The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-18

I Of which nobody knows very much
save those who have a right to. Who
ever owns the paper, there isn't any
| question that Mr.. Dana controlled 1t,
and has for many years, without ques-
| ton of his authority. It was he who
| bolted Cleveland in 1884 and came out
| in that absurd campaign for Ben But
| Ter.
| And this he did against the advice
and desire of his associates, who fore
saw the disaster that followed. Up to
| this time the Sun had a field Of its own,
| all to itself. It was the only 2-cent
morning paper in New York, and used
| to lay great stress in its advertise
ments on its circulation of "a million a
week" There was no other such circu-
| lation in America then. The Sun was
| then a four-page paper daily, and
perfect model of compactness and typo
graphical beauty-if you had eyes to
read solid agate.
THE BOLT TO BUTLER
| Happened opportunely for the. World,
| and when the campaign was over, the
| World was found to have helped itself
to a. good share CT that million a
week" Especially in the South, where
the name of Butler was poison, the
|
years later it had by no means gained
what it had lost in 'S4, whereas the
| World had kept booming on. Yet the
| Sun continued to pound Cleveland,
| though it was fight purely personal to
| Mr.. Dana, and waged once more
against the will of his partners, who
! shared in the losses but not in the
fun. The defeat of Cleveland softened
the effect of this bolt, but in 1892, by
which time the paper had broken out
Of its four-page limit and like It's
neighbors was printing the once de-
spised blanket Sheets" Mr.. Dana was
ready once more to club Cleveland and
indirectly to throw his supposedly
Democratic paper into the Republican
column.
happen to know to a certainty that
nothing but the importantly of Paul
Dana and Mr.. Laffan, telegraphed from
Chicago just after the nomination, Kept
the editor from renewing the assault
on Grover. AS 1t was, you will re-
member, he set up the cry Of mo force
bill, no negro idimination,' and then,
after the election, with characteristic
/ naivete, claimed the credit for Demo-
cratic success.
1t is an open secret in Park Row that
| the Sun has made no great fortune
since ten years ago 1t borrowed $175,000
| for new machinery on that mortgage
| the w OrlO ;QldQ0 so InuCIl Ol AIlOo
| Cummings told me in Washington a
! few years back Che owns few shares
in the paper he used to serve as man
aging editor, compositor, Washington
| correspondent, ETC., etc. that he hadn't
seen a penny of dividends since the
| Butler bolt. Still Mr.. Dana and few
! others about the establishment showed
no evidence of poverty. This is ex-
| planned by the reputed) fact that the
two Danas, Laffan and Thomas Hitch
cock, had a majority of the shares
and voted themselves salaries large
enough to eat up most of the earnings.
The elder Dana is said to have drawn
| $50, 900 a year, his son $4,000 a year,
Mr.. Laffan $4,000, and Mr.. Hitchcock
$40, 900. This accounts for good deal
more than the morning Sun is said to
| have earned for some years, but the
evening paper had more than made
good the deficit.
DANA'S ERROR.
have seen men try to compute what
Mr.. Dana's pet animosities have cost
The Sun in the way Of circulation
which means income They have been
numerous, these little weaknesses of
big man. The way he hunted Gen.
Grant into the hearafter be-
yond the grave ought to be
| forgotten, but isn't. Twenty years
for this hatred-it was something
about an appointment that Dana want
! ed and thought he had earned by his
service in war. He had never consid-
cred those services fully requited by
the government. 1 know a man who
says he has seen letter from Dana
| to ANDY" Johnson fatty begging to
be appointed collector Of the port Of
New York. He was not appointed and
he didn't get what he wanted of John
sons successor. Then he began to call
himself Democrat, though he never
supported a Democratic candidate ex-
cept Tilden All the rest he helped to
slaughter, and he was the more effec-
| tive by reason Of his Democratic mask.
In later years Larry Godkin, of the
| New York Evening Post and Grover
! Cleveland have divided the honor Of
| being the best hated of Mr.. Dana's enc
mics. DR.. Parkhurst and the Spring
field Republican got their share of the
| dTubbing, too, but Cleveland and God
kin, Dana seemed really to hate with
deep and personal hatred. He consis-
tently hated all reform movements, and
all forms of Mugwumpery, and seemed
| to respect open and candid devotion
to spoils Tannmany was his ideal for
| many year, but he dropped 1t like a
hot potato in the autumn of '96, when
the silver question came to the front,
and instead Of building monuments to
Croker and Sheehan, The Sun has been
pounding them day and night and Sun
days as public malefactors.
If the editor of The Sun had never
done anything else he would be remem-
bered forever as the king and master
of the art Of calling names. That art
may almost be said to have been in
vented by him. Prentice and McCul-
legh were, each in the way, past mast
ers of this sort of work. but really their
efforts seem tame and Intellectual COM
pared with Dana's. They were --vield-
ers of the blu6Eeon and meat axe.
Dana could use these weapons, too but
he also knew the rapier and stilletto
and could smile and smile in the face
Of victim whose life blood he was
draining with relentless hand. He had
another gift also in its perfection-rid-
icule By a single sentence he could
set all the world laughing at an oppon-
ent, and thereby hurt that unfortunate
| where thousand blows could not have
been felt.
! For example, when he fixed upon
Cleveland the epithet of the Stuffed
prophet he punctured the covering of
that statesman where all else had fall