The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-06

D. ~
HOUSE PRESS GALLERY.
men who WELD greater influence upon their
country and their time than these whose
portraits hang where they serve as con-
stant inspiration to the correspondents of
the press who frequent the lobby Here
correspondents may sit writing their dis
patches with the eyes of their editor in
chief looking down upon them.
Men of Mark.
Fully one-third of these great men of the
press, these manipulators of the greatest
of all modern engines, have had experience
as Washington correspondents. Whitelaw
Reid, editor of the New York Tribune,
used to be correspondent here of Cincin-
natl paper, and later of the very paper of
which he is now the editor. He wrote let
ters over the signature of agate" which
attracted a great deal of attention, and
which in time attained a certain authority
as representing the inside politics and
thoughts of the capital. 1t is one of the
traditions of the capital that Mr.. Reid
aimed first of all in his work at trustworthi-
ness, reliability.
Charles A. Dana, distinguished author
of the If you see it in The Sun it's so'' Tor
was it the almost as distinguished publish
er, William III. Laffan, who originated this
famous and useful phrase?), has his portrait
here of course. The gallery of great jour
nalists would not be complete without Mr.
Dana's portrait. 1t is a modest picture, a
small photograph, hanging in a simple
frame of black wood. But if you look
closely at it you will see that it is a re-
markable photograph, one of the finest that
the art is capable of producing There is
character in photograph as well as in an
Oil painting, and no one understands better
the use of posing, of light and shade than
Mr.. Paul Dana, who ranks as one of the
best amateur photographers in the country,
and who made this piece with loving skill
and care Perhaps the modest picture of
Mr.. Dana is more looked at and talked
about than any other in the gallery.
The Dashing Pulitzer.
Not far away is the portrait of Joseph
Pulitzer, who has had the most remarkable
career Of all the journalists in the collec-
ton, and this is saying a good deal, for
there are brilliant, erratic, dashing, adven-
turous men on these walls. IT is not SO
many years since Mr. Pulitzer was working
as longshoreman in ST. Louis and work
ing beside colored men at that He was
young, needy, strong and willing to earn
his living at any honorable employment
is rise from such humble station to the
osition of wealth and influence which he
ow occupies would make a fine topic for
pread eagle American speech by one of the
demagogues who draw S., 900 year on the
floor below. Mr.. Pulitzer was once a Wash
ington correspondent himself and, oddly
enough, was here as the representative of
the New York Sun.
A Host of Stars.
Other editors whose faces adorn the col
lection, and who have at one time or an
other had experience as workers in the press
galleries of the capitol, are William Penn
Nixon, who worked like hero to build up
the Chicago Inter Ocean, and to pull it
through the ills which infant journals are
heir to, only to see control Of the property
eventually pass into other but worthy
hands; Melville f. Stone. who was one of
the founders of the Chicago News, a man
OF wonderful energy and activity, who had
a somewhat similar experience and who is
now the manager of the Associated Press;
his predecessor in this post, the veteran
William Henry Smith; the celebrated
Moses Handy, dubbed general since he was
promoter of publicity and a good many
other things at the Worlds fair, and who
Is now about to take to the lecture field
and make another fortune for himself; Mu-
rat Haistead, the Field Marshal. brilliant
writer, spleI:did fellow, cranky but admira-
bic, who believes in newspaper man
who is strong enough to be able TO sit down
and interview himself out of his general
store of knowledge instead of running after
some man with an accidental reputation
who doesn't know half so much-Halstead,
who seems to be the same yesterday, today
and forever, and who writes every day with
a pen (he abhors typewriter) as much as
some hardworkipg men dictate; Colonel
Jones. formerly of Florida and St. Louis
now editor of the New York World. man
who has force mixed with fussiness, and
who gets along in the world all the time
just as his enemies are predicting he is
about TO stop; Grady, the eloquent, whose |
voice and pen Will sing and speak no more, |
and William W. Armstrong, formerly OF |
the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who III a no |
ment of alteration from the true principles |
of the profession was prevailed upon 10 ac- !
cept postofice.
OF the Old school.
4" Hdt 1Ob oi LlSU lGS>t
three dozen great editors sreI And how |
easy it would be TO write two pages instead |
Of two columns about themi First ia every /
eye after the portrait of Mr. Dsua Is that i
OF Joseph Medill. the veteran OF the Chi |,
cago Tribune. Mr.. Medill is about 20, but /
still able to ds a FIRST class days work. He !
Is one of the d fashioned sort of editors. |
~ sb,. I'D 81,
the country printing Office and who to this /
uay love 10 be about the types and borrow /
TOBACCO OF the compositors and jeff for 1
drinks on the imposing stone. Mr.. Netiill |
doesn Go these things any more. for he
lives out at Los Angeles in a little palace.
Nothing Is too good for this grand old nan,
who with all his peculiarities has been one /
Of the greatest OF American journalists
and in his relations with mex. one OF the
most lovable characters