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

LATER YEARS ON THE FIRING LINE

379

appetite for work sharpened by a dozen years of brilliant
service as night editor of The Sun.
Yet I am glad I remained with The Sun, and shall never
forget the warmth of the welcome from Mr. Munsey or
the delicacy of his arrangements, then and always afterward, to make me feel as much at home and as much of a
factor as ever before; nor again, the cordial good fellowship manifested by his accomplished lieutenant in a bewildering variety of businesses, William T. Dewart, and
by Ervin Wardman, dear man, enthusiastic as ever and
loyal to the job, though he saw his beloved Press dissolving
in the journalistic melting-pot.
"Not only is Mr. Mitchell to remain," Wardman, as
publisher, wrote on July 12, 1916, to an old Sun reader
inquiring from Cleveland, "but he is to have entire control
of the editorial page and unquestioned selection of his
own staff. I think that answers your question."
IV
When somebody referred in print to James Gibbons
Huneker as "America's most authoritative critic" he
sent me the testimonial annotated with three downward
slashes of his prolific pen surmounting three inky dots.
I took the comment at first to be an exclamation point in
triplicate, indicating exaltation in the third degree; but a
capable lens informed me that the marks were intended
for query, not for shouting. The little signal was characteristic of his invariable attitude toward himself and his
work. He was proud of his achievement but as far from
vanity as from Alpha Lyrse. "And no quotation marks!"
was his only complaint when a predatory rival had stolen
two of his best articles and printed them in Philadelphia

over the name of the thief.
Huneker's American and European reputation was won
by an industry almost like Hazeltine's, propelled, unlike
Hazeltine's, by interest unceasing and insatiable in things