Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [281]
“I want to”: There is little doubt Augustine used the word. Judge Cady, who was standing by his side, said Augustine called Pulitzer a “pup.”
Ittner, who was: Ittner to JPII, 6/11/1913, PDA; St. Louis Times, 1/28/1870, 1.
By the time: MoRe, 1/29/1870, 2.
Seizing the moment: MoRe, 1/28/1870; House Journal, 305–306; StLoT, 1/28/1870, 1. The papers often ran verbatim accounts of the speeches but did not put quotation marks around the words and sometimes changed first person to third person. The quotations from this debate were compared with those appearing in several newspapers.
The House probe: MoDe, 1/29/1870, 1 and 2/2/1870, 1; Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, 1/30/1870, 2; ChTr, 1/29/1870, 4.
The clamor impelled: WP, 1/30/1870, 3.
He called Augustine: Late in life, Pulitzer pulled back his hair to show what he claimed were the scars from Augustine’s brass knuckles.
The Cole County grand jury: State of Missouri v. Joseph Pulitzer, No. 1182 P.H., No. 16, Circuit Court of Cole County, MO, MSA. Pulitzer’s arrest was also noted in newspapers such as the Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, 2/19/1870, 2; MoDe, 1/21/1870, 1 and 2/4/1870, 2.
This was not: MoRe, 2/11/1870, 1; House Journal, 431–432.
Pulitzer’s choice of: Since 1864, German language instruction for all students had been part of the public school curriculum, and it would remain so until 1887, when the German faction lost control of the school board: MoDe, 3/1/1870, 1; Eichhorst, “Representative and Reporter,” 59; Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, 3/2/1870, 2.
Pulitzer immediately moved: MoDe, 3/11/1870, 1; House Journal, 821. The debate created a problem for Pulitzer the reporter. While arguing over the fate of the accused legislator, the House adopted a resolution prohibiting members of the press from publishing any part of the plan until it granted permission. Since the measure was adopted on a voice vote, the view of the future press lord on freedom of the press was not recorded.
The legislative session: MoRe, 2/25/1870, 2; House Journal, 577.
On March 10: MoRe, 3/11/1870, 2. Seven of the eleven representatives at the meeting were opposed to the measure.
The plan almost worked: MoDe, 3/17 and 3/18/1870.
As the first: Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce, 3/15/1870, 2; St. LoDi, 3/15/1870, 2.
CHAPTER 6: LEFT BEHIND
Pulitzer’s tenure as an elected state representative is an important component of the “making” of Pulitzer the newspaper publisher. Remarkably even his two most scrupulous biographers did not explore why his tenure in the Missouri general assembly ended. Swanberg closed his chapter on the episode with the phrase “on March 24 his lone term in the legislature ended” (19). Reynolds wrote, “Thus his experience as a state legislator ended, an experience to which he often looked back with satisfaction” (23). Maybe my own experience as a journalist made me skeptical that Pulitzer would simply walk away from a prized elective office. A quick look at Missouri newspapers that fall revealed that his retirement was not voluntary at all.
Among the serendipitous joys of research are the odd little connections one finds between figures in history. In researching the life of Gratz Brown for this chapter, I found that he was the grandfather of Margaret Wise Brown, an author familiar to all twentieth-century parents: she wrote Goodnight Moon and other classics of children’s literature.
The prospect of: Theodore Welge to JPII, 6/6/1913, PDA.
The trial was: General Assembly Records for 1870 Adjournment Session, Record Group 550, Box 94, folder 28, MSA; NYT, 5/25/1870; JP passport application, NARA. While in the mayor’s office Pulitzer met Julian Kune, a Hungarian who had fled to the United States following the revolution of 1848 and was also back on his first visit home: Kune, Reminiscences, 130.
By mid-July: Ciberia passenger manifest, 7/13/1870, NARA.
A former U.S. senator: Peterson, Freedom and Franchise, 176; NYH, 4/29/1872; NYT, 7/21/1900, 7. Though it remained the state’s premier Republican newspaper, the Democrat had already turned