The Washington herald., 1917-05-13
BRISBANE WAS FATHER
OF NEWS ';SCAREHEAD"
Famous Editor Draws $4,000 a Year.
Once Reporter on the Sun.
"Arthur Brisbanel''


writes editorials for the Hearst news
papers. Do you know he Is paid more
for his work than the President of the
United states?"
Il wonder who that fellow Is who
writes the editorials for the Hearst
newspapers7 I wish that could write
as simply and as directly as he does"
SO II goes every day.
Here Is an inside story of Arthur
Brisbane. man who has made more
people think-through the newspaper
than any one man in America
Arthur Brisbane is 50 years old. He
was born in Buffalo. N. Y, December
IL. 1854, the son OF Sarah White Bris-
bane and Albert Brisbane, the great
disciple Of Charles Fourier, French
teacher of socialistic doctrines
With only a country school educa-
tion-most Of it-zcquired in Fanwood,
N J., and finishing it with a short
time abroad-this man commenced his
work as q humble 'legger" Qegger in
newspaper parlance means small-sala-
rfed reporter) with the New York Sun
in 1883 at the age Of 1s, and at this
writing Is drawing the princely salary
of $4,000 year. and Is the editor of
the newspaper having the largest cir
culation in the United Ststes-the New
York Evening Journal
Worked Under Dana.
When he began his work under Charles
Dana. then proprietor OF the Sun, he was
o told that his success depended upon him.
SELF and not upon the fact that he was
the son Of Albert Brisbane, one OF Mr..
Dana's best friends.
Three years after beginning his work
with the Sun, he was editor Of the Sun
and this at the age Of 2.
The secret Of his success lay in the
fact that he wrote what he saw-nade
the reader see and feel what he had
written
One instance described by him today
iruns as follows:
Il was sent on an assignments fire
IN an orphan asylum. The police re-
port said nobody hurt, nobody missing.
I saw a small boy standing on the corner
looking at the ruins OF the fire. He
was crying. 1 asked him what his trouble
was He told me that his little sister
and brother, at the time the fire broke
out were in the sore-eye ward, and that
he could not find them. 1 knew that
the sore-eye ward was directly above
the boiler room. The iremen went there,
and surely enough. far down In the
cellar. were the charred bodies of ALL
the children who happened to be in the
sore-eye ward. The floor had caved in,
and they were trapped"
His small assignments did not last
long. He was sent to London as cor
respondent. His weekly letters instantly
became famous.
His career with the Sun was short
Nved-seven years in all. He was editor
of the Evening Sun when Joseph
Pulitzer, of the World, held out an at
tractive offer. which was accepted BY
the young man Brisbane.
Seyen Yeara with World
His stay with the World lasted seven
years. Under his editorship the World
became the paper with the largest circu-
lation. due to Brisbane's methods.
Then William Randolph Hearst, son Of
Senator George Hearst, of California,
came to New York with dollars to invest
Many newspapers were for sale, but one,
the Morning Journal, tempted him. This
was in 1896. when the evening edition,
the New York Evening Journal, was
launched. and Hearst began looking
around for a man to head 1t. Brisbane
was the man.
Brisbane revolutionized the business. He
made type as big as the page could
stand. The papers at that time were
printed in very beautiful type, nice to
look at, but very hard to read With
the big scare heads Brisbane got atten-
tion. The newsboys put the Hearst paper
on top. because the headlines compelled
attention, and soon the circulation OF the
Hearst paper exceeded that of the other
New York papers. The circulation went
up so rapidly, under Brisbane's watchful,
eye that his salary also went up at the
same time in leaps and bounds, until the
figure of $4,000 per year was written in
a contract.
Brisbane Is the father of the editorial
which is READ. His editorials are pub
lished In two millions Of Hearst news
papers and in several millions more that
take the service.
Leads People to Think.
He leads people to think. which is the
primary essential Of an editorial
OF late years all his writing is done
with the aid Of the business phOnograph.
Two hundred thousand dollars could not
purchase the machine he uses, If another
one could not be procured.
Debating, hour after hour, to the
phonograph would indeed seem laborious
work to the average man. but Brisbane
talks to the phonOgraph just as he would
talk to an individual in ordinary conver-
sation-hence the easy style Of his writ
ing.
Two thousand volumes are in his IL
brary. Every one of them with ''paster''
on it to show that it has been read and
. smarked. Every marked passage in the
as the day II was first read.
Brisbane is of nervous temperament.
He has blue eyes and a head that once
seen Is never forgotten. He is five foot
ten: can run. jump, drive, swim, in fact
do all the things that a college boy of
n might do-and this at the age of s..
Has Realty Holdings.
His real estate holdings are large. Re-
Gently he purchased the entire village of
AIlaire, n. ]. At this village the iron
which went into Robert Fulton's steam
boat, the Clermont. was smelted out of
bog ore. He lives at Rye, N. Y. His
family consists Of his wife, Phoebe Cary
Brisbane. and two children, a girl and a
boy. So, that is Arthur Brisbane. The
man who has made millions think
From SIS a week on the Sun to So 900
year in thirty-three years ISN'T so bad
for a boy with nothing but a common
school education and sense enough to
make the most Of opportunity.-Editor
and Publisher.
AHFc N0NKrnu r0HrTKIr