Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-12
Enentng Glrat

Few men in Harrisburg were moro
called upon to give advice or whose
opinion on personal matters was
more sought for a long period of
years than the late Benjamin F.
Meyers. who died yesterday at his
home upon the River Front Rising
because OF brains from the position
of country editor to be a COM
manding figure in the journalism of
the second state in the Union and a
power in political matters, Mr.. Mey- ,
ers was visited by many a man who
now occupies an assured position in
not only this bait other communities.
In the more than two score years
over which his work was spread in
Harrisburg he attracted attention
by the vigor of his writing and mon
who are now on the biggest newspa-
pers in the land and serving world
wide ws-gathering organizations
were amog his pupils or those who
had gone to him to guide them. Mr..
Meyers used to say that so many
people came to him for advice be-
cause he was human. Certain 1t is
that every editorial sanctum which
this veteran of the quill, and it was
very sharp one, too, occupied in
. his extended career in Harrisburg,
was visited by more newspapermen,
would-be newspapermen, failures as
newspapermen and comeback news
papermen than any other. 1t DEM
onstrated his place in his profession.
The whole city knew a master wrote
snap shots" in the old Star-Inde-
pendent and men about the Patriot
office in the by-gone days would rush
to get the first papers off the old fat
bed press to read who was getting
it" from the "old man" as the ir-
reverent called him or ''Mr. Meyers"
as the rest designated him. For
years Harrisburg sat up at the
breakfast table over the Patriot edi-
torials from Mr. Meyers pen ana
, when he merged the Star and the
Independent and entered the even
ing field it was a treat to read his
column. When any article seemed
to stand out from the rest of the old
Fourth street sheet it was generally
one from the pen of the chief and
: the whole town enjoyed it.
+ 1t was after he had gone to the
q South Third street building, the old
S State Printing Office" as so many
e call it yet, that Mr.. Meyers became
r much sought after by budding Jour-
4 nalists. And his advice to them was
= the same. Now you go home and
= read; read all the history and good
= writing that you can get" he would
g say. And then he wo"ld add. "They
: don't print so many ols nowadays
: that you need to disregard the old
= masters" He urged reading of his
f tory and coed books and there are
f many in newspaper Offices away from
i the Susquehanna who are thankful
that he did. Mr.. Meyers was fond
= of sprinkling his writings with Latin,
It Greek or French quotations and no
!. one was ever able to pick him up
5 jot. He knew them, read them in
= leisure hours. enjoyed them and used
to throw them in here and there for
n the rest of us to puzzle over. But
8 they were always carrying their mes
e sage. Similarly, use of quotations
= from the English classics, so little
! employed in these days, was a char
n acteristic of Mr.. Meyers. And who
. will forget those phrases, Now stick
= a pin right there" and others with
: which he would emphasize point.
8 In his own Office Mr.. Meyers was
] kindly critic OF the writings of his
r staff, although it must be confessed
= most of the men he admonishcd
r promptly forgot and trusted that
the next time" they made a break
I the "old man" would be too busy to
notice. Once in while he would
storm into the local room with some
/ particularly violent use of bad Eng
lish or employment of an idiom
marked with a big black cross and
, inquire of the luckless writer
whether grammar had ever been
taught him. Alderman George d.
Herbert, who was managing editor
under him for years, used to occa-
sionally be presented with a copy of
the paper with the bad form, gram
matical breaks and Grass mistakes
carefully marked. BOSS" Herbert
generally felt worse than the cul-
prits and when Mr.. Meyers had gone
he would hide the paper. But some
times even he had to call over the
offending scribbler. The late Will
liam Rodearmel, dean of correspond
ents; the late George M. Wanbaugh,
long a brilliant figure himself in
state newspaper work and men now
living worked under Mr.. Meyers at
different times and often expressed
wonder that he did not throw them
out of the Office for what they wrote.
But that was not his way. If he
was too busy to mark up the whole
paper he would put a ring around
some glaring break, thunder his
wrath about the office in general and
then as gently as a mother tell the
man who wrote it where it was
wrong When he praised the whole
staff perked right up. Service under
Mr.. Meyers was like going to school
for many q reporter because he used
to say that, after ALL, he was ono
himself. only a little older. who had
read moro.
When anyone spoke in Harrisburg
of "Mr. Meyers everyone knew that
IL was Hon. 3. n. Meyers. His long
career as party leader, newspaper
man and businessman in this COM
munity brought him into contact
with people of every class and all
you had TO do was to mention MIR.
Meyers" and people knew who was
meant. The old men among the
folks active in politics knew him by
the abbreviation of his first name,
but to the people of Harrisburg he
was "Mr. Meyers" And in the state
at large the name of Mr.. Meyers was
associated with Harrisburg journal
ism so long and so brightly that for
quarter of a century reference to
newspaper activities here invariably
brought mention of the scholarly
writer who passed away yesterday.
It comes to few men to be as closely
identified with a city and its life to
be spoken of almost in the same
breath. Yet, in newspaper work and
Democratic affairs that was Mr.. Mey-
ers' good fortune for many years