Memoirs of an editor : fifty years of American journalism / Edward P. Mitchell.

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MEMOIRS OF AN EDITOR

with the rural subscribers to the weekly edition, which
in the case of The Sun had then a circulation of nearly a
hundred thousand, going chiefly to farmers.
In dendrology the knowledge of The Sun's editor was
as accurate as his interest was keen and genuine. His
country place, Dosoris Island, on the Sound near Glen
Cove, was famous for the variety and beauty of its trees
and shrubbery. He was an eager collector and cultivator
of rare specimens of leafy creation; many of these had
been acquired with the advice and assistance of his friend
Professor Charles Sprague Sargent, the foremost American
expert on arboriculture and still at this writing the director of the great Arnold Arboretum at Jamaica Plain.
Another lifelong friend of Mr. Dana's, Judge Willard
Bartlett, has said of him: "Mr. Dana continually surprised
expert foresters and professional and amateur gardeners
by his knowledge of trees and plants. In 1879, when I travelled with him through England, Scotland, and Ireland
to visit all the great British and Irish tree gardens, I was
asked again and again by nurserymen and others whether
he was not a forester or gardener by profession." I am
not capable of saying whether Mr. Dana's science was
equally authoritative in pomology and the humbler
branches of agriculture, but I do know that he was proud
whenever a farmer subscriber to The Weekly Sun applied
to him directly for information or counsel.
One night soon after twelve o'clock I went, as usual
then, to the composing-room to make up the editorial
page of the morning's paper. I found already in the form
and marked with Mr. Dana's imperative "Must" a short
article in agate type substantially but not exactly as
follows:

We are indebted to our esteemed subscriber Mr. Jabez
Lightwalter of Goshen for the largest and reddest and most
mysterious apDp! that ever came to Manhattan. For more