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

DANA AND HIS PEOPLE

199

of mine, a New York lawyer who was one of the quickest
percipients of character I ever knew. Till that day he had
regarded Dana somewhat as an offensive and malicious
blend of Aaron Burr and Beelzebub. When the editor
died, this gentleman wrote me: "I have never forgotten
the glimpse of Mr. Dana you gave me. On that summer
morning I dropped my blinders not only as to him, but as
to other men that are known only through the distorting
glass of public comment. It's a great thing to understand,
if only a little, great men." I could give a dozen similar
instances of prompt reversal of opinion at the first personal contact.
So perhaps I may try to describe the personnel of the
early Suna, apart from its principal figure.
In those early Dana days the musical department of The
Sun was conducted by Francis C. Bowman, a practising
lawyer and a stockholder in the association. Both he and
Mrs. Bowman were practical as well as theoretical musicians of ability and knowledge. They earned the confidence of The Sun's readers and began that registry of the
affairs of Orpheus in which have participated such critics
as the brilliant James Gibbons Huneker, equally at home
in all the seven arts, and, for many years now, William J.
Henderson, a model of learning, just perception, and
splendid courage in the expression of authoritative opinion. At a later period, when HIazeltine was writing the
literary, Huneker the dramatic, and Henderson the musical reviews of The Sun, the phrase "the three Hs" was
frequently used by connoisseurs in token of admiration;
and, surely, few newspapers have ever profited by the
simultaneous service of such a trio.
The theatrical critic and his assistant before 1875 were

two young lawyers then in the forenoon of practice, with
offices in Broadway near Cedar Street, under the firm
name of Root & Bartlett. The senior in the legal concern
was the junior in the censorship of the drama, and vice