“THE SUN” AND YELLOW JOURNALISM
_The Coming and Going of a Newspaper Disease.--Dana’s Attitude
Toward President Cleveland.--Dana’s Death.--Ownerships of Paul
Dana, Laffan, Reich, and Munsey._
Of such things as we have mentioned here, putting into the necessary
news, attractively written, a proper seasoning of regional colour and
atmosphere, humour and pathos, the _Sun_ has been made since Dana came
to it. He created a new journalism, but it was a decent and distinct
kind, appealing to the intellect rather than to the passions. It gave
room for the honest expression of everybody’s opinion, from Herbert
Spencer to _Chimmie Fadden_. Because of this, because he had lifted
American newspaper work out of the dust of tradition, Dana had a holy
anger when a newer journalism tried to throw it into the mud.
When Henry Watterson was called as an expert witness in proceedings to
appraise the estate of Joseph Pulitzer, in 1914, the veteran editor of
the Louisville _Courier-Journal_ made an interesting statement on this
subject:
There is much confusion in the public mind about what is known
as “yellow journalism.” There have been several periods of
it in New York. James Gordon Bennett was the first yellow
journalist, and Charles A. Dana was the second. Mr. Pulitzer
was the third. Finally, when Mr. Hearst came along, he was
the fourth, and I think he quite filled the field of yellow
journalism.
As Mr. Bennett became more respectable and Mr. Dana more fixed
in his efforts, they were raised in the public estimation. So
was Mr. Pulitzer. I think the field of yellow journalism is so
filled by the Hearst newspapers that they no more compete with
the _World_ than with the _Herald_ or the _Sun_.
Mr. Watterson did not define yellow journalism. Perhaps he considered
it broadly as sensational journalism. The elder Bennett was sensational
to the extent that he printed things which the sixpenny papers of his
time did not print. He made the interview popular, and he was the first
editor to see the value of paying attention to financial news.
So far as printing human news is concerned, Benjamin H. Day worked that
field before Bennett started the _Herald_. If Mr. Watterson considered
Dana a yellow journalist, what else was Day, with his stories about the
sodden things of the police-courts, or his description of Miss Susan
Allen smoking a cigar and dancing in Broadway?
Printing a diagram of the scene of a murder, with a big black X to mark
the spot where the victim was found, did not make the _World_ a yellow
newspaper, for Amos Cummings began to print murder charts as soon as
he became managing editor of the _Sun_. Putting black-faced type over
a story on the front page did not make the _World_ or the _Journal_
yellow, for Cummings, when he was on the _Tribune_, was the first to
use big type in head-lines, and the _Tribune_ was never accused of
yellowness.
If pictures made a paper yellow, Dana was not yellow, for he used few
illustrations in the news pages of the paper. Again, if head-lines
indicate yellowness, Dana must be acquitted of being a yellow
journalist; for the head-lines of the _Sun_, from the first year of
Dana’s control until after his death, remained practically unchanged,
and were conservative to the last degree.
Head-lines and pictures, so far as their sensational attraction was
concerned, meant nothing to Dana. He was not yellow, but white and
alive. The distinction was clearly explained by Mr. Mitchell:
Remember the difference between white and yellow. The essential
difference is not of method or quality of product, but of
purpose and of moral responsibility or moral debasement.
Yellow will tell you that it means force, originality, and
independence in the presentation of ideas. This is consolatory
to yellow, but not accurate. Yellow will print an interesting
exaggeration or misstatement, knowing it to be such. If in
doubt about the truth of alleged news, but in no doubt whatever
as to its immediate value as a sensation, yellow will give the
benefit of the doubt to the sensation every time, and print it
with head-lines tall enough to reach to Saturn. White won’t;
that is the only real color test. I hope you are all going to
be white, and not only white, but red, white, and blue.
No yellow journalist he, Dana! To paraphrase Webster, he smote the
rock of humanity, and abundant streams of literature rushed forth.
If he startled, he startled the intellect, not the eye. His appeals
were to the intelligence, the soul, the risibilities of man, and not
to his primitive passions. He believed that all the information, the
philosophy, and the humour of the world could be conveyed through the
type of a daily newspaper as surely as and much more broadly than they
had been conveyed through the various mediums of the old newspapers,
the encyclopedias, the novels, the pulpit, and the lecture platform.
When Dana attacked yellow journalism--the expressive phrase was
fastened in the language by Ervin Wardman, in the _Press_--it was in
the firm belief that this new journalism, the “journalism that did
things,” was doing the wrong thing; that it was breaking down the
magnificent structure that had been reared by himself and Greeley and
Raymond and Bennett and Hurlbut. This group had been possessed of
all the newspaper faculties and facilities. If yellow journalism had
been right, they would have raised it to its highest peak. Dana, who
knew better than any editor of his time what the public wanted, could
have produced a perfect yellow _Sun_; but he chose to print a golden
one. He wrought more genuine journalistic advance than any other man
in history. As Mr. Mitchell wrote of him in _McClure’s Magazine_ in
October, 1894, three years before Mr. Dana’s death:
The revolution which his genius and invention have wrought in
the methods of practical journalism in America during the past
twenty-five years can be estimated only by newspaper-makers.
His mind, always original, and unblunted and unwearied at
seventy-five, has been a prolific source of new ideas in the
art of gathering, presenting, and discussing attractively the
news of the world.
He is a radical and unterrified innovator, caring not a copper
for tradition or precedent when a change of method promises a
real improvement. Restlessness like his, without his genius,
discrimination, and honesty of purpose, scatters and loses
itself in mere whimsicalities or pettinesses; or else it
deliberately degrades the newspaper upon which it is exercised.
To Mr. Dana’s personal invention are due many, if not most,
of the broad changes which within a quarter of a century have
transformed journalism in this country. From his individual
perception of the true philosophy of human interest, more
than from any other single source, have come the now general
repudiation of the old conventional standards of news
importance; the modern newspaper’s appreciation of the news
value of the sentiment and humor of the daily life around
us; the recognition of the principle that a small incident,
interesting in itself and well told, may be worth a column’s
space, when a large, dull fact is hardly worth a stickful’s;
the surprising extension of the daily newspaper’s province so
as to cover every department of general literature, and to take
in the world’s fancies and imaginings as well as its actual
events.
The word “news” has an entirely different significance from
what it possessed twenty-five or thirty years ago under the
ancient common law of journalism as derived from England;
and in the production of this immense change, greatly in
the interest of mankind and of the cheerfulness of daily
life, it would be difficult to exaggerate the direct and
indirect influence of Mr. Dana’s alert, scholarly, and widely
sympathetic perceptions.
[Illustration:
WILLIAM C. REICK
]
The assaults which Dana made upon yellow journalism were not actuated
by the jealous envy of one who has himself overlooked an opportunity.
Everything that the _Sun_ attacked in yellow newspapers was something
to which the _Sun_ itself never would have stooped--the faked or
distorted interview, the product of the thief or the eavesdropper,
the collection of back-stairs gossip, the pilfered photograph, the
revelation of personal affairs beyond the public’s business, the
arrogation of official authority, the maudlin plea for sympathy in a
factitious cause, the gross exaggeration for sensation’s sake of a
trifling occurrence, the appeal to sensualism, and the demagogic attack
upon the rich.
Right endures, and where is yellow journalism? Gone where the woodbine
twineth. Its prototype, the wild ass, stamps o’er its head and cannot
break its sleep. The “journalism that does things” doesn’t do anything
any more except to try and teach its men to write articles the way the
_Sun_ has been printing them since 1868. In a chart of new journalism
the largest, blackest X-mark would show where the body of new
journalism, slain by public taste, lies buried forever.
The New York _World_, once the most ingenious exponent of yellow
journalism, has become as conservative as the _Sun_ was in the days
when Joseph Pulitzer worked for Dana. Mr. Hearst’s papers, once the
deepest of all yellows, now hold up their hands in horror when they
see, beside them on the news-stands, the bold, black head-lines of the
_Evening Post_!
Yellow journalism said to its readers:
“This way to the big show! We have a mutilated corpse, a scandal
in high life, divorce details that weren’t brought out in court, a
personal attack on the mayor, lifelike pictures of dead rats, the
memoirs of a demented dressmaker, some neatly invented prison horrors,
and a general denunciation of everybody who owns more than five hundred
dollars. Don’t miss it!”
Dana said to his readers:
“Come, let me show you the clean stream of life; the newsboy with the
trained dog, the new painting at the Metropolitan Museum, an Arabian
restaurant on the East Side, the new Governor at Albany, the latest
theory of planetary control, one book by Old Sleuth and another by
Henry James, a ghost in a Berkshire tavern and an authentic recipe
for strawberry shortcake, a clown who reads Molière and a king who
plays pinochle, a digest of ten volumes of history and the shortest
complete poem (“This bliz knocks biz”) ever written, a dark tragedy in
the Jersey pines and a plan for a new subway, a talk with the Grand
Lama and a home-run by Roger Connor, a panic in Wall Street and a poor
little girl who finds a quarter.”
In the long run--and it did not have to be very long--the more
attractive offering was permanently chosen by newspaper-readers.
The curious effect on American journalism of the conflict between _Sun_
methods and the so-called new journalism was referred to, in an address
delivered at Yale University on January 12, 1903, by Frank A. Munsey,
then owner of the New York _Daily News_ and now proprietor of the _Sun_:
The newspaperman of to-day is a composite type, the product
of the _Sun_ and the New York _World_ of fifteen or eighteen
years ago. These two newspapers represented two distinct and
widely different styles of journalism. The _World_ was alert,
daring, aggressive, and sensational. It was about the liveliest
thing that ever swung into New York from the West.... No man
has ever stamped himself more thoroughly upon his generation
than has Joseph Pulitzer on the journalism of America. He was
the originator and the founder of our present type of overgrown
newspaper, with its illustrations and its merits and its
defects.
The part the _Sun_ played in this recreating and rejuvenating
of the American press was purely literary. It was the first
newspaper to make fiction out of facts--that is, to handle
facts with the skill and manner of the novelist, so that they
read like fiction and possessed all its charm and fascination.
The _Sun_ at that time consisted of but four pages, and I am
convinced that it was the best example of newspaper-making ever
produced anywhere. With the exception of one or two of these
fiction-fact stories so charmingly told, it was the perfection
of condensation, accuracy, brilliancy.
