In 1890 there appeared in _Scribner’s Magazine_ a short story entitled
“Gallegher.” It gave an account of a smart young office boy employed on
one of the newspapers, who succeeded in “beating the town” by bringing
home a big, sporting story to his paper. It was held at once as one of
the best newspaper tales ever printed. When the name of the author,
Richard Harding Davis, was mentioned, the reading public recognized him
as the son of Rebecca Harding Davis, a fiction writer of established
reputation. Davis’ fifty-two years of life were full of color and manly
achievement. He was a novelist, short story writer, war correspondent,
editor and playwright. He began as newspaper reporter, a pursuit most
natural, for his father, L. Clarke Davis, was a brilliant journalist
and editor.
Richard Harding Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1864, and attended
the Episcopal Academy and afterwards Lehigh and Johns-Hopkins
Universities. In his college days he was weak in mathematics, but
strong in all that made life full, joyous and vital. He entered eagerly
into sports and wrote stories for the Lehigh magazines.
In 1887 he began newspaper work on the Philadelphia _Record_, also
occasionally contributing to the _Press_ and other Philadelphia papers.
His first big assignment was in connection with the Johnstown Flood in
1889. It was in the _Press_ office that Davis discovered the original
Gallegher--the office boy who was immortalized in Davis’ famous story,
just as the mongrel dog was vindicated in Davis’ later story “The Bar
Sinister.” In 1889 he made a trip to London as correspondent to the
Philadelphia _Telegraph_, and while there wrote of the Whitechapel
murders in a way that attracted attention. He got his first job in New
York in this way. In London he came to know Arthur Brisbane, who was
then English correspondent of the New York _Sun_, and afterward editor
of the _Evening Sun_. On his return to America he sought a newspaper
job in New York, and Brisbane took him on the _Evening Sun_. His
first experience was strikingly characteristic. A bunco man accosted
him near the ferry. Davis gave him some marked money, then had him
arrested and walked him boldly into the _Evening Sun_ office, showed
him up for the crook he was--and then wrote him up in the form of a
news story for the paper. Aside from his regular assignments as a
reporter, Davis busied himself with pictures of various types of New
York life. Among these the most famous were the Van Bibber stories, in
which Davis presented types of New York society. In 1891 Davis went
to _Harper’s Weekly_ and remained there for three years as managing
editor. Then he became a free lance. It was not necessary for him
to “hold down a job.” All magazines and book publishers were eager
for his work. His first engagement as war correspondent was on the
battlefields of the Greco-Turkish War. He was a prominent figure among
newspaper correspondents in all the great wars that followed. He made
a genuine sensation by his war letters written from Cuba during the
Spanish-American War of 1898. In that war Davis formed a friendship
with Theodore Roosevelt that remained firm through life.
In 1898, with the publication of “Soldiers of Fortune” in _Scribner’s
Magazine_, the reputation of Davis as a novelist became established,
and, thereafter, the fiction that flowed from his pen found an eager
and growing audience. His extensive travels enabled him to set his
stories in widely varied scenes. “Soldiers of Fortune” told of
revolution and political intrigue in a South American republic. That
also was the vein and atmosphere of “Captain Macklin” and later of “The
White Mice.” In “The Exiles” he invaded Morocco for his background
and characters. Later, in “The King’s Jackal,” he laid his scenes in
Tangier. “Ranson’s Folly” is a story of American army life--afterwards
dramatized, as was “Soldiers of Fortune.” “Princess Aline” is a
romantic story of the “Graustark” kind. Besides fiction, Davis wrote
many books of adventure and travel impression, such as “Rulers of the
Mediterranean,” “Three Gringos in Venezuela,” “The West from a Car
Window,” “A Year from a Reporter’s Note Book,” “The Congo and Coasts of
Africa.” His later books, based on war correspondence, include “With
the French,” “Somewhere in France,” and “With the Allies.”
We have named scarcely half the titles of Davis’ work. He was busy
always with his pen, and, as one of his fellow craftsmen in literature
observed, he “never penned a dull line.” In all his stories he left a
record of his sturdy Americanism and his passionate devotion to a just
cause, wherever he found it.
He died suddenly of heart disease on April 12, 1916. The loss to
literature was great and was keenly felt in a history-making time
like this that demands an eloquent chronicler. Davis will always be
remembered as one of the most buoyant, brave, heroic and industrious
workers in the field of American literature, a man who saw life fully
and clearly, and who reflected it truly, in healthy, ringing, inspiring
tones.
[Illustration: JACK LONDON]
_Jack London_