THE OLD FIREPLACE.
flIMlwaufcee
press Club JBoofe.
p ubli0bc^ bv tbe Ob ihvaufcee p rcss C lub.
1895.
u%&ft#&b
tAI
B J
of
Ube Evcninti Titlisconsin Company.
HENRY E. LEGLER
CHARLES K. LUSH
JOHN G. GREGORY
JULIUS BLEYER
MATHER D. KIMBALL
CAPT. CHAS. KING, U. S. A.
FRANK MARKLE
H. G. UNDERWOOD.
Edited by
Charles K. Lush,
W. T. Walthall, Jr.
Ubis 36oofe is not 2)eoicate& to
anyone, but if it were
tbe name of Cbas. H. 2>ana woulfc
appear upon tbis page.
CONTENTS.
PACK.
INTRODUCTORY, 9
THE CLUB AT HOME 21
THE PRESS PAST AND PRESENT, 31
THE WORLD'S FAIR JOURNALISTS, 47
COOKERS' AND EATERS' ASSOCIATION, . . . .65
EASTER AT THE CLUB, 61
THE CLUB'S ANNUAL OUTING, 71
WISCONSIN WAR CORRESPONDENTS, . . . -79
AFTER-DINNER REMINISCENCES, ..... 87
To SCUDDAY RICHARDSON, 97
ROSTER OF MEMBERS, ...... 111-112
M188867
Copyrighted 1895, by Milwaukee Press Club.
front door
POUR newspaper men
cautiously felt their
way down the dark back
stairway of the old Sentinel
building at 3 o'clock in the
morning, November I, 1885. ^ n tnose day s
was locked at midnight, and there was no elevator. In the
cellars of the Sentinel, Heroic! and Seebote the presses were
clanking away, turning out the usual assortment of puffs,
libels and uncolored truths. " Thirty " had been called twen-
ty minutes before, and the quartette hurried down Newspaper
Row, turned on East Water Street and headed for an all-night
chop-house half-way down the block. As they munched their
ham sandwiches and washed them down with the foaming
brew indigenous to Milwaukee, the grain was planted that
germinated and grew into a Milwaukee Press Club. It
seemed a Herculean task to band the boys together in the year
1885, for strained relations then existed (now happily altered)
between workers employed on the one paper and "the fellows
on the other sheets." It must be admitted that ten years ago
there was not the spirit of comradery that prevails to-day
among the newspaper men of the city whether of high or low
degree. Reporters on one paper regarded those on another
as the incarnation of all that was unprofessional. It was
suspected that among those higher in authority there was
cherished a feeling for contemporaries that ached to find
vent in personal peppery editorials. Archie Foster's sugges-
tion seemed impossible of realization. Only a year or two
before a futile attempt had been made in the same direction,
the only relics of the Club being an elaborate constitution,
James Langland.
with by-laws, and a vote of thanks
from the managers of the Babies'
Home, to whom the proceeds of a
benefit entertainment were voted
when the Club gave up the ghost.
Whether from the cause noted,
or because the newspaper men
were unusually busy on the 8th of
November, 1885, it appears from the
minutes of the preliminary meeting
held in a room of the Herold build-
ing on that day, that but a baker's
dozen were present. They were Jas. Langland, Frank Bis-
singer, Alex. W. Dingwall, James Bannen, Geo. C. Youngs,
Henry C. Campbell, Robert Strong, E. R. Petherick, Curt M.
Treat, W. F. Hooker, Archie Foster, Geo. P. Mathes, Frank
Markle and Henry E. Legler. One encouraging feature was
that every English daily was represented. A temporary organ-
ization was effected, with Curt Treat as chairman, and Robert
Strong as secretary, and everybody present was put on the
assignment book to hustle for members.
And they did. The growth of the Club was rapid, and the
Milwaukee Press Club to-day is one of the most flourishing
in the country. By bringing the members of the profession
together socially, the asperities of business competition have
been confined to business hours and business places, and the
younger members of the press gang have come to realize that
there are a lot of jolly good fellows working on papers other
than the ones for which they scratch for a living. The unique
rooms occupied by the lub are the delight of all the Bohe-
mians from abroad who have visited them, the public enter-
tainments are social events; and the influence of the Club out-
side its own membership has been to elevate newspaper men
and their work in the estimation of the community.
It has become the unwritten law of the Club to elect its
officers from president down from among the younger active
workers on the press, and this rule was suspended but once.
10
The first election was held November 15, 1885, and resulted
as follows :
President JAMES LANG LAN i >.
First Vice- President GEO. C. YOUNGS.
Second Vice-President HERMAN BRAUN.
Secretary JERRE C. MURPHY.
Treasurer ALEX. W. DINGWALL.
Executive Committee H. P. MYRICK, L. W. NIEMAN,
HERMAN BLEYER, FRANK BISSINGER, C. M. TREAT.
The offices were thus distributed with geometrical precis-
ion so as to give the different papers representation. That
was ten years ago, of course. In recent elections, the dispo-
sition has been on the part of the men on one paper to elect as
officers representatives from the other papers in preference to
their own co-workers just to show that there are no hard
feelings.
Jerre Murphy notified the Club at its next meeting that he
must decline the honor accorded him, and Henry C. Campbell
was chosen Secretary in his place.
The first entertainment was given at the old Academy,
December 9, 1885. It is remembered to this day as some-
thing unique in that line. The programme lasted, with the
numerous encores, till past midnight, and the audience re-
mained in their seats till the end, and seemed loath to go even
then. It was the first and last time in the history of Milwau-
kee theaters that some of the best
known people of the city sat con-
tentedly (or otherwise) in the back
row of the top gallery. The sale
of tickets was so unusual that it
would have been necessary to en-
large the theater to accommodate
all who wanted to go. Tickets
were 50 cents a piece, and on the
programme were such attractions
as Abbie Carrington, Thomas W.
