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

SOME GENIUS IN AN OLD ROOM

379

"Didn't I order him discharged a few days ago?"
said Mr. Dana.
Another but more prolonged murmur from Mr. Lord.
Adams got up from his desk to efface himself, but as
he left the room he caught the voice of Mr. Dana, a
trifle higher and a bit plaintive:
" Why is it, Mr. Lord, that I never succeed in discharging any of your bright young men?"
Adams did not wait for the answer.
This story, while typical of Lord, is not typical of
Dana. For every word of censure he had a hundred
words of praise. He read the paper-every line of itfor virtues to be commended rather than for faults to
be condemned.
"Who wrote the two sticks about the lame girl? A
good touch; that's the Sun idea!"
If a new man haa written something he liked-even
a ten-line paragraph-the editor of the Sun would cross
the room to shake the man's hand and say:
"Good work! "
The spirit he radiated was contagious. The men,
encouraged by Dana, spread faith to one another. The
"Sun spirit "-the envious of other newspapers were
wont to refer to those who had it as " the Sun's Mutual
Admiration Society "-did and does much to make the
Sun. The men lived the socialism of art. If a new
reporter received a difficult assignment, ten older men
were ready to tell him, in a kindly and not at all didactic
way, how to find the short cut.
Perhaps some part of the democracy of the Sun office
has come from the fact that men have rarely been taken
in at the top. It was Dana's plan to catch young men
with unformed ideas of journalism and make Sun men
of them. They went on the paper as cubs at fifteen
dollars a week-or even as office-boys-and worked their