The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-12-09


! Russia as special correspondent of the
| Daily Telegraph. and travelling from St
petersburg 10 Moscow. proceeded thence
| 70. Warsaw, and subsequently trayersed the
| length of the empire TO observe the mobl-
ization then in progress of the Russian
army. He ultimately reached Odessa and
Constantinopie by way of the Black sea,
| in time for the opening OF the conference
l on the Eastern question.
A VERSATILE NEWSPAPER MAN.
AS all-around newspaper man George
Augustus Henry Sala has probably never
been surpassed. He was a brilliant war cor
respondent, competent art critic; indeed.
I there is scarcely a branch OF journalism
in which he did not excel. His stuff was.
however. all Of the day. and when he at
tempted fiction he failed in creating any
work which had more than passing inter-
est He Is 10 be remembered, too, Tor MS
witty after-dinner speeches. Perhaps there
was not a better after dinner speaker In
| Great Britain The quality of his voice was
not particularly sympathetic. but IL pene-
| trated, and his readiness in repartee and his
thorough ease and self-control made him
delightful.
Mr. Sala ever had bad habit of getting
| into controversies with well-known men.
| In 1881 he had brush with Bret Harte-
| This incident occurred at a dinner in Lon
| don. Years before, in San Francisco, Mr..
| Bret Harte attacked Sala In an article
| They never met Afterwards until At din
ner at the house OF Mr.. Firth. Miss Firth,
acted
was made acquainted with the feud between
| the two gentlemen; but, with girls want
| of tact and experience. thought IL would be
good fun TO send Mrs. Sala down to dim
| ner with Bret Harte as escort. She also
| introduced him for that purpose. Seeing
| this, Mr.. Sala stepped forward. removed his
wife's hand from Bret Harte's arm. and
told him he could not take her to dinner
unless he would first offer an apology for
| the insult offered years ago. and for false
assertions which had never been retracted.
Mr.. Bret Harte declined to retract or apollo
gize. whereupon Mr.. Sala took his wife
upon his arm and left the house.
In 1890 occurred a most amusing incident.
In an after-dinner speech Mr.. Harry Fur
Mss the caricaturist, said that Dickens mad
refused sketches made by Mr.. Sala, and the
drawing which contained a figure having
six toes on one foot. Despite these facts, >
Mr.. Furniss said, Mr. sala Is now al, ART
| Furniss further stated that Mr.: Sala mad
painted pictures on the walls or an eating
saloon, and that this probably gave MN ,, the
wards The trouble between the two men
probably arose from an attack by Mr.. Saia
In the London Daily telegraph on Mr.; ., Fur
/ tons as to the lack of Mr.. Saias artistic
| qualities in the manner recorded above
The result of il was that Mr.. furniss was
| compelled to pay Mr. Sala $25 damages.
HIS SECOND MARRIAGE.
| In 1890 Mr.. SaIa married for the second
| time, his wife being Miss Bessie Stannard
| Miss Stannard had for some time acted as
| an occasional amanuensis for Mr.. Sala, and
was herself clever newspaper writer This
| marriage made it impossible for Mr.. Sala
| to keep up that mode of living which had
| been the cause Of a good deal OF amusc-
| ment and endless evaporation to London
| editors for years. 1t had been Mr.. Sala's
| custom for years to keep his residence an
absolute secret. He had never permitted
| even his most intimate friends to know
| where he lived. and the result of this amia-
ble.habt was at times somewhat exasperat-
| Ing. His mail went to the newspaper Office
or to the club, and whenever he had big
| piece OF work on hand which required
steady attention he would disappear abso-
newspaper which was intending to publish
| the heavy piece OF work on which Mr.. Sala
was engaged would find il necessary 20
communicate with that gentleman before
the completion OF the manuscript. All
hands in the office would start out in ham
SONS and on foot to visit the resorts fire.
i quented by the journalist, and the liveliest
| sort of chase all over London would fol-
low Sometimes IL would be three or four
the writer TO cover.
OF late years Mr.. Sala's life was far from
happy. He made perhaps more money than
| any. other English journalist, but he was
prodigal in his expenditures and was finally
driven TO bankruptcy He came to this
country several times to recuperate both
Il
| mended but temporarily. So dispirfted was
ne. by III health and i'll fortune that he
| when he was melted TO contest Hornsey in
| the Liberal interest in 1886, replied that
he was a "heartbroken, desolate old man.
utterly without ambition and with no heart
TO enter Parliament" In 1892 occurred an
incident that was very humiliating to him
| He had attacked the new labor Organiza-
ton called the. Domestic Servants Union
through the columns of the weekly paper
| Sala's Journal, which was founded i'm that
year, and the article had highly displeased
that union as matter of course. On June
70 the union held a meeting in Hyde Park
and Sala and his wife went to see what
sort OF a turnout it was. A contemporary
account OF the incident says: ''The Jour-
nalist was recognized by some of the
crowd, who began pelting him with stones
and dirt, hooting and grooming meanwhile
allowed TO do so unmolested. The crowd
pressed upon him and Mrs. Sala, pulling
and hauling them about until, when the
police rescued them. Sala was minus his
| hat and Mrs. Sala's clothing was badly
torn. Sala looked terribly scared, and his
wife was almost in faint"
Ever since the publication of his autobi-
ography last spring Mr.. Sala has been
steadily failing in health. When his condi-
ering sufficiently TO work again was posi-
BILE the London Daily Telegraph granted
him pension of 5000 a year. He grew
very much worse in November and en-
braced Catholicism. receiving extreme unc-
| ton one time when he seemed to be dying
Among HIS. best-known works. in addition
Clock" "A Journey Due North IA Re sne
dence in Russia The Baddington Peer
age" Looking at Life" Making Your
Game. Narrative of the Rhine" .'Dutch
Pictures Accepted Addresses" ship
Chandler and Other Tales Two Prima
Donnas and the Dumb Poor Porter"
breakfast in Bed" Strange Adventures
of Captain Dangerous After Breakfast
From Waterloo to the peninsula Notes
and Sketches of the Paris Exhibition .
| Under the SUM- Paris Herself Again"
america Revisited" "A Journey Due
South and THE Land of the Golden
Fleece"
PRINCE OF JOURNALISM
\ few years ago a London correspondent
thus wrote of the gifted author: George
Augustus Sala may we'll be called one of
the princes OF journalism. He has dcne
great work for the profession, AMI received
many honors and rewards. He has an ex-
perience of over two score YEARS, AMI dur
ing that time has written for nearly every
periodical IN England He is one Of the
best informed men in Europe, and even his
enemies gay that he has few, If any GU
periors as a descriptive correspondent. scr
eighteen years he vas a frisnl | may say
| Intimate friend. of Dickens. From that
gifted writer he received many tokens OF
respect. His pen may have been trained in
| its cunning from experiences with that gift
ed writer
Il saw him yesterday in the Lyric Club.
thoroughly English in manner and dress,