Keene and a long list of others.
ii
J. A. Watrous.
H. P. Myrick.
The rush to secure good seats was
immense. When the box office
opened, there was a line of men
and boys in waiting that reached a
block and a half away, and some of
them had been waiting since mid-
night. The financial result of the
entertainment is shown by 'the
records to have been as follows:
Gross receipts, $982 75
Expenses, 85 50
Profits,
- $897 25
A suite of rooms was secured on the second floor of the
Herold building. W. W. Coleman, proprietor, signified his
sympathy with the boys by offering to pay an annual member-
ship fee of $100. Up to this time the membership qualifica-
tion was applied strictly to the newspaper men gaining a live-
lihood by means of newspaper work. It was apparent that to
draw such a close line meant the exclusion of a desirable class
of membership comprising well-known ex-newspaper men,
and those intimately associated with the various phases of
newspaperdom, though not dependent upon that work for
their daily bread. As the spirit of good-fellowship in the Club
began to expand the constitution was amended so as to
include among those eligible to membership a new class to
be known as " Associate Members," "to consist of editors of
newspapers in the State of Wisconsin, persons formerly con-
nected with newspapers and occasional correspondents."
Associate members are entitled to all the privileges enjoyed
by active members (including payment of initiation fees and
dues) except voting and holding office.
January 3, 1886, the board of officers was unanimously re-
elected, W. J. Anderson being chosen to fill a vacancy on the
Executive Board. During this administration the Club in-
dulged in the luxury of a pool and billiard table, the plan
being to pay for it from the proceeds of the fee charged play-
ers. It became an unwritten rule that the loser should pay
five cents per game for each cue in action, and thus the poor-
est players paid the lion's share towards the purchase of the
table, on the principle that they were paying for their experi-
ence. Henry Campbell and the writer purchased this experi-
ence in the largest quantities.
The second annual election, held January 4, 1887, resulted
as follows:
President JAMES LANGLAND.
First Vice- President GILO. C. YOUNGS.
Second Vice- President W. A. BOWDISH.
Secretary HENRY C. CAMPBELL.
Financial Secretary}^. BANNEN.
Treasurer ALEX. W. DINGWALL.
Executive Committee GEO. H. YENOWINE, HERMAN
BLEYER, H. P. MYRICK, W. J. ANDERSON and GEO. P.
MATHES.
In April following, Geo. C. Youngs and Henry C. Camp-
bell purchased the Florence News, and their departure from
Milwaukee necessitated their resignations. Thereupon Julius
Bleyer was chosen First Vice- President and Chase S. Osborn
Secretary.
The first spirited contest for the presidency occurred at
the succeeding annual election, several ballots being required
to determine:
President JEROME A. WATROUS.
First Vice- President JULIUS
BLEYER.
Second Vice- President HENRY
E. LEGLER.
Secretary W. A. BOWDISH.
Treasurer A. W. FRIESE.
Executive Committee JAMES
LANGLAND, W. J. ANDERSON, GEO.
P. MATHES, GEO. H. YENOWINE
and C. M. TREAT.
There was another warm con-
test for President at the next an-
Geo. H. Yenowine.
Herman Bleyer.
nual election, January 3, 1889.
Five ballots were taken before a
choice was declared:
President -H. P. MYRICK.
First Vice-PresidentGv.0. H.
VENOWINE.
Second Vice- President EDGAR
W. COLEMAN.
Secretary W. A. BOWDISH.
Treasurer HENRY C. CAMP-
BELL.
Executive Committee CHAS. K.
LUSH, M. A. ALDRICH, HERMAN BLEYER, J. A. WATROUS,
E. W. KRACKOWIZER.
This year a new constitution was adopted, after the model
of the Chicago Press Club's constitution, and the provisions
of this document obtain now. The purpose of the Club, as
stated therein, is " to bring members of the newspaper and
literary professions together in closer personal relations, to
further good-fellowship and to provide members with com-
fortable Club rooms."
January 8, 1890, occurred the fifth annual election. Presi-
dent Myrick was presented with a diamond scarf-pin and
re-elected, the officers for the ensuing year being chosen as
follows :
President H. P. MYRICK.
First Vice- President GEO. H. YENOWINE.
Second Vice-President E. W. COLEMAN.
Secretary FRED. F. HEATH.
Treasurer A. W. DING WALL.
Executive Committee H. P. MYRICK, GEO. H. YENOWINE,
HERMAN BLEYER, C. K. LUSH, JAS. BANNEN, GEO. W. PECK,
JR., W. J. POHL.
Fred. Heath resigned as Secretary, after serving four
months. His successor was M. E. Mclntosh.
In January, 1891, the following officers were chosen:
President GEO. H. YENOWINE.
First Vice- President E. W. COLEMAN.
Second Vice-President HERMAN BLEYKR.
Secretary M. E. MclNTOSH.
Treasurer A. W. DINGWALL.
Executive Committee GEO. H. YENOWINE, C. K. LUSH,
JULIUS BLEYER, L. W. NIEMAX, GEO. W. PECK, JR., JOHN
R. WOLF, GEO. CLEMENT.
At the annual election in January, 1892, the election resulted
as follows:
President JAMES BANNEN.
First Vice- President -W. A. BOVVDISH.
Second Vice-President -W r . J. POHL.
Secretary F. F. HEATH.
Treasurer A. G. WRIGHT.
Directors H. P. MYRICK, M. E. MC!NTOSH, C. K. LUSH,
JULIUS BLEYER, GEO. W. PECK, JR., JOHN R. WOLF.
Succeeding elections up to date have resulted in the fol-
lowing official boards:
JANUARY, 1893.
President HERMAN BLEYER.
First Vice-President WM. J. POHL.
Second Vice-President CHAS. W. EMERSON.
Secretary RICHARD B. WATROUS.
Treasurer A. G. WRIGHT.
Directors GEO. H. YENOWINE,
W. F. HOOKER, and old members.
JANUARY, 1894.
President WILLI AM A. RUB-
LEE.
First yice-President M. A.
HOYT.
Second Vice- President C. W.
EMERSON.
Secretary J. D. McMANUS.
Treasurer A. G. WRIGHT.
Win. A. Rublee.
JANUARY, 1895.
President JULIUS BLEYER.
First Vice-President WM. F.
HOOKER.
Second Vice- President JOHN
R. WOLF.
Secretary WM. DUNLOP.
Treasurer A. G. WRIGHT.
Directors for Three Years J.
D. McMANUs and CHAS. \V.
Julius Bleyer. EMERSON.
