The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-16
AN APOSTLE OF PEACE.
Henry Norman, Correspondent of the
London Chronicle.
HOW he BEAT AMERICAN PAPERS.
Discovered Documents Showing That
Lord Aberdeen DiscI aimAed the
SchOmburE1 Line in Venezuela

Just as Henry Norman, the brilliant
correspondent of the London Daily Chron-
icle, had finished cablegram on the Ven
ezuetlan question I entered his room in
the Arlington hotel, Washington. This
man is a maker of history, one of the most
remarkable and intense personalities CT
modern journalism.
1t is not too much to say that his dis
patches have already visibly affected the
tone OF the whole English people and
press The dignity of his utterances, their
frankness, impartiality and fearlessness,
havo made tremendous impression in
London. They have even moved the stolid
prime minister, it is said.
Mr.. Norman has put the American
newspapers upon their mettle. Right here
under their very noses he has dug up Off
cial documents proving that Lord Aber-
doom officially disolaimed the Schomburgk
line as the authoritative boundary between
British Guiana and Venezuela and the
original documents, upon which his con-
vincing dispatches were based, are Eow
lying in the safe of the Arlington hotel.
Mr.. Norman would not take the risk OF
keeping them in his own dispatch bag.
Here is a personality which means some
thing in the world-a well made, nervous,
candid man, with the brisk, sympathetic
manner of an American and the solid,
thorough qualities of an Eng1ishman; high
forehead, bright brown eyes, strong nose
and pointed black beard. He speaks six
languages, knows all countries, has shot
tigers in the Malay peninsula, slipped coffee
with Ferdinand of Bulgaria, has been
the cause OF diplomatic communications
among European governments, knows
how to make cocktail, has written four
famous books is a sportsman to his finger
tips, scents a piece of news q mile off, is n
Partisan boulevardier ono month and
desperately honest critic of Japan the next
and is q philosopher, courtier, diplomat
and journalistic corksorew by turns.
And this is the young Englishman who
spent his boyhood in Paris and was edu-
Gated at Harvard. He is a scholar and
can speak Greek. He is a traveller and
can carry his belongings in a gripsack.
Ho is an internationalist, keen, cool
headed, persistent, careful of his facts,
and not afraid to stand upon them no
matter who is hurt.
I remember how they hated him in
Tokyo for what he wrote about tho en-
broidered and officially supervised harlotry
Of Japan, and yet he expressed it all mod
erately, like man who felt the response
bility of his words.
While talked to Mr.. Norman he paced
the floor, which was clustered with news
papers and discarded memoranda. Ho
was clothed in a black vest sprinkled with
white dots. His hands were thrust deeply
into the pockets of his loose gray trousers.
When Mr.. Norman was ready for college,
he insisted upon going to Harvard. Ho
had an inspiration in his youthful head
that there was something in America he
wanted to see. His first book was can
Account of tho Harvard Greek Play tho
story of a performance of "EdipuS," in
which he played the part of CreOn. From
Harvard the young follow won't to Leipsic,
where he studied two years. Then he took
up journalism as a profession, serving on
the editorial staff of The Pail Mall Gazette
under Mr.. Stead for four years. At tho
end of this time he inherited a fortune
and started on trip around the world for
Tho Pail Mall Gazette. On his way back
he stopped in Egypt and wrote a number
of notable magazine articles. Presently
he was in London again. In April he
read 1.-The Girl In the Carpathians," by
Menie Muriel Dowie, and in August the
lovely young authoress was Mrs. Norman.
On one occasion Mr.. Norman wrote an
interview with Prince Nicolas of Monte
negro on tho eastern question which drew
Mr.. Gladstone into the discussion and in
duced the great commoner to declare that
the war traditions of Montenegro were
greater than all the war traditions Of tho
world, including Marathon and Thermop-
yIe. His interview with Ferdinand of
Bulgaria, appealing for sympathy and rec
ognition among tho western powers, made
such an impression in Austria that when
the Bulgarian minister passed through
Vienna a week later he was received by
tho Emperor Francis Joseph within an
hour after his arrival Prince Ferdinand
sent a huge photograph of himself to Mr..
Norman by the next mail.
But Mr.. Norman's greatest journalistic
announcing that the sultan had accepted
the scheme of Armenian reform imposed
upon him by Europe, which beat all other
newspapers by "a hours. The Ottoman
capital was thronged with experienced cor
respondents who had been waiting for
months to get that very piece of news.
Mr. Norman at first declined his present
mission to America, but finally yielded at
the urgent personal request of the propri-
otors Of The Daily Chronicle, who left
him perfectly free to tell the whole truth
about the difficulty between England and
America
"Half of my heart is in each country
because of my education and sympathies,
said tho peacemal1er. 90 I feel that war be-
tween these two countries would be tho
greatest crime over known since the hu-
man race was created. If England and
America should fight over a boundary
question in Venezuela, life on earth would
become intolerabie to decent English
speaking person, because whatever differ
onces VIC have, we are the only nations
that form the bulwarks OF the personal
liberty of the individual. For these peo-
PIE to exhaust one another by war would
give blank check to the powers of des-
potisin There is not more inperialist
Englishman living than myself, but I
would rather see Great Britain eat a leek
as long as from here to the capitol than to
sec her war with the United States over a
mere letter of diplomacy, and feel sure q
majority of Americans must feel the same
way with regard to their own country.
Never in my whole career as a journal
ist have undertaken anything so near to
my heart as this. I would sooner find a
dignified way of peace than to crafty any
nthor ambition have I an not going to