The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-10
THELATE ROBERTBONNER
AS EDITOR AND CITIZEN HE MADE A
DISTINCT AND WORTHY RECORD.
His Method of Advertising Was
Unique I'm Its Day md Helped Him to
Fortune-His Ideas About Horses.

I'm a variety OF ways TO make these incl
dents of his life and estimates OF his char
acter, gathered from various sources, of
interest to many readers:
Born near Londonderry, Ireland, on April
2S, 1894 he came TO this country when M
teen wears old and landed with just one
sovereign In his pocket He made THAT
limited capital do. In all his life he never
borrowed one cent. He first visited MS
uncle. a prosperous farmer. near Hartford.
Conn, and soon entered the printing once
of the Hartford Courant as an apprentice.
His wages were SIS year, with board, lodg-
ing and washing. He learned to set type,
and soon acquired such speed that wagers
were laid and matches made for him with
other printers On one of these occasions
he set Is. 500 ems of solid type In twenty
hours and twenty-eight minutes, feat
which, for rapidity and endurance, has
probably never been beaten by hand. All
he ate during this enormous task was Two
thirds of lemon pie. He also drank two
cups Of coffee. That shows the KIND Oh
constitution he had and the kind or pluck
In 1874 he left the Courant office and went
to New York. where &c had lived ever SINCE
He secured employment on the Evening
Mirror, and this gave him his evenings 10
himself He turned them to account py
jotting down the cream of the citys news
and sending it to the Courant. His style OF
compos;tion gave satisfaction, and he soon
became the New York correspondent OF
papers in Albany, Washington and Boston.
Mr.. Bonner possessed the knack of setting
m display advertisements in attractive and
original styles. and the M Ter aanss DAYS TO
do this sort of work exclusively Tor them.
He was now making fair income IRON
al as sos abIe to buy the Merchants Ledger
when it was offered for sale.
EMPLOYED FANNY FERN.
He then determined to run 1.-The Ledger
on a literary basis. At that time fanny
Fern was at the top notch of her popularity
The young publisher wrote her letter, oner-
ing her SIS column for t. columns In 'Ihe
Ledger" She refused raised the offer
to $50 Still she declined. He bid $40, win
no result. Finally he offerd 500 a column
| and she yielded. Her first contribution 10
THE Ledger" was Fanny Ford" and 1t
| cost Mr. Bonner 81 900. His rivals laughed at
| his supposed folly. Mr.. Bonner quietly drew
out his last dollar from the bank ana spe pei :
| it all In advertising that Fanny Fern was
writing for THE Ledger" at SlOo a coIumIl;
| The success of this daring venture SURPRISED
| everybody and laid the foundation or MT.
Bonner's great fortune.
He was not disposed, however, to allow
| the success of the venture to depend on tnat
Of tbs daily
| and he sent short sentence to the puplisneI
| of the New York Tribune. with directions
to repeat it in the usual s TYP type OF the paper
The Tribune's publisher refused to open
| the columns of the paper TO such form OF
| Bennett the elder, heard of the incident,
| and he offered to accept the advertisement
| and print 1T i'm the Herald in any way that
Mr.. Bonner desired. Without hesitation MT:
| Bonner contracted for eight pages or the
| Herald. and. as the paper was then an
| eight-page publication, 1t became necessary
| to double its size for that issue. As a re-
| suit of this novel advertisement. the Led
| ger fairly leaped into popularity. And. as
| Mr.. Bonner afterward remarked he never
again found any difficulty In getting his ad,
| vertisements printed. The first chapter OF
| Fanny Ferns novel appeared on June 3
| 1856. and on that date the Ledger had a
| The success which rewarded Mr.. Bonner's
| ingenuity and energy sPJrred MIN on 70
fresh efforts and he deternlined to push the
| circulation of his paper until II numbered
| 100000. This determination was carried out
| at the expense of large sums paid for arti-
Sies novels and poems ana
| Cobb, Mrs. E. d. E. N. Southworth. who
died few days ago, and Emerson Bennett
their stories s stiii further increased the pop
ularity of the paper. Then Edward Everett
, who had been lecturing in behalf of the
| contribute a letter each week for a year in
| return for a gift of $4,000 which Mr.. Bon
ner made to the association
card that had ever been played by his cl
| any other paper. William Cullen Bryant
was the next notable author VINO was ,S en-
| Mr.. Bonner secured the services OF Henry
Ward Beecher. for whose novel NORWOOD.
Dickens Ias eonr sSSf Pawn the
only thing he ever wrote for an American
| publication, and Horace Greeley's, "Recol
lections of Busy Life soon followed.
WHAT HE PAID GREAT AUTHORS.
In speaking some years ago of the fea
lures he had introduced into TIE Ledger
| Mr.. Bonner said:
IT paid Dickens 5000 for Hunted Down.
| and for one poem gave TennysOn ar
| equal amount. Longfellow also wrote "a
poem for me. for which paid him 81 go
| and Harriet Lewis, all popular writers o
| their day, were regular contributors. and
besides. special features. such as articles h,
| noted editors, educators and statesmen
were published at frequent intervals.
! After conducting the Ledger for thirty
seven years, in which time he had seen 4
making journal. Mr.. Bonner. in November
1857, gave the paper to his three sons, VIII,
have conducted it ever since.
| Next to his fame as the publisher of tn.
marvelOusly successful family paper, Mr.
| Bonner was best known probably as a lovel
| of horsefiesh and an owner of fast horses
| His love of horses was innate, but IL Wa:
not until he had nearly reached middle ags
that he became horse-owner. At that tins
| he was suffering from overwork. and hi!
physician recommended that he try driving
advice which was cheerfully followed
Mr.. Bonner soon found that the possession
| of fleet animals was a necessity for the alb
| solute enjoyment of trip on the road, ;.nC
he began a search for roadsters which
/ could keen parp with those driven nv Com
| modore Vanderbilt and Col. John Harper
| two men who disliked nothing more thar
the dust raised by another'S trotters.
| Through the efforts of friend he pur
chased a fast team, with which he was abb,
| 10 hold his own on the road. Later in 1859
| he bought the famous pair Lantern ant
| Light. and from that time almost down Il
purchaser of thoroughbred roadsters
| Among the noteworthy horses which h,
1 owned at one time or another were Poca
| hontas. Dexter, Startle. Edward Everett
| John Taylor. Rarus. Pickard, Maud s. anC
| Sunol. The two latter, among the tastes
| trotters the world has seen, cost, re
spectiyely, $4,000 and $41. 900.
| At the time of his death Mr. Bonner ownes
| nifty or more horses, some of them kept II
his stables on Fifty-fifth street and some a
his farm in Tarrytown. Among them are
ord 2:141z; Worthier. Bright Star, Hazel
dean: Newbold. Prince ANGEL. Tony V
1 Geldings-Alfred s., record 2:Iek: Don l..
! record 2:121z; Stranger. Uncle Dave, over
Mares-Daybreak. Elfrida, record 2:l3lz
| Frill. Gem. Halcyon. Hazard. Lady Boone
| Laura F.. Mamie. Maud c.. record 2:10k
| Maud g.. record 2:0S&: Revere, Russella
0.lCr