A 452382,-  Y
     L ,;   "    i  :,
q   4.
F-..
%j          "
*          i.4L., " -,., i 44




PROPERTY OF
Pd It4   i


ART ES SC IENT IA VERITAS




I
I
I




I1
I




THE JAMES GORDON BENNETT S




I
I








I
I,, f                   - ~
E  *                   I s


A
I-  s


Zr



KPC i-zF


From an engraving in Janzes (Iordon lleylnett nnd his Times






The
James Gordon Bennetts
Father and Son
Porietors of the New York Herald
By
DON C. SEITZ
Author of
Joseph Pulitzer
Horace Greeley
The Dreadful Decade
Uncommon Americans
etc.
INDIANAPOLIS
'The BOBBS-MERRILL Company
PUBIJSHERS






yhEnd"*aduate
WBCUalrC —
t ~
t.


COPYRIGHT, 1928
BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY


'e4:


FIRST EDITION


Printed in the United States of America
PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO., INC.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.




To
HENRY L. STODDARD




I
I
i.0




FOREWORD


After writing the lives of Joseph Pulitzer, recreator
of the World, and of Horace Greeley, founder of the
Tribune, it seemed to me there remained a gap in the
history of nineteenth-century journalism, as far as
New York is concerned, that should be filled with the
story of James Gordon Bennett and his son, respec,
tively proprietors of the Herald. One built up a great
newspaper, the other kept it great until the time when
age made him uncertain amid the confusions of the
World War. Autocrat and satrap, the two Bennetts,
they and they alone, owned the Herald.  en
and attain ~L~jtside ofublic service, teHrald's
reodremains unsurpassed in Aerican j ournalism.
itbesind. sutdtinet
paper wask #W axa~~      loit, an  the man who did
itws 1owe extraordinar tanili    w  wnIose Waks
rhia-v ---preffviusiy tried to tell. Had the son been less
of a sybarite he would have excelled the father. Yet
many of his achievements -remain unmatched. Between them  the two,,Xennetts ruled the Herald  r
elgy- ree years the longest newspaperynsyw
A~can  ~ii~~ jnown. IieThey     fIitrswe
fterhands grew cold. The elder was ostractzed~b
t d~oi""Omunhty, the younger b lTlis Peral4
was equally isolated anid wihu    ren. It ~~
plleda "Supp'or by its energyaawn   7iv       ~e
ranke                                -'a&Ts Inp,   this it
rakdsupreme. The two strange men were, emnmi
to their~ cnt~en"~m-p"o"r",aries. it is t ey, ra hr th-an'h




Herald, whom I hope to have now introduced to a
wider understanding.
Thanks are due to Robert Hunt Lyman, Miss Claire
Wallace Flynn, Robert E. Livingston, William Dinwiddie, George A. Cormack, Ralph D. Blumenfeld,
James Melvin Lee and E. D. DeWitt for important assistance. Much information has also been derived from
James Gordon Bennett and His Times, by Isaac C.
Pray, New York, 1855.
D. C. S.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER
I THE FIRST REPORTER.....
II FOUNDING THE NEW YORK Herald


PAGE.. 15
*.. 38


III
IV
VI
VI
VII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
xvZ


THE MORAL WAR..
MORMONS AND CATHOLICS
FULL-TIDE SUCCESS..
BENNETT AND BARNUM.
BENNETT AND BUCHANAN
BENNETT AND LINCOLN
WAR-TIME AND AFTER
BENNETT THE YOUNGER
SPORTSMAN AND DUELIST
GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE
THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX
A GOLDEN DECADE.
1883 - 1918..
INDEX....


0   0      0
0   0      0
0   0   9
0   0      a
0   0      0
0     0  0
&   0      0
0   0      ~
0   0      0
0   0      0
0   0      0
0     0  0
0   0   0. 73 '. 102. 119. 141. 156. 170. 201. 214.251. 271. 304. 340. 358.....  383




Ir




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


James Gordon Bennett the elder (From a painting).Frontispiece
Facing page
James Gordon Bennett the elder and his editorial
staff................  42
Cartoon in Vanity Fair, November 3, 1860... 56
Cartoon in Vanity Fair, December 15, 1860.. 68
James Gordon Bennett the elder (From an engraving).............. 80
Cartoon in Vanity Fair, December 29, 1860.. 98
Cartoon of Mr. Bennett, published in Vanity Fair,
April 27, 1861............120
Bennett cartoon published in Vanity Fair, August
24, 1861.............. 130
Cartoon in Vanity Fair, February 29, 1862.. 138
Cartoon in Vanity Fair, September 13, 1862.. 150
Cartoon in Vanity Fair, October 20, 1860...166
Cartoon of the Chevalier Wikoff, published in
Vanity Fair, August 16, 1862.......188
Cartoon, "The Three Bedlams," published in
Vanity Fair, October 5, 1861.......216
James Gordon Bennett the younger.. 236
Henry M. Stanley in 1872.........280
Mrs. Waldorf Astor talking to Mr. James Gordon
Bennett.............                       *. 300
These figures capped the top of the Herald Building................                           322
The late Chief Engineer George W. Melville.. 346




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS-Concluded
Facing page
Facsimile of handwriting of James Gordon Bennett the younger......... 356
Facade of the New York Herald Building, Herald
Square...............                     362
James Gordon Bennett the younger (Taken on his
last visit to America)..........          376




THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS








THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST REPORTER
UNTIL James Gordon Bennett the elder came into
the nel, j~ourna'sm i Tnmer ca was personal. Editors cea.t witif their public and one another from the
StaMndpit of 6 the' individual. Outside of his opponents
the editor paid small attention to the things of life.
It was left tor Bennett to make the newspaper impudent anid intrusive. T6do ths i he became the first
real reporter the A/merican press had known. He
muisttrtaor'e consi3[erecL a reco6rde rather than
a guide or commentator-not that he was deficient in
either quality, but because he deliberately made reporting his choice.
Newspapers, as such, hardly deserved the name
until this impertinent Scotchman came along and
kenned the interest of mankind and womankind in
their fellows. True, another Scot, Robert Burns, had
written before Bennett's birth:
If there's a hole in a' your coats
I rede ye tent it;
A chile's among ye takin' notes
And, faith, he'll prent it.
This, however, though often applied to the ingenious
young gentlemen who gather the news, did not refer
15




16   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
to one of their kind, but to Francis Grose, the antiquarian, who noted the ways of the Scotch in his Peregrinations through Scotland.
Born in Banffshire Se tber 1, 179\ Bennett had,
perhaps, readli'eisage suggestionrf-*  great Doctor
Samuel Johnson that "much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young."
However that may be, he evidently determined to
do his own catching, for after a period of education at
Aberdeen and travel on the Continent, some part of it
through the family design to make him a priest, the
Bennetts being Catholics, he came to the sudden conclusion to try his fortunes in America. Of his ancestry
he once wrote mockingly:
Every record of the Bennetts was lost in a great
freshet, previous to the year of our Lord 896, when
they were a little band of free-booters in Saxony. I
have no doubt they robbed and plundered a good deal,
and, very likely, hen roosts, or anything that came in
their way. They emigrated to France and lived on
the Loire several hundred years. When William the
Conqueror went to England, they were always ready
for a fight, and crossed the seas. The Earl of Tankerville is a Bennett, and sprang from the lucky side of
the race.
Another branch went to Scotland with an ancestor
of the present Duke of Gordon (1836), and all, I believe, were robbers on a great scale. Latterly, however, they became churchmen, but never abandoned
the good old Catholic Church, till I became graceless
enough to set up for myself, and slap the Pope and
Bishop Dubois right and left. I have had bishops,
priests, deacons, robbers and all sorts of people in
my family; and, what is more, we were bright in ideas
and saucy enough in all conscience.




THE FIRST REPORTER


17


When twenty, he "cut loose" from Banffshire in
1815, floating around somehow in Glasgow and Aberdeen until April 6, 1819, when he departed for America,
via Nova Scotia, impelled by the suggestion of a
friend who was going, plus a deep interest in the
country aroused by reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography.
He arrived after a slow voyage at Halifax, where,
with a puny purse, he took to school-teaching, then an
ill-requited employment, and soon saved enough change
to move on to Maine. Here another term in the town
of Addison, across the bay from Mt. Desert, gave him
the means to get to Boston, by schooner from Portland.
The thrill of Boston as the starting point of the Revolution was deep upon him and he reveled in visiting its
historic spots. "I felt," he wrote in after years, "the
same glow in wandering over these scenes, as I did on
the fields of Bannockburn, in my more youthful days.
It was Liberty and Freedom struggling against pride
and tyranny in both cases."
There was a good deal of conviviality in the Boston
of Bennett's day but in this he refused to join. He was
more than temperate in the use of liquor and tobacco.
"I eat," he remarked to one who reproved him for his
abstemiousness, "to live. I do not live to eat and
drink."
Boston was not hospitable. When his pockets became empty, he found a shilling on the street that fed
him for a day. A benevolent fellow countryman then
gave him employment as a clerk in his store, whence
he soon departed to become a proof-reader in the printing shop of Wells & Lilly. There the scent of printer's
ink filled his nostrils. He liked the flavor, but despised




18 THE JAMES GORDON 13BENNETTS
proof-reading-one of the dullest and most responsible
of occupations-and decided to adventure further.
The impulse carried him to New York, early in 1822.
After desultory employment on local sheets, he accepted an offer from A. S. Willington, owner of the
Charleston, South Carolina, Courier, to take a hand in
producing that respectable journal. In the Courier
office he translated news from the Spanish papers,
brought by sailing vessels from Havana, Spain and
her rebellious colonies then being a center of interest.
He wrote some things besides-including poetry.
The Courier was a fine paper, as the News and
Courier is unto this day. Mr. Willington was enterprising and sent shallops far out to meet incoming
ships, a method that was to be much used in later
days by his young editor. There was nothing democratic about the Courier save the partisanship of its
politics, and the youngster acquired in Charleston a
strong southern view-point that ever after influenced
his attitude in American affairs. The community itself
was intensely aristocratic and hardly the place for an
adventurer-least of all one with such newspaper ingenuity as Bennett afterward demonstrated he possessed.
His stay in Charleston ended in 1823, when he again
turned his steps to New York. Newspaper conditions
were not inviting and the young man announced his
purpose to open a commercial school in October. There
is no record that enough pupils responded to the call
to carry out the idea. He thereafter fed himself with
his pen. The National Advocate, a Democratic paper
published by Thomas Snowden, with the backing of
William P. Van Ness, gave him work. He wrote also




THE FIRST REPORTER                 19
for the Mercantile Advertiser and lectured on economic
subjects, gaining all the while a knowledge of affairs
and of politics that was to pay him large dividends
in the future.
News was plentiful enough, but it was not the custom
to print it. Accounts of social affairs were tabooed.
The proceedings of courts could not be exploited. It
was libelous to publish reports of bankruptcies. Murders were described in a half-dozen lines. Political
proceedings alone earned space, and these were warped
and twisted to suit the policy of the sheet. There were
many papers,-nothing was easier to start or more
difficult to keep going,-but they were partisan, or
specialized organs that filled most of their space by
cribbing from, or commenting on one another. New
York had numerous dailies, small in size and circulation, that voiced the opinions of their editors, who
clipped from exchanges and padded from the European mail. Correspondents served them from various
parts of the country, but sent more of their own pedantry or opinion than news. Happenings of moment
were recorded in paragraphs. There was no "working up" of stories and much that later became "news"
was left unnoticed.
Such was the journalistic atmosphere into which our
young Scotchman came. Inquisitive by nature, he
was amply snubbed both in and out of the newspaper
offices. He soon learned to conform, as the easiest
way of getting along, and fell into the ways of his
associates. While thus temporarily tamed, he grubbed
along as best he could from one weak sheet to another
until 1825, when he attempted to do something on his
own hook by taking over entirely on credit a small




20   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Sunday paper called the New York Courier, started
by John Tyron. It took but a few weeks to empty his
lean purse, and he turned the paper back to Tryon.
The National Advocate and the Mercantile Advertiser
again kept him moderately employed. His style of
writing was what might be called florid-vide his report of the New York debut of Maria Felicita Garcia,
who was to become famous as Madame Malibran:
The overture was listened to with breathless silence.
It was the first time that an Italian opera had been
heard in this country. There was an enthusiasm in
the public mind that surpasses language. At the conclusion of the overture, the whole audience burst forth
in rapture and applause. I never applaud or make a
noise at theaters. I leave that for loafers and blockhead critics to perpetrate; but at that moment I could
hardly resist the contagion.
The opera began; Figaro came forward. Every one
was pleased-but the great attraction of the evening
was yet to come. In a few moments Rosina came
forward-the charming, black-eyed, modest, easy, exquisite Signorina! She was young and lovely. She
wore a pink dress, trimmed with black. She came
down to the footlights with exquisite grace, smiling like
an angel from heaven as she came. The audience were
in raptures. She opened her mouth-"una voce poco
fa" burst from her lips in soft, melodious, exquisite
tones. The whole theater was breathless-the ladies
looking and listening-the gentlemen in rapturesthe old French and Italian gentlemen in the pit almost
melted into tears-and the venerable Da Ponte, sitting
in the center, with his head uncovered, enjoying the
glory and the delight of the scene.
For two years the National Advocate kept him fairly
busy. He spread himself in a verbatim report of a




THE FIRST REPORTER


21


celebrated bank fraud case, and wrote reports of the
appearances of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, William A.
Conway, and William C. Macready, early English
seekers after American dollars on the stage. In the
spring of 1827 he ventured to Washington as a free
lance and there picked up a place on the New York
Enquirer. He had already secured a toehold in politics
by attaching himself to the political fortunes of Martin
Van Buren, bespeaking for him the successorship to
Jackson which Van Buren attained, and Bennett
traveled, thereafter, journalistically speaking, in that
suave gentleman's train. He joined Tammany Hall
and was a partisan Democrat for the moment. Of this
association he once wrote:
When I first entered Tammany Hall, I entered it as
an enthusiast studying human nature, as a young man
would enter a new country, full of interest, and deriving advantage from every movement and every
sight. I kept a diary during the whole period of my
connection with that party, and the sentiments therein
recorded, just as they occurred to me, still remain,
and are the very sentiments which I entertain at this
moment. I found out the hollow-heartedness and humbuggery of these political associations and political
men; but yet I was so fascinated with the hairbreadth
escapes and adventures that I could not disconnect myself from it until the revulsion took place between me
and my partners in Philadelphia. After that period
I regained my liberty and independence completely;
and a fortunate- thing it was for my prosperity that
Van Buren and his men did behave so meanly and so
contemptibly toward me in the year 1833. I then
returned to New York, started the Herald with the
knowledge I had of men and matters throughout the
country, and have been successful ever since.




22   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
The attachment to Van Buren brought him into line
with the Jacksonians, among whom he was one of the
most fervent. He was present at the inauguration of
Jackson as President, and reported the great occasion
exuberantly:
The Chief Justice of the United States then administered the oath of office; and thus, in the sight of
Heaven and the surrounding multitude, was Andrew
Jackson declared the chief of the only free and pure
republic upon earth. The welkin rang with music and
the feeling plaudits of the populace, beauty smiled and
waved her kerchief-the first spring birds carolled
their notes of joy, and nature poured her various
offerings to the Giver of all good. The very marble
of the pediment seemed to glow with life-Justice,
with firmer grasp, secured her scales-"Hope, enchanted, smiled," and the genius of our country
breathed a living defiance to the world. What a lesson
for the monarchies of Europe! The mummery of a
coronation, with all its pomp and pageantry, sinks into
merited insignificance before the simple and sublime
spectacle of twelve millions of freemen, imparting this
Executive Trust to the MAN OF THEIR CHOICE.
As a sequence it was given to Mr. Bennett to be the
first person to put life into Washington correspondence. Here is his own account of it:
We happen to know a good deal of this business of
letter-writing from Washington, for we were the first
to give it its present light and amusing character in a
series of letters published in the New York Enquirer
in the years of 1827 and '8. Before that period a
Washington's letter-writer simply gave the dull details
of both houses, the abstracts of reports, or a few
sketches of the speakers. In the letters I furnished
the New York Enquirer in those years, then conducted




THE FIRST REPORTER


23


by Mr. Noah, I changed the whole tone, temper, and
style of Washington correspondence. Before my day,
the late Mr. Carter had spent a winter or two at
Washington, and gave a dull recital of what he had
seen and heard, in the Statesman newspaper. In
Philadelphia, Walsh, sitting in his easy-chair, wrote
long, labored letters to himself, heavy, flat, stupid, and
disagreeable.
It was in the winter and spring of 1828 that I wrote
the series which appeared in the Enquirer. No one
knew by whom they were written, either here or in
Washington, but they were generally attributed to
G. C. Verplanck. I remember very well how the idea
of writing them originated in my own mind. In the
Library of Congress I spent much of my time, poring
over Jefferson's collection of old pamphlets, which no
one, before or since, has perhaps looked into. Sometimes I would take a peep at the new publications of
the day, and among them I found the recent publication
of Horace Walpole's famous letters and correspondence, written during the reign of George II, and describing, in witty and agreeable badinage, the
intrigues, politics, incidents, and explosions of that
singular court. These letters were highly amusing,
graphic, and interesting. I said to myself one day,
"Why not try a few letters on a similar plan from this
city, to be published in New York, describing, eulogizing or satirizing the court of John Q. Adams? I did so.
All the political, gay, fashionable, witty, beautiful characters that appeared in Washington during that winter,
were sketched off at random, without being personal
or offensive to any of the parties-indeed, they were
mostly all complimentary and pleasing to the parties.
These letters were published and became popular.
They were copied throughout the country.
The fervid writer always had it in for the effete
monarchies. He took on the most vivid thoughts of




24   THE JAMES GORDON BEINNETTS
his adopted country and always made the most of
them. Whatever principles the man had were on the
side of liberty, so long as it covered white folk. He
stood staunchly by Jackson. The Enquirer, under
Major Mordecai M. Noah, had been waging a costly
war with the New York Courier, run by James Watson
Webb. Bennett suggested that the two join forces.
This was done and the Courier and Enquirer became
a sort of New York Thunderer for thirty years, under
the headship of the blustering Webb. The consolidation
left Bennett out. He puttered around trying to find
capital among politicians for a venture of his own,
but failing to get it, joined the Courier and Enquirer
in the autumn of 1829, as associate editor. There were
then in the metropolis eleven daily sheets and thirtysix of less frequent issue, serving 202,589 people. He
continued to be more of a reporter than editor, making
frequent trips to Washington and other points where
things political were happening, and doing go-between
work in politics. Jackson and John C. Calhoun, the
vice-president, were at odds. The latter controlled
the Senate and under his spell southern Democratic
editors were readily confirmed to office, while those
of the North were shut out. One of these was Noah.
This bred some pretty stories, which Bennett wrote.
An unusual opportunity occurred in 1830 for the
exercise of the reporter's peculiar talents for getting
into trouble with the elect. On the morning of April
seventh, Captain Joseph White, of Salem, Massachussetts, a man of wealth, who had annoyed two prospective heirs, Joseph J. Knapp, Jr., and John Francis
Knapp, by remaining in good health at eighty, was
found dead in bed, dripping with blood from a blow in




THE FIRST REPORTER


25


the temple and thirteen stab wounds. Richard Crowninshield, Jr., and his brother George, were arrested
as the actual committers of the crime, and the two
Knapps, as having employed them to do the deed.
Richard Crowninshield hanged himself in his cell.
George proved an alibi. The two Knapps were convicted and duly executed. The State of Massachusetts
called in the great Daniel Webster to assist in prosecuting the accused, who were all of good families.
It will be perceived that such a case had great merit
for so rare a reporter as James Gordon Bennett. He
regaled New York with choice accounts of the crime
and the manner of the trial.
Reporting the court proceedings was not easy work.
Perez Morton, the grim attorney-general, undertook
to regulate the reporters. Bennett bumped him
sharply. "He knows more of the technicalities of the
law, than he does of the tactics of the Press," he wrote
in a scathing criticism that continued: "It is an old,
worm-eaten Gothic dogma of the Courts to consider the
publicity given to every event by the Press, as destructive to the interests of law and justice.
"Is it possible," he went on, "that the publication of
facts, or even rumors, can have any tendency to defeat
the general operations of justicel" He further proclaimed: " The Press is the living Jury of the Nation. "
When this weighty thought reached Salem, the trenchant tribune of the Press was barred from the court
room and all others were prohibited from taking notes,
the Judge setting up a sort of interstate commerce
rule that reporters could not be allowed to send their
observations out of Massachusetts.
Bennett also wrote more than the court proceed



26   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ings-bright sketches of Boston, Salem and Nahant.
There was interest in all things about him and the
skilful pen was never idle. During recesses in the
long ordeal he looked up politics in Massachusetts and
New Hampshire, becoming acquainted with Franklin
Pierce, a bright young lawyer not long out of Bowdoin
College, and little dreaming that he was to become
president of the United States, largely with his
visitor's help.
In 1831 Bennett was kept busy as a reporter and
correspondent for the Courier and Enquirer. He went
deeply into the merits of the United States Bank controversy in the Jackson interest, in which he overhauled
the whole banking situation as it then existed. His
chief indictment against the major institution was that
it turned its great powers to political uses and exerted
them to destroy one party and upbuild another.
In support of this charge he wrote:... Let the mind, untinctured by prejudice-unawed by power-unbought by favors, look at the startling fact with steady attention, and unblanched gaze.
What have we? An organized corps of presidents,
cashiers, directors, clerks, tellers, lenders and borrowers, spread throughout the United States-moving
simultaneously upon every given point-lending out
money for hire, and distributing opinions for actionfurnishing capital and thoughts at one and the same
moment-buying men and votes as cattle in the
market-giving a tone to public opinion-making and
unmaking Presidents at will-controlling the free will
of the people, and corrupting their servants-circulating simultaneously political theories, destructive of
the constitution, and paper money injurious to every
State Bank-curtailing and expanding at will discounts and exchanges-withering by a subtle poison,




THE FIRST REPORTER                27
the liberty of the Press-and, in fact, erecting within
the States of the Union, a new general governmentan Imperium in imperio, unknown to the Constitution,
defying its power, laughing at its restrictions, scorning
its principles, and pointing to its golden vaults, as
the weapon that will execute its behests, whenever it
shall be necessary to carry them into action.
We repeat, therefore, as the Bank question of this
State is finally settled by the passage of the city bank
charters through the Senate, would it not be well for
the legislature of New York to take the lead in following out the suggestion of the President, by commencing
a rigid examination of the principles and policy involved in the United States Bank?
The lively young reporter had the old-fashioned
newspaperman's delight in mixing up in things.
One of these was the promoting of the political fortunes of William L. Marcy, who, as a result of Bennett's underground efforts on his behalf, secured the
nomination for governor of New York, to which office
he was duly elected. Marcy was senator from that
state in 1832, and Bennett "worked" the Courier and
Enquirer in his behalf. Colonel Webb was then impaled on one horn of the United States Bank dilemma
and so not very Jacksonian. "In all this business,"
wrote Mr. Bennett in after years, "Senator Marcy
wished to stand still between the two contending
cliques, while I was to work the wires in Washington,
and Mr. Webb was to fire off the big gun in New York.
Senator Marcy and I, in Washington, used to laugh
and chuckle most amusingly on the movements by
which, through the Courier and Enquirer, we accomplished ultimately his nomination, checkmated his personal foes at Albany and elected him triumphantly,
governor of the state for the first time. Before the




28   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
summer was over, however, Mr. Webb bolted from the
Democratic party on the United States Bank question,
and came out against the re-election of General Jackson, including, also, the election of the very man William L. Marcy, whom he had contributed so much to
bring before the public."
Bennett afterward confessed that he participated in
the affair "like a political sinner as I was, as one of
the electric wires between Washington and Albany."
The thing came up to plague him in 1845, when he was
making it warm for Webb and found he had been in
a way disowned by Marcy, his former confidant. "It
was," Bennett wrote, "therefore very unhandsome of
him [Marcy] to have been as it now appears, writing
letters to Jesse Hoyt, censuring me privately for the
very thing which he approved and concurred in to
myself personally at Washington."
He was taught then that journalism and political
companionships do not go together, as many a correspondent has found to his sorrow.
In the early summer Bennett made a journey through
central New York, analyzing political conditions. In
September he dropped in on Washington and reported
an Antimasonic convention at. Baltimore. A Free
Trade convention followed at Philadelphia in October.
As a reporter he also found time to describe the doings
of the Frenchman Chabert, who called himself the Fire
King and at exhibitions given in New York entered
red-hot ovens, swallowed boiling oil and handled
molten lead without damage.
The Democrats won in the November election, and
Bennett, then residing at No. 61 Broadway, represented
the First Ward of New York in the incidental celebra



THE FIRST REPORTER


29


tion. He had for colleagues such persons of consequence as Jesse Hoyt, Prosper M. Wetmore, Dudley
Selden, Egbert Ward and Jacob S. Bogert. At the
dinner Bennett proposed what was to be his last
political toast:
"The democracy of New York-like the Tenth
Legion of ancient Rome-the first in the field and the
last out of it."
In welcoming the new Boston Post, freshly founded
by Charles Gordon Greene, Bennett on the editorial
page of the Courier and Enquirer laid down this view
of what an editor should be:
An editor must always be with the people, think with
them, feel with them, and he need fear nothing. He
will always be right, always strong, always popular,
always free. The world has been humbugged long
enough by spouters, and talkers, and conventioners,
and legislators, et id genus omne. This is the editorial
age, and the most intellectual of all ages.
In his editorial support of Jackson, as visible in the
'columns of the Courier and Enquirer, Bennett's style
was breezy to say the least. Here is a sample:
The impotency of the attacks which have been made
upon General Jackson during the last three years by
the Adams party, reminds us of an anecdote"Mother," bawled out a great two-fisted girl one day,
"my toe itches." "Well, scratch it, then." "I have;
but it won't stay scratched!"
"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay," cries out two-fisted Uncle
Toby, "Jackson's a-coming-Jackson's a-coming!"
"Well, then," says Clay, "anti-tariff him in the
Journal." "I have, but he won't stay anti-tariffed."
"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay," bawls out Alderman Binns,




30   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
"the old farmer's a-coming, a-coming." "Well, then,"
says Harry, "coffin-hand-bill him." '"I have," says
Binns, "but he won't stay coffin-hand-billed."
"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay," says John H. Pleasants, "the
hero's coming, actually coming." "Well, then," says
Mr. Adams (John Quincy), "Burr him, and traitor
him." "I have, but he won't stay Burred or traitored I"
"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay," says Charles Hammond,
"Jackson is coming." "Well," says Clay, "prove him
an adulterer and a negro-trader."  "I have," says
Charles, "but he won't stay an adulterer or a negrotrader."
"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay," bawls out the full Adams
slandering chorus, "we have Jackson a murderer, an
adulterer, a traitor, an ignoramus, a fool, a crook-back,
a pretender, and so forth, but he wont stay any of
these names."
"He won't?" says Mr. Clay. "Why, then, I shan't
stay at Washington, that's alll"
Antimasonry had become a political issue in New
York. The associate editor had a deal of fun in
treating this fantasy. His sprightliness drew much
fire against the Courier and Enquirer, and he was all
too often made a scapegoat for the paper's sins. Its
strong antibank policy made it many enemies among
New York business men, who sought to reach it by a
stock control. This came about through the sale of an
interest owned by Daniel E. Tylee. The associate
editor was muzzled. He then devoted himself more
to news-gathering than to editorial work, traveling
about as a correspondent and rigging a relay service
that brought the president's message from Washington to New York in fifteen hours!
Webb hauled down the Jackson flag on August 23,




THE FIRST REPORTER


31


1832. His flop caused a vast commotion and led to a congressional investigation, which revealed that the United
States Bank had "accommodated" him to the extent of
fifty-two thousand, nine hundred seventy-five dollars at
one time or another. The inquiry revealed some interesting sidelights on the then state of metropolitan journalism. Webb testified that when he switched to the support
of Biddle the Bank of New York, the Bank of the Manhattan Company and the National Bank called his loans.
Also, the Courier and Enquirer, reckoned the most
powerful paper of the day, had thirty-three hundred
daily subscribers at ten dollars per annum, and twentythree hundred weekly and semi-weekly readers at four
dollars and a half a year. It had also two hundred and
seventy-five advertising subscribers whose cards
were carried, paper and card costing thirty dollars
per year. Its daily income from advertising was
sixty-five dollars. The total gross yearly income was
sixty thousand, seven hundred fifty dollars; expenses
thirty-five thousand dollars, profit twenty-five thousand,
seven hundred fifty dollars. Of its outlay twenty-two
thousand dollars was for print paper. Webb valued
the property at one hundred fifty thousand dollars.
After Webb's shift Bennett was out of place on the
Courier and Enquirer. He accordingly left the paper,
and was ignominiously kicked in print by Webb for
daring to differ with him.
October 29, 1832, the outcast editor began the publication of the New York Globe, proclaiming his purpose in this rather flamboyant fashion:
I publish this evening, at No. 20 William Street, the
first number of a new daily journal called the New
York Globe, price eight dollars a year. Early arrange



32   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ments will be made to issue a weekly and a semiweekly paper from the same office.
Since my withdrawal in August last from the Courier
and Enquirer, I have been taking measures for the
establishment of a new paper, but unavoidable obstacles have hitherto prevented its appearance. I am
now in the field, sword in hand, with unfurled banner,
resolved to aid the great cause of Jackson and Democracy-the Union of the States, and the rights of
the States. My politics are well known. I was one
of the first in this state to put the names of Jackson
and Van Buren before the people in 1827-I fought
through the great conflict in 1828, and again in June,
1829, I was the first to bring the name of our venerable
President up for a re-election. I have always supported
the principles and nominations of the Democratic
Party, and shall continue in that course. Opposed to
nullification, I adhere to Jefferson's doctrines of State
Rights-equal legislation-economy in public expenditures-reduction of unneccessary taxes-and the advancement of human liberty and human happiness.
Up to the next election, politics will be the staple
article of the Globe; but after that event I shall give it
all the variety which makes a daily paper the welcome
visitor of the tea-table or counting-room. And if industry, experience, and resolution are any warrant for
success, I entertain no doubt that, in less than two
years, I shall count, without affidavits, at least five
thousand good subscribers to the New York Globe.
A word on the size of my paper. For years past the
public has been cloyed with immense sheets-bunglingly made up-without concert of action or individuality
of character-the reservoirs of crude thoughts from
different persons who were continually knocking their
heads against each other, without knocking any thing
remarkably good out of them. I have avoided this
inconvenience. I shall give my readers the cream of
foreign and domestic events. My sheet is moderate in
size, but neat and manageable, printed on fine paper




THE FIRST REPORTER


33


and with beautiful type. When an overflow of patronage shall demand more room, as it soon will, I may
enlarge a little, but I shall avoid, as I would a pestilence, those enormous sheets-the pine barrens of intelligence and taste, which have been undoubtedly sent
into the world as a punishment for its growing wicked-.
ness.
In taking my position as the editor of a daily paper
in this community, I am no new recruit-no undisciplined soldier. I have acted in this capacity for
twelve years past, eight of which I have been associated
with the National Advocate, the New York Enquirer,
and latterly the Courier and Enquirer, all of this city.
I have hitherto labored for the reputation and profit
of others; I am now embarked on my own account-on
my own responsibility. In coming before this community I do not feel therefore as a stranger thrown
among new faces. Though personally unknown to
many newspaper readers, I stand before them as an
acquaintance-a friend-an intimate. I feel myself
connected with New York by that captivating species
of relationship-that delightful community of thought
and sentiment which exists between an industrious and
moral editor, and a numerous and encouraging body of
readers. With these remarks I commit my bark to
the breeze.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
NEW YORK, October 29, 1832.
In spite of this inspiring platform the Globe lived
just one month. The poor weakling died from poverty
and abuse. Its owner went down flying the Jackson
flag. He fired a blast at Webb, showing that Biddle's
boodle had more to do than principle in switching the
Courier and Enquirer, and then began to scratch about
anew for a living. He wrote for the New York Mirror
and various periodicals, even descending to fiction in
his search for pocket money. The field was lean, and




34 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
with some small Democratic support, he invaded
Nicholas Biddle 's town and became editor of the
Philadelphia Pennsylvanian. His going to Philadelphia was the outcome of an effort to join hands with
Francis Preston Blair on the Washington Globe.
Blair told him the paper was too small for two men
of their size and suggested the Quaker City as offering
a broader field. It proved painfully narrow.
From this distant vantage he bombarded Wall
Street, and roused plenty of wrath in reply. It would
appear that he told truths that have grown eternal
about this great gambling center, but did not add to
his metropolitan popularity. The Pennsylvanian lost
money and in trying to raise twenty-five hundred
dollars from Jesse Hoyt, Bennett was placed in an
equivocal position, from which it was hard to emerge.
His supporters found it easy to mistrust him when
called to put up cash. He felt Hoyt's desertion keenly.
"I am sorry," he wrote to that magnate, June 13, 1833,
"to speak harshly of anybody, but really I think there
is something of ingratitude in the way I have been
treated. I want no favor that I cannot repay. I want
no aid that is not perfectly safe."
In approaching Hoyt, Bennett was really feeling for
Van Buren, a word from whom to the former would
have brought relief. It did not come. Instead, the
crafty "Matty Van of Kinderhook" dodged deftly in
this fashion, writing to Hoyt: "If Mr. Bennett can not
continue friendly to me on public grounds, and with
perfect independence, I can only regret it, but I desire
no other support. Whatever course he may pursue,
as long as it is an honest one, I shall wish him well. He
does not understand the relations between the editors




THE FIRST REPORTER


35


he quarreled with and myself, or he would not complain
of me for their acts. They are as independent of me
in the management of their papers, as I wish him to
be and remain."
His plea having brought him no response in his
striving to make the paper hit some mark, Bennett
became involved with Amos Kendall, Postmaster-General under President Jackson, who had come to Philadelphia on the latter's errand in his contest with the
Bank of the United States. While opposing Nicholas
Biddle, head of that much-hunted institution, Bennett
had never been on bad terms with him. In the intense
feeling of the day this moderation did not help his
position and he fell down in expecting to please a
political crowd who would not come to his aid. Kendall,
when he wrote his autobiography handed out.this slap
to the editor:
He [Bennett] had been previously associated with
Mordecai M. Noah and James Watson Webb in the
management of the New York Courier and Enquirer,
and when his associates, after obtaining accommodations to the extent of $52,000, went over to the Bank,
he professed to remain loyal to the administration, and
became editor of the Pennsylvanian, a leading Democratic newspaper in Philadelphia. By his profession
of loyalty, he drew Mr. Kendall into a private correspondence with himself on the Bank question, and
sought to obtain all the information he could in personal intercourse. [This during a visit by Kendall
to Philadelphia]. But soon after Mr. Kendall's return
to Washington, Bennett began to throw out in the
Pennsylvanian, mysterious hints that a great conspiracy was on foot, of which he held the proofs. After
attempting to work up the public curiosity in successive
issues of his paper he came out with a charge that the




36   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
conspiracy was against the Bank of the United States;
that the chief conspirator was Amos Kendall; and
finally he published Mr. Kendall's private letters as
proofs of his allegations.
No notice was taken of the charges or the proofs,
for, although the letters showed a determined hostility
to the Bank and a strong desire for its destruction they
showed also that the motives of the writer were patriotic and disinterested. While Mr. Kendall regarded the
publication of these letters, without his consent, as
conclusive testimony to the purity of his motives, yet
the act was in itself so mean and dishonorable, that he
never spoke to or recognized Mr. Bennett afterwards.
What advantage, if any, the publication secured to
Bennett himself, was never made known to the public.
It doubtless had something to do with his secession
from the Pennsylvanian whose patrons were generally
Democrats, and his return to New York, where he
established the New York Herald, and by his successful
profligacy has done more to corrupt the American press
and the public morals than all the other profligate
editors in the United States.
Situated as he was in a hostile city, mistrusted and
without backing, the venture soon came to an end.
In 1834 Bennett was back in New York, out of a job,
but more and more determined to establish a paper on
lines that were to be his own. With a small amount of
cash-five hundred dollars-he endeavored to induce
Horace Greeley, then succeeding as a printer, to join
him in getting out a daily. Greeley declined.
Recall that the adventurer was not young. He
touched forty and had worked for fifteen years under
hard and discouraging circumstances. Not only was
he without substantial capital, but had two failures to
his credit, besides being bitterly hated by the powerful
James Watson Webb, then the overlord, or rather,




THE FIRST REPORTER                37
bully, of New York journalism. He had made other
enemies, financial, political, professional and personal,
with his biting wit and ready pen; in short, he had become an ink-stained Ishmael, and was therefore free
to do as he pleased, having neither obligations nor
responsibility on his shoulders.




CHAPTER II


FOUNDING THE NEW YORK HERALD,. B,.-/REPULSED by Greeley, Bennett next went to Anderson
and Smith, prosperous printers in Ann Street, who got
out two evening dailies, the Transcript and the Sun.
His five hundred dollars was sufficient to induce the
partners to undertake the task. Therefore, on May 6,
1835, "James Gordon Bennett & Co." were able to
issue the first number of the New York Herald. It
was only a specimen copy, containing a prospectus.. covering the plans of its promoter:
James Gordon Bennett & Co. commence this morning
the publication of the MORNING HERALD, a new
daily paper, price $3 per year, or six cents per week,
advertising at the ordinary rates. It is issued from
the publishing office, No. 20 Wall Street, and also from
the printing-office, No. 34 Ann Street, 3d story, at
both of which places orders will be thankfully received.
The next number will be issued on Monday morning-this brief suspension necessarily taking place in
order to give the publishers time and opportunity to
arrange the routes of carriers, organize a general system of distribution for the city, and allow subscribers
and patrons to furnish correctly their names and residences. It will then be resumed and regularly continued.
In the commencement of an enterprise of the present kind it is not necessary to say much. "We know,"
says the fair Ophelia, "what we are, but know not what
38




FOUNDING THE HERALD


39


we may be." Pledges and promises, in these enlightened times, are not exactly so current in the world as
Safety Funds Notes, or even the U. S. Bank bills. We
have had an experience of nearly fifteen years in conducting newspapers. On that score we can not surely
fail in knowing at least how to build up a reputation
and establishment of our own. In debuts of this kind
many talk of principle-political principle-party
principle, as a sort of steel-trap, to catch the public.
We mean to be perfectly understood on this point, and
therefore openly disclaim all steel-traps, all principle,
as it is called-all party-all politics. Our only guide
shall be good, sound, practical common sense, applicable to the business and bosoms of men engaged in
every-day life. We shall support no party-be the
organ of no faction or coterie, and care nothing for any
election or any candidate from President down to a
Constable.
We shall endeavor to record facts on every public
and proper subject, stripped of verbiage and coloring,
with comments when suitable, just, independent, fearless, and good tempered. If the Herald wants the mere
expansion which many journals possess, we shall try
to make it up in industry, good taste, brevity, variety,
point, piquancy, and cheapness. It is equally intended
for the great masses of the community-the merchant,
mechanic, working people-the private family as well
as the public hotel-the journeyman and his employer-the clerk and his principal7There are in this
city at least 150,000 persons whoglance over one or
more newspapers every day. Only 42,000 daily sheets
are issued to supply them. We have plenty of room,
therefore, without jostling neighbors, rivals, or friends,
to pick up at least twenty or thirty thousand for the
HERALD, and leave something for others who come
after us. By furnishing a daily morning paper at the
low price of $3 a year, which may be taken for any
shorter period (for a week) at the same rate, and
making it at the same time equal to any of the high




40 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
priced papers for intelligence, good taste, sagacity, and
industry, there is not a person in the city, male or female, that may not be able to say, "Well, I have got a
paper of my own which will tell me all about what's
doing in the world. I'm busy, now,-but I'll put it in
my pocket, and read it at my leisure."
With these few words as "grace before meat," we
commit ourselves and our cause to the public, with
perfect confidence in our own capacity to publish a
paper that will seldom pall on the appetite, provided
we receive moderate encouragement to unfold our resources and purposes in the columns of the MORNING
HERALD.
Regular publication did not begin until the eleventh.
The publication office was in a basement at No. 20 Wall
Street, where the proprietor and editor did pretty
much all of the work of writing, reporting, mailing and
collecting. To fill the editorial column, cover the police
courts, take account of the doings of Wall Street and
get all the needed material into the forms, made a
long day.
One substantial feature amid all the froth was the
Herald's "money article," written by Bennett himself.
The first appeared on May eleventh. On the twelfth
a stock table was appended. It covered a list of thirtytwo securities. On June 13, 1835, the money article
with its accompanying table became a permanent
feature and ever after continued to shed light on Wall
Street. For three years Bennett not only wrote the
article daily, but gathered the material. After that he
took on assistance, but always supervised the copy.
Of his early effort, he once wrote:
We went to Wall Street, saw for ourselves what was
in progress there, and returned with our report




FOUNDING THE HERALD


41


sketched out on fragmentary fly-leaves of letters or
other handy scraps of paper. We told the truth for we
were in the interest of the public; and the truth of that
locality was not complimentary in those days any more
than it would be now (1869). War was made upon us
right and left by the men whose little games were
spoiled whenever the public came to know what they
were at; and strangest of all things for a war originatilg in that quarter of it was a "moral" war. We lived
through it however.
Thlittle paper-   small folio-wa    a      iB
tic that it ats        headway. Anderson and
smllEio wever, lost the printing of the Transcript
and the Sun by taking on a rival, the latter setting up
a shop of its own. Like the S..ELra.:^df
one cent rulite revenues were thin. An.&aojaad
S0f"tFrepented of their bargain, t;ut Bennett's contVcf.:was of the kind that held: TE'Ti. n.ie
a ionse p came tm a.e,.^,.Aug st j..2, 8 whe
a greatire in An Stegt.wiped out the printingZoffie.
rFor elgTteen days the Herald was out of businfis,
buT 6on' the thirty-first of August, like the phaenix bird,
it rose from its asies and never again, under either
father or son, failed to appear, gaining in strength and
power with ama.zing.robustness.  Copmpany" was
dropped and Bennett appeared as sole proprietor.
In"the revived paper there was a decided change ip
tore over its earlier numbers. These had been rather
sedate, yet newsy. Dignity went to the winds after
the fire. The sheet sparkled with "squibs and rockets"
as a contemporaneous writer puts it. Bennett flayed
the other papers and took special delight in picking on
the Sun, which, with twenty thousand circulation, had
the right of way. Benjamin H. Day, its owner, was




42   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
deeply annoyed, but never returned the salutes. Webb,
of course, came under the fusillade and replied with
the heaviest guns in his battery. He and Bennett knew
all about each other and both regaled the public with
much that was not to the credit of either. That Bennett should reveal the secrets of other sanctums was
regarded as treachery in the craft and added to his
isolation. If he had a friend anywhere, none was
visible to the naked eye...TheHera'ld's circulation,
liwever, Kept on growinig. i  e was turningon the iight
where little had shonet beTori and readers fast found
it out. Slow-moving rivaTs'were aghast at his impudence. He wrote up Wall Street swindles pitilessly
and made no bones of using names.
The  city then  possessed fifteen  other daily
journals, viz: New York Gazette and General Advertiser, Mercantile Advertiser and New York Advocate, New York Daily Advertiser, Morning Courier and
New York Enquirer, New York Journal of Commerce,
The New York Times, Business Reporter and Merchants' and Mechanics' Advertiser, New York Commercial Advertiser, The Evening Post, New York
American, The Evening Star, The Sun, The Transcript, The Man and The Jeffersonian.
To each of these the newcomer was anathema. That
an old hack should show the springiness of a colt and
proceed to outstrip them all was unbelievable and intolerable. Bennett did not care. Indeed, he gloried
in obloquy. This he received in large quantities. His
public was the lower half. The upper regarded him
with loathing.
In chronicling his renewal of publication after the
fire, Bennett observed:


4




James Gordon Bennett, the Elder, and his Editorial Staff
Mr. Bennett, seated, in the center








FOUNDING THE HERALD


43


We are again in the field, larger, livelier, better,
prettier, saucier, and more independent than ever.
The Ann Street conflagration consumed types, presses,
manuscripts, paper, some bad poetry, subscription
books-all the outward material appearance of the
Herald, but its soul was saved-its spirit as exuberant
as ever. From the past we augur well for the future.
In the first six weeks of its eOgn ce the Herald
re acn'1e' rLye 'ieCxtraornary circt
thousand per day, and a corresponding amou.iA~
vertising patronage. We started then to reach a daily
isiste of twenty thousand in a period of six or nine
months-we restart now to rise to twenty-five thousand
daily circulation before we stop. This is no astronomical dream-no Herschel discovery in the moon. It can
be done, and if industry, attention, resolution, and perseverance can accomplish the feat under the encouraging smiles of a kind public, the Herald shall do it. We
are organizing on a better footing than formerly-have
it entirely under our own control, and have arranged
our carriers and routes in such a way that, as we think,
a week will make us go like a piece of ingenious clockwork.
In other respects we trust we shall please the public.
Avoidiingthe dirt of party politics, we shall yet freely
andcandidly express auropinion on every public question and public man. We mean also to procure
inteiigent correspondents inr Lonidon, Paris ainifd shington, -and- ierasutes a.re a'lready a'dopted — oriJf6'purpose. In "every species of news tlheHerald wilt b
one of the earliest of the early. Our Wall Street reports, which were so highly approved by every business
man in the city, and copied extensively throughout the
country, we shall enlarge and improve to a considerable extent. The former Herald, from its large circulation among business people down-town (being larger
in that respect than any paper in the city,) had a very
rapid increase of advertising patronage. We 'expect
that the renovated Herald will far outstrip its prede



44   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
cessor. Our position at 202 Broadway is admirably
central-more so than even in Wall Street. Several
merchants and auctioneers are preparing to advertise
in the Herald. They are beginning to find out that
a brief advertisement in our sheet is seen and read by
six times as many as it would be in the dull prosaics of
the Courier and Enquirer.
On the whole, and to conclude, as Dogberry did not
say, we bid our former kind friends and patrons a
hearty, cheerful, and pleasant good morning; and we
hope that while we give them a regular call to have a
little chat over their coffee and muffins, we may often
see them at 202 Broadway when they have any small
thing to do, cheap and good, in the advertising line,
or any hint or curious piece of information to communicate to the public, barring always discoveries in
astronomy, which our friends of the Sun monopolize.
This last was a slap at the celebrated "Moon" hoax
written by Richard Adams Locke and published in the
Sun. Bennett had been particularly zealous in exposing what was really a literary masterpiece.
October 7, 1835, he was treated to his first assault
when one "Doctor" Townsend whom he had been
opposing attacked him in the street. Bennett invited
his assailant to Weehawken to fight it out as a gentleman, but the matter went no further-beyond lurid
accounts in the local sheets, including the Herald.
On October twelfth, he moved his office to 148 Nassau
Street. The press-room was in the Theatre Alley. This
brought the theater and the Herald closer together.
He also began taking on help, observing thereon:
Heretofore I have done everything myself. I have
written my own police reports, I have written my own
Wall Street reports, I have written my own squibs,




FOUNDING THE IEERALD


45


crackers and jeu d'esprit, I have been my own clerk
and accountant, posted my own books, made out my
own bills and generally attended to all business details
in the office.
This did not mean that he was proposing to curtail
his energies but intended instead to put more of them
into the actual work of making the paper-which he
vigorously proceeded to do.
By March 10, 1836, Bennett felt that his success was
assured and uttered this exultant cry:
In a city of this kind there is no limit to enterprise,
no bounds to the results of industry, capacity, and
talent. I began the Herald last year without capital
and without friends. Every body laughed and jeered
at the idea of my succeeding. "Bennett, you are a
fool" —"Bennett, you are a blockhead." By effort,
economy, and determination I have got a firm footing,
mastered all opposition, and begin this day a new
movement in newspaper enterprise which will astonish
some persons before I shall have completed it. The
public are with me. They feel my independence-they
acknowledge my honesty-and, better than all, they
crowd in their advertisements. Without the aid of
$52,725 from any bank, I am now in a position to carry
rapidly all my own ideas of newspaper enterprise into
effect. I never deal or dealt in stocks-never bought
or sold a dollar's worth, although I have studied that
science for many years. Hence my Wall Street reports are relied upon, because the public believe I have
no private reason to deceive them.
The "$52,725," refers to James Watson Webb's
borrowings from Nicholas Biddle's United States
Bank.
The Herald now increased its size one-third, with




46 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
proper pride in its progress. Of its twenty wide columns, fourteen were filled with advertisements, procured by a magic that yet remains undisclosed. They
were as a rule more interesting than the news stories.
The paper's great day came April 12, 1836, when it
chronicled the murder of Ellen Jewett, a courtesan of
extraordinary beauty, in a house kept by Rosina Town.
send, in -Thomas Street. She had been killed with a
hatcUhet. Her'last visitor was a young man named
Richard P. Robinson, employed by Joseph Hoxie, a
merchant. Robinson's cloak was found on the premises, indicating a hasty escape, but there was no evidence of any sort that he had committed the ghastly
deed. Mr. Bennett visited the house and absolved Robinson, expressing the opinion that a woman, presumably jealous, had killed the girl. His rivals all pointed
the accusing finger at Robinson, and more than intimated that Bennett's visit to the house was not the first of
his calls at places of ill-repute; therefore it "came
natural" to him. This thrust he sharply resented,
declaring that he had never been inside such a place
but once before, and that in Halifax, where the girls
drove him out with the remark: "You are too ugly a
rascal to come amongst us"-and accusing him of talking too much instead of enjoying their charms. He
gave a good account of the murdered girl. She was
Dorcas Dorrance of Augusta, Maine, who had lived in
Boston as Helen Mar; coming to New York, she was a
sensation, often walking in Wall Street, clad in green,
holding a letter in her hand like a demure young miss
on her way to the post-office. In taking the Robinson
side Bennett was also accused of being in the pay of
Hoxie, who came to the aid of his employee. Robinson,




FOUNDING THE HERALD


47


in the end, was acquitted for lack of evidence and vanished in Texas. The Sun went so far as to charge that
Bennett had exacted thirteen thousand dollars to suppress the name of a rich man who was in the house the
night of the murder. This, of course, was a falsehood.
The immediae.te ffect of the case and contrvesy
was to run the circulation of the.. un Ifrnm
g  t    o"usafs;,f _ _ _o.d  _
fc remarked: "We are rapidl     khd n
oftthibTg-1eilied salR`t  eo ierq.q4rT4
J   rna o tommnerce." The two named were blanket
fsl;atTBsQple lts enlargement being still
a small folio. In the midst of the boom, April 21, 1836,
the paper moved from the basement at 148 Nassau
Street to the surface in the Clinton Building at the
corner of Nassau and Beekman Streets.
Two big signs graced its front. One read: "New
York Herald," the other: "James Gordon Bennett."
There was nothing modest about either the paper or
its proprietor
The young Herald printed no news in the modern
sense and published no editorials. Bennett mixed the
two in his own brisk way on the front page, either in
lengthy text or short pungent paragraphs. This spiced
the rather meager record of events revealed in the
first year's files. When anything happened involving
his brother journalists they received the full benefit of
his style-not so much in malice, it would appear, as
from the exuberance that comes to writers with full
minds and liberty to print. For example, he devoted
a column of the six at his disposal to accusing Gerard
Hallock, of the Journal of Commerce, of being involved




48   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
in a Connecticut real-estate promotion that did not
promise well to investors, boldly proclaiming that he
knew the facts himself and that his charges were not
based on the testimony of others. Again he devoted
two columns to a squabble between Henry William
Herbert, famous afterward as "Frank Forester," the
sporting writer, and one Tompkins, also a journalist.
In concluding the narrative, Bennett rolled up his
eyes and observed gravely: "We never engage in
brawls." This could only mean that he never started
one by personal action. He was in enough of them,
as the record shows.
There existed in New York during the 'thirties and
'forties, a "set" of the most exclusive sort, to report
whose doings afforded Bennett the keenest delight.
The common people to whom he catered were miles below these aristocrats in the social scale, with small
hope of ever rising to the exalted level on which Henry
Brevoort, Luther Bradish, Philip Hone, Charles Augustus Davis, William B. Astor, William H. Aspinwall, G. G. Howland, S. S. Howland, William and
Robert Bayard, J. Prescott Hall, George Curtis
(father of George William Curtis),Francis Brockholst
Cutting, Robert L. Cutting, Francis Cottenet, and a
few more of their kind, maintained their chilly distance. Most of them were merchants. Trade had
ceased to be plebeian. Lawyers had no special place,
journalists none at all, though James Watson Webb
was tolerated. The gentry read the Courier and Enquirer. William Leggett had made them chary of the
Evening Post. Washington Irving was admitted to
the circle and General George P. Morris, with his
gifted associate, N. P. Willis, were regarded with mild




FOUNDING THE HERALD


49


esteem. William Cullen Bryant was a long way from
being revered.
The little crowd regarded itself as sacrosanct, and
when the Herald began its prying and its mocking re.
ports of their doings, their indignation knew no bounds.
Some choice samples of this feeling are found in the
diary of Philip Hone, who, grown rich as an auctioneer
of foreign cargoes, was for seven years mayor of the
growing town and a social monitor. He spit like a
scared cat at all innovations. Soon after the advent
of the Herald, we find in his diary, under date of January 20, 1836, this notation:
There is an ill-looking, squinting man called Bennett,
formerly connected with Webb in the publication of
his paper, who is now the editor of the Herald, one of
the penny papers which are hawked about the streets
by a gang of troublesome, ragged boys, and in which
scandal is retailed to all who delight in it, at that moderate price. This man and Webb are now bitter enemies, and it was nuts for Bennett to be the organ of
Mr. Lynch's late vituperative attack upon Webb, which
Bennett introduced in his paper with evident marks of
savage exultation. This did not suit Mr. Webb's fiery
disposition, so he attacked Bennett in Wall Street
yesterday, beat him, and knocked him down.
The Lynch in question was Henry Lynch, who had
used the Herald as a medium for reflecting on Webb's
touting specialties in the stock market, with a plain intimation that he was paid for rigging it. Bennett followed it up with a malicious editorial, in which he
smacked his lips over the aspersions on Webb, who met
*From The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828-1851. Courtesy of Dodd,
Mead and Company.




50   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
him the next day in Wall Street, and not only knocked
him down, as Hone records, but beat him with a cane.
Bennett gave an account of the affair in the Herald,
with an apology to his "kind readers" for the "want
of my usual life to-day." It had been pretty well
beaten out of him. He added, in an effort to make the
most of the assault, that Webb, "by going up behind
me, cut a slash in my head about one and a half inches
in length, and through the integuments of the skull.
The fellow, no doubt, wanted to let out the never-failing
supply of good humor and wit, which has created such
a reputation for the Herald, and appropriate the contents to supply the emptiness of his own thick skull.
He did not succeed, however, in rifling me of my
ideas.... He has not injured the skull. My ideas, in
a few days, will flow as freshly as ever, and he will find
it so to his cost."
"In the mean time," according to Hone, "Webb and
Lynch maintain a relative position, something like that
of France and the United States. They carry clubs,
but do not strike. They can not adjust their pecuniary
differences in an honourable manner, for each considers the other unworthy of his notice. None but men
of acknowledged honour and good character are entitled to the privilege of having their brains blown out.
If Lynch and Webb are both men of truth they are
liars, and if neither is to be believed they are both
honourable men."
The sneer at Mr. Bennett's "squinting" eyes was
warranted. He did squint sorely, as the result of much
misuse of his eyes during his days as reporter, correspondent and editor, when he strained his optical
muscles by working under miserable artificial lighting.




FOUNDING THE HERALD                51
Mr. Bennett, by the way, met the charge of being
squint-eyed by thanking Heaven that he was not like
many of his antagonists, "squint-hearted." At this
period in his career he took pride in admitting the
charge that he was much like John Wilkes, who had a
similar defect. The resemblance extended to his purposes.
The difficulty with Webb began with the establishment of the Herald. The valiant Colonel was well
aware of the quality of his former associate, and as
the Herald was "personal" from the start, he knew
he was in for it. Instead of going at the matter diplomatically, the Colonel met Bennett on the steps of the
Astor House, on July 3, 1835, and warned him to take
no liberties with the majestic name of Webb, making
sundry threats as to what would follow if his demand
was disregarded. The next day Bennett responded
with a Declaration of Independence, stating that he
would never again communicate with his old associate
or regard him in any way, and would not "sacrifice the
honest independence of the Herald to private solicitude
or private friendship." Editorially, he declared, in
continuing the controversy: "I shall never give up my
rights. I will never give up my independence." He
continued to assail Webb unmercifully as the crooked
tout for Wall Street. In extenuation of his course toward Webb he wrote:
When I was associated with Mr. Noah, I was
the first person who gave Webb the idea of uniting the Courier and Enquirer, and creating a newspaper that would take the lead of every other in the
city. Not in possession of capital myself, and believing




52 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
that his family connexions would supply the deficiency,
he proceeded on the intimation I gave him, and purchased and united the two journals in question. I
then became associated with him as an Editor, and he
frequently solicited me to buy an interest. I soon
found, however, that from his habits, education, temper, and talents, he was utterly unfit to have control
of a newspaper, and that sooner or later he would disgrace the press and destroy his own reputation. Yet,
having early imbibed a feeling favorable to the man, I
continued for several years to treat his errors with
great delicacy, but equal frankness. Possessing personal industry and indefatigability, with some talent,
for which I am thankful to God Almighty, no one in the
city can say aught against my private character. I
can venture to say, that in all the relations of life, it
is without a stain. The benefit of this indefatigability
was entirely directed to advance the interests of Webb
for nearly three years. To me he is principally indebted for the success and establishment of his paper.
I can prove it by documents in my possession. Enjoying for many years a friendly correspondence with
several of the most distinguished men in the country,
among whom were Martin Van Buren, Vice-President,
and Nicholas Biddle, President of the United States
Bank, my endeavors during my connexion with Webb
were to benefit his establishment as far as in my power,
without compromising honor, reputation, and the decencies of life.
Naturally, this and much like it, did not soothe the
doughty Colonel, and the war went bravely on. On
May 9, 1836, Webb again assaulted Bennett. This is
the latter's account of the affair:
As I was leisurely pursuing my business, yesterday,
in Wall Street, collecting the information which is
daily disseminated in the Herald, James Watson Webb




FOUNDING THE HERALD


53


came up to me, on the northern side of the streetsaid something which I could not hear distinctly, then
pushed me down the stone steps, leading to one of the
broker's offices, and commenced fighting with a species
of brutal and demoniac desperation characteristic of a
fury.
My damage is a scratch, about three quarters of an
inch in length, on the third finger of the left hand,
which I received from the iron railing I was forced
against, and three buttons torn from my vest, which
any tailor will reinstate for a sixpence. His loss is a
rent from top to bottom of a very beautiful black coat,
which cost the ruffian $40, and a blow in the face, which
may have knocked down his throat some of his infernal
teeth for anything I know. Balance in my favor $39.94.
As to intimidating me, or changing my course, the
thing can not be done. Neither Webb nor any other
man shall, or can, intimidate me. I tell the honest
truth in my paper, and leave the consequences to God.
Could I leave them in better hands? I may be attacked, I may be assailed, I may be killed, I may be
murdered, but I never will succumb. I never will
abandon the cause of truth, morals, and virtue.
Bennett's readers, though numerous, and growing,
were too humble to come to his public support in the
hostile situation created by his efforts to amuse, interest and inform them. The other papers, jealous of
his success, united in howls of execration, to which he
replied in kind, while the aristocratic element, which
included the courts, regarded him with extreme reprehension. He was a vulgar disturbing personage, an
enemy of the social order they had so strongly established, and no good came from him.
Quite conscious of this atmosphere, Bennett followed his story of Webb's assault with this comment
concerning his antagonists:




54   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Brute force, barbarian comment, and miserable
trick and juggle are the only weapons they employ.
The Herald is producing and will produce, as complete
a revolution in the intellectual habit of daily life as
steam-power is doing in the material. If a splendid
fortune is the result to myself, that may be a matter of complacency, but is a matter of course.
Like General Jackson, looking at the Presidency"I neither seek, nor refuse it."  If it comes, it
comes, like an old boot, on the right leg, easily,
quietly, smoothly, and perfectly satisfactory to all
concerned.
These confessions of personal feeling were common
with the hard-grained Scotchman, now past fortyand single. He excused himself for the latter failing,
to his female readers, who made up the majority,
in these terms: "Amid all these thronging ideas
hurrying across the mind, crowds of feelings fresh
from the heart, and projects of the fancy, stealing on
the heads of each other, as if by enchantment, there
is one drawback, there is one sin, there is one piece of
wickedness of which I am guilty, and with which my
conscience is weighed down night and day. I am a
bachelor. I am unmarried, and, what is worse, I am
so busy that I have no time to get a wife, although
I am passionately fond of female society. For this
great sin I have no apology to make. I can only throw
myself, heart, soul, feelings, and all, upon the compassion-the heavenly compassion of my enchanting
and beautiful female readers. I know well it is my
duty to get married and obey the laws of God and
nature, but formerly to me the female sex appeared
all so beautiful, all so enchanting, all so fascinating,
that I became entirely bewildered and confused, and
/




FOUNDING THE HERALD


55


now I am so much engaged in building up the Herald,
and reforming the age, that actually I have scarcely
the time to say, 'How do ye do? ' "
The challenges of his contemporaries impelled him
to make a sort of declaration of purpose. This was it:
I mean to make the Herald the great organ of
social life, the prime element of civilization, the channel through which native talent, native genius, and
native power may bubble up daily, as the pure, sparkling liquid of the Congress fountain at Saratoga bubbles up from the center of the earth, till it meets the
rosy lips of the fair. I shall mix together commerce
and business, pure religion and morals, literature and
poetry, the drama and dramatic purity, till the Herald
shall outstrip everything in the conception of man.
The age of trashy novels, of more trashy poems, of
most trashy quarterly and weekly literature, is rapidly
drawing to a close.
This is the age of the Daily Press, inspired with the
accumulated wisdom of past ages, enriched with the
spoils of history, and looking forward to a millennium
of a thousand years, and happiest and most splendid
ever yet known in the space of eternity I
The Herald had now reached a point where its circulation was so large as to be a tax at one cent. It
was accordingly doubled in price, August 17, 1836,
without checking its growth a particle. Mr. Bennett
proclaimed the move in this comprehensive table:
Daily circulation of the Herald............. 20,000
Receipts per day at one cent, 33 per cent off, $133.34
Receipts per day at two cents, 25 per cent off, $300.00
Difference in my favor per day........... $166.66
Difference, clear, a week..............$999.96
'4




56   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
"With this sum," he commented, "I shall be enabled
to carry into effect prodigious improvements, and to
make the Herald the greatest, best and most profitable
paper that ever appeared in this country."
He. did all he promised. A weekly was also established, but that never throve. It could only summarize,
and a Herald without spice was not inviting. To mar
his complacency he now had to endure another physical assault, one that would appear to have been quite
deserved. Thomas S. Hamblin, manager of the celebrated Bowery Theater, fell out with his wife and in
the legal cases that resulted, the Herald took strong
sides with the lady. This was going far enough, it
would appear, but when the theater burned the Herald
fought a proposition to accord the manager a public
benefit. As a result the benefit failed to produce.
Hamblin, a man of muscle, fired with an "undue sense
of right," as Whistler once expressed the feeling,
after a convivial party held at the quarters of Jared
W. Bell, publisher of the New Era, decided to castigate
the abusive editor. Accordingly, with a few companions, well lit up, he invaded the Herald office and
began an affray that was ended by the arrival of the
police. In the m6lee the cash drawer was robbed of
three hundred dollars. Much turmoil followed in the
press and consequent legal proceedings, which ended in
Hamblin's conviction for assault. He was let off on
the payment of costs.
Besides the occasional beatings at the hands of
James Watson Webb, A. A. Clason, of Clason &
Paine, 31 Wall Street, brokers, favored him with a
horsewhipping. The whip broke at the first blow,
and fell from his hand. Then Bennett picked up the


c`




t1!
Q 'i gg
i-:'
o  '  ~ X X
ZI  IJ j  oo?: '11 ' '
jT-  ^  m
O  t,
T  p?" g
li n
I;"|
i->,  '
i if  5~j ~1
0 o   2
PP1


1


1/








FOUNDING THE HERALD                 57
useless weapon and politely handed it to Clason, who
made no further use of it. He had been angered by
some pointed allusions to his firm in a news article.
It will be perceived that politics had no part in
Bennett's program. He was intent upon social reform, not the least of which was breaking the strange
bonds of prudery in which the country was at this
time enthralled, plus the force of arms carried by individuals who walked about with chips labeled "honor," on their shoulders.
Civilization, [wrote the editor,] is yet defaced with
traits of barbarism. We are only half civilized. In
our most polished communities, solitary outrages
spring up that are a disgrace to the age-more the
inroads of the desert than the manners of a civilized
country. We have plenty of laws, but they are powerless and weak. The radical defect is in our social
system. Moral courage is unknown and brutal outrage encouraged. Virtue is driven from society, and
vice impudently occupies the seats of honor and of
power. This state of public opinion and of social manners must be reformed. Honor and reputation must
only be associated with virtue, truth, order and cultivated mind. Now is the period to begin this great
reform, and we are one of those cool, courageous
spirits that will aid and assist it forward.
Such sentiments seem out of place in a scandalmonger, as he was openly regarded-and there was
ample basis for the belief. But much must be allowed
for what was rated scandal. It was not considered
proper for newspapers to report certain obviously
public affairs. One of the Herald's great offenses
was printing the list of bankrupts, all too lengthy, in




58 THE JAMES GORDON BE-NNETTS
1837. An error made by a reporter in naming one
John Haggerty in a list of insolvents cost Bennett a
fine of five hundred dollars, in September of that year.
He paid the sum at once. But his cause was growing,
and admirers among the expanding throng of Herald
followers raised a like sum by subscription, and repaid
the editor, with whom cash was as yet none too plentiful. He had corrected the error in the very next issue,
but the court made an example of him in the alleged
interest of accuracy. The real reason was resentment
over the publication of matters coming under the law.
It was also considered outrageous to publish accounts of public dinners. The meticulous Hone made
this entry in his diary, December 5, 1837:
A Mr. Price, sub-editor (as I am informed) of a
scurrilous paper published in this city called the
Herald, has addressed me a letter as chairman of the
committee of arrangements for the Bell dinner, to
know whether Charles King was authorized to forbid
him to take notes of the speeches at the dinner, on
which subject a correspondence has taken place between him and Mr. King. The gentleman is bien enrage. He says he bought his ticket like other people,
and had a right like other people to take notes or anything else he pleased. King, who, I presume, thought
he had no right to take anything but his dinner, would
not allow him to proceed, and, being of the Hotspur
breed, very probably showed him the door, and the
man lost his ten dollars and his dinner in the bargain.
For this he called King to account, and, his explanation not being altogether satisfactory, I was appealed
to by the aggrieved party. In my reply I state that
"the practice of reporting in the public prints the
doings and the sayings of our convivial meetings without the consent, and frequently to the annoyance, of




FOUNDING THE HERALD


59


the parties who are thus unwillingly brought before
the public, a practice so entirely repugnant to the feelings of our citizens, is happily confined as yet to so
inconsiderable a portion of the press that it did not,
I presume, occur to the committee to take any measures in advance to prevent it; but that I was of the
opinion that Mr. King was authorized, by the express
sentiments of the gentlemen forming the committee,
to oppose the introduction of reporters for that object." This brought a rejoinder, and then the matter
ended between Mr. Price and me; but the Herald will
make two or three columns of the affair to dish up to
his customers who like high-seasoned dishes.
April 23, 1838, the Sirius and Great Western, rival
British vessels, came into New York harbor under
steam-the greatest event in the history of world
transportation. The arrival of the steamships was
hailed by Bennett in these exalted terms:
The advantages will be incalculable; no more petty
rivalries, or national antipathies; no odious misconstructions and paltry jealousies, but a mutual love and
respect growing out of an accurate knowledge of one
another's good qualities, and a generous emulation in
the onward march of mind, genius, enterprise, and
energy, towards the perfectibility of men, and the
amelioration of our physical, social, moral, and commercial condition. Such are among the prominent
features of the bright and exhilarating vision brought
into birth by this most auspicious event, and by which
the minds of our fellow citizens have been so excited.
They are founded in fact, and have nothing Eutopian
about them, and are as deducible from positive data, as
any demonstration in the Novum Organum, or any solution in the Mecanique Celeste. In the popular style
of encouragement, and in one very appropriate to
the subject we most emphatically say, Go ahead




60   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Bennett thus saw in the coming of the steamships
a new era in world relationship, and an end to the need
of maintaining newspaper navies, since "the smallest
newspaper can (now) have the news as soon as the
largest."
He tried to stir New York investors into seizing the
new form of enterprise by making it their own, but,
content with supremacy by sail and contemptuous of
steam, England was allowed to capture a lead which
she has ever since maintained.
Determined to test out the new method of transit,
and having for the first time enough money and leisure
to afford visiting his native land, Bennett booked
himself on the return voyage of the Sirius, for a wellearned vacation. He had written within the three
previous years more than five thousand octavo pages
of all sorts of matter ranging from editorials to fiction, and he felt the need of rest. Like the prudent
Scotchman he was, he auctioned off most of his personal property before he left New York, and provided the
Herald with a good bank-account against accidents to
its owner. The ship sailed, May 1, 1837, for Falmouth. In spite of steam the trip covered eighteen
days.
Bennett witnessed the coronation of Queen Victoria,
made himself at home among the London journalists
and, after a stay with his Scotch relatives, journeyed
about Great Britain, and visited the Continent, returning September twentieth, on the Royal William, a new
steamship that had joined the fast growing competition.
Back at home he put the fruits of his travels into




FOUNDING THE HERALD                  61
the Herald, through the establisbent.of. six.correspOdentes''in Europe, besides men in Texas, Mexico,
Canada and the larger cities of the United States.
The celebrated Doctor Dionysius Lardner became for a
time head of the Paris bureau. Early in 1839 Bennett
made a tour through the South, both to get acquainted
and improve his news service. This had to be a matter
of mail and meant "letters" covering all sorts of
things.
The outbreak of the Canadian rebellion, led by
William Lyon Mackenzie in 1837, excited considerable
sympathy in the United States. Bennett opposed this
sentiment. When, in 1838, Mackenzie took refuge in
the United States, he avenged himself by printing in
a pamphlet defending his cause several letters written
by the editor when in charge of the Pennsylvanian.
Mackenzie's purpose was to "show up" the proprietor of the Herald. The blast was, however, without
much effect, though it served to give his esteemed
contemporaries another chance to throw bricks.
In fulfillment of his promise to make use of his
increased revenues for improving the paper Bennett
had, in 1837, organized a ship news service that was
to become and remain the pillar of its prosperity.
Smart sailing craft were secured, which cruised beyond
Montauk Point to pick up incoming tidings from
Europe, and give the arrival of vessels. The Sandy
Hook pilots were also enlisted, with results that threw
all rivals into the shade. The Long Island railroad
had been completed and messengers were always
awaiting news from the sea at the far end of Paumanok, whence they hurried to New York by rail.




