The herald., 1897-10-18
MONDAY, OCTOBER IS, 1897.
4 GREAT JOURNALIST GONE

Charles A. Dana, editor Of the New
York Sun, died yesterday at his country
place, Dosoris. on West island. near
Glen Cove, L. I.
Mr.. Dana will go down in history as
one of the greatest journalists that the
United States has ever produced-the
peer of Horace Greeley and Raymond
and in many respects the superior Of
Prentiss and the elder Bennett. Through
his long and arduous years of service in
the editorial harness Mr.. Dana has been
noted for his aggressiveness and inde-
pendence, for his great power of concen-
tration and his incisiveness Of style. He
never hesitated to step over party lines
in eepousing cause and be was always
the staunchest Of advocates and the
most vigorous Of opponents
Mr.. Dana was born in Hillsdale, Ches-
hire county, N. H., August 8, 1919, and
he was therefore rs years old on his last
birthday. In 1881 young Dana was sent
to Buffalo, where an uncle lived, and in
that city he attended the preparatory
schools and fitted himself for Harvard,
which he entered in 1888.
Two years passed at Cambridge. and
then failing eyesight made further col
lege work an impossibidty and COM
pelled a rest for year.
just at this juncture the Brook
Farm" colony, with its cooperative la
Dor and philosophical background, at
tracted the attention Of the young man
in his enforced idleness and appealed
strongly to his imagination, for in his
younger days Dana was an enthusiastic
idealst, and those who knew him best
found in the caustic satire of his maturer
mind the lofty scorn of one whose own
idols are so nearly perfection that he
can find naught but contempt for those
who bow the knee to baser clay.
That many developing natures had
similar yearnings is evidenced by the
fact that the colony numbered first and
last about 100, and among them were
George Ripley and Hawthorne, together
with other lesser lights. both men and
women.
The story is told of Dana that 90 anx-
ious was he to enter the new communi-
ty in perfect accord with their views
and principles that he cast into the
Charles river all his personal effects
except the clothing he wore and went
afoot to Brook farm to join his co-theo-
rists. Once established there he brave
ly bore his part in the manual work of
the farm and devoted a part at least
of the time to philosophic calm and
short moral essays, which appeared in
The Dial, a journal published by the
colonists.
But the Brook farm experiment came
to an end. Then followed trip to Eu-
rope, and with this preparation Charles
A, Dana entered the field in which he
was to be. so conspicuous figure, when
New York Tribune.
The great question of the day at thai
time was arti-slavery, and Greeley ano
Dana were in perfect accord at first;
but as years passed by and the anti
slavery movement grew more and more
insistent and aroused thereby stronger
and stronger opponents the younger
and more impetuous man, by this time
managing editor and one of the pro-
prietors of the greatest organ the move
ment possessed, chafed under the re-
straint imposed upon him by his chief
and when at last the war broke out
his position was almost intolerabe. II
finally became absolutely SO, and on
April 1, 1862. Mr.. Dana resigned In