| OCR Text |
Show Arthur Brisbane, Editor, Dies at 72 Work Known to Millions; Column Popular in This Newspaper. New York, N. Y. With the death of Arthur Brisbane Christmas morning, the world lost its most widely known and most widely read newspaper writer and editor. The veteran commentator, whose column "This Week" appeared regularly in this newspaper, died of heart disease dis-ease while he slept. He was seventy-two. True to the Brisbane tradition, he kept up the terrific pace of his work to the last. When he was stricken late in the afternoon of Christmas eve he had almost finished his column, col-umn, "Today," which appeared in many large daily newspapers, principally prin-cipally those of William Randolph Hearst's string. He was forced to call upon his son, Seward, 22, to complete it. It was the first time in his life Arthur Brisbane had not finished what he had set out to write. Millions of Readers. It was only a few hours afterward Mr. Brisbane fell asleep in his Fifth avenue apartment. At his bedside were his physicians, Dr. Leopold Stieglitz and Dr. Frederick Zeman, and a nurse. In the apartment his entire family had gathered his I i , , I ms -. 1 ARTHUR BRISBANE wife, Mrs. Phoebe Brisbane, whom he had married in 1912; his son, Seward, and his four daughters, Mrs. J. R. K. McCrary, 23; Emily, 18; Alice, 14, and Elinor 12. The great editor never awakened. Probably no one knows how many millions of persons read Mr. Brisbane's Bris-bane's verse, analytical comments upon the news of the day. It is estimated esti-mated that 25 millions read his daily column. Additional millions followed with satisfaction the weekly column syndicated by Western Newspaper Union to this and many other leading lead-ing weekly newspapers. , Mr. Brisbane was wealthy. It is reported that his yearly salary at the time of his death was $260,000. In addition, there was the return on his extensive real estate holdings. Arthur Brisbane was born in Buffalo, Buf-falo, N. Y., in 1864. He attended the public schools and then, forsaking a college education, he became a reporter re-porter on the old New York Sun at 19. Yet his rise to the position he held in the world of journalism at the last was not the Horatio Alger type of success story, with glory crowning the hero after countless tear-jerking tribulations. He was good and he was successful from the start. It was not long before he was the Sun's London correspondent. After five years, there was a shake-up on the paper and the management cabled him to return. He said he would if they made him managing editor. Managing editor! He was just 23. They made him managing editor. And so well did he execute his job, Joseph Pulitzer took him over to the New York World, which, under the Brisbane directorship, soon became the most influential organ of public opinion in America. "Greatest Journalist of Day." When William Randolph Hearst came from California and bought the New York Journal he hired Mr. Brisbane at a reduction in salary of almost 50 per cent. But there was an agreement that as the circulation increased, so would his compensation. compensa-tion. His earnings on the World were multiplied in almost no time. The association with Hearst became be-came a life-long friendship, and Mr. Brisbane soon became regarded as next to Mr. Hearst in importance in the chain of newspapers. When he died, Mr. Hearst said: "I know that Arthur Brisbane was the greatest journalist of his day." It was Arthur Brisbane who was credited with bringing the trend of newspaper style "down to earth." I He believed that newspapers should 1 be written for the ordinary man, not the intelligentsia. He wrote that way and his columns appealed to college col-lege professors as well as to merchants mer-chants and farmers. He dictated his 1,000 to 1,200 crisp, unwasted words daily in half an hour to an hour. There was a dictaphone beside him wherever he went. He would even wake up in Pullman berths and begin dictation at two or three in tne morning. |
