The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-04

nost influential conservative newspapers
in England. She is a woman of strong
convictions and personality who insists
upon shaping the policies of her paper,
and during the past two years she has
played more important Part in the af-
fairs of the nation than is generally
knCwn-even here.
Lazy Bathurst and her paper are OF
especial interest to American readers be-
cause Dame Rumor has constantly of late
months sold the Morning Post to William
Waldorf Astor, already the owner of two
London newspapers, the Pail Mall and the
Observer.
Some idea of Lady Bathurst's enormous
power can be CLEANED from the fact that
she was the foremost figure in the recent
revolt within the conservative party that
drove Arthur James Balfour from the
leadership of the party and hoisted Bonar
Law into his place. 1t vas the Morning
Fost that led the fight against the
nephew of the late Lord Salisbury, and
the Morning Post is wholly and COM
pietely Lady Bathurst. She is not con-
tent with holding the purse strings and
hiring trained journalists to do the actual
work, but she sits in the editorial chair
, ard runs every important detail of the
great paper.
If one were asked to describe the
Morning Post and its position in a
II
better than to call ii the most aristo-
cratic newspaper in London. Winston
Churchill now ruler of the Kings Navee,
but who, as young man. represented
the Morning Post as correspondent in
the Boer war, once said that he read
Lady Bathursts newspaper every morn
ing to make him feel respectable. Per-
haps the reader will be able TO picture
the type of paper from this. 1t is. nat
urally, far from dull. With the exception
of the society column, in which the an
nouncements paid for at the rate of
$3.50 a line. Lady Bathursth rgidly ex-
cludes all society gossip from its broad
pages. 1t is said that those who We're
most interested, in the days when the fate
of the London Times was at stake, first
became aware that it had been sold to
Lord Northciffe of the Daily Mall and
not to one of the several other promi-
nent newspaper owners, when they read
an article in It's columns describing the
dresses at a prominent society function.
AS long as Lady Bathurst is proprietress,
editress and anageress of the Morning
Post all rolled into one. its readers can
rest assured that their eyes will never be
offended by any such frivolity.
| The Morning Post became a power
in the handse of the Lord Glenesk. father
OF Lady Bathurst AS a young man he
served as Paris correspondent of the
He was undoubtedly one of the greatest
of English newspaper men and was on
intimate terms of friendship with most
of the great men and women of his times
He was one of the few men in the confi-
dence of the late Queen Victoria, who
frequently gave him early and exclusive
intimation of the trend of political events.
Later King Edward was one of his warm
est admirers and frequently visited him
at Glenmuick House, In. Scotland Lord
Palmerston. known as ''the finest foreign
secretary in the world and the unfortu-
nate Empress Eugene were also his
friends.
He and Lady Glenesk entertained law
ishly in town at 139 Piccadily. and the
house became famous as a political salon
of the greatest Importance. This house
which. by the way, Is now the home OF
a club-had been Byron's home and. there
he had penned 1.-THE Siege of Corinth"
and "Parisiana" 1t also had earned an
unenviable distinction as the home of "Old
O." otherwise the last Duke Of Queens
berry. a naughty old character who used
to stand on the balcony overlooking Pic
cadilly and ogle the pretty girls as they
passed by.
Lord Glenesk had a son, oliver
whom he trained to take over the
Morning Post. He even sent him to
the United States to learn the various
newspaper wrinkles associated with
newspaper publication on your side of
the Atlantic For a time he sat In the
editorial chair of the Morning Post
but in 1905 he died. Three years later,
on November 27. 1908, the following
notice appeared in the paper:
"On the death of his son, Oliver in
1905, Lord Glenesk made arrangements
that the Morning Post should remain
in the possession of his only daughter,
the Countess Bathurst and her family.
All details of the arrangements have
been made during the last two years
by Lord Glenesk."
Curiously en6ugh, one of the execu-
tors of Lord Glenesk's will and now one
of the directors of the Morning Post
Is Lewis Harcourt, whose wife Is q
niece of the late Pierpont Morgan. and
who is absolutely opposed in political
views and affiliations to Lady Bath
urst and her paper. You must not run
away with the idea, however, that he
has the least influence on it's editorial
affairs. Lady Bathurst is what one
might call "a splendid autocrat."
though a soft-hearted one. In one di-
rection her influence is particularly
sound one. for she is a sticlxler for
accuracy and deals summarily with all
who are unfortunate enough to offend
against her standards in the columns
of her paper.
Although wonderfully interesting