The story of the Sun, New York: 1833-1928 / by Frank M. O'Brien ; with an introduction by Edward Page Mitchell ...

232

THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

counteract the impression that the editorship of a great
newspaper is gained through mere erudition, as opposed
to a fine understanding of the very human reader, so
much the better.
From his first day with the Sun, Mr. Mitchell absorbed
his chief's lifelong belief that the range of public interest was infinite. As he said in 1916. in an address to
the students of the Pulitzer School of Journalism on
"The Newspaper Value of Non-Essentials":
Sometimes people are as much interested in queer
names, like Poke Stogis, for example, or in the discussion of a question such as "What Is the Best
Ghost in Fiction?" or "How Should Engaged Couples
Act at the Circus?" or "What Is a Dodunk?" or "Do
the Angels Play Football?" as some other people are
interested in the conference of the great powers.
It is well to remember always this psychological
factor. Both the range of the newspaper and the
attractive power of the writer for the newspaper in
any department depend upon the breadth of sympathy with human affairs and the diversity of things
in which he, the writer, takes a genuine personal interest.
In that speech the Sun's judlgment of what the people
want, whether it be in news, editorial, or fiction, is restated exactly as it might have been stated at any time
within the last fifty years.
Mayo Williamson Hazeltine was a fine example of the
scholar in newspaper work; an example of the way in
which Dana, with his intellectual magnificence, found
the best for his papers. Educated at Harvard and Oxford and in continental Europe, Hazeltine came to the