The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-26
PAUL DANA OF THE SUN.
INTIMATE Personal SKETCH OF
HIS CAREER BY JACOB A. RIIs.

err of the Classics and Nath ematics
His Personal Appearance-Ifis Big
Round GIasses-Quick to Detect
Humbug-Loves n Fight-HOw the
Elder Dana Trained Him ms an Ed
itor, and His One Criticism of His
work-How He Edits the "Sun."
Writes Many EditOriaIs-StOry Of
the SONS Change in publications.
Life.
New York. Feb 24-The Sun when the
master MIND was gone. II is one Of the
odd conceits Of the American public that
when one of its great editors dies the
newspaper which he made great should die
with him. When a successful merchant
drops out no one expects the business he
built up and into which he put life Of
hard work and hard thought 20 collapse.
on the contrary, it is expected TO stand
as his lasting monument. And II the
mans success had in it any Of the ele-
ments of greatness; if he was an organ
izer, not merely a clever trader, 1t usual
ly does so. Mr. Dana'S name and fame
were bound up with the Sun more firmly
in this generation than any other editors
with his paper They were in a class by
| themselves, and it was natural that the
two should be thought inseparable; con-
sequently, that something must happen
when they had to part.
And something did happen. 1t was on
the day when the Old Chiefs will was
opened and read to the assembled family.
IL D1rr ID
| not only sole executor, expressly relieved
from the necessity of furnishing bonds.
but trustee for life of Mr. Dana's shares
| in the Sun. There was no reserve in
| the fathers confidence There was none
in that of his longtime colleagues in the
management of the newspaper he built
up. They offered the son the vacant
chair, and he took it upon the same terms.
Paul Dana became editor of the Sun. That
was what happened then The very won
| derment of the puzzled citizen bears evil
dence that what has happened since has
| justified their choice. And since Mr..
Danas death his son has acquired for
| himself the necessary number of shares
to give him a majority of the whole, so
| that he is beyond any conflict with his
| authority.
Paul Dana as editor, will always be the
Young Chief" while the present genera
llpli All TIE sun OlllCG GlluufGSs pul NuC
term conveys no suggestion of youth in
the sense of inexperience. The editor or
the Sun is well past 49, the father of
family, has Travelled much and has been
fully eighteen years receiving the train
ing, in his fathers Office, which of late
years enabled the elder Dana to leave the
conduct of the paper in his hands for long
seasons and during critical periods while
he sought needed recuperatlon abroad He
fE TInrs rrl - or
which he had something of a record as
an athlete. He held the first single scun
championship, was a substitute on the
varsity crew, and roWed for
three years in his class crew.
To-day, at As, he is amons
the most energetic champions of golf as a
game calling out the qualities of endur-
ance, judgment and skill in the highest
degree. Perhaps to his fondness for open
air sports are due his youthful looks as
we'll as his good health. Mr.. Dana looks
like young man of certainly not over
30. He is tall and slender, .clear-eyed and
quick of movement, with a long, nervous
stride that bespeaks the man of action.
He wears big, round glasses, and looks
through them straight at the man he is
speaking to. They are searching eyes, bur
not unkind except to cant and humbus,
or what he holds to be such. The two
the same. The editor of the Sun is bound
to have fights in plenty on his hands; he
is built that way. But loyalty to his
own beliefs Will not prevent him from be-
| ing fair to the honest convictions of 9TH
| ers, once they are made out to be that
however much they may clash with his.
From college the tradition has come
down that he liked the classics and mathe-
mates, rather an unusual combination
with afblatfcG ba r.
up. The classics are still his companions.
Any lingering prediction for mathe-
| MATES has apparently run to chess. with
which he solaces an occasional idle hour
| in the editorial office. Add a course at
the Columbia Law School, and an ac-
quaintance with music which has come to
| him largely, but not solely, through his
studies on the violin, and you have the
picture of anzall-round, well-trained man,
and that in fact Paul Dana is. He has
inherited his fathers aesthetic and artistic
| tastes, and, better than all, the strong
common sense which in the elder Dana
| formed a large part of the genius that
| made the Sun great There is no more
| valuable factor in the making of a news
paper than sense.
The observation extends 10 public life,
though there the quality is not always so
readily recognized. 1t was said of Mr.
soner in New York that he was always in
hot water, and, from the point of view of
the uninterested onlooker he was. His
| term in the board was a running fight
| from first to last. But 1t was the on
| locker who was TO blame for not being
interested. For, as a matter of fact. the
whole community was profoundly inter-
ested. or ought 10 have been. in the fight
he made Throughout it was for the prin-
ciple OF Official responsibility to the people.
that is ever foreign doctrine to Tam
many. It was fight for common sense
and official honesty against private inter-
ests and Grass ignorance.
Mr.. Dana never held any other office,
barring the militia rank of major on Gen.
Firzgeralds STAFF as commander of the
First Brigade in New York city. 1t was
not the training he coveted. or which his
father wished for him. That he obtained
in the Sun office, working under and with
the Old Chief daily. His was teaching by
example, not by precept.
MY father" said the present editor OF
the Sun recently, never gave me
word of instruction from the day he put