The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-19

his time are so great that he finds leisure
for little If any Of that social if, convivial
life which in ante-bellum days, was 30
characteristic of public men in Washing
ton. ConvivialiIy and high order Of pub
lie usefulness are no longer compatible"
No Champagne Before Speaking.
Before you make an after-dinner
speech do you take a glass of champagne
10 stimulate your Imagination"
by no means. While l never had any
inclination toward drinking, l am not a
teetotaler. But if l were to take glass
OF champagne before speaking I simply
couldn't speak. 1t would stupefy me-"
What do you consider the salient char
acteristics of the United States as one Of
the great powers of the world at this end
oil the century,"
s"First of all, it seems to me, the very
practical way we 90 at things. We do not
permit theories to govern us, but rather
practical considerations. When the war
came we accepted the situation. Peace has
come. and we accept the new situation.
our national independence of thought and
action seems to me another salient char
acteristic."
ITO what do you attribute the success
with which you have pursued that career
which you have mapped out for yourself
as a schoolboy?"
concentration and COnstancy."
Whatever success have met with is
due primarily to concentration and con-
stancy. l felt that l could not afford to
give up journalism for Office holding, so 1
declined in Albany TO take the nominate
for Congress, or for any office. While
continuing my newspaper work. I en-
deavored each year to make a substan-
tial addition to my equipment American
biography found stimulating as well as
instructive. In fiction Vanity Fair"
David Copperfield" and the Three Mus
keteers' delighted me. l have always
been fond of the theater, but found lit
lie time 20 go. Fortunately l have found
my chief pleasure in my work"
What is 10 be said of the contributions
of American journalism to American
craftsmanship in this half century,"
Greeley, Raymond and the elder Ben
nett were the powerful personalities in
American journalism when / was grow
ing up. People read Greeley's news
paper, for example. to find out what
Greeley thought But one interesting
development of our times has been the
practical humiliation of this personal
element in journalism TheHe is no one
newspaper that so far exceis the others
as to overshadow their influence in their
own fields. Journalism is so much broad
many personalities instead of one to pro-
dllce and maintain the newspaper. Al the
same time the contributions of journalism
to craftsmanship in the United States
have notably increased in the generation
past Law remains, of course, the school
of public men. Yet in no other country
save France have so many public men
left the editorial sanctum for the halls of
legislation. Representative Nelson Ding
ley. whose recent death was a loss to his
party and his country, never abandoned
entirely, I believe, his life work on the
Lewiston Journal, which began In 1856.
Mr.. Blaine, the greatest of Americas ed
itorial statesmen. was identified with the
Kennebec Journal, Senator Anthony with
the Providence Journal, Hon. Whitelaw
Reid and Hon. John Hay with the New
York Tribune and so on.
journalism and Public Life.
In England Junius and later John
Wilkes demonstrated the force of jour
nalism in pttblic life. Delane held no Of
flee. but preferred TO be the power be-
hind the placeholder. William Henry
Smith, the head of the great News Com
pany, was for years the leader of the
House of Commons Labouchere is a con-
spicuous example of the journalist states
man of to-day. In France the names of
Gambetta Theirs and Cavaillac naturally
suggest themselves.
while editing the Albany Express I
was introduced to Horace Greeley. II
was soon after he had gone on Jefferson
Davis bail bond and had provoked from
over the country a fire of criticism which
had drawn out his characterization OF
country editors as "those insignificant fell
lows that God in His inscrutable wisdom
permits 10 edit the country papers
A Greeley AnecdOte.
"Mr Greeley came to Albany and Gov
Fenton presented me to him, at recep-
lion in the executive mansion, as the
editor of the Express. Yes. Mr.. Gree
lev, 1 said as 1 grapsed his hand, 1 am
one of those Insignificant fellows that God
IN his inscrutable wisdom permits TO edit
the country, newspapers He laughed
heartily and we became good friends. Not
long afterward l went 20 New York on
confidential mission from Gov. Fenton, and
saw Mr.. Greeley at that historic desk of
his in the Tribune office, writing away
with his hand up under his chin as he fol-
lowed his pen with his eyes,
What was the turning point in your
career?" l asked the most successful edl-
tor-statesman of to-day.
II was taking a grave risk when, i'm 1880,
l transplanted myself from New York
state 30 Pennsylvania. In 1870 | had be
come joint and in 1877 sole editor of the
Albany Evening Journal l was at home
in New York public life, and had been
asked in state conventions time after time
to frame the resolutions embodyng the
platform of the party. l had been secre>
tary of the platform committee of the ma
tional Republican convention of 1876 and
had come to anticipate only one possible
removal from Albany, that to New York
When l accepted the edtorship of the
Philadelphia Press, the leading Republi-
can journal of a famous old Republican
commonwealth, / found myself face 10
face with life under new conditions, not
in a new state, but in a long-established
civilization. But l accepted the risk and
have not regretted it,"
In all these years, as minister TO Rus
STA, on the national stump with Blaine and
Mckinley, as platform writer and cabinet
officer what have been your words?'
Concentration and constancty"
There are half a dozen Felix Faures