62   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Three sharp sailboats, the Teaser, the Tom Boxer and
the Celeste composed the Herald's fleet.$ Proof-slips
were sent to other newspapers throughout the country
by express mail. These reciprocated in kind, to the
Herald's great advantage, thus beginning what was
finally to develop into the Associated Press. The
steamships shortened the time across the Atlantic
and ran on schedules, vastly increasing the freshness
and quality of news from overseas. They produced
rivalry and cut out the Montauk terminal, making
Sandy Hook the center. Then it was that faster light
craft became engaged to pick up mail and intelligence
at Quarantine and hurry it up to the city. The Herald
had the smartest boat, as usual, the Fanny Elssler,
named after the liveliest dancer of the day. One of
Bennett's "brags" is worth repeating:
The way in which we walk into the whole combined
Press of New York, in newspaper enterprise and energy, is, as they say in the West, "a caution." We
will here describe our last effort-that of the arrival
of the British Queen, as performed by our beautiful
boat, the Fanny Elssler, on Saturday morning.
On Friday night last, at 12, Commodore Martin,
our high admiral, was quietly asleep on a delicious
hard board, in the log cabin or boat-house of Dr.
Doane, at the Quarantine Ground, Staten Island. On
each side of him were his men, also in the same state
of tranquility. At the wharf, under the window, lay
our beautiful new boat, called the Fanny Elssler-cool
and quiet, yet trembling on the top of the moonlit
waves like a bird ready to shoot into the eternal blue
of the heavens at a moment.
They were waiting for the arrival of the British
Queen, momentarily expected.
On a sudden, at half past 12, the voice of a big gun




FOUNDING THE HERALD


63


was heard booming up the harbor like the voice of
distant thunder. The cry was raised outside the log
cabin, "The Queen is coming," "The Queen is coming."  Martin-half asleep, half dreaming-was on
his feet in an instant; rubbing his eyes and clapping
his hat on his head, he looked down the harbor towards
the Narrows. A big bright blue light went up to
heaven and almost dazzled the brilliant moon.
"Rouse, boys, rouse! The Queen is coming; there's
her blue light."
In another moment, Martin, with his two men, were
in the Fanny Elssler-sail set, oars splashing, and
dashing over the bright wave down to the Narrows.
The moonlight was most brilliant, and the shores of
Staten and Long Islands were almost as bright as day.
As the lovely Fanny skimmed like a swan over the
silvery wave, another boat, clumsy and heavy, like a
tub, came sneaking and swearing after her. It was
the news-boat of the Wall Street Press, called the
Dot-and-go-one.
The beautiful Fanny kept her watery way, and in
ten minutes' time was, as a certain prince now is,
under the lee of the magnificent British Queen.
"Steam ship ahoy!" cried Martin.
"Ay, ay," responded the gallant Captain Roberts.
"The Fanny Elssler," roared Martin.
"The what?"
"The Herald," responded Martin.
"Oh-stop her," cried Captain Roberts to his engineer. "Throw him a line."
Martin clinched the line, and in an instant was on
the deck of the Queen.
"Martin, is that you?" said Captain Roberts.
"How in the devil do you always beat?"
"By working harder than my competitors-the way
you beat, captain. Where's your private bag?"
"Here are your papers," replied the captain.
By this time the news-boat of the Wall Street Press,
Dot-and-go-one, came alongside, after a great deal




64   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
of puffing and blowing. In a few minutes the steamer
was at the Quarantine Ground. Here she stopped
for the physician. Martin, with the private bag for
the consignees, jumped aboard the Fanny Elssler,
and started for the city, Dot-and-go-one having started
a little ahead; but it was no go.
"Rouse up, Fanny," cried Martin, coaxing his
boat-"' courage, Fanny-stir up, my angel of a skiff I"
In a few minutes Fanny, skimming over the bright
blue waters, and seeming to feel the words of her commander, passed Dot-and-go-one almost without an effort, and with a sort of gentle smile on the figure-head
which adorns her prow.
Martin whistled and gayly cheered his lovely skiff"Skim along, Fanny-skim along, my lovely angel!
Don't you see the big bright moon and the seven stars
looking down upon you, and betting a thousand acres
of the blue heaven that you will beat? Skim along,
Fanny-skim along, love!"
Fanny did skim along. She shot past the Wall
Street tub, and reached Whitehall at half past two
o'clock on Saturday morning.
Martin jumped ashore, rushed up Broadway, down
to 21 Ann Street, and found the lights burning brightly
at the Herald office. In five minutes all the editors
writers, printers, pressmen were in motion. The immense daily edition of the Herald was about one fourth
worked off when the news arrived. The press was
stopped-the announcement made: this was the second
edition. In two hours it was stopped again, and three
columns of news put in and sent by the various mails:
this was the third edition. In another two hours six
columns were put in: this was the fourth editionalso sent by the mails. By this means we sent the
news all over the country-New England, Canada, the
South and West, one day in advance of every other
paper in New York.
This is the way in which we are producing a revolution in the New York Press. The Fanny Elssler is




FOUNDING THE HERALD


65


Whitehall at sunrise any morning, or to the Park this
a beauty of a skiff. If you want to see her, go to
evening.
In January, 1839, returning from his southern trip,
the editor stayed some time in Washington, where
he interviewed his quondam idol, President Van Buren,
and wrote fifty-six letters to the Herald. In the summer Van Buren made a tour of the North. Bennett
followed suit and the Herald teemed with his stories.
He paused longest at Saratoga, to produce the following amiable comment from Philip Hone, who was also
a visitor at a time when President Van Buren was
enjoying his vacation at the Spa:
The President takes the head of one of the tables
and the modest Bennett of the Herald, the other. The
President cannot help this, to be sure, and the juxtaposition is somewhat awkward. Bennett will make a
great thing of this with those who are not aware that
any person may take this seat who has impudence
enough, and that it would require a pretty smart rifle
to carry a ball from one end of the table to another.
I wish the President would leave his seat and give the
Herald man all the honors of the table.
Bennett declined to wilt under the shadow of social
scorn. Besides the President, General Winfield Scott
and Henry Clay were amid the throng of notables.
During the two weeks of his stay, the editor wrote
fourteen short and amusing letters from the Spa,
giving in none of them any clue to his political purposes, which the politicians were keen to learn. He
next toured New England and the letters flowed from
his pen, adding zest to the Herald's columns.




66   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS'
The United States Bank and the banks of Philadelphia had suspended specie payments in August, 1839.
Bennett went after them, being familiar with the queer
town, which has never changed its habits, and brought
on his head a shower of attacks, to which were added
those of his neighbors in New York.
lt adtion to intruding ired precincts
of finance   je soi     ah    j      t       d
smade the first use of illustratimo tiie.
There were no fast methods of pictorial reproductions.
The camera had not been invented and pictures had
to be hand drawn and wood engraved. The earliest
example was a diagram of the burned district after
the great fire of 1835. In the same year a picture of
the Merchants Exchange, later the Custom House,
and now the National City Bank, on Wall Street, was
published. Bennett invented the "war map" by re.
producing the geography of Grand Island in the Niagara River durin'g the Canadian revolt of 1837. The
paper also gave depictions of scenes at the polls and
in Wall Street in 1838.
The sublime social event of the era was the great
costume ball given by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Brevoort,
the leaders of the aristocracy. It could hardly keep
out of the newspapers, and such progress had the
Herald made that the Brevoorts actually connived at
having the event described in its columns. Let Philip
Hone reveal both the glory and melancholy of the
event. He writes, February 25, 1840:
There is little dependence upon newspapers in a
record of facts, any more than in their political dogmas or confessions of faith. If they do not lie from




FOUNDING THE HERALD


67


dishonest motives, their avidity to have something
new and in advance of others leads them to take up
everything that comes to hand without proper examination, adopting frequently the slightly grounded impressions of their informers for grave truths, setting
upon them the stamp of authenticity, and sending
them upon the wings of the wind to fill the ears and
eyes of the extensive American family of the gullibles.
The great affair which has occupied the minds of
the people of all stations, ranks, and employments,
from the fashionable belle who prepared for conquest,
to the humble artiste who made honestly a few welcome dollars in providing the weapons; from the liberal-minded gentleman who could discover no crime
in an innocent and refined amusement of this kind,
to the newspaper reformer, striving to sow the seeds
of discontentment in an unruly population,-this long
anticipated affair came off last evening, and I believe
the expectations of all were realized. The mansion of
our entertainers, Mr. and Mrs. Brevoort, is better
calculated for such a display than any other in the
city, and everything which host and hostess could do
in preparing and arranging, in receiving their guests,
and making them feel a full warrant and assurance of
welcome, was done to the topmost round of elegant
hospitality. Mrs. B., in particular, by her kind and
courteous deportment, threw a charm over the splendid pageant which would have been incomplete without
it.
My family contributed a large number of actors
in the gay scene. I went as Cardinal Wolsey, in a
grand robe of new scarlet merino, with an exceedingly
well-contrived cap of the same material; a cape of
real ermine, which I borrowed from Mrs. Thomas W.
Ludlow, gold chain and cross, scarlet stockings, etc.;
Mary and Catherine, as Night and Day; Margaret,
Annot Lyle in the "Legend of Montrose;" John, as
Washington Irving's royal poet; Schermerhorn, as
Gessler, the Austrian governor who helped to make




68   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
William Tell immortal; Robert, a highlander; and
our sweet neighbour, Eliza Russell, as Lalla Rookh.
We had a great preparatory gathering of friends to
see our dresses and those of several others, who took
us "in their way up." I am not quite sure whether
the pleasantest part of such an affair does not consist
in "the note of preparation," the contriving and fixing, exulting and doubting, boasting and fretting, and
fussing and scolding, which are played off in advance
of the great occasion; and perhaps, after all is over,
the greatest doubt is "si le jeu vaut la chandelle."
And if ever that question is tested, it must be by this
experiment, for never before has New York witnessed
a fancy ball so splendidly gotten up, in better taste, or
more successfully carried through. We went at ten
o'clock, at which time the numerous apartments, brilliantly lighted, were tolerably well filled with characters. The notice on the cards of invitation, "Costume a la rigueur," had virtually closed the door to
all others, and with the exception of some eight or ten
gentlemen who, in plain dress, with a red ribbon at
the button-hole, officiated as managers, every one appeared as some one else; the dresses being generally
new, some of them superbly ornamented with gold,
silver, and jewelry; others marked by classical elegance, or appropriately designating distinguished
characters of ancient and modern history and the
drama; and others again most familiarly grotesque
and ridiculous. The coup d'oeil dazzled the eyes and
bewildered the imagination.
Soon after our party arrived the five rooms on the
first floor (including the library) were completely
filled. I should think there were about five hundred
ladies and gentlemen; many a beautiful "point device," which had cost the fair or gallant wearer infinite pains in the selection and adaptation, was doomed
to pass unnoticed in the crowd; and many who went
there hoping each to be the star of the evening, found
themselves eclipsed by some superior luminary, or




0
0
0
)I
0
O
01~
0
Itt,Aj
Q
It
11I
Q
to
2
(D
oo
VI


(I i
C3E
)i
cr      I
t-,








FOUNDING THE HERALD


69


at best forming a unit in the milky way. Some surprise was expressed at seeing in the crowd a man in
the habit of a knight in armour,-a Mr. Attree, reporter and one of the editors of an infamous penny
paper called the Herald. Bennett, the principal editor, called upon Mr. Brevoort to obtain permission
for this person to be present to report in his paper an
account of the ball. He consented, as I believe I should
have done under the same circumstances, as by doing
so a sort of obligation was imposed upon him to refrain from abusing the house, the people of the house,
and their guests, which would have been done in case
of a denial. But this is a hard alternative; to submit
to this kind of surveillance is getting to be intolerable,
and nothing but the force of public opinion will correct the insolence, which, it is to be feared, will never
be applied as long as Mr. Charles A. Davis and other
gentlemen make this Mr. Attree "hail fellow, well
met," as they did on this occasion. Whether the
notice they took of him, and that which they extend
to Bennett when he shows his ugly face in Wall street,
may be considered approbatory of the daily slanders
and unblushing impudence of the paper they conduct,
or is intended to purchase their forbearance toward
themselves, the effect is equally mischievous. It affords them countenance and encouragement, and they
find that the more personalities they have in their
papers, the more papers they sell.
"Attree" was William H. Attree, who, from being
a compositor in the Connor type foundry, had become
a police reporter on the Transcript some years before,
at the wage of three dollars per week. He had got
up in the world of reporting from that low station to
wearing a tin suit at the Brevoort ball!
4z:sthe first Amercaai, editor who refused to be a
statesman or a party hack, senne   wasuse,
^.*. l -E we t**es *^-4 *8^^*'* ^ 9 S i.  mimy,,




70   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
both a    t   al    e   e. The function of the
newspaper had been partisan; news was secondary.
Party support was the vital necessity for its existence,
the sole excuse for its being. That any one should
stoop to sell news and gossip was considered bemeaning, if not rascally. The shrewd Scotchman had, however, sensed a public need. When one looks back at
the files, when the importance of the items have faded,
it is as difficult to discern what all the row was about
as it is to find in the New York World of 1883-1888
the reasons that called anathema down upon the head
of Joseph Pulitzer when he came bounding into New
York from the breezy West.
Printed in fine type, without special display or headline, the items could only have offended from the liberty they took in telling what was going on. When
Bennett wrote mockingly of social functions, to amuse
his readers, and slyly to make fun of caste, he cut
deeply. The reaction was that people thought he was
angered because he was not invited. People then felt
their importance was enhanced by exclusiveness, where
now they bask in publicity and support numerous press
agents and clipping bureaus in their desire to know
how far the trumpet has sent their fame-an extraordinary change that leaves one uncertain as to its
merits beyond the unquestioned extinguishment of
aristocracy by publicity.
One of th  ueerest kick-ups of the period developed
Dwien tjQ                      p       r^ews in
1839, covering the Bl;ceedJiugs. of church conferences
andfitiipfiting affairs. iBtead of welcoming the
publiity, the cle'Tgyand the religious press'treated
it as sacrilege. Pastors denounced the infamous pro



FOUNDING THE HERALD                 71
ceedings from their pul.i't andapretty howdya
resulted. Unabashed, the HL6ral-tier
goo32ol  vtt:l~er tegan the custom of reporting
popular sermons.    sracse le        e es
ment of a paid classification o re  ou noti that
grMewrint" pr omtflea fe^paftr        otuf or
asyae                       chuarsj  directory.
Bennett kept his good humor as a  sto tr trade
and was a laughing Ishmael. That rich monetary
reward came to him was, of course, highly satisfactory. He knew what it was to be poor until pass forty,
and so luxury made no appeal. That became the specialty of his son. Plus his good humor he had a mind
so well balanced that it would tip either way and still
preserve its equilibrium. Most men playing with great
power are apt to misuse it and be struck down by the
recoil. Bennett never suffered this to happen. If he
was called unprincipled his answer was that he was
not following principles but events, as he was there
to report, not to reshape or divert. The Herald did
not thunder. Indeed, it had            ilver
picked up solids and lihuui  r  if rflweCbrihly on0. -. cd6ouAii   serious enough upon occasion, but
niot at the expense of being consistent. Yet he was
not one to act on expediency any more than on impulse. He wanted to interest his public and did a
good deal to inform them. With all its silly writing
the Herald had pages of the dullest facts in its columns, like the news of ships and stocks. Economic
questions required large space; nor were art and letters neglected. The thing he played fast and loose
with was the news of the day. Here he showed the
temperament of a chattering blue-jay to the last. He




72 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
loved to splash passers-by but the water was not muddied with seriousness; the drops sparkled that fell.
If the Herald reveled in scandal so did its public.
It never printed anything worse than some human
being did. This is not said defensively, but descriptively. Bennett aimed to make the Herald a mirror,
but crinkled the mercury on the back of the glass.
The editor accepted his place as outcast with the
utmost composure. Indeed, his attitude was something like that of an Indian pariah, interviewed by
Charles Godfrey Leland, who expected to find the low
caste personage depressed by his lack of social position. On the contrary he was quite cheerful, and, being asked the reason therefor, said he represented
the protest against too much piety and goodness in
the world. This was just about the position taken
by James Gordon Bennett.




CHAPTER m


THE MORAL WAR
IN FIVE years, by defiance of convent1ion,- writing
down to the level of common thought the Herald hd,
outstripped all its rivals and put half a dozen of the...,..  X,^.,.<.,w — " ** *" *..,,4-___ u y <r~,_..   1 _ " 'l" " - -
weaker ones undercfS,         an  otraged every
feelingpsssse      thet and shocked the prudish beyond measure. It had printed all the news that
was fit to print, and a great deal besides. Prudery
and the press, therefore, in May, 1840, united in a combined attack on the Herald, extraordinary in its violence and more unseemly in method than anything
the Herald had ever employed.
Judged by the tyrannical social standards of the day,
Bennett had been a great offender. This was a deliberate policy. The editor was a man of sense and
spirit, kept apart from his fellows by his occupation.
He saw human foibles with clear eyes and undertook
a venturesome enterprise, that of knocking nonsense out of the human mind. He saw creeping over
the country a reign of formality and custom far more
despotic than anything that could be devised politically. Against this he set his lance. He knew that
Eastern countries like India and China had been reduced to subjugation by caste and formalism, and had
observed the severe effects of the latter on Scotland.
To the preenatday reader it may seem absurd that
73




74   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
a young woman should swoon at -the word "parts,"
ttt the affected damsels of that period could and did.
Bennett began his crusade to bring "pants,' "legs"
and "arms," to say nothing of more hidden items of
the human structure, into plain speech. He did it
with elaborate mockery of such extreme sensibility,
which now seemis-ifIy71tt wgtin-  of sufficient import as to bring blushes  l burning ears wiereiownright unconsciousness id'441w. Indeed, it was
the era 6of sme' ng salts, prettily bottled, which every
female carried to restore her nerves when they failed
at the mention of a forbidden word by some unheeding vulgarian.
To restore sanity of speech the Herald improved
upon the cult of the period. It turned arms and legs
into "branches" of the divinely created body. "Linen" had become the synonym for shirts, and "inexpressibles" for trousers, while as for petticoats, these
chaste coverings could not be mentioned at all.
The editor rubbed in offendg words: "Petticoats
-petticoats-petticoats-petticoats —there-you fastidious fools, vent your mawkishness on that."
This they proceeded to do. The newspapers of New
York, regardiless.oif party or principles, arrayed themselves for a combined assault designed to demolish the
impertinent intruder. The prudish and "society"
joined hands -and ithe crusade found followers among
press and people in Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, with small dogs barking in between. Park
Benjamin first opened fire in the New York Evening
Signal of which he was editor. The Courier and
Enquirer followed with ponderous broadsides. The
Evening Star, edited by Mordecai M. Noah sent




THE MORAL WAR                  75
up rockets. David Hale, the pious publisher of
the Journal of Commerce, echoed James Watson
Webb. The Express, Sun, News and Mercury rattatted with adjectives. Bennett, instead of sending
solid shot in response, rattled peas in a bladder. He
"joshed" his antagonists in a style that can be afforded by victors and laughed his antagonists into
dismay.
Had the assault been confined to the columns of rival newspapers the situation could soon have become
comic. It went much further, however, and developed
into a personal campaign against the editor. Committees were organized to boycott both the Herald
and its owner. The word had not yet been invented,
but the practise was not new. Bodies of self-constituted vigilantes went about the city making demands
on advertisers to forsake the Herald's columns or
suffer in consequence. Men of standing in church and
trade united in the effort to efface the effulgent
journal. The city was in turmoil and the excitement
spread over the eastern part of the nation. Philip
Hone took deep delight in the outbreak, recording on
June 2, 1840:
The career of the infamous editor of the Herald
seems at last to have met with a check, which his unblushing impudence will find some difficulty in recovering from. Some of his late remarks have been so
profane and scandalous as to have drawn out the
editors from the contemptuous silence which they
have hitherto observed toward the scoundrel. In one
of his late attacks upon the editors of the Evening
Signal and another paper, in alluding to some personal deformity in each of them, he uses the shocking
expression that they are "cursed by the Almighty."




76   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
The evil has reached a pitch of enormity which renders
further forbearance criminal, and a simultaneous attack is made upon the libellous paper, its editor, and
those who, from fear or a fellow-feeling, support it.
The Evening Star has several excellent articles on
this loathsome subject. Bennett is absolutely excoriated by the Signal, and all the other papers, without
regard to party, have joined the righteous crusade.
This is the only thing to be done; the punishment of
the law adds to the fellow's notoriety, and personal
chastisement is pollution to him who undertakes it.
Write him down, make respectable people withdraw
their support from the vile sheet, so that it shall be
considered disgraceful to read it, and the serpent will
be rendered harmless; and this effect is likely to be
produced by the united efforts of the respectable part
of the public press.
An expose of the inside crookedness of the Philadelphia banks which had suspended payment, made early
in 1840, added the power of the Pennsylvania press to
the anti-Bennett fusillade. He was charged with hostility to the city and the state because of his failure
to succeed with the Pennsylvanian. His answer was
that he was hostile only to dishonesty and fraud
whether generated in New York or Philadelphia, and
was always "first to sound the alarm of bank mismanagement" for which "watchfulness and industry
in the cause of public morals we have received a support and a patronage unparalleled in the annals of the
New York press."
On June third, at the end of the first month of the
"war," Mr. Bennett summed up the results in this
fashion:




THE MORAL WAR


77


THE FORCE IN THE FIELD
It may be interesting to many of our readers to know
the exact circulation of the press, as compared with
our own, which the Wall Street Holy Allies bring into
the field to put down the Herald. We shall here state
them from undoubted data in our possession:
The Holy Allies          The Herald
Name             Circulation         Circulation
Evening Star......... 2,200
Evening Signal.......   600
American..........     700 Daily, Weekly,
Courier and Enquirer. 4,200  and Extra... 51,000
Journal of Commerce. 3,100
Express............. 2,800 -Sun................. 21,000
News................  450
Mercury.......... 1,500               51,000
v               36,550
Aggregate circulation 36,550
Herald circulation over the allies.......... 14,450
In the midst of the campaign against him, Mr. Bennett decided to change his single state to one of matrimony. Quite characteristically, and with a taste that
could well be criticized, he took his readers into his
confidence. Canny Scot as he was, he had a high bump
of self-appreciation and took much space to talk about
himself. The announcement of his coming marriage
was made a spread-head in the Herald of June 1, 1840,
in this flamboyant style:
To the Readers of the Herald-Declaration of
Love-Caught at Last-Going to be Married-New
Movement in Civilization.
I am going to be married in a few days. The weather




78 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
is so beautiful; times are getting so good; the prospects of political and moral reform so auspicious, that
I can not resist the divine instinct of honest nature any
longer; so I am going to be married to one of the
most splendid women in intellect, in heart, in soul, in
property, in person, in manner, that I have yet seen
in the course of my interesting pilgrimage through
human life.... I can not stop in my career. I must fulfill that
awful destiny which the Almighty Father has written
against my name, in the broad letters of light, against
the wall of heaven. I must give the world a pattern
of happy wedded life, with all the charities that spring
from a nuptial love. In a few days I shall be married
according to the holy rites of the most holy Christian
church, to one of the most remarkable, accomplished,
and beautiful young women of the age. She possesses
a fortune. I sought and found a fortune-a large
fortune. She has no Stonington shares or Manhattan
stock, but in purity and uprightness she is worth half
a million of pure coin. Can any swindling bank show
as much? In good sense and elegance another half a
million; in soul, mind and beauty, millions on millions,
equal to the whole specie of all the rotten banks in the
world. Happily, the patronage of the Herald is nearly
twenty-five thousand dollars per annum, almost equal
to a President's salary. But property in the world's
goods was never my object. Fame, public good, usefulness in my day and generation; the religious associates of female excellence; the progress of true
industry-these have been my dreams by night, and
my desires by day.
In the new and holy condition into which I am about
to enter, and to enter with the same reverential feelings as I would heaven itself, I anticipate some signal
changes in my feelings, in my views, in my purposes,
in my pursuits. What they may be I know not-time
alone can tell. My ardent desire has been through
life to reach the highest order of human excellence




THE MORAL WAR


79


by the shortest possible cut. Associated, night and
day, in sickness and in health, in war and in peace,
with a woman of this highest order of excellence, must
produce some curious results in my heart and feelings,
and these results the future will develop in due time in
the columns of the Herald.
Meantime, I return my heartfelt thanks for the enthusiastic patronage of the public, both of Europe and
of America. The holy estate of wedlock will only increase my desire to be still more useful. God Almighty bless you all.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
To this statement was appended a postscript giving
notice to his editorial foes that he would have no time
to attend to them "until after marriage and the honeymoon." The event took place on June sixth, and was
announced in the Herald in the following form, on the
eighth:
MARRIED
On Saturday afternoon, the sixth instant, by the
Reverent Doctor Power, at St. Peter's Catholic Church,
in Barclay Street, James Gordon Bennett, the proprietor and editor of the New York Herald, to Henrietta Agnes Crean. What may be the effect of this
event on the great newspaper contest now waging in
New York, time alone can show.
The lady who chose to share his fast rising fortune
was Miss Henrietta Agnes Crean, whom he met at an
evening party. It was a case of love at first sight. According to a chronicle of the day, Miss Crean was "the
daughter of highly respectable parents, formerly of the
West of Ireland, descending from the Warrens of Dublin on one side and the Crean-Lynch family on the




80 THE JAMES GORDON BE NNETTS
other. She had come to the United States in the year
1838 with her mother, sister and brother, and soon distinguished herself by her accomplishments, particularly as a composer of music."
The same authority describes her qualities of mind
and heart as of "no ordinary character," while as a
writer she displayed "perceptive power worthy of
admiration," with a highly creditable taste in art and
music. She was also a linguist, speaking "several
modern languages" with fluency, and credited with an
"impulsive generosity of heart, " that was "ever ready
to assist the needy" or "aid the struggling student
in literature, art, or science."
Instead of waiving hostilities during the honeymoon,
the "poison" press kept up a rapid fire. When the
bridal pair returned from their tour and repaired to
the Astor House, a concerted effort was made to have
Charles Stetson, the landlord, exclude them from his
hostelry, then the most fashionable in New York.
Some of the sheets actually printed the statement that
they had been refused accommodations. This was
totally untrue and Stetson compelled the papers to
print corrections.
The full fury of the moral war now broke. Surely
dictionaries were never so thumbed before to extract
abusive missiles. Frederic Hudson, in his History of
Journalism in the United States, amuses himself with
tabulating some of the severer sort. Park Benjamin,
in his Signal, is credited with the following magnificent efforts at objurgation:
"Scoundrel pen," "Obscene vagabond," "Infamous
blasphemer," "Loathsome and leprous slanderer and




Courtesy of James Melvin Lee, Department of Journalism, New York
James Gordon Bennett, the Elder
From a painting








THE MORAL WAR                  81
libeller," "Wretch," "Profligate adventurer," "Nuisance," "Venomous reptile," "Accursed sting," "Notorious bane and curse," "Filthy sheet," "Pestilential
scoundrel," "Vagabond," "Habitual scoffer," "Witless balderdash," "Instinct of brutes," "Mass of
trash," "Ghoul-like propensity," "Murdered reputation," "Fiendish lies," "Venal wretch," "Instrument
of mischief," "Cursed," "Daring infidel," "Monstrous lies," "Infamous Scotchman," "Foreign vagabond," "Polluted wretch," "Habitual liar," "Licentious," "Prince of darkness," "Infamous journal,"
"Veteran blackguard," "Contemptible libeller," "Lying slang and abuse," "Scurrilous," "Caitiff," "Monster,"  "Foul jaws,"  "Black-hearted,"  "Dirt,"
"Ass," "Gallows," "Rogue," "Ribaldry."
Mordecai M. Noah showered malediction in the Star,
such as: "Rascal," "Rogue," "Cheat," "Licentious," "Infamous," "Lies," "Vile," "Nuisance,"
"Outrage," "Common bandit," "Dungeon," "Scaffold,"  "Prowling,"  "Pollution,"  "Demoralize,"
"Contaminate,"  "Slander," "Libel," "Vicious,"
"Depraved appetite," "Drummed out," "Not live an
hour," "False," "Inquisition," "Torture," "Villain," "Turkey-buzzard," "Falsehood," "Humbug."
James Watson Webb's best specimens were these:
"Unprincipled conductor," "Grossly slanderous,"
"Vulgur attacks," "Pollute our sheet," "Wretch,"
"Blasphemy," "Obscenity," "Cell at Sing Sing,"
"Personally offensive," "Fulsome praise," "Disgusting attacks," "Dastardly assaults," "Reckless depravity," "Unprincipled adventurer," "Moral pestilence,"
"Infamous," "Lowest species of scurrility," "Disgusting obscenity," "Revolting blasphemy," "Slan



82   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
derous abuse," "Moral leprosy," "Insidious poison,"
"Gloat," "Disreputable sheet," "Disgusting organ,"
"Worthless sheet," "Horror and disgust," "Ribald
vehicle," "Vile sheet."
The boycotters went about the city persistently, requiring clubs and hotels to cast out the Herald. Some
did, only soon to repent. The manager of Gilpin's Exchange and Reading Room, a popular mercantile resort, was ordered to remove the paper from his files
and did so. Immediately, a sufficient number of patrons protested to bring it back. Edward K. Collins,
founder of the ill-fated Collins line, a great merchant,
was waited on by one of the committees and told to
keep his announcements out of the Herald. He called
to a clerk in their presence and asked how many advertisements were running in the journal. "Three," was
the reply. "Insert three more," was his order. The
committee retired. John Boyd, another figure in the
commercial world, told a committee that he got along
well by minding his own business and advised imitation on their part.
A concerted attempt was also made to force theaters
out of the Herald's columns. These numbered Niblo's
Garden, the Park, Olympic, Chatham, Franklin and
Bowery. Their managers were told that further use
of the Herald would lead to exclusion from the columns
of the combined press. Hamblin, of the Bowery, who
hated Bennett, was the only one to obey. The Journal
of Commerce did some theatrical printing and threatened Manager Thorne of the Chatham with a refusal
to continue getting out posters and hand-bills. Thorne
found another printer and kissed the Journal of Commerce good-by. All phases of social and business life,




THE MORAL WAR


83


transportation and hotels were involved in the controversy, in the midst of which Bennett kept his temper
and the Herald throve amazingly.
In the course of the attacks Bennett was accused of
having been a pedlar in the streets of Glasgow, where
it must take peculiar talents for one to thrive in that
precarious occupation. He answered the'accusation
rather nobly in these terms:
I am, and have been, a pedlar-and part of my name
is Gordon. This I admit. From my youth up I have
been a pedlar, not of tapes and laces, but of thoughts,
feelings, lofty principles, and intellectual truths. I am
now a wholesale dealer in the same line of business,
and people generally believe I have quite a run, and,
what is better, no dread of suspension. I was educated and intended for a religious sect, but the
Almighty, in his wisdom, meant me for truth and mankind, and I will fulfil my destiny in spite of all the
opposition made to me either in the old or new hemisphere.
Yes, I have been a pedlar, and am still a pedlar of
the thoughts, and feelings, and high imaginings of the
past and present ages. I peddle my wares as Homer
did his-as Shakespeare did his-as every great intellectual and mighty pedlar of the past did-and when I
shall have finished my peddling in this world, I trust
I shall be permitted to peddle in a better and happier
region for ever and ever.
I have been a wayward, self-dependent, resolute,
self-thinking being, from my earliest days. Yet there
were implanted in my burning soul those lofty principles of morals, honor, philosophy, and religion, that
the contumely of the world can not shake, or all the
editors or bankers in Christendom intimidate. I feel
myself, in this land, to be engaged in a great causethe cause of truth, public faith and science, against




84   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
falsehood, fraud, and ignorance. I would not abandon
it even to reach the glittering coronet of the extinct
title of the Duke of 'Gordon. I am a firm believer in
the remarkable effects of blood and race in men, women,
and horses, but I am also an equal votary in the faith
of talent, in the blood of genius, in the race of lofty
intellect and original mind. To be a friend of the
human race, to support the cause of the oppressed
against the oppressor, to put down the vulgar aristocracy of fraudulent paper wealth by the noble aristocracy of talent, genius, and civil liberty itself, will
confer a more lasting glory on my name than to entwine my brow with the glittering bauble of a ducal
coronet, even were it within my reach.;His opinion of his antagonists was curtly expressed
in this paragraph: "These blockheads are determined
to make me the greatest man of the age. Newspaper
abuse made Mr. Van Buren chief magistrate of this
republic-and newspaper abuse will make me the chief
editor of this country. Well-be it so, I can't help it."
The blockheads did not make him the greatest editor
in the country, but they did aid in making the Herald
the most successful newspaper from the standpoint
of circulation and earning power. Among the sins
ascribed to Bennett were atheism and disrespect for
religion. To these charges he replied with spirit:
Atheism is an absurdity. An atheist never existed.
Materialism is an equal absurdity as contradistinguished from mentalism. Really and truly we know
nothing of mind or matter. We only know our sensations, our thoughts, our feelings, our ideas, which are
all, more or less, synonymous words. From these
beautiful raw materials of our existence we infermind, matter, God, heaven, and eternity. The whole
circle of human knowledge and happiness is merely




THE MORAL WAR


85


inference from these mysterious sensations, which,like an invisible but incomprehensible frame-work,
spread over man a web of intelligence. Common
sense-the constant series of our mysterious sensations, is the foundation of all philosophy, all religion,
all literature, all poetry, all human happiness.
Replying further to the accusations of impiety he
observed:
When I was quite a youth, perplexed with the violent
controversies between the Catholics and Protestants,
I used to go to the banks of a stream, and pour my
regrets into its gentle ripples, that I had not lived in
the dark ages, when there was only one opinion and
one religion to believe.
Religion-true religion-consists not in eating and
drinking-not in high salaries-not in hanging around
the apron strings of rich old women-not in presuming
to judge the opinions of others beyond what their acts
will justify. Neither does true religion-nor real
Christianity consist in believing the dogmas of any
church-or the ipse dixit of any man. The Bible is
before me. Have I not a right to read that book-to
draw out from it religious opinions-and to create a
belief and a church of my own?
I had not reached the age of eighteen, before the
light of nature-the intelligence of the age-the progress of truth and knowledge had broken to pieces all
the ridiculous superstitions of the church of Rome,
without affecting a single moral principle which I had
received in the course of my early instruction. With
the sacred document in my hand, and all history spread
out before me, I would not submit to bigotry, either
Catholic or Protestant, even at that early age. I went
to the sources of true religion, and drank of the pure
stream, uncontaminated by priest or prelates, parson
or minister; and as long as we have these sacred vol



86 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
umes in full circulation here below, defiance may alike
be set to the bigots of Catholicity or of Protestantism.
We care for neither. We are independent of all. Like
Luther-like Paul, we go on our own hook.
He made use of the charges to write an exposition
of his views of the Bible, which is refreshing to read
even in days of pro-evolution:
The first book I recollect anything of was the Scriptures. In the school in which I was taught to read,
the Scriptures were the principal book. The history
of the patriarchs, of the prophets, of the apostles, of
the martyrs, of the Son of Man himself-is as familiar
to me as the expression of my mother's face, and the
light of my mother's eye. My imagination, my fancy,
my taste, my morals were formed on the perusal of
the Scriptures. The literature of the Greek and
Roman classics-that even of England and of Scotland, was a study subsequent to that of the Scriptures.
In the day, and in the country in which I was a boy,
the Scriptures were the text book-the reading bookthe Vade Mecum-the companion of Saturday night
and of Sunday all day. I was educated a Catholic, in
the midst of a Protestant community-yet both Catholic and Protestant breathed the moral atmosphere of
the Scriptures. My parents, my schoolmaster, my associates-all venerated the book of heaven alike. My
literary and moral tastes are all founded on the striking passages in the Scriptures; and I do verily believe,
that to this early habit of reading the Bible at school,
am I indebted for that force, brevity, spirit, and peculiarity which makes the style of the Herald as popular with the uncontaminated masses of a community
who are yet imbued with the spirit and literature of
the Bible.


Effort was made to stir up Catholic antagonism to.




THE MORAL WAR                  89
curred in assisting the building of railways. The
bonds had been marketed abroad, where the Herald
had already become the chief source of information
concerning America. As it was especially strong on
financial news, the "Wall Street journals," as they
were termed, denounced this prediction as the result
of bribes from the London Stock Exchange and the
Paris Bourse to prevent the further sale of American
securities abroad. Bennett printed the accusation in
his issue of November twenty-sixth. It is enough to
say that the states named did repudiate their obligations.
Bennett's clarity of vision in politics and finance,
being hampered neither by partisanship nor personal
interest, gave him a commanding position as an interpreter of conditions. The death of President Harrison
after a single month in office brought John Tyler into
his chair. The Herald predicted that this would be
fraught with evil consequences to the Whigs, a prophecy that came all too true. As Horace Greelewas
a master of political factsoi n Bennett
w^asja geaeicierof polaiticl anhriadeurnts.
Thie man waaSmfftffosianny in his sensibility in these
matters.
Unlike Greeley, however, Bennett did not quarrel
with conditions. He saw in the coming of Tyler the
beginning of the end with the Whig party, but he did
not clash with Tyler on that account. Indeed, Tyler's
policies suited him perfectly. He refused to revive
the United States Bank, and in other things pleased the
Herald admirably. The sudden shiit in administrative policy-Tyler being much more of a southerner
than a Whig-roused great public interest in Wash



90   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ington affairs, so much so that Bennett decided to establish what was the first Washington bureau, as he
had himself, in a way, been the first Washington correspondent. To this end he put Robert Sutton, a very
capable man, in charge and gave him a staff of men
to nose about for news. Thus Herald reporters became
much in evidence at the Capitol, so much so that Senator Samuel L. Southard, of New Jersey, President
pro tern of the Senate, excluded them from its floor
under an old rule that but two men from each local
paper could have that privilege. The rule was made
to protect the lazy Washington sheets from competition and Bennett riddled it with a biting attack, to
this effect:
It is caused by the selfish and malignant influence
of the Washington newspapers, in order to maintain
a monopoly of Washington news, and to rob the public
treasury, under the color of public printing, in order
to gratify their extravagant habits of life. According
to Mr. Clay's statement, we find that during the Congress of 1838, the following amount was paid out of
the public treasury, for printing, to the three Washington prints:-Washington Globe, Blair & Rives,
ninety thousand dollars-National Intelligencer, Gales
and Seaton [no amount given], Madisonian, Thomas
Allen, three hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
There is this enormous amount of the public money
thrown away upon these prints-and for what? It is
necessary, as they say, in order to remunerate them
for reporting the debates of Congress. We propose,
and will give, a daily report and circulation of these
debates, better and more comprehensive, without asking a cent of the public treasury.


Furthermore, the enterprising editor made a frank




THE MORAL WAR


91


appeal to Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, in these
terms:
New York, June 5,1841.
Hon. Henry Clay.
Sir: The peculiar circumstances of the case will be
my apology for troubling you with the present note.
I have organized, at an expense of nearly two hundred dollars per week, a corps of reporters, to give
daily reports of the debates in both Houses of Congress. In the House there is no difficulty, but in the
Senate there is a rule, I am told, excluding from the
reporters' seats all not connected with the Washington
press. Now I conceive this exclusion to be hostile to
the public interests. I can and will give daily reports
of the Senate, without asking any of the printing, or
indirect remuneration of that body, but I am met with
a rule that certainly is illiberal and injurious both to
private enterprise and public advantage.
I address myself to you as one of the most liberal
and enlightened members of your body, for the purpose
of requesting that a motion may be made for the repeal of the rule in question. No individual in this land
will sooner see the propriety and public advantage of
such motion than yourself.
I am, sir, with great respect,
JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
Clay answered rather lamely that he would try to
secure "accommodations" for the Herald's men,
pleading quite untruthfully that the rule was in force
because of limited room. The question was referred
to a committee which did not report, and for long the
Herald's Washington staff had to cover the Senate
as best it could. Other out-of-town sheets, it might
be said, were not excluded and it was this favoritism




92 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
that aroused the Herald's owner. He had to await the
coming of the telegraph to get full value out of his
enterprise, but fast couriers did pretty well and the
Herald was always ahead in the Capital. Moreover,
the Herald soon established an "inside" relationship
that was of great value in news-getting. Tyler had to
seek friends outside his party and found one in Bennett, so much so in fact, that Philip Hone, stout Whig,
wrote on September 20, 1841:
- The New York Herald is now understood to be the
champion of President Tyler, and, if report speaks
true, its correspondent in Washington (a person named
Parmly) is his confidential adviser, enjoys in the most
enlarged degree the run of the presidential kitchen,
and is favored with copies of his messages and other
public acts before they have been submitted to his cabinet ministers. For these high privileges and distinguished favors he, of course, evinces his gratitude, and
does his share of the dirty jobs about the' palace, by
abusing in the most gross and vulgar language, the
members of the late cabinet, and Mr. Ewing, the late
Secretary of the Treasury, having been the most prominent among the abdicators, comes in for the largest
share of this reptile's venom. A long article is published in the Herald, filled with the grossest vituperation against this gentleman, against whom the tongue
of slander has never until now been raised.
Plus this advantage the Herald reported the speeches
of Clay, Webster and Calhoun in full, enlarging to
give them space.
The triumphant Herald was not merciful to its
persecutors in the "war," when any of them got
in the way. The result was now and then an indictment for libel. Philip Hone reports the outcome




THE MORAL WAR


93


of one of these episodes in his diary, under date of
February 14, 1842:
This impudent disturber of the public peace, whose
infamous paper, the Herald, is more scurrilous, and of
course more generally read, than any other, has been
tried in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and convicted on two indictments for a libel on the Judges
Noah and Lynch, of the Court of Sessions; he was
sentenced this morning to pay a fine of $250 on one,
and $100 on the other. This will do him more good
than harm; he will make money by it; the vitiated
appetite for slander which pervades the mass of the
people will be whetted by the notoriety which this trial
will give him, for dearly do the people love the scandal
of which themselves are not the subject! The court
consisted of Hon. William Kent, president, and two
Loco-foco Aldermen, Purdy and Lee; the two latter,
"birds of a feather," overruled the judge in making
up the sentence, of which he took care to inform Bennett in the address which he made to him in announcing
it, telling him plainly that if he had had his way he
would have sent him to the penitentiary, and intimating that whenever he gets a chance he may expect it
at his hands, on the commission of another such offence.
It is proper to state that Major Mordecai M. Noah,
who had been both employer and opponent of Bennett,
and had become a judge, cheerfully consented to the
quashing of a couple of indictments, admitting that he
had provoked the reprisal upon which they were based.
In one case brought by Noah, his former associate was
fined three hundred dollars, largely on the theory that
the greater the truth, the greater the libel.
Another libel action of great public import failed
of its purpose. Bennett was prosecuted under the




94   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
bankruptcy act for publishing the schedules of
Anthony Dey, whose family name is perpetuated in
Dey Street. The prosecuting attorney, Mr. Whiting,
framed his plea for conviction in a glowing tribute to
the Herald's power and progress, pointing out the
pride Mr. Bennett took in the fact that his newspaper
"was circulated in every land and clime the sun shone
upon. If you go to England, you find it there; in
France it is almost the only paper that can be found
in file; it penetrates through the snows and dreary
wilds of Russia; you may see it upon the summits of
the Alps; if you travel in India you will find it; upon
the Seven Hills of Rome; upon the time honored and
classic soil, and beneath the balmy skies of Italy, there
you may read the Herald. Cross over the Bosphorus-go into Asia-and, in short, wherever the
English language is spoken or translated there does
the New York Herald circulate."
This was rather piling it up, but from his own eulogy,
he argued that so much potency ought to be curbed
that its power might not become perilous. He held
that great caution and discretion should be exercised
by the editor of such a medium, making it quite plain
that such had not been the case.
Bennett's retort was that he had offended less
against good morals, good taste and the laws of society
than any paper in the city. Such errors as had occurred were unintentional and were always corrected
as soon as detected. The jury agreed with him, and
he was acquitted. The bankruptcy law was changed
and schedules of the unlucky became public property.
Discussing the case against himself and his policy of
promptly acknowledging error, in contrast with the




THE MORAL WAR


95


conduct of his contemporaries, who usually stood by
their sins, he wrote, February 1, 1843:. Our rivals... hated us for our successful enterprise. It was not our conduct, as they alleged,
which they wished to amend-it was to destroy us and
our establishment so that they might occupy our position. Hence the terrible falsehoods just invented and
published by the rival newspapers-hence the attacks
not only upon our journal, but on our character, on the
very females of our family-on the wife of one's own
bosom. Never, perhaps, was there such an instance
in human nature, of such a conspiracy to destroy a
man and his family, as there has existed in certain
cliques in New York for the last few years against us
and the Herald. They attempted to drive us from our
very apartments in the Astor House, by gross and
false insinuations against characters in private life,
as pure, as spotless, as honorable, as accomplished as
any in this or any other country.
Thus he summed up accurately the motive behind
the moral war. In the face of it all the circulation
of the Herald rose until it equaled that of the great
London Times, while it became and long remained the
chief source of American perspective for European
editors.
In 1842 a quarrel between sundry New York editors
and James Fenimore Cooper brought on a series of
libel suits by the novelist, who had managed to stir
up the bile of James Watson Webb, Horace Greeley,
Thurlow Weed and William L. Stone, the last then a
young editor of the Journal of Commerce. Cooper's
fight against the press became state-wide. He won
suit after suit. Bennett saw no excuse for the assaults
and stood stoutly by Cooper.




96   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
He was able in June of that year to have considerable fun at the expense of James Watson Webb, who
earned a prison sentence for fighting a duel with
Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, on the twentyfourth. The editor placed an order for cigars with
a tobacconist, to be sent to the imprisoned Colonel.
The dealer took the trouble to verify the order. I Send
the best," answered Bennett. Webb declined the
weeds, quite to the amazement of the donor who could
not understand Webb's "insulting a box containing
one hundred of the very best cigars," besides rejecting
them with a threat "to kick them into the street instead of smoking them."
"If he will apologize like a reinstated gentleman,"
Bennett continued on his comment, "for his conduct,
and smoke one of those cigars, as the Indian does
the calumet, as an emblem of peace, we will go to Delaware and settle his business quietly, or throw a wet
blanket over the length and breadth of the state that
will bury it thick in a fog till the day of Judgment
comes-on the 23rd of April 1843, according to
Prophet Miller."
In the duel Webb had received a flesh wound in the
leg, and after indictment in New York was sentenced
to two years in Sing Sing. A petition for his pardon
was circulated, Bennett being one of the first signers.
Governor William H. Seward granted the plea, so the
doughty Colonel never wore strips. In gratitude he
named his next born son William Seward Webb.
As editor of the only non-partisan paper in an extremely partisan age, Mr. Bennett readily became the
target of charges that he was a mercenary. He retorted that there was no distinction between the Whigs




THE MORAL WAR


97


and the Democrats, the then ruling parties. The difference was a mere shadow, fictitious and artificiala passion and prejudice, behind which there was no
principle, heightened and exaggerated.by partisans
Who made politics a trade, to delude the people into
their support-which was all too true. His reason
for supporting Tyler was that he had risen above
party:
To attempt to show that Mr. Tyler's administration
has placed itself upon the old Jeffersonian platform,
or that it eschews the leaven of federalism is a trick
of rogues to impose upon honest men. Mr. Tyler's
administration is elevated above the Jeffersonian platform-far above all party-far above all moth-eaten
prejudices. From his first accession to power, we have
watched its operation, and supported its policy, because it is adapted to the spirit of the age-because
it has broken loose from all party-because it has taken
a high, moral, independent position, above all party,
all faction, and thrown itself upon the intellect, morals,
intelligence, justice, and patriotism of the whole nation for its support. We have also approved of all
the vetoes of the President, not because a bank is unconstitutional, for we firmly believe it is-but because
the horrible morals of the financiers of the present day
have unfitted the country for any bank-or any currency other than gold or silver. Within the last few
years nearly one hundred and fifty banks, including
the United States Bank, have broken to pieces, and
property amounting to a hundred and fifty millions of
dollars, or more, has evaporated under the management of the bankers and financiers of the age. On
this ground alone the veto power is justified.
It was this attitude toward getting rich quickly that
gave the Herald its standing abroad. Even in the 'for



98   THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ties the British were badly burned. They held much
stock in the United States Bank. No wonder then, the
Foreign Quarterly Review said of the Herald, in its
hour of trial during the moral war:
The New York Herald has been one of the most
powerful instruments in the United States in exposing frauds, bubbles and stock-gambling machinery,
which our fund-mongers had organized in America
for robbing the land and labor in that country, as they
have robbed since the days of Walpole. For correctness of detail, research, industry, sound political economy, and decided talent, the New York Herald might
challenge comparison with any daily paper in Europe.
Its money articles have not yet been equalled on this
side of the water; but it is the bold, and able, and
honest exposure of the corrupt paper system which
those money articles contain, and not the wit, levity,
and colloquial humor of the Herald, which has excited
the indignant reprobation of our money changers.
It is rather curious that Horace Greeley, whose honesty was never questioned, advocated paper money,
and that James Gordon Bennett, whose honesty was
always aspersed, should have been a firm believer in
sound money! He was an unpopular truth-teller in a
wildcat age. The Herald's financial articles, it may be
recalled, were the products of his own pen, and were
the first that really told the truth unsparingly to appear in American newspapers. The fact that the editor knew how to develop information to advantage
brought great quantities to his desk. He never betrayed a source, and as a result, his files were full of
material upon which he could draw in support of his
position. Men came to the Herald knowing they would




I
I,






F i~1


" 1! 't" A?:
I f,
I.
zI
I


0>
ic
X
w'I
I  -
Qz


1-1








THE MORAL WAR


99


not be betrayed; others because they knew they would
be paid. So it was that the paper never lacked for
exclusive news or ammunition with which to return a
fire. Withal, it was intensely American, and mercilessly anti-foreign, fighting against English influences
in trade, finance and politics. Remember, we were still
regarded as children-and pretty bad ones-by the
"mother" country. Not until the border treaties were
settled to our advantage under the skilled hands of
Webster, were we half-respected or really accorded
rights. There was much showing of teeth in the period
when these matters were under discussion; all of which
the Herald liberally encouraged. Yet the editor did
not hesitate to lay the lash on the shoulders of Pennsylvania when its press and politicians went out of
bounds on the Oregon question, and howled "fifty-four
forty or fight" until they were purple. "With boundless riches, and great means of wealth," he wrote,
"that state has given the disgraceful example of repudiating her honest debts, and delaying the payment
of interest under the plea of paltry excuses. No man
or set of men in the community can have the true feeling of patriotism, or should be allowed to lick John
Bull, unless they have honesty enough to pay their
debts and rid their consciences of such burden. It is
impossible for Philadelphia to get up a patriotic meeting, and convince England and the world that they can
whip John Bull until they pay their debts. Church
burners, rioters, repudiators are not the stuff of which
true patriotism can be formed, or brave men manufactured."
Here again he spoke as one with authority. Pennsylvania, following the panic of 1837, had defaulted




100 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
interest on her bonds, sold mainly abroad by Nicholas
Biddle, head of the United States Bank. That rank
repudiation was in the air is quite plain. Europe was
enraged. One American banker was mobbed on the
Exchange in Amsterdam and narrowly escaped with
his life. The family savings of William Wordsworth
were wiped out, by what the poet termed "the perfidy
of Pennsylvania's repudiators." Sydney Smith's
losses took all the humor out of him for the moment.
He wrote the London Globe under date of May 8, 1843:
Had this refusal been the result of war, of civil
discord, of unwise application of means in the first
years of self-government, of a poor state struggling
with the barrenness of nature, every friend of America
would have been content to wait for better times. But
the fraud has been committed in a period of profound
peace, by the richest state in the Union, after a wise
investment of the funds in roads and canals, of which
the repudiators are every day enjoying the advantages.
A great nation, after trampling under foot all earthly
tyranny, has been guilty of a fraud as enormous as
ever disgraced the worst king of the most degraded
nation in Europe.
It is worth while noting that Pennsylvania was soon
shamed into paying up. The Herald's share in bringing this about added to its prestige abroad. Incidentally it may be added that in the course of our career
as a nation seventeen states have attempted to evade
'T4~heir responsibilities and eight are still in full default.
Besides the moral war and the Hard Cider Campaign, the 'forties developed a series of amazing news
stories, to which the Herald gave the highest expression that audacity and enterprise could employ. Spe



THE MORAL WAR                  101
cial occasions Were emphasized with pictures. When a
"Boz Ball" was given in honor of Charles Dickens, at
the Park Theater, in 1843, the enterprising editor gave
his readers twelve illustrations of the event. A pictorial page showing General Andrew Jackson's funeral
cortege was printed in June, 1845. Envious contemporaries made much fun of the rather coarse cuts, and
the Albany Evening Journal, of which Thurlow Weed
was editor, alleged that the Jackson pictures had already done duty as depicting Queen Victoria's coronation, the funeral of President William Henry Harrison
and the celebration held in honor of the opening of the
Croton aqueduct. Bennett repelled this infamous insinuation with a certificate from Thomas W. Strong,
wood engraver, to the effect that the Jackson cuts were
fresh made in his own shop.




CHAPTER IV


MORMONS AND CATHOLICS
THE new cult called Mormonism founded by Joseph
Smith, the Prophet, migrating from Ohio, to Missouri,
had been driven out of the latter state after a conflict
that amounted to civil war. The Mormons, led by
Smith, settled in Nauvoo, in Illinois, on the Mississippi River and soon had a thriving city as their capital
with nearly twenty thousand people within its borders.
Smith organized a military brigade called the Nauvoo
Legion, made himself lieutenant-general and gave it a
liberal supply of major- and brigadier-generals. The
community soon became a center of disturbances. The
Saints, as they dubbed themselves, grew fast in numbers and were a balance of political power in the state,
swinging from Democratic to Whig as proved most
profitable, while the Prophet prophesied and did a number of other things that attracted wide attention. To
all their doings Bennett gave great space. They were
interesting as well as disturbing and deserved it all.
Smith had a keen eye for publicity and welcomed correspondents from the East. He appreciated all the
Herald did. One of the first institutions founded at
Nauvoo was a full-fledged university. This honored
the editor of the Herald in 1842 with the degree of
LL. D. In addition he was given "the freedom of the
city." This was not the end of his glory.
102




MORMONS AND        CATHOLICS        103
Quarreling with Major-General James C. Bennett,
Commander of the Nauvoo Legion, Smith deposed him
and put in the next in rank, General James Arlington
Bennett. Evidently not wanting to reduce the number
of Bennetts at his disposal, Smith, August 21, 1842,
appointed James Gordon Bennett a brigadier-general
and aide-de-camp. The gentleman so honored did not
decline but commented on the receipt of an order from
Major-General James Arlington Bennett, by which he
was told to report for duty, thus merrily:
Blood and 'ouns, I'll go. It never shall be said that
the blood of the Bennetts did not rise to the top. Who
knows but I may get one of their glorious bullets in
the calf? [Alluding to a bullet inserted therein on the
person of James Watson Webb by Tom Marshall, of
Kentucky, in their duel.] What would Colonel Webb
say if I disobeyed a military mandate? In the meantime I highly approve of my superior in command, ascertaining first the constitutionality of the measure by
direct application to Governor Carlin to see if there
be any necessity of a veto. [The Legion was then enrolled as part of the Illinois Militia, and notice of the
appointment had been sent for approval to his Excellency.] But still I must prepare. I have no uniform.
Egad, I must advertise for proposals. So here goes:
"Wanted to Purchase-a full suit of uniform for an
officer of the rank of Brigadier-General in the Nauvoo
Legion; also a fine horse, thirteen hands high, a sword,
etc., including a good old Bible and Prayer-Book,
Nothing like being provided with all sorts of ammunitions. "
It will be perceived that Joseph Smith was an even
better advertiser than James Gordon Bennett. Governor Carlin took the appointment seriously. The result was chronicled in the Herald of August 13, 1842,
in these terms:




104 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
RISING IN THE WORLD
"Since you will buckle Fortune on my back,
To bear her burden whe'er I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load."
We are rising very rapidly in this sinful world.
A short time ago, the Corporation of Nauvoo, Illinois,
conferred upon us a freedom of the city. How far this
freedom extends we know not, but we suppose it embraces a vast number of DELICIOUS PRIVILEGES, according to the Mormon Creed. The next step was to raise
us to the dignity of LL. D., a regular Doctor of Laws,
by the University of Nauvoo, an honor which we highly
prize, and which is as good, and perhaps better, than
that conferred on General Jackson by the University
of Harvard, or that on his Excellency, Edward
Everett, by the University of Cambridge, in England.
But this is not all. Yesterday,-blessed be the day —
we received by a special messenger from Illinois, the
intelligence that that state had gone entirely for the
Mormons and locofocos, in the elections; and also an
enclosure which contained the parchment, conferring a
high military rank upon us, of which document the following is a true copy-the original being in our salamander safe, with the titles of the Herald building:"Thomas Carlin, Governor of the State of Ilinois,
to all to whom these Presents shall come, Greetings:
"Know ye, That James Gordon Bennett having been
duly elected to the office of Aid-de-Camp (with the
rank and title of Brigadier-General) to the MajorGeneral of the Nauvoo Legion of the Militia of the
State of Illinois, I, Thomas Carlin, Governor of said
State, for and on behalf of the People of said State,
do commission him Aid-de-Camp to said Major-General, with rank and title as aforesaid, to take rank from
the twenty eighth day of May, 1842. He is, therefore,
carefully and diligently to discharge the duties of said
office, by doing and performing all manner of things
thereunto belonging; and I do strictly require all of



MORMONS AND CATHOLICS


105


fleers and soldiers under his command to be obedient
to his orders; and he is to obey such orders and directions as he shall receive from time to time from his
Commander-in-Chief, or his superior officer.
"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand,
and caused the Great Seal of State to be hereunto affixed. Done at Springfield, this second day of June,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and forty-two, and the Independence of the United
States the sixty-sixth.
"By the Governor,            Tho. Carlin
"Lyman Trumbull, Secretary of State."
There's honor-there's distincti6n-there's salt and
greens for a modest, simple, calm, patient, industrious
editor. We now take legitimate rank, far above Colonel Webb, Major Noah, Colonel Stone, General
George P. Morris, or all the military editors around
and about the country. We are only inferior in rankand that but half a step-to good old General Jackson-he being Major-General and LL. D.-we being
Brigadier and LL. D. also.
In an hour after the arrival of this precious document, but before I received it, I found myself two
inches taller, three inches more in circumference, and
so wolfish about the head and shoulders that I could
have fought a duel with Marshall, provided he had
given me the same terms on the "bandanna Handkerchief plan" that he generously gave to Colonel Webb.
It was no doubt caused by the military title approximating to its owner. "God tempers the wind to the
shorn lamb" —the devil heats the fire to suit the sinner, and I must bear the honors that are thickening
around me.
It will be seen, therefore, that I am Aid-de-Camp,
with the rank of Brigadier-General, to the Major-General of the famous Nauvoo Legion. This Major-General is no less a man than the Prophet Joe Smith, who
is very busy establishing an original religious empire
in the west, that may swallow up all the other different




106 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
sects and cliques, as the rod of Moses, turned into a
serpent, swallowed up, without salt, the rods of Jannes
and Jambres, and the other magicians of Egypt.
Heavens! how we apples swim, as the sprat said to
the whale, Mount Etna bawling out at the same time,
"Let's have another segar." Wonders will never cease.
Hereafter, I am James Gordon Bennett, Freeman of
the Holy City of Nauvoo, LL. D. of the University of
Nauvoo, and Aid-de-Camp to the Major-General, and
Brigadier General to the Nauvoo Legion, with the fair
prospect of being a prophet soon, and a saint in Heaven hereafter.
Though thus placed on flourishing terms with the
Mormons, the editor was not so fortunate in his relations with his mother church. Before 1840 the number
of Catholics in the country had been negligible. The
building of railroads and the resulting expansion of industry stimulated immigration with their demand for
labor. Poverty in Ireland pushed out enormous numbers of natives from that green isle. Their flocking
produced a new situation in what had been a land of
undisturbed Protestantism. Concentrating as they did
in New York City, they developed at once that aggressiveness which has continued to be a characteristic of
the race and religion, under the lead of a militant prelate, Archbishop John Hughes. He was a builder and
a fighter on behalf of both the newcomers and his
church.
Hughes established a weekly newspaper, the Metropolitan Record, in which he urged his cause and castigated its opponents. Both parties bid for the support
of the newcomers. The Whigs were new as an organization, and kept in power. William H. Seward was
their leader in New York and governor of the state




MORMONS AND CATHOiICS


107


for a second time in 1842, when Hughes demanded a
share of the public revenues for the support of parochial schools. He recommended an allowance in his
annual message to the legislature. To this the Herald
took exception and turned against Hughes, who had
made a speech urging the Catholics of New York to
form a political party and so effect purposes in the
church interest. Bennett observed in the Herald:
The whole thing, from beginning to end, is only a
preposterous insult to the common sense of an intelligent community. To all minds of intelligence it will,
after the election is over, reduce Bishop Hughes to the
lowest state of degradation and contempt. He has
shown himself to be utterly deficient in honesty, or in
common sense. There is no alternative on which to
hang his crosier. If he meant seriously, in a Protestant country, to succeed in his project, he took the very
method that would for ever put a barrier between his
church and the claim on the School Fund. One of the
first principles of American freedom is to keep separate and distinct the institutions of Church and State.
No element of liberty is more deeply imbued in the
American mind than this is. How, then, in such a
happy, and free, and positive condition of public opinion, could Bishop Hughes expect that if the Church
of Rome had a favor to ask of a Protestant country,
the best method to acquire it was to trample this holy
principle under foot, and organize his church into a
political club. If Bishop Hughes did not see this view,
his mind must, be blinded to all facts-to all truthssave the dogmas and drivellings of the Catholic church
in the last stage of decrepitude. But Bishop Hughes
did see this, and therefore he becomes liable to the
charge of dishonesty in his conduct and opinions-of
a ridiculous attempt to commit a detestable fraud upon
the understanding of the intelligent Catholics of this
country.




108 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
l   As noted earlier Bennett was intensely American in
/ all his attitudes, which was a large factor in the
/ paper's influence abroad. He was believed to reflect
/ the country as a whole more than any other journalist.
i  This was true. He wanted to sell the Herald to as
many people as possible. The constituency, therefore,
< being American, he made the most he could of it.
The Archbishop was nothing if not militant and
knowing Bennett's Catholic origin, presumed upon it
in dealing with him, thereby making a serious mistake.
Although born and married within the church, Bennett
did not like its mastery and said so plainly. One who
knew him well asserted that his feeling against the
church as an organization grew out of the death of his
brother Cosmo, who was so enervated by the asceticism he was compelled to exercise as part of his training to be a priest that he died in early youth; the editor
felt that his brother had been killed by the restrictions
enforced to conquer his spirit and would have no hierarchical domination.
As the Know-Nothing sentiment grew, the Archbishop became more virulent, thundering against Bennett
in press and pulpit-rival editors being foolish enough
to print his fulminations. He also, in effect, excommunicated the aggressive editor-all of which helped
the Herald. Undauntedly the editor continued his
crusade, and went so far as to demand the separation
of the Catholic Church in America from the rule of
Rome. He wanted an American church free from
the overlordship of the hierarchy and argued at length.
It must not be thought that the editor allowed the
Archbishop to go unscathed. He summed up the result
of the prelate's activities in this form:




MORMONS AND CATHOLICS


109


The conduct of the Bishop in 1841 gave the Irish a
preponderance in 1842, which created in its turn a reaction in the American mind in 1843, resulting in the
organization of the Native American party last Spring,
and whose operations we have all seen. But all these
movements, here as well as in Philadelphia, can be
traced with the accuracy of mathematical calculation,
back to Bishop Hughes's first entrance into Carroll
Hall as a political agitator, and the motives which impelled the Bishop then can be guessed at now with a
good deal of certainty. He was the first dignitary of
the Catholic Church, in this free and happy land, that
ever attempted such a movement, and we trust that
he may be the last of the same faith that may ever
thus disgrace his holy calling. In all these movements
he has most wofully mistaken his duties. He has most
wofully mistaken his position in this city, in this country, and in this age. He has forgotten that he is living
in a land of freedom and universal toleration, in a republic of intelligent men, and in the nineteenth century.
Coming fresh from the seclusion of his cloister, he
imagined when he became a Bishop, that he was living
in the fourth or fourteenth century. His policy would,
indeed, have been in keeping with the spirit of those
dark ages. It is precisely similar to that conduct by
which the priesthood destroyed the Roman Empire-decided who should wear the purple, and finally delivered
that old heroic nation into the hands of the Northern
barbarians. It is precisely similar to that interference of the hierarchy in political affairs which overwhelmed the Italian republics of the Middle Ages with
irreparable ruin. It is precisely similar to that conduct which lighted up the fires in Smithfield and the
Grass-market. It is precisely similar to that course of
policy which whitened the valleys of Piedmont with
the bones of thousands slaughtered in civil war. It is
precisely similar to that policy which has torn and
distracted unhappy Spain. It is, in fact, the same ac



110 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
cursed interference of ecclesiastics with the affairs of
State, which has, in all ages, brought such disgrace
on Christianity, and crushed the liberties of mankind.
Need we say that it is utterly at variance with the
precepts of Christ and the spirit of his religion? No.
We all know that it is in open and blasphemous defiance of the principles of Him who came to proclaim
universal peace and good will, as they were developed
in his sermons on the mountains of Judea and on the
shores of Galilee.
So it was that the Herald, perceiving the petrifaction of the old parties, encouraged the Native Americans, who grew into sufficient strength to decimate the
Democrats, destroy the Whigs and become the Republican party.
In 1843 Bennett made another visit to Europe, accompanied by his wife and infant son, the second James
Gordon Bennett. He sailed this time on June twentysixth, in a packet-ship, the Garrick, which accomplished the passage in twenty-two pleasant days. The
Irish Repeal question was up before Parliament and
the great Daniel O'Connell a central figure in the
fight. The Herald's Dublin correspondence and its
editorial policy had been against the measure, to such
an extent as to interfere with the collection of contributions to the cause in America. The Hughes row
also supervened. Bennett had announced his purpose
to visit Dublin and O'Connell bottled up some spare
wrath against his coming. The editor arrived in Dublin on August sixth, and, desiring to hear O'Connell,
visited the Corn Exchange, where the great orator
was holding forth, with results that he himself has
best described in the following letter to the London
Times:




MORMONS AND CATHOLICS


111


TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON TIMES.
Sir:-On my return to London, after a tour of three
weeks over Ireland and Scotland, I embrace the first
opportunity of asking permission to reply to a very
gross and unjustifiable attack made upon me on the
7th and 8th instant, by Mr. O'Connell, in the Corn
Exchange, Dublin, while as a mere traveler, I was
quietly pursuing my journey through that city. This
attack appeared in your Journal of the 9th and 10th
instant, in the shape of a correspondence from Dublin,
and has been circulated very extensively in the newspapers throughout the United Kingdom.
In visiting Ireland, which I then did for the first
time, I had received a number of introductory letters
from a highly respectable Irish gentleman in London
to a number of his friends in Dublin. Among these
letters was one to Mr. O'Connell. I reached Dublin
on the 6th instant, and having only a very short time
to devote to that city, I procured a carriage on the
same afternoon, and called in person upon the gentlemen to whom my letters were addressed. Among
others, I drove to Mr. O'Connell's residence, Merrion
Square, and left my letter, together with my card,
writing on it "Gresham's Hotel," where I stopped.
During a course of nearly twenty years as an editor
in the United States, eight years of which I have been
proprietor of the New York Herald, I have always
entertained and expressed a high and liberal opinion of Mr. O'Connell, and a warm sympathy for the
Irish people. There was nothing, therefore, in our
relations to make the introduction to him improper.
Next day (Monday, August 7th) I went around Dublin, in company with a gentleman of that city, for the
purpose of viewing the public buildings, institutions,
and other sights. About two o'clock we had finished
our tour; but on our return to the hotel, I remarked,
"I must see the Corn Exchange, and if possible hear




112 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
O'Connell; it will not do to return to New York with.
out having seen that sight."
AWe accordingly drove to the Corn Exchange. After
paying a shilling admittance fee at the door, I attempted to get in, but it was so small and so crowded
that it was found impossible. As a last effort, my
name and residence were given at the private entrance.
Several persons cried out, "Make way for the American gentleman;' '-" 'Why the divil don't you make
way? "-and I was handed in with as much attention
to one Tom Steele as if I had been the bearer of a
large amount of "rent" from New York to swell the
funds of the association in Dublin. As soon as my
name was mentioned to O'Connell, and while I was
standing near the table, and quietly looking over the
singular scene, I was assailed by Mr. O'Connell in
those discourteous, inhospitable, and brutal terms, in
which he was reported in your Dublin correspondence.
The suddenness and abruptness of the outrage seemed
not only to astonish his own auditors, but even to astonish himself, for he hurried over the scene and proceeded in his business at once. After taking a look
around the assembly, I retired very quietly.
Next day, Mr. O'Connell, being well aware of the
gross breach of ordinary decorum he had committed,
endeavored to justify himself by making an additional
attack upon my public and private character-an
attack equally unfounded, untrue, and malevolent.
Having violated all decorum on the first day, he endeavored to justify that violation by deepening it into
barbarity, falsehood, and outrage. Mr. O'Connell offered as a passive apology a statement made by a
Mr. Silk Buckingham, to the effect that I had endeavored to extort money from the latter when he visited
the United States a few years ago. This charge, and
all such charges, I pronounce utterly untrue. Mr.
Buckingham came to the United States on a money
speculation, travelling through the country, delivering
lectures for pay on Oriental literature and customs.