With the restlessness appertaining to newspaperdom, the
Club has not been content to anchor in one spot. From the
Herold building, the Club went into very pleasant rooms in
the Evening Wisconsin building. A policy of retrenchment
caused a second removal, the fourth story of the Bradford
building on Broadway being leased. The lack of an elevator
proved too discouraging to the members, and the Club
languished until the quarters were moved to the Commercial
Club building on Grand Avenue, near Second Street. The
decadence of the Commercial had a dispiriting effect on the
Press Club, whose members had enjoyed the privileges of the
restaurant maintained by the former. A happy inspiration
suggested the occupancy of the present abode on the corner of
Broadway and Mason, across the street from the first quarters
occupied by the Club. A rusty sign that creaks in the austral
breeze points the way up two flights of stairs to the most
Bohemian newspaper men's domicile to be found in the coun-
try. But of this others will speak.
Swell dinners and receptions and Bohemian lunches and
gatherings have punctuated the career of the Club, the one as
enjoyable as the other. A list of the former would include
receptions given to Justin McCarthy, Mrs. Frank Leslie,
George Kennan, and others; a dinner in honor of MaxO'Rell,
and a farewell dinner to Walter E. Gardner, Consul to Rotter-
dam, given conjointly to James I^angland on his departui'e to
16
Chicago; a $2,000 banquet given to the Foreign World's Fair
journalists; a farewell banquet to W. J. Anderson, Gov.
Upham's secretary, with two or three other similar affairs.
In this connection may be mentioned an elegant banquet at
the Schlitz, enjoyed by the Club, as guests of E. W. Coleman,
in 1889, and a fine supper given by Consul Gardner on his
return from Holland.
The Bohemian lunches of the Club have been numerous
and enjoyable. One that marked a red-letter night took place
on the occasion of the occupancy of the present quarters, when
a delegation of Chicago newspaper men participated in the
" Stag Party." Other events that were thoroughly enjoyed
comprise Charlie Lush's shoat supper, Ed. Loewe's bean
soup reception, the sour goose night at which Lando was
presiding genius, Julius Bleyer's Easter egg festival, the Ben-
jamin Franklin Anniversary celebrations, Henry Campbell's
tenderloin masticating exhibition, the jovial gatherings in
which have participated at different times Sol Smith Russell,
F. Hopkinson-Smith, Henry Watterson, Trentanove, Nelly
Bly and others; a reception given Louis Auer, Chas. King,
Frank Hoyt and Geo. Peck, Jr., on their return from a
European trip; last, but not least, the annual outings at Louis
Auer's on Lake Pewaukee, rich in all that is picturesque and
unconventional.
Newspaper men from outside have always lound the latch-
string convenient on the outer panel. On the occasion of con-
ventions and national gatherings, such as the Saengerfest,
Grand Army of the Republic meeting and National Pythian
Conclave, visiting newspaper men were made to feel at home
and every facility was extended to aid them in their work.
These are but the bare outlines of the Club's history, told
without adornment. Its real history exists in the incidents
and the associations which have created for each member a
history for himself a history made up of good-fellowship and
pleasant recollections. This history each member will read
for himself between the lines.
HENRY E. LEGLER.
17
Gbe Club at
1bome.
HE rooms of the Club are on the top floor
of the ancient three-story brick building at
the northwest corner of Mason Street and
Broadway, and they can be reached only by means of an out-
side stairway, which is enclosed in a cigar-box sort of a cover-
ing. Just outside this entrance hangs the Club sign, a repro-
duction of which will be found in these pages. It is of iron,
the lettering in brass and the border composed of copper one-
cent pieces, and it was presented to the Club by Frank A.
Hall, of this city. It had hung for two years, creaking through
all sorts of weather, until one day last winter it was missing.
Immediately there was great consternation in the Club, and
the rumor was that some enterprising hobo had made off with
it for the money in the border. Volunteers at once went to
work to obtain a clew, if possible, and in the midst of the
excitement in walked "Van." "I guess I know where it
is," he said. " Frank Hall met me a few days ago and stop-
ping me, suggested that it would be a good thing to take it
down and clean it up a trifle. He
said it was rusty. I didn't say
anything at all."
" Gentlemen," said one of the
members solemnly, "we have lost
something that no amount of money
can buy back the rust of ages.
But there is no use of crying over
the matter, and all we can do is to
let the sign start in again to grow
old with us." And so the sign
came back, all polished up, with
the pennies new and bright again,
21
Horace Rublee.
Wm. E. Cramer.
and Mr. Hall received a letter
thanking him for his kindness
but every now and then, in the
dark of the moon, a member sneaks
down and douses that sign with a
cup of water and, thanks to the
laws of decay, the rust is coming
back again. The stairway that
leads up into the Club rooms are
steep and the passage is dark and
dingy, so much so that a member
who had just escorted Eugene
Field up into the rooms felt called upon to say: " Our stair-
way is pretty tough, Mr. Field, but we are going to paint it
in a few days." "Paint it?" exclaimed the poet. "Why,
what you want is cobwebs, not paint. Never touch it; its
lovely as it is now."
A detailed description of the rooms and their decorations
would make dry reading at the best, and be superfluous, in
consideration of the fact that they are so well reproduced in
this book by means of pen-and-ink drawings and half-tones.
But there is something that neither the artist's pencil nor
the camera can catch, and that is the atmosphere that clings
about these old rooms, an atmosphere of good-fellowship and
Bohemianism that makes a guest feel like taking off his coat,
tossing his feet up on a chair and helping himself to a pipeful
of the tobacco that can always be found in the big urn on the
center-table of the lounging room. It is the same feeling
that comes over the man who returns to visit the scenes of
his boyhood days, and what man has ever looked at the muddy
old " swimmin' hole" and not felt a desire to peel off and lave
in its murky waters again ? And if you don't
believe that the Milwaukee Press Club's
rooms take a fellow back to the days when
he used to " do the local," "cover the night
police" or "jeff for the beer " at five in the
morning, why, ask Henry Watterson, Moses
P. Handy, Eugene Field, Opie Read, Julian Ralph and scores
of others who have been there and who will bear me out in
what I say. And men who have never been in active news-
paper work but who have .that old spirit of I don't know what,
men like F. Hopkinson-Smith and Leigh Lynch (Lynch
couldn't stay away after I had cooked one meal for him and
passed the roll of honor), just speak to a man of this type and
they will maintain that "it" is there, and whatever "it"
may mean it covers it, and that is all there is to it.
