The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-10
DINNER IN HONOR
OF COL. MCCLURE
TIE Veteran Journalists Golden An
niversary Celebrated.
GOVERNOR HASTINGS CHAIRMAN
Vice President Stevenson and Other
Noted Guests Present .. Colonel
McClurc's Review Of Journalism in
the Keystone State .. Interesting
Personal "reminiscences.

arder Mcclure, the veteran editor of
the Philadelphia Times, today rounded
out fifty years of journalism and his
friends tonight commemorated the
golden anniversary of his editorial work
by rendering him a dinner at the Hotel
Walton. About 300 guests were pres
ent.representing not only Mr. McClure's
associates In the newspaper fraternity.
but men of national prominence with
whom Colonel Mcclure had been asso-
ciated in various ways, and among
them were: Vice President Stevenson,
Secretary of Agriculture Morton, Uni
ted States Senators ThurstOn and Haw-
ley, Major General Nelson A. Miles,
Carl Schurz and Harry ID. Vogt, .presi-
dent of the International League of
Press clubs.
Pleasant and complimentary letters
Of regret We're read from President
elect Mckinley, Secretary Herbert and
others.
Governor Hastings, Of this state. pre-
sided, and the dinner lacked the stiff
ness and formality of set speechmak-
ing, and number Of those present
spoke in eulogistic terms of the guest
of the evening. Colonel Mcclure made
quite a long speech, reviewing his ca
reer in journalism since fifty years
ago, when he established Il little paper
in little country town in the interior
Of Pennsylvania. This afternoon the
staff of the Times presented Colonel
Mcclure with a beautiful gold tobacco
box and a set of resolutions.
COLONEL M'CLURE'S SPEECH.
Colonel McClure's address was as fol-
lows:
Mr. Chairman:-I cannot express the
measure of my grateful appreciation of
this imposing greeting. so eXceptionai
alike in welcome. in numbers ana IN ms
tinction. l accept 1t as tribute to the
papers during the present generation.
rather than personal tribute to an hum.
BILE member of the profession. whose half
century of editorial labor furnishes the
occasion for leading men of state and ma
ton to pay homage to American journal-
ism, now the great forum of our free In
stitutiOns.
The duties and responsibilities of jour
nalism are largely defined by their envir-
onment, and there may be fitness on this
occasion to refer to the political. business,
social and moral conditions under which
the Juniata Sentinel was founded ffty
years ago, In contrast with the greatly
changed conditions which confront the
journals of today. The people of Juniata
county were of O well-to-do class adapted
to the primitive conditions in which they
lived The enervating blight Of luxury
and the despair of pinching want were
strangers in their midst They believed
In the church In the school, in the sancti.
ty of home, In integrity between man and
man; Christianity was nsrpi accepted % by tnsm ann
and with a respect akin to reverence by
all; and that beautiful humanity that
springs from the mingled dependence and
affection of rural neighborly ties. ever
taught that the bruised reed should not
b. broken They had no political convul-
sions such as are common in these days.
Even sweeping political revolution would
not vary the party majority over a hun
dred in the few thousands of votes they
cast and excepting in the white heat of
national contests, their personal affec-
tions often outweighed their duties to
party. Public vices and public wrongs In
local administration were rarely known.
and there was little to invite the aggres-
sive features which are SO conspicuous in
modern journalism. Ministers mingled
freely with the every day life of their
frugality and integrity. and the lawyer
who hoped to be successful required first
Of all to command the confidence of the
community in his honesty. The ballot
as the sacrament itself and the criminal
courts had usually little to do beyond the
cases Of vagrant offenders Business was
conducted as a rule without the formality
provoked scandal were Stunned on every
side. This community possessed the only
real wealth the world can give-content; !;
and the local newspaper OF that day, even
under the direction of a progressive jour-
nalist, could be little more than COM
monplace chroncler of current events.
THE MOST SATISFACTORY WORK.
The most satisfactory newspaper work
] have ever done, l mean the most salts
factory to myself, was during the first
few months after I founded the Sentinel.
There was pardonable boyish pride in see
IL
nence as editor and proprietor, and the
reading OF my own editorials was as sooth-
ing as the soft, sweet strains of music on
distant waters in summer evening time.
They were to my mind most exquisite in
dction and logic, and 1t was source OF
keen regret that they were so "cabined,
cribbed and confined within the narrow
est provincial lines, whereby the world
knew that there We're others, like Chan
dler. Gales, Greeley, Ritchie. Prentice and
Kendall, who We're more read and needed.
but | was cOnsoled by the charitable re-
tuitous circumstance they were known
and / was not. Then to me life was a song
with my generously self-admired news
paper as the chorus. There came rude
dreams as the shock Of editorial conflict
gradually taught me that journalism was
one unending lesson In school that has
no vacations.
i nave peasant memories also OF the IN
innate personal relations between the viii
lage editor and his readers Most Of them
were within a radius of few miles of the
publication office, and all the influences of
social as well as political ties were en-
ployed to make them enduring patrons.
With many of them the question of spar
ing from their scant income cents a week
for county paper, was Cne that called for
sober thought from year to year, and it
often required a personal visit and earn
est Importantly to hold the hesitatng sub
scriber. l well remember the case of
frugal farmer Of the bunker persuasion
who was sufficiently public spirited to
subscribe for the Sentinel for six months
to get the paper started, but at the end OF
that period he had calculated the heavy
expenses Of gathering the ripenng har-
vest and decided to stop his paper for q
siastically confronted with many reasons
why man Of his intelligence and influence
should not be without the county newspa-
per, but he yielded only to the extent of
further considering the matter with his
spread sunshine around the editorial chair
by saying that his wife had decided to con-
tinue for another six months. as the pa
per would be very handy In the fall for ty-
Ing UP her apple butter crooks.
COMING OF THE IRON HORSE.
A few years after had settled down In
this quiet community to devote my life to
Journalism, a shrill. weird voice was heard
In the beautiful valley Of the Juniata as
the iron horse made his first visit to us
with his train of cars. 1t was welcome
music as 1t echoed over the foot hills of
the Alleghenies, and entirely new to near
ly all who heard 1t. With the railway
came the telegraph, the express and the
advent Of the daily newspaper among the
people. In single year the community
was transformed from It's sedate and quiet
ways into more energetic. progressive and
speculative life. 1t was a new civiliza-
tion that had come to disturb the dreams
Of nearly a century, and It rapidly ex-