MORMONS AND CATHOLICS


113


He sent his advertisements and self-laudatory notices
(puffs, we call them) to the newspapers, and among
others to mine. The clerk who attends to this branch
of my business told his agent that his puffs were also
advertisements, and must be paid for as usual. I
never had any intercourse with Buckingham-never
saw him-never heard him lecture; yet out of these
simple facts Buckingham has manufactured the falsehoods he has published in his work, and Daniel O'Connell, in the extremity of some secret revenge, endorses
his falsehoods in the Dublin Corn Exchange, and endeavors to assail the character of a man who feels
himself to stand at least on as high a level of honor,
morals, worth, and public spirit, as he does.
The real motives which actuated Mr. O'Connell in
making so unprovoked an attack upon me, have hitherto been concealed from the public eye. I will now disclose them, and they will be found sufficient to account
for his conduct. I contributed to stop the "rent" that
was expected from America. This will be apparent in
giving a brief sketch of the rise, progress and extinction of the Irish Repeal agitation in the United States,
and of the position the New York Herald assumed in
that business.
The Repeal agitation began in New York several
weeks before I left that city, which was on the 26th of
June last. They then held their meetings nightly, for
ten days or more, at a large building in Broadway,
called Washington Hall. Immediately on the commencement of the agitation I was called upon by several of its leaders and promoters to ascertain my
views on the subject, and whether I would support
the movement. They were anxious to procure the aid
of the Herald, because from its extensive circulation,
and its superior corps of reporters, it would do the
cause more good than any other paper. I thanked
them for their good opinions, replying that I had for
many years been friendly to the Irish people, who
were a generous and a high-spirited race-that I had




114 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
always supported their rights in the United States,
and sympathized with their distresses in their native
land; but that the repeal of the Irish Union was a very
questionable and impracticable measure-that it could
not remove social evils in Ireland-and that there was
as much impropriety in Americans endeavoring to
promote the dismemberment of the British empire
while we had treaties of amity in existence, as there
was in certain fanatics in England, and even in Mr.
O'Connell himself, in endeavoring to encourage an
agitation against the Southern States, which might
lead to a dismemberment of our own Union. They
acknowledged the justice of the view, but apologized
for Mr. O'Connell's abuse of the Southern States by
attributing it to his ignorance of American opinion
and constitutions, and especially to his ignorance of
the character of his own countrymen when they come
to the United States.
They told me further, that many of them had the
same view of the absurdity and impracticability of a
repeal of the Legislative Union as I had, but they assured me that the great movement of Repeal in Ireland, with its affiliated movements in the United
States, was only the beginning of a grand revolutionary drama, that soon would be able to subvert the
monarchies and aristocracies of England, France, and
all Western Europe, and establish republics throughout all those countries. On hearing this remarkable
disclosure, I had nothing further to say about the
technicalities of Repeal. I assured them that I would
send my reporters to their meetings, and report their
proceedings fully and accurately. I did so; and in
these reports will be found an open avowal, by their
speakers and leaders, of the real meaning of the Repeal agitation, both in Ireland and the United States.
At these meetings large sums were collected to be
transmitted to Ireland; but among the native American population there was great doubt felt of the propriety of interfering with the internal affairs of




MORMONS AND CATHOLICS


115


Ireland, many probably thinking that the honest debts
to foreign bond-holders should be first liquidated,
before money should be generously sent to Dublin to
create a revolution, or supply the wants of Daniel
O'Connell and his men.
In the midst of these feelings and views, while Repeal in New York was raging very high, and spreading rapidly all over the country, while the "rent" was
coming in from all quarters, some of the papers began
the publication of Mr. O'Connell's famous speeches in
the Corn Exchange abusing and calumniating the
Southern States, and avowing his purpose was to begin an agitation against them as soon as he should
have finished his Irish business. These violent
speeches I republished in the New York Herald, and
that gave them a very extensive circulation. I wished
the peace and commercial intercourse of the two
countries preserved and invigorated, not violated and
weakened. These speeches were published, however,
without any disrespectful remarks towards O'Connell.
I still considered him to be a man of as much purity
of motive as of great talent and tact-although subsequent experience has, in my estimation, somewhat
diminished both.
The consequence of these publications, disclosing
his attacks on the Southern States, and the promulgation of the whole truth, was to nip the Repeal agitation
in the bud. Several meetings held in the neighborhood
of New York turned out to be failures-little money
was collected. In Philadelphia a Repeal meeting ended
in a row, and little "rent." In Baltimore, Charleston,
and other Southern cities, where Repeal associations
had been formed, and large sums of money just ready
to be transmitted to Ireland to draw a smile from the
"Liberator," as it was counted out in the Corn Exchange-in all these cities the association distributed
the "rent" for charitable purposes at home, and dissolved their existence forthwith.
In this way as the proprietor of a largely circulat



116 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ing journal, and for simply publishing "the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth," was I one of
the instruments in putting an end to the transmission
of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the pockets
of the poor and honest Irish and American people to
the coffers of the Dublin Repeal Association, which
no doubt is within the reach of the patriotic, pure,
and loyal hands of Daniel O'Connell and his adherents.
Of all these facts no doubt Mr. O'Connell had received private intimation, and certainly they were
quite sufficient to account for his gross breach of hospitality when I visited the Corn Exchange as one of
the curious sights of Dublin. I received, however, during that visit the worth of the shilling I paid at the
door-perhaps to a greater extent than I had by paying a sixpence at the Zoological Gardens in the Phoenix
Park to see the wild beasts there. In both cases the
tigers growled, and showed their teeth-but in the
former case I learned to distinguish between a selfish
and hypocritical patriot, and a generous, oppressed,
and high-spirited people. For the distresses and social
evils of the gallant people of Ireland, I have, as an
American, a sympathy less expansive than Mr. O'Connell's, but equally as sincere-a hand that may not
dive as deep into their pockets, but may be as liberal
in its contributions to alleviate their real evils. I
would not extort money from a distressed people under
the shallow cry of patriotism, merely to supply my own
necessities and extravagance. I would not try to extort money from my countrymen in a foreign land
under the mask of beginning a great revolution, and
when that attempt had failed by my own folly and
ignorance, then abuse the people of that country, and
insult a quiet traveller on his way, whose object was
truth, kindness, and correct information.
I am,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
JAMES GORDON BENNETT, of New York.
Long's Hotel, New Bond Street, August 28, 1843.




MORMONS AND CATHOLICS
I


117


The Times correspondent gave this short version of
the affair:
The proceedings were here interrupted for a moment
by the introduction of Mr. James Gordon Bennett,
whose card Tom Steele handed to Mr. O'Connell, intimating that its owner (who then stood beside Mr.
O'Connell) was the proprietor of the New York
Herald.
MR. O'CONNErLL-I wish he would stay where he
came from; it is a much fitter place for him than this.
We don't want him here (Mr. Bennett, a gentleman
about fifty years of age, suddenly retreated, as he
entered, across the table). He is one of the conductors
of one of the vilest gazettes ever published by infamous publishers. (Laughter, and a partial disposition to hisses, which was suppressed by the Chair
and persons around it.)
Much use was made of this unpleasant episode by
Bennett's American foes in and out of journalism.
The hostile Hone made this exultant notation in his
diary:
September 2-Bennett, the editor of the Herald,
is on a tour through Great Britain, whence he furnishes lies and scandal for the infamous paper which
has contributed so much to corrupt the morals and
degrade the taste of the people of New York. If the
following article, which is published to-day in the
Courier and Enquirer, be correct (and it is too circumstantial to admit of its being doubted), it will require all of his impudence to get over the effects of it.
Such a rebuff, from such a quarter must have been unexpected as it was mortifying. "The rejected of
O'Connell" is not an enviable title. The occurrence
took place at a great repeal meeting held at Dublin,
on the 7th of August, at which the "great repealer"




118 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
was, of course, the most prominent actor. The statement relating to Mr. Bennett is as follows: "A gentleman, who had for some time been sitting beside Mr.
O'Connell, here addressed Mr. Steele, and, handing
him his card, requested an introduction to Mr. O'Connell. Mr. Steele accordingly presented the card, and
intimated that Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of New
York, was present. Mr. O'Connell replied: "He is
a person with whom I can have nothing to do. He is
the editor of the New York Herald, one of the most
infamous gazettes ever printed, and I shall have nothing to say to him." This was a reception that Mr.
Bennett did not count upon, and he forthwith proceeded to take his departure. The room being very
full, his movement was much retarded; but, by the
aid of the chairman, he struggled out amid the groans
of the meeting.




CHAPTER V


FULL-TIDE SUCCESS
IN 1840, the Cunarders began making Boston their
first port of call. Bennett was moved by this to consider starting a newspaper in Boston, to make the
most of the new facilities, but wisely gave up the project and organized rapid connections with New York
instead. By August, 1841, the paper was so thoroughly
established and so certain a money-maker that Bennett
was enabled to buy a corner twenty-one by seventyfive at Fulton and Nassau Streets to accomodate his
publishing plant. This was enlarged ten years later
by the addition of fifty feet on Fulton Street. Here
the Herald was to remain until it moved to Broadway.
Bennett mildly surprised the town, October 26, 1842,
by offering his whole establishment for sale at an upset price of two hundred thousand dollars. His ostensible reason was to undertake a daily in London "for
the purpose of defending, explaining and exhibiting
to Europe the institutions, laws, morals, resources,
movements and tendencies of the United States, which
are now  subject-from  imperfect knowledge and
strong prejudices-to misrepresentations and falsehoods of all kinds from all quarters."
This was an obvious bit of self-advertising and there
were no bidders. He withdrew the offer on November
second, being rather disappointed at the small stir
made by the proposition.
119




