The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-06
BY SAUL PETIT
AP NeWsfeatures Writer

1I INCWo1O6tU4 Cd u
NEW YORK, April S. up 1t
was the kind of talk you're likely
to hear in city rooms and bars
when old newspapermen gather:
~. P. had a brilliant mind, one
of the best. A great liberal and a
tough fighter"
~. p" was the late Joseph
Pulitzer and the man doing the
talking in this case a S white
haired, 85-year : old Florence D..
White, former general manager Of
the st. Louis Post-Dispatch and
the old New York World.
White leaned back in his rocker
and thought aloud about h i S 80
| years. work with the great pub
Usher, whose Tooth birthday will
be observed Thursday.
"You know" White said, II
can't remember j. P. ever firing
anybody and making it stick.
Saved a lot Of newspapermen that
way. His papers made a lot of
good ones, too.
(The alumni roster of the World.
bought by Pulitzer in 1883 for
$346, 900, in Guided Franklin P.
Adams, William Bolitho, Claude
C. Bowers, Haywood Broun, Irwin
IS. Cobb, Arthur Krock, Walter
Lippmann, Charles Merz. Herbert
Bayard Swope and Alexander
Wollcott.)
81 remember one fellow in St.
Louis who had gotten into some
social difficulty. Wanted to quit,
felt his usefulness was over. j. P.
said, everybody is entitled to a
second chance The man stayed,
and later became a famous cor
respondent"
another time, On the World, a
chap il the business office was
fired by the business manager for
pilfering. j. P. ordered him rein
stated. His only comment was,
put him back, remove temptation
since he's weak The man stayed
with the World until he died.
Zone morning, j. P. was seated
at breakfast. The World was be-
ing read to him-his eyesight. you
know, had been almost complete
~ gone since "a. There was a
story about the st. Patrick's Day
parade which began:
"Eighty thousand people lined
Fifth Ave. yesterday TO-
~. P. roared, how many?'
"Eighty thousand q
"Who wrote that? How'd he
know?'
Turned out a star reported had
written the story. Just his own
crowd estimate, Of course. J. P.
ordered him fired. An hour later,
he changed it to a weeks sus-
pension. The next morning there
were placards all around the
World office. They had just three
words - accuracy, ~terseness, &C
curacy.'
HE was a bug on good writing.
Zone of the most coveted goals
of American writer's is to win a
Pulitzer prize. Pulitzer's gift of
about 81, 500, 900 made possible the
founding of the Columbia School
Of Journalism in 1912 and the
Pulitzer prizes for distinctive work
in journalism and letters.)
"The mans mind was amazing:
He loved art and music and, Of
course. his newspapers. He had
five or six secretaries who read
to him and one who played the
piano for him. I remember one
day up at his place in Bar Harbor
[Me.).
He was carrying on a frequent
ly interrupted conversation with
his wife. A secretary was reading
ar editorial and occasionally they
discussed it. Also, he was playing
chess with one Of the boys tutors
and, between bits of talk, whist
ling an aria. All at the same time.
pulitzer gave 81, 900, 900 to the
Philharmonic society and another
81, 600, 900 to the Metropolitan mu-
scum of art.)
II think n Of the happiest
moments in his life was the day
they completed the World build
ing. It was on the site of an old
hotel which had once kicked out
j. P. as a tramp because he had
no money.
Can emigre from Hungary,
Pulitzer served a year with the
Union Army in the Civil war, and
then looked vainly for a job in
New York. He started west. broke.
years later, he returned to
New York as the successful pub
Usher Of the Post-D Dispatch and a