with the Hibernians by more applica-
ton in writing out their copy. re-
call an incident in my own life, where
had to choose between seeing very
much and writing just enough. 1 had
been to the far left of the union army
and upon the battlefield of Five Forks
freshly after it was won, had inter-
viewed Gen. Sheridan himself and such
surrounding officers as Griffin, For
sythe and Chamberlin. did not reach
the battlefield until late at night, and
when 1 started to return to Humphreys
station, in front of Petersburg, where
must take the train for New York, at
five or six o'clock in the morning, for 1t
went only once in twenty-four hours
down to City Point to meet the boat,
it was some time after midnight had
hardly got under way when tremen-
dous firing from cannon and musketry
broke out at and below Peters
burg. It was twenty-eight miles,
I think, from my situation in
Dinwiddie county back to this mil
itary railroad. As the road crooked
and now threw out the sound to the
right and again to the left, all kinds of
queries arose in my mind. thought
for some time that the confederates
had poured out of their works znd at
tackled us in front of Petersburg, in
order to be compensated for their
losses upon their own right. It was
the dawn of the morning when l
reached Humphreys station, and there
I found that we were in Petersburg,
having closed out thirteen months OF
siege and battles by breaking the
confederate lines; and such an achieve
ment as the capture of this important
town, the key and back door to Rich
mond, appeared to me to throw the
battle I had just obtained at Five
Forks into the shade. The battle
seemed at the moment to be only one
of the movements, of which the fall of
Petersburg was the great result.
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