The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-01-07
THE NEW YORK SUN.

y
interest, as two leading members of the
Sun staff are Maine men, and one spent
his boyhood in this city. Edward Payson
Mitchell, the editor of the Sun, was born
in Bath and began newspaper work in
his native city. From there he went to
the Lewiston Journal, and then to New
York, where he began work on the Sum-
His marked ability was soon recognized
by Dana, and his promotion was rapid.
He has long been an editorial writer, has
represented TIE Sun in Europe, and is now
the editor in-chief Will Irwin says of
hirn in The American Magazine:
Editor-in-chief and moulder of policies
is Edward P Mitchell, whom Dana found
writing distinguished editorials for little
newspapers in Maine and imported to be
the backbone of the editorial page. Ex-
perienced newspaper men everywhere
dazzle the outsider by the breadth of
their knowledge on human activities.
With most of them this knowledge is
pretty superficial; with Mitchell, it is
accurate and profound. He writes like
a technician on twenty professions and
trades, and he writes always with dis
tinction He is the author of several
short stories which live in American an
thologies: after his early burst of fiction
he turned his art into his daily essays on
world affairs.
The magazine article is confined to the
office force and makes no mention of
Mayo W. Hazeltine, whose writings have
materially contributed to the standing
of the Sun as literary and well-informed
journal. In write-up of the Sun pub
Iished in 1889 was this mention of Mr..
Hazeltine:
Mr. Mayo w. Hazeltine is a scholar.
His book reviews in the Sunday Sun are
widely recognized as evidences of this
and his unsigned editorial articles upon
subjects of history or European politics
are such as hardly another newspaper
writer in the country could put on paper
on short notice without especial research.
MI Hazeltine is a tall, striking figure
and studiously precise and elegant in
dress, manners and chirography. He
was graduated from Harvard College
and afterwards studied at Oxford.
Although not born here, Mr.. Hazeltine
is a member of the we'll known family
of that name and his boyhood was spent
mere Before joining the staff of the
Sun he was engaged in journalism in
California For some years after his
.eturn east his home was in Asbury
Park, N. ]. He then took up his resi-
dence in Washington, D. c., to be in
touch with national affairs. Of the
business manager of the Sun, w. M.
Laffan, Mr. Irwin says:
For seven years Laffan, the publisher,
has stood in Dana's place. From the
time he came on as art critic he was the
best of friends with ''the old man" as
the Sun will know Dana until his genera
ton is dead. Their lunches in the office,
alone with the office cat, were an institu-
ton in the old days. Latfan served his
time in many capacities. He was bust
ness manager when he took over the pub
LEGATION of the paper. The world knows
him best, perhaps, for these little sar-
castle editorials which stick like burrs
under the collars of the Suns enemies.
One traces him, too, in the fighting ca
pacity of the Sun S editorial page, which
makes other newspapers dread to get in
10 controversy with tire Sun as grey
hounds, boodhounds, retrievers and
spaniels avoid trouble with bull terrier.
He is a pugnacious Irishman, whose
words carry darts when he speaks, a
lover of all the arts and a collector in
one.
In the early seventies Mr.. Laffan was
Che editor Of a Saturday newspaper in
Baltimore. There We're no Sunday news
papers in that city then; public senti-
ment was against them. There were
three or four weeklies which appeared
Saturday afternoon, and while the name
of the one with which Laffan was con-
nected is not recalled it is easily remem-
bered that it was the brightest and
speciest of them all and that it's editor
was a Jolly good fellow. He started in life
with pair Of blue eyes, but through an
accident was deprived of the sight of one
and it was necessary to remove it, and
for time he went about with a bandage
on his head. He used to say that when
he had an artificial eye put in he would
have black one to mystify people. The
Saturday afternoon newspapers went out
when the Sunday newspapers came into
the field and Laffan went to New York
to seek his fortune, and found it.
Charles A. Dana was without question
the greatest editor this country has pro-
.iuced, and the paper he conducted has
long stood for all that is best in journal
ism. Its political and other vagaries have
been forgiven and forgotten because of
its general excellence-itsc lean-cut Eng
fish. its exact knowledge, its high liter
airy standard and its high sense of honor.
The country over it is the oracle Of
newspaper men, !" says Mr.. Irwin. While
they may deplore some of its tendencies,
'.in it's writing and handling of news it is
Sir Oracle" One feature of the Sun has
been its unvarying custom to credit every
item, however brief, to the newspaper
from which it was taken. This will ap-
peal to those who have perhaps spent
weeks in collecting material for an article
and then had it appropriated by another
newspaper and go the rounds credited te
the paper which appropriated it. Another
distinctive feature is that the news de-