Nobody knows exactly how the Club rooms came to be as
they are now, and certain it is that they were not made that
way by any one man, or any lot of men working with any
defined object. The most plausible theory is that they grew
that way, growing day by day, the walls gathering now and
then the inspiration of a Club member or the contribution of
some friend and guest, while the atoms of dust put the dull
fresco of age on the whole with never-ceasing industry. In
the earlier days of the Club's occupancy of the rooms it was
the custom to keep the individual accounts with the purveyor
in the basement on the fire-place with a bit of chalk, and
while all these accounts have either been liquidated or out-
lawed they stili remain as a reminiscence of some jolly
moments, and they bid in time to become of some historical
value, in view of the fact that some of the men whose names
now stand out in chalk have grown exceedingly sedate and
proper. One of the most highly
valued features of the rooms is a
large charcoal sketch by Charles
Graham, staff artist of Harper's
Weekly, entitled "A Wisconsin
Scene." It was drawn on the occa-
sion of the opening of the rooms
when Mr. Graham and "Biff"
Hall came up to assist in the cere-
monies, and Graham began to draw
the picture at exactly 11 o'clock in
the evening, and ten minutes and
23
Qeo. W. Peck.
thirty seconds later it was finished.
Mr. Graham had traveled right
with the band-wagon up to the
time of starting in to draw the pic-
ture, and the result of his efforts
were none the less surprising to
him the next day than they were
to the large company that saw him
make the sketch. It is really a
remarkable production, the shad-
ing, perspective and general effects
being fully up to the standard
attained by first-class artists in works requiring as many days
to complete as Graham took minutes. A portion of the pic-
ture shows in the reproduction of the photograph of the sitting
room in this book. Around the walls of the general assem-
blage room, which is fitted up after the style of an ancient
German ''Bier Stube," there are inscriptions from men of note,
most of them having been left as a pledge of good faith and
not for publication. Now, instead of going into details as to
the precise contents of this room, which would read very much
like the inventory of an artist's studio and a junk shop com-
bined, I submit the following bit of historical work as better
calculated to give an idea of the room and what might take
place in it:
It was in the small hours at the Press Club on Christmas
morn, and the bird in the cuckoo clock had just come out and
hoarsely coughed three times. Around a table were seated
six men, five of them young, but with that peculiar pallor that
comes from midnight toil. The
gas jets threw strange shadows in
the room, and brought out in bold
relief the many queer figures on
the walls. On all sides were
strange creatures,
painted in a curious
jumble, monkeys,
24
birds, devils, ballet dan-
cers, crocodiles, dogs
and cats. Hut the young
men confined their atten-
tion to a large punch
bowl, from which
steamed a delightful fra-
grance.
After the loving cup had made two or three rounds, the
young men became talkative and began telling stories, which
chiefly related to incidents of the day before, brought about by
that cheerful little task of preparing a Christmas number for
the delectation of thousands of readers of the Sentinel.
" I am so full of Christmas carols and Christmas chimes
that I can hardly move without jingling. I have had wheels
in my head, but now I have bells," said the sporting editor.
" Pshaw !" said the man on the police run. "That's noth-
ing. I started that stabbing fray in the nigger quarter to-night
by saying: ' And the Star of Bethlehem shone in the North-
ern sky.' I started in again, but before I knew it, I was
once more giving a Christmas carol tone to my stuff."
"Its awful," chimed in the court-house reporter. ''I got
my Christmas story mixed up with Forth and his assistant
postmaster, and you can bet I had a harder job unravelling it
than he had straightening out mat-
ters."
"To sum it all up," said the
fourth young man, " we get the
long end all the time. On the
Fourth of July, when everybody
else is out celebrating the day of
American Independence, we poor
slaves have to hustle harder than
ever, telling all about how other
people are enjoying themselves and
taking a day off for patriotism.
Then there's Decoration Day with
C. W. Emerson.
>*
A. J. Aikens.
half a dozen bicycle races, games
and flower services to report. You
bet on Decoration Day I am one of
the real, genuine mourners for the
distinguished dead and wish that
they hadn't ever died. But Christ-
mas Day is the hardest bump of
all. We have to sit around and
write about Christmas trees when
we haven't seen one for ten years,
and to tell about joy and mirth and
chase around all day after sermons
and Sunday-school festivals, to be followed in the evening by
a carnival of Christmas murders and stabbing affrays. I
tell you, it's tough. But somebody pass that punch again."
"Yes," said the sporting editor. "This is a hot place for
a fellow to feel cheerful in, with crooked monkeys, red-faced
devils, and a blamed Hottentot glaring at you from the walls.
It's enough to give a fellow the side jumps."
" I had just been thinking about that," said a quiet little
fellow who hadn't taken a part in the conversation, " and
here's a stumbling sonnet that I have scribbled off as a sort
of commemorative Christmas nightmare." And here he read
the following:
Queer monkeys climb about the
dingy walls
And fraternize with queerer-
looking men;
A dog upon a raging kitten
calls,
While gnomes exult at free-
dom from the den
And guy strange, wingless birds that on a branch
Do sit, too careless of the lack of wings.
Fierce, masky demons make us start and blanch,
And here,full-beered,a happy Dutchman sings;
A blooming savage with a tamborine
Invites to dance a wretched crocodile.
The place is kin to Goethe's Brocken scene,
Where virgins frown and ballet dancers smile.
In all we see the raging mental storm
Which seeks expression in a grotesque form.
The production
was greeted with ap-
plause, and the sport-
ing editor said :
"That's a hot
tamale, Scudday, and just to show our appreciation of it, we
will drink to the health of the poet," with which he solemnly
filled up the loving cup with hot punch and passed it around.
The cup made other trips, and soon dull care and melancholy
gave place to song and laughter. Just how many times the
steaming concoction passed from lip to lip nobody ever knew,
but suddenly the sporting editor jumped up and exclaimed
wildly :
"Get on to that! His geeser, the Hottentot, has got a
mash on the Lily Clay soubrette." And then they all started
up, and, sure enough, there were the Hottentot and the ballet
girl waltzing on the wall, and the curious part of it was that
nobody felt any surprise, and when a gnome slipped down
from the limb, upon which he had been perched in the pleas-
ant task of guying two birds, and came in and sat down on
the table by the punch, he was greeted with open arms and
presented with a hummer. Then somebody looked in the
other room, and noticed that the entire menagerie was in an
uproar. The wingless birds were sputtering and walking
about, the crocodile and the monkey
were playing a game of seven-up,
and the stork had left the baby in
charge of the weiner-wurst man
and was capering gayly; the ballet
dancer and the Hottentot were
having a tete-a-tete, and over in a
corner the trained dog was show-
ing his ingenuity by telling the
difference between a pretzel and a
rocking chair. All of a sudden
the Hottentot arose and, shaking
his tamborine to impose silence,
M. A. Hoyt.
Chas. k. Lush.
