• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 2424 0

to add illustrations to make their papers stand out. Within his first two weeks with the World, Joseph had begun printing drawings of criminals to aid in their apprehension and, of course, to bring credit to the World. Just before McDougall dropped off his drawing at the World, the newspaper had been celebrating the capture of a fugitive stockbroker by Canadian authorities who recognized him from the sketch that had appeared in the World. “This is a decided triumph for our artist,” Pulitzer crowed. “Some of our jealous contemporaries have affected great contempt for our efforts in the line of cut-work. The Montreal incident attests to the value of our illustrations, and demonstrates that while we are educating the masses with our pictures we are at the same time lending a helping hand to Justice.”

Not all the reading public was ready for illustrations. Complaints were numerous when the World included drawings in an article on ladies of Brooklyn. “The World made an error of no small magnitude when it published its series of Brooklyn Belles in last Sunday’s issue,” commented The Journalist. “Brooklyn is not used to these wild western methods of journalism.” The fuss pleased Pulitzer. None of the ladies who had been portrayed complained, and circulation in Brooklyn soared. “A great many people in the world require to be educated through the eyes, as it were,” Pulitzer said, mindful that many of the readers he pursued were struggling to learn English.

Pulitzer enlisted McDougall’s talent in going after Blaine. Now a barrage of cartoons accompanied the reams of unflattering news copy and acidic editorials that the World published about Blaine. Between August and November’s Election Day, McDougall’s cartoons appeared twice a week on the front page. All but one of them attacked Blaine or Ben Butler, the third-party candidate supported by Dana. Readers in New York had seen nothing like this before. It was as if a rabid dog had gotten loose at a society dog show.

Pulitzer had no interest in muzzling the sharp bite of the World. “It should make enemies constantly, the more the better, for only by making enemies can it expose roguery and serve the public,” he said. “The most valuable and most successful paper will generally be that which has the most enemies.” The style also continued to win over readers. By the end of September, the World’s daily circulation passed the 100,000 mark. “This,” Pulitzer exclaimed, “we hold to be our first 100,000.”

The maliciousness of the World perplexed some of Pulitzer’s friends. “I have always believed, and do believe, that you are a generous-hearted man,” wrote AP’s William Henry Smith, complaining that the paper was mercilessly pursuing one official who had already lost his job. “This is not like the Joseph Pulitzer I once knew; and if he is to be forever lost, I shall never cease to regret the share I had in bringing him into this wicked New York World.”

Pulitzer beat on, pushing his staff like a coxswain who was never satisfied with his shell’s lead.

Pulitzer interrupted his frenetic editorial and campaign work on the afternoon of September 3 to take a leisurely cruise on the Hudson. The idea of owning a yacht was beginning to appeal to him, and he had begun looking into buying one. But, as with everything else this year, this cruise was a political rather than a pleasure trip. Samuel Tilden had sent his vessel, the Viking, to the Twenty-Third Street pier to bring a delegation of Democrats upstream to his riverfront mansion in Yonkers. The journey was a well-timed public reminder of Republican dastardliness. The men were delivering an official resolution from the Democratic convention thanking Tilden for his service in the disputed 1876 election. Pulitzer was the only member of the press on board. Sitting at the lunch table near his friend William Whitney, he offered to make himself useful by distributing copies of the prepared remarks to newspapermen when they disembarked.

As the campaign approached its final month, New York Democrats enlisted Pulitzer to speak at a rally aimed at winning