The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-24

and incident II IS always DaSed on
documents is to say, in these
particulars the author can always jus
tify 1t. if not actually prove it, by facts
that she has herself gathered from real
life
/ wonder if the present war will be
as much the making OF young news
paper men as the civil war was? For
this country, at least, the civil war was
really the creation of the special cor
respondent. Many of the men who
wrote from the front came TO be as well
known by name as the leading gene
rails, and had just as lively partisans
And the prestige thus gained lasted
some of them many year to come,
their admirers continuing TO read
eagerly and confidingly whatever ap-
peared over their names Mr.. George
w Smalley. in his Notes on Journal
ism" in the last number of Harper's
Monthly, brings out the fact that of all
the men employed in journalism the
special correspondent has the best op-
portunity to exercise his individuality.
Il was TO the civil war that Mr.. Small
ley owed the opportunity to first eXer-
else his own Individuality in this way.
At the beginning of the war he. a man
p or IS years cid, was in practice as q
lawyer at the Boston bar. He went to
the front as the representative of the
New York Tribune and almost imme-
diately distinguished himself by his
pluck and energy in gathering and
transmitting news and his skill in eX-
pressing 1t. one of his notable feats
was in reporting the battle Of Ante
tam. At the close of the battle he rode
80 miles in ali possible haste to secure
e train to New York. and then, as he
Travelled, wrote an account and de-
scription OF the battle that in all the
literature of war correspondence can
scarcely be bettered. In 1866 he went,
on a days notice, to Europe, to report
the war that had broken out between
Austria and Prussia. Then followed the
80 years Of correspondence as the rep
resentStive of the Tribune in London
The editor under whom Mr.. Smalley
served during The large part of his
term of service as London correspond
ent of the Tribune was himself largely
T. ade IS a journalist by the civil war.
Twenty three or tWeuty-four years Of
age when the war began, Mr.. Whitelaw
Reid had had prior To that little news
paper experience, beyond the editing
OF d country weekly for a brief term.
He went into the Held as the represent
alive of the Cincinnati Gazette. and in
4 little while Agate" the name with
which his correspondence was signed,
had come to be as well known as that
OF any newspaper writer in the cOun-
Try. 1t gained further authority after
The war. when Nj. Reid used il as the
signature TO a long and exceptionally
able series OF Washington letters. The
special CORRESPONDENT at Wasbin gton.
by me way, is not permitted the same
freedom il making q personal name Tor
himself now that he had in those days.
The greater use of the telegraph has
wrought advantage. 1t was from the
writing OF Washington correspondence
that Mr.. Reid assembled to the writing
OF editorials 1Or the Tribune under
Horace Greeley, and SO. hnaliy, 10 The
eGitOrshIp and principal ownership Of
the paper II has often been said that
his promotion TO the Tribune was due
in part TO The influence OF Secretary
Chase: but that 1 should say was
doubtful, for Reid mus by this time
have been perfectly wei known 10
every newspaper editor in the country
ia his professional merits.
y rather pretty story used to be told
Of Reid at the Ohio college where he
was educated. II is that, when he was
q student there. he was devoted TO
reading the Weekly Tribune" Horace
Greeley's Tribune" then at the height
OF its unique popularity and influence
and thar he used to go about with q
copy OF Il protruding from his jacket
pocket. ana ingeniously inform his Eel
lCW students that some day they would
see him the editor OF that paper.