| Show MR DANA OF THE SUN copyrighted IS 7 by frank G Ca carpenter menter YORK CITY august 1897 how would you like to be in your prime at seventy six years of abeto be able bie to d do 0 as much work as you do now at thirty arid to get more and more out ot li le as the 3 aas eat S go on I 1 know ot of a man ewt who is having such an experience I 1 iliad a chat with h m this afternoon ater noon in the edi editorial rooms of the new york am his name is i s chaile s A dana and be is as you know one me of the most men inen of our country bormore for more than fifty years mr dana has been one of the C ci cef molders of public opinion in m the united states and today his mind is 13 as bright and his step is as quick as his fair complexion is rosy be has but few wrinkles abad his only sign of old t ge is in the silver strands of his bis beard and hair more than ihan his bis soul is as young as his wy body he hestal st 11 likes a glod joke and can am teu tell a good glod story he can feel ane baudes bea aies ot of a lyric poem as deeply as a evang man ln in love and can at the same ame time appreciate t he su sublimity suo limity of t he epics which he be publishes every sunday in his bis column or 01 poems reading 11 mr dana dresses like a y young oung man he is I 1 judge fond cf good clothes clothe in his bis pantaloons are well marked ard ad his bis silk bat is of the latest the necktie he wore when I 1 met amt him today was as red as the comb ot of one of b h s h rock roosters and the cane which he picked up as we left iti the office I 1 could ifould see was carried fhoser as a habit than as a means ot of sup aart mr kar dana has a young appetite heerts CA well and drinks wel wed his chiel chief meal is his dinner and his cook I 1 am atoff is I 1 a j famous french chief he ink en S his va vacations like a young man he ae ip works only while at the office spending bis aa leisure at his bis country home on long island he has there one of the finest private vate collections of trees and shrubs in in the world green houses bouses in neb tropical plants are seen at their bolt best all the year vear round and mushroom cellars in tunnels where mushrooms can be gathered from october to may it t is ana form that he spends his bis mornings af evenings and here bere Y sunday he makaa ft a jay day off and amuses himself with bit hi trees and his grandchildren he S papas only about six hours of each day at sliced he office coming there at i n x a in at 4 his work on the sun aft made up of editing and sug he fie keeps his eyes on every ot f the paper aper and reads most sy of a woof f j etwas at the close of his work that I 1 es caged by appointment at the office ot of the sun SM and a moment later I 1 wa in die 0 sattum aecium of the editor in chiet this WM was a 0 little room not bigger than an ordinary hail bed room with a window on city mall I square mr item dona sat in front of the window at a flat topped walnut dek deck with a pile of woofs before him he laid down his baoe am pencil peDal as I 1 entered and gave me a so 1 my mr first question was as as to the zis flajs vita ity I 1 asked him how biga aage ted id to keep so young nt it was the reply you know a good constitution and my ancestors have generally lived to a gl gi od old aldage age I 1 suppose my youth is somewhat due to inheritance though it may be that hard work has something to do with it for I 1 put in about six hours hour every day I 1 sleep at least eight hours every n and I 1 am careful not to eat t ttO 0 much I 1 but mr dana looking young and feeling eeling young are differ different tnt things 1 I v onder if you enjoy lile as much now as A h n you were oung I 1 know I 1 do in some respects lepied mr dana 1 I can a appreciate P preci ate some things more now than I 1 used to but I 1 thought you wanted an interview are you interviewing me no now yes said I 1 there are many youn men ano would like to be able to do at seventy six what you are doing now would live livelong long and keep well I 1 am lorty one and I 1 can tell you that I 1 would give a good deal to learn how I 1 could live jive thirty five years longer and feel as well as you do when I 1 got to that point well replied mr dana 1 I real y think I 1 et as ab much tun fun out of lile life as I 1 t ver did I 1 have more pleasure from books and more from the learning or 01 new things my et enjoyment fr m children has steadily increased they are genuine things of the wrid and the pleasure of association with them is a real pleasure I 1 have now thir een beet grandchildren suppose you had bad to start over again v r dana would woud ou select the newspaper lor for your sotir afe work 1 I dont know was the reply my first ambition was to be a parson or a college professor or I 1 looked forward to the day when I 1 would have a pulpit and could preach I 1 think I 1 chuld have made a fairly good college ali w hy as it is I 1 have been a professor for a good part I 1 my lite life how is atiat mr dana I 1 asked 1 I have classes in my home we have had a number of social clubs there for the study ol of and and I 1 have led them ahem for several we devoted ourselves to dante study 1 ing him in the original italian then a year or so ago I 1 had a class studying the icelandic languages and we have also worked at other tongues s 1 how about the russian M mr r dano dana I 1 understand that you ou have taken up that teat most mort difficult language 11 1 I am now able to read the russian was the reply 1 I visit visited a Rus russia tsia a year or so ago and I 1 find that I 1 can get along in speaking the language as far as ordinary matters are concerned conce ined I 1 can read anything any thing in russian with a slight use of the dictionary I 1 keep some russian books by me and when I 1 have ten minutes to spare I 1 read a little here is is my russian dictionary here mr dana picked lp ip a book out of a case at his side and an rl there pointing to another are some russian fables which I 1 am no now w reading where do you get your dinguis ic faculty mr dana 1 dant I know replied the man of many manx languages unless I 1 was born with it when I 1 was eleven years old I 1 was working in a store in buffalo we had bad among our customers many seneca indians I 1 picked up much of their language from talking with them we had also many germans at buffalo I 1 learned something of the german language and later on when I 1 went to harv harvard r d college I 1 found no trouble at all in acquiring