120 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
If he had but known it some one would have made
a rare bargain by taking up the offer. The Herald
was on the full tide of success. The rocks were passed,
its position and profits assured and there was soon
to come a development that was to revolutionize the
American daily press. This was the invention of the
telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse. Bennett was one
of the first to grasp the importance of the new device
to his profession. "What has become of space?" he
asked in the Herald on June 4, 1844, after "What God
hath wrought" had been successfully flashed from
Washington to Baltimore.-"The magnetic telegraph
at Washington has totally annihilated what there was
left of (space) by steam and locomotives and steamships. We give a certified copy of ten minutes conversation between Mr. Silas Wright at Washington
and Colonel Young in Baltimore in relation to the
nomination of Mr. Wright. This shows what can be
done."
It did indeed. Soon the network of wires began to
spread across the land. New York was connected
with Washington via Philadelphia, Wilmington and
Baltimore. For a time there was a gap between the
last two towns that had to be covered by rail. The
amazing instrument of transmission, the Morse "key,"
was placed on exhibition at 563 Broadway, where the
Herald urged its readers to go and view the marvel.
By May 23, 1846, the Herald was able to get Mexican
War news from Washington via the new method. A
speech made by Henry Clay at Lexington, Kentucky,
was sent by courier eighty miles to Cincinnati, and
thence to the Herald by wire in time to appear in full
on the morning of the next day. It cost five hundred




~~~~ — ~~-~,~
I
i
i,
i
I
r " - ~
~I IX*l*T.,: Llin*
ci*~
"I'
i
- ~~
x
~ --- —,
~-rwr, 4
~-wrrcr, I*X Ip'l X"
-— ~c-— ~ru- -— ~x~cu
lc-~ ~~.-cr-r~ ~~* — ~~*~rce~ —1IX*
~*r"rxr*t.-~,..~r~r~r* ...
1 i~lll I^CPYI-~I~~~i~ ---I- i-I jC
" j —s7cj. i
— ~ ---—;* —~I — ~;~ -~ —~- -— 
rr~l-~~x'*l — -— _i* C.I*~-*""*"~~""*-~~"--— * ---" -Ucc-xUI~ -~ —
— ~~.1*~~' ". cc-rrr~^x ----r
~~ —x~-CC",m.r*--~l~~I._nt
I11I11II I-rCICII( riCC
^I -'*+rxxx-x^rr^r I^~TC Ic^ ~U~" ~""",  -~J~~r — —  ""
-c- --- —~
----..,- --- —rrrr*~-"=I,rru*-^ CI*Y
3 rrrr
~..r^*   --- —r-r^- rrn r
"":;UU- -~~~~
 ---r- -^ '~' * `J~r* —c ---~U*-'*"'
. ----------— '~ "":
,xx*..,...
i -.~- --— ~ —~pe
------ -
XI~~L
tCrYC "
i..._I. ~-~~-c
i,,,,,-.,,.,,
""Ix
-c^l ~~ ---~~ ~ - ~ ~ ---~ ---*- ,*-~.-U~~- --
I ~-~
c- --,, ----— ~; ~ -— ~ —~~ - -~ a -f"l~dd.:
t
- -—.- -`- - ~amaarr~n
L*l.
'U.c~ — — -~a- : I
` c`~^ll- --- —-—  C -k-~
4~.
--
I —UI.~^ ---- ---—,~~-~~~~-~-~') 1M ~rrrrar ~
~-p'*',1- -
_I*I*CC*
r^xrr --- —rcxrr.....


TW1Z IDMIRO1AL JDA CROW.
Whe;elabcnt;, ~at? trii-about,
A' rytIoI turn my oat-,
tsy1toeyo.


Cartoon of Mr. Bennett in Vanity Fair, April 27, 1861








FULL-TIDE SITCCESS               121
dolos. Albany and Buffalo were united in 1846,
but New York and Albany were not joined until June
22, 1847. Boston and New York, however, had effected
junction on July 18,1846, which did away with cruising
for news from ocean steamers off New York, Boston
becoming the news landing place for the time being.
The bold pioneers who strung wires were F. O. J.
Smith, of Portland, Maine, Henry O'Reilly, and Ezra
Cornell, founder of the university that bears his name.
The lines were not built connectedly. Bennett used
such as existed lavishly, as far as he could. It soon
became plain that the new method was expensive as
well as expeditious and the tendency of one paper to
"plug" the slow wire, to the disadvantage of another,
added an impulse toward getting together on bulky
matters that led later to forming the Associated
Press. In 1848 the Herald, the Journal of Commerce,
the Tribune, the Courier and Enquirer, Sun and Express, all of New York, quit cutting one another's
throats. They combined at first on harbor news, and
then went farther abroad. When the Times came into
being in 1851, it was taken in. Gerard Hallock, of the
Journal of Commerce, became president. He long and
peacefully steered the organization.
The Texas-Mexico situation became of interest in
1844 and Bennett gave the matter careful attention,
quickly extending the Herald's news service by establishing a courier system between New York and New
Orleans, the center of news-getting from the troublesome Texans. This went into operation in January,
1845, with an exchange between the Herald and the
Crescent City of New Orleans, an enterprising daily.




122 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
The "express," as it was called, beat the U~nid
States mails from one to four days, to the great  ht'i;.
of Postmaster-General Wicliffe, who caused the arrest of Mr. O'Callaghan, one of the Crescent City's
owners, for violating the postal laws which forbid
the moving of mail by private means. This blocked
the enterprise. Soon the Mexican War broke out in
the spring of 1846 and nimbler news transport was required than that furnished by the Post Office Department. Bennett therefore reestablished his "express"
in conjunction with the Philadelphia Ledger and the
Baltimore Sun. This was continued during the war,
often requiring the daily dispatch of special messengers. The success of the method caused its extension
to other fields. The Herald proclaimed, on April 10,
1847, that four "expresses" from various parts of
the country, bearing important information, had
reached the office within twenty-four hours.
The next day it announced the fall of Vera Cruz and
the capture of the great castle of San Juan D.Ulua:
"Our special and extraordinary express, which we
had arranged for some time past on the Southern line
between Philadelphia and New Orleans, arrived at
Philadelphia yesterday morning at eight o'clock,
when the news which it brought was transmitted to
our office by telegraph."  The "news" was the two
events noted. This enterprise landed the important
information in New York so that it could be published
on Saturday. The regular service by mail did not get
along till Monday. The publication, however, was
not exclusive, as the Herald took care of the Journal
of Commerce, the Sun and Tribune, who were also
able to announce along with the Herald the successful




PULL-TIDE SUCCESS


123


asilt on the City of Mexico and its defenses which
- was published on October 21, 1847. "Our readers will
be pleased," observed the Herald on that date, "to
see in this morning's Herald the long looked for intelligence from the City of Mexico. It reached New
Orleans on the 13th inst., and was brought by the
special overland express for the New York Herald
and other papers. Owing to its importance, however,
our messenger was instructed to bring the intelligence to the government at Washington and it will at
once have general circulation throughout the country.
This we thought due the public."
The extension of the telegraph soon put couriers,
special railway engines and carrier pigeons out of
business and news-getting became commonplace,
Strange as it may seem, the Herald was the only
New   orpaer to         a correspopncnf-LE.rpt
tnei lexican War. Two New urleans journals, the
PicayuIer7elta alone of the rest of the American
press, indulged in the enterprise. The others were content to get their news from the War Department at
Washington. Instead of establishing his own attitude toward the war, Bennett accepted that of those
who urged it. "The multitude cry aloud for war," he
remarked editorially as early as August, 1845. In
excuse he accurately described the American people
in general as "restless, fidgety, discontented, anxious
for excitement." This statement comes pretty near
to being a good description of himself.
When the Herald was twelve years old, in 1847, it
was the greatest advertising medium in the United
States. Its contemporaries carried lifeless announcements, dull cards, published by the year and musty in




124 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
their inefficiency. The.Ueralddid the people'sbainess. Up to the year noted it had suffer ed_.o ^'e rtisement to "run" or to be charged for more than two
weeks. January 1, 1848, a new rule weat into effept.
No announcement would be accepted for more th1m
one insertion. It had to be paid tor cash down. 'thereafter the Herald kept no, books and its advertising
columns took o n-tie aspect of news. All cuts and
"'display" disappeared at the same time. Each advertiser was compelled to dress in the same garb as
his neighbor. If he wished large type it had to be
built up of agate letters in what were known as logotypes. This style was affected until nearly the end
of the century, when competition forced the use of
outline letters and later standard forms of typographical emphasis. There is no question, however, but the
rule as invented and enforced by Bennett became a
powerful factor in the paper's prosperity, and added
to its value as a conveyor of news. With everybody
treated alike the public felt a sense of fairess nqI lo
bfe   dni'u '.~lnaI I:Besides this, all paid the same
rate. There were no discounts or special prices for
large space-one of the modern injustices cultivated
by all American. iewsapers, by which small a4dyertisers are sacrificed to big ones who are thus made
monopolists by the paper's aid.
This restriction on advertisers was successfully
evaded by Robert Bonner, who, when Bennett refused
him "display," resorted to repetition of the small
lineage to which he was limited. In this way he carried his point, paying the Herald two thousand dollars
for a single announcement. This forced the paper to
print a quadruple sheet for its accommodation.
of-.




FULL-TIDE SUCCESS


125


Not the least item in the Herald's success was its.
personal column, which stranKgT   ou'. wasa er
to become one cause of ita-.uin. But that in its lace.
These little '' '   i ofmy           suggeion,
w6re closely read. That the column was use much
as a imeansi" or Fai' ng assignations is also true. The
date-makers added zest to the classification. To-day
the "agony" column of the London Times is the most
interesting feature, as it was the Herald's in its prime.
In January, 1862, the Times overhauled the Herald
for the suggestive character of some of its "personal"
advertisements, but went no further than to dub it a
"spicy" paper. To this comment, Vanity Fair, the
clever comic paper of the day, added: "On consideration of the matter we conclude that the spice of the
Herald must consist chiefly of cloves, because the
cloven foot is seen sticking out very often, and the
proprietor boasts that he lives in clover!" This jest
has a flavor of Artemus Ward, then the new editor of
Vanity Fair.
Bennett spent the winter and spring of 1847
in Paris. He was presented at the court of Louis
Philippe, and like a thrifty Scotchman made no
permanent investment in regalia, paying instead
thirty francs a night rental for the use of a court dress,
sword and chapeau. According to his biographer,
Isaac C. Pray: "It was suggested, as he held a commission as a Major-General in the Mormon Army, that
he should appear in the costume suited to his distinguished rank, but as he had never consulted his tailor
on the subject, he was not prepared as military Americans traveling in Europe usually are, with the glittering pageantry of war."




126 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
His letters show a wide range of interest-from
Lola Montez, then beguiling the King of Bavaria, to
theaters, art, and the trembling thrones that were
uncertainly awaiting the outcome of 1848. He also
studied the press of London and Paris and gave the
result at length in the columns of the Herald; he
journeyed to Scotland in June and spent August and
September in London and Liverpool investigating
financial conditions, for which he always had a keen
eye. He returned to America on the steamship
Cambria, reaching Boston on October nineteenth.
The Herald had grown in his absence and required
new machinery to keep pace with it. This he made it
his immediate business to procure.
The new year was full of action. Europe boiled
over with revolutions, and in America the Whigs unhorsed the Democrats.
Thanks to superior sources of information, the
Herald printed the certain ousting of Louis Philippe
nearly a week before the news came that it had occurred. Another "scoop" was printing the treaty
with Mexico. This cost Nugent, the Herald's Washington correspondent, some days in jail on order of
the Senate. The editor went to the Capitol and rescued his diligent reporter. The enemies of the administration made much of the Herald's close relations
with Secretary of State Buchanan in connection with
this incident.
Following his policy of standing in with the administration, Bennett, who had supported Zachary Taylor
in the belief that he would be elected, wrote him:




FULL-TIDE SUCCESS


127


New York Herald Office, Nov. 17, 1848.
GENERAL TAYLOR, DEAR SIR:Allow me to congratulate you on the result of the
recent election.
Perhaps you may remember the Cataract Hotel, at
Niagara Falls, in the summer of 1840, when I met with
you, soon after your return from Florida. That casual
intercourse was the basis of my recent course.
When we received in New York, an account of your
dangerous position and subsequent brilliant affairs
on the Rio Grande, in April and May, 1846, I remembered the acquaintance at Niagara, and then took
the course in my journal which it has since followed.
You are now elevated to the high honor of President
of the United States by the spontaneous outburst of
the popular will. I joined in the movement simply
from a conviction of your patriotism and capacity,
but I want nothing, personally, of any administration
but wisdom in its management, and the public good
for its leading purpose. As an independent journalist and an early friend of your election, I can offer
you a warm support when you may be right, with a
respectful dissent when I am convinced you may be'
wrong. The highest human intellect is weak and erring before Heaven, yet I have every hope that your
administration of this great Republic will be as wise,
patriotic, and successful as that of the Father of his
Country.
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
JAMES G. BENNETT.
Unfortunately this kindly wish was not to come true.
After a few months in office that promised well, President Taylor died and was succeeded by the Vice-President, Millard Fillmore of New York. The chief
exploit of his administration was the expedition to
Japan, to which enterprise the Herald gave its heartiest support.




128 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
The extraordinary expansion of American enterprise upon land and sea that followed the discovery
of gold by James Wilson Marshall, the Mormon foreman of Captain John A. Sutter's ranch on the north
fork of the American River, January 18, 1848, owed
much of its initial impetus to the Herald. Some flakes
of the precious metal from California came into the
hands of Thomas D. Larkin, United States naval agent
at Monterey, who was a Herald correspondent, and he
contrived to get a pinch or two to Bennett, in New
York. The editor had heard much of gold discoveries
in the east that turned out to be mere traces, and so
refused to be moved by the few glittering particles.
Larkin had made a rather casual mention of the discovery in his letter accompanying the sample. Later
letters showed more enthusiasm-so much so, indeed,
that Bennett got out the despised sample and sent it
to an assayer. It stood the test, as the following
certifies:
New York, Dec. 8, 1848.
Mr. Bennett:
Sir:-I have assayed the portion of gold dust, or
metal from California, which you sent me, and the
result shows that it is fully equal to any found in our
Southern gold mines.
I return you 103/ grains out of the 12 which I have
tested, the value of which is 45 cents. It is 211/ carats
fine-within half a carat of the quality of English
sovereigns or American eagles, and is almost ready to
go to the mint.
The finest gold metal we get is from Africa, which
is 22/2 to 23 carats fine. In Virginia we have mines
where the quality of the gold is much inferior, some
of it is as low as 19 carats, and in Georgia the mines
produce it nearly 22 carats fine.




FUILL-TIDE SUCCESS


129


The gold of California which I have now assayed is
fully equal to that of any, and much superior to some
produced from the mines in our Southern States.
Yours respectfully,
JOHN WARWICK,
Smelter and Refiner, 17 John Street.
Upon the publication of this assay the East took
fire. Within a few days a company of adventurers
chartered the bark John Benson, and sailed from New
York to Chagres. Sixty of them reached the land
of gold, and at least one, Jem Grant, who ran
a Herald barber shop in Ann Street, became an
alderman in San Francisco and a reputed millionaire.
The tidings of treasure trove electrified the earth.
An extraordinary rush followed from all quarters of
the world, with New York as the chief starting point.
Lines of transit were opened across Panama and Nicaragua, in the first instance developing into a railway,
and in the second to steamer lines on Nicaraguan
lakes and rivers. Taking the lead in exploiting the
discovery the Herald "aipn. ger
of gol4. Every steamer took out heavy fi m   s
of; copie5 -unning tohousand and
sand a day wlul                       by the are
gonauty _s
In the course of a trip to the Pacific coast in 1859,
Horace Greeley fell in love with Colorado and broadly
proclaimed its potentials in agriculture and mining.
Gold had been discovered, and Mr. Greeley boomed
the fact. Henry Villard, then a young and adventurous newspaper writer, representing the Cincinnati
Commercial, kept him company to the mines, as did
'Albert D. Richardson, another celebrated correspon



130 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
dent, then attached to the Boston Journal. The three
united in a statement supporting the splendor of the
gold "prospects." For this Greeley was ridiculed and
abused, especially by Bennett in the Herald, who held
that the rival journalist had been fooled and was fooling others. It was the sort of petty performance all
too common in American journalism. Mr. Greeley
happened to be right and Colorado has never forgotten his valorous services on her behalf. Thus
both from super-skepticism and scorn for Horace
Greeley, Bennett failed to make the killing out of the
mineral discoveries in Colorado which had attended
his ready acceptance of California as an El Dorado.
The last assault on Bennett's person occurred November 9, 1850. He was walking on Broadway, near
White Street, with Mrs. Bennett, when John Graham,
who had been defeated as the Tammany Hall candidate for district attorney a few days before, came up
with his brothers, DeWitt and Charles K. Graham.
They carried cowhides and were accompanied by a
guard of heelers. Bennett was knocked down and
badly beaten with the whips. Mrs. Bennett had to
stand by and watch in helpless agony. Bennett described the affair in an editorial the next day:
Yesterday morning about ten o'clock, the ninth
inst., I was walking down Broadway with my wife.
On reaching the corner of Broadway and White Street
I was assaulted by a gang of rowdies and ruffians
headed by John Graham, late candidate for District
Attorney, and his brother DeWitt Graham-an employee in the Custom House under Hugh Maxwelland also Charles K. Graham, another brother, with a




1


0-   _-_~~~                   I_       ~


'I  Ti ~3USLTAe  EWECrATIONNS-CRAM-iA DLKEiNS' DMtT BtOOtK-GMAT tXPtUATtIC IC-TWO 4U ',ITlT)  kTAJTNI,6XS INt MtMAtOT AMD TATTt
Acrt.-itKabtztt0Ititittit WLtt tOOK -AtHoR9 co01  IYiWUtFititTOt        EXPECTlT OPECTIOS 101. itT  COXpkx.1-TATlA0M!ttOT
z~t~GPB~l~nO~JIt,-Ott lAT:Thltttttt-ltltOitCWO LLV RATED EtDMON-T.t - ttio.., itt thItrt  Olytt-b o   by Tctt.t, Aloth, itte ititt  t
i                                             T.W ~~~~~~~B~V,14TMN  ult ol~, X..36hr~rta i~, PhtdtBF
tftytttt.rit#Ywt l htii, frtaI pySttttoit Et. Mpt t Or
VOL. '.                     N\ 087.




I.


t
I
i
IC


1i
I!A
0
RIa
Ir
Iii
f,.
RI
-.a
tE;A


"THE REPUBIIW.4N QUEEN"t VISITS LONG BRANCH,
-"S CA-c                           HO C,  Am$, T. FICC  tT
GAUAN-r F,&4 a or 504 -ts Ca Gmw~x, WAYI.Trm RALR~gwn, Be vvv?3 T


\




Bennett Cartoon in Vanity Fair, August 24, 1861








FULL-TIDE SUCCESS


133


concerns was a liberal crop of libel suits. Bennett
hired the best legal talent he could secure and fought
all cases to a finish, to the discouragement of prosecutors. In one instance, however, the promoters of an
opera season sued the Herald for adverse criticism
that affected them disastrously and won ten thousand
dollars damages in 1855. Bennett carried it on from
one court to another, securing several reversals but
in the end was mulcted six thousand dollars.
The Herald sustained the Compromise of 1850
against "the fanatical abolitionists" and "the ultra
southerners," appealing to all Union-loving citizens
to regard both as menacing to its safety. It was
pretty severe on the abolitionists led by Greeley, Weed
and Seward. The Massachusetts opponents of the
fugitive slave law were "incendiaries, rebels and
traitors," whose "opposition to the law is not freedom but anarchy." It called upon President Fillmore
to enforce the act, pointing out that a fugitive slave
had been peacefully given up in New York and
bought back by philanthropists. With the conduct
of the law it found no fault. Both North and South
had given up much in the Compromise, and the Herald
pleaded that both sections suppress their radicals else
disunion would become inevitable. At the time the
paper certainly represented the sentiment of its community. The editor's first anxiety was to save the
Union. In this respect he was in entire accord with
Abraham Lincoln, when the problem reached his hands.
Yet for its sane attitude the Herald somehow earned
an odium it could never shake off. Read to-day, its
editorials are reasonable and sound. Events proved
their correctness. Bennett represented the general
~..-*He  **' no — **^*"'^ ^""stW^v.aNi.,4t^ ---prt"




134 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
interest, not a "cause." At the end of Millard Fillmore's a3iGiimstrato6n Bennett saw no hope for the
Whigs. Free Soil and Know-Nothingism had done
their work. Besides, General Winfield Scott, the Whig
nominee, was a joke. Bennett accordingly put the
power of the Herald behind Franklin Pierce, of New
Hampshire, an old acquaintance, in the belief that
Democratic success alone could save the Union from
disruption. Pierce was elected. Bennett's shifting of
sides was much resented, and there were charges that
he had done so in the expectancy of securing the
French mission as his reward. It was not true. Pierce
did not even write him directly in giving thanks, but
requested a third party to convey this much of a mesage: "I have not been insensible to the vast influence
of the Herald throughout the late canvass. Will you
assure Mr. B. when you write him that I appreciate
both the motive and the ability, and at the same time
present to him my sincere acknowledgments."
/After the election of Pierce in 1852, Bennett thought
abolitionism was dying and vented his scorn on Horace
Greeley and his "nigger worshipers," as he pleasantly
\dubbed the friends of African freedom. In all this he
was wrong; indeed he was often mistaken in the direce\tion of popular currents.
The energy Bennett put behind the news-gathering
forces of the Herald has never been beaten. "Exclusively in the Herald" became almost a trade-mark.
The other papers, try as they might, seldom or never
beat it in the news hunt. What they got they usually
stole from the Herald's columns. No night editor ever
slept until he had conned the contents of every edition
of the Herald.




FULL-TIDE SUCCESS


135


One of these news-stealing exploits was rather elaborate in its way. The Collins Line steamer Arctic went
down in the Atlantic, September 28, 1854, with many
souls, as the result of a collision on the preceding day.
She was returning from Liverpool and was so long
overdue that the worst was feared, when, on October
tenth, rumor solidified into a firm belief that she was
lost. This reached the office of the New York Times,
where, unable to confirm or deny, a paragraph embracing the belief was inserted and the night city editor
started for home at three A. M. Dozing on the horse
car he overheard a disjointed conversation anent the
Arctic, and caught a hint that a rescued person had
reached port and found his way to the Herald. Threading out that the tale bearer had sold his great story
to the Herald, he retraced his steps to the Times office
and, stopping its presses, sent a scout to the Herald
shop. He found it all alight, with every door locked.
Hanging about, he was able to buy a copy as the delivery began under guard. In it was the two-column
narrative of the survivor, George H. Burns, who had
dictated his account of the disaster and received a
rich reward. It was cut up into four-line "takes" and
put into type within an hour. The Herald, meanwhile,
held back its city edition, only to be outfooted by the
managers of the Times, who ran their presses until two
o'clock in the afternoon, supplying the demand, and
quite blanketing their over-cautious contemporary. The
scout got fifty dollars for his enterprise, and the night
city editor had five dollars added to his weekly pay
for his share in the exploit. The Times tried to excuse
itself on the ground that the "exhausted Burns" had
relied on the Herald to tell his tale to everybody and




136 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
had been deceived in trusting to the "honor" of the
Herald.
Professional success did not lead Bennett to muffle
the blowing of his own personal horn. In 1854 James
Parton, a young Englishman with a bent for biography
wrote one of Horace Greeley that achieved great popularity. Not to be outdone, Bennett contrived with
Isaac C. Pray, a New York journalist, to produce
James Gordon Bennett and His Times. It was a good
deal of an apology. Though interesting, it did not
become as good a seller as the Greeley book.
The American habit of giving testimonials was occasionally used to gratify the vanity of the Herald's
proprietor. Frederic Hudson thus describes one incident: "On the 1st of January, 1855, a large, mysterious-looking box was sent to the St. Nicholas Hotel for
Mr. Bennett. He looked at it attentively for a few
moments and declined receiving it, saying, 'That looks
like another infernal machine on a large scale.' He
could not decipher the signature of the note accompanying the handsome box. But the hotel keeper assured him it was all right by bringing down one of the
firm of Ball, Black and Co., from whose establishment
it came. It was then opened and found to contain a
splendid service of silver plate, consisting of ten
pieces, each with an appropriate inscription. This is
the chief one:
Presented
to
James Gordon Bennett
as a
Testimonial
To the Editor of the Truly National Newspaper of
the American Republic; the firm and unwavering Sup



FULL-TIDE SUCCESS


137


porter of the Constitution; the Opponent of the Spoils
System of Government; the Ready and Effective Advocate of the Rights of the People.
New York City, January 1855.
On the milk pitcher-the inscription should have
been engraved on the hot-water pitcher-were the
words:
Presented to
James Gordon Bennett
the most abused
Editor in America.
Mr. Hudson does not reveal the source of the gift
and there was a suspicion that the editor sent it to
himself.
Whether Bennett made gifts to himself to attract
attention or whether others made them to shine in the
acquired publicity themselves, the practise was so much
in vogue that Vanity Fair found in it ample occasion
for mirth. Here is one of its skits burlesquing the
notion with the Herald as a foil:
A TESTIMONIAL TO THE "HERALD."
Actuated by a sentiment of gratitude for past favors,
as well as by a pretty sharp look out, perhaps, for
more of the same sort in prospect, the charming Waiter
Girls of the Broadway Concert Saloons have been giving expression to their esteem for that excellent patron
of theirs, the New York Herald. At a meeting held,
about a fortnight since, by those attractive demigoddesses, at Vestal Hall, in Diana Street, a committee
was appointed for the purpose of drawing up resolutions of thanks to the Senior Editor of the Herald, for
the course dictated by him to that truly Christian




138 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
journal with regard to the subterrene Cecilian and
Terpsichorean establishments of this City. Two of the
young ladies, who are noted for their proficiency in
draughting off lager beer, were appointed to draught
off the resolutions, which they did in true tapster style
"with a head on." In addition to the thanks, which
were ordered to be engrossed upon a tambourine, the
committee decided upon presenting the venerable
Senior Man of the Herald with a medal, commemorative of the exertions made by him in favor of Terpsichore and Tod. This medal, with an engraving of which
we have the pleasure of presenting our readers, is appropriately made of brass, cast from the trimmings of
the brass mounted pistol with which Gil. Snickerfoot
shot Redash Cole in the Temple of Everlasting Felicity
on lower Broadway. The design speaks for itself. It is
extremely chaste, as might have been expected from
the character of the fair quarter from which it came,
and is the combined production of the young man who
plays the piano in the above-named place of amusement
and the young woman who dances the Highland Fling.
The venerable recipient of the medal was so touched
by the expressions of the fair donoresses that he immediately suspended it from his neck, with a garter
presented to him by the young lady in spangles who
dances the Schottische, after which they all supped together, and had a very merry evening of it until late
on the following afternoon.
Prize-fighting was not a plutocratic profession in
these old Herald days. The "pugs" fought with bare
knuckles in lonely barns for small sums and in constant fear of raiding by officers of the law. There were
no million-dollar purses paid out of the proceeds of a
two million, five hundred thousand dollar "box." The
manly art was backward in everything except skill and
endurance. Against these were to be credited brutality




\

a,


-A A^
1A As~4


F.


PRESENTATION OF A M'DAL] BY TiUB PlaRETY WAITER G[RL. TO Tli OLD MAX Of-:
HEBALD.,
Cartoon in Fanity Fair, February 29, 1862








FULL-TIDE SUCCESS


139


and popular disapproval. Indeed, when John C. Heenan, "The Benicia Boy," champion of America, defeated Tom Sayers in an open ring in England, where
they were less squeamish, Harper's Weekly, which was
run by three sedate Methodist brothers, labeled a picture, drawn by Thomas Nast at the ringside, "Brutal
and Disgusting Prize Fight," to get away with the
odium.
Cock-fighting was another surreptitious sport. It,
too, was carried on by its votaries and admirers in hidden lofts and country stables. The reporter of the
pastime had to be always on the alert to keep track of
"mills" and "mains." "Tad" McAlpin, the Herald's
veteran in these lines, seldom failed to score. To get
an "exclusive" on one of the events was to make a
mark in journalism. Though still retaining its popularity in Latin-America, the cock-fight no longer secures space in North American newspapers. Fancy
this appearing in a modern newspaper, as it came from
Troy, New York, to the Herald:
This long anticipated cock-fight-the Athenian
amusement, the boasted pleasure of China, India and
the Philippine Islands, and the favorite subject of
Aristophanes, the Greek-between Albany and Troy
cocks, came off in this city this evening in the cock loft
of Paul Cavanaugh's saloon, in Congress Street. The
elite of American sportsmen, from John Morrissey
down, were present, and the whole scene was mostly
characteristic of American liberal life, unrestrained by
the police.
So the tale went on for a column and a half filled
with technical phrases, "minute and disgusting" details, as a critic of the day described them, and much




140 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
" slang and vulgarity. " Indeed, however much an Aristophanes might have enjoyed the fight, the report was
hardly up to his classic taste. It was not written for
him, however, but for the lop-eared crowd. New York
sent Morrissey, a prize-fighter, to Congress, and for
years the state allowed him to run a splendid gambling
"hell" in Saratoga. Bennett knew his times and did
not try to improve them. To size up events with a
popular appeal and make them interesting to the kind
of minds they fed was his mission as a news-seller.
For this he was abused, yet Charles A. Dana did the
same thing in the Sun at a little later day without inviting criticism. To Dana anything interesting was
"news," and he made it respectable.




CHAPTER VI


BENNETT AND BARNUM
THE high-powered modern press agent has nothing
on P. T. Barnum of gorgeous memory. For two decades and a half he vied with Bennett in the great art
of attracting attention, sometimes in harmony, but
often out of tune. Recognizing the Herald as the popular medium for a twenty-five-cent show, Barnum made
free use of its columns when he could. Bennett did not
mind a puff if it was interesting, but he collected for
it by gibing Barnum mercilessly whenever the chance
occurred, which was pretty often. Barnum's manner
of approach is well indicated by the following found
among Bennett's papers:
Museum-March 27/50
Mr. Bennett-I hope that you will find the subject
and the style of the article left this morning of such a
nature (as well as those which will follow it) as will
make it worth your while to let them appear in the
Weekly Herald. Of course I can not press this, but if
found of sufficient interest for your weekly and if you
have the room to spare it will be a favor for which I
shall feel much obliged.
Truly yours,
P. T. BARNUM.
Another article on same subject (of almost 1/2 column) will be ready about Monday next.-P. T. B.


141




142 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Again:
American Museum
May 15/50
Mr. Barnum's comps to Mr. Bennett and begs to
say that if the enclosed "Review" should happen to
be just the thing for the Herald he would like to have
it appear, but if it is not apropos, or in any manner
interferes with more valuable matter, let it be consigned to the flames.
Barnum's greatest triumph was in bringing Jenny
Lind, the Swedish songstress, to America for a series
of concerts in 1850. His publicity campaign was a
masterpiece of planning and execution. The Herald
and newspapers generally were fed up by the newly
fledged impresario who resorted to the ingenious plan
of selling first-night tickets by auction. In New York
John N. Genin, a hatter, paid two hundred and twentyfive dollars for the first ticket, gaining much free advertising thereby. In Boston Ossian E. Dodge, an
entertainer, gave six hundred and twenty-five dollars
for No. L In Providence, Philadelphia and Baltimore equally extravagant prices were paid for introducing the lady to America. Barnum gave the Herald
the lead in his press notices, even sending Mr. Bennett
a copy of his letter engaging rooms for the lady at the
Irving House, addressed to Landlord Howard. It
read:
New York, April 16, 1850.
D. D. Howard, Esq.,
Dear Sir:The apartments in the Irving House which you had
the kindness to show me to-day as in your opinion cal



BENNETT AND BARNUM


143


culated to please and accommodate Jenny Lind, Julius
Benedict, Esq., Signor Belletti, and their suite I consider elegant and commodious in the extreme and
hasten to inform you that I will engage the same for
that distinguished party and wish them to be held in
reserve for them on and from the tenth day of September next.
Respectfully
Your obt sevt
P. T. BARNUM.
This copy was accompanied by the following ingenuous note:
Museum, Tuesday Evening.
Mr. Bennett,
Dear Sir:
I engaged apartments at the Irving today for Jenny
Lind & suite and the above is a copy of the letter sent
to Mr. Howard by myself. I have also today put up
the large amount of money required by Jenny Lind
to be lodged in the hands of Baring Brothers and send
it by tomorrow's steamer. If any of the above is found
of public interest sufficient to get in tomorrow's Herald
I shall feel much obliged as I wish to send it in print
across the Atlantic tomorrow.
Truly yours,
P. T. BARNUM.
The Herald badgered Barnum a bit on Jenny Lind's
coming, objecting to the ballooning of the price of
seats, and demanding three-dollar admissions. The
day after the first concert, which was given on October
24, 1850, Miss Lind wrote to Barnum urging lower
rates. He at once conceded three-dollar, four-dollar
and five-dollar seats according to location. This was
a victory for Bennett, who modestly acclaimed the
fact. The Boston Chronotype had printed a tale to the




144 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
effect that John McClenahan, a Herald reporter, had
attempted to blackmail the songstress. It was untrue
and Barnum hastened to make an affidavit to that effect. This the Herald printed, commenting complacently:
We shall say nothing further about Barnum. Let
the sinner have a chance to repent.... Barnum, we
have frequently admitted, has some good points about
him. There is some genuine good in his composition.
He is like the mother mountain of gold in California,
with two and one-half per cent of gold dust to a mountain of primitive rock. As for ourselves we deserve
a charity concert, the funds to be devoted to the benefit
of the poor for the work we have accomplished in reforming Barnum-a reform going beyond his own
temperance humbug.
The Herald's critique of the first concert was more
than kind, even if it did poke fun at her manager, and
during Miss Lind's stay in New York the paper was
certainly most considerate. Nevertheless, it did not
fail to keep its eye on Barnum while he was on the
road.
"After permitting one favorable notice in his paper," Barnum writes in his autobiography, rather unfairly, "Bennett had turned around as usual and
abused Jenny Lind and bitterly attacked me. There
was an estrangement, no new thing between the editor
and myself. The Herald, in its desire to excite attention, has a habit of attacking public men and I had not
escaped. I was always glad to get such notices, for
they served as inexpensive advertisements to my Museum, and brought custom to me free of charge."
This comment was written apropos of an encounter




BENNETT AND BARNUM


145


with Bennett on the steamer Falcon of the HavanaNew Orleans Line, on which Barnum and the Jenny
Lind party were bound for the latter port. So were
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. Barnum had a ticket-taker by
the name of Henry Bennett, who bitterly resented the
Herald's attacks upon his employer. He had announced a firm purpose in New York of horsewhipping
the editor and had been persuaded not to by Barnum,
who may be allowed to continue the story thus:
When Editor Bennett came on board the "Falcon,"
he had in his arms a small pet monkey belonging to
his wife, and the animal was placed in a safe place on
the forward deck. When Henry Bennett saw the editor
he said to a bystander:
"I would willingly be drowned if I could see that
old scoundrel go to the bottom of the sea."
Several of our party overheard the remark and I
turned laughingly to Bennett and said: "Nonsense;
he can't harm any one, and there is an old proverb
about the impossibility of drowning those who are
born to another fate."
That very night, however, as I stood near the cabin
door, conversing with my treasurer and other members
of my company, Henry Bennett came up to me with a
wild air, and hoarsely whispered:
"Old Bennett has gone forward alone in the darkand I am going to throw him overboard I"
We were all startled, for we knew the man and he
seemed terribly in earnest. Knowing how most effectively to address him at such times, I exclaimed:
"Ridiculous! You would not do such a thing."
"I swear I will," was his savage reply. I expostulated with him, and several of our party joined me.
"Nobody will know it," muttered the maniac, "and
I will be doing the world a favor."
I endeavored to awaken him to a sense of the crime




146 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
he contemplated, assuring him that it could not pos.
sibly benefit any one, and that from the fact of the
existing relations between the editor and myself,
I should be the first to be accused of his murder.
I implored him to go to his stateroom, and he finally
did so, accompanied by some of the gentlemen of our
party. I took pains to see that he was carefully
watched that night, and, indeed, for several days, till
he became calm again. He was a large, athletic man,
quite able to pick up his namesake and drop him overboard. The matter was too serious for a joke, and we
made little mention of it, but more than one of my
party said then, and has often said since, what I really
believe to be true, that "James Gordon Bennett would
have been drowned that night had it not been for P.
T. Barnum."
Mr. Barnum did not confide the episode to Bennett,
nor does he say that they sought each other socially
during the voyage. Arriving at New Orleans, the process of bidding for concert tickets was resumed and
coincidentally there appeared in the Herald a broad
charge that the ingenious Mr. Barnum was behind the
bidding. To this he sent an indignant challenge to the
Herald, on these terms:
New Orleans, March 4, 1851.
Mr. James Gordon Bennett,
Editor and proprietor of the New York Herald.
Sir:
I will pay a reward of Five Thousand Dollars to any
person who shall prove by respectable witnesses that
I was ever directly or indirectly in the remotest degree interested with any person in bidding for or purchasing tickets at auction for the Concerts of Mlle.
Jenny Lind as stated in your paper of the 21st of
February. I assert positively that this was never the




BENNETT AND BARNUM


147


case, but that in the disposition of tickets on all occasions either at public or private sale, I have invariably given directions that the strictest fairness and
impartiality should be maintained with the public, and
this has always been done.
P. T. BARNUM.
The Bennett trip to Havana was taken shortly after
the assault by John Graham and his brothers, related
in an earlier chapter, and was much needed as refreshment after the injuries to body and nerves then received.
This visit followed an attempt by Lopez to land at
Cardenas with a filibustering expedition in the spring
of 1850. It came to nothing, but put Cuba much in the
news, and a doctrine of "manifest destiny" had been
evolved in the southern part of the United States that
advocated the annexation of the island. Mr. Bennett
had a good time in spite of the friction. He arrived
about the first of December, 1850, and dined with the
Governor-General at the palace. On December seventh
a "grand ball" was given by the Signor Conde de
Penalver, at which the editor and his wife were prominent guests. The Havana papers treated them with
distinguished consideration. "We had the pleasure
of admiring Mrs. Bennett of New York, so remarkable
for her judgment, and whose manifest talents attracted the greatest interest," said the official journal.
"She was attired with perfect taste, and her exquisite
dress was observed with the deepest attention. She
was accompanied by Mr. Bennett."
Soon after, Lopez landed again accompanied by a
number of adventurous Americans. He was captured
and shot, as were some of our countrymen. Mr. Ben



148 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
nett had concluded as the result of his observations
that Cuba was not ready for liberty and vigorously
opposed the doctrine of manifest destiny, while Mrs.
Bennett, then in Europe, made a personal appeal to
the Court at Madrid and secured the release of a number of the Americans who had been sent to prison.
The Herald continued to make sport of the showman and his entertainments. New York, envious
of London's Crystal Palace, attempted a similar enterprise on the ground now called Bryant Park,
facing Sixth Avenue, between Fortieth and Fortysecond Streets. The management failed to make expenses and unloaded on Barnum and Horace Greeley,
who undertook to speed up the exhibition. Naturally
neither appealed to Bennett. His attacks were hurtful and Barnum ventured to plead for a truce:
Office of the Association for the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, 218 Broadway, New York.
April 28, 1854.
Mr. James Gordon BennettDear Sir:
I send you this letter as a Flag of Truce and not
for publication.
I doubt whether you really entertain any enmity
against me from the fact that you have frequently told
Mr. Cromwell that you did not-but having been in
the habit of making me a kind of target for the last
18 years, this habit has become a kind of "second nature" to you, and thus do we find "Mermaid," "Joice
Heth," "Woolly Horse," &c., stereotyped, as it were,
and it has sometimes struck me that your readers
would think you were dosing them ad nauseum.
Well, I think your experience in this instance has
convinced you that I am not to be killed by newspaper




BENNETT AND BARNUM


149


bullets. So far from it, I rather liked your attacks and
squibs when you did not attempt to impeach my integrity.
But now comes the question: Don't you think it is
time to let me drop? I mean as a target for your ridicule. I decidedly think it is and respectfully request
you to do so. For myself personally I don't care two
straws for all the newspaper squibs that could be written in a century. But I am now engaged in managing
a public enterprise which I hope and believe will be
made highly conducive to the interests and reputation
of this city and the country at large.
Second, I have a family growing up around me-am
myself not quite as young as I once was, and all things
considered, I have to request that you will hereafter
not speak of myself or my actions in a spirit of ridicule or abuse except I, or they, really deserve it.
If in addition to desisting from such a course, you
should (for a wonder) begin to speak of me and my
efforts with some little degree of respect and encouragement, (selecting some other butt for your sarcasm
for the next 18 years) I really think you will consult
your own interests as well as oblige
Truly yours,
P. T. BARNUM
However effective this might have been in tempering
the wind it was not of long endurance. The Crystal
Palace burned to the ground and so cut short its problems. The Civil War next broke out, but did not
wholly do away with pleasantries about Joice Heth
and the Woolly Horse, for among the Bennett papers
appears a Barnum note dated January 25, 1864, reading: "Your article today is calculated to do me serious
injury and as it is not by any means borne out by the
facts, I ask as an act of justice you publish the enclosed
communication."




150 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Soon a new cause for trouble developed between the
pair, one that was severely to try the strength of both.
July 13, 1865, Barnum's American Museum   at
Broadway and Ann Street was destroyed by fire. The
ground was a leasehold with eleven years to run. Bennett had long desired to place the Herald establishment on Broadway. The day after the fire he
approached Barnum on the subject of purchasing his
lease, having in view the acquisition of the property on
which the lease was a lien. The shrewd showman had
secured an appraisal of two hundred and seventy-five
thousand dollars as the value of his contract. When
Bennett asked his price he replied: "Please go or
send immediately to Homer Morgan's office and you
will learn that Mr. Morgan has the lease for sale at
two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. This
is fifty thousand dollars less than the estimated value,
but to you I deduct twenty-five thousand dollars from
my already reduced price, so you may have the lease
for two hundred thousand dollars."
A few days later Bennett handed Barnum a check
on the Chemical Bank for two hundred thousand dollars. He had previously agreed with the owner to
take the fee at five hundred thousand dollars-one
hundred thousand dollars down, plus a mortgage for
four hundred thousand dollars.
According to Barnum:
When, therefore, Mr. Bennett saw it stated in the
newspaper that the sum which he had paid for a piece
of land measuring only fifty-six by one hundred feet
was more than was ever before paid in any city in the
world for a tract of that size, he discovered the serious
oversight he had made; and the owner of the property




NO DRAFTIN' IN BALDINSVILLE,
TIM 113 * MA." 03iu 4 O7A I0flI   r 3S,   ON ME WM Wn# MN EXPWIALT MR TANITy FAIR. ET# ARTMUS WARD 1WtLLPMAi  I   OVZN rwMMU
THEY   WILL BE, C(7NTTNUCl-) UE EEITMY.
VOL. 6.                                        NO.142.


T'iiE
lrrec ii
II
-41?CrCI=PC~-41111il-~-~~ll
t
TgE ''
Er
i, dt:I
Airt r
~~ ---,
"""- [,
- U.rgi
C`a
r 1...
— *
r     -~e

---- - fi.
""I — 
---— ~- / ---


I a d, yon a- QW I
Sis
F. i-&;I    ICLe.
Il   — gi
__


FnYI1 -3L:p ptr.O*;)CPAt


PHIN —'-E:AS TAYL OR              AN
LOWRX, WUNIT ALL 1II, MIGHIT, rO lHI '-HAPlIT FAMMY,` UII COe-wIDING PVBUe


Cartoon in Vanity Fair, September 13, 1862








BENNETT AND BARNUM


151I


was immediately informed that Bennett would not take
it. But Bennett had already signed a bond to the
owner, agreeing to pay $100,000 cash, and to mortgage the premises for the remaining $400,000.
Supposing by this step he had shaken off the owner
of the fee, Bennett was not long in seeing that as he
was not to own the land he would have no possible
use for the lease, for which he paid the $200,000; and
accordingly his next step was to shake me off also, and
get back the money he had paid me.
In this endeavor Mr. Bennett's attorney invited Mr.
Barnum to call at his office. The showman did so quite
unsuspectingly. Here is what followed:
"Mr. Barnum," said the lawyer, "I have sent for
you to say that Mr. Bennett has concluded not to purchase the museum lots, and therefore you had better
take back the lease, and return the $200,000 paid for
it."
"Are you in earnest?" Barnum asked.
"Certainly, quite so," he replied.
"Really," smiled Barnum, "I am sorry I can't accommodate Mr. Bennett; I have not got the little sum
about me; in fact, I have spent the money."
"It will be better for you to take back the lease,"
observed the lawyer gravely.
"Nonsense," answered Barnum. "I shall do nothing of the sort, I don't make child's bargains. The
lease was cheap enough, but I have other business to
attend to, and shall have nothing to do with it."
The next day Barnum's advertisement-he was
playing his museum company at the Winter Gardenwas omitted from the Herald. He called at the Herald
office and found the owner absent, so he took the matter up with Frederic Hudson, the managing editor,
remarking:




152 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
"My advertisement is left out of the Herald; is
there a screw loose?"
"I believe there is," was the reply.
"What is the matter?"
"You must ask the Emperor," said Mr. Hudson,
meaning of course Bennett.
The "Emperor" would not be in until Monday.
Barnum decided not to see him, but instead called a
meeting of the local theatrical managers for noon the
following day, where, after stating his case, it was
moved to pull all their advertisements out of the Herald, unless it relented on Barnum. Messrs, Lester
Wallack, Wheatly and Stuart were appointed a committee to carry the dictum to the editor. According
to Barnum:
The moment Bennett saw them, he evidently suspected the object of their mission, for he at once commenced to speak to Mr. Wallack in a patronizing
manner; told him how long he had known and how
much he respected his late father, who was "a true
English gentleman of the old school," with much more
in the same strain. Mr. Wallack replied to Bennett
that the three managers were appointed a committee to
wait upon him to ascertain if he insisted upon excluding from his columns the Museum advertisements,not on account of any objection to the contents of the
advertisements, or to the Museum itself, but simply
because he had a private business disagreement
with the proprietor-intimating that such a proceeding, for such a reason, and no other, might lead to
a rupture of business relations with other managers.
In reply, Mr. Bennett had something to say about the
fox that had suffered tailwise from a trap, and thereupon advised all other foxes to cut their tails off; and
he pointed the fable by setting forth the impolicy of
drawing down upon the Association the vengeance of




BENNETT AND BARNUM


153


the Herald. The committee, however coolly insisted
upon a direct answer to their question.
Bennett then answered: "I will not publish Barnum's advertisement; I do business as I please, and
in my own way."
"So do we," replied one of the committee, which
thereupon departed. The next day the Association
unanimously resolved to cut out the Herald's columns
and to withdraw their printing from its job office, in
all a loss of from seventy-five thousand dollars to one
hundred thousand dollars a year. The warfare became
bitter at once. The Herald expanded its notices of the
cheap shows outside of the Association and abused the
performances given by its members. These retorted
by putting a line: "This establishment does not advertise in the New York Herald" over their announcements in the other papers. Mr. Barnum asserts that
the public took sides against the Herald and thronged
the playhouses. The boycott with its incidental heating of the Herald's columns lasted two years. Before
the end of this time Mr. Bennett had been sued under
his contract by the seller of the land and settled the
day before the case came to trial. Peace was made
with the Association, who found it paid, after all, to
use the Herald. Barnum had formed a partnership
with Van Amburgh which was the beginning of the
"Greatest Show on Earth," and did not follow his associates. Soon (March 2, 1868) the museum, then located farther up-town, burned, and Barnum made his
further way under canvas. He thought Bennett would
have got the worst of it even had he taken back the
lease as under its terms he would have been compelled
to build a new museum. Both sides had overestimated




154 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
their powers in the contest. The theaters lost, especially in out-of-town patronage, which the Herald
had always supplied through its wide circulation and
the fact that it was most read by guests at the hotels.
Barnum once estimated that the price paid for the
plot-seven hundred thousand dollars-would have
covered it with gold dollars.
Upon this costly site Bennett built a structure of
marble and iron, fireproof throughout, in which the
Herald made its home until it moved up-town in 1894.
Outwardly it was white and attractive. Within, the
iron stairways and dark finish made it gloomy to the
eye. There was no elevator; men climbed to their
work on the metal stairs. It was, however, the most
modern and costly newspaper building in New York.
In 1895 James Gordon Bennett the younger sold the
corner to Henry O. Havemeyer for one million dollars-no great advance from the price paid in 1865,
including as it did an expensive structure. This the
purchaser pulled down and erected the sky-scraping
Colonial Building in its stead.
The Herald's columns abounded in puffery as well
as slams. Bennett was liberal in praises of men he
liked or procured patronage from. Indeed the puffs
printed would in modern days be regarded as shameless unless pleasantly disguised as news by some ingenious press-agent. Here is a fine example, taken
from the issue of June 18, 1842:
The Kremelin Dining Saloon, 111 Broadway. We
stopt at those lovely rooms yesterday about soup time,
and such Turtle Soup we never drank. It was not
drink-it was eating. It was really balm for the body.
We enquired of our host whether he was always so




BENNETT AND BARNUM                 155
full? He said, no-we are never so full as when you
come here. We wonder why the visits of other distinguished editors should not attract as well as ourselves.
Even the Col. (Webb) won't draw. We will be there
to dine tomorrow at 4 o'clock, and dine with our old
friend in the Game room.
How the writer must have smacked his rather wide
lips! Note also his listing himself as an attraction
along with calipash and calipee I Yet did not Londoners in the eighteenth century gather at the Mitre
Inn where Doctor Samuel Johnson dined, to see that
great man feed?




CHAPTER VII


BENNETT AND BUCHANAN
BENNETT'S early experience in political journalism
had taught him to be wary of parties and politicians,
and he never tied the Herald columns tightly to
any cause. He could be friendly and helpful, but not
devoted, and he reserved always the right to switch
without notice. He preferred to be a chronicler pure
and simple, and to sit on the side-lines and throw
stones to stir up the animals when they became sluggish. His one definite purpose was to tell all that was
worth telling about everybody and everything.
This policy did not by any means take him apart
from public life. He never put his heart in the crux
of any cause to have it broken as Horace Greeley did,
nor would he imperil his paper by causing it to stand
or fall on one policy or another but took the world
as he found it and made the most of it. If the Herald
was normally superficial and seldom serious, it was
due to this studied system. Its power grew from its
overwhelming lead on the news.
Naturally, an editor, so delightfully situated, per.
fectly independent through the profits of his paper,
was in an enviable position. He was sought by political leaders, usually without avail. His chief use for
a statesman was to get tips from him that would serve
the Herald. If he turned quickly it was because he
thought events had earned the shift. Widely ac.
156




BENNETT AND BUCHANAN.


157


quainted through his service in Washington, he could
open almost any door. One of these was that of James
Buchanan, James K. Polk's Secretary of State, Franklin Pierce's Minister to Great Britain, and President
of the United States, from March 4,1857, to the same
date in 1861.
In 1846, when preparing for a trip to Europe, Bennett had called upon the Secretary of State for credentials. To his request the latter replied:
Washington, 30 May 1846,
My dear Sir:
I have received your favor and it will afford me
pleasure to comply with your request. You shall, also,
have the courier's passport for the steamer of the 16th
June. Please to remind me of this a few days before
your departure.
With my best respects to Mrs. Bennett, I remain,
Yours very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
James G. Bennett, Esq.
Several letters of introduction followed, the first
reading:
Washington, 9 June, 1846.
My dear Sir:
It affords me pleasure to introduce to you the bearer
hereof, James G. Bennett, Esquire, of New York. In
company with his lady, whom I desire specially to
commend to your kind attention, he proposes to visit
the Hague.
In my personal intercourse with Mr. Bennett I have
ever found him to be a gentleman and his reputation
as a public journalist must be well known to you.
May I bespeak for himself and his lady those kind
attentions which you so well know how to bestow, and




158 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
which, proceeding from the Representation of three
countries in a foreign land, will prove so acceptable.
From your friend,
Very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
Auguste Davezac, Esquire.
A second note read:
My dear Sir:
This letter will be delivered to you by James G. Bennett, Esquire, of New York, to whom I have given a
courier 's passport as bearer of Dispatches to Mr.
M'Lane. He will be accompanied by Mrs. Bennett.
During their stay in Liverpool, may I bespeak for
them your kind attention. It will gratify me to learn
that you have afforded them every facility which you
so well know how to bestow.
I refer you to Mr. Bennett for the news. He is as
capable of giving it to you as any gentleman within
my knowledge.
From your friend,
Very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
General Robert Armstrong.
During the months preceding the securing of these
credentials, Bennett had spent some time in Washington, writing letters to the Herald and picking up inside facts for guidance. He departed for England on
June sixteenth, and as a "bearer of dispatches" pried
open hitherto closed doors in London. For his dispatches carried reassurances to England concerning
the Oregon boundary dispute that had bred so much
bluster, and following their delivery, on July seventeenth, a formal settlement of the vexed question




BENNETT AND BUCHANAN


159


was arrived at. Bennett basked in the good will surrounding the circumstance, which, removing the peril
of war with England, left the United States free to go
ahead and fight Mexico. In addition to this, Pennsylvania had voted to pay her suspended debts, and an
era of "good feeling" set in. The editor was warmly
welcomed, even in society. He wrote complacently to
the Herald for the information of his New York enemies:
Of all the soirees which we have attended since our
arrival in London, one of the most agreeable was a
recherche night we spent at Lady Morgan's elegant
residence in one of the beautiful squares near Hyde
Park. Lady Morgan, better known in the United
States as the once beautiful Miss Owenson, the famous
authoress, moves in the highest circles of fashion and
literature, and is one of the most delightful persons
we ever met. The evening of her days is poetry and
grace, brought down from heaven to human life.
We have seen a great deal of the structure, forms,
shapes, and appearances of the upper and fashionable
circles here, and a general and vivid description of
such a state of society I have never yet seen written.
It can be done so as to be pleasing, without any personality. To-morrow we proceed to the Rhine, and
shall visit Baden-Baden, Southern Germany, Vienna,
Switzerland, etc.,-after that return to Paris, and
think of St. Petersburgh, and also of Italy. We have
received numerous letters in London and elsewhere,
to persons of the highest rank on the continent.
Being made a bearer of dispatches indicates a pretty
close connection with "Old Buck," as people called
the statesman. This was not maintained; a misunderstanding arose that cleared itself up when Bennett
found it again to his purpose to back Buchanan.




160 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
William L. Marcy became Secretary of State under
Franklin Pierce, and had ambitions to succeed him in
the presidency. The fact that he supported Pierce
did not influence Bennett into forgetting the way
Marcy had double-crossed him twenty years before.
He had camped on his trail, indeed, through the
double decade, and, after the establishment of the
Herald, was able to pay the gentleman with compound
interest. Richard Schell, an eminent Tammany leader
in New York (this was before the days of the Boss),
sought to reconcile the two. Marcy was in the city
and Schell called on Bennett with an invitation to get
together with the Secretary. He curtly declined: "I
have no desire to see Mr. Marcy. I am already acquainted with him. I helped to make him governor of
this state; I do not intend in any way to make him
president of the United States. That's his present
object."
To defeat Marcy became his great objective. Thus
it was that he put his support behind Buchanan, who
won the nomination, and was elected with much help
from the Herald. Bennett had encouraged the elements that came together in the Republican party and
nominated John C. Fremont. But they were going
farther and faster than he cared to travel. Radical
in its opinion of men and things, the Herald was not
much given to overthrowing institutions.
Buchanan was glad to resume relationships, as this
letter, written October 20, 1856, from Buchanan's home
at Wheatland, Pennsylvania, shows:
My dear Sir:
I have this moment received, when about to leave
home for Philadelphia, a letter from our mutual




BENNETT ANDT BUCHANAN


161


friend, Mr. W. which has afforded me great satisfaction. I rejoice that our former friendly relations are
about to be restored. I can assure you I am truly
sorry they were ever interrupted; and this not only
for my own sake but that of the country. The New
York Herald, exercising the influence which signal
ability and past triumphs always commands, can contribute much to frustrate the sectional party which
now so seriously endangers the union and to restore
the ancient friendly relations between the North and
the South.
Mr. W. refers to something about a letter from Mr.
Dillon, which I do not exactly comprehend. I never
received a letter from that gentleman for you; but I
did receive the one from him about you which gratified
me so much. The truth is that when I parted from
you in Paris I had neither the purpose nor the desire
again to become a candidate for the Presidency. A
ground swell, however, in this State among a noble
people who had sustained me for more than thirty
years, forced me reluctantly into the field.
I confess I had calculated, with the most perfect
confidence, you would be as you had been, my friend.
It has been throughout between us a comedy of errors
in which I have been the sufferer. But let bye-gones
be bye-gones; and when we again get together I feel
that we shall never separate.
Yours very respectfully,
James Buchanan.
James Gordon Bennett, Esquire.
P. S. It is too late for our mail. I shall have to take
this with me and post it in Philadelphia, where I go
for only two days.
Some further lines in the P. S. are illegible, but
they indicate an unsuccessful effort on Buchanan's
part to enlist Bennett on his side. "W" refers to the
"Chevalier" Wikoff, of whom more anon.




162 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Bennett replied:
I have received with great pleasure your kind letter-your very kind letter. I reciprocate most warmly
the desire you so kindly express that we may soon
meet not to separate by any comedy of errors-however, my dear sir, I am not altogether to blame for
recent separations.
Following Buchanan's inauguration, Mrs. Bennett
evidently sent him a note of congratulation. This reply was found among the family papers:
Washington, 14 April 1857
My dear Madam:
Many thanks for your kind congratulations! These
ought ere this to have been responded to, though your
letter lingered long on the way; but since the inauguration my time has been so incessantly occupied that
I have been impelled to neglect, though I can never
forget valued friends like yourself. Let me assure
that I cordially reciprocate all your kindness and rejoice in the prospect of welcoming you to this country.
Since "the auld lang syne" I am gratified to know
that you have ever been my friend. I regret very much
that I had not the pleasure of meeting you in Paris,
though I earnestly desired it. Your son paid us a
visit some weeks ago. He appears to be a fine, promising boy. I beg his pardon, there are no longer any
boys in the United States-they are all young gentlemen.
I am glad to learn that Mr. Bennett has promised
you "to stick by my administration through thick and
thin." Thus far he has given it a powerful support
with occasional aberrations, for which I am always
prepared and do not complain. He is an independent
man and will do just what he pleases-though I know
there is an undercurrent of good will towards me in




BENNETT AND BUCHANAN


163


his nature and he is disposed to treat me fairly. The
Herald in his hands is a powerful instrument and it
would be vain for me to deny that I desire its music
should be encouraging and not hostile. Mr. B. makes
his mark when he strikes and his blows fall so fast
and heavy it is difficult to sustain them. I learn he
proposes to visit Washington early in May, and shall
be glad to see him because, when together, we always
get along well. It is my desire as well as my interest
to be on the best of terms with him.
Justice is a kind providence. I hope that my administration may equal your friendly wishes. I shall
do my best with all honest purpose and leave results
to Heaven.
Again expressing the hope that I may ere long welcome you to Washington, I remain in haste and with
warm regard
Very respectfully
Your friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
Mrs. James Gordon Bennett.
P. S. Your letter did not reach me until some time
after the 4th March, though dated on the 4th January.
Buchanan went so far as to entrust Bennett with
advance copies of his messages as this note shows:
Private and confidential
Washington, 7 Dec. 57
My dear Sir:
I inclose you one of my messages and know I can
implicitly trust to your honor that this copy will not
be used for printing before 12 o'clock tomorrow. You
will have an opportunity of perusing it and forming
your own opinion of it in advance. Another copy for
the Herald is in the bundle of papers to be delivered




164 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
to Mr. Schell. With many thanks for your very kind
and very efficient support, I remain,
In haste, very respectfully,
Your friend,
James Buchanan.
James Gordon Bennett, Esquire.
To Mrs. Bennett the President wrote again, two
years later:
Washington, 1 April, 1859
My dear Madam:
Miss [Harriet] Lane and myself have deeply sym.
pathized with you in the loss of your darling son.
This mournful event has often been the subject of our
conversation. We have contrasted the gaiety, the
brilliance and the talent of the happy mother on her
late visit to Washington, with the grief and the gloom
which must now make the heart sad. Alas for the
vanity of all things mortal! Your best consolation
in such a calamity is to be found in the words of our
compassionate Saviour: "Suffer little children to
come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Reflecting that it might be gratifying to you to know
how much and how sincerely I have sympathized with
you in the hour of your affliction my pen proceeds at
once to record the sentiments of my heart.
With my kind respects to Mr. Bennett, I remain,
with warm regard,
Sincerely your friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
Mrs. James Gordon Bennett.
When Buchanan's honesty was questioned by the
Covode resolution, providing for a Congressional investigation in 1860, as the clouds of secession were




BENNETT AND BUCHANAN


165


growing, the pestered President wrote appealing to
Bennett:
Private and Confidential
Washington, 18 June 1860
My dear Sir:
I thought I never should have occasion to appeal to
you on any public subject, and I know if I did I could
not swerve you from your independent course. I therefore now only ask you as a personal friend, to take
the trouble of examining yourself the proceedings of
the Covode Committee and the reports of the majority
and minority and then to do me what you may deem to
be strict justice. That committee were engaged in
secret conclave for nearly three months in examining
every man ex parte who from disappointment or personal malignity would cast a shade upon the character
of the executive. If this dragooning can exist the
Presidential office would be unworthy of the acceptance
of a gentleman. In performing my duties I have endeavored to be not only pure, but unsuspected. I have
never had any concern in awarding contracts, but have
left these to be given by the heads of the appropriate
Departments. I have ever detested all jobs and no
man at any period of my life has ever approached me
on such a subject. The testimony of Wendall contains
nothing but falsehoods, whether for or against me for
he has sworn all round.
I shall send a message to the House in a few days
on the violation of the Constitution involved in the
vote of censure in the appointment and proceedings
of the Covode Committee. I am glad to perceive from
the Herald that you agree with me on the Constitutional question. I shall endeavor to send you a copy
in advance.
With my kindest regards to Mrs. Bennett, I remain,
Very respectfully your friend,
JAMES BUcHANAN.
James Gordon Bennett, Esq.




166 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Bennett, with clear prescience, sensed that in the
course of the National Democratic party lay the safety
of the country. Should the party split, or so conduct
itself as to make possible the triumph of the expanding Republicans, secession was certain. That he believed the party would divide is plain from the policy
adopted by the Herald, as the new year of 1860 ushered in the critical period. To its editor the only way
out was the renomination of James Buchanan, about
whose "Constitutional" attitude there could be no
question. As early as February second, the Herald
said editorially:
The man for Charleston is Mr. Buchanan. His Administration has been so firmly and wisely conducted
as to win the applause of the whole country... The
conservative Union men of the great Central States
will demand a man whose election will allay the foolish
slavery agitation, restore confidence between the
North and the South, insure the permanence of our
institutions and promote the material prosperity of
the republic. Mr. Buchanan is this man. He will
call out the full strength of his own party and the independent reserve vote. Mr. Buchanan, then, should
receive the Charleston nomination by all means.
There was no reasonable way, however, of reaching
such a result. Douglas had gone too far in his popular
sovereignty course to be headed off, and Buchanan had
no hold on his party-North or South. The times
were in a flux and had to flow.
The Herald stood by President Buchanan to the last.
When one by one the southern members of the Cabinet
dropped out, the Herald commented: "We can regard
as comparatively trifling matters the bankrupt condi



C)t
0
0
-i
0
0 -CD
I't
0


Q       I A
'H
N0
I'4
t4


I    I-. I
I    I         ---:.
---




II




BENNETT AND BUCHANAN


167


tion in which Secretary Cobb left the Treasury, the
enormous lobby jobs and speculations charged to the
account of the late Secretary Floyd, the untold embezzlements occurring in the Department of the
Interior under Secretary Thompson" in return for giving over their places to union men. It also pictured
Buchanan "relieved of these gentlemen going out of
office with credit and with many enemies coming to
his vindication.'
For days "The Revolution" was a standing line
over the first column of the first page, where were
gathered all the sensational items that proclaimed the
growing secession. The editor saw war coming, but
strove to head it off. Lincoln's inaugural address was
"a very carefully drawn and elaborately finished state
paper." Yet it contained a contradiction which the
sharp-eyed editor made the most of. The Confederacy
proclaimed it a declaration of war. Beyond all its
contemporaries the Herald printed the news from
the South. Its correspondents at Charleston and
Montgomery did their work well. While nothing could
exceed the saneness and clarity of the Herald's editorial page, it did not coddle the South, though much
accused of so doing. Bennett knew the leaders and
their motives. Jefferson Davis, he described as "a
restless, subtle, scheming southern radical."
A week after his retirement from office, Buchanan
closed the correspondence with the following:
Wheatland, 11 March 1861
My dear Sir:
Will you be kind enough to direct the Herald to be
sent to me to Lancaster. I have been quite lost without it.




168 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
I am once more settled at this my quiet home and
one of my first impulses is to return you my cordial
and grateful thanks for the able and powerful support
which you have given me almost universally throughout my stormy and turbulent administration.
Under Heaven's blessing the administration has
been eminently successful in its foreign and domestic
policy, unless we may except the sad events which have
recently occurred. These no human wisdom could
have prevented. Whether I have done all I could,
consistently with my duty, to give them a wise and
peaceful direction towards the preservation or reconstruction of the Union, will be for the public and posterity to Judge. I feel conscious that I have done my
duty in this respect and that I shall at last receive
justice.
With my very kindest regards to Mrs. Bennett, I
remain,
Sincerely and respectfully
Your friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
James Gordon Bennett. Esq.
Bennett had clearly discerned that Buchanan's perplexity during the last months of his regime was no
greater than that of any other American. No one
knew what to do except to hope for the best. Buchanan was not inferior to any statesman of his time
in dealing with nations other than his own. In
the Oregon dispute, which was ended with the dispatches carried by Bennett, he did his country masterly service. James G. Blaine, in his Twenty Years of
Congress, describes Buchanan's correspondence with
Pakenham, the British Minister in Washington, as




BENNETT AND BUCHANAN                169
"conspicuously able," strengthening him at home and
giving him "an enviable reputation" in Europe, while
"his political management of the question was especially adroit."
Alas, no one could be sufficiently adroit in 1860-611




CHAPTER VIII


BENNETT AND LINCOLN
PROBABLY no man ever came nearer being the Perfect American than Abraham Lincoln. This does not
mean one of the haloed sort, but a human being in
whom were blended most of our native characteristics. He had humor, keenness, sentiment, laziness,
adventure, guile and courage. He was the first president who was not an aristocrat. Andrew Jackson,
whom Bennett esteemed above other men, was of the
military caste, even though his birth was lowly.
Not the least of Lincoln's offenses to the socially
superior South was that in him an ungainly railsplitter and cross-roads lawyer had come to the
White House. With these views Bennett could have
no sympathy. His objection to Lincoln was his party
and the certainty that it would split the Union. He
governed himself accordingly. Caring nothing about
politics for their own sake, he was not intimately informed about the new man. "From day to day" was
his motto. He was therefore free to act as seemed best
when the time came.
When Lincoln's Cabinet was announced, the Herald
made it known that the "Seward-Weed" slate had
been smashed and that Lincoln had followed the fatal
error of "poor Pierce" by trying to conciliate all elements, predicting that Cabinet clashes would wreck
170




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


171


his administration. The predicted clashes occurred,
but did not do the wrecking. Lincoln was too good a
politician to permit that.
On April 8, 1861, Bennett saw that the crisis was
reaching the acute state that could end only in war.
He outlined three courses that lay before the administration, only one of which meant peace. That was:
"First to yield to the Confederates and to all the
slave-holding communities their just rights as co-equal
partners in the Union." This he advocated as the best
course and would have been "that of a statesman,"
and, he believed, would have had the effect of "healing
the breach." On the ninth, not losing sight of its own
success, the Herald pronounced itself "the most largely
circulated journal in the world," with a daily print of
eighty-four thousand copies. It had gone up twenty
thousand copies in a month under the excitementprinting, as it did, the most complete chronicle of
events.
April tenth, on the eve of Sumter, the Herald said:
"Indeed our only hope now against civil war of in
definite duration seems to lie in the overthrow of the.
demoralizing, disorganizing, and destructive [Republican] sectional party, of which 'Honest Abe Lincoln'
is the pliant instrument." It urged "all conservative
citizens of all parties to exert themselves to this end.
Naturally this sentiment did not go well in the strained
situation, and the Herald's loyalty was at once under
suspicion. Yet a further statement was but the truth.
It read:
Anticipating, then, the speedy inauguration of civil
war at Charleston, at Pensacola, or in Texas, or per



172 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
haps, at all these places, the inquiry is forced upon us,
what will be the probable consequences? We apprehend that they will be; first, the secession of Virginia
and the other border slave states, and their union with
the Confederate States; secondly, the organization of
an army for the removal of the United States ensign
and authorities from every fortress or public building
within the limits of the Confederate States, including
the White House, the Capitol and other public buildings of Washington. After the secession of Virginia
from the United States, it is not likely that Maryland
can be restrained from the same decisive act. She will
follow the fortunes of Virginia, and will undoubtedly
claim that, in withdrawing from the United States,
the District of Columbia reverts into her possession
under the supreme right of revolution. Here we have
verge and scope enough for a civil war of five, ten or
twenty years' duration.
What for? To "show that we have a Government"
-to show that the seceded states are still in our Union,
and are still subject to its laws and authorities. This
is the fatal mistake of Mr. Lincoln, and his Cabinet,
and his party. The simple truth-patent to all the
world-is, that the seceded states are out of the Union,
and are organized under an independent government
of their own. The authority of the United States,
within the borders of this independent Confederacy,
has been completely superseded, except in a detached
fort here and there. We desire to restore this displaced authority in its full integrity. How is this to be
done? By entering into a war with the seceded states
for the continued occupation of those detached forts?
No. A war will only widen the breach, and enlarge
and consolidate this Southern Confederacy, on the one
hand; while, on the other hand, it will bring ruin upon
the commerce, the manufactures, the financial and industrial interests of our northern cities and states,
and may end in an oppressive military despotism.
How then are we to restore these seceded states to




BENNETT AND        LINCOLN          173
the Union? We can do it only by conciliation and
compromise.
Still hoping, the Herald urged Virginia and the
Border States to hold to the line, believing, truly
enough, that this would limit the uprising to controllable proportions. By April twenty-second the Mother
of Presidents had followed her sisters. Then the
Herald took a stand. The Southern States, it declared,
had "wantonly and wickedly inaugurated hostilities,"
and Lincoln's program "was founded upon this imperishable, inextinguishable love of country which will
not permit the relinquishment of any of its parts."
As has been said, previous to hostilities the Herald
was under suspicion. Its large circulation in Europe,
as Thurlow Weed recites in his memoirs, was creating
a dangerous public sentiment abroad. Our representatives in England, France, Belgium, etc., regarded
the influence of the Herald upon Europe with apprehension. A reversal of its policy was imperative. Of
Lincoln's approach to Bennett, Weed wrote.*
That circumstance, added to our disasters during
the early months of the war, induced President Lincoln to bring the subject before his Cabinet. It was
deemed important, if possible, to change the course
of the Herald upon the question of secession and rebellion; but how this was to be accomplished was a
question of much difficulty. It was agreed that an
earnest appeal must be made to Mr. Bennett. Several
gentlemen were named (myself among the number)
for this delicate mission. The Secretary of State [Mr.
Weed's old political partner, William H. Seward] re*From The Life of Thurlow Weed. Courtesy of Houghton-Mifflin
Company.




174 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
marked that my relations with Mr. Bennett were such
as to insure the failure of the object contemplated, but
it was finally determined that I should be summoned
to Washington by telegraph. On my arrival, while at
breakfast with Secretary Seward I was informed of
the business in hand. Calling after breakfast upon
President Lincoln, he remarked, in his peculiar way,
that he understood I had had "considerable experiences in belling cats," and with this introduction proceeded to say that, in view especially of the influence
the Herald was exerting in Europe, he deemed it of
the greatest importance that Mr. Bennett should be
satisfied that the course of the Herald was endangering the government and Union, adding his belief
that if Mr. Bennett could be brought to see things in
that light he would change his course. While appreciating the importance of the mission, I assured Mr.
Lincoln I was the last person in the country to be selected for such a duty, but he insisted that I should
make the trial, and I departed on the first train for
New York.
My acquaintance with Mr. Bennett commenced in
1827, when he was the Washington reporter of the New
York Enquirer, then conducted by the late M. M. Noah.
I was in Washington several weeks during the session
of Congress for the purpose of adjusting then existing
political complications which, as I hoped, might result
in the election of Mr. Henry Clay for president. Mr.
Bennett, in his letters to the Enquirer attributed acts
to Mr. Clay which, in the excited state of the public
mind, defeated the hopes and efforts of his friends... Out of those charges grew a conflict between Mr.
Bennett and myself which entirely separated us politically, personally, and socially, for more than thirty
years, during which time, although living much together at the Astor House, we had not spoken. Notwithstanding this embarrassment, remembering that
General Miller, when asked if he would take a British
battery at Lundy's Lane, replied he would "try," I




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


175


determined to face my enemy. Upon my arrival in
New York I called upon my friend Richard Schell, between whom and Mr. Bennett I knew intimate relations existed. Mr. Schell readily undertook to arrange
an interview, and in a couple of hours afterward called
at the Astor House with a message from Mr. Bennett,
inviting me to dinner that afternoon. In stepping out
of the cars at the Washington Heights Station I met
Mr. Bennett, who had gone out in the same train.
After a cordial greeting we were driven in his carriage to his mansion on the Heights. We then walked
for half an hour about the grounds, when a servant
came and announced dinner. The dinner was a quiet
one, during which, until the fruit was served, we held
a general conversation. I then frankly informed him
of the object of my visit, closing with the remark that
Mr. Lincoln deemed it more important to secure the
Herald's support than to obtain a victory in the field.
Mr. Bennett replied that the abolitionists, aided by
the Whig members of Congress, had provoked a war,
of the danger of which he had been warning the
country for years, and that now, when they were reaping what they had sown, they had no right to call upon
him to help them out of a difficulty they had deliberately brought upon themselves. I listened without
interruption for ten minutes to a bitter denunciation
of Greeley, Garrison, Seward, Sumner, Giddings, Phillips, and myself, as having, by irritating and exasperating the South, brought the war upon the country.
I then, in reply, without denying or attempting to explain any of his positions, stated the whole question
from our standpoint. I informed him of facts and circumstances within my knowledge, showing conclusively the deliberate design of severing the Union to
prevent California from coming into it as a free State.
I gave him the then unknown particulars of an interview of Messrs. Toombs, Stephens, and Clingman,
members of Congress from Georgia and North Carolina, with General Taylor. The object of that inter



176 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
yiew was to induce General Taylor, a Southern man
and a slave-holder, to veto the bill permitting California to enter the Union as a free State. It was a
stormy interview, with threats of disunion on one
hand and of hanging on the other. The facts were
communicated to Senator Hamlin of Maine, and myself, within ten minutes after the interview closed.
Jefferson Davis, General Taylor's son-in-law, though
not present was, as Taylor believed, the master spirit
in the movement. General Taylor's death and the
compromise measures under the auspices of his successor, Mr. Fillmore, bridged over rebellion for the
time being. I then called Mr. Bennett's attention
to the condition of things in 1860, when the results of
the census disclosed the fact of an unmistable numerical and political ascendency of freedom over slavery. This ascendency crushed the Southern hope of
extending slavery into free territory, that having been
the object of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
and the only national issue then pending. I then reverted to the Democratic National Convention of 1860,
startling Mr. Bennett with the assumption that that
convention was deliberately demoralized by its leaders
for the purpose of throwing the government into our
hands, and thus furnishing the pretext desired for
secession. I claimed that the harmonious nomination
of an available candidate would have insured the success of the Democratic ticket, but that the convention
was broken up by leading Southern men, into whose
hands General Butler and Caleb Cushing played. Two
Democratic candidates for president were placed in
the field, with the knowledge and for the purpose of
giving the election to Mr. Lincoln, and then before a
word was spoken, or an act performed by the incoming
Adminstration, a predetermined course of secession
and rebellion was entered upon.
No one knew better than Mr. Bennett the truth,
the force, and the effect of the facts I presented, but
his mind had been so absorbed in his idea of the per



BENNETT AND LINCOLN


177


nicious character of abolition that he had entirely lost
sight of the real causes of the rebellion.
Mr. Weed observes further that Mr. Lincoln and his
Cabinet were "greatly gratified" at the report he
brought back to them. It is hard to perceive from
his written account of the interview what he had to
report that could be gratifying. Bennett knew him
thoroughly as a professional "fixer" and lobbyist, and
quite naturally evaded being delivered at his hands.
Weed also overstates the strength of the Herald's
"support."  Aside from the New York Times, as
Weed says, Lincoln had no thick and thin backers in
the New York press, or anywhere else in the North
for that matter. All the great editors tried to be great
generals.
It is easy to assume that the wise and far-seeing
President sensed perfectly the way Bennett had baffled Weed. There is plenty of evidence that thereafter
he dealt with him directly.
When the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon
reached the North, the Herald made no editorial comment, contenting itself with a plain statement of
the event, the first line of which was: "Civil war has
begun."
The Herald's loyalty was so much doubted that a
crowd marched to Fulton and Nassau Streets to demand that "old man Bennett" show his colors, which,
to be satisfactory to the enthusiasts, had to be the
Stars and Stripes. There was great excitement within as well as without the office. It was feared the
building would be invaded and that vengeance might
be wreaked on Bennett himself. One old printer who




178 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
looked like him volunteered to appear at a window,
but this he would not permit. He concluded, however, that it was time the colors went up. There was
no flag in the place so Edward Townsend Flynn,
then office boy, scurried out the rear entrance and,
reaching a Broadway bunting store, hurried back with
a banner in the nick of time. It was duly displayed
and Bennett made his bows to the mob beneath its
flaunting folds.
Fearing assaults by mobs, as a precaution he bought
a liberal supply of the best rifles to be had and stored
them away in the Herald office. They were transferred to the new building where they remained
hidden long after the elder Bennett was dead and the
dangers past. The library and council room on the
second floor, where father and son also had their offices, was paneled to the ceiling with walnut, and behind this paneling was the arsenal. The rifles were
always in order, being kept beautifully clean and
polished, with an abundance of ammunition ready at
hand. They were there up to the time the Herald
abandoned the Broadway and Ann Street building to
move up-town.
It chanced at the moment that Henry Villard, then
an enterprising young reporter, who had become acquainted with American affairs under Oswald Ottendorfer, on the influential New Yorker Staats-Zeitung,
had, after some experience as a traveling correspondent for Murat Halstead's Cincinnati Commercial,
set himself up as the first "syndicate" writer in
Washington. He offered copy to the Commercial, the
Chicago Tribune and the New York Herald.
Both Bennett and Frederic Hudson, his managing




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


179


editor, accepted Villard's proffer, with the understanding that he "should be free to speak through the
Herald as a sympathizer with the Republican party."
They also contributed twenty-five dollars per week for
their share. Villard had been in touch with Lincoln
at Springfield, and was now proposing to cover events
at the capital-from a Republican standpoint, as
noted. He had got his work well under way when the
storm broke. Following Lincoln's proclamation, on
April 15, 1861, calling for seventy-five thousand men
to put down the rebellion, Villard states in his autobiography:*
I received a despatch from James Gordon Bennett
asking me to come at once to New York. I obeyed the
summons by the night train. On reaching the Herald
