The Saint Paul globe., 1898-05-08


Gently CIassed Among Authors.
Joseph B. Glider, editor of The Critic,
New York, contributes to his own
columns a sketch of a well-known New
York journalist, from which these eX-
cepts are taken:
The editor-in-chief of The Evening
Post, Edwin Lawrence Godkin, is the
son of the Rev. James Godkin, the au-
thor of several works on the Irish
church and State-"Ireland and her
Churches" The Land War in Ireland"
(Macmillan & Co, 1870, etc. The clear
and cogent literary style of which Mr..
Godkin is an acknowledged master is
a direct inheritance from his father,
whose fastidiousness in the use of Eng
lish was at least as great; a feeling
shared by sister, Miss Georgina Cod
kin, long resident in Italy, and well
known as the biographer of Victor EN-
manuel, and as an occasional contrib
utor TO The Critic and other periodicals.
The publication of the History of
Hungary" Ga very oldfaShioned little
book now, somewhat profusely illus
trated with primitive woodcuts) and a
letter to the London Daily News on the
Greek question, induced the editor of
that journal to offer Mr.. Godkin-a
very young man for such serVice-the
position of correspondent on the Da-
nube, on the outbreak of hostirties be-
tween Turkey and Russia, in 1858.
Three years of activity and excitement
followed the acceptance of this offer;
and to this day Mr.. Godkin recalls
Vividly the scenes and Incidents of his
experience as a pioneer war corre-
spondent in the southeast of
Europe. AS he takes his ease
at a particularly comfortable
CRATE, in an evening when one literary
task has been completed and another
not yet taken up, he sometimes sum-
mons up remembrance of things asso-
ciated with that remote, mid-century
period, when the rough-and-tumble life
in the saddle was as congenial as it
might be unattractive now.
One of tis episodes was a forty-hours'
ride across country, without quitting
the saddle, to reach Calafat, strategic
point, before it was invested by the
enemy. Another was the shock of find
ing his tent-mate, after few hours
separation, dead of cholera. Yet an
other, the lying i'll with fever, in a
hospital near ConStantinople and listen
ing to the hymns Of the English SOL
diers' children. A memorable winter
was passed in Bucharest, amid a brill
liant fascinating, unrestrained society.
With these youthful memories craven
in his mind, 1t would be strange if
the East, with its multifarious prob
lens, were not a subject of peculiar in
terest to the veteran journalist. Only
year ago he planned a journey to
Montenegro and Bucharest to refresh
old recollectionS; but it miscarried after
he and Mrs. Godl1in reached Venice.
Returning after the Crimean war to
his home in Dublin, rather out of
health, he received ere long another
offer from the same journal, to travel
through our Southern states in it's be-
half. The journey was made on horse
back, and proved a lonely enterprise.
To it was due. perhaps, the habit of
long communion with himself in the
saddle, which continued until quite re-
Gently; long Journeys through New
England of several weeks Duration
were one Of his summer pastimes; and
he was one of the earliest riders in
Central park. Just here may be inter
polated the fact that he was admitted
to the New York bar (of which his
son is now member while studying
in the office Of the late David Dudley
Field
Three years later, having married, he
spent two years travelling abroad, liv-
ing in Paris for two winters, and being
somewhat out of health for the greater
part Of the time In 1865 he founded
The Nation and for twenty-seven years
remained at his post in this country,
without once leaving it.
BY the death of Mr.. Charles A. Dana,
O man of essentially different charac-
ter and aims, he has become the dean
of the journalistic corps in this city,
outranking the editors of all the other
leading papers.
The Nation promptly became the
most authoritative political review in
the country, and retains it's leadership
to this day. Since 1881, when the con-
troll of The Evening Post was acquired
by the owners of The Nation, the for
mer journal has been, as it were, a
daily edition of the latter, instead of
the latter becoming, as is usually the
case, weekly edition of the daily
The task of conducting journal pub
lished six times a week, even with the
aid of so able and efficient a staff as
Mr.. Godllin gathered about him, neces-
states the observance of more or less
infleXible office hours. Henceforth it
was no longer possible for the editor to
live at Cambridge, Mass, as he had
done for seven years, while conducting
a paper in New York. When he came
here to live permanently, Mr.. Godkn,
who had formerly resided in the upper
part of the city, choose for his home,
eight years ago, with characteristic dis
regard of a popular tendency in the
opposite direction, a house in West
the old-time residents who still cling
to the neighborhood of lower Fifth ave-
nue. -as the court end" of the town.
Taking a four-story English-b base
ment house, he partly remodelled it,
as to its interior, with an eye to cul-
tured cosiness, rather than display A
short stairway, screened from the front
door, leads to the second story, where
the counterpart of a spacious drawing
room in front is found in commodious
library at the back, with row upon
row of books rising, on three sides, to
the high ceiling, but leaving the west
wall free for a fireplace and mantel,
and engraVings of famous statesmen
and writer's, living and dead with some
of whom the occupant of the room has
enjoyed, or still enjoys, the privilege
of a stimulating personal intercourse
Two large windows, with a southern
exposure, admit an abundance of light
with comparatively little noise
1t would be hard to find a pleasanter
workshop in the town, or one better
stored with books worth reading: and
the workers memory holds the location
of almost every volume. Here, when
his evening is free and no special OBJ
Ject calls for the reading of new
works, the chances are ten to one that
you will find volume of Burke open
in Mr.. Godkin's hand-an author to
whom he has more frequent recourse
for refreShment, perhaps, than to any
other. Tennyson Is his favorite among
the modern poets; ST. Beuve among
the critics, and ST. Gregory of Tours
has amused and interested him for
years. Biography history and political
economy he reads without ceasing, but
as a novel reader he Is failure, a
modern novel rarely holding him-a
fact which he regrets