Mr. Munsey did not say, because it was not germane to his subject,
that for fourteen years before the advent of Pulitzer, Dana had been
demonstrating the news value of the human-interest story, and that
it was almost entirely upon the human-interest story, twisted and
exaggerated, that yellow journalism was founded. Mr. Munsey did not
say, for he could not know, that fifteen years after his address at
Yale the new journalism would be extinct and the _Sun_ would be still
the _Sun_. The editors of to-day do not ask a reporter whether he can
climb a porch or photograph an unwilling person, but whether he can see
news and write it.
An adequate history of the _Sun’s_ political activities during Dana’s
time would fill volumes. Rather than the editor of an organ of the
opposition, Dana was usually an opposition party in himself; not merely
for the sake of opposition, but because the parties in power from 1869
to 1897 usually happened to have practices or principles with which
he, as the editor of the _Sun_, was in disagreement. His attacks on
the Grant administration for the thievery that spotted it, and on the
Hayes administration because of the circumstances under which Mr. Hayes
came to the Presidential chair, were bitter and without relent. His
opposition to Grover Cleveland, an intellectual rather than a personal
war, began before Mr. Cleveland was a national figure. In September,
1882, when the hitherto obscure Buffalonian was nominated for Governor
of New York, the _Sun_ said:
It is usually not a wise thing in politics, any more than in
war, to take a private from the ranks and at one bound to
promote him to be commander-in-chief; yet that is what has been
done in the case of Grover Cleveland.
In the Presidential campaign of 1884 the _Sun_ would not support
Cleveland and could not support Blaine, whose conduct in Congress
the _Sun_ had frequently condemned; so it advocated the hopeless
cause of General Benjamin F. Butler, who had been elected Governor of
Massachusetts in 1882, the year when Cleveland was chosen Governor of
New York. Dana was not an admirer of Butler’s spectacular army career,
or of his general political leanings, but he admired him for his
attitude in the Hayes-Tilden scandal, and he believed that Butler,
if elected President, would shake things up in Washington. The _Sun_
supported him “as a man to be immensely preferred to either of the
others and as a protest against such nominations.” Dana personally
announced that sooner than support Blaine he would quit work and burn
his pen.
In 1885, opposing Cleveland’s free-trade policy, the _Sun_ vigorously
supported Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, a protectionist Democrat,
for speaker of the House, as against John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, a
free-trader; but Randall was beaten.
The _Sun_ ridiculed Cleveland’s theories of civil-service reform,
although it believed that real reforms were needed. On this point Dana
wrote, in a letter:
I do not believe in the establishment in this country of
the German bureaucratic system, with its permanent staff of
office-holders who are not responsible to the people, and whose
tenure of place knows no variation and no end except the end of
life. In my judgment a genuine reform of the evils complained
of is reached by the vigorous simplification of the machinery
of government, by the repeal of all superfluous laws, the
abolition of every needless office, and the dismissal of every
needless officer. The true American doctrine on this subject
consists in the diminution of government, not in its increase.
For all of its opposition to Cleveland, whom it dubbed the “stuffed
prophet,” the _Sun_ preferred him to General Harrison in the campaign
of 1888. It feared a return to power of the influences which it had
combated during the administrations of Grant and Hayes. Four years
afterward, however, the _Sun_ was strongly against the third nomination
of Cleveland.
In Mr. Cleveland’s second term the _Sun_ supported his course when Dana
believed it to be American. While at first it considered the President
too mild and conciliatory in matters of foreign policy, it praised him
and his Secretary of State, Richard Olney, for their stand against
Great Britain in the Venezuela boundary dispute; praised them just as
heartily as it had condemned Mr. Cleveland’s earlier action in the
Hawaiian matter, when the President withdrew the treaty of annexation
which his predecessor had sent to the Senate.
The _Sun’s_ most deadly weapon, ridicule, was constantly in play in
the years of the Hawaiian complications. It found vulnerable spots in
Mr. Cleveland’s re-establishment of the deposed Queen Liliuokalani and
in the President’s sending of a commissioner--“Paramount” Blount, as
the _Sun_ called him--without the advice and consent of the Senate.
As jealous then as it is to-day of any raid by the Executive upon the
Constitution or the powers of Congress, the _Sun_ had the satisfaction
of a complete victory in the Hawaiian matter.
On the other hand, the _Sun_ applauded Mr. Cleveland’s attitude on
the money question and his brave stand against the mob in the Chicago
railway strikes of 1894, when the President used troops to prevent the
obstruction of the mails by Eugene V. Debs and his followers.
Dana was seventy-seven years old when William J. Bryan--whom the _Sun_
had already immortalized as the Boy Orator of the Platte--was nominated
for the Presidency in 1896, but the veteran editor went at the task of
exposing the free-silver fallacy with the same blithe vigour that he
had shown twenty years before. His opinion, printed in the _Sun_ of
August 6, 1896, is a good example of Dana’s clear style:
The Chicago platform invites us to establish a currency which
will enable a man to pay his debts with half as much
property as he would have to use in order to pay them now. This
proposition is dishonest. I do not say that all the advocates
of the free coinage of silver are dishonest. Thousands of
them--millions, if there be so many--are doubtless honest in
intention. But I am unable to reconcile with any ideal of
integrity a change in the law which will permit a man who has
borrowed a hundred dollars to pay his debt with a hundred
dollars each one of which is worth only half as much as each
dollar he received from the lender.
[Illustration:
FRANK A. MUNSEY
]
Dana’s opinions on political questions were more eagerly sought than
those of any other editor after Greeley’s death, and the _Sun’s_
political news was complete; yet with Dana, and with the _Sun_,
politics was, after all, only one small part of life. The whole
world, with its facts and fancies, not the political problems of one
continent, was the real field to be covered.
Dana’s curiosity was all-embracing. After the _Sun’s_ financial success
was assured he went abroad frequently, and saw not only western Europe,
but Russia and the Levant. Of these he wrote in his “Eastern Journeys.”
He knew a dozen languages. He conversed with the Pope about Dante and
with Russian peasants about Tolstoy. His knowledge of Spanish, acquired
early in life, made easy his travels in Mexico and Cuba. Everywhere he
went he talked of freedom with its friends, and encouraged them. He
knew Kossuth, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Clémenceau, Marti, and Parnell.
At home, Dana’s amusements were chiefly literary and artistic--the
study of languages, history, and _belles-lettres_, the collection of
pottery and pictures. His Chinese porcelains were perhaps the best, in
point of quality, in the Occident.
“I am persuaded,” one critic said of them, “that Mr. Dana must have had
a most profound instinct in relation to the whole subject.”
After Mr. Dana’s death these porcelains, about four hundred in number,
were sold at auction for nearly two hundred thousand dollars.
In winter Dana lived in a large house which he built in 1880 at the
corner of Madison Avenue and Sixtieth Street, and which held the art
treasures that he began to gather in the first days of his prosperity.
Here he kept his pictures, notably some fine specimens of the Barbizon
school, and his books, which included some rare volumes, but which in
the main were chosen for their usefulness.
Dana’s happiest days were spent at his country place, Dosoris, an
island near Glen Cove, on the north shore of Long Island. There,
around a large, old-fashioned, square frame house, he made roads and
flower-beds and planted trees from many parts of the world. He grew an
oak from an acorn that was brought from the tomb of Confucius. He knew
Gray’s “Botany” almost by heart, and could give an intimate description
of every flower in the Dosoris gardens. His interest in plants was so
deep that once, while travelling in Cuba with an eminent painter, he
led his companion for hours through the hot hills of Vuelta Abajo in
order to satisfy himself that a certain variety of pine did _not_ grow
in that region.
Dana’s was a normal, healthy life. He was a good horseman and swimmer
and a great walker. When he was seventy-five years old he climbed to
the top of Croyden Mountain, in New Hampshire, with a party of younger
men puffing behind him. He found pleasure in all of life, whether it
was at the office, where he worked steadily but not feverishly, or
with his family among the rural delights of Dosoris, or surrounded by
congenial literary spirits at the dinner-table.
He knew no illness until his last summer. Up to June, 1897, the sturdy
figure and the kindly face framed in a white beard were as familiar to
the _Sun_ office as they were in the seventies. With Dana there was no
slow decay of body or mind. He died at Dosoris on October 17, 1897, in
the thirtieth year of his reign over the _Sun_.
A few years before, on observing an obituary paragraph which Mr. Dana
had written about some noted man, John Swinton asked his chief how much
space he (Swinton) would get when his time came.
“For you, John, two sticks,” said Mr. Dana. Turning to Mr. Mitchell,
then his chief editorial writer, he added: “For me, two lines.”
On the morning after Mr. Dana’s death every newspaper but one in
New York printed columns about the career of the dean of American
journalism. The _Sun_ printed only ten words, and these were carried at
the head of the first editorial column, without a heading:
CHARLES ANDERSON DANA, editor of the _Sun_, died yesterday
afternoon.
Mr. Swinton perhaps believed that Mr. Dana was joking when he said “two
lines,” but Mr. Mitchell knew that his chief was in earnest. The order
was characteristic of Dana. It was not false modesty. Perhaps it was a
certain fine vanity that told him what was true--that he and his work
were known throughout the land; that the _Sun_, in its perfection the
product of his genius and vigour, would continue to rise as regularly
as its celestial namesake; that all he had done would live on. He had
made the paper so great that the withdrawal from it of one man’s hand
was negligible.
Dana was gone, but his son remained as principal owner, and his chief
writer and most intimate intellectual associate for twenty years was
left to form the _Sun’s_ policies as he had moulded them in Dana’s
absences and as he shapes them to-day. His publisher, the astute
Laffan, was still in charge of the _Sun’s_ financial affairs. Other men
whom he had found and trained, like Frank P. Church, Mayo W. Hazeltine,
and Edward M. Kingsbury in the editorial department, and Chester S.
Lord and Daniel F. Kellogg in the news department, continued their work
as if Dana still lived.
With their grief doubt was not mingled. The _Sun’s_ success resulted
from no secret formula that died with the discoverer. Half of Dana’s
victory came by his attraction to himself of men who saw life and
literature as he saw them; and so, in a magnificent way, he had made
his work dispensable.
And Dana’s was always the magnificent way. To him journalism was not a
means of making money, but of interesting, elevating, and making happy
every one who read the _Sun_ or wrote for it. He raised his profession
to new heights. As Hazeltine wrote in the _North American Review_:
One of Mr. Dana’s special titles to the remembrance of his
fellow workers in the newspaper calling is the fact that,
more than any other man on either side of the Atlantic, he
raised their vocation to a level with the legal and medical
professions as regards the scale of remuneration. He honored
his fellow craftsmen of the pen, and he compelled the world to
honor them.