office, I found an invitation to accompany him in the
afternoon to his residence at Washington Heights and
to spend the night there. As was my host's regular
custom, we drove from the office up Broadway and
Fifth Avenue and through Central Park to the Heights.
I had seen Bennett only twice before, and then but for
a few minutes each time, and the opportunity to learn
more of this notorious character was therefore not unwelcome to me. I must say that his shameful record as
a journalist, and particularly the sneaking sympathy
of his paper for the Rebellion, and its vile abuse of the
Republicans for their anti-slavery sentiments, made me
share the general prejudice against him to such an
extent that I had been thinking for some time of severing my connection with the Herald, although the agreement that all I telegraphed should be printed without
change or omission had been strictly kept. With his
fine tall and slender figure, large intellectual head cov*From The Memoirs of Henry Villard. Courtesy of Mr. Oswald
Garrison Villard and Houghton-Mifflin Company.




180 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ered with an abundance of light curly hair, and strong
regular features, his exterior would have been impressive but for his strabismus [Philip Hone's "squinting"], which gave him a sinister, forbidding look.
Intercourse with him, indeed, quickly revealed his utterly hard, cold, utterly selfish nature and incapacity
to appreciate high and noble aims.
His residence was a good-sized frame house in parklike grounds, with no great pretensions either outwardly or inwardly. On the drive and during the
dinner, at which his one son-a fine-looking, intelligent
youth of twenty-was the only other person present,
he did nothing but ask questions bearing upon the
characteristics and doings of President Lincoln and
the circumstances of my acquaintance with him. After
dinner he disclosed his true purpose in sending for
me. First, he wanted me to carry a message from him
to Mr. Lincoln that the Herald would hereafter be unconditionally for the radical suppression of the Rebellion by force of arms, and in the shortest possible time,
and would advocate and support any "war measures"
by the Government and Congress. I was, of course,
very glad to hear this, and promised to repeat these
assurances by word of mouth to the President. The
truth was, that the Herald was obliged to make this
complete change in its attitude, there having been ominous signs for some days in New York of danger of
mob violence to the paper. Secondly, he wanted me
to offer to Secretary Chase, his son's famous sailing
yacht, the Rebecca, as a gift to the Government for the
revenue service, and to secure in consideration thereof
for its owner the appointment of lieutenant in the same
service. This last wish I thought rather amusing, but
I agreed to lay it before Secretary Chase, to whom I
had ready access as the representative of the Cincinnati Commercial, his strongest supporter in Ohio. My
host retired early, and was ready before me in the
morning for the down drive, on which I accompanied
him again. Mr. Hudson-the managing editor, a fine



BENNETT AND LINCOLN


181


looking man, and one of the most courteous and obliging I ever met, with extraordinary qualifications for
newspaper management-told me in the course of the
day that Mr. Bennett was very much pleased with me
and had increased my weekly allowance to thirty-five
dollars.
Villard does not give any account of the delivery
of the several messages or further information about
the episode. That he kept his promise, however, is
evident from this letter now on file in the Treasury
Department's historical collection:
Executive Department
May 6, 1861.
Hon. Sec. of Treasury
Dear Sir:
The Secretary of State this moment introduces to
me Mr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr. who tenders to the
U. S. the service, a fine Yacht of 160 tons burthen. If
you allow him an interview, which I ask for him, he
will talk with you about putting some other vessels of
the same class into the service. We send this subject
to you because we believe these vessels may be made
most available in the Revenue service.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
It will be perceived that William H. Seward was
given the duty of steering the young man to Salmon
P. Chase. The Lincoln letter carries this indorsement:
President Lincoln in relation to the offer of James
Gordon Bennett, Jr. to furnish his yacht for the Revenue Cutter Service.
May 6, 1861




182 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Commission as Third Lieutenant in Revenue Cutter
Service sent to Mr. Bennett May 15, 1861.
W. H.
The yacht in question was not Rebecca as Villard
states, but Henrietta, named after the young man's
mother. The Treasury Department records show
that the vessel was equipped with two six-pound rifled
bronze guns, cast at Chicopee, Massachusetts. Later
a brass twelve-pounder was added to her equipment.
Bennett's commission was dated May 14, 1861. The
cutter cruised off the Long Island coast during the
summer of 1861, and in February, 1862, was reported
at Port Royal, South Carolina. April 29, 1862, she
was withdrawn from the service, and on May 11, 1862,
Lieutenant Bennett tendered his resignation, which
was accepted. No glory appears to have been acquired,
but he ever after loved to dwell upon the fact that he
had served his country upon the sea.
The days of wabbling and wavering ended with Bull
Run, on July 21, 1861. "Then," Walt Whitman wrote
in his Specimen Days, "the great New York papers at
once appear'd, (commencing that evening, and following it up the next morning, and incessantly through
many days afterwards,) with leaders that rang out
over the land with the loudest, most reverberating ring
of clearest bugles, full of encouragement, hope, inspiration, unfaltering defiance. Those magnificent editorials! they never flagg'd for a fortnight. The Herald
commenced them-I remember the articles well."
Sumter was not a test of strength. Bull Run was,
and the South showed both generalship and power. It
really looked as though one southerner could "lick"




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


183


five Yankees. Yet until the last quarter of an hour of
the conflict when panic seized the northern forces, it
was anybody's fight. Indeed the first news of the battle
was favorable to the army of the North. This alone
got to the newspapers of the twenty-second. It was
head-lined in the Herald as a "Brilliant Union Victory." The next day it became "Desperate Conflict
and Repulse of Union Troops by an Overwhelming
Force." In the instant consternation that followed,
the Herald alone of the New York papers did not lose
its head. It printed in the usual first column of the
editorial page under the standing line "The Situation," a clear cold analysis of what happened. Its
editorial was of the sanest sort. After reviewing the
conditions accurately, the article concluded:
The war now ceases to be an uninterrupted onward
march of our forces southward. The government in a
single day and at the Capitol of the Nation, is thrown
upon the defensive, and under circumstances demanding the most prompt and generous efforts to strengthen
our forces at that point. Every other question, all
other issues, and all other business, among all parties
and all classes of our loyal people, should now be made
subordinate to the paramount office of securing Washington. The loyal states within three days may dispatch twenty thousand men to that point; and if we
succeed in holding the Capitol for twenty days we
may have by that time two hundred thousand men intrenched around it.
Action, Action, Action I Let our Governor, and state
and city authorities, and the state and city authorities
of every loyal state come at once to the rescue and
move forward their reinforcements without waiting
for instructions from Washington.




184 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Following Bull Run, the North found itself friendless in the world at large. In England, the Times,
Punch and the Spectator, each potent in its field, were
viciously pro-southern. They saw no purpose on the
part of the North save to protect its tariff. The
friends of anti-slavery in England could find no evidence of any intent to free the black bondmen. In
short, there were no moral visualities.
The Herald met this storm with one of its own making. It arraigned a monarchy as against a republic,
desirous that the only one of consequence in existence
should be snuffed out. As the Herald was the journal
best known in Europe, what it had to say carried far.
It proudly proclaimed that it had "unmasked" and
then "spiked" the batteries of the English aristocrats,
aimed at the liberties of the remnant of the United
States. This was demagogic, of course, for before
the end came it was the aristocratic rather than
the Liberal end of England that prevented recognition
of the Confederacy with all the direful consequences
that would have followed. The great Gladstone, for
example, was strongly against us. So truculent was
the Herald that John Bright wrote Charles Sumner:
"It is unfortunate that nothing is done to change the
reckless tone of your New York Herald; between it
and the [London] Times, there is great mischief done
in both countries."
James Ford Rhodes holds that friends of England
in America underrated the power of the Herald, in deprecating the influence of its attacks. This was undoubtedly correct. As he says further:* "This journal
*From History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, by
James Ford Rhodes. Courtesy of The Macmillan Company.




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


185


spoke for a potent public sentiment outside of New
England. By its large news-gathering agencies, and
by its unvarying support of the administration, it had
a large and increasing circulation. Men who were
eager for the latest and fullest news from the field,
and who wished to stand loyally by Lincoln against
the fault-finding of peace Democrats on one side and
of Fremont radicals on the other, read it gladly. It
had a body of devoted readers whom it could influence,
and in working up animosity towards England it
played upon an oft-used string."
Yet, read to-day, the Herald's editorials on our foreign relations are fine examples of up-standing,
self-respecting Americanism. One finds nothing in
them that ought not to be cheerfully submitted to as the
right sort of doctrine.
According to the Russian Minister, Count Gurowski,
Lincoln read no paper except the Herald. John
Hay is authority for the statement that he scarcely
ever looked at one unless his attention was called to
it. Just the same he knew what was going on and
took great care to keep in touch with Bennett-probably because he realized his capacity for mischief. For
one thing, Bennett did not try to force his hand as did
Horace Greeley, Murat Halstead and Joseph Medill.
The Bennett collection before mentioned included a
number of letters from Abraham Lincoln and his wife,
indicating a cordiality hardly to be expected toward
one who had so staunchly supported Buchanan and
upheld the attitude of the South. Written in Lincoln's
own hand and marked private, they renew one's respect for his skill as a politician and navigator of the
ship of State. Toward his party papers he felt no




186 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
concern apparently beyond, perhaps, annoyance at
their efforts to "run" him. But Bennett's following
was outside of party lines and in such, Lincoln saw,
rested the balance of power. It is easy to understand
therefore, how he could write the following:
Private and Confidential.
Washington, D. C.,
Sept. 22, 1861.
Mr. James Gordon Bennett.
My Dear Sir: Last evening Mr. Wikoff solicited me
for a pass, or permission to a gentleman whose name
I forget, to accompany one of our vessels down the
Potomac to-day, as a reporter of the Herald, saying
the Sec. of the Navy had refused, while he had given
the privilege to reporters of other papers. It was too
late at night for me to see the Secretary, and I had to
decline giving the permission, because he, the Sec.,
might have a sufficient reason, unknown to me. I
write this to assure you that the Administration will
not discriminate against the Herald, especially while
it sustains us so generously, and the cause of the country as ably as it has been doing.
Your Obt Servant,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Could there have been devised a more clever step to
head off attacks and implant the wisdom of support
in the editor's mind? Lincoln knew his man and dealt
with him accordingly. He had read the Sermon on the
Mount and knew how to take an enemy with him. The
shrieks of Greeley, the howls of Halstead and the meddlings of Joseph Medill passed unnoticed as a rule,
but he would not permit the Herald to go unleashed.
This close touch continued. Note this of a few
months later date, when Bennett had been pounding




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


187


Edwin M. Stanton over the shoulders of General Hunter for his proclamation uttered at Harper's Ferry,
freeing slaves:
Private.                     Executive Mansion,
May 21, 1862.
James Gordon Bennett, Esq.
Dear Sir: Thanking you again for the able support
given by you through the Herald to what I think the
true course of the country, and also for your kind expressions toward me personally. I wish to correct an
erroneous impression of yours in regard to the Secretary of War. He mixes no politics whatever with his
duties; knew nothing of Gen. Hunter's proclamation;
and he and I alone got up the counter proclamation.
I wish this to go no further than to you, while I wish
to assure you it is true.
Yours truly,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The Emancipation Proclamation was but four
months off, but was yet an unrevealed and, perhaps,
an unthought purpose. It was more important to keep
the Herald and the northern Democrats in line than to
appease the abolitionists. These could be relied upon
to do nothing for the South. Not so Bennett and the
others.
Henry Wikoff, the singular Chevalier, who flitted
mysteriously in and out of the chancellories of Europe
and about our White House, gets into the picture
first in making peace with Buchanan. He was a squire
of dames as well as of diplomats and wrote a book to
justify the vain pursuit of an heiress that had a rather
humiliating outcome, when the rich maiden got away.
That he was a go-between is certain. Lincoln knew




188 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
how to use men, and Wikoff was the sort of tame knave
Bennett could utilize with his inside contacts on many
things, social, political and international.
Indeed, Bennett was something of a godfather to
Wikoff, having pinned "Chevalier" to the amiable
adventurer for the rest of his life. He was a passenger with Bennett on the return trip of the Sirius to
Europe in 1838, when that vessel, together with the
Great Western had just pioneered the ocean. The two
got on well together and formed an acquaintance that
remained close. The Chevalier has left this account
of their meeting:
I was startled to hear that Bennett was on board;
for at that time, May, 1838, he gave free scope to his
slashing powers and satirical vein, and everybody
trembled lest it might be his turn next. I looked anxiously round on the upper deck where I was standing,
as we steamed down the bay, and sidling up to a quiet
and inoffensive looking man near me, said"Do you know the editor of the Herald is on board "
"I believe he is," he answered.
"I only wish I knew him by sight."
"What for?" queried the gentlemanly sort of person I was talking to.
"Why, that I might keep out of his way. He will
be sure to stick me in that confounded Herald of his."
"He doesn't confer that honor on everybody," said
my facetious friend, laughing.
"Egad, I would not trust him.... Have you
ever seen him " I asked.
"Very frequently," was the reply.
"That's lucky. Do point the ogre out to me if you
see him near us."
"I don't see him, but you may if you look at me; I
am the Editor of the Herald."




.       -                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ------ ----                       -- -     --...       -.....


Ir


MOSQUITO      BITES.           CURE FOR.ASTHMA.
As A.. f, t.POC  MooA~fto., ~  W, b,  bo. ft~d i.  L  O-OO~
0000s KALLWONOO' poend by JOerOH OUO000T0 CoDO.. WAi-oTo'-o  o*.,&oooo.O4O4... V.11-,Oprhy.  P.I.OWIS h-gbbd   MtO h.
3TSAND STINGS OF INSECTS.
oooO.O)o  P.!"* nooodoo.oo               iow_____
Po-W -b!L  e.~ -...................
Vol 6.


IC
IC
I
j
I
IC


-0p,; A
i C
m
Ia
II
N
14


I
It
I
i
Ii
I
I
I
I, f
I
t
I
i
I
I!I
I!I
I
I
il
I
t


The Chevalier llenry Wikoff,


1
i


I                      ~As TOO POLITICAL PAULh PUT.
Cartoon of the Chevalier Wikoff in Vanity Fair, August 16, 1862








BENNETT AND LINCOLN


189


The blithesome Wikoff lived until May 3, 1884, when
he died of paralysis at Brighton, England.
Wikoff dabbled in many things besides amours and
amateur diplomacy. Among other items he brought
Fanny Elssler, the celebrated dancer, to America and
managed a successful tour. He tried to keep Jenny
Lind from signing up with P. T. Barnum, representing that Barnum was a mere showman and would not
scruple at exhibiting her in a cage at twenty-five cents
a head
When the crisis developed in December, 1862, Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the
Treasury Salmon P. Chase, resigning after a Senate
caucus had decreed Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet a failure,
the Herald was the first paper to have the news, by
chance this time, not by enterprise. George E. Baker,
disbursing agent of the Department of State, was a
fellow-townsman of Seward, from Auburn, New York.
So was J. C. Derby, the New York publisher who was
then government dispatch agent in New York. To him
Baker sent the news while it was still secret. He took
the tidings to Frederic Hudson, managing editor of
the Herald, who, in turn, conducted him to Mr. Bennett. The astute editor could not believe it. "Scanning me closely with those penetrating eyes of his,"
wrote Derby, in his recollections, "that could see in
two directions, he finally said: 'I guess it's true; we'll
print it.'"
So the Herald scored a great "beat." Lincoln refused to accept the resignations, and legislative power
continued to grow less in Washington.
It has been seen in Mr. Villard's recollections how
Bennett sought contact with Lincoln. The activities




190 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
of Wikoff have also been noted. Lincoln's cognizance
of the Bennett desire to be "close up"-to use a modern phrase-is made clear in the following extract
from a letter written by Leonard Swett, an intimate
associate, to William H. Herndon, dated at Chicago
on January 17, 1866, concerning Lincoln's political
course in securing his renomination to the presidency:*
His rivals were using money profusely; journals
and influences were being subsidized against him. I
accidentally learned that a Washington newspaper,
through a purchase of the establishment, was to be
turned against him, and consulted him about taking
steps to prevent it. The only thing I could get him to
say was that he would regret to see the paper turned
against him. Whatever was done had to be done without his knowledge. Mr. Bennett of the Herald, with
his paper, you know, is a power. The old gentleman
wanted to be noticed by Lincoln, and he wanted to support him. A friend of his. who was certainly in his
secrets, came to Washington and intimated if Lincoln
would invite Bennett to come over and chat with him,
his paper would be all right. Mr. Bennett wanted
nothing, he simply wanted to be noticed. Lincoln in
talking about it said, "'I understand it; Bennett has
made a great deal of money, some say not very properly, now he wants me to make him respectable. I have
never invited Mr. Bryant or Mr. Greeley here; I shall
not, therefore, especially invite Mr. Bennett." All
Lincoln would say was, that he was receiving everybody, and he should receive Mr. Bennett if he came.
This attitude, while well enough as viewed from the
Swett view-point, does not remain adamant in view of
*From Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of A Great Life, by
William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. Copyright 1892. Courtesy
of D. Appleton and Company,




BENNETT' AND LINCOLN


191


the offer to make Bennett minister to France, which
certainly followed the support the latter gave Lincoln
in 1864. The President could be, and often was, disingenuous.
Therefore, there remains something untold and unascertainable in the relations between the editor and the
President, that brought the Herald to Lincoln's support
in the election of 1864. Colonel Alexander K. McClure,
celebrated later as the able editor of the Philadelphia
Times, was much about the White House at the period,
and performed many confidential errands for Lincoln.
Of the incident in question he writes in his Lincoln
and Men of War Times:
One of the shrewdest of Lincoln's great political
schemes was the tender, by autograph letter, of the
French mission to the elder James Gordon Bennett.
No one who can form any intelligent judgment of the
political exigencies of that time can fail to understand
why the venerable independent journalist received
this mark of favor from the President. Lincoln had
but one of the leading journals of New York on which
he could rely for positive support. That was Mr. Raymond's New York Times. Mr. Greeley's Tribune was
the most widely read Republican journal of the country, and it was unquestionably the most potent in
moulding Republican sentiment. Its immense weekly
edition, for that day, reached the more intelligent
masses of the people in every State of the Union, and
Greeley was not in accord with Lincoln. Lincoln
knew how important it was to have the support of the
Herald, and he carefully studied how to bring its editor into close touch with himself. The outlook for Lincoln's re-election was not promising. Bennett had
strongly advocated the nomination of General McClellan by the Democrats, and that was ominous of hostility




192 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
to Lincoln; and when McClellan was nominated he
was accepted on all sides as a most formidable candidate. It was in this emergency that Lincoln's political
sagacity served him sufficiently to win the Herald to
his cause, and it was done by the confidential tender
of the French mission. Bennett did not break over to
Lincoln at once, but he went by gradual approaches.
His first step was to declare in favor of an entirely
new candidate, which was an utter impossibility. He
opened a leader on the subject thus: "Lincoln has
proved a failure; McClellan has proved a failure; Fremont has proved a failure; let us have a new candidate." Lincoln, McClellan, and Fremont were then
all in the field as nominated candidates; and the Fremont defection was a serious threat to Lincoln. Of
course, neither Lincoln nor McClellan declined, and
the Herald, failing to get the new man it knew to be
an impossibility, squarely advocated Lincoln's re-election.
Now up to December 1, 1864, William L. Dayton of
New Jersey was minister to France. He had been
candidate for vice-president with John C. Fremont,
in 1856, and was far too eminent to have been removed
to make way for the editor of the Herald. He died
suddenly on the evening of the above date in the apartment of a Mrs. Eckels, at the Hotel du Louvre, Paris.
He had eaten a very hearty dinner before making his
call, including a super-portion of pumpkin pie. John
Bigelow then Consul General, made a confidential report of the circumstances to Secretary Seward, with
the request that it be burned after its contents had
been communciated to the President. This was done.
Bigelow, in his Retrospections of An Active Life, cites
the fact that nine months before he had given a dinner




BENNETT      AND   LINCOLN          193
in Mr. Dayton's honor, at which by evil inadvertence,
thirteen were seated at the table, and wonders whether
the superstition that one would die within the year
had operated. Mr. Lincoln could hardly have been
forewarned of the combination of pie, lady, and Number 13, in furnishing a vacancy which could be used to
soothe the editor of the Herald. Moreover, the "confindential tender of the French Mission" was not made
until February 20, 1865, a fortnight before the second
inauguration. It read:
Executive Mansion,
February 20, 1865.
Dear Sir: I propose, at some convenient and not distant day, to nominate you to the United States Senate
as Minister to France.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
The President kept this offer secret from his Cabinet.
There is nothing in Seward's memoirs that sheds any
light on the subject. That it was officially in the dark
is shown by the entry in the diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy, written on March 15, 1865,
nearly a month after the date of the offer:* "A rumor
is prevalent and very generally believed that the
French mission has been offered Bennett of the New
York Herald. I discredit it. On one or two occasions
this mission has been alluded to in Cabinet, but the
name of B. was never mentioned or alluded to."
The next day Welles continues: "Blair believes the
*From The Diary of Gideon Welles. Copyright, 1909. Courtesy of
Houghton-Mifflin Company.




194 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
President has offered the French mission to Bennett.
Says it is the President and not Seward, and gives the
reasons which lead him to that conclusion. He says he
met Bartlett the (runner) of Bennett here last August
or September; that Bartlett sought him, said they had
abused him, B., in the Herald but thought much of him,
considered him the man of most power in the Cabinet
but were dissatisfied because he had not controlled the
Navy Department early in the Administration and
brought it into their (the Herald's) interest."
The first Lincoln letter throws light on this. Bartlett, says Welles, went on to tell Blair that he was in
Washington watching movements and that "they did
not mean this time to be cheated," whatever that may
have meant. Bartlett was charged by Welles with vindictiveness against the Navy Department, because he
would not purchase vessels through Bartlett's agency.
He gives Bartlett credit for controlling the New York
press, even the "pliant" Raymond of the Times. He
excepts the World from this mysterious mastery.
Welles "was sorry to hear Blair speak approvingly of
the appointment of Bennett,-... an editor without
character for such an appointment, whose whims are
often wickedly and atrociously leveled against the
best man and the best causes, regardless of honor or
right."
"I dare not tell all about the Bennett matter on paper," wrote Thurlow Weed to John Bigelow, April 26,
1865. "It was a curious complication for which two
well-meaning friends were responsible. Seward knew
nothing about it until the Election was over, when he
sent for me. I was amazed at what had transpired."
This was eleven days after Lincoln's death. The




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


195


surmise left open is that "the two well-meaning
friends" may have conveyed some word of the President's intention to honor the editor during the campaign and so brought about the switch in the Herald's
attitude; that certainly occurred as McClure recites.
It is known that Lincoln angled for Horace Greeley and
caught him with an offer to make him postmaster-general when he reorganized his Cabinet, if reelected.
The promise had not been kept up to his death. It
does not follow that it would not have been, though
Greeley characterized the promise as a "lie." Therefore, it is not at all impossible that an intimation of
coming honors flattered Bennett into outright support,
and that the death of Dayton gave the President a
chance to make good, which he did after a decent interval. This is pure surmise. The known facts are that
the offer was made and declined.
According to Frederic Hudson:
When Abraham Lincoln was elected President for
the second term, what did he do: What was his opinion
of a leading journalist? He unreservedly offered this
great prize-the French mission-to Mr. Bennett and
with what result.? It was respectfully and positively
declined. In his letter to the President the editor said
his editorial mission was high enough and honorable
enough for him; that he could do more good in the
Herald than in France, and did not want office. Thus
ended all the talk and gossip of the French mission.
Lincoln was not alone in keeping en rapport. Even
the iron-minded Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War,
bent to approach the editor of the Herald. He wrote
Bennett, May 2, 1862, in these terms:




196 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Dear Sir:-I take the liberty to inclose to you some
observations respecting the present state of things as
they appear to me. The great question involved in the
rebellion has always seemed to me in a great measure
a commercial question, and the history of the Federal
Union shows that the commercial interest was one of
the strongest inducements to the formation of the government. We have experienced the misfortune of the
dissolution of the Union in our Commercial interests
most sensibly (using that word in its most general
sense), and have proved the wisdom of the framers of
the Constitution by our loss in the destruction of their
work-a wise and liberal system of domestic and foreign commerce. To the re-establishment of commercial
relations I look, under Providence, for the restoration
of the government, and that work, I regard, in a great
measure, accomplished by the opening of the ports occupied by our forces. Of course, I consider the destruction of the enemy at Yorktown and Corinth as necessary conditions.
Holding these views, I think the public mind should
be directed to this state of the question, and therefore
venture to submit it to you.
Yours truly,
EDWIN M. STANTON.
Yet Anthony Trollope, the English novelist, writing
in 1862 of a visit to America, made this off-the-track
observation: "No newspaper in America is really powerful or popular; and yet they are tyrannical and overbearing. The New York Herald has, I believe, the
largest sale of any daily newspaper; but it is absolutely without political power, and in these times of
war has truckled to the Government more basely than
any other paper. It has an enormous sale, but so far
is it from having achieved popularity, that no man on
any side ever speaks a good word for it."




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


197


When Lee surrendered, the Herald indorsed Grant's
terms, observing further: "We apprehend no danger
from a pardon to the Confederate leaders, political or
military. They have played their game of rule or ruin
and have lost it. Refuse them the honors of martyrdom. They may be left to the judgment of the people
they have so cruelly and selfishly betrayed. With the
violent death they have brought upon their institution
of slavery, the cause, the argument and the party of a
Southern Confederacy cease to exist. If four years of
this terrible war have done the work of a century of
peace, we must advance a century now that the work
is done."
In this Bennett was in strict accord with Lincoln.
Unfortunately for his country, the assassination of the
President by John Wilkes Booth and the resulting political conspiracy spoiled the temperate procedure that
would have followed had Lincoln lived. The Herald
editorial on Lincoln's death was a fine tribute; no hysteria, but a just estimate. It said in summing up: "He
may not have been, perhaps was not, our most perfect
product in any one branch of mental or moral education; but, taking him for all in all, the very noblest impulses, peculiarities and aspirations of our whole
people-what may be called our continental idiosyncrasies-were more collectively and vividly reproduced
in his genial and yet unswerving nature than in that
of any other public man of whom our chronicles bear
record."
The assassin's bullet made Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat, president, April 15, 1865, and the Herald
came at once to his support. The man needed it.
Elected on a Republican ticket, the radical leaders of




198 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
the party, Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin F. Wade, Zach
Chandler and their like were bitterly opposed to him
from the start. Here again we find the Chevalier
Wikoff in evidence. This letter written by President
Johnson was found among the papers of the Bennett
estate:
Executive Mansion,
Washington, D. C.
October 6, 1865.
(Private)
James G. Bennett, Esq.
Dear Sir:
Your note of recent date by the politeness of Mr.
Wikoff was received and read and the suggestions
made in reference to our foreign policy considered.
This is a subject I would be pleased to confer with
you upon freely and fully. This letter, however, is not
written for that purpose but simply to tender you my
thanks for the able and disinterested manner in which
you have defended the policy of the Administration
since its accession to power. It is the more highly appreciated because it has not been solicited.
I feel grateful for your timely help and confidence
and hope to prove in the end that they have not been
misplaced. The People Proper who need friendswho need honest and able advocates to defend their
rights and interests in all government affairs-will in
due time appreciate those who firmly and faithfully
stand by them while passing through this dreadful
ordeal.
If the patriotic impulse of the national heart is consulted and obeyed and carried out in good faith, regulated by law and the Constitution which should be held
sacred and dear by all the friends of free government,
all the former relations of the States in the Union will
be restored, with all the associates of peace and sincere devotion to a Union that will be as enduring as




BENNETT AND LINCOLN


199


time. This will be so if we perform our parts as
patriots.
I entered upon this presidential term with a fixed
and unalterable determination to administer the government upon the principles which will bring the
people as near as may be in close proximity with all
the acts and doings of their public servants thereby
enabling them to determine understandingly all questions of public policy. So far in public life the people
have sustained me. I have never deserted them and if
I know my own heart I will stand by them now. Hence
in the peoples' cause I need and ask your aid. You
can now indelibly fix upon the hearts of this people
who will be grateful that you are their friend and
benefactor.
Now is the time for the principles upon which the
government is founded to be developed, discussed and
understood. There is no man in America who can exercise more power in fixing the government upon a
firm and enduring foundation than you can. With such
aid the task will be made easy in the performance of
this work. I do not intend to be drawn from my purpose by taunts and jeers, coming whence they may,
nor do I intend to be overawed by pretended or real
friends, or bullied by swaggering or pursuing enemies.
If truth is made our guide, the public Good our aim
the Union will be restored, attended with all the blessings of a prosperous peace.
Accept assurance of my sincere esteem,
ANDREW JOHNSON.
N. B.
By the meeting of Congress the work of restoration
will, I think, be nearly complete. Post Offices, Federal
control, navy, etc., will be established.
"He begins well," had been the Herald's comment
on the manner in which Johnson took over the presidency. It even sided, for the moment with his fierce




200 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
announcement of his purpose to avenge the murdered
Lincoln. When, however, his vagaries threatened the
country by reason of party opposition and undue oppression in the South, the Herald turned against him
and took the side of sanity, something that was very
much lacking in the period of Reconstruction.




CHAPTER IX


WAR-TIME AND AFTER
So CLEARLY had Bennett envisaged the coming of
the conflict between the states that he was much better
prepared than any of his contemporaries to meet the
news emergencies created by war. He gathered together a force of forty men and sent them to the various "fronts." All were splendidly equipped with
horses and camp equipage. Many made remarkable
records. Doctor George W. Hosmer, for example, reported the Battle of Gettysburg and discovered the
Confederates moving through the darkness on Cemetery Ridge in time to warn its defenders against Longstreet's fierce assault. This act on his part saved the
line and had much to do with Union success on the
field. Charles H. Hart and a companion were captured
by Mosby. The Guerrilla kept their horses but sent
the pair safely to Richmond.
After the close of the Rebellion Frederic Hudson,
managing editor of the Herald, figured out that the
paper had spent five hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars in covering the four years' conflict. The staff
in the field grew to sixty men and special dispatches
were liberally paid for, a few exclusive lines that were
worth one dollar and fifty cents at space rates often
bringing twenty-five dollars as a reward for the sender's enterprise. Thus it was that the Herald always
201




202 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
was the first choice among men on the spot as a market
for their news.
One exploit that astonished the War Departments
both at Richmond and Washington was the publishing
of an-almost correct roster of the Confederate Army.
Richmond thought it had been done by some traitor
to the cause and Washington suspected the Herald of
improper intimacy with the South. In fact, the achievement was the result of close calculation in the compiling of carefully gathered facts. The results were
astonishingly accurate.
When the wicked and needless war, which he had
so deplored aild had so sturdily tried to prevent, ended
in 1865, Bennett was threescore and ten. For fifty
years he had toiled as few men do, and was old. Accordingly he determined to put his son into harness.
With theincomaing of 1866 the young mnan began to
take his turn. He was kept closely under the paternal
eye, continuing to live with his father In the Washington Heights and Fifth Avenue mansions. The mother
and daughter remained abroad. The elder Bennett
advised and counseled but was no more in the limelight. The Heraal    e      iinstitution, solid and
suhta$tial, earning a new fortune for the owner each
year.
-Tlie junior was twenty-five and had already sowed
a liberal crop of wild oats to which his father seemingly took no exception. Indeed the canny old man
had every confidence in the capacity of his son both to
get and keep money. His extravagance was safely
within the income of the Herald, and it may be that the
father, knowing the son regarded the paper only as an
agency for the making of money, relied upon this trait




WAR-TIME AND AFTER                203
to keep up the Herald's steam. When the second Atlantic cable proved successful he began the costly habit
of using it liberally. On its opening, the Herald and
Tribune each endeavored to be first with a message
under the sea on July 28, 1866. Both claimed the
distinction. The Herald seems to have earned it.
The young man began his career with a coup. He
caused the speech of King William of Prussia, after
the battle of Sadowa, upon the making of peace with
Austria, to be cabled in full to the Herald. The tolls
totaled seven thousand dollars in gold. He bought
smart steam craft to waylay vessels at quarantine, or
farther out, as, for example, when the Grand Duke
Alexis arrived on his celebrated visit to America,
a steam scout intercepted the frigate Sveltland, on
which his Highness traveled, at midnight, well off
Sandy Hook, and the Herald thus "scooped" its contemporaries. He considered the use of balloons to
carry messages, but found them too uncertain for the
purpose.
July 1, 1867, the son started the Evening Telegram
as an expensive independent effort. He maltreated the
bantling from the start; never gave it a chance either
with men or money and kept it in evidence mainly by
printing it on pink paper.
The elder Bennett often changed his place of residence during the 'thirties. After his marriage the New
York directory locates him at 114 Chambers Street.
Upon Mrs. Bennett's departure for Europe with the
children he gave up his home and resided at the Irving
House until 1858 when he purchased a handsome country seat with large grounds at Fort Washington, near
the present One Hundred and Eighty-first Street. In




204 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
1864 his town residence was at 379 Fifth Avenue. This
was shifted the next year to 425 Fifth Avenue which
remained his city domicile until his death.
In 1868 the Washington Heights mansion caught
fire. The New York department rallied bravely to
the rescue and succeeded in stopping the flames with
but twenty thousand dollars damage. Bennett was
very grateful and gave the men fifteen hundred dollars
in rewards. He also established a fund at the expense
of which a medal is given each year to the most heroic
fireman. The bestowal of this award has become an
annual ceremony of great moment to the fire-fighters
of the city. It was first made through his son.
People thought the younger Bennett would not care
to take on the Herald after his father's hands dropped
from the rudder. They were mistaken. Several attempts were made to buy the paper-one of them by a
syndicate in 1869, which made an offer of two million,
two hundred thousand dollars for the property. It
was promptly declined. Mr. Bennett met proffers with
the remark that, "There is not money enough in the
world to buy the Herald," but it "could be had for
3 cents a copy any time."
Even in his quasi-retirement the old gentleman preserved his appearance of energy, bodily and mentally.
Edward Townsend Flynn once recalled his coming to
the Herald office one morning soon after the war ended,
full of vim and carrying an old silk umbrella, time worn
and faded. To this he was much attached. He busied
himself issuing instructions and asking questions, one
of which, addressed to Frederic Hudson, the managing
editor, was as to how much he had paid E. A. Pollard,
the former editor of the Richmond Enquirer and au



WAR-TIME AND AFTER


205


thor of The Lost Cause, for an article that had just
been published under the caption, "The Evacuation of
the Confederate Forces from Richmond." Hudson replied, "One hundred twenty-five dollars." This was
at the rate of fifty dollars per column, the space occupied being two and one-half of these units. "You
must give him one hundred dollars more a column,"
commanded Mr. Bennett. He knew Pollard was desperately poor and took this way of aiding him, supervising the drawing of the check. Then he decided to
go home. Looking about, he failed to find his ancient
umbrella and made a prodigious row. It could not be
found. He went off full of wrath over its disappearance. He could pay Pollard splendidly, but to lose the
old friend of silk and whalebone upset him.
He was inclined to be kind to all of his old southern
acquaintances, sunk as they were in misfortune and defeat. Despite the view of Jefferson Davis expressed in
the Herald when the war broke, Mr. Bennett was not
personally estranged from that personage. Mrs. Harriet Stanton Blatch, who as a little girl lived near the
Bennett mansion on Washington Heights, recalls that
after Jefferson Davis was liberated on the bail bond
signed by Horace Greeley among others, he came north
and there was considerable mystery as to his whereabouts. One day, with her elder sister, she ran across
to a neighbor's and on the piazza were two distinguished-looking men. One she knew as James Gordon
Bennett. The neighbor, Mr. Lane, introduced the
stranger to the little ladies as Mr. Jefferson Davis.
The sister stepped forward and shook hands. She,
abashed, put her hands behind her back. Mr. Davis
laughed and remarked, "Aha! a little Yankee!" So




206 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
it was that while the reporters were seeking Davis he
was lodging quietly with James Gordon Bennett.
John Russell Young has left a good picture of the
elder Bennett in his declining years *
My earliest impression of Bennett was that of a
vast, sinister shape which had come out of the infinite,
like some genii of the Arabian Nights, to overspread
and darken the heavens. There was an aspect of terror in what young eyes saw of this, a lawless, eccentric
influence sweeping a wayward orbit, and above human
conditions and limitations, breathing wrath upon those
who would not bow down and worship. I first saw the
elder Bennett one bleak snowy night toward the close
of Lincoln's presidency. A guest with my ever hospitable and gentle friend, Mr. [J. B.] Haskin, at his
Fordham residence, nothing remained after dinner but
that we should speed over the snow with tingling
sleigh-bells to the Bennett home on the Hudson. If
my imagination had gone into darkened fancies over
the ideal Bennett, the man as I saw him drove them
away. Hair white and clustering, a smooth face soon
to have the comfort of a beard, prominent aquiline
nose, a long, narrow head with abundant development
in perceptive faculties, a keen boring eye which threw
arrowy glances, bantering rather than hearty laughter, a firm masterful jaw, talk in a broad Scottish accent, which he seemed to nurse with a relish. His
speech had the piquant, saucy colloquialisms which
stamped his individuality on the Herald. His manner
stately, courteous, that of a strenuous gentleman of
unique intelligence giving opinions as though they
were aphorisms, like one accustomed to his own way.
Whatever he may have seemed in the columns of his
journal, the man as he welcomed us was wreathed in
courtesy and good will.
*From Men and Memories, by John Russell Young. Copyright, 190L
Courtesy of Major Gordon Russell Young.




WAR-TIME AND AFTER


207


I was to see Bennett on many occasions between this
winter's night encounter, in 1864, until our last meeting in May, 1872, one month before he died. You felt
in his company, the impression of a man of genius;
humor, apt to run into mockery,-until it seemed almost as if it were the spirit of Voltaire breathing
through him.
His mind teemed with ideas, which streamed into
his talk,-saucy phrases, invectives, nick-names, keen
bits of narrative surcharged with cynical pessimism,
which remained, one might fancy, as a legacy of early
days of disappointment and trial. For this man had
fought the world-had fought it down! The world
would not come to his need, and now he reigned apart,
looking down upon it with scorn.
Bennett admired Andrew Jackson, and next to Jackson his admiration was Grant. He was the first of the
great editors to recognize Grant. There was the affinity of the Scottish blood, and the attraction of
Grant's Scottish tenacity of character.
The editor had an eye for results, and the campaigns
of Grant were ripe in results. Bennett did not have
a cheerful view of war; he could see no outlook but irretrievable bankruptcy, against which, as he said with
a smile, he had provided by keeping a special deposit
of gold in the Chemical bank. When the bottom fell
out he would have swimming-gear of his own, and substance likewise, and not go down in a sea of paper
currency and inflation.
There were no reasons in those days why even a
more cheerful man than Bennett should be deep in
gloom. The concern of Lincoln was lest the Union
would be destroyed in a self-imposed bankruptcy before the army overcame secession. The military problem was solved when I saw Bennett in later days, and
no one could have a more cheerful view of the national
future. I remember some Herald articles published
in the weeks succeeding the surrender of Lee, which I
used to dig out of the files and read for the splendor




208 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
and breadth of their foresight. And, in many conversations in his closing years, I recall the enthusiasm
with which the venerable man would dwell upon the assured glory of the Republic. This was shown especially on one of my last visits. He had surrendered
to his son the practical control of the Herald, and received his friends in a small richly-garnished cornerroom of his New York house, in the second story,
looking out upon Thirty-eighth street and Fifth Avenue. He was very old and feeble,-old in everything
but genius. The face was scantily bearded, and, as he
sat folded in the ample chair, with quilted gown, his
head bent with years, his keen eyes gleaming through
heavily rimmed spectacles, and heaped about him a
pile of newspapers, there was a sense of majesty, even
as that of the king on his throne. On this occasion I
found him reading a report, several columns long,
from a military officer, detailing a reconnaissance in the Yellowstone Park. And had I read
it?  I presume not. Some immediate story of the
foolish fleeting hour had intervened, and military reports were not exhilarating. But I must read it
What a marvel that Yellowstone, and what a land, and
what a country, with those awakening wonders day by
day!-geysers spouting at times, and ceasing to spout,
radiant clays with their pinks and blues, their crimson
and saffron and pearl, and the rainbow phenomena;
the hot steaming springs with healing in their waters.
Such fertility, such beauty! and not the half was
known. What this wise man saw in the officer's story
was an object lesson. Living in his serene atmosphere
of hope and contemplation, there was no romance like
a fact. The things we called men, and the grasshopper
brawls we called events, how small and mean to one
who revelled in this revelation of Nature in sumptuous,
gaudy mood! Bennett, as I used to read him, was the
intellectual child of Walpole and Cobbett. He was an
accomplished man. Although, for the first generation
of its existence he made the New York Herald a journal




WAR-TIME AND AFTER


209


which the humblest could comprehend,-although he
understood the value of the journalistic axiom never to
shoot above the heads of the people, —I question if any
of his peers were better educated. He had lectured
on political economy, had taught the languages and the
higher mathematics, had written Byronian verses, and
stories of the Maria Edgeworth school. He had studied the world from the moors of Scotland, the wharves
of Boston, the academies of Charleston, the composing
rooms of Philadelphia, the lecturer's pulpit in New
York, and the Congress galleries of Washington. The
lesson he had learned,-the stern lesson, that the world
was a masked battery which must be carried at the
point of a bayonet,-the fierce lesson that his one appointed duty in this existence was in the fortunes of
James Gordon Bennett,-this he preached in the Herald. He preached amid derision and contempt, amid
misrepresentation and personal violence; he preached
and won.
The world knelt to his sceptre, and when I saw him
he reigned as no man has reigned since, or, to my
fancy, ever will, in the kingdom of journalism. A
pupil of Walpole and Cobbett in literature, the political
ideas of Bennett were influenced by the tremendous
upheaval of Napoleonism. He was a contemporary of
Napoleon, and his plastic mind had taken from, and
hardened under, the bewildering influence of the
French Emperor. Napoleon,-what he did or would
be apt to do,-was among Bennett's familiar forms
of illustration. He told me that one of the first articles he had ever written was an editorial upon the
battle of Waterloo and the fall of Bonaparte, for a
newspaper in Aberdeen.
After Napoleon, Bennett, like most students who
had studied under the super-classical traditions of the
earlier century, was immersed in Roman history. His
parallels and illustrations, his moral and historical
reflections were apt to come from Plutarch and the
classic fathers. He would cite them in defence of a




210 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
paradox, for his genius was quite capable of believing
one thing in June and the contrary in July. "I print
my paper every day," he was wont to say, when
charged with inconsistency. And when some strange
unexpected sensation in the Herald would burst upon
the town to its wonderment, Bennett would tell the
story of the dog of Alcibiades whose tail was docked
to the end that Athens might talk about its master.
Bennett senior died at his Washington Heights residence at twenty-five minutes past five on Saturday,
June 1, 1872. He had not been ill, though for five years
inactive. The cause of his death was a stroke of apoplexy, which first befell a week previously. In its editorial mention of his death the Herald said:
The Herald was his creation; the embodiment of his
long cherished idea of justice, owing allegiance to no
party and laboring singly for the advancement and
happiness of the people. The power he thus called
into being and established as a wonderful success has
exercised for more than thirty-five years a healthful
influence over the politics and public men of the country, and has been instrumental in hastening the development and securing the triumph of many of those
great undertakings that have added so much to the
progress and prosperity of the American nation. In
the advocacy of novel and comprehensive projects
Mr. Bennett's broad views took no heed of obstacles
that to ordinary minds seemed insurmountable; and
his strong will manifested through the columns of the
Herald infused into many a wavering enterprise a
spirit that carried it successfully through all difficulties.
Oddly enough the Herald carried no biographical
account of its founder in the issue of June second,




WAR-TIME AND AFTER


211


which printed the news of his decease. On Monday
it republished several biographies printed by other
papers. None of them gave the date of his birth correctly. "About 1800," was the closest most of them
came to it; the Sun gave the year-1795-accurately,
but not the day. Mr. Bennett's New York contemporaries bade him good-by with the utmost respect.
"In the chief function of modern journalism," said
the World, "that of promptly supplying the public
with important news, Mr. Bennett stood not only in
the first rank but at the head of that rank."
"As a successful journalist and man of business,"
said the Times, "James Gordon Bennett will be remembered among the representative men of the city
of New York."
The Sunday News called him "the greatest journalist the world ever produced."
The Sun credited Mr. Bennett with the "invaluable
service" of emancipating the press from "the domination of sects, parties, cliques and what is called
society."
"He had no aim other than to make a great and
lucrative newspaper," was the Tribune's comment.
It will be seen that the animosities engendered on
his way up to the top of his profession had disappeared. Indeed, the directors of the New York Associated Press united in this tribute to his memory:
Resolved: That his long and eventful connection
with the newspaper press of the country in a career
of unexampled success and prosperity was the result
of his great foresight, energy, and industry; that in
all these qualities the example of Mr. Bennett inspired
the greatest enterprise in journalism in the United




212 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
States and throughout the world, and must, therefore,
for all time, leave their impression for good in the diffusion of knowledge and the advancement of the press.
It had been planned to hold the funeral in St. Patrick's Cathedral with Archbishop McCloskey officiating. Perhaps this was thought too great an honor for
one who had so frequently flouted the hierarchy. So
the services were held instead at the Fifth Avenue
house, Vicar-General, the Reverend Doctor Starrs,
conducting them. Horace Greeley, of the Tribune,
George W. Childs, of the Philadelphia Ledger, Erastus
Brooks, of the Express, George Jones, of the Times,
Charles A. Dana, of the Sun, Hugh J. Hastings, of the
Commercial Advertiser, David M. Stone, of the Journal
of Commerce, Major J. M. Bundy, of the Mail and
Frederic Hudson, managing editor of the Herald acted
as pall-bearers, escorting the body to Greenwood
Cemetery in Brooklyn-not Catholic ground. The
Herald carried no account of the obsequies.
Mrs. Bennett did not long survive her husband.
She died at Sachsen, Germany, March 28, 1873. John
Bigelow, writing to W. H. Huntington, the New York
Tribune's Paris correspondent, from Sachsen, April
18, 1873, remarks: "Mrs. J. G. Bennett died here
about three weeks ago, the whole middle part, or axis
of her body consumed by a confluent cancer. Like her
husband, she died in the arms of mercenaries; she
would not allow her son to be sent for while she was
conscious; and she had long been unconscious of anything when he did arrive about two hours before she
expired. She would not allow the doctor to speak of
her danger, seemed unwilling to contemplate death,




WAR-TIME AND AFTER


213.


even when he was standing in her presence. The
daughter, who is at school at Versailles arrived the
day after her mother's death."
Frederic Hudson in his History of American Journalism sums up the Herald platform as developed
under the elder Bennett in these terms:
First. The Constitution and prosperity of the
United States under all circumstances.
Second. The growth and prosperity of the City of
New York.
Third. To give all the news, freshly, fully, and
faithfully, from all parts of the world.
Fourth. To' comment clearly, freely and independently on the events of the world as they daily developed themselves.
Fifth. To sustain every enterprise that would elevate the human race, and unite all the nations in commerce and civilization.
Sixth. To make the Herald a cosmopolitan journal
par excellence.
Bennett's will gave James Gordon Bennett, Jr., full
and complete ownership of the Herald properties. He
was enjoined, however, to pay for his sister Jeanette's
education and maintenance.




CHAPTER X


BENNETT THE YOUNGER
JAMES GORDON BENNETT, the younger, was born May
10, 1841, with a silver spoon in his mouth-a spoon
which ie lived to turn into gold. Belying the tradition that second-growth timber is inferior, he did
things which dwarfed the accomplishments of his parent. His arrival was made much of by his father, who
inducted him into "the business" at an early age.
Both the Herald and the Sun carried on sidelines in
the way of special publications and each conducted a
book store. There was much rivalry between these
shops. In advertising his own, Mr. Bennett made
mocking use of his first-born, then nineteen months old,
by announcing him as proprietor of a better book stall
than that maintained by his rival, Moses Y. Beach.
Three more children were born to the Bennett family, one charming boy named Cosmo Gordon Bennett,
after the elder Bennett's much-loved brother. This
child died when five years and three months old. The
others were a daughter who died at eight months, and
Jeanette, who became Mrs. Isaac Bell, Jr.
It has been shown that the savage attacks on Mr.
Bennett were showered upon his wife as well. She
stood the social storm until the two surviving children
were eligible for school and then departed to live much
of the remainder of her life in Europe. This move
214




BENNETT THE YOUNGER                215
arose from her determination to educate her children
"out of the sphere of misrepresentation, calumny and
reckless wit, to whose insulting frequency her own
name has been subjected for no other cause than to
gratify the spleen of assailants, alike destitute of magnanimity of disposition and good taste in literature,
when they despaired of wounding Mr. Bennett in any
other way," as it was written by Isaac C. Pray, in 1855.
All this was true. It is a poor tribute to a day in
which "chivalry" and "gallantry" were overworked
words that in the slurs on her husband Mrs. Bennett
was constantly linked with the lowest and meanest
forms of innuendo or downright insult. That all were
infamous calumnies is beyond question. The seasoned
soldier who was her mate knew that to give meant to
take, and never shrank from blows. But she, a highminded, intelligent woman, was literally driven from
the country.
So it befell that "young Jim," as he was then
known, had a queer sort of bringing up. There was
probably wisdom in thus exiling the youth, even if the
after-effects on his character were bad. Because of
the intense feeling against his father in the upper circles, he would hardly have been welcomed at any institution of learning in America where boys of the
wealthy class were harbored.
Private tutors provided him with as much learning- i
as he cared to accept. He acquired French, but his /
education was not elaborate, nor did he inherit his
father's facile skill as a writer. He wrote in labored
fashion quite lacking in sparkle or wit, and often
groped for the point he wanted.
At times Mrs. Bennett returned for short residences,




216 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
bringing the children with her. New Yorkers of the
'fifties, who were sometimes bidden within the doors,
found "young Jim" a strange and ill-mannered youth.
One of these, the late Frank Squier, Park Commissioner of Brooklyn, and brother of Ephriam George
Squier, the explorer and archeologist, once told the
writer of attending a party for the young folks at
which James Gordon, Junior, aged sixteen, gave an
exhibition of himself such as his father, even in the
unregenerate days of the penny Herald, would hardly
have cared to publish. Isolation abroad, combined
with plenty of money, made him dissolute when very
young.
But as he had given his son the book store when an
infant, the father made the growing wilful boy the center of his thoughts. In the Herald office he had a room
fitted with a desk, on either side of which he installed
two lesser ones. Here during his son's stay in New
York he would place the lad and Edward Townsend
Flynn, another youngster of the neighborhood whom
he favored as a playmate, with the purpose of bringing up the pair to "run" the Herald, as indeed they
were destined to do. Flynn was a bright boy with
brilliant red hair and a resourceful mind. He was a
born New Yorker, the family having come from Schenectady in the troubled days of revolutionary border
warfare to locate on Manhattan Island, where his
grandfather "farmed" in the vicinity of the present
Thirtieth Street.
Inheriting from his father decision, boldness and
enterprise, the younger Bennett multiplied all three.
Doctor George W. Hosmer, who served under both
father and son, and who detested the latter, used to




The Three Bedlams
Showing Horace Greeley, of the Tribune, Henry J. Raymond, of the Times, and James
Gordon Bennett. Cartoon in Vanity Fair, October 5, 1861








BENNETT THE YOUNGER


217


declare that the boy, half Irish and half Scotch, embodied the worst qualities of both races. He could be
as generous as an Irishman and as close as a Scot,
with upsetting suddenness. No one ever knew what
he would do next-least of all himself.
As he grew up the youth speedily became a member
of the New York fast set-and it was pretty fast. It
centered at Delmonico's for luncheon and gathered at
the Union Club in leisure hours. For boon companions
young Bennett found here the Heckshers, the Howlands, the Osgoods, Lloyd Phcenix, Frank Work, Gunning S. Bedford, whom he made a judge; Herman
Oelrichs, Pierre Lorillard, Jr., Arthur Leary, William
P. Douglas, William R. Travers, the stammering wit
of Wall Street; Lawrence B. Jerome and Leonard
Jerome-and other blue-blooded New Yorkers of their
type. Most of the gentlemen named were his elders,
but they saw in him one of their kind.
New York then supported a Jockey Club, the present home of the Manhattan Club, at Madison Avenue
and Twenty-sixth Street, which contained a theater
and many adjuncts of good living. Here Leonard
Jerome was supreme. Jenny Jerome was his daughter. She captured the brother of the Duke of Marlborough with her wit and beauty, and became the
mother of the brilliant Winston Churchill of our day.
Ladies of the stage interested young Bennett, and
when Lydia Thompson brought her bevy of British
blondes to America, he impartially annexed them,
notably Pauline Markham, she of the "voice of velvet
and the lost arms of the Venus of Milo," as Richard
Grant White described her. Poor damsel! When she
went into a decline after her dazzling days, people




218 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
soon forgot that James Gordon Bennett had drunk
champagne from her slipper! Having disappeared
completely, she turned up in New York in the late
'nineties, wife of a printer, and soon thereafter died.
I have in my autograph collection a letter from her
denying some statement affecting her personally. It
was the last note heard.
Aristocracy in New York made its last stand in the
Union Club. It still exists on memories. But in Bennett's day the club house at Fifth Avenue and Twentieth Street was the citadel of the jeunesse doree and,
open all night, it afforded a refuge for the gilt-edged,
who did not care to go home. That the son of the
person most detested by the preceding generation of
New York's social set could pass into its exclusive
precincts illustrated the gilding power of money. He
kept up his membership all his life, and members of
the club were sacrosanct in the Herald office. They
were accursed of copy readers, who were pretty sure
to be wigged if the mention of one under unfavorable
circumstances got by. I recall the late William C.
Reick, so long the head of the Herald, asking me
mournfully if we had in the World office any list of
"sacred cows" who had to be treated with discretion.
I said no. He said he had a full stable, and remarked:
"How in hell can I be expected to carry the names of
all the members of the Union Club in my mind?"
Next to Commodore Vanderbilt and William B.
Astor, the younger Bennett, after his father's death,
probably possessed for the period the largest assured
income in America. The certainty of resource made
him a good spender. He had no taste for piling up
millions and never tried to.
While the elder Bennett had been in the background




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


219


for five years, and the son was more or less in the
harness, the public did not hold him in full responsibility until the death of the father, when the
thought that so powerful an engine as the Herald
was to fall into reckless hands brought on a sense of
dismay, enhanced by the fact that a sort of twilight
of the gods had fallen upon New York journalism.
Henry J. Raymond had died and left the Times to his
commercial associates, who had put an astute Englishman, Louis J. Jennings, in his place. Horace Greeley
and the elder Bennett died within a few months of
each other. Manton Marble navigated an able, but
not widely circulated, World. Charles A. Dana was
putting life and intellect into the Sun, but always as
a devil's advocate. Frederic Hudson, the Herald's
competent managing editor, went into retirement and
the young man picked Thomas B. Connery to take his
place, a mild and gentle individual, entirely at his
master's service. People expected the Herald to do
strange things-and it did.
The young man was difficult to approach and hard
to deal with. John Bigelow, in his diary, under date
of September 4, 1874, records going with Samuel J.
Tilden to call on the distinguished Charles O'Conor,
at Fort Washington, for the purpose of getting him.to "see Bennett and straighten out the Herald on the
Governorship' '-Tilden being the Democratic candidate for that office. "O'Conor," says Bigelow, "worried a good deal over the difficulties of manipulating a
man wholly given up to pleasure, but he showed by
the faces he made over it that he should not fail for
want of trying."*
*From Retrospections of an Active Life, by John Bigelow. Copyright, 1913. Courtesy of Doubleday, Doran and Company.




220 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Bennett had that curious contempt for men which
seems inherent in those who have inherited wealth.
Captain A. J. Keanealy, once yachting reporter, son of
the celebrated Queen's Counselor, who wrecked his
fortunes on behalf of the Tichborne claimant, made an
appeal for better financial recognition. It was denied
with the blunt remark that "all the brains I want can
be picked up any day at twenty-five dollars per week."
The captain left to adorn the newly established New
York Recorder, and ended his days prosperously on
the World. Oddly enough, this indifference of Bennett did not extend to the mechanical departments.
John Henderson, Mannis J. Geary, foreman of the
Herald composing-room, and John Hays, who bossed
the presses, were well paid and were treated as persons
of distinction. Their several domains of authority
were never invaded. They were given the best of
tools to work with, and rigid rules as to closing forms
were enforced upon the editors to serve their convenience. Each page had its fixed minute for departing
from the composing-room floor, and woe betide the
make-up man who was guilty of delay. In all other
offices going to press was a scramble; in the Herald
it was governed with military precision, under carefully drawn and printed schedules.
Beside the scorn of the proprietor, the Herald men
had to endure a system of espionage. The suspicious
satrap had a system of spying that brought constant
trouble to the staff. He insisted on elaborate reports,
which he rarely read, but he was keen on gossip and
matters at which he chose to take offense. "White
mice," the reporters called the spies.
As the result of this espionage Bennett received




BENNETT THE YOUNGER                221
many unsigned letters. On one occasion he cabled
Edward D. DeWitt, his very capable advertising manager, to come to Paris by the next French steamer.
Mr. DeWitt sailed and in due season presented himself before his employer at his apartment in the Avenue d' Iena.
"DeWitt," was the greeting, "I have been receiving some anonymous letters about you. They say you
are getting fat and lazy. Napoleon and his marshals
won their victories when they were lean. If you have
become fat you are of no use to me."
Now it happened that Mr. DeWitt was a Princeton
athlete not long enough out of college to have lost his
taste for exercise. He had played "squash" all the
way across and was agile as an antelope. Bennett
scrutinized him closely for some time and dismissed
him without further ceremony to make his way back
to America. Nothing more was heard on the subject
of avoirdupois. DeWitt had passed the inspection.
Later he was considered sufficiently slender to be made
general manager.
The results of the spying were not always adverse
to the intended victim. In 1917 when the Wilson administration issued its order curbing the use of coal
in the interest of war industries, there was alarm
among the newspaper publishers lest paper mill fuel
should be cut off. I wrote a protest, after an informal
conference of New York publishers had authorized
such a step. When it came to signing the document
Oswald Garrison Villard of the Evening Post, H. F.
Gunnison of the Brooklyn Eagle, Frank B. Flaherty
of the Herald and myself were the only ones to put
down our names. Flaherty had just been appointed




222 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
general manager of the Herald and had some doubts
as to his status. He thought this would be a good way
to find out where he stood, so he affixed "General Manager" after his signature. In due season Mr. Bennett
was apprised of his act in the usual fashion. Instead
of the expected explosion he remarked mildly, "Well,
Flaherty is general manager."
It may be remarked that the remonstrance was effective, despite the timidity of those who failed to join
in it after urging such a step.
So far as Bennett could make it, the Herald was a
one-man shop. In the Paris office this was especially
the case. "I want you fellows to remember," he once
said to the executive staff, "that I am the only reader
of this paper. I am the only one to be pleased. If I
want it to be turned upside down, it must be turned
upside down. I want one feature article a day. If
I say the feature is to be Black Beetles, Black Beetles
it's going to be."
Once the Paris edition published a letter that camo
in by mail, signed "Old Philadelphia Lady," asking
some way of transmuting the movements of a Centigrade thermometer into Fahrenheit. By a composingroom blunder this was repeated a second day. The
oddity of the inquiry and the repetition made talk.
Bennett ordered the letter reprinted continuously. So
it ran on and on, but sometimes he used her signature
himself to propound puzzling inquiries. People would
answer the Old Lady's plaintive inquiry from all parts
of the world.
Two men who detested each other were linked together, to their mutual distaste, in the London office.
One had a penchant for periodical sprees. The other




BENNETT THE YOUNG BR


228


was aware of this tendency, and, hoping through it to
rid himself of an objectionable associate, hired at his
own expense a private detective to trail the frail gentleman. The sleuth followed his subject for some time
without result, but was at last able to report him delinquent from drink. His employer at once telegraphed the fact to Bennett in Paris, to the tune of
being crippled for lack of reliable help. Bennett replied: "You are not even a good reporter. I knew
three days ago that B    was drunk."
It seems that the thirsty one, aware of the net
spread for him, had prudently advised headquarters
that he was about to have a "periodical" and had
been forgiven in advance!
Colloquially Bennett was the "Commodore" to
Herald men, on account of his three terms in command
of the New York Yacht Club squadron. The title lent
itself better to their relationship and his own view
of them than the implied servility of "Chief."
Men were often cruelly demoted. For example,".
George J. Taylor, whose name stood long with others
at the head of the editorial page as News Editor, was
suddenly shifted from that high estate to Brooklyn,
supervising the few small-pay reporters who covered
that bedroom. Taylor, father of Bert Leston Taylor,
the "Line O' Type" man of the Chicago Tribune, was
a valuable aid, devoted to the Herald. He never knew
the reason for the change. Besides humiliation, the
evil of the system was that salaries were lowered as
well as rank. Pay went with the place, not with the
man. This was quite different from Joseph Pulitzer's
custom; however he might shift men he did not alter
their rewards.




224 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
According to Thomas G. Alvord, who was much in
Bennett's confidence:
The seemingly erratic, unjust, contemptible conduct now and then shown the most deserving members
of the staff was designed to put to the severest test
the loyalty of the individual whose seeming fealty,
expecting a reward, had been proven a dozen times.
Came he through demotion, reduction of pay, undeserved suspension, designed humiliation, and still remained, steadfast in his devotion to the Herald and its
master, taking his dose without complaint or the seeking of a place on some other paper, then Mr. Bennett
believed he might be trusted in great temptation and
relied on in all emergencies. In no other way, in his
opinion, could a thoroughly reliable corps of newspaper employees be built up and maintained.
So it was that despite ill-usage men stood a service
as desperate in ways as that in the French Foreign
Legion. Indeed, some who were discharged or demoted were never themselves again. They missed
their shirts of hair and the excitement of accomplishment which was always plentiful in the Herald office.
Thus for all of their contemptuous ill-treatment,
men were attracted to the Herald. There was something compelling about the tigerish proprietor with his
fickleness and brutality. Women are said to be fascinated by such characters. Certainly, newspaper men
were. Besides, the Herald was a conquering force and
they liked to be associated with victory and achievement. Of course, no one with real sense or any hope
of the hereafter, would work for a metropolitan daily,
even of the best sort. Journalists are, however, seldom sensible persons. They prefer irregularity to




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


225


routine, and excitement to ease. Money is secondary
in their eyes, else they would never yoke themselves
as slaves of the lamp. This trait kept the Herald
staff full of capable men. The candle flame never
lacked its attendant array of admiring moths. One
who came under the spell was Mark Twain, who,
when he returned to New York on November 17, 1867,
after the novel voyage on the Quaker City, which produced The Innocents Abroad, and so laid the foundation of a fame that was preeminent, made for the
Herald office and deposited there the last of many
letters describing the trip. The others had been
written to the Alta California, which paid for the excursion, and the New York Tribune, then in its great
Horace Greeley days. Mark Twain was out for business, as he wrote home from Washington a week later:
"Am   pretty well known now-intend to be better
known." He knew the Herald was the best publicity
medium in America. Indeed, the same letter chronicles one result of his forethought: "Belong on the
Tribune staff, and shall write occasionally. Am offered the same berth to-day on the Herald by letter.
Shall write to Mr. Bennett, and accept as soon as I
hear from the Tribune that it will not interfere." Evidently the Tribune did not object for Clemens records under date of January 24, 1868:*
This is a good week for me. I stopped in the
Herald office as I came through New York to see the
boys on the staff and young James Gordon Bennett
asked me to write twice a week, impersonally, for the
*From Mark Twain's Autobiography. Copyright, 1924. Courtesy of
Harper and Brothers.




226 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Herald, and said if I would I might have full swing,
and about anybody and everything I wanted to. I said
I must have the very fullest possible swing, and he
said "All right." I said, "It's a contract-" and that
settled that matter.
He noted a purpose to "write one letter a week anyhow." Thus began a connection that endured as long
as Mr. Clemens lived. The Herald was always his
friend, and he the Herald's. I possess a list of nearly
two hundred articles, letters, interviews and references dating from this beginning that appeared in its
columns.
Naturally, men studied Bennett's humors and
turned their discoveries often to advantage. He was
very fond of small dogs and kept a troop of the little
animals about him. One of his fancies was that animals were good judges of human character, and he was
given to guessing the qualities of callers by the manner
in which they were received by his favorites. It
chanced that a shrewd Irish attache of the London
office fell into disfavor. He judged by the tone of
notes from his employer that a crisis was near in
their relations, and receiving a summons to Paris,
which indicated a nearness to the end, he bethought
himself of the dogs and took measures to win their esteem. Wearing the customary garb of Fleet Streeta tall hat and long frock coat, the "Prince Albert"
of those days,-he pinned a slice of raw liver in the
topper and scented a handkerchief with anise, tucking
the same in a coat-tail pocket. Thus armed, he went
into the haughty presence of the boss, who received
him coldly. Not so the pups. Scenting the delicacies,
they swarmed upon the visitor, fawning and frolick



BENNETT THE YOUNGER                 227
ing about him, to the deep delight of the Commodore,
who, whatever he had in mind, laid it aside, treated
his visitor cordially and sent him away warmed with
every evidence of esteem. The dogs parted from him
with lavish regret. It might be said that he held his
hat firmly against his chest during the stay.
This love of canines-Pomeranians, Pekinese and
Cocker spaniels were his favorites-made Bennett a
fervid foe of viyisction. He steadily fought the
practise in the Herald and never lost an opportunity
to utter a protest. Once he presented an Egyptian
princess with a prize pup. For days after its arrival
the Paris Herald carried bulletins concerning the
state of its health.
John Habberton, author of Helen's Babies, spent
many years on the Telegrams editorial page, and for
a while before his death Walt Whitman's name had a
place on the Herald's pay-roll.
It would require a long list to cover the talented
men who saw service on the Herald in Bennett's
younger days. One name stands out with Henry
M. Stanley's-that of Januarias A. Mac Gahan, who
rode to Khiva with the Russians in their advance on
the Oases of Turkestan in 1873. Mac Gahan reported
the Carlist contest in Spain in 1874 and the TurcoRussian War of 1877. Among the men who counted
through the years were Ivory Chamberlain, Joseph I.
C. Clarke, Julius Chambers, Ballard Smith, William J.
C. Meighan, Charles H. Hart, Robert Hunt Lyman,
Charles Nordhoff, Thomas Gold Alvord, Thomas J.
Cummins, James Creelman, Samuel S. Chamberlain,
Robert E. Livingston, S. J. E. Rawling, Doctor E. P.
Cohen, Nicholas Biddle, DeFrancias Folsom, L. A.




228  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Hendrick-who covered the Beecher-Tilton trial with
Albert Pulitzer, then fresh from Budapest, as an
assistant; A. O. Plunkett-a veteran in the Brooklyn
field; E. A. Rockwell, William 0. Inglis, Frank H.
Pierson, Robert S. Yard, H. L. Marshall, William M.
Fuller, J. C. Klein, Edward M. Brant-expert yachting reporter; James F. Gill, John Grant Dater, Nelson
Hersh, James Clancy-whose specialty was inside
Irish news; George R. Miner, Kate Masterson, Max
F. Ihmsen, Harry S. Brown, J. W. Slaght, Frank
Leslie Baker, Hamilton Peltz, John T. Burke, Paul
Krotel, John R. Caldwell, William B. Bininger-the
most accomplished society reporter New York ever
knew; and H. L. Mayhew, an authority on dogs, as
good as was the Commodore himself; George B.
McClellan, afterward mayor of New York; Ashley W.
Cole, Maurice M. Minton, James Luby, Samuel Walter
Taylor, Arthur Bartlett Maurice, James L. Ford, H.
W. B. Howard, Byron P. Stephenson, A. S. Crockett,
Leo L. Redding, James Fisher and John H. Tennant,
later managing editor of the Evening World.
The artists included H. C. Coultaus, W. Goater,
J. W. Trowbridge, Ripley Osgood Anthony, C. H.
Wright, Louis Biederman and Harry Grant Dart.
The cartoonists numbered such notables as Baron
C. de Grimm, Charles G. Bush and W. A. Rogers.
On the editorial side, George H. Hepworth and E. S.
Drone, were in turn chief leader-writers; Charles
Nordhoff, Thomas W. White, Charles Edward Russell,
Charles M. Lincoln and William C. Reick figured largely, especially Mr. Reick who earned the distinction of
becoming closer to his employer than any other man
who ever served him, and who was a potent factor in
the paper's history for nearly two decades. For years




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


229


he wielded powers not before given another, though
his title never got beyond city editor. Bennett once
explained to Joseph Pulitzer that he had found titles
swelled the heads of executives and he thought this
would keep down the size of this particular gentleman's occiput. Reick began his career by sending in
items from his native place, Burlington, New Jersey.
Soon he did so well that he became state reporter,
winning Bennett's attention during a mad-dog scare
in Newark in 1889, with a suggestion that five children
who had been bitten be sent to Paris by the Herald to
undergo the new serum treatment discovered by
Pasteur. This was done. Thereafter his progress
was rapid and he took on the city desk. In reality he
was Bennett's main connecting link with the office.
He stood to a degree between master and men, taking
many blows that should have reached others. Bennett
was more than liberal with him and gave him the
foundation of a considerable fortune. A block of uptown lots had been eating themselves up with taxes.
He presented them to Mr. Reick. The building of the
first New York subway expanded their value to a top
notch. He acquired affluence in other ways and got
into society, losing caste with the Commodore by
moving too much in what reporters call "financial and
social circles." His powers were restricted and his
activities curbed. Bennett would also prescribe hours
for him and have some one else report whether or not
they were kept. These hours were sometimes arranged most uncomfortably, as, for example, from
noon to midnight. In Mr. Reick's last years on the
paper he was sentenced to keep this schedule without
having anything to do. Ennui drove him forth to success as a stockholder and associate editor of the Times




230 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
and to failure as owner of the Sun. He was a very
able man who could transform the owner's orders into
action without demoralizing the staff-something
Bennett himself could not always do.
Next to Mr. Reick, Charles M. Lincoln stood a
lengthy test, until an offer from the Times relieved
him from a relationship that had become irksome.
The last man to serve Bennett as an editorial executive was Joseph K. Ohl, who had much experience in
the Far East and was a capable, amiable man.
Sometimes when the Commodore was unduly exhilarated he would write strange things into articles on
the proof sheets. These were usually caught up-stairs,
until he learned the trick and got into the habit of
standing over the forms to see that what he wanted
was in place. J. I. C. Clarke, then night editor, relates that he appeared one night in a merry mood and
drifted up to his desk to say:* "I want this correction
made in old Mr. Thingimbob's editorial. I want
this inserted; give it point." Clarke read a scrawl
on the proof: " This is the last dying kick of the Tammany anaconda!"
"What do you think " queried the young man.
"M' friends uptown say anaconda can't kick; got no
legs. That's the fun of it. I want it in, and I'll have
it in."
"Suppose," suggested Clarke, "you say squirm?"
"H'm. Squirm, squirm. Yes, squirm is disagreeable, but I want to give Tammany a kick; so I'll stick
to kick." To make sure, he followed the proof to the
composing-room and saw it "in."
*From My Life and Memories, by Joseph Ignatius Constantine Clarke.
Copyright, 1925. Courtesy of Dodd, Mead and Company.




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


231


When Bennett wrote an editorial it was his custom
to have it printed in double-leads, so that it stood out
on the page. He liked double leading as a form of emphasis, which it is. He would also sprinkle his copy
liberally with capitals, which had to be sifted out in the
composing-room, and delighted in writing letters to
the editor, calling attention to poor service in popular
restaurants like Sherry's or Delmonico's when a meal
did not happen to suit him, just as his father before
him puffed those he patronized.
The effect of his potations was usually to evolve
some out of the ordinary physical action, but sometimes it confused his head work. On one of his spells
of exhilaration his father's anti-Catholicism gave
through him an atavistic performance. Summoning
Samuel S. Chamberlain, then his secretary, he remarked:
"Sam, I am tired of all this talk of the Herald being
controlled by the Roman Catholic Church and of the
number of Trinity College men on its staff. Now, I
want you to write an editorial that will put us right
before the public and show that we have no affiliations
with Rome. Attack the Catholic Church, its monasteries, nunneries and schools and make it as strong
as you can: Write the editorial and bring it to me
this evening."
Mr. Chamberlain labored dutifully, turning up at
eventide with a blistering "leader." It was headed
"To Hell with the Pope," and contained such burning
phrases as, "Tear down the Monasteries," "Drive out
the Monks," "Let us have no politics from Rome"
and much more of the like. Bennett was delighted.
"Now, Sam," he observed, "you've fooled me many




232 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
times before but you're not going to do it this time.
We'll cable this to-night."
Together they drove to the Paris Herald office and
duly delivered the editorial for transmission to New
York, Bennett personally handing in the copy. His
faithful secretary had used forethought, however, and
passed the word that it was to be held for him. This
was duly done. Bennett went home highly pleased
with himself and proceeded to extend his period of
inebriety. Some ten days later he came to himself
and dimly recalled the indiscretion. He summoned
Sam to his bedside and nervously asked if something
had not been sent to the Herald abusing the Catholic
Church. The dutiful secretary replied that it had not
seemed strong enough and he had recalled the article
for further revision. Bennett blessed him for his
action, took him to ride and during the course of it
stopped at a jeweler's shop to buy a cat's-eye ring
which he placed on the secretary's finger as a reward
for his judgment
" Sam" was the son of Ivory Chamberlain, one of the
ablest of Herald men, and was an ideal secretary for
such an employer. He knew all the ropes of newspaperdom, but even he could not stand everything.
The end of their relations came in the harbor at Nice
_where Bennett, commanding his yacht, persisted in a
course that would have rammed a United States manof-war, insisting that the latter was in the wrong
place. He was dissuaded with difficulty from having
a collision. Mr. Chamberlain joined the remonstrants
and lost so much favor that he left the entourage, to
found Le Matin, since become one of the most successful Parisian papers under the ownership of Mau



BENNETT THE YOUNGER


233


rice Bunau-Varilla and his brother Philippe, of
Panama Canal fame. Chamberlain did some great
work for William R. Hearst in San Francisco and
New York, also aiding Thomas B. Wanamaker in
building up the Philadelphia North American. He
learned to imitate his first employer in various ways
and ended his stay in Philadelphia with an expression
of opinion about shop-keepers that was hardly warranted in Mr. Wanamaker's case. Then he returned
to Mr. Hearst and died in his employ.
Bennett's vagaries brought him into frequent contact with the New York police. They usually treated
him with consideration, but one wild ride in a fore-inhand led to his being clubbed a bit by Police Captain
Alexander S. Williams, who was given to that form
of discipline in dealing with the unruly. Bennett
pounded him for years in the Herald, but at last they
made up. Williams became in time an inspector, and
was hailed up on charges before the Police Board, of
which Major-General Fitz John Porter was a Democratic member. Williams was a Republican with a
pull. Porter felt that Williams was guilty and said
so in an interview given Thomas Gold Alvord, of the
Herald's staff, covering police headquarters. It was
printed. Ballard Smith, then in charge of city news
on the paper, knowing that Williams had been placed
on the immune list, suspended the reporter, while the
two Republicans on the Police Board insisted that
Porter should not sit in the trial. As a result Williams was acquitted. Meeting Alvord he told him that
he had saved him and expressed deep gratitude. Alvord replied that he had lost out himself. At that
Williams boarded the Police Boat patrol, and, know



234 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ing that Bennett was nearing land on a home trip,
met the yacht at Fire Island, whence there came at
once a telegram reinstating the innocent offender.
Alvord rose high in Bennett's favor, being paid twelve
thousand dollars a year, a mighty price for the day,
as head of the Washington Bureau.
It would take an Arabian Night's volume to chronicle
all the mad doings of the young man and his "set"
in the early 'seventies. They tell a tale of his dining
one night at the up-town Delmonico's with Colonel
James Fisk, Jr., Edward Townsend Flynn and Edwin
Booth, when an alarm of fire sounded. Though he was
full clad in evening clothes some erratic impulse led
him to go out and assume direction of the firemen.
He was soon in the way and so much of a nuisance
that one company turned the hose on him. The jet of
water struck him in the chest and flattened him into a
sitting posture on the pavement, from which situation
he was rescued by his companions and taken home,
very damp, inside and out.
The next day, on reaching the Herald office, he sent
for Flynn. "What did I do last night?" he queried.
"Made a big fool of yourself," was the frank response. "You interfered with the firemen by trying
to tell them how to do their work, about which they
know a good deal more than you do."
"Order a rubber overcoat for every man in the department," said Bennett. "Send the bill to me. I
was never so wet in my life."
Once at Delmonico's, the young man, in company
with Mr. Flynn, annoyed at the delay in bringing on a
bottle of champagne, shouldered his way through a
double line of men fronting the bar and called out:




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


235


"I ordered a bottle of champagne fifteen minutes
ago! Where is it.?"
"You would have thought he'd ordered a case," observed a small man in the cluster. Bennett aimed a
resentful blow at the commentator. It was gracefully
warded off, and then a return clip under the jaw
landed him insensible on the floor.
Flynn fled the scene discreetly and left his companion to the well-ordered waiters of Delmonico's.
The next day he was summoned to the Bennett presence, and asked if he had not been with him at Delmonico's. Flynn said he had, but left when the other
started for the bar.
"Who hit mel" was the next question. "It was a
knockout."
Flynn promised to find out, and did. It was "Billy"
Edwards, a light-weight boxer of the day, later, and
