The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1901-08-15
WHO MAcLAY Is, ANYHOW.
One of Trio OF Reporters Who've All
Come to the Front.

Come to the Front.
New York Letter: who is Edgar
Stanton Maclay?" is a question that
is often and seldom answered these
days. Maclay has suddenly become q
figure of prominence because of the
charges that he has made in his naval
history, rejecting on the conduct of
Rear Admiral Schley during the war
with Spain.
Maclay Is son Of a clergyman and
is about 80 years old. He is under the
average height, but OF sturdy build
with broad shoulders and heavy legs
He is persistent and stubborn in char
acter and proud of a Scotch ancestry
Maclay's face is broad below the eyes
which makes his head appear small
across the forehead. This apparent
smallness is accumulated by his habit
of wearing his hair short at the Sides
and combed up and back His beard is
of the Van Dyke order and is a dull red
brown. His face is pitted and when he
smiles he shows an upper row of small
but regular teeth. His speech is slow
and appears somewhat affected, but 1t
IS pleasant to listen to. He possesses a
and dancing, but his frugal nature
keeps him from the continual pursuit OF
happiness in those directions
While at work on the first volume OF
his naval history, Maclay was a report.
er on the New York Tribune, covering
the board of education. AT that time
there were nine sons of clergymen on
The Tribune, and Maclay like all OF
them, was fond of staying up in the
morning after work was done. but as
he had life work ahead of him, he
decided he would have to practice
economy.
1t took Maclay some time to hit upon
plan which would keep him from
longing to be With his colleagues. Fin
ally he hired piano and had it III
stalled in his apartment in studio
building in Fifth avenue. Here, after
he had got through his work on the
paper, he would go, and for hours at a
time devote himself to practice. In the
course of few months he had become
fairly proficient performer
When he had become tired writing he
would turn to his piano and play until
he became wrapped in the music. On
becoming weary he would hurry to bed.
This was one of his plans to save
money.
1t was hard work for Maclay to write.
Words came slowly to him, and it was
difficult for him to handle a pen or a
pencil. He wrote a small, cramped, :.
irregular hand, the lines being so close
as to make him unpopular with copy
readers. At that time he had all his
data for his first volume. 1t was while
at Cornell that he conceived the idea
of writing a naval history having
come to the conclusion that there was
none in existence worthy the name.
When he left the university he had a
little money, and he went abroad for
data. There he made use Of what
knowledge he had of French and Ger
man and searched the libraries.
One day after Maclay had learned all
he could he found himself in Germany
to New York City on the steamer He
had three days in which he got the
steamer. How to live without eating
those three days was a question, and
how to get the steamer was another.
Somehow he got on a boat going down
the Rhine, and op that boat he found
bags of unroastsd coffee. The bags
were of canvas and his knife was
sharp enough to cut holes in canvas.
He laid in a store of green COFFEE beans
and he had not starved to death Ly the
time he reached the steamer.
Maclay always believed that writing
was a low art, and that no matter how
well man could write he could never
achieve fame unless he really had
something to say. When he got through
writing the first volume of his naval
copy reader on the Tribune, to go over
1t for him. Wardman was Harvard
man and was considered an authority
on English language and literature,
Wardman often grew tired but he kept
at the work of editing the volume, and,
when 1t appeared in print it had
smootnness to it.
In 1894 Maclay left the Tribune and
began writing naval editorials for the
New York Sun. When he got ready to
write the second volume of his history
he obtained an appointment as light
house keeper at Setauket, l.. l., and got
married. He has children. Maclay
kept plugging along until Assistant
Secretary of the Navy Allen was sent
to Porto Rico. Maclay wanted to be
his successor. He is now clerk in the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Maclay was one Of three hopefuls on
the Tribune from 1890 to 1888 Harry
du Souchet was working on play and
j. Parmly Parett was working on a
book on Women in Sport" When
Parett was not reporting or playing
tennis he was thinking about his book
The same was true of Du Souchet
when he was not telegraphing Du
Souchet became famous with his my
Friend from India" parett got his
book into print, and Maclay has come
up with rush because of his criticism
of Schlev