Evening journal., 1913-11-03
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
When Dana Failed to Read
His Paper
by Holland.


The late John swinton was for
some ten years the confidential asso-
ciate Of Charles A. Dana in the edi-
torial department Of the New York
Sun. A warm personal friendship
had long been established between
Mr.. Dana and Mr. Swinton, and that
cordial relation was intensified by the
respect and admiration each OF the
two men had for the others intellec-
tual gifts.
Mr.. Dana took no stock in John
Swinton's advocacy of kind Of So
cialistic labor reform, but he knew
that Mr.. Swinton, whatever his per-
sonal views were upon special qpes-
tions, would never permit them to in
huence his judgment respecting the
policy of Mr.. Dana. In the afternoon.
about half an hour before Mr.. Dana
quilted the office, Mr.. Swinton would
come in, put on his skullcap.and then
he and Mr.. Dana would stand side by
side, each with a foot resting upon
the window sill, and look out over the
City Hall Park while they chatted or
while they twitted one another in
/ good nature or while they discussed
more seriously some phases OF edi-
torial management
Mr.. Swinton could have written a
most entertaining and instructive
! book containing anecdotal reminisz
cences Of Mr.. Dana as an editor and
as a man. He certainly was fond Of
telling stories Of that kind to his
friends and he told me many.
One evening Mr.. Swinton was speak
ing to me about a report Of duel
which had taken place in France and
Of which a meagre account had been
cabled the night before to the Amer
lean newspapers. He said:
"Mr. Dana was annoyed that the
report of that duel was so brief. II
was his opinion that everybody liked
to read an account OF duel and the
more tragic or dramatic the greater
the public interest in IL.
81 remember one OCCASION" said
Mr.. Swinton. "when I was able to
poke a great deal Of fun at Mr.. Dana.
zone afternoon shortly after ] came
in for my nights work--it was in the
summer of 1SS1-Mr. Dana said to me,
Uncle John. here is an extremely we'll
told story OF a very romantic duel
which took place on the borders OF
the battlefield Of Bull Run two or
three days ago. This Is a clipping
containing that report which the ex-
change editor cut from Chicago
newspaper. ! would have given any
reasonable price If we could have had
that report
"I said in reply 10 NJ Dana. I
wish you would walk over 70 the
files for I want to show YOU some
thing He went rather reluctautly-
as though he suspected that 7 wan e1
to change the subject. 7 turned back
the hles Of the Sun 10 the day on
which the report OF the duel appeared
in the Chicago newspaper
"I said to Mr.. Dana You don't
read your own newspaper. Here is
! that identical report published in the
/ FIRST column and q half OF yorr news
PAPER and you didn't know it was
there
"Mr. Dana whistled In his char
acteristic peculiar manner when he
was contemplating. Then he asked
me n I knew how II happened.
"I told him that I did I said that
his Washington correspondent had
heard Of the duel and decided to go
immediatelv to Manassas Junction
/ ana ktl uttdHtN ItloiN vi IL IL
was at the time Garfield lay suffer-
ing from his mortal wound. The cor
respondent did not want 10 leave
Washington uncovered. He there
fore made arrangements with the
Washington correspondent Of a Chi
cago newspaper to take care Of the
New York Sun that day in return
for which our correspondent prom
ised TO give the correspondent of the
Chicago newspaper a copy of HIS ac-
count of the DUEL
"Mr Dana peered at me for a min
ute with very comical glance. There
was no further comment. He knew
that 7 had cought him In a failure
which he rarely made. and that was
failure to look over the Sun each
morning"
Copyright. 1918. by e. J Edwards,
All rights reserved.)