The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-12-19
WALLACE sTovALL or
THE TAMPA TRIBUNE
&C. H. B. Floyd.)

rAOiiuo duu pO6oh " WIN IA q Soun-
try newspaper Office in Ocala. In
1893 he moved to Tampa. During the
twenty three years which have passed
since he founded the Tampa Tribune,
which 1 believe to be Florida's great
est newspaper, and which is certainly
one of the three leading papers Of the
state, he has achieved success, as we
estimate success from the exterior.
His income from this paper is from
Is to 40 thousand dollars year. No
doubt there are Weather men in the
state, but he is the most powerful one
man, 1 fancy, in Florida. In % years
he has builded himself a huge cathe-
dral, as it were, in which for an au-
dience of at least an hundred thous-
and souls, entertains them, persuades
them, educates them, sways them. as
no orator who lived half-a-century ago
could in his own lifetime persuade,
educate, and sway souls. This is
power; the power of the New Titan,
the Editor Statesman Of the twentieth
century. How suave and quiet and
composed and gentlemanly and cul-
tured this power is in its exercise!
No shouts and contortions thta attend
the great spoken word, On the con-
trary calm like the calm Of breathing;
a quiet like the flooding Of a hem
isphere of sky with gradual sunshine
at dawn; power splendid and marve,
lous and silent like the health giving
light of the sun.
Let us enter his office and await his
coming. We are on the ground floor.
The windows look upon street with.
in a stones throw of the center of the
business life of the city. The room
is large. Books in glass cases line
the western wall of the room. His
desk is in the southwestern corner. A
stenographer is at typewriter neal
the ntrance of the door. Above the
desk in frames are photographs Of
members of his family. AS he sits al
the desk to his right on the wall is 9
large photograph of his friend Henry
Watterson who very probably hat
spent many an hour in this office chat
ting with his friend, Wallace Stovall
The Office is luxuriously furnished, but
the taste that selected the objects n
the room were so quiet and unosten
tatious that the effect is simple. The
room is furnished tremendously az
rooms are in which the furniture and
ornaments are selected by the same
judgment at various times extending
over period Of years. The whole
expresses one personality.
The Office is in the Tribune building
Across the hallway Is kind Of gen
eral Office, and back of that is the
rallied off place of the editor of the
Tribune. The atmosphere of the
building is electric with power and
prosperity, intellectual and financial
power, and prosperity one with the
growth and vigor Of a young and am
bilious American city which in the
two decades since the Tribune was
established has brown from fifteen
thousand inhabitants to seventy thous-
and.
How beautiful to the mind is a pow.
er and prosperity like that of Mr.
Stovall! The mind is flattered by the
contemplation of the influence and
success of the owner and editor of a
modern city paper, because the struc-
ture of this success and influence is
not visible to the eye, and cannot be
apprehended by one stroke of the
mind, but because visible to the soul
only through meditation.
A youth of twenty-four with little
capital other than his experience
gained in the drudgery of a country
newspaper Office before the labor of
the typesetter was lightened by the
linotype machine, and ebfore the task
Of the printer was made easy by en-
yines and belts, this youth of twenty
four years arrives in Tampa, and in
less than a quarter of century, by
spirit and we'll directed
energy expresses himself daily to a
large part of the population of the
state. At sunrise messengers carry
the Tribune all over Tampa; by train
and automobile they are carried to ad.
Joining towns; it is received and read
in every town in Florida; in a few
hours it lies on a table at the hand of
he Governor in Tallahassee; in a few
hours 1t is being purchased on Penn
,ylvania Avenue in the nations CAPT.
al all of the larger newspapers in the
country receive it, and its striking
and editorials are reprint
I'd in distant cities so that its music
q parf ~ tho orch ocfra ~