The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-28

Newspaper PrOfessiOn-Witty as a
PRragrapher, Original In Literary
Style, and Famous as Printer
Among Printers.
LA CROSSE, Dec. Seneca
Truesdell, one Of the Oldest newspaper
men in the Northwest, died In this city
tonight Of complication Of diseases that
resulted in dropsy, aged fifty He was
born at La Crescent, Mimi, and gained
his first newspaper experience at Preston,
Mimi. He occupied a position on the ed
itorial staff of the Pioneer Press for sew
eral years, and previous to that was on
the La Crosse Chronicle AT one time he
owned a semi-weekly literary paper In
La Crosse. He had also done newspaper
work in San Francisco, St. Louis and
other cities.
Seneca Truesdell was probably one Of
the best known printers in and about the
Twin Cities, and was not only we'll known
among the printers at the case" but he
had a wide acquaintance among the edi-
torial fraternity as we'll, having done
desk and paragraph work on many of the
started with case work on the Pioneer
Press about 1872, where he came from La
Crosse, and after several years of type-
setting he was taken into the proof room.
and from this position was advanced to
exchange editor and paragraphist. His
work in this line was Of the witty and
sarcastic order, and he was at one time
considered the most brilliant paragraph
writer in the Twin Cities. After several
years Of this work he went back to La
Crosse. and after coming to St. Paul
again he drffted back and forth from the
case to the proof and editorial rooms, and
finally took notion to go further West.
Here he met with varying success for
some time, and came back to St. Paul
after few years considerably broken
down in health. For a short time he
again took position on the Pioneer
Press, after which he went back to La
Crosse, his old home, where he died His
wife died some eight or ten years pre-
vious to his death, and from that time
on Seneca" as he was Familiarity known,
drlfted into rowing disposition and never
renamed long in any one place.
Seneca Truesdell, in his palmy days of
a quarter of century ago, was one of
the best known of Mississippi valley
printers. He was careful dresser, and
being then possessed of a splendid ply
SlquCI WAS d udHuSOu1e specimen OF Stur-
dy manhood. He was sunny tempered,
and it required something out of the or
binary to ruff1e him.
Early in the '7O's Seneca was employed
as compositor on the Burlington Hawk
eye. The management Of that paper at
the time was determined that there
should be no waste of material, and as a
consequence sorts were always scarce
That was the one white mans burden
that Seneca could not bear without
grumbling. AS a part recompense for
the time lost In 'raid1ng'' for Sorts"
Seneca conceived the idea that the Bull
Market" as the Chicago cattle prices
were then designated, would be just as
readable without as with corrections
each day, and, accordingly, that market
saw many an issue of the Hawkeye with
not figure different from the previous
day, save in the date line. There were
no perntciously active proofreaders in
those days, and the buyer and seller Of
live stock must have wondered at the
tnfrequency of changes in the Chicago
price list.
Finally there came g. climax. Seneca
took great delight in INVITING the man
who provided sorts for the Hawl1eye
newsroom One day Seneca suggested,
within the hearing Of that august in
dividual, that a few leads would be
acceptable and then Seneca was "list-
ed" He drifted on down to st. Louis,
and finally returned to Minnesota, where
he spent the closing days Of his some
what eventful career.
Truesdell was well liked by his fellow
craftsmen wherever he pitched his tent.
rrTvrI KTTTTD