"^\ announced that the performance
3f would begin. And such a per-
H JS^jf |P formance as it was. Never before
was there such variety, such wit,
such humor, such exhibitions of
agility as were shown by this won-
derful collection in the Press Club
menagerie. But suddenly, while the
fun was at its height, a pale-faced
man stood in the midst of them.
"Santa Glaus!" shouted the
sporting editor, familiarly, although
the new comer didn't look a bit like old Santa. " Come sit
down, Santa, and don't interrupt the performance."
But the damage had been done, for, quick as a flash, every
performer was back in the old place on the wall the Hotten-
tot with his tamborine poised in the air, the crocodile still in
bondage, the baby ready to drop from the stork's bill, and the
beautiful lady dancer with her painted smile. Santa Claus
didn't speak for a few minutes, and as the revelers looked at
his face it seemed to grow more and more familiar. Finally he
said, speaking in a mild and even tone:
" What, what! Don't you boys think it's about time to go
to bed? It's about six o'clock now, and there's a lot of work
to-morrow."
At the sound of his voice, everybody woke up, and began
looking for overcoat and hat, and in a twinkling they were
tumbling down the stairs. When they had gone, Santa Claus
took a seat near the punch bowl, heaved a sigh and said:
" Well, I don't blame them. They have had a hard week."
Then the managing editor took a willy himself and went
home to bed.
And being the sixth member of the party, much given as I am
to observation and silence, seldom speaking while in company, a
man of action rather than words, I immediately made a few
notes, and thus it is that it now serves the purpose of in a meas-
ure describing the Press Club rooms. CHARLES K. LUSH.
paet an& present*
VERYONE who knew that patriarch, Klisha
Starr, has heard him tell that when a prin-
ter's apprentice he shook hands with Lafayette, at Canandaigua,
New York, in the year 1824. The old fellow was a publisher
rather than an editor, and talked more entertainingly than he
wrote. He always embellished this anecdote with a vivid
picture of the gathering at night, in front of the hero's hotel,
where a man stood holding up a lantern so that everyone might
see the face of the distinguished guest. What a contrast
between that primitive illumination and the splendor of the
electric lamps in front of the Pfister, which make the street
at midnight as light as day ! Scientific and mechanical
progress has been the marvel of the age ; but in nothing else
has it wrought its revolutionary wonders so astonishingly as
in the making of the newspaper. The Art Preservative, as
Elisha Starr learned it, preserved much, but failed to preserve
itself. The printing office with which he was familiar is as
distinctively of the past as the lan-
tern with its tallow candle by whose
feeble beam the crowd of Canan-
daiguans studied the features of
their friend from France. News
comes by wire, instead of by boat
or post. Even the types and the
type-setter are hastening into the
desuetude of the platen press. Yet
one factor in the making of the
newspaper has survived the sport
of change the editor. When we
John G. Gregory.
F. W. Friese.
study the files of the Milwaukee
newspapers of twenty, thirty, forty
and fifty years ago, remembering
the limitations under which he
wrought, the work of the editor
commands our unqualified respect.
It is fitting that a volume issued
under the auspices of the Milwau-
kee Press Club should contain a
word in recognition of the old-time
editors.
One of the earliest of Milwau-
kee's editors, Harrison Re.ed, who was in charge of the Sen-
tinel from February 6, 1838, till May 27, 1842, is still in the
land of the living. He conducted the paper at a time when
the duties of its editor-in-chief had a more expansive scope
than now. Besides writing leading articles, he "hustled"
for news and for advertising, and in his leisure moments he
set type and worked the press. Mr. Reed has held the office
of Governor of Florida, and is a resident of that State at the
present time.
J. A. Brown, who during the early '4o's edited the Courier,
now the Wisconsin, was as eager to " scoop" his rivals as any
newspaper man of the present day. The story of the race
which he ran from Chicago, against John S. Fillmore of the
Sentinel, to give the readers of the Courier the full text of the
President's Message of December, 1845, * n advance of all
competitors, has been told so frequently and so graphically
that it need not be repeated here.
J. A. Noonan was the owner of the Courier for several
years, and its editor for a time. He was a factor in poli-
tics, and was the first Milwaukee editor whose services
were rewarded with a postmastership. The postmaster whom
he superseded, moreover, was none other than Solomon
Juneau.
David M. Keeler and C. L. McArthur made the Sentinel a
daily newspaper in December, 1844 Milwaukee's first daily.
Their names deserve preservation, though their experiment
was only an artistic, not a financial success.
Rufus King was editor of the Sentinel from September 20,
1845, to April 12, 1861. His name is brilliantly associated
with the struggle of Milwaukee to emerge from villagehood
into cityhood. Few men have lived here whose public activi-
ties were more various than his. Member of the Constitu-
tional Convention, captain of a volunteer fire company, major-
general of militia, organizer of the city's first public library,
vice-president of the Musical Society, superintendent of
schools these were some of the responsibilities which he
assumed in addition to that of editor of the Sentinel. He did
not make a fortune, but he helped to make a metropolis. He
left Milwaukee with a commission from President Lincoln as
Minister to Rome. Relinquishing that honor to come back
and wield his sword for his country, he rendered gallant service
in the field during the war, and died in 1867. His son, Adjt.-
Gen. Charles King, inherited his father's pen as well as his
sword, and is a member of the Press Club who sheds literary
luster upon its name,
S. M. Booth cannot be overlooked in writing of Milwau-
kee editors. He was a man of tireless energy, who wrote in
a highly colored, passionate style, that commanded attention,
and who made it his business to keep the community in hot
water. His identification with the anti-slavery cause in the
period of its infancy, and particu-
larly the leading part which he bore
in the Glover rescue, will surround
him with a glamour in history. He
demonstrated ability in money-get-
ting as well as in championing the
cause of reform. He was not
exempt from human frailties. But
he made what even the critics of
to-day would call a "rattling"
paper. He also made Milwaukee
too hot to hold him. For many
33
W. T. Walthall, Jr.
H. E. Legler.
JjljilHL years Mr. Booth has been a resi-
dent of Chicago.
