The Irish standard., 1897-10-23

O1d. oeVefdl ldIeT eulLlOuS nave Deeu
issued. With Gen. James H. Wilson,
he wrote a Life of Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant" in 1868. His "Household Book
of Poetry" has passed through many
Perfect Poems," Rossiter johnson as
sisting him in the work.
Nobody, looking at Mr.. Dana any
time in the ten years since he passed
the Biblical three score and ten, could
associate him with the thought OF
death. Though the cartoonlsts always
for some reason drew him little, he was
a big man, tall and wide, with noble
square shoulders and long, straight
legs. His town house is IN Madison
avenue and a good two miles above his
office. but almost any night at the last
decade he has done The distance of
evenings on foot.
There was no finer sight in the me-
tropolis for many years than this fine,
statuesque figure, leaving the shabby
old Sun building and starting home
ward. At O'Clock in the evening Park
Row is raging torrent of humanity,
and he who walks therein must elbow
his own way. Mr.. Dana used to come
to the door alone stand for a moment.
like driver hestl;ing before his
plunge, then, buttoning his coat and
taking a new grip on his stick-in he
went and rNt5antly his white beard
was seen floating on the current here
and there till. presently. beard and
owner came ashore on the other side.
Then, at four-mile stride. the old
editor started across the city hall park,
shoulders we'll back, form swinging
steadily and the sturdy legs ccaving
their way. If you were close enough
you might have heard the whistling
aria Of new opera. or a line from the
Divine Comedy, uttered in fine mellow
tones-for all the world us if the walk
er was a healthy youth of twenty.
OF recent years you may have no.
ticed that there has been less in the
Suns editorial age about the youths
of seventy" less about the glory of
living to 90 or 100 years. Dana
lately said less and thought more of
death than formerly.
For some years 1t was Mr.. Dana's
practice to clt his luncheon in the Sun
building, in the office of Mr.. Laifan.
the publisher, and the editors closest
associate if we expect Paul Dana, who
,o1 In To b,rn bon
brought up as his illustrious fathers
Intimate friend and pal" These
lunohcons, however, were rigidly OK
elusive. A waiter brought in from a
neighborng restaurant brace OF
chops and bottle Of claret. and over
this simple fare the two men spent an
hour, of give and take at-the Lord
knows what conversation. Laffan is a
Wire-edged North of Ireland man,
though educated at Black Rock and in
France. 1t is said that he owed his in
innate association with Mr.. Dana to
the fact that he talked Chinese inscrlp-
lions, pottery, Paul Verlaina. or almost
anything else as well as Dana. Both
uuCu, Ike LIE ldJS vi. lulttIS, Iutl LIlc
"foible of omniscience" and OF tina.
bcundless store Of reconcile and use
less information which marks the deep
1y learned, each had his share. Laffan
came to the Sun as art and theatrical
critic, having failed in Baltimore pub
fishing a penny paper. He advanced
speedily from that somewhat ornaman-
tai position to be business manager or
publisher and so near to the editor that
nobody on the Sun ever cared to try
issues with him for priority. 1t is only
an occasional genius that can do bust
ness and pottery, too, but laffan Is of
that sort. and everybody attributes his
success in the Sun office to that versa
tality.
A few years ago when the Sun and
the World were at each other hammer
and tongs, the World used to declare
every day or so that this man Laffan"
had hypnotized Dana, and would come
into the Sun as owner when the editor
died. AS for the "hypnotism." | think
my explanation is truer. The success
sion to the property is another matter,
OF which nobody knows very much
save those who have a right to. Who
ever owns the paper. there isn't any
question that MIR. Dana controlled it,
and has for many years. without uues
ton of his authority. 1t was lie who
bolted Clev sand n 1884 aud came on.
in that absurd campaign for Ben But
Ter.
l happen to know to a certainty that
nothing but the Importantly of Paul
Dana and Mr.. Laffan. telegrapiled from
Chicago just after the nomination, kept
the editor from renewing the assault
on Grover. AS it was, you will re-
member, he set up the cry of mo
force bill, no negro domination" and !
then, after the election, with character
istic naivete. claimed the credit for
Democratic success.
In later years Larry Godkin, of tie
New York Evening Post, and Grover
Clevelani have divided the honor OF
being the best hated Of Mr. Danas enc