Shortly after the death of his father, Paul Dana, who was then
forty-five years old, and who had been on the _Sun_ editorial staff for
seventeen years, was made editor by vote of the trustees of the Sun
Printing and Publishing Association. In the following year (1898) the
younger Dana bought from Thomas Hitchcock, who was one of Charles A.
Dana’s associates both in a financial and in a literary way, enough
shares to give him the control of the paper.
Paul Dana continued in control of the property for several years and
held with credit his father’s title of editor until 1903. William
Mackay Laffan, who had been associated with the elder Dana since 1877,
next obtained the business control. His proprietorship was announced on
February 22, 1902, and it continued until his death in 1909.[A]
[A] The following editorial article appeared in the _Sun_ on
July 26, 1918:
“Mr. Paul Dana calls the _Sun’s_ attention to what he
claims was an error in ‘The Story of the _Sun_’ as it
originally appeared in the _Munsey Magazine_: the statement
that ‘he [Mr. Dana] continued in control of the property
until 1900.’ Mr. Dana states that he did not dispose of
his controlling interest until 1902. The statement in the
_Munsey Magazine_ publication of ‘The Story of the _Sun_’
was founded upon the International Encyclopædia’s biography
of William M. Laffan and also upon a statement published in
the _Sun_ at the time of Mr. Laffan’s death in 1909, that
Mr. Laffan obtained the control of the _Sun_ in 1900. When
the _Munsey Magazine_ articles were reprinted in the Sunday
_Sun_ the paragraph referred to by Mr. Dana was changed to
read as follows:
“‘Paul Dana continued in control of the property for
several years and held with credit his father’s title of
editor until 1903. William Mackay Laffan, who had been
associated with the elder Dana since 1877, obtained the
business control. His proprietorship was announced on
February 22, 1902, and it continued until his death in
1909.’
“We will let Mr. Dana’s version of this matter stand in
‘The Story of the _Sun_’ unless some further evidence
appears on the disputed point.”
Among the makers of the _Sun_ who best knew the paper and the
intellectual demands of its readers, Laffan must be included with Dana
and Mitchell. At the time when he came to be master of the paper, his
career had covered the entire journalistic field, and he was, moreover,
a thorough _Sun_ man, sympathetic with all the ideals of his old friend
Dana.
Laffan, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and had a light and delightful
brogue, was educated at Trinity College and at St. Cecilia’s School
of Medicine. When he was twenty he went to San Francisco, where,
beginning as a reporter, he became city editor of the _Chronicle_ and
managing editor of the _Bulletin_. In 1870 he went to Baltimore, to
be a reporter on the _Daily Bulletin_, and of this newspaper he became
editor and part owner. Eventually he became the full owner of both
the _Daily Bulletin_ and the _Sunday Bulletin_, and in this capacity
he endeared himself to the citizens of Baltimore by his fight against
political rings.
He left newspaper work for a short time to become general
passenger-agent of the Long Island Railroad; but in 1877, on Mr. Dana’s
invitation, he went on the _Sun_ as a general writer. Himself an artist
who modelled in clay, painted in oils and water-colours, and etched,
his judgment made him valuable to the paper as an art critic.
Like Mr. Dana, he was interested in Chinese porcelains, and he made a
deeper study of them than did his employer. When a catalogue was needed
for the Chinese porcelains in the Morgan collection in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Mr. Laffan, who was an active trustee of the museum,
was called upon to edit the work. He also edited a book on “Oriental
Porcelain.” He was the author of “American Wood Engravers,” published
in 1883. For these things he is remembered in the world of art. The men
of the stage remember him as one of the most distinguished dramatic
critics that New York has seen. Even to-day, in the comparison of the
styles of critics old and new, Laffan’s incisive reviews are recalled
as standards.
In the business world of journalism Laffan is thought of chiefly as
the publisher of the _Sun_ from 1884 on, and as the live spirit of the
_Evening Sun_ for many of its years. As the actual director of the
_Sun_--although his editorial powers were almost entirely delegated to
Mr. Mitchell--Mr. Laffan was a picturesque and powerful figure. Beneath
an inscrutable exterior he was distinctly a likable person.
One day Laffan wrote a ten-line item, a bit about an exhibition of a
friend’s painting, and asked the city editor to print it. He never
commanded, even when he controlled the paper; he asked. The item was
lost in the shuffle that night. The next day he rewrote it and again
asked a place for it. It was printed in the first edition and left out
of the city edition. For the third time he carried the article to the
city editor, and without a sign of anger.
“It seems to me,” he said, “that anybody can get anything printed in
this paper--except the owner.”
A millionaire advertiser asked Laffan to print an article about his pet
charity.
“Take it to Clarke,” said Laffan. “If he’ll print it for you, he’ll do
more for you than he’ll do for me.”
A New York newspaper once remarked of Laffan that “he never drove any
man to drink, but he drove many a man to the dictionary.” That was a
commentary on the unusual words which Laffan, whose vocabulary was
wide, would occasionally use in an editorial article. His articles were
never involved, however. They were not frequent, they were generally
short, never without important purpose, and they drove home.
Patient as Laffan was with lost items of his own, he was a man of fine
human temper. One morning, on arriving at the office, he found that a
Wall Street group of rich scoundrels had sued the _Sun_ for several
hundred thousand dollars for its exposure of their methods. He called
the city editor.
“Mr. Mallon,” he said, “tell your young man who wrote the articles to
go ahead and give these men better cause for libel suits!”
The _Sun_ was making a vigorous war on a great railroad magnate. One
day an attaché of the office informed Laffan that a man was waiting
to see him who bore a contract which would bring to the _Sun_ four
hundred thousand dollars’ worth of advertising from the magnate’s
railroads.
“Tell him to see the advertising manager,” said Laffan.
“He insists on seeing you,” said the clerk.
“Tell him to go to hell,” said Laffan.
There was a keen humour in the big Irish head. Laffan was opposed to
the amendment to the New York State constitution which provided for
an expenditure of more than a hundred millions in improving the Erie
Canal. Under his direction a _Sun_ reporter, John H. O’Brien, wrote
a series of articles intended to shatter public faith in the huge
investment. The amendment, however, was approved by a great majority.
“Mr. O’Brien,” said Mr. Laffan to the reporter, a few days after the
election, “I think it would be a very graceful thing on your part to
give a little dinner to all those gentlemen who voted against the canal
project.”
Upon Mr. Laffan’s death, in November, 1909, the trustees of the
Sun Printing and Publishing Association asked Mr. Mitchell, who
had been made editor of the _Sun_ on July 20, 1903, to take up the
administrative burden as well as the editorial. This Mr. Mitchell did
for a little more than two years, although his personal inclinations
were toward the literary construction and supervision of the paper
rather than toward the business detail incident to the presidency of so
large a corporation. The double load was lightened in December, 1911,
when control of the _Sun_ was gained through stock purchase by William
C. Reick, who became the president of the company, Mr. Mitchell being
permitted to return to the editorial functions which have now engrossed
him, either as Mr. Dana’s aid or as editor-in-chief, for more than
forty years.
[Illustration:
EDWARD PAGE MITCHELL
Editor of “The Sun”
]
Mr. Reick, who was born in Philadelphia in 1864, entered newspaper
work in that city when he was nineteen years old. A few years later he
removed to Newark, New Jersey, where he became the correspondent of
the New York _Herald_. He attracted the attention of Mr. Bennett, the
owner of the _Herald_, and in 1888 he was made editor of the _Herald’s_
London and Paris editions. A year later he returned to America to
become city editor of the _Herald_, the highest title then given on a
newspaper which refuses to have a titular managing editor. In 1903 he
was elected president of the New York Herald Company, and he remained
in that position until 1906, when he left the _Herald_ to become
associated with Adolph Ochs in the publication of the New York _Times_
and with George W. Ochs in the publication of the Philadelphia _Public
Ledger_.
When Mr. Reick assumed the control of the _Sun_ properties, he devoted
much care to the improvement of the _Evening Sun_, putting it under the
managing editorship of George M. Smith, who had served for many years
as news editor of the _Sun_ under Chester S. Lord. As Mr. Munsey said
when he acquired the _Sun_ and the _Evening Sun_ from Mr. Reick:
Very great credit is due Mr. Reick for the fine development of
the _Evening Sun_ since it came under his control. I know of no
man who has done a better and sounder piece of newspaper work
at any time, in New York or elsewhere, than Mr. Reick has done
on the _Evening Sun_.
Among the events of the Reick régime were the retirement of Chester
S. Lord from the managing editorship and of George B. Mallon from the
city editorship, and the removal of the newspaper from its old home at
Nassau and Frankfort Streets to the American Tract Society Building,
one block farther south, at Nassau and Spruce Streets.
It was during Mr. Reick’s control of the _Sun_ that Mr. Munsey, in the
autumn of 1912, bought the New York _Press_, a one-cent Republican
morning daily holding an Associated Press membership. The _Sun_ had
lacked the Associated Press service since the fateful night when Mr.
Dana bolted from that organization and started the Laffan News Bureau.
Mr. Munsey bought the _Sun_ from Mr. Reick on June 30, 1916, and four
days later, on July 3, the _Press_, with its Associated Press service,
its best men, and some of its popular features, was absorbed by the
_Sun_. As the _Press_ had been a penny paper, the price of the _Sun_
was reduced to one cent, after having stood at two cents since the
Civil War. It remained a penny paper until January 26, 1918, when the
pressure of production-costs forced the price of all the big New York
dailies to two cents.
The amalgamation of the _Sun_ and the _Press_ wrought no change in the
editorial department of the _Sun_, Mr. Mitchell remaining as its chief.
Ervin Wardman, long the editor of the _Press_, became the publisher
of the Sun and vice-president of the Sun Printing and Publishing
Association. Mr. Reick remained with the organization in an advisory
capacity. Keats Speed, the managing editor of the _Press_, became
managing editor of the _Sun_, Kenneth Lord remaining as city editor.
The _Sun_ has had five homes--at 222 William Street, where Benjamin H.
