Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/248

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bathe very thoroughly not less than twice every day. The Editor of The Tribune is the son of a poor and humble farmer; came to New York a minor, without a friend within two hundred miles, less than ten dol- lars in his pocket, and precious little besides; he has never had a dollar from a relative, and has, for years, labored under a load of debt. Hence- forth he may be able to make a better show, if deemed essential by his friends; for himself he has not much time or thought to bestow on the matter. That he ever affected eccentricity is most untrue; and cer- tainly no costume he ever appeared in, would create such a sensation in Broadway, as that James Watson Webb would have worn, but for the clemency of Gov. Seward. Heaven grant our assailant may never hang with such weight on another Whig executive! We drop him.

In order to understand the latter part of Greeley's comment about Webb, some mention should be made of the latter's will- ingness to defend his opinions, not only in the columns of his paper, but also on the "field of honor." One such duel had in- volved Webb in legal difficulties and he had only escaped a jail sentence through the courtesy of Governor Seward.

For the sake of the contrast of juxtaposition, an editorial tilt of a later period, when journalism had become impersonal, may be inserted. As The Tribune had the better of it in the edi- torial controversy just recorded, an illustration may be used which reverses the honor. Long after The Courier and Enquirer had become a part of The World, a Democratic President made a very poor appointment to an office at his disposal. The Tribune, thinking that it might embarrass its neighbor, asserted that it would leave the explanation of this appointment to the official Democratic spokesman, The World. The antiphonal rejoinder of The World, after reprinting the comment, was, "It would be a great deal better for the readers of The Tribune if that news- paper left all matters to The World to explain." Nothing shows more the tremendous advance which American journalism has made than the two editorial controversies just given.

FIKST NEWSPAPER CORPORATION

William Leggett, in summing up the newspaper press of 1835, made a special plea for the corporational newspaper a prophecy of what the coming newspaper in America was to be. Mr. Leggett thought that newspapers thus established would