The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-12
an INTERESTING MAN.
Joseph Howard, Jr, Writes Of
Charles A. Dana of the New York



Charles A. Dana of the New York
sun.
From the Chicago Times Herald.
Our journalistic Nestor.
! estimate that Brother Dana OF the
New York Sun has been called the Mes
tor of journalism something like ten
thousand times during the last ten years.
When 1t is remembered that there are
many great successes in this noblcst field
of intelligent endeavcr. some of whom
are older and richer than he the sub
tlety as well as the INSTRUMENTATION OF
the COMPLIMENT will Ice clearly under
stood The Dana of to-day. with bald
head, grizzled beard and kindly conde-
scenslon of manner is well known to
readers OF newspapers and magazines.
IN which not only his name and fame are
deserNeuly recorded with great frequency,
but his picture is printed with more or
less accuracy, and also to guests at table
OF distinction and banquets of note, where
ne is tavorlte speaker. The Dana of
long ago, arbitrary. inpulsive, severely
critical, defiant. voluble in speech, quick
to think, prompt to act. a tremendous
driver, t1rst-class executive, is not so
we'll known to the men and women of
| to-day. / first saw him in 1856, when, as
chairman of a young mems republican
committee, 1t was my privileged duty to
| Introduce him to an audience that knew
| him very much better than it knew me-
| he spoke three-quarters of an hour in
| English, following that effort with a
| speech three-quarters of an hour long
| in German. His English and his German
| We're models of style, of finish, very
/ charm to the intelligent and an edu-
| cational opportunity to men with ears to
| hear.
He managed Greeley we'll
| Greeley was in no sense an editor. He
was a born and gifted fighter. the pen his
| natural and accustomed weapon. Ner-
vous, peevish,. jealous and ambitious. he
was none the less permeated with convic-
ton and steered by honesty of purpose.
| His ideas were the rule of the paper, his
| opinions were its creed. Upon Mr.. Dana 5
! shoulders rested the responsibility of edi-
| torial make-tip. of news procurement. of
satisfactory correspondence and of pre-
paration for publication. This, il will be
by was IS; IN the time when
| ting machines were dream of the future
| and the largest and best press in the
land was boosted of because it could print
| 10000 impressions of one side OF a four
PACED paper in an hour. Leading up to
| the era of demand, when the people clam
| ored for news from the battlefield. Mr..
| Dana was In command, and, all along the
| felicitous period of invention and improve
| mont, il was his good fortune to be at the
| helm, utilizing the products of the adj
| vanced thought of the century. Prior to
/ his selection as assistant secretary OF
/ war, to the great but opinionated, and, in
some lines, petty Stanton, Mr.. Dana di-
/ rected in person the war correspondence
| of the Tribune, ably seconded in Washing
/ ton by Fitz Henry Warren, subsequently
major general in the army, and president
of the court martial which tried the hotel
| burners and railroad wreckers in 1855.
| Nowadays, when cheap biography is the
curse of Journalism, Mr.. Dana spends
| thousands of dollars every week for cable
| and land service, a marked contrast TO
/ his experience in 1851, when he rebuked
| me, a Tribune correspondent in washing
| ton, for prefacing Abraham Lincoln's first
| proclamation, calling for 1900 troops, with
| few lines of hifalutin versitication, be-
cause of the expense involved
| The army liked him.
As assistant secretary of war Dana was
! much more than a clerk He visited fields
| of action, conversed and discussed cam
| paign plans with generals in command,
and acted as an intelligent mediator be-
| tween the irascible Stanton and dubious
corps commanders when personal inter-
! course between the war department ana
the field was not only an expensive but
a troublesome endeaVor. That a man of
| his positive nature, pronounce0 opinions
| and personal dignity should make enc
mics, not to say mistakes. is an obviously
/ proper inference. / often heard severe
/ criticisms of Dana's manner and matter,
| but | never met an officer of high or low
| degree who didn't concede his ability, his
| patriotism, his tremendous energy and OBJ
vious desire to secure the best possible re-
| suits.
He was always worker.
Among his permanent contributions to
literature should be cited THE Cyclope-
dia and the Household Book OF Poetry.
1t may be said. without fear of successful
| Contradiction. that Dana not only stands
/ but has always stood, in the front rank
| pure He speake French and German with
| the accent of Berlin. He reads Italian
! and Spanish with ease. His familiarity
was the best efforts OF the worlds great
/ poets Is marvellous. He keeps abreast
| of the literature of the times by constant
reading, and, with friends, following
| courses of intellectual occupation which
none but a scholar would care for or APP
preciate. That he might do this in his
comparative old age as a relaxation or
might we'll conceive. This, however, is
| the habit of many years. Long before
| knew him his researches among the oc-
| cults and the recondites were penetrat-
| ingly continuous. | make stress upon this
| life habit because to-day he is buster than
ever in the profession of his choice, as an
| incessant worker, a literal toiler in the
| newspaper vineyard. His idea that a
| great newspaper can be published in ana
| issued from a comparatively Insignificant
| building would appear to be justified by
| the fact. Scores of thousands of people,
| who daily cross our City Hall park, sec,
sitting near a window in the northwest
| corner of the Sun building, at least 300
/ days in every year, a venerable figure,
| intent upon manuscript or printed mat
| ter. The profile reveals high forehead
| and a bald outline of symmetric head
an arched eyebrow, gold spectacles, "a
| forceful nose, a full, flowing and rather
ragged mustache and beard led up to by
| a suit of apparel as neat and as becoming
as it is simple and conventional. States
men and politicians from the city hall,
| strangers from the country ambitious
newspaper editors and reporters, boot
| blacks and peddlers and the mighty host
/ pushing, multitudinous, toward the
| the achievements and heartily indorse a
happy new year suggestion in honor of
| the peoples friend and the humbug's foe.
| Charles A. Dana.
STOPPING SHIP.