Day struck off the first tiny number; at 156 Nassau Street, rented by
Day in August, 1835, when the paper began to pay well; at the southwest
corner of Nassau and Fulton Streets, to which Moses Y. Beach moved
the _Sun_ in 1842; at Nassau and Frankfort Streets, the old Tammany
Hall, which Dana and his associates bought; and at 150 Nassau Street,
whither the _Sun_ moved in July, 1915. It is expected that the _Sun_
will presently move to another and a fine home, for in September,
1917, Mr. Munsey bought the Stewart Building, at the northeast corner
of Broadway and Chambers Street, just north of City Hall Park. The
site is generally admitted to be the most desirable building site
downtown, so large is the ground space, so fine is the outlook over
the spacious park, and so close is it to three subways, three or four
elevated-railroad lines, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Should the criticism be made that this book is not all-inclusive,
let it be remembered that there can be no really complete history of
the _Sun_ except itself--the tons of files in which for eighty-five
years _Sun_ men have drawn their pictures of life’s procession. In a
narrative like this only the outlines of the _Sun’s_ course, margined
with incidents of the men who made it great by making it as human as
themselves, can find room.
It is easy to begin a story of the _Sun_, because Ben Day and that
uncertain morning in 1833, the very dawn of popular journalism, make a
very real picture. Try to end it, and the roar of the presses in the
basement is remindful of the fact that there is no end, except the
arbitrary closing. This _Sun_, like _Richmond’s_--
By the bright track of his fiery car
Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The files of the _Sun_, 1833–1918.
“The Life of Charles A. Dana,” by James Harrison Wilson, LL.D., late
Major General, U. S. V. Harper & Bros., 1907.
“Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 1872,” by Frederic
Hudson. Harper & Bros., 1873.
“The Art of Newspaper Making,” by Charles A. Dana. D. Appleton & Co.,
1895.
“Henry J. Raymond and the New York Press for Thirty Years,” by Augustus
Maverick. A. S. Hale & Co., Hartford, Conn., 1870.
“First Blows of the Civil War,” by James S. Pike. American News Co.,
1879.
“Ordered to China; Letters of Wilbur J. Chamberlin.” Frederick A.
Stokes Co., 1903.
“The Making of a Journalist,” by Julian Ralph. Harper & Bros., 1903.
“Mr. Dana of the _Sun_,” by Edward P. Mitchell. _McClure’s Magazine_,
October, 1894.
“The New York _Sun_,” by Will Irwin. _American Magazine_, January, 1909.
“The Men Who Make the New York _Sun_,” by E. J. Edwards. _Munsey’s
Magazine_, October, 1893.
CHRONOLOGY
1833.--The _Sun_ is founded by Benjamin H. Day, September 3.
1835.--Its home is changed from 222 William street to 156 Nassau
street, August 3.
1835.--The Moon Hoax appears, August 25.
1838.--Moses Yale Beach becomes proprietor, June 28.
1842.--The _Sun_ moves to the southwest corner of Fulton and Nassau
streets, July.
1844.--Poe’s Balloon Hoax appears, April 3.
1845.--M. Y. Beach takes his sons, Moses S. and Alfred E., as
partners, October 22.
1848.--Moses Yale Beach retires, December 4.
1852.--Alfred Ely Beach retires, April 6.
1860.--Moses S. Beach lets the _Sun_ to a religious group, August 6.
1861.--The _Sun_ returns to the management of M. S. Beach, January 1.
1864.--The price is raised to two cents, August 1.
1868.--Charles A. Dana becomes the editor and manager of the _Sun_,
January 25.
1868.--The _Sun_ moves to 170 Nassau street, January 25.
1875.--Edward P. Mitchell joins the editorial staff, October 1.
1897.--Death of Charles A. Dana, October 17.
1902.--William M. Laffan’s proprietorship is announced, February 22.
1903.--Edward P. Mitchell becomes the editor of the _Sun_, July 20.
1909.--Death of William M. Laffan, November 19.
1911.--William C. Reick becomes proprietor, December 17.
1915.--The _Sun_ moves to 150 Nassau street, July 11.
1916.--Frank A. Munsey becomes proprietor, June 30.
1916.--With the _Sun_ is amalgamated the New York _Press_, July 3.
1916.--The price is reduced to one cent, July 3.
1918.--The price again becomes two cents, January 26.
INDEX
Abell, Arunah S., associate of Day, 23
establishes Baltimore _Sun_, 136
buys Guilford estate, 136
helps S. F. B. Morse, 136
death of, in 1888, 136
Abolition of slavery, article on, 54
Wisner’s editorial on, 42
Actors of the early 30’s, 121
Adams, Cyrus C., cable editor, 394
Adamson, Robert, _Evening Sun_ reporter, 399
Adams, Samuel Hopkins, Dana finds it hard to discharge, 378, 379
writes Sunday _Sun_ fiction, 412
Adams, Samuel, murdered by John C. Colt, 154
“Addition, Division, and Silence,” 305, 306
Advertising, fashions of, in 1833, 26
specimens of early “liners,” 125
the _Sun_ takes off the first page in 1862, 189
the _Sun_, under Morrison, refuses advertisements on Sunday, 190
Alamo massacre, 113
Alexander, Columbus, escape of, in the Safe Burglary Conspiracy, 308,
309
Alger, Horatio, Jr., writes fiction for the _Sun_, 195
Allen, Miss Susan, smokes a cigar on Broadway, 45
Alumni, of the _Sun_, 328
Anderson, Harold M., Spanish war correspondent, 355, 356
Arago, D. F., alleged deception of, by the Moon Hoax, 97–99
Armstrong, Henry M., Spanish war correspondent, 356
Associated Press, Dana’s break with, 374
formed in _Sun_ office, 167
Astor House, 49
Astor, William B., New York’s richest man, 234
Attree, William H., 61–62
reporter on the _Transcript_, 133, 134
Aviation, prophetic editorial comment on, 46
“Azamet Batuk.” See Thiéblin, N. L.
Badeau, General Adam, a _Sun_ contributor, 404
Ballard, Anna, reporter, 286
Balloon Hoax, Poe’s, referred to by De Morgan, 98
Bartlett, Willard, dramatic critic, counsel for Dana, editorial
contributor, 286
invents the _Sun_ Cat, 287
Bartlett, William O., writes “No king, no clown, to rule this town!”,
255
style of, compared with Dana’s and Mitchell’s, 256
reference of, to General Hancock’s weight, 256
counsel for Tweed, 275
Battey, Emily Verdery, first real woman reporter, 285, 286
appears in the _Sun_ on April 13, 1844, 149–153
Beach, Alfred Ely, becomes partner in the _Sun_, 161, 162
invents first typewriter for the blind, 162
builds first New York subway, 162, 163
withdraws from the _Sun_ April 6, 1852, 171
dies in 1896, 163
Beach Brothers, name of ownership, 170, 171
issue _Evening Sun_, 171
Beach, Erasmus D., book reviewer, 349
writes classic football story, 350
Beach, Frederick Converse, 163
Beach, Joseph, son of Moses Y. Beach, 173
Beach, Moses Sperry, becomes a partner in the _Sun_, 161, 162
part owner Boston _Daily Times_, 162
invents printing devices, 162
becomes sole owner of the _Sun_, 171
brings wood from the Mount of Olives for Beecher’s pulpit, 177
absence of, from the _Sun_ in the early months of the Civil War, 189
takes the _Sun_ back, 191
sells the _Sun_ to Dana, 198, 199
bids readers farewell, 200
Beach, Moses Yale, enters _Sun_ office as bookkeeper, 111
buys the _Sun_, 127
youth and marriage of, 139
inventions of, 140
joins Benjamin H. Day, 140
owns two buildings where the _Sun_ had its home, 157
takes sons as partners, 161
enterprise of, in Mexican War, 164, 165
starts for Mexico as President Polk’s special agent, 166
retires from the _Sun_, 167
dinner in his honour, 167
issues various editions of the _Sun_, 169
publishes “The Wealth of New York,” 169
father of the newspaper syndicate, 169
Dana’s estimate of, 169, 170
amasses a fortune and retires, 170
writes European articles for the _Sun_, 173
Beach, Stanley Yale, 163
Becker, Charles, conviction of, reported by E. C. Hill, 320, 321
Beckwith, Arthur, telegraph editor, 280
Beecher, Henry Ward, John Brown speech of, in the _Sun_, 177
tribute to H. B. Stanton, 259
trial of, 278
“I don’t read the _Sun_,” 310
denounced by the _Sun_, 311
Belknap, William W., accused by the _Sun_ in Post-trader scandal and
impeached, 306, 307
Bell, Jared D., part owner, _New Era_, 134
Bendelari, George, book-reviewer, 411
Bennett, James Gordon, thrashed by Col. Webb, 36
work of, for the _Courier and Enquirer_, 37
editor Philadelphia _Courier_, 53
the _Sun_ replies to charge of, that Day is an infidel, 108
early career of, 109
treats Helen Jewett’s murder sensationally, 114
second assault on, by Webb described, 114
early failures of, 131
debt of, to Day’s example, 132
announcement of coming marriage of, 132
establishes the no-credit system, 133
works harder than other proprietors, 174
dies in 1872, 293
“the first yellow journalist,” 413
Bennett, J. G., Jr., takes his father’s place, 298
death of, 132
Bigelow, John, associate of Bryant, 174
Bishop, Joseph W., night city editor, 372
night editor, 372
Black, Chauncey F., a _Sun_ contributor, 405
Blackwood, Algernon, _Evening Sun_ reporter, 399
Blatchford, Judge Samuel, historic decision of, in the Shepherd case,
307, 308
Blizzard of March, 1888, 362, 363
Blythe, Samuel G., describes E. G. Riggs, 346
Bogart, John B., “If a man bites a dog, that is news,” 241
“a whole school of journalism,” 281
possesses “sixth sense,” 335, 336
persistence of, 336
Bonner, Robert, pays $30,000 for “Norwood,” 235
sagacity of, commented on by Dana, 300
Book-reviewers, _Sun’s_, list of, 411
Borden, Lizzie, acquittal of, reported by Julian Ralph, 318, 319
Bowery Theatre Fire, ruins Hamblin, 118
first American playhouse lighted with gas, 121
Bowles, Samuel, employs B. H. Day, 22–23
Bowman, Frank, dramatic critic, 411
Bread riots, the _Sun’s_ part in, 118, 119
Brewster, Sir David, appears in Moon Hoax, 71
Brisbane, Albert, association of, with Greeley, 161
Brisbane, Arthur, son of Albert Brisbane, 161
style of, like W. O. Bartlett’s, 256
becomes reporter at 18, 346, 347
becomes London correspondent, 347
reports Sullivan-Mitchell fight, 347
is managing editor _Evening Sun_, 348
becomes editor Sunday _World_ magazine, 348
becomes editor _Evening Journal_, 348
becomes proprietor Washington _Times_, 348
takes Richard Harding Davis on _Evening Sun_, 398
Brook Farm, Dana enters, 206
Brooklyn Theatre fire, 362
Brooks brothers, James and Erastus, establish New York _Express_,
134, 135
Brown, John, the _Sun’s_ attitude toward, 177
Bryant, William Cullen, editor and poet in 1833, 34
conflict of, with W. L. Stone, 34
Buchanan, James, supported by the _Sun_, 176
Burdell, Dr. Harvey, murder of, 196
Burnett, Wm., 60
Burr, Aaron, 51
Butler, Stephen B., 60
Cady, Elizabeth, marries Henry B. Stanton, 259
Caroline case, the _Sun’s_ enterprise in reporting, 144, 145
Carroll, Dana H., Spanish war correspondent, 355
Cat, the _Sun’s_, his invention and reputation, 287–289
Chadwick, George W., in business with Dana, 216
Chamberlains and Chamberlins, 341–343
