The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

228

THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

Avenue Hotel so far north-away up at Twenty-Third
Street-that it was known as Eno's Folly. This he did
nearly ten years before Dana went to the Sun, and in
1868 the hotel was not only the most fashionable in the
United States, but the most profitable.
A. A. Low was a merchant and the father of Seth
Low, later mayor of New York. William H. Webb was
a big ship-builder. Thomas Murphy was a Republican
politician whom Grant made collector of the port of
New York, and who gave Grant his place at Long
Branch as a summer home.
At least three of the men in the list were active in
the Sun office. Thomas Hitchcock was a young man
of wealth and scholarship who had become acquainted
with Dana when both were interested in Swedenborgianism. He wrote, among other books, a catechism of that
doctrine. For many years he contributed to the Sun,
under the name " Matthew Marshall," financial articles
which appeared on Mondays, and which were regarded
as the best reviews and criticisms of their kind.
Charles S. Weyman got out the W7eekly Sun, and
edited that delightful column, " Sunbeams."
Salem H. Wales was a merchant whose daughter became Mrs. Elihu Root. Dorman B. Eaton was one of
the pioneers of civil-service reform. Marshall 0. Roberts, F. A. Palmer, David Dows, and E. C. Cowdin were
great names in the business and financial world.
Why Dana and his friends did not start a new paper
is explained in the following letter, written by Dana to
General Wilson:
Just as we were about commencing our own paper,
the purchase of the Sun was proposed to me and accepted. It had a circulation of from fifty to sixty thousand a day, and all among the mechanics and small
merchants of this city. We pay a large sum for it