* * a fc : 4Mlil * s ' man * n Wisconsin, and
K| probably no man in the United
_jj(^ States, has passed so many con-
secutive years in the active editor-
ship of a daily newspaper as
William E. Cramer. He wrote
editorials for the Albany Argus
under Edwin Crosswell, during
the reign of " the Regency," and
gained political wisdom from inti-
mate association with William L. Marcy and Silas Wright.
Coming to Milwaukee in June, 1847, ne purchased the oldest
newspaper plant in the city, that of the Courier, which had
been founded on the Advertiser, started in 1836. He changed
its name to the Wisconsin, and under his editorship it has
flourished from that day to this. Despite his infirmities of
sight and hearing, he has kept in constant touch with men
and affairs, and has been a power in the politics and the
progress of the city and the State. One of the few occasions
on which he has left his editorial chair to go to Madison for
the purpose of exerting personal influence upon members of
the Legislature was in 1869, when, with A. M. Thomson,
then editor of the Janesville Gazette, and Speaker of the
Assembly, he was instrumental in bringing about the coup
which dashed the plans of the professional politicians and sent
the brilliant Matt. H. Carpenter to represent Wisconsin in the
United States Senate. To-day, at 78 years of age, he is still
in the harness, and no one who knows him believes that he
will stop writing until he stops living, for his active spirit and
his alert and cheerful interest in the world and its work give
not the slightest intimation of abatement. A man of com-
fortable means, he has always preached the gospel of giving,
and, with a consistency that preachers sometimes lack, he has
incited rich men to be generous not less by his example than
by his words.
34
When Horace Rublee came to Milwaukee in 1881, and
founded the Republican and News, which finally absorbed
the Sentinel, he had won the degree of past master of the
editorial art. The greater part of his newspaper work had
been accomplished as editor of the Madison State Journal.
He had spent several years in the post of Minister to Switzer-
land, and as chairman of the Republican State Central Com-
mittee had successfully directed the famous honest money
campaign of 1877. If ever a compiler of English literature
seeks material in the files of Milwaukee newspapers, he will
clip copiously and fearlessly from the writings of Horace
Rublee. The iceberg myth that has been associated with Mr.
Rublee's name originated, no doubt, in the discriminating
judgment with which he selects the objects of his enthusiasms.
To schemes which his conscience and his intelligence disap-
prove his heart is wintry cold, but many are the acts of quiet
and friendly encouragement with which he has warmed the
atmosphere of the profession for younger men.
A. M. Thomson is a writer of leaders who has been a
leader himself. He left farming and school teaching in Ohio,
and became active in Milwaukee journalism before the war.
In the time of the railroad farm mortgage excitement he pub-
lished a paper which was the mouthpiece of the five thousand
farmers who had pledged their all that Wisconsin might have
iron highways of commerce. He was concerned in one of the
unsuccessful attempts to revitalize
the Milwaukee Free Democrat,
but subsequently scored a brilliant
success with the Janesville Gazette.
Having figured with credit for two
terms as Speaker of the Assembly,
he came back to the metropolis in
1870, and for several years, as one
of the owners and the editor-in-
chief of the Sentinel, was a star of
prime magnitude in Republican
politics. The governorship was
35
W. F. Hooker.
Francis B. Keene.
at one time seemingly within his
reach. Vicissitudes have not broken
his spirit, nor soured his temper,
nor chilled his interest in life. For
many years he has divided his
time between the plow and the
pen, and when he writes he com-
mands the attention of intelligent
readers.
Lewis A. Proctor gave more
than twelve years of scholarly and
faithful labor to the editorial page
of the Wisconsin, before he accepted an appointment on the
State Board of Charities and Reforms. Since his retirement
from that position he has done editorial work in Chicago. He
is at present taking otium cum dignitate in Milwaukee.
Sir Walter Raleigh was so proud of his connection with
the introduction of the use of tobacco into England, that he
caused the device of a pipe to be emblazoned in the armorial
bearings displayed on the front of his house. Why, therefore,
should not George W. Peck be proud, if he choose, of the fact
that he is the only Milwaukee editor, with the exception of
P. V. Deuster, whose name has been given to a brand of
cigars ? He is also the only Milwaukee editor ever elected
governor of Wisconsin. As publisher of Peck's Sun, which
he removed from La Crosse to this city in 1878, he gained a
circulation of 80,000, a national reputation as a humorist, and
a bank account which enabled him to live as generously as he
pleased and yet lay by thousands for a spell of damp weather.
He is "a man who fortune's buffets and rewards has ta'en
with equal thanks," and if he had nothing left but a crust of
bread, he would sooner share it with some one else than eat
it alone.
Col. E. A. Calkins learned the trade of bookbinding with
Silas Chapman. Then he became a type-setter. In 1850
S. M. Booth gave him employment as a writer on the Free
Democrat, and a writer he has been ever since a writer who
has written few dull lines. Chicago got him several years
ago, as it has got several other conspicuously successful Mil-
waukeejournalists, including 'Raish Seymour. C. B. Harger,
for many years connected with the Wisconsin, who established
the Milwaukee Globe, a 2-cent morning daily, in October,
1884, an d abandoned it in the following month, after a heroic
struggle lasting six weeks, is now editing a musical monthly
in Chicago. It is recorded to Mr. Harger's credit that though
he abandoned his paper he paid his printers.
" Nym Crinkle," otherwise A. C. Wheeler, the sparkling
critic of the New York World, was city editor of the Sentinel,
circa 1860, and while engaged in that capacity wrote and pub-
lished his " Chronicles," the first considerable attempt at a
history of Milwaukee. Henry A. Chittenden, who has been
editorial writer for the New York Herald and Telegram for
many years, and is at present connected with the latter paper,
was the senior of the dashing group, including the Chitten-
dens, W. H. Bishop, E. B. Northrop and Eugene S. Elliott,
which conducted during the 'jo's that lively Milwaukee daily,
the Commercial Times. Bishop stepped from journalism
into literature, in the lighter walks of which he has achieved
more distinction than any other Milwaukeean with the excep-
tion of Capt. King. Northrop drifted into business, and is
known in London as well as in this country as the promoter
of large enterprises connected with the development of the
mineral wealth of the New North-
west. Maj. Jonas M. Bundy, with
prestige gained during service on
the Wisconsin and the Sentinel
during the war lime, went to New
York, where he became the editor
of the Mail and Express, a posi-
tion which he held till his death, a
few years ago. H. N. Gary and
Fred F. Burgin are ex-city editors
of the Sentinel who are doing well
in New York. Dr. J. L. Kaine
37
M. E. Mclntosh.
John R. Wolf.
wrote breezy editorials for the
f Republican and News and the Sen-
^JSPIB tinel for twenty years before going
East in 1893,
Sterling P. Rounds, who after-
ward held the office of government
printer, had a brief newspaper
experience in Milwaukee in 1851,
as one of the proprietors of the
Daily Commercial Advertiser. T.