Chamberlain, Henry Richardson, covers Europe for the _Sun_, 342
visions by, of a great war, 342
Chamberlin, Wilbur J., takes charge of the _Sun_ staff in Cuba, 356
eleven-column report by, 361
known as “Jersey,” 338;
cable hoodoo of, 339, 340
describes German soldiers’ brutality in China, 340
describes the Deacon’s broken suspenders, 341
Chamberlin, E. O., reporter, 342
Chamberlin, Henry B., reporter, 343
Childs, George W., tells of W. M. Swain’s industry, 135
buys _Public Ledger_, 135
Cholera, in New York, 1832, 22
Church, Francis P., a _Sun_ editorial writer for forty years, 191
“Is There a Santa Claus?,” 409
Church, William C., publisher of the _Sun_, 190
war correspondent, 190, 191
owns _Army and Navy Journal_, 191
Circulation in November, 1833, 2,000, 50
in December, 1833, 52
April, 1834, 54
in November, 1834, 57
Day offers to bet on it, 62–63
in August, 1835, it becomes the largest in the world, 78
in August, 1836, 27,000, 116
in September, 1843, 38,000, 157
in December, 1848, 50,000, 168
in September, 1860, 59,000, 194
Dana’s estimate of 50,000 to 60,000 in 1868, 228
in 1871, 100,000, 269
in March, 1875, 120,000, 300
day after Tilden-Hayes election, 220, 390, 323, 325
after other interesting events, 323–325
high-tide marks, 325
Civil War, the _Sun_ in the, 172 _et seq._
the _Sun_ declares “the Union cannot be dissolved,” 179
the _Sun_ charges the _Herald_, the _Daily News_, and the
_Staats-Zeitung_ with disloyalty, 180, 181
the _Sun_, the _Tribune_, and the _Times_ entirely loyal, 185
the _Sun’s_ news from Bull Run, 187;
from Gettysburg, 188
the _Sun_ protests against Sunday battles, 190
attitude of Greeley and Dana, 211
Clarke, Selah Merrill, night city editor, 1881–1912, 383
story of the Northampton disaster by, 383
remarkable memory of, 384, 385
head-lines written by, 387, 388
gifts of, as copy reader, 389
Cleveland, Grover, Dana’s opposition to, 421, 422
Clubs: Bread and Cheese, Hone, Union, 122, 123
Cobb, Irvin S., reports Portsmouth peace conference for _Evening
Sun_, 399
Coffey, Titian J., recipient of the “addition, division, and silence”
letter, 305
Collins, E. K., an advertiser in the first _Sun_, 27
Colt, John C., murders Samuel Adams, 154
Conkling, Roscoe, in business with Dana, 216
Connolly, James, reporter, 284
Conventions, national, _Sun_ men reporting, 344
history of, written by E. G. Riggs, 346
Cook, Tom, reporter, 284
Cooper, Charles P., city editor, _Evening Sun_, 400
Cooper, James Fenimore, 50
Corbin, John, dramatic critic, 411
Coward, Edward Fales, _Evening Sun_ dramatic critic, 399
Crédit Mobilier scandal, 304
Crockett, David, memoirs of, in the _Sun_, 51
Cronyn, Thoreau, Dewey’s funeral, report by, 333
Cuba, Dana’s interest in struggle of, 353–355
Cullen, Clarence L., writes “Tales of the Ex-Tanks,” 411
Cummings, Alexander, writes for the _World_, 182
Cummings, Amos Jay, secretly learns typesetting, 264
goes with Filibuster Walker, 265
wins Medal of Honor at Fredericksburg, 265
holds _Tribune_ office against rioters, 266
conflicts with John Russell Young, 266
“They say I swear too much,” 267
“To hell with my own copy,” 267
best news man of his day, 268
is first human interest reporter, 268
reports prize fights, 285
Nicara-goo Song of, 289, 290
“Ziska” letters of, 290
is managing editor of the _Express_, 290
returns to the _Sun_, 290
is elected to House of Representatives, 290
becomes editor _Evening Sun_, 290
returns to Congress, 290, 291
death and funeral of, 291
prints murder charts, 414
Curtin, Jeremiah, a _Sun_ contributor, 404
Curtis, David A., Sunday _Sun_ writer, 412
Curtis, George Ticknor, a _Sun_ contributor, 404
Curtis, George William, writes for the _Tribune_, 161
Daly, Augustin, tries to have Dana dismiss Laffan, 252
Damrosch, Leopold, music critic, 314
Dana, Charles A., a boy in Buffalo when Day founded the _Sun_, 35
reading “Oliver Twist” weakens eyes of, 123
draws $50 a week on _Tribune_, 174
named by the _Sun_ as a possible postmaster, 179
buys the _Sun_ and announces its policy, 198, 199
absolute master of the _Sun_, 202
birth and ancestry, 202
brothers and sisters of, 203
boyhood and life of, in Buffalo, 203, 204
goes to Harvard, 204
teaches school at Scituate, 205
religious indecision of, 205
sight of, impaired, 206
joins Brook Farm, 206
milks cows and waits on table, 207
meets Horace Greeley, 207
writes for the _Harbinger_ and the _Dial_, 207
writes poetry, 208
marries, 208
goes to Boston _Daily Chronotype_, 208
comes out “strong against hell,” 209
becomes city editor of the New York _Tribune_, 209
goes to Europe, 209
returns to be managing editor of the _Tribune_, 210
his pay and income, 210
literary works of, before Civil War, 213
leaves the _Tribune_, 214, 215
induces Grant to stop the cotton speculation, 216
convinces Lincoln of needed reforms, 216
is chosen to report on complaints against Grant, 216, 217
writes of his “new insight into slavery,” 218
is with Grant at Vicksburg, 218
brings Grant full authority, 218
sees much of war, 219
estimate of Grant by, 219
estimate of Rawlins by, 219, 220
reports on Rosecrans, 220
poetry contest of, with General Lawler, 221
describes the storming of Missionary Ridge, 221, 222
reports Grant’s Virginia campaign, 222, 223
goes to Richmond to gather Confederate archives, 224
talks with Lincoln about Jacob Thompson, 224
authorizes Miles to manacle Jefferson Davis, 224
quoted on Davis’s imprisonment, 225
becomes editor of Chicago _Republican_, 225
assails President Johnson, 226
quits Chicago _Republican_, 226
determines to have a New York newspaper, 226
his backers, 226
decides to buy the _Sun_, 228, 229
changes its appearance, 230
moves “It Shines for All,” 230, 231
“Dana was the _Sun_ and the _Sun_ Dana,” 231
makes no rules for the _Sun_, 238
editorial principles of, 238, 239
lectures at Cornell, 239
defines news, 241
on college education, 242
on reporting, 242
“The invariable law is to be interesting,” 243
“Do not take any model,” 243, 244
not impressed by names of writers, 246
“This is too damned wicked,” 246
refuses to expose a silly literary thief, 246
methods and surroundings of, 246–251
interest of, in everything and everybody, 251
“Take the partition down,” 251
love of, for variety of topics, 253
delight of, in other men’s work, 254
tact of, in handling men, 263
death of great rivals of, 293
quoted on “personal journalism,” 296
quoted on Greeley, Raymond, and Bennett, 297
“We pass the _Tribune_ by”, 298
advises _World_ reporters to read the Bible, 299
kindly feeling of, toward the younger Bennett, 299
belief of, in a newspaper without advertising, 299–301
objects to “heavy chunks of news,” 302
“our contemporaries exhaust their young men,” 302
is a witness against Secretary Robeson, 305
defeats Shepherd’s attempt to railroad him, 307
denies wishing to be collector of the port, 309, 310
loses friends because of attacks on Grantism, 310
refuses to be turned, 310
retains opinion of Grant’s military ability, 310
“First find the man,” plans of, 326
frames gold plank for New York convention of 1896, 345
asks Platt not to oppose Roosevelt, 345
affection of, for Cuba, 353–354
memorial to, in Camaguey, 354, 355
breaks with Associated Press, 374
encouraged _Sun_ men to write fiction, 405
“The second yellow journalist,” 413
not a yellow journalist, 415
attacks yellow journalism, 413, 415, 416, 417
revolutionizes journalism, 416
“An opposition party in himself,” 420
attacks Hayes, 420
opposition of, to Cleveland, 420
supports B. F. Butler, 420
would burn his pen rather than support Blaine, 421
opinion of, on civil service reform, 421
opposes Bryan, 422
continental travels, 423
knowledge of languages, 423
porcelain collection of, 423
country home of, 424
death of, 425
the _Sun’s_ announcement of death of, 425
elevation of journalism by, 426
Dana, Paul, succeeds his father as editor, 426
chief owner, 427
Davids, David, reporter, 283
Davies, Acton, Spanish war correspondent, 356
_Evening Sun_ dramatic critic, 399
Davis, Oscar King, goes with Schley’s squadron, 355
describes capture of Guam, 356, 357
Davis, Richard Harding, experiences and work of, on _Evening Sun_, 398
writes _Van Bibber_ stories for _Evening Sun_, 398
Day, Benjamin H., decides to publish the _Sun_, 22
birth and ancestry of, 22
issues the first _Sun_, 25
issues a _True Sun_, 60
is indicted for attacking Attree, 61
welcomes an attack by Col. Webb, 111
quarrels with Bennett, 110
attacks the service at the Astor House, 117
name of, taken from the _Sun’s_ masthead, 125
sells the _Sun_ to Moses Y. Beach, 127
period of ownership by, of the _Sun_, 127
profits from the _Sun_, 127, 128
influence of, upon journalism, 129
influence of, on Bennett’s success, 131, 132
success of, responsible for the founding of many one-cent papers,
133
says the _Sun’s_ success was “more by accident than design,” 137
establishes _True Sun_, 137
starts the _Tatler_, 137, 138
founds _Brother Jonathan_, 138
retirement and death of, 138
remarks on Dana’s purchase of the _Sun_, 138
son of Benjamin H. Day, 138
contrasted with Dana, 202
was he a yellow journalist?, 414
Delane, John T., pictured by Kinglake, 247
De Morgan, Augustus, notes of, on the Moon Hoax, 96–99
Denison, Lindsay, covers Slocum disaster, 361
Dick, Dr. Thomas, 66
Dickens, Charles, “Nicholas Nickleby” criticized, 123
The _Sun’s_ comments on American visit of, 155, 156, 157
Dieuaide, Thomas M., writes story of the Santiago sea fight, 355, 356
describes the destruction of St. Pierre, 357, 358
Dillingham, Charles B., _Evening Sun_ dramatic critic, 399
Dix, John A., an advertiser in the first _Sun_, 28
Dix, John A., Governor, seizes three New York newspapers in 1864, 183
Douglas, Stephen A., the _Sun’s_ attitude toward, 175, 177, 178
Draper, Dr. John W., 35
Dyer, Oliver, versatility of, 405
Eaton, Walter P., dramatic critic, 411
Edison, Thomas A., thanks the _Sun_ for chewing tobacco, 322
Editorial writers, list of, 326
England, Isaac W., first managing editor of the _Sun_, 263, 264
Dana’s tribute to, 264
Evans, George O., “He understands addition, division, and silence,”
305
_Evening Sun_, first issued by Beach Brothers, 171
issued by Dana, March 17, 1887, 397
“Laffan’s baby,” 397
Cummings first managing editor of, 397
later managing editors of, 398, 400
list of editorial writers, managing editors, and city editors of,
399, 400
Express service, usefulness to the _Sun_, 140, 141
Fairbanks, Charles M., reporter and night editor, 351
Fernandez, the murderer, 103–104
Field, Eugene, obtains Dana’s shears, 249
Fire, New York conflagration of 1835, 105–106
Fisk, James, Jr., pays $800,000 for a theatre, 236
tells of _Sun_ enterprise, 269, 270
Fitzgerald, Christopher J., finds the lost Umbria, 392, 393
Flaherty, Bernard. See Williams, Barney.