the german pronunciation you are a college bred man mr dana Is a college education a necessity 10 i 0 the making of a good journalist 1 I 1 think it is a good thing for fora a man to have a college education replied mr dana but I 1 dont think it is a necessity s ty A college bi ed man has a better trained mind and as a rule he can use his bis faculties to better advantage still the toy t oy who is sell I 1 educated often surpasses him who is coll ge bred it depends upon the person it he has it in him he be will be successful if not he wont please give me a word of advice for the young newspaper men of today what should they do to succeed tell the truth and shame the devil replied the editor c t f the sun how about wages in newspaper work have not the bard times affected them 61 dont think they have in this office though I 1 am told that hat they have in other oiher places ane forces have been cut i ut down as well as the wages here in the sun our n en stay with us for yeara year we have the merit system and some of our b st mt n have gone in as office boys the office boy of toe ane sun suit has a chance to become managing editor if he can show that he is the best man for the place f but the pay of newspaper men of today must be tar far better than it was when you were young mr dana said 1 I yes was the reply it is for some ot of my first newspaper work I 1 re 5 a week this was when I 1 was twenty five years old and was one ot of the editors ot of the Chrono type ot of boston A little later on I 1 came to new york to be ci y editor of the tribune my wages then were xo 10 a wee alter r annile I 1 was raised to 20 20 a week and at last when I 1 became managing editor of the tribune I 1 was given an i salary with mr Gre greeney eiley receding rec ehing 50 50 a week I 1 here referred to mr danas connect ton with president tnt lincoln as assistant secretary of war and asked mr dana why he had nv n never v t r again accept accepted td office and whether he be had not had ambition to be a high public official he replied no I 1 do not care tor for such things I 1 have always thought it best to suck stick to the newspaper though I 1 suppose I 1 could have had official positions had I 1 desired them I 1 could have brenan ister to russia under president lincoln but when I 1 looked into the matter I 1 found that it would cost me nearly a year to keep up the proper siy e of st si petersburg and that my salary would only be a year it did not take much figuring to see that I 1 could not afford that what has become of the weekly newspaper mr dana such papers have not the great circulation which they had bad in the past no the great weekly is no more it has baen been killed by the low prices of paper and the cheapening of newspaper making people will not cribe for a weekly when hen they can get a daily irom from their own territory at from i to 3 cents a day rifen I 1 left the new york tribune its weekly had a circulation of I 1 doubt if it has half that number today speaking of the prices of newspapers mr dang dan can a really good newspaper be made to sell for i cent A newspaper can be sold at a margin f profit at a cent but a good newspaper stolid cost at least 2 cents in order for its publishers to do justice to their customers and themselves the higher price es the paper to be more independent and less cartful careful about extra expenses how about the dime museum features n have they come to stay 1 I dont know what mean by dime mu eum features 41 1 I mean the turning of a paper into a dime museum show by the publication of monstrosities of all kinds with sensational articles and horrible pictures 1 1 I dont know whether such features will continue or not replied mr dana 1 I know one man who is very ery t red of them and that is myself I 1 do not consider such publications the result of good newspaper work the filling of of the papers with pictures crowds the news into the corners it makes the paper not a newspaper but a picture paper what mr dana are some of the chiet chief faults of the newspapers of today one great fault is the lack of individuality divi duality many of our papers are too much alike in their makeup make u up and in their news they are set up afy by typesetting machines which make all kok ilok alike the result is not artistic and there is too much sameness I 1 think it is a bad thing for a paper to publish bubli h the same ceab in the same words that its sister cities publish it why there ate are three great newspapers in new york using the same press dispatches I 1 dont like that I 1 think every newspaper should have its own individuality and I 1 do all that I 1 can to give the sun a character of its own we are now getting our own news from our own correspondents and we hope to do this more and more A large part of the sun is set up by hand this is always so with the editorial editorial page ai you were to a certain extent the originator igi of the syndicate system will syndicate articles continue to be used 1 af I suppose so though I 1 do not think they contribute to individuality in newspapers As to my imy founding the syndicate system I 1 did that merely to help some of my friends bret harte henry james and other writers were selling their stories stories to magazines for an ordinary price I 1 proposed that they should let et me place them in a number of newspapers and that I 1 would give them what 1 could make out of them I 1 paid the regular price for what the sun used and atio also turned in what I 1 received fi aiom om other papers the result was that I 1 paid henry james 4 for one of his short stories and 0 other ler authors got almost as much I 1 found however that the work entailed a great deal of correspondence pon dence I 1 was making nothing out of it and I 1 gave it up after that the system of syndicating all kinds of articles sprang up at this point mr dana began to put his papers together etwas it was about time for him dim to take the train for his country home hoine and I 1 could see that my interview was at an end As I 1 arose to go I 1 said just one word more mr dana what about the state of the country do you think we are going do I 1 think we are going to the devil replied mr dana quickly taking the words out of my mouth no I 1 do not the united baates will come out all r right i ht r I 1 have been on a number of battlene battlefields batt leWe ads and watched desperate fighting when I 1 thought that our situation was far worse than it is today n |