C. Crawford, whilom Washington
correspondent and story-writer,
and press agent of the Buffalo Bill Wild West aggregation
when it astonished Paris in 1889, was once city editor of the
old News. " Brick " Pomeroy was also for a time connected
with the News. So was John M. Binckley, a gifted man who
came here in broken health and spirits after a brilliant news-
paper career in Washington, and brought his life to an abrupt
close in the waters of Lake Michigan, one winter night in
1878. W. Innes Martin, long identified with journalism in
Chicago, St. Louis and St. Paul, did his early work in this
city, on the Daily Life, the News and the Sentinel. Judge
John R. Sharpstein, who afterward sat upon the bench
of the Supreme Court of California, was editor of the News,
and stepped from that coign of vantage into the postmaster-
ship of Milwaukee, in 1857. C. Latham Sholes, the inventor
of the typewriter, was at different times editor of the News
and the Sentinel. He was a writer of marked ability. Ex-
Mayor John M. Stowell was editor of a literary periodical at
St. Louis, before coming to Milwaukee in 1855, and was sub-
sequently a member of the editorial staff of the News. John
W. Hinton is one of the oldest living representatives of the
men who gathered news in the early days. He was city man on
the Sentinel when Rufus King was editor. Subsequently he
was city editor of the Wisconsin. In recent years he has written
voluminously in defense of the tariff, and has contributed inter-
esting Milwaukee correspondence to the Waukesha Freeman.
The most conspicuous of all the editors of the old News
was the late George H. Paul, who was chairman of the Demo-
cratic State Central Committee in 1873, when it planned and
conducted the startlingly successful campaign which carried
the State for William R. Taylor. Mr. Paul's long service as
a member of the Board of Regents of the State University
began when that institution was little better than a cross-roads
academy, and did not close until it had been raised to the first
rank among the educational forces of the country. His writ-
ings were distinguished by logical and forcible presentation ot
ideas and by superb literary finish.
George Godfrey's Daily Guide, which lived for several
years during the closing '6o's and early '7o's, was Milwaukee's
pioneer cheap daily paper. Mr. Godfrey began his journal-
istic life as local editor of the Wisconsin, in 1856. Three
years later he was commercial editor of the News, and not
long after that he established his daily commercial report. In
his later years he was concerned in the publication of the Wis-
consin Greenbacker and the Daily Signal.
F. W. Friese is one of the men who worked on the Free
Democrat. He has been commercial editor and musical critic
for the Sentinel for more than thirty years. For many years
he was associated with George Godfrey in the ownership ot
the Milwaukee Daily Commercial Letter, which is now his
exclusive property.
The late Col. E. Harrison Caw-
ker was city editor of the News in
1867, and left Milwaukee in charge
of a colony for Kansas. Return-
ing to Milwaukee, he founded and
conducted for many years, with
marked financial success, a month-
ly trade publication, the United
States Miller, which lately became
the property of Otis Colburn.
Alexander C. Botkin came to
Milwaukee from Madison after
39
0. E. Remy.
** %^-
\
graduation from the State Univer-
sity, and worked for the Sentinel
until he felt firm on his pinions.
Then he entered the service of the
Chicago Times. He became editor-
in-chief of the Sentinel after the
retirement of A. M. Thomson, and
held the position for nearly four
years, leaving to become United
States Marshal for Montana. By a
stroke with which he was seized
Dan B. Starkey. while i ncum bent of this office Mr.
Botkin lost the use of his legs. But he has never lost the
use of his head. Fortunate mining investments are under-
stood to have brought him considerable wealth. He is at
present Lieutenant-Governor of Montana, with an eye on the
United States Senatorship. Frank A. Flower, of the Superior
Leader, was editorially connected with the Republican and
News and the Wisconsin in the early '8o's. Walter E. Gardner
was with the Wisconsin as city editor and afterward as editorial
writer for many years before his appointment as Consul at
Rotterdam under President Harrison. He is now owner and
editor of the Green Bay Gazette. Louis Lange, the proprietor
and editor of the Fond du Lac Reporter, gained his insight
into the mysteries of newspaperdom on the Wisconsin. T.
F. Strong, until lately editorial writer for the Reporter,
handled telegraph on the Republican and News, and on the
old News. Col. Nicholas Smith, editor and part proprietor
of the Fond du Lac Commonwealth, was also for a time a
newspaper worker in Milwaukee.
Jere. C. Murphy, Deputy Railroad Commissioner, won
reputation as a pyrotechnic paragrapher while connected with
the Milwaukee press. Chase S. Osborn, proprietor and editor
of the Sault Ste. Marie News, and Game Warden of the State
of Michigan, and George C. Youngs, of the Florence Mining
News, are others who carry certificates of graduation from the
school of practical journalism in this city. Gov. Upham's
40
private secretary, Col. William J. Anderson, was the Milwau-
kee correspondent of a Chicago paper, as was and is his imme-
diate predecessor, the private secretary of Gov. Peck Col. G.
P. Mathes. Will A. Rublee left the city editorship of the
Sentinel to serve his country as Consul at Prague, and came
back to write editorials for the Sentinel at the conclusion of
his term abroad. Col. M. Almy Aldrich, now editor of the
Grand Rapids Democrat, won his newspaper spurs before
coming to Milwaukee. He was associated in an editoral capa-
city with various newspapers in this city, and held a govern-
ment office during Cleveland's first administration, tendered
in recognition of his services to his party. Theron W. Haight,
now engaged in the practice of law at Waukesha, was editorial
writer for the Sentinel during the regime of N. S. Murphey,
and has since contributed to the editorial page of Yenowine's
News. He is master of a vigorous and polished literary style,
and is remarkably deferential to facts.
C. C. Bowsfield has founded more newspapers than any
other man who ever flashed athwart the journalistic horizon of
this city. He started the Sunday Telegraph with Col. Calkins,
in 1878. At last accounts he was out West.
Col. J. A. Watrous began as a country editor, and worked
up. He was a controlling spirit on the Fond du Lac Com-
monwealth when Fond du Lac was Wisconsin's second city.
