The morning call., 1894-02-04
GEORGE WILLIAM CHILDS.

The materials for biography of the
| late Mr.. Childs are superabundant, but
they are not always as accurate as they
are copious. This criticism will apply
even to the volume published a few years
ago at Philadelphia. All accounts of him
S ay that he vas born in Baltimore in 1922
but those who knew him in his youth aver
that he was born in England, few years
before that date.
His working life began when he became
clerk in bookstore in Philadelphia. We
ext find him, while still very young, part
owner of store and a partner of one of
the Petersons in the publishing business.
The Petersons were three in number, all
publishers aud authors. They started
PeterSon'S Magazine and also Grdhdm's
Magazine and published in cheap form many
OF the leading English novels of the day
There was time when they we're rivals.
of the Harpers. With them George w.
Childs was associated; he married the
daughter of one of them, her mother
being a Bowler. The war found him
well to do, with a fairly prosperous busi-
ness. He sold out of the firm, and with
his money bought the Ledger, which was
daily with an established position, but
limited income.
1t was then that Childs showed what
was in him. He Immediately doubled the
price of his paper and made every depart
ment better than the same department in
any other paper in Philadelphia. He pub
lished the best war correspondence. the
best commercial articles, the best literary
and dramatic criticisms, the best articles
on science, art and music. the most schol-
arly editorials, and, in course of time, the
superiority of the Ledger TO its rivals be-
gan to tell. He was Republican in poll
tics and was always a member of the party
in good standing, but he never allowed
offensive partsanship to show in his paper.
He used to say that his duty required him
to tell the truth, but he never forgot that
be was making paper for the whole peo-
pie of Philadelphia regardless of party.
While he laid down for himself this plat
form Of principle, he was keenly alive to
the value OF personal popularity as an
element of business success. He was nat
urally kindly, genial man. He now laid
himself out to make friends. He gradually
won the esteem and affection of the entire
body OF his fellOw-citizens Like Mr.
Abel of Baltimore, he had no enemies but
tie vicious, the disloyal and the depraved.
His name headed every subscription list.
His hand was always in his pocket for thu
relief of distress. Philadelphia realized
that he was a worthy successor of Girard
and she gave him all she had to giye-an
answering support.
Under his control the Ledger for many
years acquired such a monopoly of the
advertising business of the city that there
was little left for its rivals. BY degrees
the advertisements in the Ledger so CON-
pletely superseded all other departments
in Importance that il was possible to relax
the vigOr Mr.. Childs had originally be-
slowed on them. aud the influence of the
paper declined as its income increased.
But Mr.. Childs was careful to maintain
his personal popularity of prestige. He
was always doing liberal and generous
acts. He became the close intimate of
President Grant, and paid the chief ex-
penses of his journey round the world.
He presented memorial fountain 10
Stratford-on-Avon in England. He gave
a stained-glass window to Westminster
Abbey in commemoratioD of Cowper.
Another memorial window he put in the
church at Bromham in honor of Thomas
Moore. He raised a monument over the
grave of Edgar Allan Poe. He gave
$4,000 for the Childs-Drexel Home for
Printers at Colorado Springs. lie was one
of the chief promoters of the Philadelphia
Museum, the Geological Gardens and the
School Of Industrial Arts.
This was man to whom a bright, clear
mind and habits Of industry had brought
wealth, and who used his wealth to benefit
his fellow-creatures. to glorify human
knowledge and to win for himself an i'm
perishabIe name. His career gives the lie
TO The accepted notion that no successful
journalist can be popular, and that news
paper editor who does his duty to the pub
lie does 30 at the cost of friendships and
with the certainty Of enmities. No Phi!a-
delphian could count so few enemies and
so many friends as George William Childs.
DnAn PEIC1NECC