The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-03-03
Julian Ralph.

Julian Ralph.
He was born in New YORK ciiy' ana
| of all the conventi0naliues wnich New
| York has produced DE Is the most
| New-Y orkie. 1t should not De imagined
by this that he is dude lor mat
is not the only convention or. indeed
the best type, produced mere pul tha'
| he is very worldly. as oehts hletIVpVn-
tan bringing up and Is easily ana puicN-
| ~ at home i'm the most unheard-oi
placcs. lie was sent away 10 boarding
school whom so Young that il did not
affect his character and then ne got
college education I'm a printng-oiiice. lie
did newspaper assignments In the back
alleys. on the docks in the hospitals.
during the riots. and he has told New
Workers. i'm the columns Of the sun how
murders were done In the dark places
He has described the misery OF the
dirtiest slums and the brillancy Of the
gayest scenes. He did the Molly
Maguires. going among them into the
mines and TO their secret rendezvous
Eighteen years as a special on a New
York newspaper is liable 10 broaden
man. and produce fund OF eNpanse
which is beyond the ken OF folks VINO
run up and down an their lives between
two points like street car II has
thy with Indians who We're most strange
10 him. He is about the first New-lo
er who ever wrote about the West with
out sneering or the South without preach
ing. 4 man can be- provincial and yet
be big. 10 is not the lot OF most Ameri-
cans TO be able 10 reduce their ge0graphi-
cal centre OF gravity 10 a point between
Park Row and Madison Square. In time
il Is possible for clever people 10 initiate
the character and 20 play the part OF
a metropolitan man but one cannot hope
TO deceive those TO the manner born,
which is what Ralph is.
After a newspaper career which has
put him where he is regarded by most
of his profession as the first reporter of
the town. he has become known to a
vastly wider circle as a contributor TO
Harpcr's Magazine and Harper's Week
~. out Of that development has come
the authorship of his books on Canada's
Frontier. our Great West. and Harper's
Chicago and the Fair. In these directions
he has fulfilled the promises of his old
career. In Park Row he is famous as
a man who can write columns Of reports
by the yard long about great political
conventions. inaugurations Of Presidents,
yachtraces, and whatsoever is absorbing
the public attention. He has produced
armfuls Of good manuscript in the midst
of the most terrific excitement. assist
ed by dozens or aids and messenger boys,
working on and on. all day and into the
night. in brain-reeling way which Is
miraculous. He has the "wide-open eyes
OF a baby in his method of looking at
things; he Is original. and always fresh
lie drops into a Canadian forest a
Mississippi steamboat. or the private
depths Of the inner Office OF the great
est men In America, and the Indians
the negroes. and the great men warm up
instinctiveiy and tell him the secrets OF
their lives. II is possible for Mr. Ralph
10 20 right 10 total stranger and be-
come engrOssed in the mans own private.
personal. or business affairs i'm twenty
minutes and when others would be- I'M
tremendously kicked out Of the place
his strangers like it. and unburden their
cares That he ever himself developed
personal interest In any politics or bust
ness interest l could never discover. II
Is perhaps this disinterestedness, coupled
win MS redssuring appearance and per
sonal tact. which makes this possible.
Ihe Tad in particular which the best
newspaper men cultivate is that they
never betray a confidence" but the
cohmonest conversations in which Ralph
INDUCES with people who fare his way"
are rendered to the public in so delicious
way that every one knows the girl on
the Mississippi steamboat and her vulgar
loVe-aiiair. l have seen him fishing
through the ice for half an hour. with
trout tugging at his pole. while he
developed the mental character of an In |
dian hunter. and finally lost the fish.
but saved the dialect Of the poor abort |
eines for our consumption.
Mr.. Ralph's strength lies I'm bis strong /
his curious and often anus
ing views Of things, his uuconventionalitv. /
ms strong color sense and the absolute /
accuracy OF his vision. His travels for I
the Haipers have made the United States !
and Canada Mr.. Ralph's study-room. As l
IL Were Tacoma is the mantel-piece.
Colorado is an easy chair. Florida is a |
picture on the wall. Montreal is q book
case, and New York city IS a desk.
For so large study-roOm he nrobablv
knows IL as no other man does I'm his
Its people are his bric-a-brac
anu. ne loves mis- objects of art and
most or his curios love him-cxccnt that
no" ana then when such "A big man is
nYNlhs around In great haste he may
KNOCK over some small object hut mat
Is 10 be expected and excused
II We're To strike the keynote Of his
'haracter / should say human nature:
- N''"t i' ~ 'hoch-lull, and when Won
an run the scale Of that on mans
,haracter You are liable TO produce an
he sounds
rs To his profession. he is as proud of
as any Royal Archer who over sailed
% France for glory with the mail-clad
'avaliers. He has done good ser,ire I'm n
ma ms aims have always been oxolted
personally he is a good fellow as
ave sald, and that should not nrovoke
sheer since the country is NOT over
populated with them and from his lone
xperience and travel and meetings with
III sorts OF men. he has such q vast fund
y information, that one almost desnaira
u ever broachng a subject with which
e Is not little familiar.
II IS better In these days 10 st,,d,, Tho
oAars rather than the people of This
.orld' as Ralph does. for writer's are
ne modern monks for economy ana ea1,
acrlhce-let us say the soldiers. for tho,,
re always in the thickest of The -,
mixing with might and main whom ~,
gay, composed in the calarnities M,
Nertahe mankind. They 20 whom thN
uh SHINES or when the rain pours and
hey are In the field when the bullets III -,
microbes fly thickest-Harper's weekly
NAT things have we seen
zone al the Mermaidi heard uro.a =,