St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-29

editor guilty of the charge brought against
him, and no honest newspaper could endorse
the act of the policeman. Mr.. Godkin was
not unduly angry because of the treatment.
He merely pushed along with trifie more
speed the circulation of pamphlet in which
the sins of some of New York's politicians
were set forth with pointed truth and remarka-
BILE energy. There were more threats. They
had as well been divided against strong
northwest wind. And so the battle has gone
on. Yet Mr.. Godkin is a fair general. have
sometimes imagined and it seems that way,
that he is one Of those rare persons who can
deal with man in the abstract strike balance
off hand and yet with rare dizziness.
That Mr.. Godkin is fair do not doubt.
There is probably no man in public life whom
Mr.. Godkin dislkes as much as he does Sena-
tor David B. Hill, whom he has always de-
nourced as political gamester without con-
science, and with only that dexterity that in
politics may win just as it wins in the game
of thimble rigging and the like. Especially
indignant was he when Mr.. Hill was elected
to the United States Senate, and yet when
Senator Hill showed in very short time that
he was strong enough to lead some of the
leaders in the upper house. when he made
one or two speeches in the Senate that will
not be soon forgotten, Editor Godkin gave
full credit to the man whom he does not adj
mire. He was not small enough to impute
false methods to the senator from New York
State as some lesser men did.
Mr.. Godkin has shown that he can see the
two sides Of a question, even more recently.
There used to be wagers that he would never
denounce anything done by President Cleve-
land, whom he has supported in all his CAM
paigns, but in the matter Of Hawaii Mr.. God
kin has broken the record, as indeed he has
done before in such cases as the nomination
to the Italian embassadorship. AS for the
rest Mr.. Godkin is a conscientious man try
ing to do his duty by himself and other men,
sometimes failing as men will, but really
none the worse for that in the eyes of sensible
persons.
The private life of the editor Of The Nation,
is Of a kind with his work-a-day existence.
He lives very quietly with his family on West
Tenth street, in New York, not far away from
that part of Fifth Avenue that once was FASH
ionable, the part near Washington Square,
where old New Workers such as the Coopers,
the Hewitts and others still live. The Uni
versity buildings in which many famous
literary men and artists have lived are near
by, and the book publishers have not yet all
moved up town, far from the historic neigh
borhood. The Astor Library is but a little
distance away, and in some respects the
neighborhood has an air Of staid respecta-
bility about it that upper Fifth Avenue has
not.
The Godkin family is not much seen in
society. You never see the names of any of
its members in the newspapers as having to
do with the "400.'' They can go to the
theatres without being stared at-as is their
wish, and SO they are comfortable, more COM
Portable than a good many persons are
whose pictures are in the illustrated papers
every day.
Now and then Mr.. Godkin contributes an
article to some of the English reviews, but
only when some occasion calls for such ac-
ton. One of these occasions was when Mr..
Goodwin Smith INDUCED in one of his charac-
teristic diatries, and he probably still re-
members Mr.. Godkin's treatment of him.
This was but one occasion. 60
There have been others, and there is
demand for anything Mr.. Godkin chooses to
write. But he is like Charles A. Dana in one
respect at least. He likes to do his best work
for his own peper-and does it. ,,-Ss=Sl
On the whole, aside from being man Of
brains, Mr.. Godkin is man who is in
teresting in many other ways. Indeed, he is
a type of man such as you do not meet every
day.
j. FOSTER COATES.