Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-12-05

correspondence. Their letters" went
out by stage coach. 1t mattered little
if their news subjects were stale, the
letters were carefully written and re-
written, decidedly dig1Afied in style
and generally 1aboriously accurate;
but, while they chronicled the politi-
cal events, they lacked life and gave
the readers little insigM into the &C.
ton behind the scenes on the stage OF
politics at the National Capital
Then entered James Gordon Ben
nett leading the way for many noted
editors. who, in their day. have come
to Washington to write their most ell
fective editorials at the very rlngside'
and thus give them force and feeling
impossible elsewhere. Bennett was
Washington correspondent Of the New
York Courier from 1927 to 1882. lie
was prospecting in the Congressional
Library one day and found gold
mine. He was so taken with the
style of Walpole's letters that he took
them a model and injected gossip
and chat about the members, their
wives and daughters into HRS CORE
spondence and Washington CORE
spondence was never the same AFTER
wards.
THE chip on his-shoulder' variety
L of correspondent is well illustrate
ed in the person of Matthew L. Davis,
close friend and biographer of Aaron
Burr. He was forever starting some
thing" He wrote under the psuedonym
of The Spy in Washington" and
probably no CORRESPONDENT before and
few since have been Favored with SO
much inside informal fon He was IA
miliarly called "fhe Old Boy in Specs.
The students in Congress TO-DAY say
NJ toll a.
ment, accuracy and concise style
Davis. CORRESPONDENCE has never been
saposing attempted Ssessry, that led
| to the duel on Blade psburgs field OF
honor. between Kepresen.a ~ pa Mn-
! sentative Jonathan Cilley of Maine, In
which the latter was killed. Davis
lived and worked until eighty -four
years of age, and during his last fif-
J, teen years wrote for the Lonaon
F.; Traveller" He used to declare he
| would vote for Henry Clay for Presi-
dent until Clay died. and then Tor ms
/ executioner."
/ More than one disturbance in the
/ House was caused by a spirited letter
! to the Philadelphia Gazette, Wrltten
! by Nathan Sargent and signed "ollver
| Oldschool." One of his pointed para
! graphs pricked the tender senslbilities
/ of Representative Z. Jared ingersoli
Of Pennsylvania. who moved his ex-
pulsion from the desk he occupied in
the press gallery. that the honor ana
! dignity of the House might be MAIN
| tanned" Then up rose John QUINCY
Adams, and quietly. but with deal OF
meaning in his voice, remarked that
/ "the author of the letter was as re-
spectable as the honorable member
/ from Pennsylvania himself" and In
(, gersoll had to be content with that.
, Sylvester S. Southworth gave ind1-
.viduality to his letters. signed John
Smith, Jun, of Arkansas" and had a
iconside rable following. Others whose
CORRESPONDENCE about the same time
was considered particularly good were
Mai Jarnes McIeae. Mr.. Hartman, DR..
THOMAS NJ Brewer, Edward Hart. r..
L. Stevens. A. q. Alleen. Edmund
Burke, Francis J. Grund, who wrote
for the Baltimore Sun; Jesse f. Dow
James f. Harvey, later minister to
Portugal, and Ben: Perley Poore, who
wrote his first letter from Washing
ton in 1888 and who YVES for many years
correspondent of the Boston Journal.
Among the noted editors OF tnell
day who came to Washington to ge,
local color and spirit for their pow
erful political philippics" were James
Watson Webb of the New York Cou
rier and Enquirer. Thomas Richie o.
the Richmond Enquirer. George ID
Prentiss of the Louisville Journal
Henry Il. Anthony of the Providence
| JournaI Richard Yeadon of tn,
Charleston Courier. Thurlow Weed o.
: the Albany Evening Journal. In latel
: DAYS came Horace Greeley. James ant
!, Era stus Brooks and Henry J. Ray
, nond Washington correspondent:
for New York papers have frequentl,
been called to the home Office to talk
editorial charge. Whitelaw Reid wa
!, Washington correspondent before h
became editor of the Tribune, and Mr.
z connery was head of the Washington
E bureau for ten years before he becam
, managing editor Of the Herald.
! The third era in the progress Q
Washington correspondence came il
t1s3S. when the public ton Of the new
was, expedited through the enterpris
of Hale & Hallock, proprietors o
the New York Journal of Commerce
The mad rush to get news bulletin
g on the wires today is an outgrowti
|, of their pep more than fourscor
years ago. First. they achieved
! foreign news service by boarding in
! coming vessels at sea. Then the.
. turned to Washington and established
a pony express" with eight relay
T between New York and Phliadelphla
r (which enabled them to publish new
of Congress a whole day in advanc
D of their competitors. But competition
). |proved to be the life of trade. 10
e the other New York papers combine
! ito establish rival pony express,
!. and then induced the Post Office De
n lpartment to take over the project.
I little thing like that couldn't daun
: Hale & Hallock, who promptly pu
n lon another series Of relays from PM
s iadelphia into Washington. Thei
y pony riders often covered the ontir
h distance of 237 miles in twenty hour:
= while the so-called rival express ma
: was forty-four hours en- route.
d X * X X
y THEN in quick succession came tn
e magnetic telegraph and the Of
i ganization of the Associated Prss
q originally called 1.-The New York A:
q ISOLATED Press But the Associate
II Press did not put the Wayntngto
= correspondents out of BUSINESS. tt
e Associated Press Office in tHe old da,
e, was at Pennsylvania aveYue and 4
street. l.. A. Copyright yyho came +;
Z. director of the Washington burea
is clearly defined the distraction betwee
I'd the Associated Press And the work
m the Washington correspondents b.
er fore a congressional committee: F
I'd said
vi '''Mv business 10 40 conmunica