The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-18
DANA AND THE sun.
Career of the Great Editor and PecuI-
iarities of His Newspaper.

Career of the Great Editor and PecuI-
iarities of His Newspaper.
Charles Anderson Dana was born in Hns-
dale, Cheshire county, New Hampshire,
Aug. g. 1919, and he was, therefore, seven
ty-eight years old on his last birthday. By
descent ON both sides Of the house Mr.. Dana
came from the stout-hearted, rugged
minded New England stock that bred men
like himself and his journalistic foster faith
er and sponsor, Horace Greeley. also ma
tive of New Hampshire. The facts of Mr..
Dana's life, chronologically stated, show
that in 1872 his family moved to Gaines, N.
Y, where they remained until the following
year, when they returned to New England,
making their home in Guildhall, vt. In 1881
Charles was sent to Buffalo, where an uncle
lived, and in that city he attended the pre-
paratory schools and fitted himself for Har-
ward, which he entered in 1889. Two years
passed at Cambridge and then failing eye
sight made further college work an impos-
sibility and compelled rest for a year.
Just at this juncture the Brook Farm
colony, with its cooperative labor and phil
osophical background, attracted the atten-
ton of the young man in his enforced idle
ness and appealed strongly to his imagina-
tiOIl, lOT Ill HIS younger QdyS bdud was all
enthusiastic idealist and those who knew
him best find 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. The story is
told of Dana that so anxious was he to en-
ter the new community in perfect accord
with their views and principles that he cast
into Charles river all his personal effects
nnYnff at inc I1ox 80
to Brook Farm to join his co-theorists.
Once established there, he bravely bore his
part in the manual work Of the farm, and
devoted a part at least of the time to phil
osophic calm and short moral essays, which
appeared in The Dial, journal published
by the colonists. But the Brook Farm ex-
pertinent came to an end
BEGINNING OF HIS CAREER.
Then followed trip to Europe, and with
this preparation Charles A. Dana entered
the field in which he was to be SO conspicu-
Gus figure, when in 1S47 he joined Horace
Greeley on the New York Tribune. The great
question of the day at that time was anti
slavery, and Greeley and Dana. were in per-
feet accord at first; but as years passed
by and the anti-slavery movements grew
more and more insistent and aroused
thereby longer and stronger opponents
the younger and more impetuous man, by
this time managing editor and one of the
propretors of the greatest organ the move
ment possessed, chafed under the restraint
imposed upon him by his chief, and when
at last the war broke out his position was
almost intoerable. 1t finally became abso-
lutely so, and on April l, 1862, Mr. Dana
resigned In June of the same year he was
appointed a commissioner in the Depart
ment of War, and in this capacity he Wis
tied the West to make reports on pay serv-
ice in that part of the country. On June l
he was appointed major and assistant adju-
tant general, title he refused to accept
and one which was subsequently with
drawn.
on Jan. 90 1863, Dana was named assist
tant secretary of war to Stanton, and his
official reports from the field to the office
are still held up as models of intelligent and
diligent work When the war came to a
close Mr.. Dana resigned and again returned
to journalism this time editor of the
Chicago Republican, which was founded in
1867.
Up to this point in Mr. Dana's career he
had always been to some extent subordinate
to the will Of others. and this subordina-
tion was precisely what he most Of all dis
liked but on Jan. q. 1868. he became the
largest shareholder and editor-in-chief of
the New York Sun, and from that moment
his personality, free to act as he chose, was
evident in every line of his newspaper, and
If Louis could say with boastful arro-
gance, Il am France, Mr.. Dana could with
perfect truth have pharaphrased the re-
mark and proclaimed: Il am the SUM-
No great newspaper ever published pre-
sents so many paradoxes. and these reflect
accurately the mind and temperament of its
editor. Its English is clear. polished. Virie
and almost stern at times in its adherence
to prescribed usage. and yet even its head
lines will laugh mockingly with the newest
and most tippant slang. In the world of
books and art the serious critical work is
just, accurate and dignifed, and perhaps
in the next column the most fragrant viola
tion of all canons of literary and artistic
taste will be found handled with the same
gravity and in style so ponderous as TO
be the creator OF its own humor.
Perhaps no daily publication ever con-
tended so strenuously as the Sun for the
claim TO respect that the press has on the
community, contention emphasized in its