The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-22
@lessenger.
e A OF EDITOR DANA

Charles Anderson Dana Is oeao. ne
Essed away at his home at Glencove.
Exhode Island, on the 18th instant. His
x1eafh had been expected for some time.
He had not been well since the 9Th of
June, when he was taken suddenly
1sck His health a been good, and
Te had reached an advanced age. hav-
1hE been born at Hinsdale, N. H., on
In 9th Of August, 1919. So he passed
Lis 18th year in August last. He at
tended Harvard university for two
years, but he was much self-taught
and made himself scholarly and well
xead. He was one of h literary
eranks who founded the notorious
Brook Farm association. Among the
members were men and women Of dis
eInguished gifts, among them Nathan
R1 Hawthorne, George Ripley, the adj
mirable and learned critic, George VII
Ham Curtis, Margaret Fuller, an over
rated woman Of clever intellectual en-
11owment, and others Of note. It was
M unitarian, humanitarian and social
Estic experiment and proved the deadest
~of failures. Mr.. Dana began his Jour-
ualfstic career in Boston with a daily
paper called The Chronicle. He next
began work under Horace Greeley with
The New York Tribune He went west
and edited, but for t~wenty-nine years
he had edited The New York Sun, CIV
ing it a very distinctive n extraor-
binary character. He stamped upon it
his eccentric and remarkable individu-
alfty, and CAV it a reputation unlike
chat Of any other American newspaper.
That he a great talents for Journal
ism is known and read Of all men.
That he was the greatest American
journalist is very doubtful. We never
read anything from his t1sat impressed
us as editorials written in the past by
Horace Greeley, Joseph Gales, John M.
DAME and perhaps Henry J. Ray
mond. We would suppose that these
editors were really his equal if not his
ssuperiOrs. Dana was a cynic and
snarled at every body and every thing.
He was whig, republican, democrat, in
urn and after a fashion, a Butterite.
and then again a republican we sup
pose. He had wide culture, had good
taste in letters, wrote entertainingly
oOiAS OAAS ~
take his scalp, was rot without a sense
of fairness, if not of consistency, and
not destitute Of geniality and generos-
ify- He was the most savage, the most
ztruculent. the most unsparing, the
most determined personal and political
enemy who perhaps ever wrote for a
newspaper or welded a wide influence.
He made The Sun newspaper very
warpish and very influential, some
times for good, but oftener for evil. He
often shifted sides and although pro-
Tossing to edit a democratic paper, he
rarely ever supported democratic ma
fiOnal candidates, and, we believe, not
Tnfreauently opposed state and city
nominees of his party. He hated Gro.
yer Cleveland with a. mortal hatred
and supported Beast Butler for presi.
dent.
THAT he made a very great impress
sion as a journalist no one will den,
not untruthful or ignorant. That h
was anything else than a model for tn,
youth of our land, and especially O.
young journalist, is perfectly plain tt
those who have candidly read his papel
o some years and are familiar will
his methods. A writer in the New Yorl
Times, a mugwump organ, in a long
article upon Mr.. Dana, published day
before his death, wrote not without ap
probation and proper understanding O
this very eminent journalist and edito
now gone to his final destiny. We cop!
the following as containing much O
truth, perhaps it is all true:
The n generation do not know
Mr.. Dana as the Old fellows knew him
When his named is mentioned toda!
the image that arises in most minds i
that Of a man who declines to take
serious view Of many matters that ar
really very serious, who uses his grea
gifts and requirements perversely, al
most h~abitually inverts the convention
al order in which principles, actions a n
events presents themselves to the com
mOner type of mind, and finds thu
whole human show vastly amusing
This is the editor of the Sun, as he ap
pears, not to his intimate friends, bu
to strangers n the public. With al
his faults they o him still. =
In it's solid qualities as a purveyo
Z. OF news We recognize, Of course, a bus
iness purpose. It's news columns, vel
filled and edited with judgment an
finish, have always made the Sun &C
ceptable to thousands Of readers wh'
disagreed with or even abhorred it's edi
forial opinions. The vagaries of the ed
itorial page however have always seem
ed to be due to the unaffected desire o
its conductor to ave fun with his fel
low man. If incidentally his fellow
man came also to enjoy the fun and t
take the Sun that he might enjoy it
Mr.. Dana was doubtless we'll pleased
But, primarily, the page has been mad
for the editors delectation rather thai
for the fairness of dividends.
Toward refOrmers Mr.. n atti
fude is that of John Randolph towar,
Bheep-he would go a mile out of hi
way to kick one. This is only a mar
Hesitation of his revolt against the com