Flint, Dr. Austin, youthful friend of Dana, 204
Florence, William J., subscriber to the Tweed statue fund, 273
Foord, John, editor of the _Times_, 298
Football, Ralph’s story without a score, 334, 335
Beach’s Homeric introduction, 350, 351
Forks, the _Sun’s_ conservative attitude toward, 55
Forrest, Edwin, 55–56
Fowler, Elting A., predicts Bryan’s appointment as Secretary of
State, 377
Fuller, Andrew S., agricultural editor, 199, 200
Fyles, Franklin, reports Beecher trial, 278
reporter, dramatic critic, and playwright, 283
Garr, Andrew S., sues Day for libel, 126
Gibson, A. M., Washington correspondent, 312
Godwin, Parke, edits _Daily News_, 181
Goodwin, Joseph, creates _Sarsaparilla Reilly_, 412
Gould, Jay, is blackballed in the Blossom Club, 270
Grant, Ulysses S., the _Sun’s_ support of, in 1868, announced, 199
imposed upon, 304
opposed by the _Sun_, 304
Grant scandals, 304–310
Greeley, Horace, founds _Morning Post_, 23
fails with _Morning Post_, 37
Albany correspondent _Daily Whig_, 134
starts the _Tribune_, 159
is scorned by the _Sun_, 159
hires Henry J. Raymond, 160
attacks the _Sun_, 161
tells British legislators the _Sun_ was cheap at $250,000, 171
mentioned for the collectorship, 179
hires Dana, 209
timidity of, toward slavery, 211
writes pleas to Dana, 212
denies writing “Forward to Richmond!”, 213
hires Cummings on the state of his breeches, 266
Gregg, Frederic J., editorial writer, _Evening Sun_, 400
Griffis, William Elliot, a _Sun_ contributor, 404
Gurowski, Count, writes for the _Tribune_, 161
Hackett, James H., 39
Hallock, Gerard, sympathy of, with slavery forces him to retire from
the _Journal of Commerce_, 181, 182
Hamblin, Thomas S., ruined by fire of 1836, 118
beats Bennett, 118
Hamilton, Captain, aspersions of, relative to tooth brushes, 45
Harbour Association, formed by six newspapers, 167
Harnden, William F., starts express service, New York to Boston, 141
Harte, Bret, stories by, syndicated by the _Sun_, 403
Hawkins, Ervin, city editor, _Evening Sun_, 400
Hayward, Billings, part owner of the _Transcript_, 133, 134
Hazeltine, Mayo W., writes on Dana’s elevation of journalism, 426
“M. W. H.,” 408
literary critic for thirty-one years, 408
Head-lines, the _Sun’s_ second, 44
examples of (1833), 52
example of, in Dana’s time, 314
Hearst, William R., “the fourth yellow journalist,” 413
Henderson, William J., musical critic and yachting writer, 391
Hendrix, Joseph C., “Cut out the damn,” 279
“Hermit,” writes Washington letters for the _Sun_, 176
Herschel, Sir John F. W., 66
Hill, Edwin C., reports Becker trial, 321
style of, in disaster stories, 361, 362
Hitchcock, Thomas, author of “Matthew Marshall” financial articles,
228
Hoaxes. See Moon Hoax, Balloon Hoax, Mungo Park.
Hoe, Robert, Day’s remark at dinner to, 137
Holmes, Mary J., writes novels for the _Sun_, 195
Hone, Philip, as a writer, 37
Horse expresses: the six-cent papers combine to use, 110
Hotels, huge noon dinners in the thirties, 122
Howard, Joseph, Jr., issues a false Presidential proclamation, 183
Hudson, Frederic, opposes managing editorships, 262
“Human interest,” 244, 245, 313, 363
Humour, 366, 367
Hurlbut, William Henry, a _Sun_ contributor, 405
Illustrations, the _Sun’s_ first, 43
Interviews, invented by Bennett, 316
Introductions, the _Sun’s_ objection to, 363
Irving, Washington, 34–35
Irwin, Will, “The City That Was,” 358
“It Shines for All,” 58
Jackson, Andrew, message of, printed in full, 51
James, Henry, flashy head-lines on a novel by, 404
Jennings, Louis J., chief editorial writer of the _Times_, 274
becomes editor of the _Times_, 298
returns to England, 298
Jewett, Helen, murder of, 113, 114
trial of Robinson for murder of, 115, 116
Jones, Alexander, becomes first agent of Associated Press, 167
invents telegraph cipher, 167
Jones, George, partner of H. J. Raymond, 274
Journalism, the earliest dailies, 29
advance of, between 1830 and 1840, 136, 137
great editors of 1868, 233
managing editors, 262, 263
first women reporters, 285, 286
Watterson’s review in 1873, 293–295
“Personal journalism,” 295, 296
Dana’s dream of a paper without advertisements, 299–301
interviewing, 316
What do people read?, 323
“Sixth sense,” 335, 336
_Journal of Commerce_, the _Sun’s_ only surviving morning
contemporary of 1833, 25
Josephs, Joseph, reporter, 283
Kane, Lawrence S., city editor, 279
reporter, 280
Kellogg, Daniel F., city editor 1890–1902, 371
Kelly, John, marriage of, reported, 321, 322
Kemble, Fanny, 44, 59
Kemble, W. H., author of the “addition, division, and silence”
letter, 305
causes Dana’s arrest, 306
is sent to prison, 306
Kendall, George W., despatches of, to the New Orleans _Picayune_ used
by the _Sun_, 165
King, Charles, editor of the _American_, 130, 131
Know-Nothing Party, uses Maria Monk’s “Disclosures” as political
capital, 112
Kobbé, Gustav, dramatic and musical critic, 350
Laffan Bureau, established, 375
growth, 376
Laffan, William M., becomes proprietor of the _Sun_, 427
thorough newspaper training of, 427
art expert, 427, 428
dramatic critic, 428
“Anybody can get anything printed, except the owner,” 428
death of, in 1909, 430
Landon, M. D. See Eli Perkins.
Leggett, William, fights duel with Blake, 130
Levermore, Charles H., describes victory of the _Sun_ and the
_Herald_ over old-fashioned journalism, 137
Lincoln, Abraham, “No match for the Little Giant,” 177
“A man of the people,” 178
is elected, “and yet the country is safe,” 179
_Sun_ comments on re-election of, 182;
on death of, 182
New York newspapers’ comment on emancipation proclamation, 184
assigns Dana to Virginia campaign, 222
Literature, in the fifties, 173
serial novels contracted for by M. S. Beach, 196
“The finest side of the _Sun_,” 402, _et seq._
Literary men, list of, in 1833, 34–35
Lloyd, Nelson, Spanish war correspondent, 355
city editor, _Evening Sun_, 400
Locke, Richard Adams, goes on _Sun_ as a reporter, 64
Poe’s sketch of, 65, 66
early life of, 66
confesses the Moon Hoax, 86–87
life of the murderer, Fernandez, by, 103–104
starts the _New Era_, 116–117
writes “The Lost Manuscript of Mungo Park,” 117
becomes editor of the Brooklyn _Eagle_, 117, 118
death of, 118
attends dinner to Moses Y. Beach, 167
Lord, Chester S., Whisky Ring story by, 284, 285
long service of, 326, 327
first staff of, 327
“Ten thousand battles of,” 327
managing editor, 1880–1913, 372
studies at Hamilton College, 373
goes on the _Sun_ as a reporter, 373
buys Syracuse _Standard_, 373
returns to the _Sun_, 373
assistant managing editor, 373
managing editor, 373
described by E. G. Riggs, 373
perfects collection of election returns, 374
sends Blaine first news of his defeat, 374
establishes a news service in a night, 375
selection of correspondents by, 376
“Use your own judgment,” 377, 378
“You’ve been fired, but come back,” 378
Lord, Kenneth, city editor, 371, 432
Lotteries, list of numbers drawn, in the _Sun_, 40
Lottery advertising, 37
Luby, James, chief editorial writer, _Evening Sun_, 400
Lyman, Ambrose W., night city editor, 371
Lynch, Charles, Sunday _Sun_ writer, 412
Lynde, Willoughby, part owner of the _Transcript_, 133, 134
Magazines, New York periodicals in 1833, 34
Maguire, Mark, newsboy and sports writer, 285
invents boxing chart, 285
Mallon, George Barry, city editor, 1902–1914, 371
Mandigo, John, sporting editor, 395
Mann, Henry, reporter, exchange editor and author, 284
reports Stokes trial, 321
Mansfield, Josephine, 236, 270
Marble, Manton, joins the _World_, 182
controls it, 182
protests to Lincoln when the _World_ is suppressed, 183
Maria Monk, the _Sun_ prints “Disclosures” of, 111, 112
exposed by W. L. Stone in the _Commercial Advertiser_, 112, 113
Martineau, Harriet, comments of, on the Moon Hoax, 86
“Matthew Marshall.” See Hitchcock, Thomas.