for a long time, the "bouncer" at Edward S. Stokes'
Hoffman House bar. When his indentity was known,
Bennett invited him to call, highly delighted to know
that the "knockout" was professional. They became
quite friendly.
Another tale of interest in pugilism avers that he
once set up a "ring" on Lysistrata and personally illustrated the merit of the newly discovered "solar
plexus" blow, using the yacht's butler as an example.
By good luck he was able to flatten out that rather
beefy personage to his own great satisfaction. The
butler, as a measure of safety, chose to remain unconscious for half an hour.
Sometimes an employee took liberties successfully.
George Cooper, a rough and ready Paris Herald man,
coming in one day found Bennett poking around the




236 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
office looking sour. He slapped him on the back cordially and shouted: "Come along, Bennett, I'm going
to show you Paris." To the amazement of beholders
the Commodore assented. The pair went off gaily together on a tour of the town. Cooper had his salary
doubled as the reward for his sociability.
It is related that some time after Charles Henry
Meltzer, the musical critic, joined the New York Herald
staff a curt cable came, reading:
"Tell Meltzer to cut his hair."
Meltzer was duly advised. He declined to submit to
the shears. Soon there came the query:
"Has Meltzer cut his hair.?"
"No," was the reply.
"Send him to St. Petersburg," was the reaction.
Meltzer, it should be explained, had a shoe-brush
hirsute adornment, cut schoolboy fashion, just above
his coat collar. He went to St. Petersburg. The correspondent at that capital received the same order
with the same result and inquiry. The obdurate critic
was next forwarded to Berlin, and possibly other continental capitals. In the end he reached New York
unshorn-and without a job. He sued, and received
damages.
If the elder Bennett admired Grant, the son did not.
It was he who, during the President's second term,
warned the country against Casarism, for which he
was roundly cartooned by Thomas Nast.
An abrasion on the bridge of his nose caused by
a polo accident forced Bennett to wear a patch for
some time on that rather prominent organ. Nast
seized upon it and added it to the caricatures of the
"young man" in Harper's Weekly. He also contrived




:1I


Courtesy of James Melvin Lee, Department of Journalism, New York University
James Gordon Bennett, the Younger, in his prime








BENNETT THE YOUNGER                237
to make him look a sap-head, which in no way was part
of his character.
Men of consequence from abroad sought out the
young Herald proprietor when they came over to see
America. A notable who visited New York in the
early 'seventies was A. P. Primrose, to be better known
as Lord Rosebery. The two made New York glow
together. Bennett and his English guest, both scintillating with champagne, saw the Herald to press one
night with a degree of eclat that quite upset the usually well-ordered establishment. The rosy-cheeked,
fair-haired Primrose was at the time of this American
visit accounted the most brilliant young man in England, quite capable of accomplishing anything he
might set his mind upon. He was credited with three
high purposes-to marry a great heiress, win the
Derby and became prime minister of England. He
did all three, the heiress being Rothschild's daughter.
Bennett always had a warm corner for him in the
Herald.
The Herald office teemed with tales about the Commodore. He required that all things should be made
known to him before they were attempted, and the
office council, playing safety as much as possible, laid
everything in his lap. Most of it stayed there, but
now and then some odd responses came to the waiting
wise men. On one occasion a matter of importance
had waited for a week. The cables were watched with
expectancy, but remained dumb. At last a message
came. The watchers opened it eagerly, hoping to have
their desires endorsed. Instead, came this cryptic
mandate:
"Send two mocking-birds by special messenger."




238 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
The Dog and Bird columns of the Herald produced
a dealer who sold mocking-birds. Two splendid specimens were secured and sent by a faithful hand to Paris.
This spoiled another fortnight. Still no response came
to the council's communication. Silence continued for
a few days more. Then the cable spoke:
"Send mocking-bird food."
Again a messenger was dispatched with a supply of
bird fodder. When he came back he shed light on the
mystery. The Commodore had been expatiating at a
dinner on the melodious merits of the American mocking-bird. A lady guest was skeptical. To prove that
he was right the Commodore at once called for the
birds. When they arrived it was found that they required a special diet, such as was not to be found in
France. Hence the second cable. No reply ever came
to the council's propositions.
Daniel McCarthy had been a locomotive engineer
on the Auburn branch of the New York Central Railroad. He developed a talent for drawing and making
cartoons that secured him a place on the Herald staff.
After a while, he was sent to France to liven up the
Paris Herald, then newly establislhd. One day an
order came assigning him to Trouville. He went, expecting instructions to follow. None came. So he
drew some local washerwomen and sent them on. A
sharp rebuke was all he got in reply. Having nothing
else to do thereafter, he took to brandy and became
comfortably drunk. One day a coach and four, driven
by the Commodore, rolled up to the inn, well laden
with fast specimens of European nobility, male and
female. They were gorgeously arrayed and looked
right royal to the ex-engineer's eyes. It was this ar



BENNETT THE YOUNGER


239


rival he had been sent to depict. Sour with drink,
McCarthy ambled up to the proprietor of the equipage
and queried.
" Say, Bennett I How much do you pay those kings
for riding around with you?"
In reply he was told to return to Paris. Reaching
Paris, the journey was continued to New York. In
New York he was given the key to the street. His
talents shone variously long afterward in the Recorder
and the World, but never again graced the columns of
the Herald.
One of the satrap's amusements in Paris when inspired by wine was to walk the length of a narrow restaurant, pulling the table-cloths off the tables on both
sides of the aisle as he passed, crunching the crockery
under his feet. The proprietor would send in a handsome bill to his patron. It was always paid. Wall
mirrors in public places also often came in for a smash.
ing at his hands.
His movements were highly uncertain. Every morning his room in the Herald building was dusted and put
in order against the chances that he might walk in.
Woe betide the luckless janitor were he caught in arrears with dust or litter.
Bennett's generosities to the staff were fitful and
tantalizing, and were usually followed by some vexatious offset in the way of criticism or humiliation.
He tossed away huge sums in his way of living. When
his nephew, Isaac Bell, Jr., was born he called to see
the infant in its cradle and laid a check for one hundred
thousand dollars at the youngster's feet. As he grew
up the nephew found the uncle very difficult.
Plovers' eggs were a dainty that much pleased Ben



240 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
nett's palate. It was a Herald tradition that James
Creelman, the paper's star reporter, was invited to remain at luncheon where the delicate ovules were served.
They had been brought at great expense from far up
on the Orinoco, and represented about four dollars
each. Mr. Creelman was invited to try one. It made
an instant appeal. He took another, and another, until he was credited with consuming about fifty dollars
worth of the rarities. Bennett grinned grimly, and restrained both his temper and his appetite. In a way
he was pleased at Creelman's endorsement of his taste
in eggs.
There are weird tales a-plenty-of wild night rides
in Newport and Paris, and startling adventures that
do not seem quite sane when narrated in cold blood.
Indeed, he was not in his right mind when wine had
had its way. Sober, the coldest and most calculating
of men; drunk, he was a madman. Once, it may be
noted, he undertook to drive a coach and four through
a low and narrow archway in Paris, in which venture
he was scraped off the box and nearly killed, lying for
weeks under surgical treatment. At other times he
sat on the box stark naked and dashed along the darkened highways. In his younger days in New York, in
company with Gunning S. Bedford he would hire a
carriage and pair from some livery stable and dash
off on reckless rides that would sometimes last for a
week. He liked scenes along country roads and took
this way of gratifying his taste.
Bennett's charities were large. He once contril
buted one hundred thousand dollars to relieve distress in Ireland. The Herald's free ice fund brought
much hot weather relief in New York's crowded tene.




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


241


ments. Further he built the memorial that marks the
site of Fort Washington on upper Manhattan Island.
The Commodore was a man of moods, and seldom -
made any effort to restrain them. Men were sent
scampering about the earth only to find themselves on
fools' errands. This was often the case with members
of the staff incontinently summoned to Paris, there
to be kept dancing attendance for many weary days,
and then ordered home summarily without even seeing
Bennett. On one occasion two important men were
called oversea by cable. They departed hurriedly, and
on reaching Paris, polished up to meet the Boss. He
was found seated at a desk in the office of the Paris
Herald, busily writing. The pair draped themselves
in the doorway and respectfully awaited attention. It
soon came.
"What in hell are you doing here?" Bennett queried, as he raised his eyes from his work.
"You sent for us," one stammered.
"Go back to New York," was the curt command.
They went I
The chief editorial writers of the Herald in the
palmy days of its junior proprietor were the Reverend
Doctor George H. Hepworth, an independent parson
who had failed to hold a large congregation in a corrugated iron church near the Grand Central depot, in
what is now New York's highest priced area, and
Charles Nordhoff. Hepworth was a handsome man,
with flowing side whiskers and some considerable attainments, who abased himself at the feet of his proprietor and tried to meet every whim of his swiftchanging mind. Not so Nordhoff. He was a sturdy
and much beloved character in American literary life.




242 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
As an editorial writer on the Herald, he stood up
stoutly for the things he believed to be right. He
would come to work with a large supply of pencil stubs
with which he always wrote his copy.
Robert Hunt Lyman, then new on the night desk,
whither he had advanced from Yale and the Springfield Republican, recalls a council called by the Commodore to determine the Herald's course a few days
before the national election of 1888. Bennett was
inclined to come out for Benjamin Harrison as against
Grover Cleveland, who was running for reelectionbecause of the Sackville West incident and partly because he thought the former would win. Lyman and
S. J. E. Rawling, a talented young Englishman, were
added to the conference, largely because Bennett
wanted to test their judgment. Doctor Hepworth,
Charles Nordhoff, Doctor George W. Hosmer and
John Russell Young were the elders. Bennett stated
his views and called on Lyman and Rawling first for
opinions. Both were adverse. Hepworth and Young
were acquiescent-eager to bend to the imperial will.
Bennett accordingly ordered Nordhoff to write a
leader coming out for Harrison. He quietly declined,
remarking that the agreement under which he came to
the Herald prescribed that he should never be asked
to write in support of things to which he was opposed.
To this Bennett gave cheerful assent and instructed
Young, a Republican, to produce the editorial. This he
did. It was put into type, but never printed.
Once when Bennett summoned a member of the staff
to Paris the editor in charge demurred, cabling that
the man was "indispensable." Bennett sent for a list
of men who were presumed to be in this class. A dozen




BENNETT THE YOUNGER                243
names were forwarded to him. He discharged them
all, with this grim comment: "I will have no indispensable men in my employ."
Some of the night editors on the Paris Herald were
fond of beer. They stacked the empty bottles on a
shelf above the desk of a teetotaler. One evening
Bennett came in and observed to the startled writer
that he seemed fond of refreshment. Having no explanation the man admitted the fact. Remarking that
he could hardly afford so much beer on his salary, the
proprietor amiably raised it one hundred francs per
month on the spot.
By some wise provision of nature it took but little
liquor to upset the younger Bennett. Two glasses of
champagne would completely destroy his equilibrium,
so it followed that his potations did little interior damage though they often imperiled his person.
"In 1900," related William Dinwiddie, an active
Herald man of that day, "when I came out of South
Africa, via Paris, after the Boer War, I followed the
usual policy demanded by Mr. Bennett of obsequiously
calling his private secretary, Mitchell's, attention to
the fact that I was in Paris, and that I would esteem
it an honor if I might, at Mr. Bennett's convenience,
see him personally. Mr. Bennett was a great stickler
as to the form of approach made by men who were on
his pay-roll.
"Within an hour I had received word that I was to
dine with the Commodore at his Louis XIV estate in
Versailles, and that Mitchell was to take me down that
evening, by motor. I still rather vividly remember
the horrors of that first early motor experience. The
Commodore owned a French make of car said to be




244 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
the most powerful of its kind, at that time. It had
four cylinders, was chain-driven, had a rubber-bulbed
horn and was cranked by hand. The roaring engine
was so badly balanced that when it was not moving forward it actually quivered and shimmied over the
pavement. I think we touched the unheard speed, at
times, of forty miles an hour, and I have a dazed recollection of women and children and pigs and chickens
fleeing out of our path, in the narrow twisting streets
of some of the little French villages, as we went roaring by with a spasmodically sounding horn.
"Two years of war and being shot at occasionally
had not had half the terrors of that trip.
"When the lodge gates had been thrown open and
we had passed inside the huge grey and moss-grown
walls which surrounded the Commodore's estate, a
dialogue took place between Mitchell and one of the
Commodore's men servants, in exclamatory French
which I did not understand. Mitchell laughingly interpreted that the servants were all worried because Mr.
Bennett had climbed on top of the wall, at a brokendown place, and that they could not get him to come
down. Following the man, under the shade of the
huge trees of the park, we reached the spot on the
wall where the Commodore was precariously teetering
along the narrow top, some twelve feet off the ground.
An old gardener, carrying a light ladder which barely
reached the top of the wall, was begging the Commodore to descend by its aid. Mr. Bennett was protesting
that he never would come down until he found the place
where he went up. I personally never did see the
breach in the wall where he had ascended. As he
caught sight of me, he exclaimed 'Hello, Dinwiddie, I




BENNETT THE YOUNGER                245
am glad to see you.' Then the excited, trembling old
gardener placed the ladder, and the Commodore, nimbly if a little uncertainly, climbed down, to shake hands
with me.
"The dinner that night under an immense tree,
lit with electric bulbs, was another and interesting
story."
When the new Herald building was completed at
Broadway and Thirty-fifth Street no feature of its
choice design attracted more attention than the owls
that blinked at nightfall over its portals. There was
much puzzlement as to why the owner of the Herald
had chosen Minerva's bird for a totem. Certainly the
paper did not typify any high-brow grade of wisdom.
No explanation was forthcoming, but a good reason
lay behind the unique decoration. When Bennett was a
young officer on the Henrietta, cruising to Port Royal,
he fell asleep on watch. The hooting of an owl awoke
him just in time to save the yacht from running ashore
on a sandy reef, where, if she had not been lost, he
would have been. In grateful memory he adopted the
solemn bird as an omen of luck.
As Bennett insisted on having all things about the
Herald personal unto himself, all messages were sent
and received in his name. Orders to correspondents
were signed "Bennett." The Herald never appeared
as such in this phase of its administration. Men who
wrote letters in the course of Herald business signed
them "J. G. Bennett." He never used the full cognomen, as did his father. Mastery was, of course, behind all this. There could be but one known man in
the shop-Bennett. If others bobbed up their heads
they were speedily knocked back into proper obscurity




246 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
or lopped off. This desire to dominate extended to his
possessions generally. He was captain of his yacht,
the professional seamen being subordinates, whom he
frequently startled with his vagaries.
He persisted in preserving his imperiousness at any
cost. Once in his apartment at Paris he was annoyed
by a roll of bank-notes that interfered with the use of
his pocket, and, in a fit tossed the bundle into the fireplace. A guest rescued the bundle and when the fit
wore off returned it with a remark that he had saved
it from the flames.
"Perhaps that is where I wanted the roll," said
Bennett. With that he threw the bothersome bills into
the fire. This time they were consumed.
Bennett could be gracious, and sometimes waswhen he had a motive. Emma Eames, the American
prima donna, in her Some Memories and Reflections
recites a case in point.* Returning to Paris in 1901
after a year and a half among the leaves of Vallombrosa she "was amazed" one afternoon to have Mr.
Bennett's card brought up to her. "I read his name
unbelievingly," she narrates, "as it was a matter of
common talk that he did not like me-although no one
knew why, least of all myself-and had given the New
York Herald emphatic instructions to dismiss any operatic success of mine with a bare mention, and not to
print my name if it could be helped."
Curious to know the object of the call she caused
the visitor to be shown into her presence. "I have
come," he remarked, "to make you my deepest apology." He then went on to explain that a rival singer
had, seven years before, cabled him from New York
*Copyright, 1927. Courtesy of D. Appleton and Company.




BENNETT THE YOUNGER                247
to Paris that her reception in America had been spoiled
by intriguing on the part of Miss Eames. He had regarded this as "contemptible" and had cabled the
boycotting order to the Herald. Having just learned
by merest chance that "this singer had deliberately
lied" he had come that afternoon "to place the Herald
at my feet."
The lady describes her visitor's appearance as
"hard, austere," and remarks that a Herald reporter
told her that the facts of the bogus cable were known
in the office, but no one dared tell the truth to the
proprietor. Despite his austerity, Miss Eames testifies: "Nevertheless, he possessed a keen sense of
justice, as the foregoing proves, and a very tender
heart. He adored animals, and perpetuated his affection for them in a motley array of china and painted
iron figures of every size which took up a large part of
his lawn at Beaulieu. Every time he went to Nice he
added to his collection by purchasing a new specimen
from a poor old woman who sold such wares."
To add to the amende, Bennett commissioned Julian
Story, who was then the singer's husband, to paint
his portrait. The sittings were given at Beaulieu,
where the prima donna was regaled with further gossip
concerning her rival, who, Bennett said, was disposed
to accumulate obligations when she visited his villa by
giving impromptu song recitals, accompanying herself
at the piano. Then she would collect by making requests which he found hard to honor and impossible
to refuse. As a last resort he found protection by
sending the piano into storage.
Two years later-in 1903-Bennett called again to
tell Miss Eames that her rival had circulated a rumor




248 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
that she (Eames) could sing no more because of an
attack of paralysis, and to suggest that she do something to bring herself prominently before the public.
"What can I do " she asked. "I am far from well,
though I am equally far from being paralyzed."
"You can give some parties," he replied. So the
parties were given in the shape of four musicales which
were copiously reported in the Paris and New York
Heralds, so much so that a flattering friend described
the latter sheet as "Your New York Herald."
Madame Nordica, another Maine nightingale, enjoyed substantial favors. On one of her visits to New
York she found a house awaiting her on Murray Hill,
and Nicholas Biddle, the Herald's society expert, was
commissioned to provide her with horses and a
barouche. Bennett paid the bill.
Bennett disliked tenants. He sold the Bennett
Building in Nassau Street, but did tolerate Hudnut's
drug-store in the Herald Building at Broadway and
Ann Street, mainly because the lease had been made
by his father. Robert E. Livingston, of the Herald
staff, suggested that a branch Federal post-office would
be a good thing for the new home in Herald Square.
The New York Postmaster E: M. Morgan made the
necessary arrangements. Then came the rub. Bennett would accept no rental and the government would
not move in without paying it. A compromise was
finally affected at the nominal rate of fifty dollars per
month. The station speedily became one of the most
useful in New York.
In 1894 Ralph D. Blumenfeld tried to manage the
uneasy Herald. The new building was being furnished,
and Stanford White, the architect, suggested buying a




BENNETT THE YOUNGER


249


silver desk set he had seen at Tiffany's, somewhat
shop-worn, for which they asked two thousand five
hundred dollars, to adorn the Bennett room. He
thought Blumenfeld could beat them down to one
thousand dollars. Ralph called at the store, offered
five hundred dollars and came away with the goods
for seven hundred and fifty dollars. His weekly report to Bennett showed the item among others. A
fierce cable came telling him to pay for the silver out
of his own salary. It had been delivered and duly
placed on the autocrat's desk. The bill had also been
paid by the Herald. There Blumenfeld let it rest. He
soon left the paper, but later met Bennett in Paris,
and was asked if it was true he was running a cigar
store in London, as his former employer had heard.
He replied that he wished he was. Bennett offered
to be of any service he could to him outside of the
Herald. When Blumenfeld rose to power in London
journalism, he was able to do the Herald several good
turns, for which he refused to accept pay. So they
were friendly, but not sociable. After Bennett's death
Mrs. Bennett wrote Blumenfeld to say that her husband had had the desk set on his conscience and wished
it sent him. In due time it arrived from New York.
Incidentally, the price had never been taken out of
Blumenfeld's salary.
Personally, I never met the Commodore. After the
reorganization of the Associated Press in 1900, when
I insisted that the Herald and all other New York
papers should enjoy equal rights with the World, for
several years he sent me the Herald's proxy to represent in the annual meeting of the organization. His
attorney, Colonel William Jay, would bring me the




250 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
precious paper in person and deliver it with the air of
one bestowing a great confidence. It was the Commodore's grand way of saying thanks.
"Mr. Bennett," wrote John Russell Young of the
Herald proprietor, "is a man of strong character.
He has courage, clearness, a quick mind, a thorough knowledge of his profession, generous and
resolute qualities, and great independence." Young
was "astonished" when he came on the Herald staff
"at his princely way of exceeding my own expectations."




CHAPTER XI


SPORTSMAN AND DUELIST
No MAN did more to stimulate interest in the costly
sports of America's gentlemen than James Gordon
Bennett, the younger. He took part in or backed yachting, polo, coaching and aviation all his life. There
are a legion of "Bennett Cups" to be competed for
each seasonhere and abroad. He encouraged aviation
with the Coupe Internationale des Aeronauts for balloonists and the Coupe Internationale d'Aviation for
the aviators. Polo, horse-racing and field sports
in general received rewards at his hands. He also bestowed a Lysistrata cup for the stimulation of steamyachting.
Bennett began his sporting career very early. His
father was extravagantly liberal in allowing him
pocket money enough to meet every desire. In 1857
he built the seventy-seven-ton sloop Rebecca and soon
made himself known in yachting circles. The youthful
skipper was elected a member of the New York Yacht
Club, a little irregularly it may be observed, at a council of captains held August 12, 1857, at New Bedford,
where the fleet had parked on its annual cruise. He
was probably the youngest skipper ever accorded this
fellowship, being but sixteen years and three months
old. From that date till the end of his life he was an
active factor in the affairs of the organization. The
251




252 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
boy was a fearless navigator. On June 24, 1858, in a
race around Long Island, he led all the entries at
Montauk Point, only to be ruled out for taking a shortcut through Plum Gut instead of the Race as provided
in the articles of agreement. The other yachts engaged
were the schooners Haze, Silvie, Favorite, and
Widgeon; the sloops Madgie, Una and Minnie. Silvie
and Minnie were awarded the prizes. His performance
was not due to sharp practise but to bold seamanship.
Plum Gut had been cut out of the course because of
the risk involved.
The next year he challenged the schooner Restless,
five hundred dollars a side, to race from Brenton's
Reef off Newport, to Thogg's Neck in Long Island
Sound, a distance of one hundred and fifty-four
miles. Restless was eighteen tons heavier than Rebecca and won by twelve minutes. Besides much racing
with other yachts he sailed the little Rebecca across
the Atlantic to the Isle of Wight and back again-no
small feat at that or any other time.
Extending his ambitions he put Rebecca aside and
built the one hundred and seventy-ton Henrietta. An
earlier chapter details his service during the war in
this trim schooner. The conflict over, he renewed his
career as a yachtsman. He literally sailed into the
upper circles of New York clubdom from which his
father would have been ignominiously excluded had
he so much as tried to enter. No doubt the old gentleman chuckled to himself when he saw his headstrong
offspring go over the top so easily into the New York
Yacht Club, the Union Club and the Jockey Club, domains then limited to the elect.
The Yacht Club elected him vice-commodore in 1867.




SPORTSMAN       AND DUELIST          253
He was then twenty-six, and served from 1867 to 1870
inclusive. In 1871 he was elected commodore, serving
through to 1874 inclusive. In 1884-1885 he was again
commodore.
The most notable cross-Atlantic race ever contested
was that between Henrietta, Vesta and Fleetwing,
owned respectively by Bennett, Pierre Lorillard, Jr.
and George Frank Osgood. The three sailed from
Sandy Hook on December 11, 1866, in the face of wintry weather. Henrietta arrived at Cowes on Christmas Day, having made the trip in the amazingly short
time of thirteen days, twenty-one hours and fifty-five
minutes. Fleetwing and Vesta showed up on December twenty-sixth, Boxing Day, close together. The
time of the former was fourteen days, six hours and
ten minutes; of the latter, fourteen days, six hours,
fifty minutes.
Each of the young gentlemen owners put up thirty
thousand dollars to back the speed of his craft. Mr.
Bennett took along for company Charles Longfellow,
Lawrence Jerome and Stephen Fiske, the dramatic
writer. So notable was the voyage of Henrietta
and her competitors that I deem it worth while to reproduce the Logs, kindly furnished me by Secretary
George A. Cormack of the New York Yacht Club, in
whose custody the record remains. They follow:
OCEAN RACE
(Sandy Hook to the Needles)
Start December 11, 1866.
Daily log of:      Henrietta  Fleetwing   Vesta
Date              Miles     Miles      Miles
December 12        237        239       240
13        232        249       205




254 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Daily log of:        Henrietta   Fleetwing   Vesta
Date               Miles      Miles      Miles
December    14         203        220        205
15        -           186        227
16         246        218        234
17         280        240        236
18         250        160        207
19        -           188        222
20         260        260        277
21         157        136        165
22         252        232        253
23        --          215        201
24         172        194        165
25        -           270        209
Henrietta anchored Dec. 25 at 5.32 p. m. in Cowes
Roads. Distance 3,106 miles. Time, 13 days; 21
hours; 55 minutes.
Fleetwing anchored Dec. 26 at 1.30 a. m. in Cowes
Roads. Distance, 3,135 miles. Time, 14 days; 6
hours; 10 minutes.
Vesta anchored Dec. 26 at 2.10 a. m. in Cowes Roads.
Distance, 3,144 miles. Time, 14 days; 6 hours; 50
minutes.


This contest between the three vessels has never
been equaled. High westerly winds prevailed all the
way across. There was no beating to windward, and
the race was an unremitting drive. It remains one of
the most difficult ever sailed by pleasure craft. Moreover it was marked by a dreadful tragedy. On December nineteenth, Fleetwing was swept by a heavy sea
which picked six seamen out of the cockpit and carried
them to a watery grave.
The daring of the bold young gentlemen roused tremendous interest both here and abroad. Bennett, finding Henrietta too small for his growing ambitions,
bought the schooner Hirondelle from Dexter Brad



SPORTSMAN       AND   DUELIST        255
ford, Jr. of Newport, Rhode Island. She was lengthened some fifteen feet and renamed Dauntless. Coming
down from Nyack on the Hudson on board the river
steamer Chrystenah, on which I was the newsboy for
two seasons, I used to see the Dauntless lying off
Fort Washington, a thing of beauty aglow with
brass, the deck polished until it shone and every strand
of cordage as taut as the strings of a fiddle.
There had been no International contest since August 22, 1851, when America won the cup which has
since borne her name, but, following the sensational
race between Bennett and his rivals, the splendid
schooner Sappho, built in Brooklyn at the yard of C.
and R. Poillon, for William P. Douglas, ventured
across the sea in 1868, only to be beaten by four other
schooners in a run around the Isle of Wight. She
sailed in cruising rig and with sea-ballast aboard.
Encouraged by her poor showing, James Ashbury,
owner of Cambria, one of the victors, on behalf of the
Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Victoria Yacht
Club, invited the New York Yacht Club to participate
in the races held by the two bodies in August, 1869,
around the Isle of Wight. He coupled this with an
offer to contest for the America's cup on his own behalf, or to race across the Atlantic for a cup or silver
service valued at two hundred and fifty sovereigns.
The New York Yacht Club declined the trans-oceean
challenge but expressed a willingness to defend the
America's cup. Ashbury responded that he would sail
under the flag of the Royal Thames Yacht Club but
sought modifications in the deed of gift, which were rejected by the New York Yacht Club. Bennett meanwhile became interested in pitting Dauntless against
Cambria, and an ocean race was arranged to be sailed




256 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
in September, 1869. Bennett was unable to get Dauntless into shape. Ashbury and the New York Yacht
Club came to terms as to the America's cup and he
agreed to bring the Cambria over in the season of 1869
for a try at that elusive trophy. Bennett now added to
the interest by arranging to carry out his cross-Atlantic challenge, sailing to the other side to meet his
antagonist. Dauntless was a keel schooner one hundred and twenty-three feet ten inches over all, twentysix feet seven inches beam and twelve feet six inches
in draught. Cambria was of two hundred and fortyeighf tons displacement, built by Michael Ratsey at
Cowes. She was one hundred and eight feet in length,
over all, twenty-one feet beam and drew twelve feet of
water.
Bennett took every precaution that could attend assurance of victory. The crew was a picked one.
Richard Brown, a Sandy Hook pilot who had been
sailing master of America nearly two decades before,
and Samuel Samuels, who had driven the clipper ship
Dreadnaught from New York to Liverpool in thirteen
days, without ever shortening sail, went along as advisers. Martin J. Lyons, a Sandy Hook pilot, with a
reputation as a smart seaman, was sailing master.
The trip across was pleasant and Dauntless reached
Cook Harbor, Ireland, in good order, from which point
the start was to be made. The course was laid from
Daunt's Rock to Sandy Hook. On July 4, 1870, the
two yachts were towed to Daunt's Rock where the race
started at two thirty-five P. M. The signal to get under
way was given by H. B. M. S. Mayflower hoisting the
Blue Peter. A steady west wind blew and the sea was
hazy. The race was a tame affair, won by Cambria
in twenty-three days, five hours, seventeen minutes




SPORTSMAN       AND DUELIST           257
and fifteen seconds. Dauntless made port off Sandy
Hook in twenty-three days, seven hours. As a matter
of fact she should have won but some error of seamanship sent her over a longer course. Their respective
logs follow:
OCEAN MATCH RACE
CAMBRIA vs DAUNTLESS
Start July 4, 1870, 2.38 p. m.
Cambria-Commo. James Ashbury.
Dauntless-Vice Commo. James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
Start from Daunt's Rock, Cook Harbor, Ireland, to
Sandy Hook Lightship
LOG


July 5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25


Cambria
miles
56
179
142
77
220
97
133
140
141
174
214
92
61
180
104
144
169
158
75
158
85


Dauntless
miles
103
90
140
210
120
122
155
91
130
155
148
150
70
68
145
225
110
191
52
120
93




258 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Cambria                    Dauntless
miles                     miles
July 26       82                        95
27       36                       180
Cambria sailed 2917 miles in 23 days, 5 hours,
17 min., 15 sec.
Dauntless sailed 2963 miles in 23 days, 7 hours.
The three captains and the owner did not get on
well. Captain Samudls once threatened to put his employer in irons and was quite capable of having done
so. Lyons in after years observed that "there were
too many amateurs on board," referring to Bennett
and his friends.
Mr. Ashbury had waived his point which was for a
race of vessel against vessel and agreed to sail against
a fleet for the America's cup. The event came off on
August 8, 1870, and Dauntless was one of the defenders.
The old America was also among the eighteen starters.
Magic came in first, Dauntless fifth, just behind America. Cambria finished eighth.
The undiscouraged Englishman sought for another
trial but with a new schooner, Livonia, as the contestant. Bennett was now commodore of the club and the
correspondence was between the two, Ashbury being
commodore of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club. After
much bickering, the New York Yacht Club committee
reserved the schooners Columbia, Dauntless, Palmer
and Sappho as possible defenders in a series of races
that seem now to have made Ashbury's task unduly hard. Columbia won two and Sappho two out of
the four races sailed. Dauntless was out of it by reason of a rent in her mainsail. The committee accordingly had planned to have her sail the decisive race,




SPORTSMAN       AND DUELIST          259
and waited for repairs. When being towed to position
the fouling of a hawser with one of her stays broke it,
and she was compelled to drop out in favor of Columbia. Commodore Ashbury had asked for a twelve-contest race. The Yacht Club insisted on seven. When Livonia had been defeated four times out of seven,-her
one victory being due to an accident to Columbia,-the
Yacht Club declared the affair ended. This was in
October, 1871. Ashbury informed the club that he
would be at the line on October twenty-third. No one
met him. The next day, October twenty-fourth, Bennett accommodated him with a run of twenty miles to
sea and back, starting from Sandy Hook Lightship.
Dauntless came in first, beating Livonia by ten minutes,
thirty-one seconds. The rivals agreed to try it over
the next day, but bad weather prevented sailing. Ashbury claimed to have won four out of seven races on
technical points-no contestant showing up part of
the time. Returning to England he accused the New
York Yacht Club of "unfair and unsportsmanlike proceedings." Before the races he had presented Commodore Bennett with three cups to be contested for by
New York*Yacht Club members. These were now rejected, the club resolving: "That they cannot with
any respect compete for the cups deposited with Commodore Bennett by Commodore Ashbury, to be sailed
for by the yachts of the New York Yacht Club, and
that the secretary be instructed to return the cups to
Commodore Ashbury." This was done.
In 1885, while Bennett was serving his second term
as. commodore of the New York Yacht Club, Sir Richard Sutton, owner of the fast British cutter Genesta,
challenged for the America's famous cup. Yachting




260 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
circles in America were vastly stirred and steps were
taken to provide defenders. Bennett and William P.
Douglas furnished the money to construct Priscilla.
Opposing her in the tryout was Puritan, built by a
Boston group headed by General C. J. Paine and Malcolm Forbes. Puritan proved to be the better boat
and successfully defended the trophy. Following the
defeat of Genesta by Puritan, Bennett and Douglas offered a consolation cup to be sailed for on September
23, 1885. Sir Richard Sutton, owner of Genesta, had
proved himself a true sportsman, and there was much
rejoicing when she won. Incidentally, Genesta beat
the old Dauntless for the Brenton's Reef and Cape
May cups, both Bennett trophies. He gave the first to
the New York Yacht Club on March 23, 1871, and the
latter (gold) in 1872. The first named required sailing: "From the Lightship off Newport to and around
the Lightship off Sandy Hook and outside of Long Island and return." The second: "From an imaginary
line between the Judges' Steamer and Buoy 5 off
Sandy Hook to and around the First Fathom light-vessel off Cape May, leaving it on the Port or Starboard
hand at will, and back to Sandy Hook light-vessel,
passing the same to the Southward and Eastward
within one hundred yards distance."
Bennett had sold Dauntless in 1879 to Commodore
John Waller of the New York Yacht Club, who in turn
disposed of her to Caldwell H. Colt, of Hartford, a
member of the famous arms family, under whose ownership she was often heard from. He then gave up
sails for steam, and in 1882 built at the Newburg, New
York, yard of Ward, Stanton and Company a swift
screw-propeller named Namouna. After two years




SPORTSMAN      AND DUELIST          261
he tired of her and she was disposed of through
Charles R. Flint to become a South American gunboat.
Bennett also built a small steamer, Polynia, which he
did not use much. She became the property of his
friend William P. Douglas.
For some years he experimented with light craftspeed-boats on the Thames and Seine. Finally in 1900
G. L. Watson designed a splendid steamer named
Lysistrata, after a Greek lady reputed to be very beautiful and very fast. She was built by Denny and
Brothers, at Dunbarton, at a cost of six hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars. "Palatial" was the
proper word to use in describing the vessel. No royal
yacht was so splendidly equipped. The owner had a
suite of rooms on each of her three decks, to use as
best suited his fancy, besides ample quarters for
guests. There was also a complete Turkish bath outfit.
She carried a crew of a hundred men and an Alderney
cow comfortably quartered in a padded stall, whence
she supplied the cabin table with milk and cream.
Bossy and her predecessor on Namouna were probably
the only cows to enjoy such an experience. An electric
milker extracted the lacteal fluid from the cow's udder.
An electric fan over her stall, kept the Alderney cool
in warm weather.
Like the lamb in the circus "Happy Family," the
cow had to be renewed now and then. On one of these
occasions Mr. Bennett made an inland tour by auto
from his yacht, taking along one of his Paris Herald
editors. After a considerable search among the peasant farms, the right sort of animal was found and
bought. Then Bennett handed the tow-rope to the editor, remarking: "Here,, you'll have to lead




262 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
the cow back to the yacht." The employee dutifully
took the tether and after a wearisome walk brought
the heifer safely to the landing. To have balked would
have cost him his job.
Lysistrata was in active use until shortly before the
World War broke out. Then Mr. Bennett's physician
advised him that his health was harmed by cruising,
and he gave up what had been his chief delight. The
yacht was finally sold to the Russian Government.
One of the laws on shipboard was that there should
be no gambling. The Commodore saw to it that the
baggage of guests and crew was regularly searched for
cards. He would have the packs brought to him and
personally tear up the four aces, thus rendering the
rest of the pasteboards useless for playing purposes.
Guests on the yacht could never be certain what the
next freak of their host would be. On one occasion,
while in port at Amsterdam, he engaged a theatrical
company to give a special performance on board. Liking their talent, he put to sea, to the great dismay of
the actors. They were kept performing to his delight,
bountifully paid for their inconvenience and safely returned to shore. The episode broke up the program of
the Amsterdam manager who, however, managed to
turn it to account in advertising.
Once James Creelman, who held a roving commission for many years, was called from Paris to join his
employer on Lysistrata, at Leghorn. He put out in a
wherry and soon reached the companionway over the
side. As he was about to come on board he was stopped
by a quartermaster.
"You can't come on board," said the man, who knew
him well.




SPORTSMAN       AND DUELIST          263
"Why not " asked Creelman. "I have been ordered
here."
He wore a fine brown beard.
"You see," replied the quartermaster, "you will
have to take off that beard. The Commodore will permit no one on the ship who isn't shaved clean."
Creelman refused to be shorn. He went ashore and
there learned that all hands had been scraped clean of
hirsute adornments, from the captain down. He got
hold of the yacht's itinerary and followed her to every
port as far as Fiume. At every one of these he was
refused permission to board, and returned to Paris
unshorn without ever laying eyes on his employer.
Bennett never mentioned the episode and their relations continued until Creelman left the Herald at his
own volition to join the World.
Bennett once explained this freak to George A. Cormack, Secretary of the New York Yacht Club, as due
to his admiration for the clean-shaved, square-jawed
officers and men of the British Navy. He therefore
determined to have the crew of Lysistrata smoothfaced, consoling the sailors for their shearing by allowing extra pay in atonement for their sacrifice.
It will be seen that to be his guest was not always
an unalloyed pleasure in his more active days. But
in his last years he mellowed and became a delightful
host; also more moderate in his handling of men.
In the course of his yachting experience he attended a
German regatta at Kiel and encountered what he considered a severe snub from the then Emperor William
II. To this was credited some of the animosity he
showed toward that unlucky potentate when the World
War began.




264 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Bennett's devotion to the sea took the further form
of minute supervision of nautical items printed in the
Herald. Each day a copy of the paper was sent him
with the name of the writer of each article written on
it in red pencil and that of its editor in blue. Woe
betide the wight who perpetrated lubberly errors in
technique. The instant one caught the Commodore's
eye there would come a blast by cable: "Why was
that damned fool Blank allowed to write that shipwreck story? Doesn't he know the wind and tide in
that neighborhood never perform as he states it?
Never let him touch a sea story again."
Mistakes in terms were equally sinful. To erect a
crow's nest on ships that do not carry that form of
convenience for look-outs was to be for ever excommunicated from anything pertaining to navigation.
He always had some naval officer on the pay-roll.
One of these, Lieutenant J. L. Stickney, stood by Admiral George Dewey on the bridge of the Olympia the
day of the battle of Manila Bay. His cable dispatch
to the Herald describing the event cost eight thousand
dollars in tolls.
Commander J. D. Jerrold Kelly was another Navy
man greatly esteemed by the Commodore.
Bennett's passion for the sea was always manifest.
He carried a master's license, charted his own courses,
and had a tell-tale in his stateroom that gave the alarm
when the helm shifted unduly. He would soon be on
the bridge laying down the law to the official skipper.
When Lord Dunraven withdrew Valkeyrie III, from
the International Yacht Race for the America's cup
in 1895, he charged that he had been the victim of
false measurements. The New York Yacht Club in



SPORTSMAN       IND DUELIST         265
vestigated. Robert E. Livingston, one of the Herald's best reporters, got hold of the testimony. It
filled four or five pages of the paper and made a
prodigious row inside the club, of which Bennett had
twice been commodore, and to which he had always
been more than kind. A flood of cables went to Paris
and an effort was made to expel him. This was headed
off by Herman Oelrichs and some of the older set.
William C. Reick, the city editor, was summoned to
the awful presence oversea and kept waiting a month
before Bennett would see him. By that time the
excitement had died down and the subject was dropped.
Bennett's voyagings carried him far across the Atlantic and back, many times to Bermuda and New
York. The Mediterranean was his favorite cruising
ground, but the yacht now and then found her way
into the Indian Ocean, going at least once to Ceylon.
Wherever the yacht went it was followed by news
summaries sent from the Herald office in New York,
so that the proprietor and his guests always knew
what was going on in the world. The cablegrams even
pursued the yacht up the Nile where frequent telegraph stations permitted constant contact with events.
Bennett took deep interest in the development of
American shipping, and the Herald was foremost in
favoring measures to keep the flag upon the sea.
Thus it was that its ship news occupied a space not
given the same intelligence by any other newspaper
anywhere.
Bennett's playfulness could find outlet in less heroic
games than yachting. E. P. Mitchell, long of the Sun,
in his Memoirs of an Editor,* recalls him as "a tall
*Copyright, 1924. Courtesy of Charles Scribner's Sons.




266 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
youth of nineteen or twenty" whom he "saw often and
admired reverently as the beau ideal of the man of
the world and all around dare-devil. In the neighborhood [of Thirty-eighth Street and Fifth Avenue] he
was generally credited with the invention of the new
form of sport then popular thereabouts; for instance,
such as the game of breaking up the long processions of boarding-school young ladies promenading
the avenue two by two, at about four o'clock on sunny
afternoons. The demoralization and stampede were
effected with schrecklichkeit by plunging between the
foremost couple, enfilading the entire line and throwing
it into confusion, and then dodging to escape the duenna at the rear."
This amusing exercise came to be called "Bennetting" and was much practised by emulative youths.
Together with William P. Douglas, Bennett brought
polo to America and when young was an enthusiastic
player of the kingly game. Coaching became his fad
when years took him away from the polo field.
Riding once in Bar Harbor with the late Joseph
Pulitzer, we stopped before the post-office. During
the pause, a tall striking chap in his mid fifties came
up and began gaily chaffing the owner of the World.
Mr. Pulitzer was nervous under the encounter and
made haste to end the interview. As we drove off he
said: "That handsome scamp was Fred May, who
fought a duel with Bennett. He is trying to sell me
some real estate, and I am afraid he will if I am not
careful."
Mr. Pulitzer's usual precaution preserved him
from the purchase, but the figure of the "handsome
scamp" remains in memory. So does the duel. It




SPORTSMAN      AND DUELIST          267
came about in this fashion: Doctor William'May, of
a distinguished Baltimore family, was a physician in
New York, residing at 44 West Nineteenth Street, then
in the fashionable belt and not far from the Union
Club. Besides the son Frederick, aged twenty-six in
1876, several daughters of unusual beauty graced the
household. One of these, Caroline, was noted for
charm and daring. The Mays were persons of spirit.
Doctor May's brother, Charles, had been a very gallant Colonel of Dragoons at Buena Vista and had
married a daughter of George Law, the New York
street-car and shipping magnate, who gave him the
prosaic job of superintendent of the Eighth Avenue
horse car line, a profitable parental possession.
Charles May, when a dashing dragoon, had once
startled Baltimore by riding his horse up three flights
of stairs in Barnum's hotel, then the palatial hostelry
of the town. One of the privileges of belonging to the
Union Club was that of being wild and respectable at
the same time. Hence it was that Bennett, junior,
could pass doors where his father, who lived cleanly,
could not so much as touch the knob. One of these
doors was that of Doctor William May. Indeed, it
was thought that Caroline had captured the younger
Bennett-though he was not so young, having passed
thirty-five. The habit of calling on New Year's Day
had not ceased when the New Year of 1877 came into
being. It was the excuse for much drunkenness.
Hostesses kept open house and flowing punch bowls.
Bennett had already acquired his limit when he
called on Miss Caroline, on the afternoon of January
1, 1877.
What happened can not be told politely. Suffice




268  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
it to say, Bennett forgot where he was, under circumstances such as had convinced Alexander the Great
that he was not the god his courtiers conceived him
to be, and became guilty of conduct unbecoming a
gentleman-or any one else.
As a result, Frederick May waylaid Bennett on
January 3, 1877, right before the sacred edifice of the
Union Club, as he was about to step into his sleigh
after luncheon, and proceeded to beat him with a cowhide, to the horror of some, and possibly to the delight
of other gentlemen who looked out of the windows
upon the spirited spectacle.
Bennett was heard to ask: "Why don't you kill me
while you are about it?" but made no attempt to ward
off the blows. They clinched, however, and rolled together in the snow. At this point William P. Douglas
and John G. Hecksher rushed from the club and pulled
the combatants apart. Bennett drove away to seclusion and May went about his business. The morning
papers of January fourth printed the story decorously, though the Herald for once left out a piece of news.
Its owner kept out of sight and sent for his friends.
One of these was Charles Longfellow, son of the gentle
bard of Cambridge. The outcome was a challenge.
May accepted, chose pistols at twelve paces, and
named his cousin, Doctor Frederick May of Baltimore,
as his second. Bennett chose S. Howland Robbins of
New York. The place selected for the meeting was
Slaughter's Gap, in Delaware, where passes the Maryland line, across which the duel was fought. The customary retinue of surgeons attended. Politeness and
the utmost ceremony prevailed, and the "affair" came
off on the afternoon of January 7, 1877. Mr. May




SPORTSMAN AND DUELIST


269


fired with the intent to miss, and Bennett, whatever
his purpose, was too nervous to aim accurately and his
shot went wild. Both parties expressed themselves
satisfied. Bennett and his second came back to New
York, where he remained unseen and away from the
sound of the laughter, the scorn and the scandal. The
episode ended his life in America save for what were
usually brief and infrequent visits.
Even though Fred May had fired in the air at
Slaughter's Gap his antagonist held him in fear. A
woman who chose to call herself "Camille Clermont,"
and with whom Bennett was once intimate in Paris,
wrote The Confessions of Gentle Rebecca, which was
published in London not long after his decease. In
this book she thinly disguises him as "J. G. Burnett,"
and tells this tale:*
Burnett [Bennett] was nearly undressed and appeared resplendent in a coat of mail which for the
last few weeks he had worn underneath his clothes.
The reason for wearing the coat of mail was that he
had been told that one of his compatriots, Mr. May,
had arrived recently in Paris with the determination
to avenge his sister, to whom B. had behaved in a particularly disgraceful way. He feared Mr. May would
probably shoot him "on sight" according to the American fashion of settling differences. J. G. B. valued
his life far too highly to be thus lightly disposed of,
so he ordered a magnificent coat of mail to wear under
his clothing, and with his long, lanky figure he looked
supremely ridiculous. He wore the coat of mail for
a month or so, until he grew tired of carrying the abnormal weight, so sent two of his friends to Mr. May
to ask what his intentions were, preferring the risk of
*Copyright, 1922. Courtesy of Drane's "Danegeld House."




270 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
a duel to the constant fatigue imposed by the medieval
armour. Mr. May declared that he had no homicidal
intentions, so, to his great relief, J. G. B. discarded the
cuirass.
While chagrin had much to do with his determination to reside abroad, there was a further reason, as
he once explained-a desire to escape process servers
and annoyance in connection with petty libel suits that
tipped the scales in which he weighed the pleasure to
be got out of life, with the greater certainty of increasing prominence in the world's eye. He could also
do things in Paris that would not have been tolerated
in New York, where moral standards do prevail in
the open-in evidence whereof the lady continues:
Beneath his thin veneer of civilisation J. G. B. was
in reality a Barbarian, and education had done little to
modify his nature. He had not been tenderly reared,
and had never known the gentle culture imparted to
most children by their mother. Delicacy and sensitiveness were alike strangers to him, and he had
never learnt the precious maxim: "Never hurt those
who love us."




CHAPTER XII


GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE
BEYOND reporting events the art of creating them
is the greatest of journalistic attainments. By this
is meant the ability to seize upon dormant situations
and bring them to life. Bennett possessed this quality to an exceptional degree.
In 1869 David Livingstone, the Scotch-Presbyterian-i
nmissionary, who for thirty years had kep t Europe iformed and interested with the results of his travels,
dropped out of sight in darkest Africa. No word, of
any sort came from him and the belief spread that he
was dead or so situated as to be helpless. Though
he was acting for the Royal Geographical Society that
rather lame body did nothing toward finding out the
facts. As the sequel showed, Livingstone was all the
while striving to follow out the instructions of its
head, Sir Roderick   Murchison, in tracing  the
route the wide and strong Lualaba River took to
reach the sea.  Public interest in Livingstone's
fate grew, but no effort was made to ascertain whether
he was dead, or his whereabouts if living, until the
ro rietor of the Herald found a human instrument
fi. the taskan sei     o i ts  i nA
There had come into te world at a lying-in hospital,
in London in 1841, one John Rowlands, whose father
died before he saw the light and whose mother had
271.




272 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
gone to the metropolis from Denbigh, Wales, for her
accouchement. She took the baby back and left him
with his grandfather, then vanished from his history.
The grandfather was very old and his death, when the
boy reached four, caused the little lad's transfer to
the workhouse where two uncles paid his slender sustenance. In this demoralizing charitable establishment he grew into a sturdy, square-shouldered boy,
with a singular conscience and virtue of body. Be-  -
coming stout enough to beat a tyrannical teacher
he fled from the charity school and, after some small
experimenting, reached Liverpool and took to the sea
as cabin boy of the bark Windermere. He did not fit
the place and was soon kicked forward into the forecastle, where he abided until the ship reached her destination at New Orleans. Then he deserted and
tramped the streets, penniless and starving. Forlornly looking about for work he caught the eye of a
middle-aged merchant, Henry Morton Stanley, who secured him employment with a shipping firm, and saw
that he was comfortably lodged and fairly paid. The
grateful boy worked hard in New Orleans until yellow
fever broke up the firm and cost his benefactor his
admirable wife. The protege was then sent to manage a store in a plantation section of Arkansas, where
he was doing well when Mr. Stanley died and the Confederacy took him from counter-jumping and made
him a soldier.
The waif had not been at all interested in becoming a
warrior, but his hesitancy came to an end on the receipt of a woman's skirt in a sealed package. The hint
was obvious, and he enlisted for the hard campaign
ending at Shiloh.




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


273


Here he was taken prisoner and sent to the wretched
pen at Camp Douglas, near Chicago. Much has been
written of the horrors of life in southern war prisons.
The sufferings of the Confederate captives were just
as great in the North, where climate, ennui and discomfort took the place of starvation and fever in the
South. Plagues of smallpox and typhoid raged, and
pneumonia sent scores to their graves. Neither side
can look back upon this phase of the great conflict
with any other sense than that of shame.
After enduring his share of misery for a few
months, he who had been John Rowlands escaped from
Camp Douglas by the process of enlisting in the Federal artillery. Here he never served. Illness followed
him from Camp Douglas, and, reaching Harper's
Ferry, he was discharged as unfit for service. He had
taken the name of his benefactor and from the day of
his dismissal began one of the most extraordinary
careers in the history of men of action, that of Henry
Morton Stanley.
His discharge was dated the twenty-second of June,
1863. He describes himself as a physical wreck, who
somehow tramped his Way to Hagerstown, Maryland.
Here a kindly farmer took him in. He was able to do
a little work in return for the care given him. The
farmer paid his fare to Baltimore when he was fit
to travel in mid-August. From Baltimore the ship E.
Sherman bore him to Liverpool, thence he made his
way to Denbigh expecting the sort of welcome a mother should give a long-absent son who had become a
real man. Instead, he was turned away from her door,
with the word that he "was a disgrace to them in
the eyes of the neighbors," and bidden to leave "as




274 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
speedily as possible," according to his own report.
Thus rebuffed, the adventurer, with a sore heart,
turned again to the sea, enduring shipwreck and the
usual hardships. In August, 1864, he joined the Union
Navy as a ship's writer on a tub called the Moses H.
Stuyvesant, where he viewed the futile attack on Fort
Fisher, made under the plans of Major-General Benjamin F. Butler. He sent letters to various newspapers, which found a ready market, and so took his
first step in journalism.
Leaving the navy at the close of the conflict, he made
his way west, as far as Denver, and came back via a
skiff on the Platte River, so reaching Omaha. with W.
H. Cook as companion. The pair took it into their
heads to explore Asia Minor. With very little money
they sailed from Boston in July, 1866. The expedition came to grief at the hands of Turkoman robbers,
who relieved them of their funds and turned them
back. Somehow they got to Constantinople and
thence to America.
C Heading out from St. Louis in 1867, he "wrote up:
northwestern Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska for the
St. Louis Democrat and was assigned to follow General Winfield Scott Hancock's campaign against the
Sioux and Cheyennes. This lasted until the beginning
of 1868.
' The Democrat paid him fifteen dollars per week and
expenses. He was at liberty to write for other journals and did so, sending letters to Chicago and New
York papers, sometimes collecting eighty dollars per
week. In this fashion of working hard and living
frugally, he had accumulated three thousand dollars
when he came to New York after the Indian campaign




GO AND PIND LIVINGSTONE


275


in January, 1868, looking for a chance to join the
pending British expedition under Lord Napier against'
King Theodore of Abyssinia. He sought an assignment from the Tribune, but in vain.
John Russell Young, then its managing editor, paid
him well for his letters from the plains, but did not
think Tribune readers would be interested in Abyssinia. Accordingly, as recorded by Stanley in his
journal:
Bowing my thanks, I left the Tribune and proceeded
to the Herald office; by a spasm of courage, I asked
for Mr. Bennett. By good luck, my card attracted his
attention, and I was invited to his presence. I found
myself before a tall, fierce-eyed, imperious looking
young man, who said, 'Oh, you are the correspondent
who has been following Hancock and Sherman lately.
Well, I must say your letters and telegrams have kept
us very well informed. I wish I could offer you something permanent, for we want active men like you."
"You are very kind to say so, and I am emboldened
to ask you if I could not offer myself to you for the
Abyssinian expedition."
"I do not think this Abyssinnian expedition is of
sufficient interest to Americans, but on what terms
would you go?"
"Either as a special at a moderate salary, or by
letter. Of course, if you pay me by the letter, I should
reserve the liberty to write occasional letters to other
papers."
"We do not like to share our news that way, but
we would be willing to pay well for exclusive intelligence. Have you ever been abroad before?"
"Oh, yes. I have travelled in the East, and been to
Europe several times."
*From Autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley. Courtesy of
Houghton-Mifflin Company.




276 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
"Well, how would you like to do this on trial? Pay
your own expenses to Abyssinia, and if your letters
are up to the standard, and your intelligence is early
and exclusive, you shall be well paid by the letter, or
at the rate by which we engage our European specials,
and you will be placed on the permanent list."
" Very well, Sir. I am at your service, any way you
like. "
"When do you intend to start?"
"On the 22nd, by the steamer Hecla."
"That is the day after to-morrow. Well, consider
it arranged. Just wait a moment while I write to our
agent in London."
In a few minutes he had placed in my hands a letter
to "Colonel Finlay Anderson, Agent of the New York
Herald, the Queen's Hotel, St. Martin's Le Grand,
London," and thus I became what had been an object
of my ambition, a regular, I hope, correspondent of
the New York Herald.
One line sticks out strongly in Stanley's journal
\ concerning relations with the Herald from that time
on, even if his pay was small: "I have carte blanche
at the bankers.' " While on assignment he could direct
his own movements, do what he thought best, hire
fl men if needed; in short, be free in his own judgment.
"T19,s" he adds, "I have dons the short space of
eightee honths, when others a    guished on at
their fusin  or fifteen years and got nigher than
the step whereh  entered upon duty." Thas, he
had "arrived" on tli4erald and was justly prou of
his prowess.
Thanks to his thrift, Stanley was able to finance himself to Abyssinia, as Bennett had stipulated. He took
with him letters from Generals Grant and Sherman
that made him welcome at Lord Napier's headquar



GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


277


ters, and though at first the English war correspondents were frosty with the American, as he had become,
he soon thawed them out and easily outranked them
in energy and achievement. Indeed, so well were his
plans laid that he was first to get the fall of Magdala
and its consequences on the wire at Suez. It had been
no more than sent before the line was interrupted for
two days, so it befell that the Herald dispatches were
the earliest to tell the tale, not only to America, but
to England.
He was now put on the Herald pay-roll at two thousand per year and kept wandering like Ulysses. He
toured the isles of Greece, whence he bubbled sentiment in the Herald. He confesses in his journal that
"the charm of Hellas fell upon me," and he even
thought of marrying a Greek girl, but concluded it
could not be done on his salary, though he appears to
have had a narrow escape. He reported a royal baptism in Athens, glimpsed Smyrna, Rhodes, Beirut and
Alexandria, to be suddenly shifted to Spain, where
the Carlist war flamed up critically. He had no more
than interviewed.General Prim, who had placed Queen
Isabella on a back seat, than he was recalled.
Stanley's own account of his sudden departure from
Spain and his subsequent, epoch-making interview
with Bennett is vivid. The summons came on October
16, 1869. at Madrid, in the form of a telegram reading:
"Come to Paris on important business, J. G. Bennett." To read was to obey. He notes further:
Down come my pictures from the walls of my apartments on the second floor; into my trunks go my books
and souvenirs, my clothes are hastily collected, some




278 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
half-washed, some from the clothes-line half-dry, and
after a couple of hours of hasty hard work my portmanteaus are strapped up, and labelled for "Paris."
The express-train leaves Madrid for Hendage at
3 P. M. I have yet time to say farewell to my friends.
I have one at No. 6 Calle Goya, fourth floor, who happens to be a contributor to several London dailies.
He has several children, in whom I have taken a warm
interest. Little Charlie and Willie are fast friends
of mine; they love to hear of my adventures, and it
has been a pleasure to me to talk to them. But now I
must say farewell.
Then I have friends at the American Legation whose
conversation I admire-there has come a sudden ending of it all. "I hope you will write to us, we shall
always be glad to hear of your welfare." How often
have I not during my feverish life as a flying journalist heard the very same words, and how often have I
not suffered the same pang at parting from friends
just as warm as these?
But a journalist in my position must needs suffer.
Like a gladiator in the arena, he must be prepared for
the combat. Any flinching, any cowardice, and he is
lost. The gladiator meets the sword that is sharpened
for his bosom-the flying journalist or roving correspondent meets the command that may send him to his
doom. To the battle or the banquet it must be all the
same —'Get ready and go.'
At 3 P. M. I was on my way, and being obliged to
stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not arrive at Paris
until the following night. I went straight to the Grand
Hotel, and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's room.
"Come in," I heard a voice say.
Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Stanley," I answered.
"Ah, yes; sit down. I have important business on
hand for you."
After throwing over him his robe-de-chambre, Mr.




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


279


Bennett asked me, "Where do you think Livingstone
is?"
"I really do not know, sir."
"Do you think he is alive "
"He may be, and he may not be " I answered.
"Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found,
and I am going to send you to find him."
"Whatl" said I. "Do you really think I can
find Dr. Livingstone? Do you mean me to go to Cen.
tral Africal"
"Yes; I mean that you shall go and find him wherever you may hear that he is, and to get what news
you can of him, and perhaps "-delivering himself
thoughtfully and deliberately-"the old man may be
in want: take enough with you to help him should he
require it. Of course you will act according to your
own plans, and do what you think best-BUT FIND
LIVINGSTONE!"
Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending one
to Central Africa to search for a man whom I, in common with almost all other men, believed to be dead,
"Have you considered seriously the great expense
you are likely to incur on account of this little journey?"
"What will it cost " he asked, abruptly.
"Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa cost
between ~3,000 and ~5,000, and I fear it cannot be done
under ~2,500."
"Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw a
thousand pounds now, and when you have gone
through that, draw another thousand, and when that
in spent, draw another thousand, and when you have
finished that, draw another thousand, and so on; but
FIND LIVINGSTONE."
The reporter was a bit dazed at the size of the assignment and a little uncertain as to his authority
to invade a continent. "I have heard," he said, "that




280 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
should your father die you would sell the Herald and
retire from business "
"Whoever told you that was wrong," came the
quick rejoinder, "for there is not money enough in
New York city to buy the New York Herald. My father
has made it a great paper but I mean to make it
greater. I mean that it shall be a newspaper in the
true sense of the word. I mean that it shall publish
whatever news will be interesting to the world at no
matter what cost."
This declaration swept away Stanley's misgivings.
"After that," he remarked, "I have nothing more to
say. Do you mean me to go straight on to Africa to
search for Dr. Livingstone?"
Mr. Bennett proceeded to outline a rather leisurely
approach to the Dark Continent, ending:
Bagdad will be close on your way to India; suppose you go there, and write up something about the
Euphrates Valley Railroad. Then, when you have
come to India, you can go after Livingstone. Probably
you will hear by that time that Livingstone is on his
way to Zanzibar; but if not, go into the interior and
find him, if alive. Get what news of his discoveries
you can; and, if you find he is dead, bring all possible
proof of his being dead. That is all. "Good night, and
God be with you."
As a first step the reporter went to Egypt and covered the opening of the Suez Canal on November 17,
1869. Then he enjoyed a twenty-three-day trip as the
Khedive's guest to upper Egypt. Jumping from Cairo
to Constantinople he visited Odessa, took in the Caucasus and went on to Persia, whence he crossed to Bom



uuurlfsy 17umcglti1ut fft1 1tiif "./'uHptC1ay
Henry M. Stanley in 1872
From the Autogiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley








GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


281


bay, from which point he had determined to plan his
search into the heart of Africa. During all this timesome fifteen months-since he had received his orders,
no word had come from the missing missionary.
Stanley set out from Bombay on the bark Polly, for
Mauritius, on a zigzag voyage to Zanzibar, sailing
October 12, 1870. The stay on the Polly lasted six
weeks. From Mauritius the brigantine Romp carried
him to the Seychelles in seventeen days. The third
lap was taken in the whaler Falcon —nineteen days
more. Thus, at last, he reached Zanzibar
The date of his arrival after this dispiriting voyage
was December 31, 1870. \He seems to have expected to
find funds and further i structions awaiting him and
wavered a bit when neit er were on hand. With but
a small handful of cash-eighty dollars-he found himself faced with both tge organizing and financing of
his expedition. Sm  er men would have abandoned
the task. The vy neglect of his employer he interpreted int   attitude of confidence, which, indeed, it
was. i appeal would probably have resulted in his
e11 and dismissal. Accordingly, he set valorously
at work to overcome the obstacles in his path.
His first step was to sift all rumors extant about
Livingstone. He learned nothing tangible. Not a
word had been heard from him since he vanished into
Equatoria years before. There was gossip, of course,
most of it unfavorable to his project. The general belief was that the explorer was dead, or if living not
worth finding; he was cross, old and hard to get along
with; narrow-minded and unfit for the work he was
engaged in; ought to give way to a younger man; took
no notes, kept a faulty journal, and, moreover, did not




282  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
want to be rescued; if he heard any one was coming
for that purpose would probably run away from him.
/  This, with the lack of funds and, apparently, of
interest on the part of Bennett, was sufficiently discouraging. Stanley knew the law of the newspaper, however, that one stays on a story until he gets it, or the
assignment has been replaced by another. In no office was this rule more mandatory than in that of the
Herald. He had not a scrap of paper to verify his
mission or backing, and eighty dollars was hardly convincin ca.     Being the sort of man who inspires
faith, he soon enlisted the support of Captain Francis
R. Webb, the American Consul, who made the strength
of the Herald's credit known to Zanzibar bankers.
Dawere cashr          provided fund     y   th
twenty-firs'tof March, 1871, he records, the expedition
was ready-"a compact little force of three whites,
/ | thirty-one armed freemen of Zanzibar as escort, one,s I hundred and fifty-three porters and twenty-seven pack
| animals for a transport corps, beside two riding
horses," all assembled on the east coast of the continent at Bagamoyo.
"There was nothing aggressive" in the outfit Stan-;"ley records: "Its many bales of cloth, and loads of
beads and wire, with assorted packages of provisions
and medicine, indicated a peaceful caravan about to
penetrate among African tribes accustomed to barter
and chaffer; while its few guns showed a sufficient
defensive power against bands of native banditti."
It was no holiday march, however, as the event
proved. "I passed my apprenticeship in African
travel," Stanley's journal continues, "while traversing the maritime region-a bitter school-amid rank




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


283


jungles, fetid swamps and fly-infested grass-lands,
during which I encountered nothing that appeared to
favor my journey. My pack and riding animals died,
my porters deserted, sickness of a very grievous nature thinned my numbers; but, despite the severe loss
I sustained, I struggled through my troubles."
For solace in his manifold miseries the explorer had
a Bible, which he read and pondered deeply, and a
large number of New York Heralds, that the kindly
consul had given him in which to wrap packages,
"Strange connection," he exclaims.   "But yet
strangest of all was the change wrought in me by the
reading of the Bible and these newspapers in melancholy Africa."
The fever took hard hold of him. For days he endured a temperature of one hundred and five, yet
"when not light-headed" he read the good Book and
the papers. He grew more resolute than ever, as he
became more and more alone in thought and action.
There "rose the ghosts of bygone yearnings, haunting
every cranny of the brain with numbers of baffled
hopes and unfilled aspirations," but there followed
no echo of despair. Even though he was only a poor I.
journalist, with no friends," he had become "possesse
by a feeling of power to achieve" which he never lost.
This trial offever and fatalities had upon him the  L
feet of makng a remolded man. Bonaparte once said
at before crossing the bridgt Arcola in the face of
the Austrian fire, it had never occurred to him that he
could do anything; afterward it never occurred to him
that there was anything he could not do. So it was
with Stanley after his ordeal.
He became indifferent to all things but his purpose,
* lY




284 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


grew competent, decisive, masterful-like the man who
sent him into the wilderness. Preconceived notions
were cast out. He concluded that African fever was
no worse than the ague of Arkansas; that his negroes
were no more incompetent than could have been expected and were always amiable. "Troubles taught
patience, and with the exercise of patience came
greater self-control and experience."
By the eighth of May they were in a better countrythe Usagara uplands-and advanced to Ugogo. Nine
marches more took them to the land of the Moon, where
they fell in with a colony of Arab traders, such as had
befriended Burton and Speke. Although great travelers, they knew nothing of Livingstone. Stanley now
made the mistake of joining forces with the Arabs in
the hope of strengthening his own. Jointly, they engaged in a war with Mirambo, a native chief-queer
business for a Herald reporter. It resulted in a demoralizing defeat. The combined forces were put to
rout by Mirambo's warriors, and Stanley found his
organization gone. In mid-Africa he had to pull
another together-and did it. Where Burton had been
forced to give up, he kept on. Three months were lost
in putting things in shape, but on September 20, 1871,
he was in motion again, and, avoiding Mirambo and
his men, he crept cautiously to the south. At the best
the situation was desperate enough: "One of my white
companions was dead; the other had become a mere
burden" —an all too frequent happening with "white
companions" thereafter in his African adventures.
Forty men had deserted; all but two of the pack-animals were dead, yet the expedition "numbered nearly
sixty picked men, almost all of whom were well armed,




GO AND FIND      LIVINGSTONE          285
and loaded with every necessary that was portable,
bound to demonstrate if somewhere in the wild western
lands the lost traveller lived, or was dead."
How fine his fixed purpose sounds  Yet behind it
all, brave man that he was, is visible the fact that it
would have taken more courage on his part to face
James Gordon Bennett with a report of flight and
failure. This was unthinkable in the mind of a man
who thought much.
For twenty-six days the southwestern march went
on, covering some two hundred forty miles. He early
learned that twelve miles a day meant four thousand
miles a year without exhaustion. They then went west
thirty-five miles, to turn north for one hundred ifve
miles more; thence northwesterly, heading for Lake
Tanganyika, and the Arab colony at Ujiji. "With the
exception of a mutiny among my own people, which
was soon forcibly crushed," he notes, "and considerable suffering from famine," he met with no adventures on what was a rapid advance I The march was
expedited by contact with an Arab caravan at the
ferry over the Malagarazi River, from which he
learned of "a white man having reached Ujiji from
Manyuema, a country situated a few hundred miles
west of the lake, which startled us all greatly," as
indeed it might I
The stranger was reported to be elderly and graybearded, as well as white; he had been at Ujiji before,
but had only recently arrived after years of absence.
Stanley could think him none other than Livingstone.
Sir Samuel Baker was somewhere in the country, but
he was neither gray-bearded nor old. "Quickened,"
therefore, "by the hope that was inspired in my mind




286 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
by this vague rumor," he speedily crossed the river
and pushed on through warlike tribes, who demanded
blackmail and endangered his progress. He bought
his way on the best terms attainable and got on, burning with impatience at every blockade until he passed
into the peaceful region of Ukaranga, six hours from
Ujiji, where the gray-bearded white man was supposed
to be. This was Friday, November 10, 1871. With a
heart full of hope the expedition ate a good breakfast
and set forth through an agreeable country, thickly
wooded, with "towering trees nodding their heads far
above, tall bush filling darkly the shade, the road winding like a serpent, narrow and sinuous, the hollows all
musical with the murmur of living waters and their
sibilant echoes, the air cool and fragrant with the smell
of strange flowers and sweet gums." His mind, too,
was "lightened with pleasant presentiment" and a
"conscience complaisantly approving what I had done
hitherto."
"About eight o'clock"-they had marched at dawn,
he goes on —'we were climbing the side of a steep and
wooded hill, and we presently stood on the very crest
of it, and on the farthest edge looked out into a realm
of light-wherein I saw, as in a painted picture, a vast
lake in the distance below, with its face luminous as
a mirror, set in a frame of dimly-blue mountains."
They had come at last to Tanganyika, and to the borderland of their hopes.
Eagerly they pressed on, as did the Greek ten thousand and when the cries of the advance announced
"Thalassa, thalassa-the sea, the sea!"  Stanley
looked "enraptured upon the magnificent expanse of
fresh water, and the white tipped billows of the inland sea." Hard by he saw Ujiji sleeping amid palms




GO AND FIND      LIVINGSTONE         287
in the noonday sun. A gentle slope led down to the
town. At its crest the party halted to "re-unite and
reform for an imposing entry." The men put on clean
clothing, wrapped fresh snowy cloth around their
heads and loaded their guns to awake Ujiji from its
siesta with a thunderous salute that was to echo
around the world. "It is," says Stanley, "an immemorial custom, for a caravan creeps not up into a
friendly town like a thief. Our braves knew the custom well; they therefore volleyed and thundered their
salutes as they went marching down the hill slowly,
and with much self-contained dignity."
He himself, if less noisy, was equally decorous. The
villagers poured out to meet the newcomers. They
were scanned with eager eyes. He saw no graybearded white man, but "a tall black man, in a long
white shirt, burst impulsively through the crowd" on
Stanley's right and bowing low, said:
"GIood morning, sir."
"Hello," replied Stanley, "who in the mischief are
you?"
"I am Susi, sir, the servant of Dr. Livingstone."
"What! is Dr. Livingstone here in this town?"
"Yes, sir."
"But, are you sure; sure that it is Dr. Livingstone?"
"Why, I leave him just now, sir."
Just then another tall black man, clad in white, came
up. " Good morning, sir. "
"Are you also a servant of Dr. Livingstone?'" Stanley asked.
"Yes, sir."
"And what is your name?"
"It is Chuma."
"Ohl the friend of Wekotani, from the Nassick
School?"




288 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
"Yes, sir."
"Well, now we have met, one of you had better run
ahead, and tell the Doctor of my coming."
Susi took to his heels. The crowd, quick to sense a
great occasion, shouted, sang, tooted horns and beat
upon drums. It was surely Ujiji's greatest day. The
caravan passed on under this noisy escort into the
town. Let Stanley tell the rest:
After a few minutes we came to a halt. The guides
in the van had reached the market-place, which was
the central point of interest. For there the great
Arabs chiefs, and respectabilities of Ujiji, had gathered in a group to await events; thither also they had
brought with them the venerable European traveler
who was at that time resting among them. The caravan pressed up to them, divided itself into two lines on
either side of the road, and, as it did so, disclosed to me
the prominent figure of an elderly white man clad in a
red flannel blouse, gray trousers, and a blue cloth, gold
banded cap.
Had the quest ended in victory? Stanley was not
sure. He had traveled the road of doubt so long that
he failed now of conclusion. "It may not be Livingstone after all," he thought. "If this is he what shall
I say to him?"
Stanley next says his imagination had not worked
him up to the point of greeting, though "all around me
was the immense crowd, hushed and 'expectant, and
wondering how the scene would develop itself." What
followed was so commonplace as to be memorable.
Under all these circumstances I could do no more





I


GO AND FIND      LIVINGSTONE         289
than exercise some restraint and reserve, so I walked
up to him and, doffing my helmet, bowed and said in
an inquiring tone, —
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
Smiling cordially, he lifted his cap, and answered
briefly, "Yes."
This ending all skepticism on my part, my face betrayed the earnestness of my satisfaction as I extended
my hand and added,-                            [
"I thank God, Doctor, that I have been permitted
to see you."
"I feel most thankful that I am here to welcome
you." '
It was, indeed, only by rarest chance that they had
met in this accidental, casual fashion. Had Stanley
gone direct from Paris on receiving his command
from Bennett, or had he not been delayed on his march,
he would probably have missed his man. At any rate,
he regarded the outcome of it all as providential.
They moved on to Livingstone's comfortable quarters, where Stanley was soon made at home. Here he
delivered letters-the first that had reached Livingstone in years. Their contents did not appeal to their
recipient. He wanted, instead, the news of the lost
world. This Stanley gave him in quantities that filled
the weary mind-all he could recall that had occurred
since March, 1866, when Livingstone vanished in the
wilds. This followed:
When I had ended the story of triumphs and reverses which had taken place between 1866 and 1871,
my tent-boys advanced to spread a crimson table-cloth,
and arrange the dishes and smoking platters heaped
up profusely with hot dampers, white rice, maize por



290  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ridge, kid kabobs, fricasseed chicken, and stewed goatmeat. There were also a number of things giving
variety to the meal, such as honey from Ukawendi,
forest plums, and wild-fruit jam, besides sweet milk
and clabber, and then a silver tea-pot full of "best
tea," and beautiful china cups and saucers to drink
from. Before we could commence this already magnificent breakfast, the servants of Sayed bin Majid,
Mohammed bin Sali, and Muini Kheri brought three
great trays loaded with cakes, curries, hashes and
stews, and three separate hillocks of white rice, and we
looked at one another with a smile of wonder at this
Ujiji banquet.
Truly Halitm  a-th  fat black c -  the houselxd,
had outdpn   herself. S     were he  a'   ships"
\Livijgsfone did no Let' to be resctedfroml
\ Livingstone had reached Ujiji that November 1,
J871. He was fifty-nine, not old in any sense of years,
but worn down by long life in the tropic lands and by
/ much wandering. He could no more believe that he
had been "found" when the servants came running
/with the news than could Stanley be certain that he had
succeeded. The pair foregathered like a son and the
father Stanley had never known, until March 14, 1872,
/    when the latter again turned his steps to the coast.
He reached Zanzibar in fifty-four days after leaving
Ujiji, and sent back to Livingstone men and supplies
for a two years' continuation of his explorations, at
the Herald's charge. These reached him on August
J     11, 1872. Two weeks later Livingstone was again on
the road. He was to live but eight months longer.
But he had vastly impressed himself upon his young
"rescuer," who was destined to take up and complete
his labors.




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


291


The two men "took to each other," as the saying
goes. Stanley had "expected and was prepared, to
meet a crusty misanthrope" and was accordingly on
guard, to be taken aback by finding instead "a sweet
opposite," though confirmed in a certainty that he
was individualistic and would be difficult to get along
with-for a Stanley.
That Livingstone was not pining to be rescued is
beyond doubt. But the world wanted news of him, and
he was located. Stanley grew great in consequence.
It is rather amusing to recall that he had similar, but
more exasperating experiences when he was drafted
in 1886 to "rescue" Emin Pasha, who was supposed
to be suffering as the result of the Mahdist rising, and
after enduring incredible hardships, found him more J
comfortable even than Livingstone had been.
But Livingstone was not ungrateful as this letter of
acknowledgment to Mr. Bennett attests:
-Ujiji, on Tanganyika,
East Africa, November, 1871
James Gordon Bennett, Esq., Jr.:My dear Sir-It is in general somewhat difficult to
write to one we have never seen-it feels so much like
addressing an abstract idea-but the presence of your
representative, Mr. H. M. Stanley, in this distant region takes away the strangeness I should otherwise
have felt, and in writing to thank you for the extreme
kindness that prompted you to send him, I feel quite
at home.
If I explain the forlorn condition in which he found
me you will easily perceive that I have good reason
to use very strong expressions of gratitude. I came
to UTjiji off a tramp of between four hundred and five
hundred miles, beneath a blazing vertical sun, having




292 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
been baffled, worried, defeated and forced to return,
when almost in sight of the end of the geographical
part of my mission, by a number of half-caste Moslem
slaves sent to me from Zanzibar, instead of men. The
sore heart made still sorer by the woeful sights I had
seen of man's inhumanity to man racked and told on
the bodily frame and depressed it beyond measure. I
thought that I was dying on my feet. It is not too
much to say that almost every step of the weary sultry
way was in pain, and I reached Ujiji a mere "ruckle"
of bones.
There I found that some five hundred pounds sterling worth of goods which I had ordered from Zanzibar
had unaccountably been entrusted to a drunken halfcaste Moslem tailor, who, after squandering them for
sixteen months on the way to Ujiji, finished up by selling off all that remained for slaves and ivory for himself. He had "divined" on the Koran and found that
I was dead. He had also written to the Governor of
Unyanyembe that he had sent slaves after me to
Manyuema, who returned and reported my decease,
and begged permission to sell off the few goods that his
drunken appetite had spared.
He, however, knew perfectly well, from men who
had seen me, that I was alive, and waiting for the
goods and men; but as for morality, he is evidently an
idiot, and there being no law here except that of the
dagger or musket, I had to sit down in great weakness,
destitute of everything save a few barter cloths and
beads, which I had taken the precaution to leave here
in case of extreme need.
The near prospect of beggary among Ujijians
made me miserable. I could not despair, because I
laughed so much at a friend who, on reaching the
mouth of the Zambezi, said that he was tempted to
despair on breaking the photograph of his wife. We
could have no success after that. Afterward the idea
of despair had to me such a strong smack of the ludicrous that it was out of the question.




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


293


Well, when I had got to about the lowest verge,
vague rumors of an English visitor reached me. I
thought of myself as the man who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho; but neither priest, Levite, nor
Samaritan could possibly pass my way. Yet the good
samaritan was at hand, and one of my people
rushed up at the top of his speed, and, in great excitement, gasped out, "An Englishman comingl I see
him i" and off he darted to meet him.
An American flag, the first ever seen in these parts,
at the head of a caravan, told me the nationality of
the stranger.
I am as cold and non-demonstrative as we islanders are usually reputed to be; but your kindness made
my frame thrill. It was, indeed, overwhelming, and I
said to my soul, "Let the richest blessings descend
from the Highest on you and yours I"
The news Mr. Stanley had to tell was thrilling. The
mighty political changes on the Continent; the success
of the Atlantic cables; the election of General Grant,
and many other topics rivetted my attention for days
together, and had an immediate and beneficial effect on
