The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-10-19
The Dead Editor Of
The New York Sun
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
Charles n. Dana, eighty years old,
when death cut short his activities. was
the chief of American working newspa-
per men; the most prominent figure in
American journalism; the pacemaker of
the American press To the last moment
of his life his working power remained
unimpaired and he retained his leader
ship unchallenged. Even now, when he
has passed away from his foremost
place, who is there to fill it? He was
the last of the great editorial personal
ties, the men like Greeley and Ray
mond, and Bowles. men always greater
than the great newspapers that they
made to be their instruments of express
sion. There are, doubtless, today in
American journalism men as able and as
forceful as any of their predecessors,
but the journalistic conditions that made
these overshadowng editorial individ-
ualities possible have passed away.
o
Mr.. Dana's extraordinarily long career
as an active, working newspaper man
made him connecting link between two
schools of Journalism For fifty years,
from 1917 to 1891 he worked continuously,
except for an interval of six years from
1862 to 1868. on two New York newspa-
pers, the Tribune and the Sun. He
brought to the Sun the old traditions
lie made it. 1t was and is he. He was
its editor in every sense of the word.
The Suns prosperity, its achievements,
its position, its politics, are expressions
of Mr.. Dana's personality. His individ-
uality has been so stamped on that pow
erful newspaper that it will long retain
the imprint. And so long as 1t does we
can hardly say, with full truth, Dana is
dead.
As a writer Mr. Dana showed himself
and the possessor of a most piquant, easy
and lucid style. He was an eXtraordin-
ary linguist. His personal tastes showed
the fine quality of his mind. Poetry,
languages, porecains, paintings, bronzes,
all of them the most perfect and precious
of their kind, were the delight and occu-
patton of his leisure hours. He was an
American of the Americans, a firm be-
lleYer IN his country's greatness, its mis-
sion, and its right to be heard in fur
therance of that mission in the councils
of the nations. He spoke from his heart
and for his land when at the great Cuban
meeting at Cooper Union last Novem-
Der he said: For my part | can say
that. wherever liberty is sought for,
there is my country, and wherever a
hand is raised or blow struck to secure
the freedom of a people, there is my
heart and all the aid that ! can give
shall be rendered as long as / live" AS
assistant secretary of war he rendered
his country inestimable service during it's
darkest days from 'G2 to '65. He was a
many-sided man and from whatever side
men viewed him they saw leader
o
We are painfully conscious of the in
adequacy of this hurried tribute to the
memory of the head of our guild. But in
the thick of the fight against time that
the army of working newspaper men
must wage every night, there can be no
long halt even to do honor to the chief
dead on the field stricken down at his
post in the van. There can be but a
lifting of caps, q dropping of colors as
the news Dana is dead flies from rank
to rank, and then, Forward! Double
time. March"