The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-18

I Of which nobody knows very much
save those who have right to. Who
ever owns the paper, there isn't any
! question that Mr. Dana controlled it,
and has for many years, without ques-
| ton of his authority. 1t 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 it's advertise
| ments on its circulation Of "a million
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
week" Especially in the South, where
| the name of Butler was poison, the
years later 1t had by no means gained
what 1t 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 1882, by
which time the paper had broken out
Of it's 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.
I happen to know to 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 it was, you will re-
member, he set up the cry Of mo force
bill. no negro. elimination" and then,
after the election, with characteristic
/ naivete, claimed the credit for Demo-
cratic success.
It is an open secret in Park Row that
the Sun has made no great fortune
since ten years ago 1t borrowed $4,000
for new machinery on that mortgage
the w OrlQ IndQ6 50 Ilucn Ol. AlllOS
Cummings told me in Washington
few years back Che owns a 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 Geputed) 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 year, his son $4,000 a year,
Mr.. Laffan $25000, and Mr.. Hitchcock
| $4,000. This accounts for a 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 a
big man. The way he hunted Gen.
Grant into the hearafter be-
yond the grave ought to be
| fcrSotten, 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. I 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 a Democrat, though he never
| supported a Democratic candidate ex-
| cept Ttlden 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
| drubbing, too, but Cleveland and God
kin, Dana seemed really to hate with a
! 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. Tammany was his ideal for
many a year, but he dropped it like
| hot potato in the autumn of &c. 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 ne 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 blu6Aseon 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 g. 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 a 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
|