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

334

THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

While still on the Sun he was making books out of the
material he picked up on his assignments. In the early
nineties, while still on the Sun staff, he made two tours
for Harper's Magazine and wrote " On Canada's Frontier," "Our Great West," and " Chicago and the World's
Fair," the last of which was the official book of the
Columbian Exposition. After his experiences in the
Boer War he wrote "Towards Pretoria," "War's
Brighter Side" (with Conan Doyle), and "An American with Lord Roberts." His other books are " Alone
in China," " Dixie; or, Southern Scenes and Sketches,"
" People We Pass," and a novel, " The Millionairess."
He was the author of the " German Barber " sketches,
which appeared almost weekly in the Sun for a long
time, and which are remembered as among the genuine
examples of real humour in dialect. During the Boer
War, Ralph joined the staff of the London Daily Mail,
and after returning from South Africa he made his
home in London until his death in 1903.
A tradition about Ralph, indicating the pleasure that
his articles gave to his own colleagues as well as to the
public, concerns one of the great football-games of the
eighties. John Spears discovered the picturesqueness
of the Yale-Princeton games, usually played on Thanksgiving Day, and the Sun featured them year after year.
Reporters hungered for the job, for it meant not only
money, but the opportunity to write a fine story.
When Ralph's turn came he wrote such a good article
that the copy-desk let it run for five columns. Lord
admired it, Clarke was enthusiastic over it, and the
other men in the office took turns in reading the story
in the proofs, so happily was it turned. It was not
until the first edition was off the press that an underling, who cared more for football than for literature,
suggested that the story ought to contain the score of