The Republican journal., 1907-04-11
z,u.pIES, p1ISpupv Editor and
MAINE NEWSPAPER MEN.

Ol6 uOt S6ell III Iut ueSll ny tuc W IlCC
for more than thirty years. 1t was thai
of Edwin B. Haskell, who died at his
home in Newton, Mass, March %, 1907
aged 70 years. He was one of the many
able and successful journalists born AND
bred in Maine. Livermore was his birth
place, and there he received his early
education, later fitting for college at
Kents Hill Seminary. But his cousin,
Zenas 7. Haines, then a reporter on the
Portland Advertiser, induced Mr.. Has,
kell to come to that city, where he
learned the printers trade in the office
of The Advertiser After year in
Portland he went to New Orleans and
was employed there for a time as a
compOsitor and then came to Boston,
where he was soon promoted from "the
case, serving first as a reporter and
later as an editorial writer on the BoS-
ton Herald. The Herald then was a
comparatively small and insignificant
sheet, making speciality of police
court reports and the affairs of the un-
der world, a reputation which chung to
it long after it became clean and able
newspaper. In 1865 the proprietor, Mr..
E. c. Bailey, having social and political
aspirations, sold the Herald to five of
his employees on terms which enabled
them TO pay for the property out of the
earnings. They were Royal NJ. Pulsifer,
of the business department, who had
then an interest i'll the paper; E. B.
Haskell, the editor; George G. Bailey
brother OF E. c., who was foreman Of
she composing room, and two brothers,
Charles H and Justin Andrews. Mr.
Bailey sold his interest in 1871 to his
associates and in 1872 Justin Andrews
retired, having a competency. In Octo-
ber 1883, Mr.. Pulsifer was found dead
IN his home in Auburndale, where he
had gone, as he said in note to his
wife, who with others of the family,
was il the city, ito get a good nights
rest" There has always been mystery
as to the cause of his death. We believe
that Charles H. Andrews died later, so
that Mr.. Haskell was the only survivor
of the five original proprietors who re-
tanned an interest in the Herald until
his death.
In write-up of the Boston press
from the inside, published in the Gin
cinnati Commercial in, 1873, it was said
of the Herald: 'Mr Haskell, the chief
editorial writer, is one of the most CON-
panionabe of men; full of wit and
humor and practical common sense.
He is the author of the Men and
Things which appear in the Herald
and may be said to have created new
feature in Boston journalism. His few
daily paragraphs under this caption at
tract more attention and perhaps cause
more amusement than all the labored
editorials of the morning press"
To go back little it should be said
that the Herald, under it's new manage
ment, at once began its upward career.
1t had to overcome the prejudice
aroused in its early days when it was
not deemed fit to be taken into respect
able homes, and it had formidable COM
petItors in the Boston Post, then the
leading Democratic newspaper of New
England, and the Boston Journal, a
favoTite home paper. Later it had to
contend with a new conner, the Boston
Globe. but that was after Mr.. Haskell
had practically relinQuished control to
Nj. John H. Holiness also Maine man.
Under Mr.. Haskell and Mr. Holmes the
editorial department was developed un-
til the Herald had the strongest edito-
gial page in New England, and the news
departments kept pace. The Herald
became great newspaper under Mr..
Haskell, continued to be great news
paper under Mr.. Holmes, and is great
newspaper today under the manage
ment of w. E. Haskell, a son of E. B.
Haskell.
The senior Haskell was most genial
man, unostentatious, loyal to his friends,
generous and benevolent. When pros
perity came to him he travelled extern
sively and for many winters came to
Washington, accompanied by Mr. Pull
sifer, to get in touch with men and
things at the national capital. He was
often found in the reporters gallery of
the Senate or House and in converse
zion with the writer on one occasion he
spoke of Miss Louise c. Knight, ma
tive of Calais and then a member of
the Herald's editorial staff, as ''the best
man on the paper" The Washington
correspondent of the Herald at that
time was George w. Adams, one of the
ablest, best known and most beloved
men that has ever served in that Ca
pacity.
1t is something of a coincidence that
the writer should have met Zenas T.
Haines, who started Mr.. Haskell on
his newspaper career, in the Office of
the New Orleans Crescent in the late
SOS. He was then the news editor of
the Crescent and had previously served