The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-10-30


Army OF the Shenandoah until honor
ably diechsrged at the close of tho
Civil War. He returned tn New York
y then. where he found things so bad
that he had decided to tramp to New
Bedford to ship on whaling vessel
Horace Greeley already WAS advising,
GO West young man." The youth,
etiit In his teens. one lay. in the old
french Hotel, at Frankfort Street anl
Park Row. got into a scrap with a
porter In the hotel. from which young
Puiisser arose with wrath in his heart
against Manhattan and everything in
II, and he started toward 81. Louis.
iWenty-two years after that hotel
porter had kicked him, Mr. Pulitzer
VA aoie TO write out check for
seSo,o0O to buy the hotel and its con-
tents. Old French's stood on pari
OF the ground now occupied by the
Fnlitzer building, which, in after
years. Mr.. Pulitzer liked to refer TO rs
my monument"
ne arrived In st. Louis in February
DIV penniless. AMI first got lob nj
'eherson Barracks. where he took
care of sixteen army mules. For two
Years to come he was fireman IN 4,
river boat running between st, Louis
ana New Orleans. When he wos NOT
WORKING he was haunting tho reading
ana reference rooms of the St Louis
Public Library
Gets Job aa Reporter.
'als soie amusement was chess ono
night, In German saloon. he PLAYED
Sness against DIR. Emil Preetorlus. one
vi the editors of the Westliche Post.
a German newspaper of ST. Louis. and
oeat the editor. In 1865 he got n ioh
on the Westliche Post as reporter
Just ten years from the time he p.t
TINS S1o-a-wcek job he was able to
guy the ST. Louis Dispatch and unite
the paper with the Evening Post-Dis-
patch, which he owned until his death
to-day. During the days Intervening
Between the chess game and his iob
of reporter he had got a clerkship in
the German Immigration Society,s Of
nee: later was appointed notary pub
lie, and stin later was admitted 40 ~,
bar
AS reporter on the German paper he
was the sole reportorial STAFF. HIS con
temporaries on other ST. Louis papers
when he started in numbered among
others Henry NJ. Stanley. William Fayel
and Philip Ferguson. These men and
others are on record as saying that
the lanky, restless reporter for the
little German paper was "tho most
eNasperatingly inquisltive and annoy
ing cub we ever ran across"
The first public fight Of note which
the young newspaper reporter took ND
was pen campaign against corrup-
ton in the ST. Louis County Court. He
won his fight The court was abolished
and reorganized under form of gov
ernment which still prevails there. MI.
Pulitzer In November. 1869. entered
st. Louis politics, and was elected a
snember OF the lower house of Mis-
souri, General Assembly. When he went
to the State capital he took up his
work there not only as a legislator, but
as special correspondent of the Post
as we'll Some Of tile things he wrote
about while legislator anGered ST.
Louis contractor, which few days
later led to tongue night between the
contractor and reporter in the corridor
of the Schmidt Hotel
After the contractor had dressed
Rim down" Pulitzer went to his lodg-
fngs pocketed q revolver, and returned
10 the hotel to demand an apology
The contractor struck at Pulitzer and
Pulitzer shot the man in the leg lie
was indicted for felonious assault
Dleaded guilty, and was punished with
fine of 800.
Mr.. Pulitzer had oecome managing
editor OF the Westliche Post In 1871,
or when the paper broke with Grant
The Post. which now was some what OF
local power, threw It's sympa th!es
with the Liberal Republican movement
n small inheritance. added TO his saw
inSs. helped him az this time TO be-
come part owner of the paper.
Supports Greeley.
Out of the Liberal Republican move
ment grew campaign that resulted
On the convention at Cincinnati in the
spring of 1872, and the nomination OF
!. Horace Greeley for President. Pulitzer
Is credited with the strategy which
forced Carl Schurz into the chairman
ship. The newspaper man had become
so much a, political power that the con
vention came to .Se popularity known as
. the "Biil and Joe Convention" after
its two leaders, Joseph Pulitzer and
William Grosvenor, at that time editor
of the Missouri Democrat
Mr.. Pulitzer stumped the Middle West
for Greeley during the campaign and
made more than seventy speeches, most
of them in German. Four years later.
when Carl Schurz and the Republicans
once more were at peace, Mr.. Pulit-
zer's campaign speeches were remem-
bered, and he was chosen by the
Democratic party as Schurz's opponent
in debate on the stump. During those
four years Mr.. Pulitzer had turned
away from liberal republicanism. and
now was Democrat.
Political beliefs made it mpossibls
for Mr.. Pulitzer and Carl Schurz. who
was interested in the Post. to continue
their newspaper relations. In 1875
Pulitzer sold his interests in the Post
10 Schurs and DIR. Preetorius. The fol-
lowing year Charles a. Dana selected
MIR. Pulitzer TO go to Washington to
report for the Sun the proceedings
OF the Electoral Commission. which had
to do with deciding the uproar over the
Tiiden Hayes presidential election.
While working on this assignment In
Washington Mr.. Pulitzer married Miss
Katherine Davis, relative OF Jefferson
Davis. After the marriage, Mr.. Pulit-
ger. with his bride. went to Europe as
special correspondent of the Sun
Upon his return TO this country in the
winter of 1873 Mr.. Pulitzer went bach
to ST. Louis. The following year h,