The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-18

| 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. 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 1t was the only 2-cent
morning paper in New York, and used
to lay great stress in it's advertise
ments on it's circulation Of GA million
week" There was no other such circu-
lation in America then. The Sun was
then a four-page paper daily, and a
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
Dana paper lost all it's grip. Four
years later it had by no means gained
what it had lost in "a, whereas the
Sun continued to pound Cleveland,
though it was a 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
- a,,I &c
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 1t was, you will re-
member, he set up the cry Of mo force
bill, no negro dimination, 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 it borrowed $115,000
for new machinery on that mortgage
the World made so much of. Amos
Cummings told me in Washington a
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 a year, his son, $4,000 a year,
Mr.. Laffan $4,000, and Mr.. Hitchcock
SIC, ,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
forgotten, but isn't. Twenty years
ago everybody knew the reason
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 a letter from Dana
to Andy Johnson fatty begging to
be appointed collector of the port Of
New York. He was not appointed and
| T~l.,
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
drubbing, 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. Tammany was his Ideal for
many a year, but he dropped it like
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 nalefactors.
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-
| lagh WERE each in the way, past mast
ers of this sort Of work. but really their
efforts seem tame and ineffectual com-
pared with Dana's. They were --vield-
ers of the blu6Geon 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 a victim whose life blood he was
draining with relentless hand He had
another gift also in it's 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 fail