Year: 1877

Young James Gordon Bennett is an
ass of the highest order, and yonng
May is another, with decided trace
of the bully added. Bennett owns
the New York Herald, and has an in
come of something like million of
dollars per annum, which, ass as he is,
makes him sought for by all the man
aging mammas who have daughters
to marry off. Miss Caroline May got
him hooked finally and she was en-
gagged to marry the Herald man, but
all of a sudden the match was de-
clared off. Last Monday night a
brother of Miss May assaulted Ben
nett in front of the Union League
Club, and gave him a most satisfac-
tory horse whipping, which resulted
in duel fought in Delaware, in which
young May was slightly wounded.
May goes to his friends in Baltimore,
and Bennett sailed for Europe, to get
away from the talk the succession of
events has produced. Bennett says
he broke the match because he was
satisfied that he was not fit for mari
, tai life, while the Mays, on the other
hand, claim that they broke it be-
cause Bennett displayed too much of
the blackguard to be trusted with a
wife. 1t is told of his going to the
house of his affianeed in a state OF
beastly intoxication, of his getting the
ladies at his house perched upon a
billiard table and tnrning loose half
dozen fighting cocks, and not allow
ing them to get down for an hour.
Innumerable stories are told OF his
! escapades, all of which are brutal and
semi -idiotic. The elder Bennett was
Just as eccentric as this one, but he
was shrewder than Satan himself. He
commenced the publication of the
| Herald in IL cellar in Ann street, and
made it the property it now is, by
courses, which if followed now, would
consign an editor to the penitentiary.
| He wassa notorious blackmailer, aud
| made it business to be constantly
| involved in quarrels and difficulties.
Nothing pleased him so much as to
| provoke a man to cOwllide or kick
him. He would take his punishment
| meekly, and without resistance, and
rush to his Office and write long ac
count of it, in which his assailant
| would be more scandalously abused
than ever. A kicking was a delight
to him, and he absolutely reveled in
libel suits. Tom Hamlin, the actor,
once forced his jaws open and spit
down his throat, and James Watson
Webb cowhided him dozen times.
Almost every respectable man in New
York thrashed Bennett, but he thrived
wonderfully for all that. These af-
| fairs attracted attention to him, and
he did make the Herald the best news
paper the country ever had, and it is
so now. His business was to collect
news, and in the doing of it he dis
played wonderful energy and amaz.
ing shrewdness he established pony
expresses before the days of railroads; !;
lie had fast sailing boats to intercept
vessels, and he was the first to real
ize che power of the telegraph. And
SO, while the Herald never influenced
an opinion while it is conducted upon
the principle of denying to-day what
it said yesterday, everybody reads it,
and it is the best newspaper property
in the country. Young Bennett knows
nOthing about journalism, but the
system established by his father re-
mains, and the men trained by his
father still carry it out in all its de-
tails. Were he allowed to manage it
he would wreck it in a year. But
fortunately, he is SO absorbed In polo,
in walking matches, in yatchting and
kindred amusements, that he can give
no thought to his paper, and so it gets
on as well as ever.


THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW.


Snow is all very well when you
have logs to haul, or when you want
to sleighride, but in the narrow streets
of New York, is nuisance, pure and
simple. The street-cars are running
only half the number of cars at the
very time when the capacity for carry


ing ought to be doubled, and the
streets are so blockaded as to make