Matthias the Prophet, trial of, for murder, 63
McAlpin, Robert, reporter, 284
McAlpin, Tod, reporter, 284
McClellan, George B., supported by the _Sun_ in 1864, 185
McCloy, W. C., city editor and managing editor, _Evening Sun_, 398,
400
McDonnell, P. G., predicts Aguinaldo’s revolt, 376
McEntee, Joseph, Albany correspondent, 394
Mexican War, _Sun’s_ news of, 164, 165
costly to newspapers, 166
Mitchell, Edward P., owns a copy of the first _Sun_, 26
is quoted on Dana’s freedom from ancient journalistic rules, 240
describes Dana’s methods and surroundings, 247–251
describes Dana’s encouragement of Cuba Libre, 354
finds “Plaza Charles A. Dana” in Camaguey, 355
writes short stories of distinction, 405
breadth of his fancy and humour, 405, 406
address on “The Newspaper Value of Non-essentials,” 406
champions the classics, 407
defines yellow journalism and white, 415
describes Dana’s revolution of journalism, 416
receives Dana’s instructions as to length of death notice, 425
becomes editor-in-chief, 430
president of the Sun Printing and Publishing Association,
1909–1911, 430
remains as editor, 432
“Monsieur X.” See Thiéblin, Napoleon L.
Moon Hoax, 64–101
reacts on the _Sun’s_ big fire story, 106
Morris, George P., 37
Morrissey, John, pugilist, is supported for the Senate by the _Sun_,
323
Morrison, Archibald M., gains control of the _Sun_ to use it for
evangelical purposes, 189
Morse, Samuel F. B., assisted by W. M. Swain and A. S. Abell to
finance the telegraph, 136
Motto, “It Shines for All” appears, origin of, 58
Mullin, Edward H., editorial writer, _Evening Sun_, 400
Munn, Orson D., buys _Scientific American_ with Alfred E. Beach, 162
Munsey, Frank A., sells Washington _Times_ to Brisbane, 348
remarks of, at Yale on the influence of the _Sun_ and the _World_,
419
buys New York _Press_, 431
buys the _Sun_, 431
consolidates the _Sun_ and the _Press_, 431
buys Stewart Building, 432
“M. W. H.” See Hazeltine, M. W.
“Mystery of Marie Roget.” See Rogers, Mary.
Navy Department scandals, 304, 305
“Nemo,” a _Sun_ correspondent in the Civil War, 188
News boats, 166
Newsboys, Day originates street sales by, 39–40
Sam Messenger, 40
Newspapers, _Courrant_, the first English daily, 29
London _Times_ the first English paper to use a steam press, 29
_Pennsylvania Packet_, the first American daily, 29
the _Globe_, oldest New York paper, 29
the _Evening Post_, second oldest New York paper, 29
the _Courier_ and the _Enquirer_ amalgamated, 35
New York _Tribune_, founding of, 37
New York _Times_ is started, 57
the _Transcript_ is started, 57
the _True Sun_, 59–60
_Courier and Enquirer_, its huge size, 62
attitude of the _Sun’s_ contemporaries toward the Moon Hoax, 75,
76, 82, 87
the _Sun’s_ penny imitators, editorial reference to, 107
New York _Herald_ prints the first report of Stock Exchange sales,
109
_Herald’s_ circulation in 1836, 116
the _Journal of Commerce_ denounces the _Sun_ as an inciter of
riots, 119
paper rolls, a new invention, described, 123, 124
_Courier and Enquirer’s_ writers under Webb, 130
_Journal of Commerce_, enterprise under Gerard Hallock’s
editorship, 130
the _Transcript’s_ early success, 133, 134
list of penny papers started in New York, 1833–1838, 134
New York _Express_ established, 134, 135
New York _Daily News_ established, 134, 135
the _Daily Transcript_, the first Philadelphia penny paper, 135
Philadelphia _Public Ledger_, office mobbed, 135
list of great dailies founded, 1833–1843, 136
the _Herald_ called “a very bad paper,” by Greeley, 174
New York _World_, appearance of, as a highly moral sheet, 182
the New York _Times_ and the Tweed exposure, 274, 275
Orange _Postman_, the first penny paper, 29
Newspaper feuds, Day and Webb, 54
_Sun_ and _Journal of Commerce_, 54
New York, size and life of, in 1833, 32–34
life in the thirties, 121–123
rich and powerful figures of Dana’s first _Sun_ year, 234, 235
clubs, hotels, and theatres of the sixties, 236, 237
New York _Press_, sports staff of, transferred to the _Sun_, 393
Nicollet, Jean Nicolas, supposed connection of, with the Moon Hoax,
94–101
Noah, Mordecai M., 61
establishes _Morning Star_, 134
“No king, no clown, to rule this town,” 255
Norr, William, writes “The Pearl of Chinatown,” 411
North, S. N. D., describes the influence of the penny press, 137
North, Walter Savage, writes fiction for the _Sun_, 196
circulation of New York dailies in 1833, 31
“Nym Crinkle.” See Andrew C. Wheeler.
O’Brien, John H., Laffan’s jest with, 429, 430
Odion, Henry W., night city editor, 371
O’Hanlon, Virginia, asks the _Sun_ if there is a Santa Claus, 409
O’Malley, Frank W., story by, on Policeman Sheehan’s death, 364
describes Passover parade, 367
Overton, Grant M., book-reviewer, 411
Palmer, Frederick, _Evening Sun_ reporter, 399
Paragraphs, quotations from, in 1834, 52–53
Park, Mungo, Locke writes the “Lost Manuscript” of, 117
Patton, Francis T., rules for exaggeration by, 390, 391
Penny newspapers, failure of, before the _Sun_ was established, 23
Perkins, Eli (Melville De Lancey Landon), _Sun_ correspondent, 314
Philip Hone, the _Sun_ suggests that he incited a riot, 119
Phillips, David Graham, last assignments of, 360
finds material for novels, 360
Pigs in City Hall Park, the _Sun_ objects to, 55
Pigeons, the _Sun_ uses, to carry ship news, 146, 147
editorial explaining presence of, on the _Sun’s_ roof, 147, 148
Pike, James S., Dana advises, to get “Black Dan drunk,” 211
career of, as journalist and diplomat, 256, 257
Poe, Edgar Allan, describes R. A. Locke, 65, 66
his “Hans Pfaall” spoiled by the Moon Hoax, 90–93
belief of, that the Moon Hoax firmly established penny newspapers,
102
returns to New York, 148
writes the Balloon Hoax for the _Sun_, 149
inspiration of, for “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” 153, 155
Post-Trader scandal, 306
Prall, William M., 104
Press, the _Sun’s_ first, 24
the _Sun’s_ second, 52
the _Sun’s_ third, 58
Presses, Day buys two Napiers, 118
Price, Joseph, partner of R. A. Locke in _New Era_, 116
part owner _New Era_, 134
Price of the _Sun_ changed from “one penny” to “one cent,” 51
Printers, union, in 1833, 48
Prize-fighting denounced, 59
Pulitzer, Joseph, is assigned by Dana to report the electoral
controversy, 240
correspondent of the _Sun_, 312
“The third yellow journalist,” 413
influence of, on journalism, 419
Railroads, extent of, in 1833, 30
Ralph, Julian, reports Borden trial, 321
long service of, on _Sun_, 331
Grant’s funeral, report by, 332
books written by, 334
a football classic by, with the score left out, 334, 335
Molly Maguires, reported by, 335
is gifted with “sixth sense,” 335
describes reporting an inauguration, 337
Ramsey, Dave, originates the idea of a penny _Sun_, 21
Rawlins, General John A., part of, in Dana’s assignment to report on
Grant, 218
Raymond, Henry J., goes to the _Tribune_, 160
performs a great reporting feat, 160
leaves Greeley, 160
becomes the first editor of the New York _Times_, 161
calls Webb’s paper “the Austrian organ in Wall Street,” 174
Reamer, Lawrence, dramatic critic, 411
Reick, William C., becomes proprietor, 430
early career of, 430, 431
improves _Evening Sun_, 431
sells the _Sun_ to Frank A. Munsey, 431
Reid, Whitelaw, succeeds Greeley, 298
Reporters, comparison of styles, 315–322
_Sun_ staff in 1893, 330
_Sun_, anonymity of, almost complete, 330
“The _Sun_ has no ‘stars,’” 359
a typical assignment list in 1893, 359
Rewey, Elijah M., night city editor, 371
exchange editor, 372
Riggs, Edward G., reports seven national conventions, 343, 344
wide acquaintance of, 344
Dana’s reliance on, 344
“Riggs is my Phil Sheridan,” 345
defines political correspondents, 345, 346
described by Samuel G. Blythe, 346
writes history of national conventions, 346
describes Lord’s discernment, 373
tells how Lord built up the Laffan bureau, 375, 376
“One story you [Chamberlin] can’t write,” 341
“Rigolo.” See Thiéblin, N. L.
