The Washington herald., 1914-11-16
Father Of Rural Delivery Is Dead
AS VAR .4 CORRESPONDENT @ HE scooPED THE WORLD
Served Under Emperor Maximilian
Harry c. Clarke, Whose News
paper Work Made Him
Famous in Two Continents,
Dies at Home Here.

Harry Conquest Clarke, father Of the
Rural Free Delivery System" and whose
newspaper work fifty years ago made
him famous on two continents, died yes
terday morning at his home, 1T52 N street
| northwest. At the age of 70 years he sue
cumbed to a complication of diseases,
brought on in large part by two prior at
| tacks Of pneumonia
Mr.. Clarke's death had been expected
almost hourly for several days. Mrs.
! Clarke was with him at the last His
nephew, Arthur Conquest Clarke, OF New
York, and Mrs. Clarke, reached WASH
| ington yesterday afternoon.
| Expert stenographer in the House OF
Commons at the age of fifteen, private
secretary TO the Emperor Macmillan
during the siege Of Queretara and when
the last stand OF the sore beset monarch
was betrayed by his own general in 1857;
secretary to Gov. W. p. kellogg when
the latter, as carpet bag governor Of
Louisiana, was the storm center OF riots
and bloodshed in Louisiana; secretary OF
the commission which investigated the
Freedmen's bureau OF the South, Mr..
Clarke was in all these the newspaper
man first. A famous contemporary re-
marked OF him editorially, that he could
put more news into a four-line para
graph than the best paragrapher in New
York"
"Scooped" the World.
His Mexican dispatches, to the New
! York Herald, were one long series of
world scoops" and gave readers their
first accurate insight into conditions and
events leading up to and Immediately fol-
lowing the downfall Of the last EN-
peror. His work almost cost him his life,
only his English citizenship and a fast
horse saving him from death beside his
chief at the hands of Gen. Blanquet's
| firing squad. Gen. Banquet is now an
exile with his last chief. VictOriana
Huerta- Mexico is again in the throes
OF a bloody revolution, and again this
government is quietly siding with the
! revolutionary faction Of the so-called
constitutionalist forces. Conquest Clarke
will live to see peace and order in
| the country he first visited and wrote
about forty-eight years ago.
Born in 1859. the son of J. Slatterie
Clarke, J. p, founder and proprietor of
the Peterborough EnglanD Advertiser,
Mr.. Clarke, shortly after his marriage,
came to this country and procured en-
ployment on the New York Herald. His
knowledge OF foreign affairs. his linguistic
ability, and his facile style, won him al
most immediate recognition from James
Gordon Bennett, then in active command
Of the Herald. Clarke was given con-
troll OF the foreign department OF the
paper.
Beat sherman's Time.
When President johnson sent Gen.
Sherman to Mexico to treat seml-officially
with Benito JuareZ, then in command
OF the revolutionary forces. Clarke was
sent along. His connection with the New
York Herald was kept secret: officially.
he was secretary to one OF the party. En-
voyage, Gen. Sherman, whose aversion TO
newspaper men was notorious, learned
OF Clarke's dual office and put him ashore
at Havana Taking ship from there.
Clark reached Vera Cruz before Sher-
man and his party. Sherman never was