The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-12

i II
men who. through their labors IN
many lands. have come in touch
with many Of the worlds nOtables. al
ways make interesting reading. No
doubt those who are reading a series
of sketches by NJ. de Blowitz, appear
ing serially in one periodical. or a col
lection of reminiscent articles by
George W. Smalley in another, will tes-
tify TO the truth of this statement It
( is to be hoped that both of these adj
mirable sets of articles will be brought
out in book form during the year Gu
riOusly enough. one of the best stories
which Mr.. Smalley tells is about an
other correspondent, perhaps the great
est of them all. Archibald Forbes.
The one feat which, in Mr.. Smalley's
opinion. placed Forbes at the head of
his profession came in the Russo-Turk-
ish war Of 1871. Although seven Of
the ears couriers failed TO get through
Shipka pass, Forbes did it, and after
giving the car his Information and be-
ing cCmplimented on his skill and dar-
ing, Forbes rode, without stopping for
rest, 100 miles TO Bucharest.
He arrived at o'clock in the evening.
He had been three days and nights
either in the saddle or in the Shipka
trenches. under fire. without sleep, Oft
en- without food. I was dead tired.
said Forbes. from whose lips had this
story. Not word of my dispatch
was written, and I had news for which
I knew the world was waiting-news
on which the fate of an empire and the
fortunes of half Europe depended. And
il was as much as / could do to keep
my eyes open or sit up in the chair into
which l dropped What did you do?
L told the waiter answered Forbes,
to bring me pint of dry champagne,
unopened. 1 took the cork out, put
the neck of the bottle into my mouth.
drank it with all the fizz, sat up, and
wrote the four columns you read next
morning in the Daily News. As
piece of literature. the four columns
were of a high order AS piece of
news, they were one of the greatest
beats ever known"
Mr.. Smalley is still actively connect
ell with the London Times. NJ. de Bio
WITT, according to very recent report,
has retired from his connection with
the same paper, after service extend
ing over more than twenty years. 1t
is doubtful if any other single news
paper correspondent ever welded so
much power as NJ. de Blowitz did dur
ing his most active period His rem
iniscences are the most sober fact, yet
they read like a series of the most
highly improbable romances in which
royalty and diplomatists of many ma
lions figure. When he took up his
residence in France nearly fifty years
ago, De Blowitz was a teacher of Ger
man. Afterward he invented a wool
carding machine and now and then
wrote for the French newspapers He
took a considerable part in the exciting
times of the early seventies and when
he began his work as special CORE
SpOndent for the London Times in II,
he was a good deal of a parsonage
L.
intimately acquainted with Bismarck,
Theirs. Gambetta, Beaconsheld, Pope
Leo XIII, and many others. So thor
Oughly cOnversant was he with the af-
fairs Of government that he was able to
telegraph to his paper the full text Of
the treaty of Berlin before it had been
signed. He is now over 30 years of
age and has earned the rest he has at
last decided to take. Those who know
him describe him as a remarkab bic,
shrewd man, with an enormous egotism
and absolutely no sense of humor.
Miss Ida NJ Tarbell. whose History
of the Standard Oil Company" is prob
ably attracting more attention at pres
ent than any other serial publication.
confessed the other day to have begun
some years ago a novel centered about
the oil regions and to have given it up
because she never had the courage to
finish it,
Speaking OF her present series of arti-
cles. Miss Tarbell says: I've tried to
lean neither to one side nor the other.
but merely to tell the truth. corrobOrat-
ed by court documents and pamphlets
issued at different times. This has
required thousands of miles of travel
ing and the unearthing of such PAM
phlets and documents in newspaper and
law Offices For many years 1 have
wanted to write the story of the Stan
dard Oil company and for what may
seem to some a very strange reason.
l wanted to set my own mind and con-
science right about this great business
which, in my girlhood days, seemed
like great evil which had fallen upon
the oil country. You see, l was born
and brought up in TitusviIle, the heart
of the oil country, and I grew up TO
ticed by the railroads in favor of the
trust as a great crime and TO think Of
those who worked for the Standard Oil
company or who surrendered to them
as having given up lighting on the
right side Later on in my life, came
to see another side to the matter, and
1 felt the need OF setting myself right
by studying the whole thing and writ
ing its history. l have been engaged
on the work for over Two years now and
believe that the material for the
greatest American novel lies here, but
it would require a Balzac, and 1 am not
a Balzac.'
Hobart Chatfeld-TayIOr, author of