my health. I had been without news from home for
years save what I could glean from a few Saturday
Reviews and Punch of 1868. The appetite revived,
and in a week I began to feel strong again.
Mr. Stanley brought a most kind and encouraging
despatch from Lord Clarendon, whose loss I sincerely
deplore, the first I have received from the Foreign
Office since 1866, and information that the British
government had kindly sent a thousand pounds
sterling to my aid. Up to his arrival I was not aware
of any pecuniary aid. I came unsalaried, but this want
is now happily repaired, and I am anxious that you
and all my friends should know that, though uncheered
by letter, I have stuck to the task which my friend Sir
Roderick Murchison set me, with "John Bullish"
tenacity, believing that all would come right at last.
The watershed of South Central Africa is over




294 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
seven hundred miles in length. The fountains thereon
are almost innumerable-that is, it would take a man's
lifetime to count them. From the watershed they converge into four large rivers, and these again into two
mighty streams in the great Nile valley, which begins
in ten degrees to twelve degrees south latitude. It
was long ere light dawned on the ancient problem and
gave me a clear idea of the drainage. I had to feel my
way and every step of the way, and was, generally,
groping in the dark-for who cared where the waters
ran? We drank our fill and let the rest run by.
The Portuguese who visited Cazembe asked for
slaves and ivory, and heard of nothing else. I asked
about the waters, questioned and cross-questioned, until I was almost afraid of being set down as afflicted
with hydrocephalus.
My last work, in which I have been greatly hindered
from want of suitable attendants, was following the
central line of drainage down through the country of
the cannibals, called Manyuema, or, shortly, Manyema.
This line of drainage has four large lakes in it. The
fourth I was near when obliged to turn. It is from
one to three miles broad, and never can be reached at
any point or at any time of the year. Two western
drains, the Lufira, or Bartle Frere's River, flow into
it at Lake Kamolondo. Then the great River Lomame
flows through Lake Lincoln into it, too, and seems to
form the western arm of the Nile, on which Petherick
traded.
Now, I knew about six hundred miles of the watershed, and unfortunately the seventh hundred is the
most interesting of the whole; for in it, if I am not
mistaken, four fountains arise from an earthen mound,
and the last of the four becomes, at no great distance
off, a large river.
Two of these run north to Egypt, Lufira and Lomame, and two run south into inner Ethiopia, as the
Leambaye, or upper Zambezi, and the Kaful. Are not
these the sources of the Nile mentioned by the Sec



GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


295


retary of Minerva, in the city of Sais, to Herodotus.
I have heard of them so often, and at great distances
off, that I cannot doubt their existence, and in spite of
the sore longing for home that seizes me every time
I think of my family, I wish to finish up by their rediscovery.
Five hundred pounds sterling worth of goods have
again unaccountably been entrusted to slaves, and
have been over a year on the way, instead of four
months. I must go where they lie at your expense,
ere I can put the natural completion to my work.
And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian
slavery should lead to the suppression of the East
Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources
together. Now that you have done with domestic slavery forever, lend us your powerful aid toward this
great object. This fine country is blighted, as with a
curse from above, in order that the slavery privileges
of the petty Sultan of Zanzibar may not be infringed,
and the rights of the Crown of Portugal, which are
mythical, should be kept in abeyance till some future
time when Africa will become another Indian to Portuguese slave traders.
I conclude by again thanking you most cordially for
your great generosity, and am
Gratefully yours,
DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
This letter was printed by the Herald in facsimile
and served to hush the usual doubters who were alert
to discredit a great exploit; the chief of whom were
in England, where there was much evidence of pique
because the enterprise of an American had discovered
the lost explorer, to whom of late his own countrymen
had been so indifferent.
One of the disadvantages of unusual success is hav



296  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ing to live up to it. There were no more Livingstones
to find and so, after the semi-fiasco of Stanley's lecture tour in America, there was need of suitable occupation. British engaged in a witless war in West Africa, sending thither a force under Sir Garnet Wolseley.
Stanley went with the army until Coomassie, the Ashantee capital, fell. He sent the Herald the best accounts extant, and put them together later in a book,
which also contained his experience in Abyssinia, entitled Coomassie and Magdala.
Returning from Ashantee on the steamship Drome.
dary, he paused at the island of St. Vincent, on February 24, 1874, to be "shocked to hear on getting
ashore of the death of Livingstone at Itala, near Lake
Bangweolo, on May 4, 1873," and that his body was
on the way to England via Aden on the steamship Malwa. "Dear Livingstone," he commented. "Another
sacrifice to Africa! His mission, however, must not
be allowed to cease; others must go forward to fill the
gap. 'Clos!e up, boys! close up! Death must find us
everywhere I"'
He was marking out his own destiny, for continuing
in the same strain he wrote further:
May I be selected to succeed him in opening up
Africa to the shining light of Christianity! My methods, however, will not be Livingstone's. Each man
has his own way. His, I think, had its defects, though
the old man personally, has been almost Christ-like for
goodness, patience and self-sacrifice. The selfish and
wooden-headed world requires mastering, as well as
loving charity; for man is a composite of the spiritual
and earthly. May Livingstone's God be with me, as
He was with Livingstone in all his loneliness. May




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


297


God direct me as He wills. I can only vow to be obedient, and not to slacken.
In this mood he reached London and logically became Livingstone's successor. He was "different,"
however, as he said he would be. An echo of him
comes back to me from listening to his lecture on
Through the Dark Continent. He had been describing
the great equatorial forest: "And so we went on
through the forest and ever and anon the dark people
came out of its recesses and threw themselves across
the path, barring our way. Then came the sound of an
explosion and we went on, leaving them wondering and
lamenting."
He attended Livingstone's funeral in Westminister
Abbey and came from it full of Africa. The humor
moved him to call at the office of the London Daily
Telegraph, whose proprietor, Levy-Lawson, cooperated much with the Herald, and pointed out the vast
uncharted spaces on the map of the Dark Continent,
citing the things left in doubt by Livingstone, Burto
Speke, Grant and Baker.                    -
"Do you think you can settle all these interesting
geographical problems?" Levy-Lawson asked quizzically. That, Stanley answered, was not a fair question. He would, however, do his best. After some
discussion the owner of the Telegraph said he would
"cable over to Bennett of the New York Herald, and
ask if he is willing to join in this expedition of yours."
The message was duly sent. "Deep under the Atlantic," records Stanley, "the question was flashed.
Gordon Bennett tore open the telegram in New York
City, and, after a moment's thought, snatched a blank
form and wrote 'Yes I Bennett.' "




98 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Thus it befell that Stanley became the successor of
Livingstone, and succeeded where all others had failed.
In October, 1874, the Herald reporter began his
work. His efforts continued until August, 1877, when
he returned to civilization with a tale such as was
never before given man to tell. He crossed the Continent from east to west, completely traced the Congo
from source to mouth and made great geographical
mysteries plain. It was the beginning of the opening
of equatorial Africa. Soon the world rang with his
praises. If Bennett did not share in the harvest of
glory, the Herald did. It is proper that both should
have their names written high in the records of human
achievement, even though the lasting fame belongs to
the bold and honest gentlemen who worked their will.
Three white men who went with Stanley into the
wilds died there. He came out gray and old beyond
his years, bent and blackened, but still indomitable.
The King of the Belgians took up the opportunity
which the English declined to grasp and made Stanley
the creator of the Congo Free State. So, if there is
any merit in civilizing Africa it dates from James
Gordon Bennett's sententious command: " Go and find
Livingstone I"
In the mighty acclaim that greeted Stanley on his
several returns to civilization, Bennett learned that no
proprietor, however despotic he might be, is greater
than his newspaper. The Herald loomed large, with
but a modicum of Bennett in the background, while
Stanley stood in the center of the stage. England accorded him greetings such as it would hardly have
given a conquering general, and the newspapers spread
his fame around the world. Bennett became scarcely




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


299


incidental. There sprang into his bosom a jealousy of
Stanley that almost approached the dignity of hatred.
That his hired man, whom he had sent on an errand,
should, as a result, reach at one bound the summit of
eminence was too much to be borne. That a Herald
reporter should receive a jeweled snuff-box from the
hands of Queen Victoria, be specially honored at great
banquets, given the freedom of London and rewarded
with other extravagant evidence of esteem, overwhelmed the owner of the Herald. The latter, of
course, rarely escaped mention-its owner seldom received it.
Following his London triumph, Stanley came to
New York to meet Bennett and enjoy further adulation. Here things were not so pleasant. The malicious
Sun, rising fast under the spell of Charles A. Dana
and Amos J. Cummings, scouted the merits of Stanley's exploit and tried to prove him a liar. Seeking
the usual reward as a lecturer he failed; his untrained
talk was a jumble, tainted with bitterness as he strove
to refute the unfair and untruthful Sun. Bennett froze
at his coming, and, while the first lecture was given
praise when it deserved censure, the second was
"roasted" in the Herald by one ef the chief sycophants, George 0. Seilhamer, who afterward confessed to Joseph I. C. Clarke, the night eiitor, that
hw "sensejl" lennet's displeasure, and wrote to
gratify him. "I simply made the truth sound raw,"
he explained, "and when Bennett sent for me the next
day to reproach me severely, as he did, I could see that
he was really gratified."
Stanley's book, How I Found Livingstone, was well
treated by the Herald, though, as Clarke relates, "Ben



300 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
nett let Stanley know he echoed the slighting attacks
of some other papers on its want of literary style."
This Stanley never acquired. Indeed, he was the sort
of reporter who could be trusted to be on the spot, but
was able to tell happenings only crudely, and wasted a
good deal of space on the approach to his story.
The explorer does not seem to have been conscious
of having offended Bennett by reaping the just reward of success. He could respect but never understand him. In his famous march through the Dark
Continent, when under an escort of two thousand, three
hundred men sent by Mtesa, King of Uganda, he "discovered the giant mountain Gordon Bennett, in the
country of Gambaragara," and so immortalized his
former employer, who seems to have little appreciated
the eminence. The big peak should have been a volcano.
Men who were near Bennett have related how he
would break out into fury at times when Stanley came
into the news, reiterating what he thought was his unrequited share in the discovery of the discoverer. It
was he who had given the distinction by making the
opportunity. In this mood he would ask: "Who was
Stanley before I found him? Who thought of hunting
Livingstone? Who paid the bills?" The answer was
Bennett, of course, but outside of himself and the sycophants few thought of that phase.
If Stanley ever suspected this jealousy he certainly
gave it little heed. Indeed, he was too sincere a character to give a thought to such a thing and never posed
in the background of his own story. He toiled too
hard for all that, was deeply religious and loyal to all
he undertook. Bennett was neither.




Mrs. Waldorf Astor talking to Mr. James Gordon Bennett. Mrs. Astor persuaded Mr. Bennett
to break his usual rule and submit to the camera
Taken on Mr. Bennctt's last visit to America








GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


301


This smoldering animosity on Bennett's part lasted
as long as the explorer lived. There once came to his
ears after Stanley's late-in-life marriage to the lovely
Dorothy Tennant, that he was treating her harshly.
Aubrey Stanhope, who carried through some of Bennett's most offensive assignments, was at once sent to
Stanley at a remote resort in the Tyrol, where he was
vacationing with his wife, to ascertain by direct methods if Bula Matari, the Rock Breaker, had turned
heart breaker. When he reached the resort Mrs. Stanley was ill and Stanley desperately lonesome. His
heart warmed in welcome for some one to talk to and
for two days he emptied his mind on the visitor.
On the third day he remarked contritely that he
feared he had been very selfish in taking all the time,
but he had been so bored that the company brought
him a relief he could not resist. What, then, was Stanhope's errand? Did he want something about Africa
"No," replied Stanhope. "It isn't Africa this
time. It's something quite different," and then he
gasped: "Do you beat your wife?"
"Now kill me," he said to himself. He saw Stanley's fingers tighten at the end of his long arms and
nerved himself for the worst. There was a silence.
Then Stanley said sadly:
"God I I used to do that myself."
"Mount Gordon Bennett" came up amusingly once
in Stanley's career. He was invited to meet William
E. Gladstone at a tea given at the home of Miss Tennant, to whom he was then betrothed, and loaded himself up with data to convince the statesman that some
important things were yet to be done in Africa. Unrolling a map he narrates:




302 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
I landed him on the shores of the Nyanza and begged
him to look at the spacious inland sea, surrounded by
populous countries. When I came to Ruwenzori, his
eye caught a glimpse of two isolated peaks.
"Excuse me one minute," said he, "what are those
two mountains called."
"Those, sir," I answered, "are the Gordon Bennett
and Mackinnon peaks."
"Who called them by those absurd namest" he
asked with the corrugation of a frown on his brow.
"I called them, sir."
"By what right?" he asked.
"By the right of first discovery, and those two gentlemen were the patrons of the expedition."
"How can you say that when Herodotus spoke of
them twenty-six hundred years ago, and called
them Crophi and Mophi? It is intolerable that classic
names like those should be displaced by modern
names, and —"
"I humbly beg your pardon, Mr. Gladstone, but
Crophi and Mophi, if they ever existed at all, were
situated over a thousand miles to the northward.
Herodotus simply wrote from hearsay, and-"
"Oh, I can't stand that."
"Well, Mr. Gladstone," said I, "will you assist me
in this project of a railway to Uganda, for the suppression of the slave trade, if I can arrange that Crophi
and Mophi shall be substituted in place of Gordon
Bennett and Mackinnon?"
"Oh, that will not do; that is flat bribery and corruption," and smiling, he rose to his feet, buttoning
Ais coat lest his virtue might yield to the temptation.
/ <The road to Uganda was built as Stanley had
/ planned and a considerable crimp put on the slave
trade as a result.
Besides using his employer's name for adorning the
admirable mountain, Stanley gave it to "a deep rapid




GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE


303


stream of about forty yards in breadth at the ferry of
Bwabwa Njali," which some "four miles lower
down... descends a furious cataract by two mouths
into the Congo about fifty yards below the first dangerous rapid" on the latter river. The "furious
cataract" must have suggested the choice of its namesake.
Was the idea of sending Stanley to seek Livingstone
original with Bennett? Possibly. My distinct impression is that the suggestion came from Colonel
Finlay Anderson, the Herald's agent in London, where
there was much public interest in Livingstone's fate,
though it failed to rouse either the government or
the Royal Geographical Society into action. Indeed, I
recall his making some such statement to me shortly
before his death. But Bennett seized the chance and
backed his man unflinchingly. "What a romantic
achievement, worthy to be sung in heroic verse, was
the finding of Livingstone by Stanley," wrote Philip
Gilbert Hamerton in The Intellectual Life. True
enough, but there would have been no opportunity for
an epic had not James Gordon Bennett made it possible.




CHAPTER XIII


THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX
NEW YORK, always most credulous of cities, awoke
into wild alarm on the morning of November 9, 1874,
when the Herald flung out a first page of solid nonpariel announcing that the "wild animals" in the Central Park Zoo had broken loose the night before with
direful consequences. The city was thrown into a
panic. A "proclamation" by the Mayor, warning
people to remain in their homes until the "peril" was
over, accompanied the tale and thousands kept within
doors. The more valorous armed themselves to the
teeth and sallied forth in search of big game. The
city seethed with excitement, as well it might under
the spell of such an announcement. That no other
paper carried the tale was without effect-had not the
Herald often beaten its slower contemporaries in big
news? But few read the page through and so reached
the anticlimax of what was the second most noteworthy "sell" on record-Richard Adams Locke's
"Moon" Hoax, printed in the New York Sun on
August 21, 1835, being the greatest. Well might panic
follow a page headed with these lines:
AWFUL CALAMITY
The Wild Animals Broken Loose from Central Park.
304




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


305


Terrible Scenes of Mutilation.
A Shocking Sabbath Carnival of Death.
Savage Brutes at Large.
Awful Combats Between the Beasts and the Citizens.
The Killed and Wounded.
General Duryee's Magnificent Police Tactics.
Bravery and Panic.
How the Catastrophe was Brought AboutAffrighting Incidents.
Proclamation by the Mayor.
Governor Dix Shoots the Bengal Tiger in the Streets.
After the Herald custom, this was followed by a long
and solemn introduction reading:
Another Sunday of horror has been added to those
already memorable in our city annals. The sad and
appalling catastrophe of yesterday is a further illustration of the unforeseen perils to which large communities are exposed. Writing even at a late hour, without full details of the terrors of the evening and night,
and with a necessarily incomplete list of the killed and
mutilated, we may pause for a moment in the wide



306 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
spread sorrow of the hours to cast a hasty glance over
what will be felt to be a great calamity for many years.
Few of the millions who have visited Central Park,
and who, passing through the entrance at East Sixtyfourth Street, have stopped to examine the collection
of birds and animals grouped around the old Arsenal
building, could by any possibility have foreseen the
source of such terrible danger to a whole city in the
caged beasts around him as the trivial incidents of
yesterday afternoon developed. The unfortunate man
to whose fatal imprudence all accounts attribute the
outbreak of the wild animals in the menagerie has answered with his life for his temerity, but we have a
list of calamities traceable from his act which one life
seems inadequate to expiate. We have a list of fortynine killed, of which only twenty-seven bodies have
been identified, and it is much to be feared that the
large total of fatalities will be much increased with the
return of daylight.
The list of mutilated, trampled and injured in various ways must reach nearly two hundred persons of
all ages, of which, so far as known, about sixty are
very serious, and of these latter, three can hardly outlast the night. Many of the slightly injured were taken
to their homes, so that at least for another day the
full extent of the calamity cannot be measured. We
have only to hope that no further fatalities will occur.
Twelve of the wild carnivorous beasts are still at large,
their lurking places not being known for a certainty,
but the citizens may rest assured that if they will only
exercise ordinary prudence and leave the task of hunting down the animals to the authorities, who have
somewhat tardily taken the matter in hand, there will
be no further casualties to register as the outcome of
the unauthorized act of a reckless keeper in Central
Park.
It was an apparently small cause for a huge and horrible result, but the overturning of a kerosene lamp
in a dingy cow shed in Chicago laid the Queen City




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


307


of the West in ashes, and a spark from a hod-carrier's
pipe was parent of the flames that consumed in a night
the great granite buildings of Boston, as if the solid
stones were fuel. It is not long since a herd of Texan
cattle threw New York's million of human beings into
consternation, defied the police force and injured so
many. It was at least to be hoped that the somewhat
similar, although more fearful, calamity of the breaking loose of the wild animals at Central Park would
have found Superintendent Walling with some plan to
meet the emergency. In all such cases, promptitude
is invaluable, and although General Duryee deserves
credit for his plan, formed, we are assured, on the instant and carried but so far with effect, we must regret
that he was not earlier informed of the terrible event.
A telegram from police headquarters to the general's
residence did not reach him, and thus a valuable hour
was lost, as he was first informed of the catastrophe
by seeing the mutilated body of the unfortunate sewing
girl, Annie Thomas, borne on an improvised stretcher
to the Thirty-first Precinct station house, near West
Eighty-sixth Street. He was visiting at the house of
a friend, and the passing crowd with the mournful
burden on the shoulders of the police attracted the
attention of a young daughter of his friend's. Her
screams brought the entire party to the windows. In
an instant the General was in the street. Learning
from a hundred tongues the horrible truth in the few
words, "the wild animals at the park have broken
loose," he ran like a deer to the station house, and seating himself by the telegraph instrument, directed from
that point the operations which first resulted in staying
the panic. Had he lost the time it would have taken to
reach police headquarters, it is impossible to say where
the panic and affright and their consequent fatalities
would have ended.
Commissioners Matsell and Disbecker were heard
from at various points throughout the evening, but
their efforts were not of a nature to produce any good




308 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
result. Orders and counterorders were issued by them
in continuing succession. Happily, the steps taken by
General Duryee made them practically subordinates
and diminished their inefficiency-to give their stampeded zeal no harsher term. Commissioner Voorhis
could not be found during the entire evening. To General Shaler, also, the thanks of the community are due.
His promptitude in calling out the Seventh, Eighth,
Ninth and Sixty-ninth regiments, a call manfully responded to, and placing them at the service of General
Duryee deserves unqualified praise. It is to be hoped
that the proclamation issued by Mayor Havemeyer after consultation with General Shaler and Commissioner
Duryee, will meet with the obedience which its gravity
merits. Discipline is the only means of meeting and
conquering such an untoward chain of circumstances,
and we here point out that the obedience which is given
by the militia to General Shaler, by the police to General Duryee, the hero of the hour, should be cheerfully
rendered by the citizens at large to the proclamation
of his Honor the Mayor. The deaths and mutilations
are already too numerous to risk their increase and
the authorities will only serve the common cause by
enforcing the law against those whose curiosity leads
them to defy the mandates of the civil power.
The following is the Mayor's proclamation:
A PROCLAMATION
Mayor's Office, Sunday Night
Nov. 8, 1874
All citizens, except members of the National Guard,
are enjoined to keep within their houses or residences
until the wild animals now at large are captured or
killed. Notice of the release from this order will be
spread by the firing of cannon in City Hall Park,
Tompkins Square, Madison Square, the Round and at
Macomb's Dam Bridge. Obedience to this order will
secure a speedy end to the state of siege occasioned by
the calamity of this evening.
An account will be opened at the City Hall, of the
City of New York, for contributions to the sufferers.




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


309


The "big story" then began under a single full
face line:
THE CATASTROPHE
The location of the Zoological collection in the Park
is well known to most New Yorkers; but it appears
that changes were made recently in the disposition of
the various animals, and to realize the exact nature of
the catastrophe it becomes necessary to indicate where
the various animals were situated yesterday when the
frightful event occurred that spread such terror
throughout the city. If you enter the menagerie from
Fifth Avenue you will find on either hand, running
parallel to the street, the houses where the herbivorous
beasts were domiciled. In former times several bears
from the northern regions occupied the right hand
corner, where a few beautiful zebras lately gladdened
the eye. To the extreme left were the cages of the
several foreign birds, formerly devoted to a large collection of monkeys. To the extreme right were the
vultures and eagles, and the visitor, by making a short
circuit of the large building, known in times gone by as
the Arsenal found himself in front of a handsome
wooden structure, one story high, where the principal
wild animals resided. Of course, the residence of the
sea lion was known to everybody. On the inside of the
garden the stately giraffe occupied a somewhat large
enclosure, and adjacent were a number of pelicans,
intermingled with several specimens of the ostrich
tribe. The bears were in isolated cages on the green
sward, near the common pedestrian route from the
Fifth Avenue entrance.
THE PROMINENT ANIMALS
in the quadrangle nearest to Fifth Avenue were the
bison, the nylghau, the zebu, the sacred bull, cow and
calf, the zebras, the young elephant, the capybara, the
guanaco, the fat-tailed Syrian var, the aoudad and the




310 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
fallow deer. In the valuable monkey collection were
the sooty mangabey, the bonnet macaque, the Toque
monkey, the pig tailed monkey, the Arabian baboon,
the black handed spider monkey, the brown Capuchin,
the Teetee and the blackeared marmoset. Such was
the scene before
THE TERRIBLE EVENTS
of yesterday-the bursting forth of the most ferocious
beasts within the menagerie of the Park, the awful
slaughter that ensued, the exciting conflicts between
the infuriated animals, the frightful deaths that followed, the destruction of property and the fearful and
general excitement-making an era in the history of
New York not soon to be forgotten. How singular
that Sunday, of all days in the week, should make the
occasion of such great panics as mark the record of
the past four years. It was a Sabbath morning that
witnessed the destruction of Chicago and Boston and
a Sabbath afternoon beheld the streets of New York
given up to the fury of a drove of Texan cattle. It
was on a Sabbath that the Westfield exploded her
boiler. But yesterday capped the climax of unthought
possibilities, and it was the Sabbath, too, that deepened
the significance of the great disaster.
As everybody knows, the Central Park on Sunday
is the popular resort of all classes-the rich and fashionable in their carriages, and the poor and humble on
foot, alike sally forth to enjoy its beauties. It is safe
to say that at least 20,000 people filled the various
walks, drives and avenues yesterday. To nine-tenths
of the pedestrian visitors the menagerie is a chief
source of attraction. That it contained the elements
of a sanguinary disaster to a multitude of human beings hardly entered into the philosophy of anybody.
It would be vain of the writer to presume himself capable of picturing the harrowing scenes of which he was
the distressed and involuntary spectator. To give,
for instance, an adequate description of the frightful
incident, where Lincoln, the Numidian lion, urged to




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


311


indescribable fury by the bullets that pierced his flanks
and shoulders, jumped into a landaulet occupied by a
nursemaid and her four young charges, mangling the
delicate little things past all sign of recognition, would
be a difficult task. But let me endeavor to describe the
fearful scenes with some attempt at order. My head is
so confused and my nerves so unstrung with the fearful scenes through which I have passed that I confess
I am hardly equal to picturing them.
FIRST OMINOUS SYMPTOMS.
The writer stood within a hundred yards of the
menagerie when the first ominous symptoms of the approaching catastrophe were heard. The doors of the
main structure, wherein the principal wild animals
were confined, were closed at five o'clock. Hundreds
of people, men, women and children, were still lingering in the vicinity. Five or six of the Park Police were
stationed in the neighborhood. One stood at the entrance at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street, making a record of the number of visitors passing in.
Another was stationed for a similar purpose on the
roadway approaching from the south-eastern entrance,
at the corner of Fifty-ninth Street. Within the arsenal
there appears to have been a number of the Park
Police. The captain was off duty and did not appear
until later at night. Mr. Conklin, the director of the
menagerie, was at his post, like a good soldier. It was
A CALM, PEACEFUL AND PLEASING SCENE
in the early hours of the afternoon. Children ran
around from cage to cage in the perfect fulness of
delight. A stream of people released from the cares
and labors of the week wandered through the grounds,
pausing to admire the beautiful zebras and stopping
there to laugh over the amusing antics of the monkeys.
The idea of danger could only be suggested to create
laughter and derision. Certainly nobody seriously
contemplated the possibility of peril where seemingly
massive cages restrained the wild and savage instincts




312 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
of the various beasts of prey. The rhinoceros appeared the
PICTURE OF STUPID AMIABILITY,
the Numidian lion wore a look of the grossest indolence, the Bengal tiger seemed as harmless as a
prostrate forest tree, the bears invited a caressing
acquaintance, the boa constrictor might have been
petted with the hand, the elephant eating biscuits from
the fingers of a little child, suggested an extreme condition of tameness and docility. In all the rest, saving
the restless and savage eyed hyena, the spirit of the
day appeared to dwell.
THE ORIGIN OF THE AWFUL CALAMITY.
In a very few moments the whole aspect was destined to be changed. It is now well authenticated that
Chris. Anderson, the keeper, one of whose charges
was Pete, the rhinoceros, in walking around after the
public was excluded, stopped in front of the den of the
huge animal above mentioned. He was seen to poke
his cane through the bars at the great beast; and was
warned by keeper Miller to desist. The latter was
leaving the building at the moment he remonstrated
with Anderson, and to this circumstance, doubtless,
owes his life. He says that keeper Hyland also called
out to Anderson. The latter had a fashion, it appears,
of teasing the animals although he was often known
to eject persons from the building for similar practices. Anderson paid no attention to the warnings of
his fellow keepers, and, it is thought, a heedless thrust
must have entered the eye of the rhinoceros. A number of boys who were peering in through the windows
on the north side of the building attracted the attention of the writer by their cries.
tLOOK, HE S BREAKING OUT!"
There was a crashing heard within and the boys
were seen to flee precipitately. I rushed to the window,
drawn by a curiosity which was irresistible. My example was soon followed by others, many women
struggling for a place. It was some moments before I




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


313


could make out what was transpiring within. A keeper
was standing in the middle of the open space apparently spellbound. Another was standing further
down, grasping a crowbar, his gaze directed toward
the pen of the rhinoceros. The short, angry, squeaking cry of the rhinoceros, like sudden blasts on a fish
horn, was heard amid the sound of snapping bars and
crashing planks. It at once struck me that the huge
animal was breaking down the walls of his pen in the
endeavor doubtless to reach his tormentor. Not aware
of any cause for this sudden exhibition of rage, none
of the fascinated crowd at the windows measured the
danger of their position or the object of the infuriated
beast. The keeper, afterward found to be Anderson,
now rushed forward and struck at the animal. We
could not see whether his blows reached the rhinoceros
or not, but their effect was soon told. A crash which
shook the building followed and the front of the pen
fell outward and the horrid, mis-shapen mass of Pete,
the rhinoceros, rushed out, his double-horned head
close to the ground. Anderson made a spring sideways, to avoid the monster's onslaught and might have
succeeded in gaining at least temporary safety by this
means, but he was too close to the animal, for the latter, swinging his unwieldy body toward him, knocked
him down with a touch of his shoulder, and an instant
after had trampled him out of recognition. Backing
down from the mangled body with a swiftness almost
incredible for his bulk, the rhinoceros plunged his
horrid horn into the dead keeper, dashing the last
possible spark of life out against the walls of one of
the pens, which likewise gave way. All this tragedy
transpired in an instant. Horror-stricken, I tried to
push my way from the window, but the crowd was now
dense behind me and I could not stir. I cried:
"For God's sake, let some one run to the police
station for help!"
I struggled to get out, putting my hands against the
window and my feet below it, and pushing with all my




314 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
might. An accursed curiosity in the crowd, who were
only vaguely conscious of what was transpiring, made
my efforts useless. When I looked in through the
window again the destruction at the further end had
increased, the rhinoceros breaking open the dens of
the animals on the left hand side.
THE KEEPER HYLAND
whom I had first seen standing spell-bound, was advancing, pale as marble, and a navy revolver in his
hand toward the enraged rhinoceros. The animal saw
him, turned and made for him in an instant. He
sprang aside and fired. The ball hit the rhinoceros on
the left shoulder, for he swerved over for an instant;
but it can scarcely have more than hurt him a little,
as he turned with a whiff, whiff, whiff snort, his head
down toward the keeper. The latter, with cat-like agility, retreated toward the lions' and tigers' cages, evidently making for the space between them, but too late.
The horrid horn impaled him against the corner cage,
killing him instantly, tearing the cage to pieces and
releasing the panther, who landed in the middle of an
open space with a spring. The cries of all the animals
were now joined in horrid chorus by the loud and longsustained roar of the lion and lioness, the tigers and
all the wild beasts, that doubtless had their carnivorous
instincts whetted by the smell of human blood and the
sound and sight of the bloody struggles outside their
bars.
THE WILD ANIMALS ARE LOOSE"
I yelled, and the savage chorus within bore out my
words. At last curiosity seemed to give way. The
crowd fled in all directions, women falling as they ran,
and no one staying to help them out of the way of the
coming danger, which was then shaping itself so
swiftly. I ran to the police station in the Arsenal
building, and found that the sergeant on duty was
dozing quietly. I shook him up, told him in a few
words what was the matter and ran round to the space
in front of the Arsenal. There I found keeper Miller




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


315


calling to the policeman who was just coming off duty.
Miller laughed at my story.
"Come around," I said earnestly.
"Too thin, young fellow," said the policeman.
"Don't you hear? " I said, as the roaring of the animals sounded ominously in our ears. The sergeant
now came running out in search of the policeman.
"Anderson and Hyland are killed," said he to
Miller. "Why don't you stir yourself?"
Miller is a tall, stalwart man of about thirty-three
and it is but just to say that from the moment the sergeant spoke he sprang into action. He rushed into
the keeper's room and grasped a sixteen shooter rifle,
which is kept loaded for such emergencies and ran out
through the central door to the rear of the Arsenal to
the window the crowd had just deserted. What he saw
evidentally appalled him, as he let the butt of the rifle
fall to the ground and continued gazing in through the
window like one in a dream. From his own lips I have
learned what he saw. He said:
"An attentive glance through the window revealed
the fact that
THE HUGE RHINOCEROS HAD BROKEN LOOSE."
He had apparently made no more of the massive
barrier that enclosed him than a sheet of pasteboard.
I saw the dead bodies of Hyland and Anderson, the
former nearer to me than the other. The panther was
crouched over Hyland's body, gnawing horribly at his
head. I recognized his body by the striped shirt which
I could just see hanging tattered from the arm. It was
growing dark and this made everything look twice as
fearful. I saw the rhinoceros plunge blindly forward
against the double tier of cages where the black and
spotted leopards, the striped hyena, the prairie wolf,
the puma and the jaguar were lying. Judging from
the condition of the cages, the onset of the powerful
and infuriated rhinoceros must have been tremendous.
In some cases the bars were only bent to an elbow,
but, as a rule, they snapped asunder like kindling wood




316 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
before the smashing weight brought against them.
THE RELEASE OF THE ANIMALS
mentioned angered still more the lions and tigers and
all the rest within the building. The rhinoceros in the
meantime was busy in the work of destruction. In a
few moments more he had broken down the pens of
the wild swine, the manatee, the American tapir, the
two-toed sloth, and the pair of kangaroos. Just then,
too, Lincoln, the Numidian lion, escaped from his
cage, through some unfortunate oversight committed
at feeding time. The bolt of his prison door was insecure, and when the raging rhinoceros butted his head
against the bottom, it flew wide open. Hardly had Lincoln, the lion, bounded into the centre aisle of the
building when the three cages containing the black and
spotted leopards, the tiger and tigress, the black wolf
and the spotted hyenas were sprung open by an overpowering charge from the now desperate rhinoceros.
The noise of this crash might have been heard several
blocks away. It was followed by a series of fights between the liberated beasts. Close by a window on the
western aisle of the building the black wolf sprang upon the flanks of the Bengal tiger. The lion stood a little
distance away pawing the floor, awaiting rather than
offering an attack. Between the wolf and tiger the
conflict was brief. The latter, shaking off the feeble
hold of the other, turned quick as lightning on his hind
legs and falling with open, gleaming jaws upon his less
muscular foe, rolled him over in the dust. The great
fight ensued
OVER THE BODY
of poor brave Hyland. There was evidently a fight
over the body of Anderson, but I could see nothing
more than a mingling, gleaming mess, whence arose the
most awful cries. Nearer to me where Hyland lay,
the lioness, the panther, the puma, and presently the
Bengal tiger, were rolling over and over, striking at
each other with their mighty paws. The lioness tore
the skin off the puma's flank with one blow. The com



THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


317


ing of the tiger was something terrible. I never shall
forget the awful, splendid look of him as he landed
with a spring in the thick of them. I could not move.
It Was too awful for anything. Oddly enough, while
the fight was going on, now one furious beast tugging
and crunching at the arms or legs of the corpse, now
letting go with his teeth to plant his paws upon the
bleeding remains and snap with his dripping jaws at
another beast, writhing and awful as they were, I could
not help looking at Lincoln, the lion, who was standing
behind them pawing the ground, roaring and lashing
his side with his tail, every muscle in uneasy tension.
All of a sudden I had a flash.
"BY GOD, HE S LOOKING AT ME"
I said to myself. It seemed to me I felt him looking at
me. I saw him crouch. I turned and ran. "My God,
I had no idea there was anybody near me." Miller had
not been a minute and a half at the window when I
saw him running towards me shouting at the top of
his lungs:
"THEY RE COMING, THEY'RE ALL LOOSE."
It is necessary to explain Miller's statement, "My
God, I had no idea there was anybody near me."
Those who ran from the window in the first instance
had not run far before they looked back. There was,
of course, no pursuit, and a great many lingered by,
but at a safe distance. The coming of the keeper,
however; his standing listless looking before the window for over a minute, had had the effect of inspiring
a return of confidence in the more curious, and when
Anderson, frightened by the eye of the lion, ran precipitately toward the Arsenal, there were perhaps a
dozen persons near the window. He only sped a few
paces when, with a terrific roar
LINCOLN, THE LION CAME CRASHING THROUGH THE GLASS.
I saw a young man fall from a blow of the awful
paw, and another crushed to earth beneath the beast's
weight. The crowd fled in all directions, but the lion
did not pursue. Planting his paw upon one of the




318 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
bodies he filled the air with the fearful rumble of his
roar. I started to run, but Miller called on me to
stop. I turned and saw him kneel down deliberately
and take aim. There was a good chance for a shot,
as the lion stood almost facing him, but with the right
shoulder more toward him. I have no reason to doubt
the steadiness of Miller or his reputation as a shot,
but I waited with inpent breath as he took aim. He
had hit him. I could not see where, but the wound
was far from fatal. The bellowings were renewed,
his mane erect, his tail switching his sides, while he
pawed the earth and swung his huge head from side to
side. Drawn by the report of the rifle and the roaring
of the beasts, crowds of people were entering the enclosure from the Sixty-fourth Street entrance. I saw
that already a number of Park
POLICE ARMED WITH REVOLVERS
and citizens with rifles were on the ground. I had
no weapon and so ran down the incline, by the refreshment stand, toward Fifth Avenue; and almost at my
heels as it were, came the Numidian lion with a series
of bounds. So sudden, fierce and powerful was the
leap he made into the midst of the storming party that
he paralyzed the coolest calculations and scattered
half a hundred armed and unarmed men like chaff before the wind. Springing in the air over the stooped
form of policeman Murray, who ducked in time to
save himself from the possible death, Lincoln landed
in a fast widening
CIRCLE OF FEAR STRICKEN PEOPLE,
of fainting women, screaming children and terrified
men. Lincoln paused for perhaps a second, lashing
himself with his tail and glaring horribly around him.
On the ground before him were two young men who
had tripped and fallen in the precipitate retreat from
before the building. They were struggling fast to
rise, and had nearly succeeded when Lincoln, with
another awful roar that echoed over the Park, pounced
upon the nearest, and with one stroke of his fore paw,




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


319


tore clothes and flesh to pieces. A shout of horror
went up from the distant witnesses of the deed, but
they were given little time to meditate upon it. I was
just in the angle between the two aviaries, which contained, yesterday, the doves and the 'eagles respectively, when the last mentioned deed of blood was enacted.
I was about to escape by rushing past the house where
the wild animals were caged, and had just reached the
path near the sea lion's tank, when what I had feared
most came to pass. The rhinoceros, in his infuriated
career, had at last found a gate and crashed through
it. Had he done so at first there would have been less
lost lives to count. A storming party which had been
formed by Colonel Conklin, of keepers, citizens and
police near the Fifty-ninth Street entrance, and which
was powerfully aided by the arrival of a platoon from
the Nineteenth Precinct under Captain Gunner and
Mr. Hunt of Ninety-third Street was within a hundred
yards of the building when the rhinoceros emerged,
giving his short, vicious cry. His appearance was the
signal for a misdirected volley, which, of course, did
little or no execution on his thick, tough hide and
double horn protected proboscis. It confused him
momentarily, however, for he turned and re-entered
the building on a sort of ambling trot. Misled by this
retreat, a cheer went up from the firing party, and
they rushed forward, Colonel Conklin leading, to secure the door. Had the great brute deliberately
planned an ambuscade, it could not have better succeeded. When the party were within a dozen feet of
the door the puma sprang through the shattered portal
into their midst, overthrowing several, doubtless injuring some. Almost on the heels of the puma came
the black and spotted leopard, followed by the jaguar,
the African lioness and tiger. The latter came forth
with a slow and stealthy tread. Archambeau, one of
the keepers, had the temerity to try and lasso the
beast, knowing that there was none more dangerous
and blood-thirsty in the whole collection.




320 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


THE TIGER SAW THE OBJECT
of the keeper and without a moment's warning, sprang
fifteen feet in the air and caught Archambeau by the
right shoulder. The two went down together, the
tiger on top. Instant preparations were made to save
the poor fellow when, unfortunately, the rhinoceros
came lumbering at a half trot out of the entrance
and drove the rescuing party from their purpose.
He also drove the tiger before him, but at the same
time planted one of his enormous feet on the prostrate
Archambeau and squeezed the breath from his body.
The storming party was for the moment completely
disorganized. The animals were running in various
directions, and the attacking forces and the curious
spectators were fleeing in every direction, scaling
rocks, climbing trees, falling in their flight, and a case
is reported of a citizen stabbed at this moment by an
Italian over a quarrel as to which should first ascend
a tree. The wounded man, Calvin Morley, of Flatbush, L. I., is at Bellevue Hospital but cannot give any
description of
THE MAN WHO STABBED HIM.
I mention this terrible incident from a host of others
to show how overwhelming was the fright and how
blinding the stampede. The lion had escaped the bullets of the firing party in the front enclosure, or rather
being maddened to further desperation by them,
careered wildly through the Fifth Avenue entrance,
and was followed shortly after by the Bengal tiger, a
number of demoralized Park policemen, who still had
a sentiment of duty, pursuing them with halloes, as
if they were sheep, not sheep devourers.
CONFUSION AND DESTRUCTION.
From this point it has been found extremely difficult to gather anything like a coherent or complete
story of the depredations of the uncaged beasts. From
a number of statements made to our reporters by eyewitnesses, many of these statements abounding in
patent impossibilities, but all of them given with ap



THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


321


parent conviction of truthfulness, the following continuation of the story is given. The writer of the
preceding, on the pell mell breaking forth from the
animals, ran to the Seventy-fourth Street entrance
and hurried down to the Windsor Hotel whence he
telegraphed to the Herald office for assistance.
THE CONTINUATION OF DESTRUCTION.
The rhinoceros, after trampling down the keeper,
Archambeau, made directly for the cage of the brown
bear, which stood on the grass recently. The ease
with which he overturned the structure welt illustrated the vast muscular power of the brute. The
brown bear escaped with some bruises. The grizzly
bear, upon being knocked out of his house, advanced
to give fight, but was bowled over on the grass three
times in succession.
THE LEOPARD,
after killing a little child and mutilating several women, made his way into the inclosure containing the
pelicans, the pea fowl and ostrich and killed all before
him. The terror among the storming party lasted
long enough to give ample time to the escaped animals
to spread havoc all through the Park and the city besides.
THE JAGUAR
had been forgotten at meal time, and, made desperate
by hunger, jumped over the fence surrounding the tall
and gentle giraffes, and in less time than it takes to
tell it, had slaughtered one of the noble but helpless
animals.
OVER ONE HUNDRED SHOTS
were fired at the rhinoceros in vain. His sides appeared to be covered with slabs of wrought iron.
"Shoot him in the eye," was the general cry, but no
one was lucky enough, as all were nervous with fright,
to strike that particular organ. A long reaching crowbar, however, struck him in a sensitive spot under the
jaw, not with the effect of checking his headlong career, but only to drive him onward to




322 THE JAMES GORDON BENNET-TS


WORSE DEEDS THAN EVER.
In the same half trot with which he issued from his
quarters and swaying like a ship at sea, he struck
over to the cages near Fifth Avenue, where the herbivorous animals were stationed. The havoc made in
this direction was frightful. All the cages tumbled
to pieces, and, to add to the destruction and confusion,
the liberated elephant joined forces with the rhinoceros and the joint attack on the weaker animals,
such as the camel, the zebras, the sacred bull, the
guanaco and the llama was simply irresistible. The
sacred bull was killed instantly and one of the mild
eyed zebras was crushed without pity. The other escaped into the park and ran toward Eighth Avenue.
He is reported to have kicked and badly beaten a number of daring boys who endeavored to effect his capture. He is still at large.
THE BIRDS.
The destruction of the bird cages was marked by
terrific screaming. The eagles fought gallantly for
their eyries, but nothing could withstand the united
charge of the elephant and the rhinoceros. It was
late in the evening before the organized force of the
menagerie subdued the former of these two powerful
animals which had ruined a vast deal of property. The
rhinoceros, the parent of all the destruction, made
away toward the Mall when
THE ELEPHANT HAD BEEN LASSOED
by the hind leg, a huge log being tied to the end of the
stout rope with which the leg was lariated so as to impede his progress, while other parties with ropes similarly hampered the other legs until they were able
to throw him on his side and effectually "hobble"
him so that he could not rise. They were about to
shoot him point-blank, when the strange sight
was presented of the elephant's keeper, with streaming eyes and outstretched arms, planting himself between the pointed and cocked rifles of the angry crowd,
who had seen the deaths and mutilations, and the pros



l
I


These figures capped the front of the Herald Building. The two men struck
the hours
Now on the grounds of the New York University








THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


323


trate beast, whose trumpetings of defiance were still
ringing on the ear. The keeper would not move, and,
with many curses, the great brute's life was saved.
THE RHINOCEROS
escaped, as we have said, toward the Mall. Here he
attacked a party of young girls, killing the sewing
girl, Annie Thomas, and frightening the others terribly. One of them, subject to heart disease, Ellen
Schubert, has received such a nervous shock that her
death may be looked for at any moment. The beast
left the park at one of the upper Eighth Avenue entrances, and gored a horse at Ninetieth Street, overthrowing the heavy wagon to which he was harnessed,
and dislocating the shoulder of Isaac Parker, milkman, who was driving. In this neighborhood he overthrew a shanty on the rocks, which fell before him like
a house of cards. The wretched inmates were at supper, and the falling planks took fire. All the family
escaped except a child in the cradle, which was burned
to a crisp. Continuing on his career until he reached
Eleventh Avenue, he was followed by a crowd of men
and boys, who were evidently unaware of his ferocious
nature. He must, too, have been nearly spent with his
terrible efforts, but continued on toward the North
River. A fortunate accident put an end to his career.
It was now very dark and he was seen to fall into a
sewer excavation at the Boulevard, fifteen feet deep.
Had it been a week day and at an earlier hour, he
would no doubt have ended his life in killing, by falling on them, some of the men at work. As it was he
fell ingloriously.
The park from end to end is marked with injury, and
in its artificial forests the wild beasts lurk, to pounce
at any moment on the unwary pedestrian.
THE LEOPARDS AND WOLVES
made short work of the deer and all the blood for
which they are responsible is not even yet fully computed. The subsequent fight between




324 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


THE LION AND TIGER
when they met on the open space at Fifty-ninth Street,
outside the Park wall, in the presence of a thousand
terrified spectators, was the great combat of the day.
The lion tore away at one bite half of the tiger's flanks,
while the latter, with characteristic ferocity, buried his
teeth in the lion's neck until the King of beasts howled
with the keenest anguish. Now it was the lion underneath and the tiger on top. The next moment positions were reversed.
BLOOD COVERED THE AVENUE
and in the distance the awestruck spectators looked on
in breathless fear. Finally, the two sanguinary brutes
rushed from each other as a bullet from the rifle of
General [George W.] Wingate, who came promptly on
the ground, whistled between their ears. Lester Wallack took aim at the same moment from behind the
unfinished iron building on the East side, and perforated the tiger to some slight degree. Many other
gentlemen came rushing to the scene in the meantime,
among them ex-Mayor Hall, Erastus Brooks of the
Express; Manton Marble and Mr. Bangs of the World,
who had been visiting Governor-elect Tilden, and were
on their way uptown in a carriage; Judge Daly, Judge
J. R. Brady, General Chester A. Arthur, Hugh Hastings and Prosper Wetmore. But they were all a trifle
nervous from running and the beasts escaped on their
raid downtown, where, as everybody knows by this
time, they had a bloody and fearful carnival.
TRAGIC DEATH OF THE BROWN SEA LION.
When the ponderous rhinoceros plunged through the
sea lion's cage, the latter was in an apparently profound sleep. Awakened by the startling noise around
him, and struck with terror at the appearance of his
visitor, the poor seal uttered one long, piercing howl,
partly resembling the shriek of a locomotive, and the
next moment tumbled into his tank and disappeared.
The rhinoceros, breaking down the whole structure,
was soon floundering in the tank also. Then it was,




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX

325


that the sea lion, driven to bay, showed fight; but the
conquest was as unequal as a ferryboat in conflict with
an iron-clad man of war. For a time the seal seemed
to stand a chance for his life. Being lithe and slippery
he easily avoided the unwieldy attacks of his visitor.
Indeed, he had every hope of safety, but for an unfortunate slip made by the rhinoceros, who, keeling suddenly over, fell with all his immense weight on his
prostrate foe and killed him. During the fight the
roars of the sea lion were incessant and painful to
hear. It was unlike any other cry of beast, bird or fish.
It was something strange and weird, and had a half
human sound that struck the ear with a singular impression. The little seal escaped by hiding under the
water.
DEATH OF THE ANACONDA.
In the destruction of the various cages the anaconda
was roused from his torpor, and pivoting himself
upon his tail, made a spring at the neck of the tall and
beautiful giraffe that occupied the adjacent cage.
Only a few boards separated the two. The long,
slender neck of the giraffe bending over the partition
proved a tempting mark for the anaconda. The graceful neck was quickly bowed to the ground in the coils
of the powerful constrictor. The giraffe made but a
feeble struggle and death speedily ended his sufferings. Then it was the awful spectacle was seen of the
anaconda seeking to swallow the body of his victim.
He had but commenced this disgusting task when he
was observed by Dr. F. A. Thomas, of Eighty-third
Street, who attacked the reptile, armed with a sabre,
and at one blow severed the great snake's body and
then departed in haste.
IN THE MONKEY HOUSE
when the elephant smashed the cages with his trunk
and drove the monkeys into every hole and corner the
scene of disorder and noise was perfectly indescribable. The monkeys screamed and laughed and laughed
and screamed. Two green monkeys perched them



326 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
selves upon the elephant's back, but for a very short
time. Over twenty monkeys escaped from the house
and made off in various directions. Two of them
climbed into a carriage standing outside the Park on
Fifth Avenue. One was killed by the laughing hyena,
several were wounded by the black wolves; but considering the risks they ran and the familiarity they
made with many of the liberated beasts of prey, they
escaped yery well.
THE NEWS OF THE PROCEEDINGS
in the Park, and the terror excited throughout the city
at the prospect of having a visit from wild animals
at the domestic fireside, drew an immense number of
sporting men and Yorkville fast boys and rowdies in
the direction of the menagerie. There was dangerous
sport enough for everybody, as far as hunting down
the fugitives went. They pentrated everywhere. The
African lioness, after saturating herself in the blood
of eighteen victims-men, women and children-was
finally killed at Castle Garden by a party of emigrants.
She lay down under one of the great trees in the Battery Park, having leaped the rails. Although followed
at a safe distance by a large crowd, she was allowed
to remain in this position.
A PARTY OF SWEDISH HUNTERS
who had arrived on the Thuringia on their way to
farms in Nebraska, undertook to kill the beast, although bears were the only large animals they had
practised on. Ten in number and armed with rifles,
they scattered themselves in a semi-circle in pairs, and
advanced, crawling on their bellies, until within a few
paces of the recumbent lioness. Her head was turned
toward Broadway, but suddenly suspecting danger,
she arose and shook the heart of the onlookers with
her sounding roar. It was at this moment that Jansen
Bjornsen, the leader of the hunters, blew his shrill
whistle, and five rifle balls were buried in the body of
the lioness. She fell with a dull thud, evidently dead,
but the five hunters whose guns were still charged,




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


327


rushed up and emptied their pieces into the prostrate
carcass. This was the signal for a deafening cheer.
The hunters were carried around on the shoulders of
the First Warders, and the proprietor of the Stevens
House, Nicholas Muller, headed a subscription list
with $50 each, as a testimonial to these brave children
of the Norseland for their maiden service to the great
Republic. It is announced that Superintendent Webster of Castle Garden will receive subscriptions. It
is said that nearly $500 is already down on the lists.
Commissioner Lynch has put his name down for $10;
Whitelaw Reid subscribes $50; C. A. Dana adds $50
also.
THE BENGAL TIGER
having counted up a score of victims, surrendered his
life to the trusty rifle of our aged Governor John A.
Dix, who shot him as he rounded Madison Avenue and
Thirty-fourth Street. This was an extremely fortunate occurrence. The Governor, a splendid shot, was
in town in the nick of time. This gallant act will be
remembered by the citizens of New York, although it
is now too late to mark that esteem at the ballot box.
It may be mentioned as a fortunate circumstance that
a minute after the death of the tiger, Archbishop McCloskey's carriage drove up. A fright or injury to
the horses by the ferocious beast might have ended
the career of the aged prelate. Hearty congratulations were exchanged between the Governor and the
Archbishop.
FRIGHT ON FIFTH AVENUE.
The crowded condition of the Fifth Avenue sidewalks on Sunday afternoon is well known to all, and the
effect upon the host of elegantly dressed promenaders
when the breaking loose of the beasts was made known,
was curious. When the beasts made their escape from
the building mainly devoted to the great carnivore,
a number of excited people rushed down Fifth Avenue,
shouting as they ran. It caused a general stampede of
the fashionables, who ran in various directions down




328 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
side streets and into the churches, which thus received
full congregations long before the hour of service.
The Hon. Richard Schell, who was standing near the
Brick Church, on Murray Hill, and who first believed
the report of the breaking loose to be a cruel hoax,
told one of our reporters that the rapidity with which
the avenue was cleared beggars description. The excited shouting party
SEEMED TO SWEEP THE AVENUE
before them. In ten minutes there was not a soul
visible in either direction from the Park to the Fifth
Avenue Hotel. It was puzzling to think where they
had gone. Mr. Schell proceeded to state that he
turned and walked up the avenue, but met no one for
three quarters of a mile. He felt then fully convinced
it was a hoax. As he neared the Park, however, he
heard a number of shots fired. He in turn became excited, and commenced running toward the Arsenal.
On his way he was met by a party
BEARING A DEAD BODY,
that of a youth fearfully disfigured about the head and
face. A terrifying roar was heard behind them, when
the party let the body fall and fled precipitately. Mr.
Schell ran too, and jumped in some shrubs off the main
road. The incline leading to the Arsenal is unfinished,
and up this road he saw some animal of the tiger
species come with a light, swift movement. The beast
was evidently following the blood trail, for he went
straight up to the abandoned corpse, and after striking one paw upon the breast, and touching it with his
head, as if smelling, he gave forth a series of horrible
howls. "I felt my blood run cold,9" said Mr. Schell,
"but kept perfectly still lest the beast should be attracted to me from
THE HORRID MEAL
he was evidently about to commence. I soon heard a
number of shouts and saw a party of citizens and police, running toward the animal, but unconscious of
the fact. They were running away from danger in




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


329


their rear. I shouted to them. They suddenly halted
and looked back. Two of the party fired revolvers
at the animal, which to their relief and mine, uttered
a howl of anguish and ran, pursued by men who themselves were running away (from the lion, they said).
I ran until I gained the entrance to the Park, and
made down Fifty-ninth Street as the animal was proceeding at a limping trot down Fifth Avenue. I had
not proceeded far when I saw a large object careering
madly toward me. I recognized it as a buffalo bull.
I turned to run back toward the Park, when, to my
horror, I observed an animal ambling toward Fourth
Avenue. I saw it was a brown or black bear. I rushed
up the stoop of one of the houses and tugged at the
bell. I saw as I turned that the buffalo and the bear
had met, and that a fight was in progress. I cannot tell
which got the better. The fight was short and I heard
that the bear was seen to limp away. I got into the
house, but was almost summarily ejected, although I
made an urgent appeal to be allowed to remain." The
animal first referred to by Mr. Schell is doubtless the
one that
ENTERED THE CHURCH OF ST. THOMAS
of which Dr. Morgan is pastor, at the corner of West
Fifty-third Street, causing such a deplorable panic
with injuries to many. A party carrying one of the
wounded down Fifth Avenue to St. Luke's Hospital,
at Fifty-fourth Street, was attacked by him. Just as
the bearers neared the corner a deep bass growl was
heard behind them, and losing their presence of mind,
they ran down the avenue and past the hospital. Descrying the church a little ahead, they hurried toward
it and entered the edifice with fright on every countenance. The sight of the wounded man caused the
greatest consternation. Shrieks were heard on all
sides. The women grasped their protectors and the
utmost confusion succeeded. The church door must
have been left open, for a minute after, the animal,




330 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
with his head down, to the blood trail and growling
gutturally. His presence once discovered, a frightful scene ensued. Men and women rushed in all directions away from the beast, who sprang upon the
shoulders of an aged lady,
BURYING HIS FANGS IN HER NECK,
and carrying her to the ground. In the haste to get
away over the seats many injuries were sustained,
Mrs. Catherine Ransom, of West Forty-fifth Street,
breaking her leg by falling between two pews. Some
one ran to the Windsor Hotel for assistance, and one
of the guests ran with a loaded rifle to the church.
The beast was in the middle aisle, sitting crouched
over the form of his victim, when a tall, fair man, with
a rifle in his hands, entered. Without a moment's hesitation he brought the weapon to his shoulder and
fired. The beast stumbled over and the rifleman ran
up and struck him over the head, driving the hammer
through the brute's skull. When the aged victim was
examined life was found to be extinct, although the
flesh wound in the neck was in itself not of a very
dangerous nature. Up to this hour the remains have
not been identified. An inquiry at the hotel as to the
name of the rifleman elicited the single word
" RIGBY!
In several parts of the city the greatest danger resulted from people firing rifles and pistols from windows. There is no instance reported of any of the
animals having been hit, while it is believed many
citizens were struck by the missiles. One policeman,
Officer Lannigan, of the Seventh Precinct, was wounded in the foot near Grand Street, by
A SHOT FROM A WINDOW,
during a chase after the striped hyena, which was
mistaken by the crowd for a panther. This cowardly
brute was finally killed by a bartender armed with a
club. He was treated as a second Sampson by the
entire neighborhood, and is undoubtedly a young man
of courage. His name is Dan Brenan, and he is a




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


331


native of the Nineteenth Ward. Counsellor Spellissey distinguished himself by stopping a causeless
stampede in the Fourteenth Ward.
THE FERRYBOAT CARNAGE.
Perhaps the most deplorable of all the incidents of
the terrible evening was that which took place on the
ferryboat of the Twenty-third Street Line, North
River. Several of the animals made their way down
Fifth Avenue. Among them was one of large size
(almost the only description now obtainable). It is
thought to have been one of the tigers, but on its passage along West Twenty-third Street, appears to have
been unnoticed in the general amazement. At any
rate, just as the gate keeper on the Twenty-third
Street ferry was closing the gates he saw a fierce animal bound past him and rush on to the ferryboat.
The boat was well loaded. Some horses attached to
light wagons were seen to rear, and show every sign
of terror, and then rush forward
INTO THE RIVER
carrying their human loads with them. Several people were mangled by the ferocious brute in a few
minutes. The boat had just begun moving as the
beast leaped on board. When the pilot saw the horses
and wagons going overboard, the boat was not quite
clear of the dock. He immediately
RUNG TO REVERSE THE ENGINES
and put back. To this providential circumstance must
be attributed the saving of so many lives. Numbers
were seen to plunge overboard, to escape the beast,
which at last sprang into the water after a young
man. The wonderful escape of Larry Jerome is an
incident of breathless interest. Overborne by the
crowd, he was forced into the river, and although a
heavily built man, is a splendid swimmer. He was
seized around the neck by a desperate man, whom he
shook off with the greatest difficulty. Striking out for
the shore he touched against a female, who appeared
to have given herself up to death. He piloted her to




332  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
the spiles near the dock, and both were rescued by the
fast gathering crowd. The tide was running at swift
ebb and it is feared most of the bodies have been carried out to sea. This is one of the cases where days
must elapse before the full list of fatalities is known.
THE HOSPITAL HORRORS.
In Bellevue Hospital many touching sights were
seen. The doctors were kept busy dressing the fearful wounds, and the cries of the unfortunates in the
accident ward were most painful to hear. It was
necessary to perform a number of amputations instantly. One young girl is said to have died under the
knife. Few of the victims were visited by their families last night, but the ministers of the gospel of all
denominations took their place by the bedsides of the
unfortunates. The handsome face of Rev. George H.
Hepworth was seen bending over a moaning street
Arab. Bishop Potter, Rev. Mr. Morgan Dix, Rev. Mr.
Armitage, of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, and
Fathers Farrelly and McGlynn, were seen moving
among the sufferers, ministering to the souls of the
suffering and the dying.
The following is a partial list of casualties:


James Hadley
Owen Reilly
Peter Ryan
Michael Murphy
Peter Kerr
Thomas B. Styles
James Hewson
Ellen Lalor and
three children
Stephen Long
Mary Brady
Fred McDonnell
Alex H. Henderson
Pedro Velasquez
John Judge


KILLED
Christopher Anderson..... Hyland
William Meredith
Jacob Kuhne
Benjamin P. Steiner
Thomas Fagan
George Cross
John F. Coleman
Abel Garrett
P. D. Comstock
Annie Thomas
Fred C. Gamble
George Handley
Stephen Bruce
William Mapes




THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


333


LIST OF WOUNDED
John Morrissey          John Connors
very slightly       Mark Habelstein
General Butler          Jacob Wort
Alexander O'Leary      Julia Denison
James Hayden           Anne Cushman
Michael Rafferty       Sarah White
George D. Bancroft     Mary Ann Gough
Silas Hammersmith      Pat Byrnes
Julien D. Brown        George Seaver
Amos Hardy
Of the number actually killed it will be impossible
to tell for some days. Of those wounded no full list
can be ascertained. The charge of the savage beasts
was the most unexpected in the history of cities. They
tore through the leading thoroughfares with all the
freedom they might have enjoyed in their native wilds.
LIST OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS:
1 Rhinoceros               1 Sacred bull
1 Zebra                    2 American eagles
6 American deer            1 Two-toed sloth
2 Giraffes                 1 Great kangaroo
1 American bison           1 Alligator
1 White-haired porcupine   2 Water turkeys
1 Prairie dog              4 Pink-footed geese
1 Sea lion                 2 Pelicans
2 Leopards                 1 Trumpeter swan
1 Grizzly bear             1 Clapper rail
1 Brown bear               1 Bengal tiger
1 Striped hyena            1 Chacma baboon
1 Ocelot                   2 Camels
2 Brown Capuchin monkeys   1 Sambur deer
1 American tapir           1 African lion
1 Anaconda                 1 African lioness
1 Woodchuck                1 Redbreasted mergan
4 Syrian sheep             1 Pied-bill grebe
1 Pine snake               1 Nvighan
1 Derbian wallaby          1 Guanaco
1 Dorcas gazelle




334 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ANIMALS AT LARGE.
The following animals are at large in various parts
of the Central Park and city, and, of course, are extremely dangerous: The cheetah, the manatee, the
Cape buffalo, the panther, (a most ferocious beast,
supposed to have killed the two policemen near the
Belvidiere tower and eaten the goats whose skeletons
were found on the Ramble), the opossum (not dangerous), the wild swine, the paisano, (a vicious beast,
supposed to be on the west side of town, in the neighborhood of Manhattan market, and credited with killing the young lady found near Sir Walter Scott's
statue), the mangabey and the puma lion (a very
savage animal) destroyed most of the deer in the
northern enclosure and bit a large piece out of the
shoulder of Henderson, the policeman; supposed also
to have killed the nursery girl found in the Carrousel.
Three snakes escaped and are believed to be hid away
in the grass near the Casino. More than a dozen
monkeys are playing truant through the Park and are
not to be depended upon when they become hungry.
The black leopard, whose fight in the building with
the Bengal tiger disabled him considerably, is limping
about the upper end of the Park. The polar bear that
killed the two keepers, Ryan and Murphy, is said to
have been shot by Recorder Hackett near the upper
reservoir. There is a sharp lookout for the black
wolf. He escaped into the city, but looks so much like
a Dutchman's dog he may evade detection until he has
committed some lamentable tragedy. The musanga
paradoxure and many other beasts of prey whose
names are not immediately available are scattered
over the island. Five or six bald-headed eagles escaped and many valuable tropical birds. The prairie
wolf is not to be found, the suricate is also missing and
no tidings have been received of the brown coatimundi.
GENERAL DURYEE
by the excellent disposition he made of the police,
saved hundreds of children in the vicinity of Thomp



THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX


335


kins Square from being devoured. Had the same precautions been taken on the west side of town, the
American buffalo and brown bear would never have
accomplished so much fearful havoc.
NATIONAL GUARD PRECAUTIONS.
General Shaler deserves credit also for having
orders promptly issued to turn out the National Guard,
as the danger from the wild and savage animals at
large in all the thoroughfares, proved too much for
the police. The scene at the Fifth Avenue Hotel when
the Malayan tapir that killed the two policemen,
burst in among the mob of gentlemen standiing in the
portico, can never be forgotten. John Morrissey escaped with a flesh wound. General (B. F.) Butler, who
had come on in the morning, was in conversation with
General Gilmore, and received a bite in the calf of
the leg. Major Bundy of the Mail, and Mr. Stone of
the Journal of Commerce, assisted to calm J. Jones,
the button manufacturer, who was thrown into a paroxysm by the appearance of the animals. Secretary
Robeson and Alderman Vance were thrown violently
against a pile of baggage. Leonard Jerome pursued
the animal two blocks after it disappeared from the
hotel, and made some excellent practice with a revolver but failed to bring the brute down. The buffalo overturned Earl Rosebery's carriage in front
of the Brevoort, and subsequently ran into another
carriage, containing Moses Hanz, of Forty-first Street,
but without doing any serious damage.
It would be impossible at this late hour to describe
the numberless scenes of dismay and disaster. The
hospitals are full of wounded. There are fifteen
bodies at the morgue, and several in the various precints. A sentiment of horror pervades the community.
THE GALLANT POLICE.
It is now time to say that the police deserve the
greatest credit for their courage, if not for the success
in dealing with this unheard of danger. Everywhere
they are at the front, and among the slain and muti



336 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
lated they count heavily. General Duryee's order to
clear the streets was a master stroke of policy. It
gave the rapidly gathered off platoons work they could
undertake without further direction, while it gave the
squads of officers he dispatched to the angles of the
leading thoroughfares a chance to deal efficiently with
the animals running amuck and without further danger
to citizen life. There was only one case reported of a
citizen shot by a police bullet, and, as the unfortunate
victim had been warned to leave the streets, the officer cannot be blamed.
THE MORAL OF THE WHOLE.
Of course the entire story given above is a pure
fabrication. Not one word of it is true. Not a single
act or incident described has taken place. It is a huge
hoax, a wild romance, or whatever other epithet of
utter untrustworthiness our readers may choose to
apply to it. It is simply a fancy picture which crowded
upon the mind of the writer a few days ago while he
was gazing through the iron bars of the cages of the
wild animals in the menagerie at Central Park. Yet
as each of its horrid but perfectly natural sequences
impressed themselves upon his mind, the question presented itself, How is New York prepared to meet such
a catastrophe? How easily could it occur any day of
the week? How much, let the citizens ponder, depends
upon the indiscretion of even one of the keepers? A
little oversight, a trifling imprudence might lead to the
actual happening of all, and even worse than has been
pictured. From causes quite as insignificant the
greatest calamities of history have sprung. Horror,
devastation and widespread slaughter of human beings have had small mishaps for parent time and
again.
The genesis of the hoax came through Thomas B.
Connery, the managing editor of the Herald, who had
succeeded Frederic Hudson. It seems, in his after



THE WILD ANIMAL HOAX                337
noon walks through Central Park, he had noted the
rather frail character of the cages, and it appeared
to him that there was a real danger in their condition.
Some suggestion that they should be strengthened
went unheeded by the authorities. It therefore occurred to Connery that an article on the outcome of a
general escape would bring about the desired repairs.
He set Harry O'Connor, a careless reporter, at the
task, who did it badly and his "copy"' was turned over
to Joseph I. C. Clarke, the night editor, to lick into
shape. Clarke was an Irish exile, who had done fine,
work as a reporter. Between his hard working hours
he built up the tale and handed it over to Connery,
giving it no further thought.
Connery was not the least bit of a fakir, but a most
serious-minded, trustworthy man, with what seemed a
rather timid personality. I came to know him as a
member of the Authors Club after his retirement from
the Herald, and he was certainly the last person to be
suspected of a deliberate fraud on the public. His
was a serious motive, but the result rocked the town.
The article had been turned in to Connery, presumably to show Bennett. He had held it for a week and
then ordered its insertion. Mr. Clarke recites in
My Life and Memories that when the Herald was
brought up to Bennett in bed along with his morning
coffee, a glance at the page containing the tale caused
him to lie back on his pillows and groan I
For once in its career the Herald failed to rise to
the occasion. It was obviously abashed. The "hoax"
had been overwhelmingly successful, but the next
day's issue echoed no note of triumph. Instead, an
article of less than one column in length headed "Wild




338 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Beasts" tamely recited the need of a better zoological
garden than the Arsenal and its sheds afforded, contrasting the Zoos in London and the Jardin des Plantes
in Paris with the city's shabby outfit. An editorial
supported the article and urged the city to make proper
provisions. The suggestion did not bear fruit and had
probably been forgotten when the magnificent Bronx
menagerie was established twenty years later through
the exertions of the New York Zoological Society.
Even members of the Herald staff were fooled.
Doctor George W. Hosmer, a celebrated war correspondent, who later became Joseph Pulitzer's secretary and physician, appeared at the office girded with
two big navy revolvers, remarking: "Well, here I
am!"
The other newspapers had allowed themselves to
be "sold" as well as the public. Major George F.
Williams, city editor of the Times, receiving the
Herald at his house, went forth frantically and, engaging a coach, picked up a load of reporters at their
homes and drove to Police Headquarters in Mulberry
Street, to berate the officials for allowing his paper to
be so gorgeously beaten. He was turned away a
broken and foolish man. Of course, the Herald was
roundly objurgated by its rivals, who sought to play
up the incident to the paper's discredit. They failed
to make a dent in its prestige. Indeed, the incident
helped rather than hurt the paper. It had given the
town something to talk about and jarred it as it had
never been jarred before. The public seemed to like
the joke. Comic broadsides by peripatetic humorists
were issued which showed the affair in its aftermath.
That the scare should have been so general and




THE WILD     ANIMAL HOAX            339
lasting is not so queer as would now appear. There
were no telephones, radios, "L" roads or subways.
Getting about was by means of slow horse cars and
slower omnibuses. People heard of things only
through the newspapers. Those published in the
afternoon came out late and were poorly circulated.
Not until the next morning was the city reassured,
but it was a fortnight before the excitement died
down.
The authorship remained secret between Connery
and Clarke until the latter revealed it in his recollections, printed in 1926. The cages were repaired I




CHAPTER XIV


A GOLDEN DECADE
JFROM 1873 to 1883 the Herald was probably the most
profitable and potentially the most powerful newspaper in the world. It printed more exclusive news
than any other and if its owner did not influence events
it was only because he did not care to bother with
them.  Aiming only to print the news, he outstripped all competitors. Plus this he engaged again
in an exploring enterprise of the first magnitude.
The North Pole was the goal of many expeditions
during the nineteenth century. Bennett fathered one
that came to a tragic end. Lieutenant George W. De
Long, of the United States Navy, who, after an experience in search of the Polaris survivors, had become fascinated with the Arctic, sought support from
Henry Grinnell of New York for a further venture.
Mr. Grinnell had backed Doctor Elisha Kent Kane in
his search for Sir John Franklin and seemed a likely
sponsor. Grinnell refused however, saying:
"I am too old a man and I have done my share.
Younger men must take the matter in hand. There
is Mr. James Gordon Bennett. He is the man to undertake such an expedition. You should apply to him."
This was on November 1, 1873. Accordingly De
Long wrote to Bennett, then abroad. He held the matter in abeyance until the following spring when he re340




A GOLDEN DECADE


341


turned to America and took it up in a personal
interview. Nothing came of it for a time. The negotiations went on until November, 1876, when Bennett finally undertook to father an attempt to reach
the Pole and authorized Lieutenant De Long to select
a suitable ship. Pandora, a yacht owned by Sir Allen
Young, seemed most suitable. Sir Allen had done
some amateur Arctic voyaging in this vessel, which
was built for rough work. Bennett purchased the
yacht and Lieutenant De Long applied for the necessary leave of absence. This being granted, he went
to England where Pandora was refitted and renamed
Jeanette after Bennett's sister, Mrs. Isaac Bell whom
he always held in great regard.
Mr. Bennett took an active interest in the preparations. It had been suggested that balloons might be
used to advantage. He investigated the idea personally, but concluded that the unruly bag could be of no
use, except possibly in a captive state for observation
purposes. So none was taken along. The refitting
was done at Deptford. Then Jeanette was moved to
Cowes where her crew was shipped. From Cowes
she crossed to Havre, reaching that port on June 18,
1878. Here she lay for a month, welcoming crowds
of visitors. On July fourth she was formally christened. On the sixth Bennett sailed for New York and
on the fifteenth Jeanette headed for the Pacific via the
Straits of Magellan, it being De Long's purpose to approach the Pole from Bering Sea.
Jack Cole, the boatswain, and Alfred Sweetman,
carpenter, had served with Bennett on Dauntless.
"You will find Jack Cole," he wrote De Long, "one
of the best sailors you ever have had under you. In




342 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
times of danger he is worth his weight in gold and his
tact with men is wonderful."*
The trip to San Francisco took one hundred and
sixty-five days. But one hundred buckets of coal were
left in the bunkers when Jeanette tied up to the buoy
at Mare Island, December 27, 1878. It was necessary
to secure an American register by act of Congress.
This was approved March 18, 1879. The vessel was
also put under the control of the Navy Department
which was to provide a specially enlisted crew, to be
paid by the government, but to be refunded by Bennett. Contrary to his habit Bennett was to foot the
bills while the government was to have all the authority. In this dual relationship Jeanette became pretty
well wound up in red tape and it was six months before she left Mare Island for the North.
It was not certain for some time whether the Navy
Department would let De Long command. He finally
convinced Secretary R. W. Thompson of his fitness,
Bennett joining in the persuasion. The vessel had
been rebuilt at the owner's expense. She was commissioned at last on June 28, 1879, a second act of
Congress having been needed to clear the way. Some
able men made up the company. John W. Danenhower
was navigator and Charles W. Chipp executive officer.
He had served with De Long on the Polaris search.
Doctor J. M. Ambler was surgeon and George W. Melville, engineer. The latter was a notable person.
Jerome J. Collins, who had brought the Herald's
weather bureau up to a high state of efficiency, went
along as meteorologist. Raymond L. Newcomb of
*From The Voyage of the Jeanette, by George Washington De Long.
Courtesy of Houghton-Mifflin Company.




A GOLDEN DECADE


343


Salem, Massachusetts, was the naturalist, William
Dunbar of New London, Connecticut, its pilot.
When, on July 8, 1879, Jeanette sailed out through
the Golden Gate, never to return, Bennett cabled this
farewell message through the Herald:
Regret exceedingly I cannot be there to bid him
[De Long] God-speed, but hope to be on hand to congratulate him upon successful return. Tell him I have
greatest confidence in his energy and pluck and I thank
him sincerely for his fidelity to me. Say, also, he may
push forward to north next spring with perfect confidence, for if ice-bound, I shall spare neither money nor
influence to follow him up and send assistance next
year, so neither he nor his men will be in danger. I
wish this to be an American success. Tell him in case
he returnes next year, unsuccessful, which I don't believe possible I shall most certainly send another expedition the following year, and continue doing so until
successful, but had rather the victory be his than another's. Should De Long not return next year, or in
fact never, the widows of men belonging to the expedition will be protected by me. Should like him to tell
this to his men upon their departure.
"Thank God," remarked De Long, "I have a man
at my back to see me through when countries fail."
He had indeed. Bennett had shown amazing patience
with the provoking government delays and had not
shirked expenditures. Under date of July 20, 1879,
De Long made this note in his journal: "At 10 A. M.
inspected ship and held divine service. Informed the
crew of Mr. Bennett's intention to follow us with a
ship next year, and that he would provide for all
widows if anything should happen to any of us. This




344 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
seemed to have a good effect on the spirits of all
hands."
It is not necessary to retell the story of the unfortunate expedition. Jeanette was sunk by ice off the
Lena delta, June 12, 1881. The subsequent sufferings
and death of most of the company, including the commander, added a poignant chapter to the long list of
arctic tragedies. While all hands made shore, only a
few eventually survived. Bennett was much in the
commander's mind during the days of disaster. He
named one Siberian dot in the sea "Henrietta Island"
and another "Bennett Island."
Engineer Melville gives this account of the christening of the first named:* "The ground was then named
Henrietta, in honor of Mr. Bennett's mother, and baptized with a few-a very few-drops of corn extract
from a small but precious wicker bottle that had been
placed in the boat-box for medicinal purposes."
Of the discovery of Bennett Island Melville writes,
after describing a desperate dash over the ice:
Suddenly, as we approached, the sun, as though by
an extraordinary effort, rent the cloud veil in twain,
and lo! before us, so close that it seemed we might
step on shore, uprose and towered to a height of 3,000
feet the almost perpendicular masses of black basaltic
rock, stained here and there with patches of red lichens,
and begrimed with the decayed vegetable matter of
unknown ages, the bold projections fissured and
seamed, and the giant rocks split and powdered by the
hand of time. The sight was glorious. Involuntary
exclamations escaped from all. It infused new life
and vigor into us; and each man straightway became
*From In the Lena Delta, by George W. Melville. Courtesy of
Houghton-Mifflin Company.




A GOLDEN DECADE


345


a Hercules. Now or never, thought we, and so seized
the boats and sleds, rushing them upon a tongue of the
ice-foot which our main floe grazed in passing. At
last I The ice-foot rested on the beach, and now many
of our company set foot on terra firma the first time
in two years. A sorry looking set we were, too, gathering together our weather-beaten traps; sunburned,
lean, ragged, and hungry. We had appeared quite bad
enough while on the ice; but now, after our late terrific
toils camping under these great mountains, the tents
looked not unlike ant-hills; while we, a group of vagabond insects, tugged away at a heap of rags, bags, and
old battered boats as spoils. Supper over, we formed
a procession, and with colors flying marched to the
island, which Captain De Long took possession of in
the name of God and the United States, naming it
Bennett Island.
How the company became separated and how two
stout seamen, William F. C. Nindemann and L. P.
Noros, found Melville in the waste is another tale of
wonder. The two led Melville to De Long's camp. He
and all his companions were dead. Melville managed
to reach Belun, a Siberian village, where he sent telegraphic messages to the Secretary of the Navy at
Washington, the American Minister at St. Petersburg
and to Mr. Bennett in Paris.
In all thirty-three officers and men were on the Jeanette when she was wrecked. They were divided into
three parties, Commander De Long in charge of one in
the first cutter, Lieutenant Chipp of the second cutter
and Melville of the whale-boat. Nindemann and Noros
alone survived of De Long's party. Chipp and his
men were never heard from again. Melville's party
were all saved thanks to encountering Siberian natives.




346 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Subsequently the bodies of De Long and his companions were brought home. Cole, of whom Bennett
spoke so well, was with Melville. He afterward became insane. Sweetman perished with Chipp.
