The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-07
HARLAN p. HALL.

10 properly write the energetic and
active career of Harlan p Hall the
Nestor and Dean Of journalism and
newspaper enterprise in st. Paul, whose
unceasing efforts have covered a period
OF forty years, would be like exploiting
the history of both the city and the
state
To sum up in nut shell the many
sided character of the man, it may be
sad in brief that his principal charac-
terlstlc consists in his wonderful endur-
ance and endless and untiring capacity
Tor work, which, next to concentration,
d great French critic described as gen.
ius
OF Eight and almost fragile physique,
Mr.. Hall is the possessor of that pc
culiar power known as staying quality
TO a greater extent, almost, than is
found in one man in a million, which
fact viii be attested to by amy number
of his contemporaries. Next to his en-
ergy of character keen wit, ready re-
partee and cOnciseness and clearness as
a. writer is his almost phenomenal mem
DRY. Once a fact or doing finds Judgment
In the storage battery of H. P. Halls
bran, it is never lost sight of, and al
though years may elapse from the time
OF its assimilation, the fact, episode or
doing will surely be sprung at the op-
- perfume time and moment.
In this connection the writer recalls an
occasion when he was associated with
MI. nan III reporting a national cOnVen-
ton in Chicago some years ago. At
this time there We're present many men
who had achieved national regulations
in politics, and in writing his narrative
Of the days doings, which were master
specimens Of descriptive work, Mr. Hall
would recall that such and such a. states
man, VINO arose to make q speech or
second a nomination, had spoken on
salient point, or anent critical sltua-
ton, at convention that had occurred
perhaps ten or twenty years before. In
cidentally, it may be said that the vast
fund Of information on state and national
politics possessed by Mr. Hall is due in
. great measure to the fact that he has
been an active correspondent or news
paper worker at sixteen national con-
Veations.
Of mis- kindly, helpful life and genial
nature, all are aware, and of his re-
verses. Of which he has had many, be
1t said, to his credit, no one has ever
heard him emit a murmur, and while he
has helped make and unmake many states
men, he never aspired to political pre-
ferment, and with one exception, an
will be seen later on honors were never
thrust upon him, and in this instance
it meant the turning in the tide of q
great many political fortunes.
Mr.. Hall was born at Ravenna, Por-
tage county, Ohio Aug. q, 1885, His
father, Lyman w. Hall, was one of the
early newspaper publishers Of Ohio, and
one Of the conspicuous amusements Of
the son was to go to his fathers office
when eight or ten years of age and set
type. Later he entered the Office and
served a regular four years. apprentice
ship, which included rolling the forms
for the paper printed on q Washington
hand press. and being the village car
rier boy Of the weekly issue with the
usual New Years Address" as his COM
FnF fha do1gx D.
tween the village school, the printing Of
fee and work on his fathers farm, which
Rdjoined the village, the years passed I'M
Ill 1875, when he entered the freshman
class in the Ohio Wesleyan university,
graduating in 1861.
In the fall of 1862 Mr. Hail. having
married sought the climate of Minnesota
owing to the pulmonary affections Of
his Wife, the climate being at that time
the Mecca of those consumptively In
clined. He located at st. Paul, where
he has ever since resided. Within three
weeks after his arrival senatorial con-
test caused a new daily paper called
the Union, to be started and Mr. Hall
secured a position thereon as a reporter
at salary of $40 per week. The Press
was the opposing Republican paper, and
While the Press won T. the senatorial
fight, the publisher of the Union was
elected state printer "a position the
Press had previously heidi by the legis-
lature. This made a drawn battle and
though the papers were bitterly and per
sonally hostile the stress Of politics and
business combined forced their consoli-
dalton in the spring of 1863 Mr. Hall
thus became the news editor of the Press
(the Union being dropped) with an in
crease of 81 per week in his salary. The
entire staff, editorial and teportorial.
consisted Of three men, and while nom
mally termed news editor, besides edit
ing the telegraph, going through ex-
changes, etc, he wrote editorials, re-
ported political and other meetings, and
when as night editor he held the forms
open to secure late news from the i'm
perfect telegraph service (only one wire
reached the city,, he would go to the
press room, fold and wrap papers, and
occasionally run to the postofice with
the first mail sack on his shoulder. There
were no railroads, and the stages which
carried the mails started between and
a. m, but to him it was as important
to catch those mails as it now is for the
metropolitan papers to catch the fast
mails run at an early hour by a benev-
olent government for their benefit In
this way he scored many scoop" on
Is deSpised cotempOrary, which went to
press between and a. m, regardless Of
what that one wire was struggling to
transport
There were two morning papers in ST,
PAU, the Press Republican, and the O.