Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [285]
Back in St. Louis: Looking back at the convention at the end of the year, Schurz called it “the ‘slaughter house’ of the most splendid opportunities of our time.”(Schurz to Grosvenor, December 25, 1872, WG-CU.) “Schurz about an hour ago finally agreed to recede from his Cincinnati speech and adopt the popular word of ‘anybody to beat Grant.’” And, in fact, Schurz wrote an editorial in which he repudiated or, in the words of the Missouri Democrat, “ate” his previous condemnation.
Of concern to: JP to Reid, 6/12/1872 and Reid to JP 6/17/1872, WR-LC.
A sense of optimism: ChTr, 6/22/1872, 4.
But Pulitzer’s work: ChTr, 7/15/1872, 6.
After New York: Minutes of the St. Louis Police Board, August 14–December 3, 1872, SLPDL; DCS-JP, 74; ChTr, 7/22/1872, 2; MoDe, 9/20/1872, 2.
Police commission work: JP to Schurz, 9/24/1872, CS.
As fall approached: Wolf, The Presidents I Have Known, 84–85.
The campaign produced: Schurz mentioned acquiring a larger number of shares in the paper at about this time, in a letter to his parents. (Schurz to parents, 11/14/1872, CS; JP to St. Clair McKelway, NYW, 11/7/1913.)
The potential changes: MoDe, 9/19/1872.
Within a week: The original note is in the possession of Eric P. Newman of St. Louis: Pulitzer to Schurz, 9/24/1872, CS. Typically, Pulitzer also claims that because of his efforts “our newspaper is already much better!” The Indianapolis Sentinel saw Pulitzer’s purchase as “evidence that he will continue on that journal the fine service,which has heretofore been the strong point of his reputation”: JP to St. Clair McKelway, NYW, 11/7/1913. The evidence suggests that the “proprietors” to whom Pulitzer refers did not include Schurz. He did not believe that the election had damaged the paper. “We did not suffer during the campaign,” Schurz wrote to his parents after its disastrous conclusion. (Schurz to parents, 11/14/1872, CS.)
While Pulitzer’s stock: JP to Schurz, 9/24/1872, CS.
CHAPTER 8: POLITICS AND PRINCIPLE
Pulitzer mounted a campaign: Letters of support quoted in subsequent paragraphs may be found in Woodson Governor, Box 25, Folder 6, MSA, unless otherwise indicated.
Preetorius was opposed: Preetorius to Grosvenor, 2/27/1873. WG-CU.
Woodson’s appointments: JP to Louis Benecke, 3/5/1873, LB.
Pulitzer’s career in journalism: One assumes some inflation in the price paid to Pulitzer from the retelling of the tale over the years. But the paper itself was certainly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Missouri Democrat, with a circulation only slightly higher than that of Westliche Post, changed hands the same week for $456,100. Date of note redemption is marked on the note itself. Note in private possession of Edwin P. Newman.
Pulitzer immediately sought: Weldge to JPII, 6/6/1913, PDA.
Freed from the: MoDe, 9/19/1872; Unser Blatt, 12/7/1872, also cited in WRR, 103–104; “Remarks of Gov. Chas. P. Johnson, Birthday Anniversary Dinner,” 4/10/1907, PDA. In December his friend Keppler had drawn a cartoon of Pulitzer’s shadow falling on a map of New York, with the caption “Coming Events Cast Their Shadows before Them.”
On his way: APM, 61–62.
Albert arrived in: Ibid., 82–83.
At the time: To come up with the necessary $175,000 to purchase the Sun Dana enlisted several friends, including Senator Roscoe Conkling, who would later become one of Joseph Pulitzer’s close friends, and Senator Edwin D. Morgan. See Turner, When Giants Ruled, 84; Sun editorial quoted in Emery and Emery, The Press and America, 217. By 1876 the newspaper had a circulation of more than 130,000 copies.
Under Dana’s regime: APM, 84–85. The editor was John B. Wood, who was called the “great condenser.” Walter Rosebault, a Jewish reporter from Savannah, who like Albert was only twenty, remembered that Albert “spoke with a slight, but not unpleasant, foreign accent.” (APM, 88.)
The editor decided: NYS, 8/24/1871, 2. It is also quoted in WAS, 22. One wonders if the “friend in New York” referred to in the article might have been Albert.
Albert rose rapidly: APM, 90–93; NYT, 7/7/1871, 5. “The work