Following the long silence of the Jeanette after she
vanished in the arctic the government had, in June,
1881, sent the U. S. S. Rodgers to seek her out. She
was burned in winter quarters on St. Lawrence Bay,
Siberia, in December. The main body of her crew
found its way back to San Francisco, but Colonel W. H.
Gilder, Lieutenant Berry and Ensign Hunt remained
and effected a meeting with Melville. Bennett had
also secured from the government the services of the
U. S. S. Alliance, Commander George H. Wadleigh, to
scout the region between Greenland and Iceland. The
government further sent a party to the Lena delta
under Lieutenant Giles B. Harber who also connected
with Melville.
When Bennett heard from Melville he at once dispatched John P. Jackson of the Herald staff to the
delta with money and supplies. He found Melville,
who, judging by his own account, was not very gracious. He had received word that two Americans were
in his vicinity at the village of Tamoose. He records:
Thither I drove, on a sled, thinking that I was
about to meet the naval officers of whom I had
heard, but picture my surprise when, instead, I beheld
Noros, who had set out for home in January with Mr.
Danenhower. He was accompanied by a Mr. John P.
Jackson, correspondent of the New York Herald, who,
journeying to the Delta to "write up" the Jeanette
disaster, had met the Danenhower party at Irkutsk,
and telegraphed their stories to his journal. He had




The late Chief Engineer, George W. Melville, U.S.N.




I




A GOLDEN DECADE


347


then secured permission from the Secretary of the
Navy to take Noros along with him to the Delta as
companion and aide, and here they were with all the
paraphernalia of Oriental travelers. Noros had shed
his deer-skin rags, and was clothed in purple and fine
linen, so to speak. Jackson had a Cossack escort and
two covered sleds filled with toothsome foods and other
good things.
I invited him over to Jamaveloch where he learned
from Bartlett and Nindemann the details of the search,
and how and where we buried the dead.... Mr. Jackson desired that I would detail either Nindemann or
Bartlett to accompany him; but, as I had no authority
to detach any of my party for such service, I declined to
do so, greatly to the displeasure of Mr. Jackson who
seemed to imagine that he had only to order in the
name of his master, and I would obey. The egregious
egotism of this kind of person is amusing in the extreme. At our first meeting he told me, with a great
show of importance, that he would be obliged to me if I
would turn over to him for his perusal and inspection
the log-books and journals of Lieutenant De Long and
Mr. Collins; that Mr. Bennett had so ordered, etc.; that
if there was anything I wished to have done, he would
be pleased to forward all my projects, etc., or if I
wanted any money he was empowered to draw on Mr.
Bennett, etc., etc. In short, he was prepared to take
me in charge and complete in a proper manner the
work I had almost finished.
Very much to his astonishment I was in need of
no assistance, and not at all inclined either to surrender myself into his keeping, or to be captured by
force. Had I supposed it was the intention of this
ghoul-like party to break into the cairn-tomb, I would
certainly have accompanied them, and prevented such
a desecration. But I never dreamed that a person
born in a Christian land would so far forget the respect
due to our honored dead as to violate their sacred
resting-place for the purpose of concocting a sensa



348 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
tional story, and making sketches, or out of idle curiosity. Yet this, I afterwards learned, was done, and the
timbers were sawn off and tumbled down, and the
structure left so weakened that it no longer served the
purpose for which it was intended.
The doughty engineer to the end of his days disliked
newspaper men. Yet Jackson was representing Melville's real employer and a few days later he was indebted to him for bringing about a meeting with the naval officers of whom he had heard, Berry and Hunt.
After that they traveled together, the naval gentry
dubbing Jackson "dismal John" and hazing him a
good deal on the journey back.
"From the wholesale manner in which he grumbled
about his eating, drinking, sleeping, about everything
that was around him, the sky and the earth beneath,I seriously doubt if his halo would fit him should he
succeed in edging his way into Paradise, which I must
say, however, is, in my opinion, utterly improbable, " was Melville 's comment on his journalistic companion; adding, "and what if he were possessed of all
Heaven itself, its fancied comforts and glories?
Would he not fret and complain and pine for a portion
of Hell as a diversion? My language is plain and
strong simply because in all the miles of my travel or
days of my life, I have never encountered such a faultfinder."
Melville had, indeed, performed heroic service and
felt vexed, perhaps, like Hotspur, when worn by rage
and extreme toil, "to be so pestered by a popinjay."
He had found and buried the remains of De Long and
his companions who perished as near to aid as he was




A GOLDEN DECADE                 349
himself, but missed out. Melville became chief engineer of the Navy and received proper honors for his
courage and constancy. He led a vigorous row in the
Navy over the long troubled status of "staff" and
"line" but lives beloved in the memory of all who
knew him, of whom I am one.
Nindemann was for years an employee in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He played on Sundays and holidays
with a boat anchored in old Mill Creek on Jamaica
Bay, New York, where I came to know him. In a political shake-up he was dismissed. I had "pull" enough
with the then Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin F.
Tracy, to have him put back.
Jackson, during the Jeanette hunting period, had
been installed in a house in St. Petersburg. Thence
he was ordered to locate in Paris. He did so. When
Bennett noted the locality he said it was not the sort
of neighborhood a Herald man should live in. Jackson
moved higher up. He was hardly settled before a cable
came ordering him to New York. Protesting to Bennett, he was coolly told New York was the place that
issued all commands. Accordingly he packed up and
departed, to find upon arrival that he had been made
managing editor of the Evening Telegram. Later he
became cable editor of the Herald, leaving that position in 1891, to hold a like post on the staff of the New
York Recorder.
After a year or so Bennett took him back, violating
his rather rigid rule that "deserters" should never be
permitted to return. Jackson knew how to pad out
cables and to expand foreign news from slender outlines. This made him valuable and accounted for his
restoration. He could always be relied upon to keep




350  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
the foreign page, opposite the editorial, full to the
brim.
Jackson, besides being an invaluable foreign editor,
was no small personage as a correspondent and newsgetter. While acting for the Herald in Berlin he succeeded in getting the verdict of the celebrated trial of
Count von Arnim for treason in advance of the German press, so that it became known first in the Herald.
Despite the disaster of the Jeanette, Bennett never
lost his interest in the arctic. He paid Doctor Frederick A. Cook twenty-five thousand dollars for his story
of finding the Pole on the celebrated gum-drop expedition to the land of fancy that preceded Commander
Peary's reaching the right spot on the polar ice.
Beside Bennett Island in the arctic, and the Bennett
Mountain and River in Africa named by Stanley, Bennett became a further feature in geography as a byproduct of an exploring expedition to Alaska headed
by Frederick Schwatka. The latter, reporting to Edward Townsend Flynn, then managing editor, from
San Francisco, wrote under date of October 9, 1883,
apropos of discovering a large body of water hitherto
unknown: "This lake was also deprived of its Indian
name and put down on the chart as Lake Bennett,
named in honor of James Gordon Bennett of the New
York Herald. The explorers say it is one of the
finest lakes they ever beheld. About midway of this
lake, on the Western side a river of more than ordinary
pretentions flows into it. There being no civilized
name attached to it and it being one of the great tributaries of the Yukon it was set down on the chart as
Flynn River in honor of the managing editor of the
Herald."




A GOLDEN     DECADE             351
Before the United States had a weather service, the
Herald had a good one of its own, which added to the
importance of its ship news department. For a long
time a nephew   of Lieutenant Matthew  Fontaine
Maury, the pathfinder of the sea, was in charge of the
department.  The Herald's weather reports were
among its best features and were followed with interest by the public. The later development of this
weather service, as already noted, was due mainly to
Jerome Collins who was to lose his life in the luckless
Jeanette expedition. The weather was a matter of constant interest with the younger Bennett. He had a
score or so of thermometers hung from trees in his
garden at Versailles. These he was for ever consulting
and comparing. Herald correspondents everywhere
were constantly queried concerning the state of the
climate in their vicinage.
Just as his father had initiated the "money" column
so Bennett the younger began the first "real estate"
department in the Herald about 1880. He saw the time
had come for suburban booming and wanted to develop his large Washington Heights interests. The
move gave the paper a lead in real-estate advertising
which it never lost in his time. Lehmann Israels was
the capable editor for many years. He also expanded
the Sunday paper with a "Sunday News Supplement"
full of reachings-out beyond the routine.
The policies of the father descended to the son. He
would not allow an editorial opinion to be expressed
in a case before the courts, nor permit news to be
colored to fit editorial opinion. Of his foreign policy
he once said: "My attitude on foreign affairs is often
called changeable, and is, I believe, frequently mis



352 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
understood. It is simply this: If a nation is friendly
to this country I wish the Herald to be friendly to that
nation, but if a nation shows an unfriendly policy I
wish the paper to adopt an unfriendly tone. This may
not be patriotism but it is the course I wish the Herald
to follow."
Bennett made his boyhood companion, Edward
Townsend Flynn, managing editor late in 1882. Thomas B. Connery retired on a handsome pension dating
from December twenty-third. Connery was but fortyseven but he had served twenty-five strenuous years on
the Herald, thirteen of them in the trying position of
managing editor. Men wore out fast on the job.
Flynn was only thirty-three. Respecting his duties
Bennett wrote him a lengthy typewritten letter from
Paris under date of November 27, 1882. It contains so
much of his newspaper creed that it is reprinted in full:
Paris, Nov. 27, 1882
Dear Mr. Flynn:
In addition to what I have already written you I
want to impress more fully upon you my views in regard to your new duties. First of all I wish you to
particularly consult economy. Try to carry out in
the Herald the same principles of economical management combined with enterprise and thorough condensation of the news that you practised so successfully
with the Telegram. Avoid the expense of supplement
triple and quadruple sheets as much as possible without sacrificing the news. This can be done by judicious
condensing so as to get all the points of the day's news
without the verbiage. In doing this, however, be careful not to fall into the habit of mere routine summaries.
Make some good lively feature every day, either local
or general or both. Whenever there is any important
piece of news always make that the feature of the day




A GOLDEN DECADE


353


and "spread" upon it as much as you think it is worth.
All this can be done without going to the expense of
triple sheets except, of course, on very important occasions provided you give matters your constant personal attention and remain in the office until the paper
goes to press ready to cut down, condense and leave
out, as occasion requires, at the last hours. You can
find out, by talking with Mr. Howland, exactly the point
at which a supplement or triple sheet "pays" and you
will please always bear that point in mind, remembering that whenever you go below it, without being justified by the pressure of news, you will be subjecting
me to a loss. Your work on the Telegram has proved
to me that you understand the value of news, i. e. what
is important and what is not, what the feature of the
day should be, what to condense and what to hold over
or sacrifice altogether, and I have great confidence that
you will be able to carry out my ideas about the Herald.
For your convenience I will classify what I have to
say about the different departments under their respective heads:
CITY NEWS.
While I have no special fault to find with Mr.
Meighan I notice that he has been getting into a rut
and that his work in other respects has not been up to
the standard I require. Mr. Smith is, I believe, a good
executive man and fully wide awake to what this department ought to be. As you are familiar with city
news I should like you to keep an eye on it and, when
you think necessary, make suggestions or changes as
you see fit. Let me know fully and frankly what you
think of Mr. Smith's ability as City Editor. I have
selected Mr. Meighan and Mr. Gilder (who is on his
way to America) as his assistants and wish them to be
on duty alternate nights or alternate weeks, as you
think best after consultation with Mr. Smith. Mr.
Howard will have a desk in the City room and will be
ready for special assignments, besides being subject
to your orders for special duty outside the City depart



354 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
ment. I want the local part of the paper to be enterprising, lively and thoroughly condensed (excepting
the "features") and edited carefully down to the
smallest items. Have particular attention paid to
Wall St. so as to have good local articles whenever
there is a chance, but take care not to let the paper be
used either by the writers themselves or by outsiders
who may influence them for this purpose. Let there
be a local feature of some sort every day, not a mere
flimsy sensation worked up out of whole cloth, but the
chief topic of the town, whatever it may happen to be,
thoroughly well written and edited so as to make it
fresh, lively and readable.
FOREIGN NEWS.
I consider Mr. Potter a very competent man in foreign news and should like you to consult him occasionally about the management of his department, but
keeping a general supervision yourself over that part,
as well as all the other departments of the paper.
Mr. Potter has been, by my order, working up a fresh
and well-selected lot of clippings from the foreign
papers, but in future I wish these selections used more
in subjection to the general news, so as to give two or
three available columns on the foreign page in case
the foreign news is dull and the home or local news
crowded and important. Take as an example the Herald of Nov. 13 last. There were nearly three columns
of small type, excellent in their way and for which I
think MP. Potter deserves credit, but which should have
been left over, as I consider that the paper of that day
should by careful editing have got along with, at least,
a single supplement sheet. Mr. Potter knows my ideas
about making features, etc., and will I think readily
adapt himself to the new requirements.
GENERAL DOMESTIC NEWS.
Mr. Connery will give you a list of the correspondents in the various cities throughout the country.
Make free use of their services whenever there is a
chance to make a good feature or to get a "beat" but




A GOLDEN DECADE


355


avoid the habit they are apt to get into of sending
dribbling, unimportant dispatches which only increase
the bills for telegraphing and cumber up the paper. I
want you to treat the Herald exactly as if space were
as much an object to it as it is to the Telegram. You
always managed to get all the news into the Telegram.
Use the same judgment and economy with the Herald.
Don't consider that because the Herald is larger it has
any more waste room than the Telegram. This will
apply not only to the general domestic news but to
every part of the paper. Never, however, spare expense or space when the news justifies it. Whenever
there is an important piece of news I want the Herald
to have the fullest and best account of it. Another
point which I think you understand is letting a thing
drop the moment public interest in it begins to flag.
The instant you see a sensation is dead drop it and
start in on something new.
SHIP NEWS.
The Ship news is never to be left out, or rather
should be the last thing to leave out. Probably there
will never be an occasion when you will find it necessary to omit it, though that has been done, in Mr. Hudson's time.
THEATRICAL NOTICES.
I want the notices of theatres to be brief, lively and
always frank and fearless. Have these details assigned to good men in the City department, making the
assignments yourself, instead of leaving them to Mr.
Nicholas or whoever may occupy his desk. You will
soon find out who are the most competent men for this
work and you will keep them at work in rotation so as
to avoid having a regular "critic," which I consider a
mischievous and bad system in many ways. Mr. White
can help you in this, and he can, in addition to his
editorial duties, occasionally do the operatic and musical notices, for which he is well qualified. He can also
edit the theatrical news.
J. G. BENNETT.




356 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Please return a press copy of this. It can be copied
on any letter press.
The new managing editor took hold vigorously and
evoked this characteristic letter from Bennett, written
on the stationary of Namouna:
Nice, Feby. 8, 1883.
Dear Mr. Flynn:
I was very much pleased with your letter of Jany.
27. It has the right sort of ring and I feel satisfied
you will succeed in making a good paper. Already I
notice a great improvement     I beg you will continue in the good work. If Mr.   's sickness ( 7) is
from drink, remove him at once and put a good man in
his place. And any reporter found to be drunk or
under the influence of wine while on duty should be suspended three months without pay. How are O'Connor's habits now? I see he is at Albany-sent there by
Mr. Connery I suppose. Find out from Cummings,
and if bad suspend or remove him.
Faithfully yrs.
J. G. BENNETT.
"O'Connor" was Harry O'Connor, a Herald veteran
of long standing. Let us hope he stood the test.
"Cummings" was Thomas J. Cummins, the paper's
Albany correspondent, another old hand. "J. G. Bennett" was the usual signature. He would sometimes
sign social notes to Flynn "Jim." "Mr." was always
employed in addressing men in the offices. More than
once he sent his managing editor off on Lysistrata to
Corfu or the Nile, when he himself went elsewhere.
Friendly as they were the best part of their lives, a
split came. It lasted twelve years. Then Bennett
sent a cable asking Flynn to rejoin the Herald. The




'. " '        " ' i' ':";  ',' '?* '.*'"'!'.?*?  ' " '.
'~   i  l:.'.,,','i'~,!,,,X,, ' ',..i  ~
'-' ~ ~ ~:,. ~. -?~ * "  - * -::L'(:';^ -*^:;:,,
-I.  $ *.  ff x  *. g
'?,.;;,,,.
[See other side]


Courtesy of Miss Claire Wallace Flynn
Facsimile of handwriting of James




t&   WIM   I d4 4-4rU  4.
4'~,j;  '.r^c^
'2 _ CJ '




1883- 1918'


359


after months of fighting, the Herald gave in, having
suffered great financial loss and a large drop in circulation. Meanwhile, the World flourished like a green
bay-tree. The bulk of its gains came from the Sun
which "went foolish" during the Cleveland campaign
of 1884 and lost half of its readers to Mr. Pulitzer,
who always gave Bennett and Charles A. Dana the
credit for presenting him with the New York field..
Coincident with the cut in price Bennett increased --
the Herald's advertising rates, thus further contributing to Mr. Pulitzer's support. He had become arrogant during the 1873-1883 decade and insolent in his
use of power. Moreover, the character of advertising
was about to undergo a change, though this did not
get under full headway until the 'nineties when the department store development began in New York.
These stores used larger space and display, something
discouraged by the Herald, which stuck to logotypes
and would not break column rules. The World allowed!
any kind of type and cut the rules but charged an
extra price for the privilege. This was cheerfully paid
and left the Herald at a disadvantage. In 1895, as ad- j
vertising manager of the World, I equalized the rates
and abolished the extra charges with expansive results
to the paper. The Herald was compelled to follow suit.
It also abolished logotypes and substituted outline letters in their stead. This improved its position for
the time, especially as Mr. Pulitzer, whose eyes were
always on the Herald, forbade the use of black-face
and compelled us to use outline until a dry-goods combine forced a change in policy.
In 1894 the coming of William R. Hearst to New
York gave Bennett a breathing spell, as the young




360 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Californian devoted his entire time to the World, taking away many of its able men and shamelessly imitating all it did in bigger type and with louder noise.
Meanwhile, Bennett had made a master stroke by
moving up-town and out of the welter. He selected
the large triangle on Broadway between Thirty-fifth
and Thirty-sixth Streets and there constructed from
plans by McKim, Mead and White one of the loveliest
buildings ever erected in New York. Where Pulitzer
had aimed to touch the skies, Bennett kept close to
the earth in what was a replica of the Palazzo del
Consiglio of Verona. Here the Herald was housed
in 1894. The press-room was made visible from
the street by plate-glass windows and the business office was a thing of beauty. Within, the building was
a model of good taste, but not convenient. Situated on
an island, so to speak, it had no room for expansion
such as was soon needed. The composing-room, up
under a hip roof, was hot and low. The typesetting
machine operators had to sit under the eaves.
Besides, the building was on leased land with
but twenty-five years to run. Pulitzer once told
Bennett in Paris, when he heard this, that he
could not sleep nights with his building on another
man's land. Bennett dryly replied that he would not
be on hand to worry about it, which became true,
though he worried a good deal just the same.
The Herald's up-town move gave it a boom. It also
boomed up-town. Great stores and hotels sprang up
around it, and in due time the huge terminal of the
Pennsylvania and Long Island railroads added importance to the center then named and still called Herald
Square.




1883-1918                 361
The warfare between the World and Mr. Hearst was
on down-town. The Herald, out of it all, prospered
amazingly, and its Sunday paper, by pushing a series
of Christmas and Easter supplements, passed the
World in city circulation. The Hearst Sunday sheet
was far behind. All this brought big business, and it
looked as if the paper were invincible. It made around
a million a year. The World and Journal on a onecent basis had a struggle. Pulitzer's profits were more
than cut in half, and Hearst's loss climbed into the
millions.
Bennett had need for money. He lived at great expense in Paris. His country seat at Beaulieu and his
steam yacht cost a fortune each year, while his liberal
use of the cables totaled a pretty sum. Besides he had
a steady one hundred thousand dollars a year loss on
the Paris Herald, started in 1887. To increase this
seepage in 188941890, Bennett essayed the establishment of a London Herald. It did not fit into the English atmosphere, and, as English libel laws were very
strict, holding proprietors responsible for the acts of
their editors and reporters, it was not long before Bennett found himself barred from Britain.
The London Herald, besides vexing its owner, lost a
lot of money. It was finally discontinued, save on
Sunday, lingering thus for a little before finally shutting up shop. Bennett carried itM first-class talent
from New York-Robert Hunt Lyman, Ervin Hawkins,
James Creelman, H. W. J. Dam and Thomas Fielders.
All had a hand in it, while on the editorial page, former
Mayor A. Oakey Hall and Louis J. Jennings, who, as
managing editor of the New York Times, exposed the
Tweed Ring and sent Hall to exile, came together




362  THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
across the years in this queer fashion. The New York
gentlemen could not get by the English police and
court system. After most of the men had been badly
bumped they gave up trying and cultivated the barmaids, all save Creelman, who made an assault on
Scotland Yard, with results that made his comrades
rock with laughter.
In 1893 Bennett incorporated the New York Herald
Company and took down "James Gordon Bennett,
Proprietor" from the head of the editorial page and
substituted therefor: "E. S. Drone, editor; G. G. Howland, general manager; George J. Taylor, news editor;
William C. Reick, city editor; John Henderson, night
editor."
Joseph Pulitzer had some time before placed his
name at the head of the World. Bennett was reported
as taking his down in consequence and putting up what
he called the names of his "hired men" instead, not in
recognition of their responsibility but in contempt!
At any rate, Pulitzer's name also came down from the
top of the column and was not replaced.
The change gave rise to the rumor that Bennett was
disposing of his holdings, Reuter's Agency circulating
the report in Europe. Bennett charged this as libelous,
incidentally adding in an editorial that the Herald
could be made to pay a dividend on twenty million
dollars by curtailing its cables and cutting out some
of the five thousand dollar salaries paid. These looked
large then.
Once, however, Bennett signed an agreement to sell
the Herald to H. H. Kohlsaat, of Chicago, who, after
making a fortune in bakery-restaurants, lost it in trying to run a Chicago Herald. He had sold his bakery




I.


Facade of the New York Herald Building, Herald Square








1883 -1918


363


business for a large sum and sought to be a Napoleon
of journalism. The next day Bennett called him in and
begged off. He had lain awake all night and repented
of the bargain. Kohlsaat tore up the contract.
Save in a single instance Bennett never departed
from his rule to have no other business than the Herald. This was in his partnership with John W. Mackay
in establishing the Commercial Cable System. Mackay,
starting as a prospector and handpick miner, had
wrested an enormous fortune from the silver in the
celebrated Comstock Lode in Nevada. His wife lived
abroad. The size of her cable bills attracted his attention. At the time (in the 'eighties), the Western
Union held the monopoly from Ireland to Heart's Content in Newfoundland, thence by land straight to New
York. Jay Gould had given the Western Union, of
which he was the chief holder, a sinister name. It was
interlocked with English cable ownership. The French
cable was purely foreign. Rates were exorbitant.
Mackay, visiting in Europe, noted the facts. He thought
there ought to be an all-American cable system.
Knowing Bennett to be the best single cable customer Mackay enlisted his interest. The two united
to lay the Commercial cable, now a vast enterprise
under control of Mackay's son, Clarence H., crossing
the Atlantic and the Pacific, supplemented by the Postal Telegraph service all over America. The MackayBennett cables soon made their way, disdaining to cut
prices below twenty-five cents a word and were
supreme after the Western Union system had lost
much money at half this rate in an effort to kill competition. Mackay was a bold venturer to defy Gould,
but he did it successfully. For one thing his capital




364 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
was all solid. He had no water to pay dividends on,
no financial sins to expiate. The Mackay-Bennett cable
was paid for with the real money of two partners, plus
that of a few minor investors. They did not go to the
public and never "financed" the property.
One of the outcomes of this warfare was a bitter
personal attack on Bennett by Jay Gould, which was
sent to all the New York papers except the Herald.
Julius Chambers was then managing editor, and feeling that the best way to meet the assault was to print
it, succeeded in getting a proof from the composingroom of the New York Press. The attack in all its viciousness therefore appeared in the Herald the same
day as in the others. He did this without consulting
Bennett, who was highly pleased at the performance.
Gould's assault fell flat. Indeed, to assail the character
of the Herald's proprietor was a waste of time. It had
long ceased to be an asset.
In 1894 New York was stirred as it had not been
since the days of William M. Tweed by the revelations
of the Lexow Committee, a legislative body headed by
Senator Clarence Lexow, of Nyack, which dug deeply
into vice conditions that had developed under six continuous years of Tammany rule. The testimony of
Doctor Charles H. Parkhurst, head of the Society for
the Prevention of Vice, and that of other witnesses
brought out under the skilful examination of John W.
Goff, counsel for the committee, aroused public opinion
which in turn created a Committee of Seventy for the
purpose of bringing about a fusion of the various
political elements against Tammany Hall. That astute organization selected as its candidate for mayor
in 1895 Nathan Straus, a member of the firm of R. H.




1883-1918                  365
Macy and Company, the pioneer department store
of the city, whose record for philanthropy and public
spirit was relied upon to take the curse off the ticket.
He was opposed on the fusion side by Colonel
William L. Strong, a wholesale dry-goods merchant
of good standing in the Union League and elsewhere.
The Herald stated the merits of both candidates but
took no stand editorially, contenting itself with the
remark that both gentlemen had revealed their purposes and it would leave it to the voters to make their
choice. This was a Herald habit in most political situations, but something happened to bring it into the
open. Mr. Straus had been nominated on October
tenth. On the sixteentli the following appeared at the
top of the Herald's editorial page:
SIXTH AVENUE, FOURTEENTH STREET AND TAMMANY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:
We and other large patrons would esteem your support of Mr. Straus a personal favor. He will give you
a business administration.
EHRIoH BROTHERS
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:
Retail furniture dealers will appreciate your support
of Mr. Straus. He is fearless, independent and capable.
BAUMAN AND Co.
We are sorry, very sorry, that we cannot comply
with these requests, and also that Mr. Straus shoIld
be a Tammany candidate, for even if George Washi gton came to life the Herald could not support him if
he were Tammany's standard bearer.
Ehrich Brothers were conspicuous Sixth Avenue
merchants. Bauman Brothers were the biggest in



366 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
stallment-plan furniture sellers in the city. Both firms
were large advertisers. The Macy store was at the
corner of Fourteenth Street and Sixth Avenue, which
thoroughfare, from Fourteenth to Twenty-third
Streets, was then the retail center of the town. The
letters were printed in the customary editorial page
type, the comment in news-face nonpareil. Not much
space was consumed but it carried consternation into
the Tammany camp, bearing, as it did, the tidings that
the Herald would be against the Hall.
Not to be outdone in independence the World commented thus on October seventeenth:
ADVERTISING AND POLITICS
Two business concerns, both large advertisers, appealed to the Herald to support Mr. Straus for Mayor.
One of them said it would regard such support as a
"personal favor," the other, assuming to speak for its
line of trade, said it would "appreciate" the support.
This is a very bad innovation in politics and it cannot be too strongly condemned. It follows naturally
the nomination of-Mr. Straus by a ring of discredited
and unprincipled office-holders, partly because of his
admirable charities and partly, no doubt, because the
concerns with which he is connected are large advertisers.
The calculation of these politicians was that Mr.
Straus 's charities could be capitalized in votes and that
his "patronage" of the newspapers would insure their
support or at least their silence.
This was a very poor calculation worthy only of the
low cunning of men who proceed upon the theory that
"everybody has his price," and that selfishness rules
the world. If they had been possessed of more knowledge and sense they would have understood that any
newspaper whose support is worth anything would
resent an attempt to influence it in any way.




1883-1918                 367
Mr. Pulitzer, then at Bar Harbor, was the father of
this editorial. He went further the next day and described Mr. Straus as "a mask for Tammany." As
the result of the opposition of the two most powerful
papers in the United States, Mr. Straus withdrew
from the race, and the Hall named Hugh J. Grant
who had already served two terms, previous to that
of Thomas F. Gilroy, then under fire. He was badly
beaten by Colonel Strong and New York enjoyed a
house cleaning that brought Theodore Roosevelt forward as a member of the Board of Police Commissioners in which place he showed his teeth conspicuously and kept before the public thereafter.
If Mr. Straus resented the Herald's stand he did not
show it in cutting his advertising. Neither did the
others. But the World's action was bitterly resented,
and Mr. Straus soon organized a "combine" of retail
stores which twice fought the paper over rate adjustments and won a victory both times. The two battles
pulled something like six hundred thousand dollars in
advertising out of the World.
To preserve his satrapy in perfection Bennett would-.
not recognize the various trades unions whose members got out the Herald. He avoided negotiations and
submission by always paying a little more than the
established scale of wages. For years John R. O'Donnell, night editor of the Herald, was president of Typographical Union No. 6, but officially Bennett never
knew the organization existed.
Through the influences of the Publishers' Association the several New York offices got on good terms,
after 1895, though the Herald never became a member.
This was thought due to Bennett's haughty nature,




368 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
but it was not true. He gave his consent, but the various factions in his management did not care to come
in. Before this, however, an entente had been established by which the Herald, though a non-member,
would not act in any matters of general concern, until
the Association had agreed upon its course, which the
former would regularly accept. Usually, when consulted by his staff officers the Commodore would cable:
"Follow the World."
Gardiner G. Howland, the business manager of the
Herald, was a very precise and punctilious gentleman,
an aristocrat to his finger-tips, who owed his place more
to his social position than to his abilities. On one occasion, however, before the Association was in effective
shape, he "cornered" Charles M. Palmer, manager of
the Hearst papers, and myself delightfully. The mail
hands had organized a union and established a scale.
Mr. Palmer thought the World and the Journal should
take the matter up with the Herald. Agreeable to this
purpose we called on Mr. Howland, who was stately,
but receptive. He agreed to stand with us and not
recognize the new combination. A few days later John
E. McLaughlin, the labor organizer who had been
acting for the men, informed us that the Herald
had surrendered. Very stupidly, without notifying
Mr. Rowland, we conceded the demands.
A few days later Mr. Palmer, as spokesman, received
a note in icy terms, calling the World and the Journal
to account for breaking the agreement. Not knowing
how to reply we decided to call. Mr. Howland received
us coldly. Palmer explained awkwardly that we had
perhaps been inconsiderate, but McLaughlin had been
so positive that we concluded the Herald had decided




1883-1918                 369
to act independently and so had recognized the Union.
"Quite to the contrary," said Mr. Howland. "The
Herald has done nothing of the sort."
"Hold on," I said to Palmer. "I am not sure that
McLaughlin said the Herald had recognized the Union.
Didn't he say it was paying the scale?"
"Oh, as for that," replied Mr. Howland, "as for
that I did make sundry recommendations to Mr. Bennett involving an increase of about twenty thousand
dollars a year in the pay-roll, to which he consented.
But we didn't recognize the Union."
With a strong desire to kick each other we departed
from his lofty presence. Some time after the incident,
I called on Mr. Howland with W. E. Haskell, who had
succeeded Palmer, on a similar errand.
"Really," he said, "my experiences with the World
and the Journal have been so unfortunate that I hardly
feel like making further agreements with either of
them."
Forgetfulness of sins has always been one of my
valued possessions. For the life of me I could not recall what he was driving at. However, we managed to
appease him and gained consent to our purpose. Once
outside I recalled the mailers' incident and invited
Haskell to kick me in a due desire to do penance.
Though started by Bennett himself when a young
man, the Evening Telegram had never been anything
but a starveling. Late in 1897 he determined to put an
end to its puny existence, announcing the fact in the
Herald of Sunday, November twenty-first. The announcement was made on the editorial page and headed
in full-face type with this quotation from Abraham
Lincoln:




370 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
You can fool all the people some of the time and
some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all
the people all of the time.
The announcement continued:
The Evening Telegram ceases to appear from yesterday for the time being in accordance with Abraham
Lincoln's wise saying that "you can fool all the people
some of the time and some of the people all the time,
but you can't fool all the people all of the time."
And he was right. The public also can fool publishers all the time and advertisers can fool publishers
some of the time and they seem to be continuing to
fool them all the time. But the Evening Telegram
doesn't propose to be fooled all the time.
An up to date evening paper at one cent doesn't
pay. Therefore those who are publishing evening papers at one cent are either fooling the public or fooling
themselves. As the Evening Telegram doesn't intend
either to fool itself or fool the public it has ceased
publication until the time becomes ripe when it can
stop being fooled and stops fooling.
The men in the office were aghast at the ukase, and
Albert Fox, the Herald's advertising manager, then in
Paris, joined them in a protest the force of which
caused Bennett to rescind his determination, thereby
making a great mistake. New York is not liberal to
papers printing morning and evening editions. In
the case of the World and American the morning issue
is the one that suffers. It was then the reverse with
Bennett's properties.
On his insistence that the office managers make good
as the result of their persuasions to keep the Telegram
alive, the gentlemen proceeded to put life in its veins




1883- 1918                371
by pumping ichor from those of the Herald. Selling
at one cent it had doubled the circulation of its threecent parent. The managers at once set to coaxing the
Herald's hitherto invincible classified columns into
those of the anemic Telegram, giving twice the publicity at half the rate. Results count, and soon the Herald, which had resisted a determined assault on its
classified columns by the World, began to lose to its
junior. Had Bennett killed the Telegram, kept the
Herald at three cents and saved his classified advertising, evil days would hardly have followed as they did.
No paper can successfully compete with itself. The
"Wants" had made the Herald, as much as its enterprise. Their loss undid it while enterprise slackened
with diminishing profits.
In handling the war with Spain in 1898, the Herald
quite won the honors. The World and Mr. Hearst
tried to outdo each other with the effect of thoroughly
disgusting their public, and the Herald carried off the
palm, so that 1899, the year following the war, was
credited with being the best in the paper's history.
The World dropped to a low point from which it finally
rallied, while Mr. Hearst went gloriously on to new
expenditures and greater exhibitions of energy. He
came near to a Waterloo level when the assassination
of President William McKinley was laid, quite unjustly, to the door of his morning edition. A boycott
resulted that cut his city circulation down from over
a quarter of a million to half that amount, and his sheet
was long in a groggy state.
Just as his father was the first journalist to appreciate the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F.
B. Morse, so Bennett was the first to recognize the




372 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
merit of Marconi's wireless. After experimenting at
Sorrento the young inventor transferred his activities
to Ireland and Newfoundland, seeking to ride the
Hertzian waves across the sea. Milton Snyder was
sent to follow the experiment. He brought the tale of
the new wonder back to Bennett in Paris. He seized
upon the amazing invention at once and brought Marconi to America to utilize his device in reporting the
America's Cup yacht race in 1899. The inventor was
paid five thousand dollars for the service-a sum that
came in very handily in enabling him to perfect wireless. Capital was chary and he had slow work in
making his way. Bennett established a wireless station at Sankaty Head, and also encouraged the efforts
of Lee J. De Forest at radio development in its application to the transmission of news. In this LieutenantCommander J. D. Jerrold Kelly, the Herald's naval
expert, lent important assistance......-. —. When William R. Hearst ran for governor of New
York in 1906, Bennett ordered the Herald to oppose
his candidacy. This it did with vigor. Mr. Hearst
alone on the Democratic state ticket was beaten
by Charles E. Hughes and held the Herald to blame
for a fair share of his defeat.     His manager,
S. S. Carvalho, seeking vengeance, found a means for
satisfaction in the Herald's "Personal" column, a valuable feature founded by the elder Bennett. It usually
filled the first column of the front page, at that time
given over wholly to advertising, but on Sundays it
covered the page and often overflowed. At this time
the Herald's Sunday circulation in New York was the
largest of all, the page of "Personals" no doubt aiding
greatly in its sale.




1883 -1918


373


The character of the advertising had undergone a
great deal of change. When Doctor Parkhurst's crusade drove houses of ill-fame into hiding, their owners
took to using Herald "Personals" as guides to their
lurking places. Ingenious anagrams were much employed with the result that some horrible obscenities
crept in, escaping the vigilance of proof-readers and
laying the paper open to prosecution. Mr. Bennett was
advised of the danger but replied that the "Personals"
had always been a Herald feature and would so continue. The avenging Carvalho caused the United
States Grand Jury to look into the matter, with the
result that the Herald and Bennett were indicted and
convicted. Fines aggregating twenty-five thousand dollars were paid and the "Personal" classification was
discontinued. Mr. Pulitzer, with whom I was then
associated, asked me if I did not think the Herald
would suffer from a moral reaction growing out of this
episode. I said it would suffer from leaving the "Personals ' out of its columns. He professed to be greatly
shocked by this wicked view on my part. It was correct, however. The "Personals" were fascinating
reading. When they were killed the paper's Sunday
circulation soon dropped to third place. Mr. Hearst
bought away some of its best Sunday comics and used
them to advantage, but the real decline came from the
killing of the "Personal" column.
After this disastrous encounter with Hearst, the
Commodore ordered that the latter's name should be
excluded from the Herald, a rule that was obeyed
though it often required considerable ingenuity to print
the news and omit it. One incident of embarrassment
follows. When Bennett sold his old residence in




374 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
Twenty-first Street, one of the Hearst papers printed
an offensive item about the transaction apropos of
which I received the following letter from William C.
Beick:
The New York Herald.
December 6, 1906.
Dear Mr. Seitz:
The Evening Journal had a very disagreeable article
the other evening about Mr. Bennett selling his residence 28 West 21st Street and saying that he had decided to leave New York permanently. The facts are
that Mr. Bennett has sold his house downtown in order
to buy the property 37 West 47th Street as his permanent residence. He does not care about replying
to the Journal, but in case you think this is of sufficient
news interest its publication in the World might explain the Journal's story.
Yours truly,
W. C. REICK.
Mr. Bennett had sold the family mansion at 435
Fifth Avenue to Austin Corbin, in 1896, and then purchased the Twenty-first Street house. The Fortyseventh Street dwelling remained his New York residence until the end. It was always kept open on the
chance of his coming. So was his villa at Newport. He
maintained the big Washington Heights house also,
and owned besides a palace in the Avenue d'Iena in
Paris. He also rented an apartment in the Avenue
des Champs Ilysees, whence he was wont to edit the
Paris Herald.
Incidentally the Herald had an index expurgatorius
that was the despair of its editors. To leave out a




1 8 83 - 1 1


375


man's name was to extinguish him, in Bennett's opinion. One victim of the expurgation rule was Roger
A. Pryor. He had been a firebrand of the rebellion
in Richmond and was a member of Congress during
the hot days that preceded secession. For some reason
he took umbrage at the Herald and in a fiery, secessionist speech echoed some of the false assertions concerning Mrs. Bennett. He became a brigadier-general
under the Confederacy, but after the war removed
from Richmond to New York to hunt for a living. In
time Tammany gave him a seat on the bench. Remembering the insult to his mother, Bennett excluded mention of him from the Herald's columns. Until his death
in 1884, Colonel James Watson Webb's name also was
banned.
On a famous occasion, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, a social
arbiter of the day, gave a grand ball. It was fully
reported in the Herald. Unfortunately for the story
of the event, a prize-fight came off on the same evening,
and the make-up man got the names of those present
at the one transferred to the other. Mrs. Fish was in
a mighty rage and sent her husband to Gardiner G.
Howland, general manager of the Herald, to see about
it. Now, the Howlands ranked socially with the Fish
family and after failing to convince Mr. Fish that it
was an accident, he told him future mix-ups of the sort
would be prevented by omitting all reference to Fish
affairs. This did not suit. The ban went into effect
nevertheless, but was later lifted. Incidentally, Mrs.
Fish's kindness in taking Mr. Reick into society may
have had something to do with Mr. Howland's sternIness.
The New York Sun set up the motto, "If you see it




376 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
in the Sun it's so," and the New York Times followed
it with, "All the news that's fit to print,"-blandly
printing all the news it could get. Bennett adopted
both mottoes, placing them conspicuously in the "ears"
on either side of the Herald's heading. He was persuaded to drop them when some one proved to him
that "it's so" was a powerful aid to the collection of
damages in libel suits, covering as it did the whole
contents of the paper and vitiating any covering of
"alleged" and "it is said" that otherwise might have
been protective.
Bennett's sympathies at the outbreak of the World
War were firmly with France. Long before America
entered the conflict he had taken the French side
strongly. Indeed it was he who first applied the contemptuous term "Bosch" to the onrushing Germans.
0      The war worried and oppressed him. James L. Ford
in his Forty Odd Years in The Literary Shop reports
asking a Herald veteran fresh from Paris in 1915 how
Bennett was, and received this reply:
"He's dead. The old, drunken, money-spending Jim
Bennett is dead. In his place has come a Scotch
miser. "
The Paris Herald kept on publishing and denouncing the Kaiser. Other prints in English suspendedthis of course before our entry into the war, after which
things changed and more were started. Bennett's
autos, horses and carriages were commandeered and
he walked to his office, where an editor kept track of the
armies by sticking pins in a map, but when they came
too close to Paris the editor fled. Bennett stayed
though fearful of being driven out of France, and the
Herald's revenues suffered severely. He felt the crimp




James Gordon Bennett, the Younger
From a snap-shot taken on his last visit to America








1 8 83 -1 91 8


377


in his income, having never troubled himself to accumulate a fortune as he might readily have done. By odd
chance, when America entered the struggle, the Paris
Herald, which had been good for a loss of one hundred
thousand dollars per annum, took to making that much
or more. The parent paper, however, did not rally as
the other New York newspapers did in the flood-tide
of prosperity that followed the ending of hostilities.
Joseph Pulitzer had a superstition about the number
ten. He was born on the tenth of May, 1847, bought
the St. Louis Dispatch on December 10, 1878, and the
New York World on May 10, 1883. He cultivated the
habit of working in "ten" wherever possible in his
doings. Bennett might have done the same. His birthday was May 10, 1841, and though presumably a confirmed bachelor, he was married on September 10,
1914, in Paris, to an American woman, formerly Maud
Parker, of Philadelphia, widow of the Baron De
Reuter, a scion of the great European newsgatherer.
On May 10, 1918, he was fatally stricken after a
period of disability, at the Villa Namouna, Beaulieu,
France, and died the following Friday morning, May
fifteenth, at four forty-five o'clock. The day before
his marriage, although born a Catholic, he had been
received into the Episcopal faith. His body was
brought to Paris where funeral services were held in
Trinity Church. He was buried in the cemetery at
Passy. The elder Bennett was seventy-seven when he
died, the younger stopped at the same mile-post.
From 1909 to 1918 the Herald establishment showed
a profit of $1,940,992, but this covered losses in 1917
of $151,870 and in 1918 of $138,203. During his long
ownership he probably drew and spent $30,000,000




378   HE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS
from the property. During 1917 Mr. Bennett felt
the paper slipping in his hands and had under
way a serious negotiation with Adolph S. Ochs
of the Times to take it over, and consolidate with the
latter. Nothing came of it however. By his will he
required annuities aggregating $142,500 to be paid by
his executors, Rodman Wanamaker and the Guaranty
Trust Company of New York. The executors found
the property losing so heavily that they were forced
to sell the Herald and Telegram to Frank A. Munsey,
on January 17, 1920, for four million dollars, of which
one million dollars was in cash and the balance notes.
On January 30, 1920, the Herald appeared for the last
time from its own plant. It was first merged with the
Sun, then operated as the Herald by Mr. Munsey, to be
finally sold by him to Mrs. Whitelaw Reid for five million dollars and combined with the New York Tribune.
Bennett's will decreed that the name "The New York
Herald" should always stand. So it precedes that of
the Tribune on the consolidated sheet. The Evening
Telegram became the property of the Scripps-Howard
Chain in 1926.
The estate in its final disposition was willed to found
a home for the relief of indigent Herald employees
and journalists generally, the former to have preference. Its condition did not warrant the enterprise as
of early date, the income being nearly all consumed by
the annuities, so the "home" is still on paper, with a
good while to wait, though some Herald men have
been taken care of who were in special need. There
was once an impression about that Bennett would
leave the newspaper to his lieutenants, but none survived the tests he was always making long enough to
be recorded in the book of gold.




1 8 83 - 1 1


379


Through the initiative of Professor James Melvin
Lee, head of the Department of Journalism in the New
York University, some scant relics of the great newspaper have been salvaged. These include bronze and
marble busts of the elder Bennett, portraits of the
father and son, a group picture of editors, and other
items of historic value taken from the Herald Building
when abandoned after the sale to Frank A. Munsey.
These were donated by William T. Dewart, Mr. Munsey's successor as head of the Sun. They are housed
in a "Bennett" room in the Washington Square Building of the University and under the care of the Department of Journalism. The collection has also been
enriched by contributions from Hamilton Peltz and a
file of the paper donated by the Herald-Tribune.
Mr. Dewart also presented the University with the
great ornate clock that stood on the Thirty-fifth Street
facade of the Herald Building, which cost Bennett two
hundred thousand dollars, together with the bronze
owls that blinked down upon it when the two heroic
figures with hammers struck the hours, to stand near
the Hall of Fame on University Heights looking across
to the Washington Heights section the elder Bennett so
much loved.
THE END








INDEX








INDEX


Abraham Lincoln: The True
Story of a Great Life, 190
Alta California, 225
Alvord, Thomas Gold
on Herald, 227, 233-234
quoted on Bennett's, Jr., policy
with Herald employees,
224
Ambler, Doctor J. M.
on De Long Expedition, 342
America, 255
in race for America's cup,
258
American, New York, 358, 370
American Museum, 150
Anthony, Ripley Osgood
on Herald, 228
Arctic
news-stealing  in  connection
with, 135
Ashbury, James
boat-racing of, 255-259
Aspinwall, William H., 48
Associated Press, 62
forerunner of, 121
reorganization of, 249
Astor House
Bennetts repair to, 80
Astor, William B., 48
wealth of, 218
Attree, William H.
on Herald
reports Brevoort ball, 69
Authors Club, 338


Autobiography of Sir Henry
Morton Stanley, 275-276
Baker, Frank Leslie
on Herald, 228
Baker, George E.
disbursing agent Department
of State, 189
Baker, Sir Samuel, 285
Barnum, P. T., 189
brings Jenny Lind to America,
142
letter to Landlord Howard,
142-143
loses American Museum, 150
relations with Bennett, Sr.
conflict  over   Broadway
property, 150
influences theater managers
to boycott Herald, 152
results of, 153-154
letters to Bennett, Sr., 141,
142, 143, 146-147, 148 -149
on attitude of Herald, 144
unloaded on by managers of
Bryant Park enterprise,
148
Bayard, William and Robert
48
Beach, Moses Y.
proprietor of Sun book store,
214
Bedford, Gunning S., 217, 240
383




384 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Bell, Jared W.
publisher of New Era, 56
Bell, Jr., Isaac, 239
Benjamin, Park
editor of New York Evening
Signal, 74
in moral war, 80
Bennett, Cosmo Gordon, 214
"Bennett Cups"
Coupe Internationale d'aviation, 251
Coupe Internationale des aeronauts, 251
Lysistrata, 251
Bennett, Henry
desires to kill Bennett, Sr.,
145-146
Bennett, Sr., James Gordon,
antagonists of, 53
See Bennett, relations to
others
ancestry of, 16
appeals to allow admission
of Herald   reporters to
Senate, 90-91
as proof-reader, 17-18
attempt on life by infernal
machine, 131-132
attitude toward United States
Bank, 26-27
bachelorhood of, 54-55
bearer of dispatches to England, 158
believer in sound money, 98
birth of, 16
children of, 214
conforms to journalistic atmosphere, 19
considers founding a newspaper in Boston, 119
contribution to journalism, 15
death of, 210
Herald on, 210-211


Bennett, Sr.-cont.
death of-cont.
tribute of newspapers, 211
tribute of New York Associated Press on, 211-212
departure for America, 17
description of, 49
editor of Philadelphia Pennsylvanian, 34-36
education of, 16
establishes a weekly, 56
flays Sun, 41
founds Herald, 38-40
funeral of, 212
generosity of, 87, 205
joins Tammany Hall, 21
lectures on economic subjects,
19
letters of
to Buchanan, 162
to Clay, 91
to Herald from Europe
126, 159
to Herald on tour in New
England, 65
to Herald on trip in South,
61
to Herald on Van Buren, 65
to Taylor, 127
to London Times on reception by O'Connell, 111 -116
marriage of, 77-79
modesty of, 47
morality attacked, 75
moral war against, 75
opinion of antagonists in, 84
reply to charges of irreligiousness in, 84-87
reply to pedlar accusation
in, 83-84
terms used in 80-82
Mormons honor, 102-103




INDEX


385


Bennett, Sr.-cont.
on "money" article of Herald,
40-41
plans commercial school, 18
politics of
See Herald, in politics
presented at court of Louis
Philippe, 125
publishes Globe, 31-33
reports debut of Maria Felicita Garcia, 20
reports inauguration of Jackson, 22
relations with others
Barnum, 141-154
Buchanan, 162
See Chapter VII
Clay, 91
Cleveland, 242
Cooper, James Fenimore, 95
Davis, Jefferson, 205
Hallock, Gerald, 47-48
Harrison, Benjamin, 242
Kendall, 35
Jackson, 24, 26, 30
Lincoln
See Chapter VIII
Marcy, William L., 27
Pierce, 26
Stanton, 195-196
Townsend, "Doctor," 44
Van Buren, 21
Webb, James Watson, 31,
42, 49-50, 51-53, 96
religious beliefs of, 84-87
in conflict with Archbishop
Hughes, 107-110
residences of, 203-204
sees importance of steamship
to newspapers, 60
southern view-point of, 18
style of writing, 20


Bennett, Sr.-cont.
suggests combination of Courier and Enquirer, 24
takes over Courier, 20
teaches school, 17
tours South in 1839, 61
trip to Havana, 145-146, 147
welcomes Boston Post, 29
whipped by A. A. Clason, 56 -57
whipped by Grahams, 130-131
Philip Hone quoted on, 131
will of, 213
wishes biography written, 136
witnesses coronation of Queen
Victoria, 60
works on Charleston Courier,
18
works. on  Courier and  Enquirer, 24-31
works on Mercantile Advertiser, 19, 20
works on Mirror, 33
works on National Advocate,
18, 20-21
See Herald, New York
Bennett, Sr., Mrs. James Gordon,
accompanies husband to Cuba,
145, 147
accompanies husband to Europe, 110
ancestry of, 79-80
characteristics of, 78-80
death of, 212
letter of congratulation to
Buchanan, 162
lives abroad, 202, 215
maligned by Roger A. Pryor,
374
marriage of, 79
secures release of American
prisoners, 148




386 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Bennett, Sr., Mrs.-cont.
sees husband whipped by Grahams, 130
shares in attacks on husband,
214-215
Bennett, Jr., James Gordon
and Emma Eames, 246-248
and John W. Mackay establish  Commercial   Cable
System, 363-364
as duelist
with Frederick May, 267 -270
as sportsman
"Bennetting," 266
boat-racing, 252
across Atlantic, 253-254
between   Dauntless  and
Cambria, 255-258
between   Priscilla  and
Puritan, 260
with Restless, 252
builds steam-boats
Namouna, 260-261
Polynia, 260
Lysistrata, 261
Commodore of Yacht Club,
223, 258, 259
effect on society, 252
polo, 266
Vice-Commodore of Yacht
Club, 252-253
attitude toward employees, 220,
235-236, 239-240, 242-243,
378
becomes member of fast set,
217
birth of, 214
cartooned by Thomas Nast,
236-237
characteristics of
Doctor George W. Hosmer
on, 216-217


Bennett, Jr.-cont.
characteristics of —cont.
quoted from Men and Memories, 206-210
quoted from John Russel
Young, 206-210
commissioned  lieutenant  on
Henrietta, 181-182
commissions Julian Story to
paint portrait, 247
contact with police, 233-234
contact with Stanley
See Stanley, Henry Morton
contact with William II, 263
czarism of, 245-246
death of, 377
drinking of, 243
effect of, 231-232
eccentricities of, 230, 233-235,
237-239, 243
establishes medal for heroic
firemen, 204
extravagance of 202, 203, 362
fondness for dogs, 226-227
fondness for stage girls, 217
Pauline Markham, 217-218
founds Evening Telegram, 203
friendship for A. P. Primrose,
237
generosity of, 239, 240-241
given complete ownership of
Herald, 202, 213
in Civil War, 252
initiative of, 203
letter to Flynn on newspaper
creed, 352-355
letter to Flynn on success, 356
marriage of, 377
name given geographical locations, 350
policy in regard to Herald,
222-223
proprietor of book store, 214




INDEX


387


Bennett, Jr.-cont.
recklessness of, 240
refuses to sell Herald, 204
religion of, 377
residences of, 374
selection of owl for totem, 245
sells Bennett Building, 248
sells Broadway property to
Havemeyer, 154
training of, 215-216
visits Europe as infant, 110
wealth of, 218
will of, 378
Bennett, Jeanette (Mrs. Isaac
Bell, Jr.), 214
provision for in father's will,
213
"Bennett" room
in University of New York,
380
Berry, Lieutenant, 346
Biddle, Nicholas, 31, 33, 35, 45
head of United States Bank,
100
on Herald, 227, 248
Biederman, Louis
on Herald, 228
Bigelow, John
letter to Huntington
quoted, 212-213
reports on death of William
L. Dayton, 192
Retrospections of An Active
Life
cited on death of Dayton,
192-193
quoted on visit of O'Conor
to Bennett, Jr., 219
Bininger, William B.
on Herald, 228
Blaine, James G.
Tweny Years of Congress
quoted, 168


Blair, Francis Preston
on Washington Globe, 34
Blatch, Mrs. Harriet Stanton
recollections of Jefferson Davis, 205-206
Blumenfield, Ralph D., 249
manages Herald, 248
Blunt, Nathaniel Bowditch
supported by Herald for district attorney, 131
Bogert, Jacob S., 29
Bonner, Robert
advertiser in Herald, 124
Booth, Edwin, 234
Booth, John Wilkes; 197
Bowery Theater, 56
Boyd, John
in moral war against Herald,
82
Bradford, Jr., Dexter, 254
Bradish, Luther, 48
Brant, Edward M.
on Herald, 228
Brevoort, Henry, 48
wishes ball described by Herald, 66
Bright, John
opinion of Herald, 184
Brooks, Erastus
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
Brown, Harry S.
on Herald, 228
Bryant, William Cullen, 49
Buchanan, James
administration of, 168
honesty questioned, 164
letters to Mrs. Bennett, Sr.,
162-163, 164
relations with Bennett, Sr.,
126, 157-158
entrusts advanced copies of
messages, 163




388 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Buchanan, James-cont.
relations with Bennett-cont.
Herald supports for renomination, 166
letters, 157, 160-161, 163 -164, 165, 167-168
makes appeal, 165
Bunau-Varilla, Maurice
part owner of Le Matin, 233
Bunau-Varilla, Philippe
part owner of Le Matin, 233
Bundy, Major J. M.
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
Burke, John T.
on Herald, 228
Burns, George H.
survivor of the Arctic, 135
Burns, Robert
quoted, 15
Bush, Charles G.
on Herald, 228
Butler, Benjamin F., 274
Caldwell, John R.
on Herald, 228
Calhoun, John C.
Herald reports speeches of, 92
in conflict with Jackson, 24
Cambria
Bennett returns to America
on, 126
race for America's cup, 258
race with Dauntless, 255-258
log of, 257-258
"Camille Clermont"
The Confessions of Gentle
Rebecca
quoted, 269-270
Canadian rebellion, 61
Carlin, Governor, 103
Carvalho, S. S.
on Journal, 373


Celeste
owned by Herald, 62
Chabert (Fire King), 28
Chamberlain, Ivory
on Herald, 227, 232
Chamberlain, Samuel S.
founds Le Matin, 232
on Herald, 227, 231-232
works for Hearst, 233
works for Thomas B. Wanamaker, 233
Chambers, Julius
on Herald, 227
Chandler, Zach, 198
Chase, Salmon P., 181
resigns from Cabinet, 189
Childs, George W.
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
Chipp, Charles W.
in De Long Expedition, 342,
345
Chronotype, Boston, 143
Chrystenah, 255
Clancy, James
on Herald, 228
Clarke, J. I. C.
My Life and Memories, 337
on Herald, 227, 299
and "Wild Animal" Hoax,
337, 340
story of Bennett's, Jr., eccentricities, 230-231
Clason, A. A.
horsewhips Bennett, Sr., 56 -57
Clay, Henry, 65
Herald reports speeches of, 92
letter from Bennett, Sr., to, 91
Cleveland, Grover
and Bennett, Jr., 242
Cohen, Doctor E. P.
on Herald, 227




INDEX


389


Cole, Ashley W.
on Herald, 228
Cole, Jack
on De Long Expedition, 341,
346
Collins, Edward K.
in moral war against Herald,
82
Collins, Jerome J.
on De Long Expedition, 342
on Herald, 351
Colt, Caldwell, H., 260
Columbia
race with Livonia, 258
Commercial Advertiser, 212
Commercial, Cincinnati, 178
Committee of Seventy, 364
Compromise of 1850
sustained by Herald, 133
Confessions of Gentle Rebecca,
The, 269
Connery, Thomas B.
given pension, 352
managing editor of Herald,
219
and "Wild Animal" Hoax,
337
Conway, William A., 21
Cook, Doctor Frederick A.
paid twenty five thousand
dollars by Herald, 350
Cook, W. H., 274
Coomassie and Magdala, 296
Cooper, George
on Herald, 235-236
Cooper, James Fenimore
in libel suits, 95
Cooper, Thomas Abthorpe, 21
Cormack, George A.
Secretary of Yacht Club, 253,
263
Cornell, Ezra
and telegraph, 121


Coultaus, H. C.
on Herald, 228
Courier, Charleston, 18
Courier, New York, 20, 24
Courier and Enquirer, 24, 48,
74, 121
Cottenet, Francis, 48
Crean, Henrietta Agnes
See Mrs. James Gordon Bennett, Sr.
Creelman, James
joins World, 263
on Herald, 227, 262-263, 362
and the plovers' eggs, 240
Crescent City, 121
Crockett, A. S.
on Herald, 228
Crowninshield, George
in White murder case, 25
Crowninshield, Jr., Richard
in White murder case, 25
Crystal Palace, 148, 149
Cummings, Amos J., 299
Cummins, Thomas J.
on Herald, 227, 356
Curtis, George, 48
Cutting, Francis Brockholst, 48
Cutting, Robert L., 48
Dam, H. W. J
on Herald, 362
Dana, Charles A.
editor of Sun, 140, 219, 299,
359
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
Danenhower, John W.
in De Long Expedition, 342
Dart, Harry Grant
on Herald, 228
Darter, John Grant
on Herald, 228
Day, Benjamin H., 41-42




390 THE, JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Dauntless, 254, 255
defeated by Genesta, 260
race for America's cup, 258
race with Cambria, 255-258
log of, 257-278
race with Livonia, 258-259
sold, 260
Davis, Charles Augustus, 48
Davis, Jefferson
bail bond signed by Greeley,
205
Bennett, Sr., describes, 167
visits with Bennett, Sr., 205
Dayton, William L.
minister to France, 192
De Forest, Lee J., 372
de Grimm, Baron C.
on Herald, 228
De Long, Lieutenant George W.
Bennett's, Jr.,, farewell message to, 343
Grinnell refuses to back, 340
Herald supports, 340-341
See De Long Expedition
De Long Expedition
company becomes separated,
345
personnel of, 341-343
purpose of, 341
red-tape in 342
sinking of Jeanette, 344, 345
Delta, New Orleans, 123
Democrat, St. Louis, 274
Derby, J. C.
in "scoop" of Herald, 189
Dewart, William T.
head of Sun, 379
DeWitt, Edward D.
and Herald espionage system,
221
Dickens, Charles
"Boz Ball" given for, 111


Dinwiddie, William
on Herald
quoted, 243-245
Dodge, Ossian E., 142
Douglas, Stephen A., 166
Douglas, William P., 217, 255,
260, 261, 266,
Dromedary, 296
Drone, E. S.
on Herald, 228, 362
Dunbar, William
on De Long Expedition, 343
Dunraven, Lord, 264
Eagle, Brooklyn, 221
Eames, Emma
contract with Bennett, Jr.,
246-248
Some Memories and Reflections
quoted, 246-247
Elssler, Fanny
brought to America by Wikoff, 189
Elssler, Fanny
owned by Herald, 62
success of, 62-65
Emancipation Proclamation, 187
Enquirer, New York,
Bennett, Sr., works on, 21-24
E. Sherman, 273
Evening Journal, Albany, 101
Evening Post, New York, 48,
221
Evening Signal, New York, 74
Evening Star, New York, 74
Evening Telegram, New York
bought by Frank A. Munsey,
378
founding of, 203
growth of, 369-370
property of Scripps-Howard
Chain, 378




INDEX


391


Express, New York, 75, 121, 212
Falcon, 281
Favorite, 252
Fielders, Thomas, 361
Fillmore, Millard
administration of, 127
succeeds to presidency, 127
urged to enforce fugitive stave
law, 133
Fish, Mrs. Stuyvesant, 375
Fisher, James
on Herald, 228
Fisk, Jr., Colonel James, 234
Fiske, Stephen, 253
Flaherty, Frank B.
general manager of Herald,
222
signs protest to President Wilson, 221
Fleetwing, 253
log of race across Atlantic,
253-254
Flint, Charles H., 261
Flynn, Edward Townsend
estrangement from Bennett,
Jr., 357
in escapades of Bennett, Jr.,
234
managing editor of Herald,
351, 353
office boy at Herald office, 178
parentage of, 216
recollections of Bennett, Sr.,
training for newspaper, 216
Folsom, De Francias
on Herald, 227
Forbes, Malcolm, 260
Ford, James L.
Forty Odd years in the Literary Shop
quoted, 376
on Herald, 228


Foreign Quarterly Revhiw
opinion of Herald, 98
Fox, Albert, 370
Franklin, Benjamin
influence on Bennett, Sr., 17
Franklin, Sir John, 340
Fremont, John C.
presidential nominee, 160, 192
Fuller, William M.
on Herald, 228
Garcia, Maria Felicita (Madame
Malibran), 20
Garrick, 110
Geary, Mannis
foreman of Herald composingroom, 220
Genesta, 259
defeats Dauntless, 260
Genin, John N., 142
Gilder, Colonel W. H., 346
Gill, James F.
on Herald, 228
Gilroy, Thomas F., 367
Gladstone, William E., 301-302
Globe, London, 100
Globe, New York, 31-33
Globe, Washington, 34
Goater, W.
on Herald, 228
Goff, John W., 366
Gould, Jay
attack on Bennett, Jr.
printed in Herald, 366
Graham, DeWitt and Charles K.
whip Bennett, Sr., 130
Graham, John
defeated Tammany candidate,
130
whips Bennett, Sr., 130
Grant, Hugh J., 308
Grant, Jem
wealthy gold-digger, 129




392 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Great Western, 59, 188
Greeley, Horace
advocates paper money, 98
booms Colorado, 129-130
death of, 219
declines to join Bennett, Sr.,
36
leader of abolition, 133
attacked by Bennett, Sr.,
134
opposes Cooper, 95
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
political knowledge of, 89
relations with Lincoln, 185,
186, 194
sincerity of, 156
unloaded on by Bryant Park
enterprise, 148
Greene, Charles Gordon
founder of Boston Post, 29
Grinnell, Henry, 340
Grose, Francis
Peregrinations through Scotland, 16
Gunnison, H. F.
signs protest to President Wilson, 22
Gurowski, Count, 185
Habberton, John
Helen's Babies, 227
on Telegram, 227
Haggerty, John
and conflict with Herald, 58
Hale, David
publishes Journal of Commerce, 75
Hall, A. Oakley
on Herald, 361
Hall, J. Prescott; 48


Hallock, Gerard
on Journal of Commerce, 47
president of forerunner of Associated Press, 121
Halstead, Murat, 185, 186
owner   of  Cincinnati  Commercial, 178
Hamblin, Thomas S.
castigates Bennett, Sr., 56
in moral war against Herald,
82
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert
The Intellectual Life
quoted, 303
Hancock,    General   Winfidd
Scott, 274
Harber, Lieutenant Giles B.,
346
Harper's Weekly, 139
Harrison, Benjamin
and Bennett, Jr., 242
Harrison, William Henry
death of, 89
elected President, 88
Hart, Charles H.
on Herald, 201, 227
Haskell, W. E., 369
Hastings, Hugh J.
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
Havemeyer, Henry O.
purchaser of Herald Broadway property, 154
Hay, John, 185
Hays, John
boss of Herald presses, 220
Haze, 252
Hawkins, Ervin
on Herald, 361
Hearst, William R., 360
fight with Herald, 372-373
runs for governor of New
York, 372




INDEX


393


Hecksher, John G., 268
Heenan, John C., 139
Helen's Babies, 227
Henderson, John
on Herald, 220, 362
Hendrick, L. A., 227-228
on Herald,
Henrietta, 245
during Civil War, 182
race across Atlantic
log of, 253-254
Hepworth,   Reverend   Doctor
George H.
on Herald, 228, 241, 242
Herald, New York
advertising in, 123-124
Americanism of, 99
and Barnum
boycott of theater managers,
153-154
comments on, 144, 148
conflict over prices, 141, 146
use of, 141
and Civil War
force of correspondents in,
201
cost of, 201
gives news from South, 167
growth during, 171
indorses Grant's terms, 197
loyalty doubted, 177-178
precautions during, 178
relations with Lincoln, 170 -173, 180
reply  to   opposition  of
England, 184
Iroster of Confederate Army,
202
urges action, 183
and Doctor Cook, 350
and  Spanish-American  War,
371
and trades unions, 367


Herald-cont.
and World War, 376-377
announces marriage of Bennett, Sr., 77-79
attacks United States Bank
and banks of Philadelphia,
'66
attempted boycott of, 75
attempts  London    establishment, 361
attitude toward Irish Repeal
question, 110-118
beginnings   of   Associated
Press, 62
believes in sound money, 97 -100
book store in connection with,
214
bought by Frank A. Munsey,
378
bought by Mrs. Whitelaw
Reid, 378
capability in, 225
case of John Haggerty, 58
combined with Tribune, 378
come-back after the fire, 41,
43-44
comments on Mormon appointment, 104-106
conference on candidates of
1888, 242
conservatism of, 160
decadence of
change in advertising, 360
fight with Hearst, 373-374
growth of Evening Telegram, 371
increased advertising rates,
359
editorial on whippings by Grahams, 130-131
price war with World, 359
establishes correspondents, 61




894 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Herald-cont.
establishes  first Washington
Bureau, 90
unfairly kept from Senate,
91-92
establishes ship news service,
61-62
favors  American   shipping,
265
financial news in, 89
finds Livingstone
See Livingstone
See also Stanley
first uses illustrations, 66
founding of, 38-40
gives account of Fanny El/sler, 63
growth of 45-46, 55, 95, 119,
171, 341, 371, 377-378
hails arrival of Sirius and
Great Western, 59
improvement of, 88
incorporated, 363
in early days, 47
influence abroad, 98
in Hamblin case, 56
politics in, 156
Buchanan, 126, 160, 166-167
campaign of 1840, 88
Fillmore, 127, 133
Grant, 236
independence of, 57, 69-70,
88-89
Johnson, 199-200
Lincoln, 191
Native Americans, 110
Pierce, 134
Tyler, 90, 92, 97
in   Texas-Mexico   situation,
121-123
conflict  with  Postmaster7
General, 122
invents "war map," 66
libel suits against, 133


Herald-cont.
in case of Judges Noah and
Lynch, 93
Philip Hone quoted on, 93
in case of Anthony Day
94
merging of, 378
"money article" of, 40-41
moral war against
boycott in, 75, 82-83
combination of New York
newspapers in, 74-75
end of, 87-88
methods of, 73, 75, 82-83
Pennsylvania press enters,
76
reasons for, 73-74, 95
results of, 77, 84, 92-94
terms used in, 80-82
theaters in, 82
motto of, 376
moves location, 44, 47, 119,
361
news service of, 121, 134
not member of Publishers'
Association, 368-369
organization of, 222, 245-246
opposes Archbishop Hughes
107-110
opposes Tammany, 266-367
orderliness in operation of,
220
"Personals," 125, 373
personnel of, 44-45, 227-230,
264
policies of, 71-72, 98-99, 351
See Chapter III
price of, 55
~printing of bankruptcy schedules, 57, 94
prints religious news, 70-71
prize-fighting and cock-fighting in, 139, 140
proposed selling of, 119, 313




INDEX


395


Herald-cont.
publication suspended, 41
puffery in, 154
example of, 154-155
purpose of, 55
pushes gold, 128
real estate department of, 351
relics of, 380
reports activities of "society,"
49
reports costume ball at Brevoorts, 66
reports  murder   of   Ellen
Jewett, 46-47
ridicules Greeley, 130
sea news in, 264
"scoops" of
ousting of Louis Philippe,
126
resignation of Seward and
Chase, 189
treaty with Mexico, 126
Sunday edition of, 351, 361
supports Cooper in libel actions, 95
supports De Long Expedition
See De Long Expedition
sustains Compromise of 1850,
133
system of espionage in, 220
results of, 221-222
takes advantage of the telegraph, 120-121
use of testimonials, 136-137
use of wireless, 372
weather service of, 351
"Wild   Animal"    Hoax    in
follow-up, 337-338
genesis of, 337
purpose of, 337
quoted 304-336
reception of, 338-339
Herald Square, 361
Herald-Tribune, 379


Herbert, Henry William, 48
Herndon, William H., 190
Hersh, Nelson
on Herald, 228
Hirondelle, 254
Hone, Philip, 48
quoted
denouncing  Bennett,  Sr.,
and Herald, 49, 50
on Bennett, Sr., and VanBuren, 65
on Bennett's, Sr., reception
in Ireland, 117-118
on Brevoort ball, 69
on Herald and the moral
war, 75-76
on Herald reporting dinners,
58-59
on libel suit against Herald,
93
on relations between Tyler
and Bennett, Sr., 92
on whipping of Bennett, Sr.,
by Grahams, 131
Hosmer, Doctor George William
association  with   Pulitzer,
338
on characteristics of Bennett,
Jr., 216-217
on Herald, 242
in Civil War, 201
Howard, Henry Ward Beecher
on Herald, 228, 357
How I Found Livingstone, 299
Howland, Gardiner G.,
on Herald 48, 363, 368-369,
375
Howland, S. S.
on Herald, 48
Hoyt, Jesse, 29, 34
Hudson, Frederic
accepts  Villard's  syndicate
offer, 179
contact with Barnum, 151-152




396 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Hudson, Frederic-cont.
History of Journalism in the
United States
quoted, 80-82, 132, 136-137,
213
on French mission, 195
on Herald, 201
in "scoop," 189
managing editor, 337
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
retirement of, 219
Hughes, Charles E., 372
Hughes, Archbishop
demands support of parochial
schools, 107
establishes Metropolitan Record, 106
head of Irish Catholics in
New York City, 106
urges Catholics to form party,
107
Hunt, Ensign, 346
Hunter, General, 187
Huntington, W. H.
on Tribune, 212
Ihmsen, Max F.
on Herald, 228
Inglis, William O.
on Herald, 228
Intellectual Life, The, 303
In the Lena Delta, 344
Irving, Washington, 48
Israels, Lehmann, 351
Jackson, Andrew
favored by Bennett, Sr., 24,
26, 29-30
funeral cortege of, 101
inauguration reported by Bennett, Sr., 22
in conflict with Calhoun, 24


Jackson, John P.
and Herald
editor, 369-370
finds Melville, 346-348
editor of New York Recorder,
349
managing editor of Evening
Telegram, 349
Jay, Colonel William
attorney for Bennett, Jr., 249 -250
Jeanette, 341
in De Long Expedition
See De Long Expedition,
341
Jennings, Louis, J., 361
head of Times, 219
Jerome, Jenny
becomes mother of Winston
Churchill, 217
Jerome, Lawrence, 217, 253
Jerome, Leonard, 217
Jewett, Ellen
Herald reports murder of, 46
Jockey Club (New York), 217,
252
John Benson, 129
Johnson, Andrew
attitude of Herald toward,
199-200
becomes President, 197
letter to Bennett, Sr., 198-199
Johnson, Doctor Samuel, 155
quoted, 16
Jones, George
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr.,
funeral, 212
Journal, New York, 362, 369
Spanish-American War, 371
Journalism,
atmosphere of when Bennett,
Sr., came, 19
subjects tabooed by, 57, 58




INDEX


397


Journal of Commerce, 75, 82, 95,
121, 212
Kane, Doctor Elisha Kent, 340
Keanealy, Captain A. J.
appeals to Herald, 220
connection with New York
Recorder, 220
connection with World, 220
Kelly, Lieutenant-Commander J.
D. Jerrold, 264, 372
Kendall, Amos, 35
quoted on Bennett, Sr., 35-36
Klein, J. C.
on Herald, 228
Knapp, John Francis
in White murder case, 24-25
Knapp, Jr., Joseph J.,
in White murder case, 24-25
Know-Nothings, 108
Kohlsaat, H. H., 362
Krotel, Paul
on Herald, 228
Lardner, Doctor Dionysius
head of Paris bureau of
Herald, 61
Larkin, Thomas D., 128
Leary, Arthur, 217
Ledger, Philadelphia, 122, 212
Lee, Professor James Melvin,
380
Le Matin, 232-233
Lexow Committee, 364
Leggett, William, 48
Life of Thurlow Weed, The, 173
Lincoln, Abraham, 133
Americanism of, 170
contact with Bennett Sr., 173 -177, 185, 190
letters to Bennett, 185, 186,
187, 193


Lincoln, Abraham-cont.
contact with Bennett-cont.
offer of French Mission, 191
Frederic Hudson on, 195
McClure quoted on, 191 -192
official letter of, 193.Thurlow Weed on, 194
death of, 197
inaugural address of, 167
letters to Secretary of Treasury, 181
views on treaty, 197
Lincoln and Men of War Times,
191
Lincoln, Charles M.
on Herald, 228
goes to Times, 230
Lind, Jenny, 189
Herald favorable toward, 194
publicity for, 142, 143
Livingston, Robert E.,
on Herald, 227, 265
Livingstone, David
acting for Royal Geographical
Society, 271
attitude toward being "rescued," 291-295
death of, 296
English neglect of, 295
letters to Bennett, Jr., 291 -295
supplied by Herald, 290
Livonia,
race with Columbia, Dautless
Palmer, Sappho, 258-259
Locke, Richard Adams
writer of the "Moon" Hoax,
44, 304
Longfellow, Charles, 253, 268
Lopez,
attempt to land at Cardenas,
147




398 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Lopez-cont.
shot, 147
Lorillard, Pierre, Jr., 217, 253
Lost Cause, The, 205
Louis Philippe
Bennett, Sr., presented at court
of, 125
ousting of, 126
Luby, James
on Herald, 228
Lyman, Robert Hunt
on Herald, 227, 242, 361
on Springfield Republican, 242
Lynch, Henry, 49
Lysistrata, 356
accomodations on, 261
Mac Gahan, Januarias A.
works on Herald, 227
Mackay, John W.
and Bennett, Jr., establish
commercial cable system,
304-305
Mackenzie, William Lyon
leads Canadian rebellion, 61
tries to avenge self on Bennett,
Sr., 61
Macready, William C.
Bennett, Sr., writes report on,
21
Madgie, 252
Mail, 212
Marble, Manton,
head of World, 219
Marconi, 372
Marcy, William L.
relations  with  Bennett, Sr.
opposes, 160
supports, 27
Markham, Pauline
career of, 217-218
Mark   Twain's Autobiography,
225


Marshall, H. L.
on Herald, 228
Marshall, James Wilson
discoverer of gold, 128
Marshall, Thomas F.
fights duel with Webb, 96
Masterson, Kate
on Herald, 228
Maurice, Arthur Bartlett,
on Herald, 228
May, Caroline, 267
May, Charles, 267
May, Frederick,
duel with Bennett, Jr., 267 -270
May, Doctor William, 267
Mayflower, 256
Mayhew, H. L.
on Herald, 228
McAlpin, "Tad"
correspondent of Herald, 139
McCarthy, Daniel
on Recorder and World, 239
relationship with Herald, 238 -239
McClellan, George B.
on Herald, 228
McClenahan, John
Herald reporter, 144
McClosky, Archbishop, 212
McClure, Colonel Alexander, K.,
editor of Philadelphia Times,
191
Lincoln and Men of War
Times, 191
quoted, 191-192
McKinley, William, 377
McLaughlin, John E., 368-369
Medill, Joseph, 185, 186
Meighan, William J. C.
on Herald, 227
Meltzer, Charles Henry
on Herald, 236




INDEX


399


Melville, George W.
escape of, 345
found by John P. Jackson,
346
In the Lena Delta
quoted on discovery of Bennett Island, 344-345
quoted on meeting with
Jackson, 247-249
on De Long Expedition, 342
Memoirs of an Editor, 265
Men and Memories
quoted, 206-210
Mercantile Advertiser, 19, 20
Mercury, 75
Metropolitan Record, 106
Miner, George R.
on Herald, 228
Minnie, 252
Minton, Maurice M.
on Herald, 228
Mirror, New York, 33
Mitchell, E. P.
Memoirs of an Editor
quoted on Bennett, Jr., 265 -266
Montez, Lola, 126
"Moon" Hoax, 304
attitude of Benett, Sr, 44
Morgan, E. M.
New York Postmaster, 248
Marmons,
brief resume of, 102
found university at Nauvoo,
102
political influence of, 102
Morris, General George P, 48
Morse, Sanmel F. B., 120, 372
Morton, Percy
in White murder case, 25
Munsey, Frank A.
buys Herald   and  Telegram,
378


Murchison, Sir Roderick, 271
My Life and Memories, 337
Namouna, 260-261, 356
Napier, Lord, 275, 276
Nast, Thomas
cartoons Bennett, Jr., 236-237
National Advocate, 18, 20
Native Americans, 110
Newcomb, Raymond L.
on De Long Expedition, 342 -343
New Era, 56
News, 75
New    Yorker   Staats-Zestung,
178
Nindemann, William F. C.,
345
Noah, Major Mordecai M.
editor of Evening Star, 74
in moral war against Herald,
81, 93
proprietor of New York Enquirer, 24
Noras, L. P., 345
Nordoff, Charles
on Herald, 227, 228, 241-242
Nordica, Madame
contact with Bennett, Jr., 248
North American, Philadelphia,
233
Nugent, 126
Ochs, Adolph S.
considers purchase of Herald,
378
O'Connell, Daniel
prominent in Irish Repeal
question, 110
reception of Bennett, Sr., 111 -117
Philip Hone on, 117-118




400 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


O'Connor, Harry
on Herald, 356
and "Wild Animal" Hoax,
337, 339
O'Conor, Charles
undertakes political mission of
Bennett, Jr., 219
O'Donnell, John
on Herald, 367
Oelrichs, Herman, 217, 265
Ohl, Joseph K.
managing editor of Heraldo
230
"Old Philadelphia Lady," 222
Olympia, 264
O'Reilly, Henry, 121
Osgood, George Frank, 253
Paine, General C. J., 260
Pakenham, Minister, 168
Palmer,
race with Livonia, 258
Palmer, Charles M.
on Journal, 369
Pandora, 342
Parker, Maud (Mrs. James Gordon Bennett, Jr.), 377
Parkhurst, Doctor Charles H.,
365
Parton, James
writes biography of Greeley,
136
Pasha, Enim, 291
Peary, Commander, 350
Peltz, Hamilton
on Herald, 228, 379
Penalver, Signor Conde de, 147
Pennsylvanian, Philadelphia, 34 -36, 61, 76
Peregrinations through Scotland,
16
Phcenix, Lloyd, 217
Picayune, 123


Pierce, Franklin
relations with Bennett, Sr.
becomes acquainted with, 26
supported by Herald, 34
Pierson, Frank H.
on Herald, 228
Plunkett, A. 0.,
on Herald, 228
Polaris, 340, 342
Pollard, E. A.
editor of Richmond Enqusrer,
204
The Lost Cause, 205
Polly, 281
Polynia, 261
Porter,   Major-General    Fitz
John, 233
Post, Boston, 29
Pray, Isaac C.
James Gordon Bennett and
His Times, 136, 215
quoted, 125
Press, New York, 364
Primrose, A. P. (Roseberry,
Lord)
Bennett's, Jr., friendship for,
237
Priscilla,
contest with Puritan, 260
Pryor, Roger A.
victim  of   Herald's  index
expurgatorius, 375
Publishers' Association, 367
Pulitzer, Albert
covers  Beecher-Tilton  trial,
228
Pulitzer, Joseph, 229, 339, 358
dates in life of, 377
opposes Tammany, 367
owner of World, 266, 358
points out Fred May, 266
rewarding of men, 223
Punch, 184




INDEX


401


Puritan
contest with Priscilla, 260
defeats Genesta, 260
Quaker City, 275
Rawling, S. J. E.
on Herald, 227, 242
Raymond, Henry J.
head of Times, 219
Rebecca, 182, 252
Recorder, 358
Redding, Leo. L
on Herald, 228
Reick, William C.
on Herald, 228-230, 265, 362,


375
editor of, 218
letter to Seitz, 374
Restless, 252
Retrospections of an
Life, 192
Reuter, Baron de, 377
Rhodes, James Ford


Active


Royal William, 60
Russell, Charles Edward
on Herald, 228
Sappho, 255
race with Livonia, 258
Sayers, Tom, 139
Schell, Richard
seeks to reconcile Bennett, Sr.,
and Marcy, 160
Schwatka, 351
Scott, General Winfield, 65
Whig nominee, 134
Scripps-Howard Chain, 396
Seilhamer, George O.,
on Herald, 299
Seitz, Don C
contact with Bennett, Jr., 249 -250
"cornered" by Charles M.
Palmer, 368-369
draws up protest to President
Wilson, 221
newsboy aboard Chrystenah,
255
Pulitzer points out Fred May
to, 266
recollections of William C.
Reick, 218
Seldon, Dudley, 29
Seward, William H., 181, 192
grants pardon plea of Webb,
96
leader of abolition, 133
leader of Whigs in New York,
106-107
resigns from Cabinet, 189
Signal, 80
Silvie, 252
Sirius
Bennett aboard, 60, 188
enters New York harbor, 59
Slaght, J. W., 228


History of the United States
from the Compromise of,
1850
quoted on Herald, 184-185
Richardson, Albert D.
correspondent of Boston Journal, 129-130
Richardson, Stephen A., 358
Robbins, S. Howland, 268
Robinson, Richard P.
in Ellen Jewett murder case,
46-47
Rockwell, E. A.
on Herald, 228
Rodgers, 346
Rodgers, W. A.
on Herald, 228
Romp, 281
Royal Geographical Society, 303




402 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Smith, Ballard
joins Pulitzer, 357
on Herald, 227, 233
Smith, F. O. J.
and telegraph, 121
Smith, Joseph
appoints Bennett, Sr., brigadier-general and aide-decamp, 103
leader of Mormons, 102
Snowden, Thomas
publisher of National Advocate, 18
Snyder, Milton, 371
Society for Prevention of Vice,
364
Some Memories and Reflections,
246
Southard, Samuel L.
excludes  Herald    reporters
from Senate, 90
Specimen Days, 182
Spectator, 184
Squier, Ephriam George, 216
Squier, Frank
on uncouthness of Bennett,
Jr., 216
Stanley, Henry M., 227
Autobiography of Sir Henry
Morton Stanley
quoted on Abyssinian expedition, 275-276
Coomassie and Magdala, 296
early history of, 271-274
explores Asia Minor, 274
How I found Livingstone, 299
journalistic beginnings
writes for St. Louis Democrat, 274
ship's writer, 274
lack of literary style, 299, 300
lecture tour, 296
marriage, 301


Stanley Henry M.-cont.
relations with Herald
explores Africa, 298
immortalizes Bennett's Jr.,
name, 300, 302-303
result of, 298-299
finds Livingstone
meeting with 287-289
outfit, 282
preparations for trip, 280
progress through Africa,
281-287
reception by, 289-291
trip to Africa, 280-291
interview with Bennett, Jr.,
278-279
jealousy of Bennett, Jr.,
for, 299-301
in various places, 277
on Abyssinian expedition,
276-277
reports British war in West
Africa, 296
resolves to follow Livingstone,
296-297
Through the Dark Continent,
297
Stanton, Edwin M., 187
letter to Bennett, Sr., 195-196
Star, 81
Starrs, Reverend Doctor
conducts funeral of Bennett,
Sr., 212
Stephenson, Byron P.
on Herald, 228
Stetson, Charles
landlord of Astor House, 80
Stickney, Lieutenant J. L.
on Herald, 264
Stevens, Thaddeus, 198
Stone, David M.
pall-bearer at Bennett's, Sr,
funeral, 212




INDEX


403


Stone, William L.
editor of Journal of Commerce, 95
opposes Cooper, 95
Story, Julian
commissioned to paint Bennett's, Jr., portrait, 247
Straus, Nathan
Tanmmany candidate, 365-367
Strong, Thomas W.
engraver of the Jackson cuts,
101
Strong, Colonel William L.
becomes mayor of New York,
365-367
Stuyvesant, Moses H., 2-74.
Sumner, Charles, 184
Sunt, Baltimore, '122
Sun, New York, 38, 41, 44, 75,
121, 140, 212
attacks Herald, 47
book store in connection,. with,
214
flayed by Bennett, Sr., 41
Herald merged with~ 378
loses. to World, 359.
motto of, 37,5
tribute to Bennet, Sr., 211
tries to prove Stanley an imposter, 299
Sunday News
tribute to Bennett, Sr., 211
Sustter, John A.
gold discovered on ranch of,
128
Sutton, Sir Richard~ 259
Sutton, Robert
on Herald, 90
Sweetnman, Alfred
on De Lopg Expediti'n- 341,
346
Swett, Leonard
letter to Herndon, 190


Tammany Hall, 130, 364-365
Taylor,.Bert Leston, 223
Taylor, George J6
on Herald, 223, 363
Taylor, Samuel Walter
on Herald, 228
Taylor, Zachary
death of, 127
Herald supports, 126
Teaser
owned by Herald, 62
Telegraph, London Daily, 297
Tennant, Dorothy, 301
Tennant, John H.
managing editor of Evening
World, 228
on Herald, 228
Thompson, Lydia, 217
Thorne, Manager
in moral war against Herald,
82
Through the Dark Continent,
297
Tilden, Samuel J., 219
Times, New York, 121, 177, 212
motto o f, 375
news-stealing  f rom. Herald,
135-136
tribute to Bennett, Sr., 211
Times, London, 95, 117, 125, 184
Tom Boxer
owned by Herald, 62
Townsend, "Doctor"
attacks Bennett, Sr., 44
Transcript, New York, 38, 41, 69
Trayers, William R., 217
Tribune, Chicago, IA, 22.3
Tribune, New York, 121, 212
and Stanley, 275
combined with Herald, 378
Mark Twain contributes to,
225
tribute to Bennett, Sr., 211




404 THE JAMES GORDON BENNETTS


Trollope, Anthony
quoted on Herald, 196
Trowbridge, J. W.
on Herald, 228
Tryon, John
proprietor  of  New    York
Courier, 20
Twain, Mark
Mark Twain's Autobiography
quoted, 225-226
relations with Herald, 225 -226
The Innocents Abroad, 225
Tweed, William M., 364
Twenty years of Congress, 168
Tylee, Daniel E., 30
Tyler, John
relations with Bennett, Sr.,
92
Philip Hone on, 92
succeeds to presidency, 89
Una, 252
Union Club (New York), 252,
267
Bennett's, Jr., membership in,
218
members sacrosanct in Herald
office, 218
United States Bank, 31, 35, 45,
100
attacked by Herald, 66
Valkeyrie III, 264
Van Buren, Martin
defeated for presidency, 88
relation to Bennett, Sr., 21
letter to Hoyt, 34-35
write-up, 65
Vanderbilt, Commodore
wealth of, 218
Vanity Fair, 125
burlesques Herald, 137-138


Van Ness, William P.
backs National Advocate, 18
Vesta
race across Atlantic
log of, 253-254
Victoria, Queen
Bennett, Sr., witnesses coronation of, 60
Villard, Henry
connection with Herald, 178
correspondent on Cincinnati
Commercial, 129, 178
first syndicate writer, 178
Memories of Henry     Villard
quoted, 179-181
reporter  on   New    Yorker
Staats-Zeitung, 178
Villard, Oswald Garrison
signs protest to President Wilson, 221
Wade, Bejamin F., 198
Wallack, Lester
carries dictum of managers to
Bennett, Sr., 152
Waller, Commodore John, 260
Wanamaker, Rodman, 378
Wanamaker, Thomas B.
builds up Philadelphia North
American, 233
Ward, Egbert, 29
Warwick, John
letter to Bennett, Sr., 128-129
Watson, G. L.
designs Lysistrata, 261
Webb, Captain Frances R., 282
Webb, Colonel James Watson
head of Courier and Enquirer,
24
involved  in  United   States
Bank dilemma, 27-28, 30 -31




INDEX


405


Webb, Colonel-cont.
opposes James F e n i m o r e
Cooper, 95
proprietor of Courier, 24
relations with Bennett, Sr., 31,
33, 36, 37, 45, 49-50, 51 -53, 75
sentenced for dueling, 96
pardoned, 96
tolerated by "society," 48
victim of Herald's index expurgatorius, 375
Webster, Daniel
Herald reports speeches of, 92
in White murder case, 25
Weed, Thurlow
editor of Evening Journal, 101
leader of abolition, 133
opposes Cooper, 95
The Life of Thurlow   Weed
quoted, 173-177
Welles Gideon
The Diary of Gideon Welles
quoted, 193-194
Wetmore, Prosper M., 29
White, Captain Joseph, 24-25
White, Richard Grant
quoted, 217
White, Stanford
architect for Herald Building,
248-249
White, Thomas W.
on Herald, 228
Whitman, Walt
Specimen Days
quoted, 182
writes for Herald, 227
Widgeon, 252
Wikoff, Henry ("Chevalier") 161
makes peace with Buchanad,
187
meets Bennett, Sr., 188
Wilkes, John, 51


William II
contact with Bennett, Jr., 263
Williams, Police Captain Alexander S., 233-234
Williams, Major George F.
city editor of Times
on Herald, 358
and "Wild Animal" Hoax,
338
Willington, A. S.
owner of Charleston Courier,
18
Willis, N. P., 48
Windermere, 272
Wolseley, Sir Garnet, 291
Wood, Fernando, 131
Work, Frank, 217
World, New York, 70, 249, 357,
368, 370, 371
growth of, 358
opposes Tammany candidate,
366-367
quoted, 366
Spanish-American War in,
371
tribute to Bennett, Sr., 211
war with Hearst, 361
war with Herald, 358, 362
World War, 263
Wright, C. H.
on Herald, 228
Yacht Club (New York), 252,
255, 258, 259, 260, 263, 264 -265
Yard, Robert S.
on Herald, 228
Young, Sir Allen, 341
Young, John Russell
contact with Stanley, 275
Men and Memories
quoted, 206-210, 250
on Herald, 242




I








I
I




Ij
II
I




I.0
I..,-0
'-U




A


II




II
ii
I,1
w!
0
i I
I
I


l!   UNIVERirTY OF MICHIGA
3 9015 01371 6728
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
sDATE DUE
%>-.
1^^^
'j.e^




F                                                        I
1..- I I                                                                                         0