Riis, Jacob A., chief police reporter, _Evening Sun_, 398
writings of, attract Roosevelt, 398, 399
Riots, the Bowery Theatre, 55–56
Ripley, George, lectures, 205
helps Dana to enter Brook Farm, 206
is chief of the cow-milking group, 207
editor of the _Harbinger_, 207
prepares, with Dana, the “New American Encyclopedia,” 213
Robeson, George M., accused by the _Sun_ in the Navy scandal, 304, 305
Robinson, Lucius, _Sun_ reporter and governor, 104–105
Rogers, Mary, disappearance of, announced in the _Sun_, 153
editorial comment on murder of, 154
Poe’s uses case of, in fiction, 153, 155
Root, Walstein, Spanish war correspondent, 355
Rosebault, Walter M., city editor and reporter, 280
Rosenfeld, Sidney, _Sun_ reporter in 1870, 280
Ruhl, Arthur, _Evening Sun_ reporter, 399
Rum, the _Sun’s_ aversion to, 43
Safe Burglary Conspiracy, 308
Salary Grab, 307
Sam Patch, the _Sun’s_ pigeon, 147, 149
Santa Claus editorial article, 409, 410
_Scientific American_, interest in, bought by Alfred E. Beach, 162
Secession, the _Sun’s_ plan to emasculate, 179, 180
Serviss, Garret P., night editor, 372
Shaw, Henry Grenville, telegraph editor, 280
Shepherd, Alexander, accused by the _Sun_ in the Washington paving
scandal, 307
tries to hale Dana to Washington, 307
Short, Wm. F., 60
Shunk, James F., a _Sun_ contributor, 405
Siamese Twins, arrest of, 51
Simonds, Frank H., editorial writer, the _Sun_ and the _Evening Sun_,
400
Simonton, James W., associate of Raymond, 174
“Six-penny respectables,” 110
“Sixth sense,” examples of, 335, 336
Slavery, Missouri Compromise and Dred Scott decision rejected by the
_Sun_, 175, 176
Smith, George M., night editor, 1904–1912, 372
managing editor _Evening Sun_, 400
Smith, Goldwin, a _Sun_ contributor, 404
Space rates, 380
Spalding, James R., a _World_ writer, 182
Spanish War, _Sun’s_ news service in, 353–356
Sports, the _Sun’s_ first prize-fight story, 58
Sports department, 391–393
Spears, John R., cruises around the world, 349
reports America’s Cup races, 349
covers Hatfield-McCoy feuds, 349
books written by, 349
Spears, Raymond S., reporter, 349
Speed, Keats, becomes managing editor, 432
Spencer, Edward, a writer of fiction for the _Sun_, 405
Stanley, William J., part owner of the _Transcript_, 133
Stanton, Henry Brewster, a _Sun_ writer from 1868 to 1887, 258, 259
Beecher’s tribute to, 259
Stanton, Edwin M., asks Dana to enter War Department, 215
withdraws appointment, 216
Steamships, Great Western arrives at New York, 119
Sirius arrives at New York, 119
the _Sun’s_ extras on arrival of, 142
loss of the President, 143
Stephens, Ann S., writes fiction for the _Sun_, 196
Stereotyping, adopted by the _Sun_, 193
Stetson, Francis Lynde, a _Sun_ contributor, 404
Stevenson, Robert Louis, early successes of, first appear in the
_Sun_, 403, 404
South Seas articles of, complete only in the _Sun_, 403, 404
Stewart, Alexander T., grave robbery of, 322
Stewart, William (“Walsingham”), first dramatic critic to adopt
intimate style, 411
Stillman, Amos B., telegraph editor for forty-five years, 280
“Quite a fire in Chicago,” 281
Stokes, Edward S., conviction of, reported by Henry Mann, 317, 318
Stone, William L., conflict of, with Bryant, 34
the _Sun’s_ quarrel with, 56
sketch of, 112
exposes Maria Monk, 113
Sullivan-Mitchell fight, Arthur Brisbane’s report of, 347, 348
_Sun_, the, reprints of the first issue, 25
size of the first issue, 25
extant copies of first issue, 26
second issue, contents of, 38
attacks shinplasters and phrenology, 123
sold by Day to Beach, 127
plant, expenses, and circulation of, June, 1838, 128
Day’s period of ownership of, 127
editorial comment in 1837 on popularity of, 129
issues extras on the arrival of the Great Western, the British
Queen, and other steamships, 142
uses horse expresses to bring Governor Seward’s message from
Albany, 143
uses train, trotting horses, and boat to get the news of the
steamer Caroline case, 144, 145
uses carrier pigeons to get ship news, 146, 147
moves to Nassau and Fulton streets, 1842, 146, 147
second home of, burned after it had moved, 157
buys a new dress of type every three months, 158
is seven columns wide in 1840, 158
title of, reads “_The New York Sun_” for a few months, 158
is eight columns wide in 1843, 158
_Weekly Sun_, 169
_American Sun_, for Europeans, 169
_Illustrated Sun_, 169
syndicates President Tyler’s Message in 1841, 169
value of, $250,000 in 1852, 171
becomes a two-cent paper August 1, 1864;
a one-cent paper, July 1, 1916;
a two-cent paper January 26, 1918, 194
size of, reduced to five columns in 1863, 193
_Weekly Sun_, continued by Dana, 199
_Semi-Weekly Sun_ announced, 199
Dana and his associates pay $175,000 for, 228, 229
apologizes for issuing more than four pages, 278
city editors under Cummings, 279
telegraph editors, 280
Office Cat of, 287–289
only four pages for twenty years, 301
extraordinary sales, 323–325
success of, explained by E. P. Mitchell, 325
the _Sun_ spirit, 326, 379
home of, for forty-seven years, 369
editors-in-chief, only three in fifty years, 371
managing editors, list of, 371
city editors, list of, 371
night city editors, list of, 371
night editors, list of, 372
news system, 372
ethics, 380–383
list of editorial writers, 409
price of, 431, 432
homes of, 432
“Sunbeams” column, 315
Sun cholera cure, 173
Swain, Wm. M., predicts Day’s ruin, 24
founds Philadelphia _Public Ledger_, 135
industry of, 135
makes $3,000,000, 135
Swift, John T., sends the _Sun_ a beat on Port Arthur’s fall, 376, 377
Swinton, John, double intellectual life of, 259
makes speeches attacking Dana, 260
is managing editor of the _Times_, 261
starts _John Swinton’s Paper_, 261
Tammany Hall, old home of, bought by Dana for the _Sun_, 229
Taylor, Bayard, European correspondent of the _Tribune_, 161
Telegraph, comments on Morse’s new invention, 145
a report that the _Sun_ tried to control, 146
extended to New York in 1846, 146
is opened from New York to Philadelphia, Boston, and Albany, 164
lines completed in 1846, 165
drives reprint from first page, 171
first cable messages, 197, 198
Theatres, the Bowery riot, 55–56
attractions of the thirties, 121, 122
“Footlight Flashes,” 315, 316
list of _Sun_ critics, 411
Thiéblin, Napoleon L., critic and essayist, 314, 315
uses pen names of “Monsieur X,” “Azamet Batuk,” and “Rigolo,” 314,
315
Tilden, Samuel J., editor of _Daily News_, 181
Townsend, Edward W., writes _Chimmie Fadden_ stories, 330
fiction characters created by, 411
Trains, special news, used by _Sun_ and _Herald_, 166
Trowbridge, H. Warren, writes fiction for the _Sun_, 195
Tweed, William M., is boss of the city, 234
as a source of news, 269
statue of, a _Sun_ joke, 271–274
declination by, 273
retains W. O. Bartlett as counsel, 275
denounced by the _Sun_, 275, 276
absolute power of, 276
stable of, described by the _Sun_, 277
escapes from keepers, 277
Van Anda, Carr V., night editor, 1893–1904, 372
Van Buren, Martha, 51
Vance, John, writes editorials, 174
leaves the _Sun_, 192
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, an advertiser in the first _Sun_, 27
opposes Jay Gould, 235
a _Sun_ interview with, in 1875, 316
Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, deception of, by Tweed statue joke, 274
Vila, Joseph, sports editor, _Evening Sun_, 400
Damon Runyon’s tribute to, 393
exposes huge betting, 393
Wall Street news, Bennett appreciates value of, 109
“Walsingham.” See William Stewart.
Wardman, Ervin, first used phrase “Yellow Journalism,” 415
becomes publisher of the _Sun_, 432
Warren, General Fitz-Henry, writes the phrase, “Forward to
Richmond!”, 213, 214
career of, 214
_Sun_ writer, soldier, and politician, 257, 258
article of, on Sumner’s death, 258
Watkins, James T., editorial writer, _Evening Sun_, 399
Watterson, Henry, “You [Dana] don’t make the _Sun_,” 291
“Mr. Dana is left alone,” 293–295
predicts no end to the “personality of journalism,” 295
first woman reporter of _Evening Sun_, 400
Webb, James Watson, journalist and a duellist, 35–36
editorial articles on, 61, 62
the _Sun’s_ story of attack by, on Bennett, 108
charges the _Sun_ with stealing a President’s message, 110, 111
second assault on Bennett described, 114
refuses Joseph Wood’s challenge, 115
retires from newspaper work, 183
Webster, Daniel, Bunker Hill speech of, reported by the _Sun_, 158
Weeks, Caleb, carries the Moon Hoax to Herschel in Africa, 86
Weston, Edward Payson, the best “leg man” in journalism, 283
feats of, in pedestrianism, 283, 284
Weyman, Charles S., editor of the “Sunbeams” column, 228
Wheeler, Andrew Carpenter, (“Nym Crinkle”), dramatic critic, 411
Whisky Ring scandal, 305
White, Frank Marshall, brings the _Sun_ a beat on the missing steamer
Umbria, 392, 393
Whitman, Stephen French, _Evening Sun_ reporter, 399
Wild pigeons, 43
Williams, Barney (Bernard Flaherty), the _Sun’s_ first newsboy, 40
makes first stage appearance, 121
Williams, John, city editor, 279
Willis, Nathaniel P., 37
Wilson, Alexander C., associate of Raymond, 174
Wilson, General James Harrison, quoted on Dana’s assignment to report
on Grant, 217
says Grant declared Dana would be appointed collector, 309
Wisner, George W., the _Sun’s_ first reporter, 38
becomes half owner of the _Sun_, 46
indicted for attack on Attree, 61
challenged to a duel, 62
retires from the _Sun_, 64
Wood, Benjamin, buys _Daily News_, 135
owns _Daily News_, 181
Wood, Fernando, proposes New York’s secession, 180
Wood, Dr. John B., “The Great American Condenser,” 278
condenses through a reader, 279
Wood, Joseph, feud over, and wife, challenge of, to Col. Webb, 115
Wood, Samuel A., originates rhymed news stories, 351
spring poem by, 352
“Snygless the Seas Are,” 352
Yale University, students of, investigate the Moon story, 84–85
Yellow Journalism, Col. Watterson’s statement on, 413
defined by E. P. Mitchell, 415
phrase, first used by Ervin Wardman, 415
Young, John Russell, orders of, enrage Cummings, 266
Young, Mr., charged by the _Transcript_ with biting two of its
carriers, 119
Young, William, city editor, 279
managing editor, 282
[Illustration: THE THIRD HEAD-LINE OF THE NEW YORK SUN]
[Illustration: THE FOURTH HEAD-LINE OF THE NEW YORK SUN]
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references.
Page 139: Words appear to be missing from the paragraph beginning “When
Beach was twenty.”