Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [85]
There were actually two newspapers on the auction block that day. An eight-year-old failed newspaper, the St. Louis Journal, was expected to sell for less than the value of its presses, type, and furniture. The Dispatch, however, had greater potential. It had been founded as the St. Louis Union in 1862 by the late U.S. senator Frank P. Blair, to counter the Missouri Democrat’s support of John Frémont, who was running against President Lincoln. Two years later, Johnson and a group of investors had bought the failing St. Louis Union and converted it to an evening publication called the Dispatch. During the following years, the Dispatch continued to change hands as different publishers took turns failing to make it financially viable. By 1878, its most recent set of owners could find no one else on whom to unload it, and the sheriff ordered a bankruptcy sale.
Despite its miserable track record, the Dispatch still appealed to newspapermen. Among those who came to watch the auction were Houser; the former governor Gratz Brown, now working as an attorney representing the party who held a $15,000 mortgage on the Dispatch; John and George Knapp, owners of the Missouri Republican, and their editor William Hyde; and John A. Dillon of the Evening Post. The assembled newspapermen, lawyers, bankers, and judges tried to guess what the Dispatch might fetch. Some thought it might sell for as much as $40,000. The auctioneer suggested that the AP membership alone would be worth at least $20,000, an estimate inspired by Pulitzer’s well-rememberd profit in buying and selling the Staats-Zeitung in 1874. This time, however, there was no paper in town so badly in need of the AP. The more reasonable men who were present had only modest expectations for the sale, and some had none. Asked what he would pay the paper, William Hyde replied, “I would not give a damn for it.”
Within a few minutes of Pulitzer’s arrival at the courthouse, the auctioneer climbed onto a chair. “I propose to sell for cash two newspapers—two live papers,” he said, drawing laughter. Reviewing the lamentable histories of the two papers, he said that they had sometimes made money, but at other times they had not. Again, the audience guffawed. Those who held unpaid financial notes did not share in the merriment. Brown grabbed the auctioneer’s chair and warned potential buyers that anyone who purchased one of the two newspapers would be liable for the $15,000 mortgage.
It took only a moment to dispense with the Journal. It fetched $600. “Gentlemen,” the auctioneer said, “I now propose to sell you the Evening Dispatch, a paper that will live when all the other evening papers are dead.” After more laughter, the bidding began. Simon J. Arnold, who worked for the city collector, Meyer Rosenblatt, went first, offering $1,000. Rosenblatt was an important figure in the city’s Republican politics, and it was presumed that Arnold was doing his bidding. He wasn’t. He was Pulitzer’s Trojan horse. Pulitzer knew if he were to openly join the bidding, others would assume that he had seen in the paper something of value that had escaped their attention, and the price would soar. Arnold’s opening move was countered with a bid for $1,500. The gathered men were baffled. The other bidder, standing behind the crowd in a hallway, was a complete stranger. A reporter asked his name. “I’ll tell you after a while,” he replied.
Arnold raised his bid to $2,000. The mysterious man topped it with a bid for $2,100. Pulitzer remained silent. His well-made plan seemed to be unraveling. At $3,000, Arnold gave up and walked away. The unidentified man had topped Pulitzer’s man by $100. The auctioneer declared the auction over. Pulitzer’s game was up. He would not be the new owner of the Dispatch. But a commotion arose when the anonymous figure did not come to the front to claim his prize. In fact, he had vanished. Arnold rushed back and announced that he would still be willing to pay $2,500. His offer was accepted, and Arnold and the auctioneer retired to offices across