Coming to Milwaukee, he acquired an interest in the Tele-
graph, and subsequently became
sole owner.
M. A. Hoyt has a head for bus-
iness as well as for writing. W T ith
his partner, W. H. Park, he has
built up a daily newspaper property
which is valuable in esse and in
posse.
L. W. Nieman came to Milwau-
kee in 1878, and rapidly worked
up from compositor to managing
editor of the Sentinel. He is now
Col. W. J. Anderson.
W. I.. Dunlop.
the chief owner and editor-in-chief
of the Milwaukee Journal.
Henry Bleyer is an old-timer
who towers among the newspaper
workers of the present like a cen-
tury-breasting oak. He has lived
in Milwaukee since East Water
Street ran into a marsh, and his
active career as a writer has
spanned the life of a generation.
Whenever a doubt arises as to a
date or a fact in the city's early
history, it has only to be referred to him to be resolved. His
private collection of documentary material relating to the
pioneer history of Milwaukee is the richest in existence, and
his personal knowledge of men and events is a store of bullion
which ought to be coined into books. Robert B. Johnson, a bril-
liantly gifted man who lavished a life of early promise, wrote,
when a boy in his 'teens, for an amateur publication, a serial
story in the style of Oliver Optic, and it was as good as any thing
that popular author ever produced. He also published a book
of ambitious size, " The Art of Rowing in America." He was
a reporter for the Wisconsin and the Commercial Times, and
was city editor of the Sentinel for a short time in 1882. Bob
had a wide acquaintance with books, and a lively fancy and
imagination. He disdained the physical exertion of chasing
after items in the days when there was scant street-car service
and the telephone was unknown. But with his chair tipped
back, and his heels on his desk, he would turn out yards of
handsome copy with a facility that was remarkable, and it was
written in a style that made it very interesting reading, even
though it was not news. Will Stapleton was a contemporary
of Bob, and in one respect antipodal to him, for Stapleton was
never so happy as when exerting himself to get at the bottom
facts. When Alec Botkin discovered Stapleton, and invited
him to join the city force of the Sentinel, Will was a teacher in
the old Engelmann Academy. His first work was on local
42
specials, and was done with a careful finish that caused the
other boys to say that it was magazine writing. Stapleton
resented this, and very soon gave proof that he could hunt
sensations to their lairs as well as the best of them. When
the State Senate was in secret session to receive the report of
the special committee on the charges in the impeachment
proceedings against Judge Small, Stapleton, hidden under the
floor, in the register, got a juicy report, at the imminent peril
of his life, for it was a cold day, and the janitor built a fire
which nearly roasted him alive. At another time, when Col.
Bird and a number of other prominent Democrats held a secret
conference in the Plankinton House, Stapleton got onto the
ledge of the window of their room, and heard all they said,
startling the politicians of the State the next day with a detailed
report of the meeting, in the Sentinel. From Milwaukee,
Stapleton went to Denver, and became editor of the Rocky
Mountain News. He held a lucrative position in the mint.
He is still living in Denver.
Some of the best sensational reporting ever performed in
Milwaukee was done in Storey's day for the Chicago Times
by Northrop and Marshall and Louis Bleyer. Northrop wrote
up the burning of the Newhall House for the Times, several
years before it occurred. Louis Bleyer made a record in the
Bush-Sartoris affair of which a Pinkerton detective might have
been justly proud, and kept the whole country agog for days
with his letters to the Times.
The friendly relations which
have always existed between the
forces of the German-American
Press in Milwaukee and their
English-writing brethren, almost
warrant encroachment upon ground
that will no doubt be adequately
covered sooner or later in a volume
representing the press organiza-
tion of the German-Americans.
The late W. W. Coleman, of the
43
H. S. Dankoler.
Herold, was one of the early members ot our Club. Bern-
hard Domschcke, Frederick Fratney, Moritz Schoeffler,
P. V. Deuster, George Koeppen, Herman Sigel, Dr. Knotser,
and Dr. Senner are among the men who writing in German
have done much that has enhanced the credit of journalism in
Milwaukee.
JOHN G. GREGORY.
44
Worlds fair
Journalists.
"I f ^-^
J0VRNALI5JS,
1 1 E 22d of June is written large
and with color in the annals
j[of the Milwaukee Press Club.
Furthermore, it is commemorated by the Club's annual out-
ings, which now occur regularly on that date, or as near
thereto as is consistent with the ability of the members of the
Club to absent themselves from business en masse. This
latter tribute to a day of pleasant memory is peculiarly appro-
priate. The luridity of the annual outbreaks of the Club,
and the exuberance of fellowship in the wilds of the Auer
"farm," recall the stately but equally felicitous gathering which
gave lasting grace to the day, and the ruddy finale at the Club
rooms that joined two days with uninterrupted merriment.
The Club's outings are banquet and "commers" combined,
with sylvan garnishments. They occur on the longest day
and the shortest night of the year, but by a magical inversion
the day becomes simply a brief prelude, while the night is
drawn out into a period of revelry
equal in length to the merry Club
nights of the winter solstice.
The date we celebrate received
its chaplet in 1893 " World's Fair
year" when Chicago captured
the whole cake, and when her am-
bitious neighbors each strove to
get something more than mere
crumbs. Early in the year schemes
were advanced to attract the atten-
tion of visitors to the World's
47
H. G. Underwood.
A. Q. Wright.
Columbian Exposition, and, il pos-
sible, to induce them to visit Mil-
waukee. A boom prevailed in real
estate and business circles, and in
consequence there was great fertil-
ity of expedient. Various propo-
sitions were made, and the Com-
mon Council was asked to consider
the advisability of appropriating
$100,000 for advertising purposes.
It was suggested that great signs
could be erected in Chicago, on
vacant lots, bearing extravagant announcements in giant let-
ters. Somebody advocated the enlistment of an army of
"sandwich men," to literally carry Milwaukee to the front.
An exceedingly ambitious inventor proposed to build an
aluminum air ship that would rise to the upper atmosphere in
disobedience of natural law and with a big screw wheel bore
a hole into the air between the two cities and let the ship slide
back and forth through it at the rate of one hundred miles an
hour, carrying visitors to and from the World's Fair. When
the nightmare of ingenuity was at its height, the Press Club
came to Milwaukee's rescue. One of its most esteemed mem-
bers, Chas. K. Lush, conceived the happy idea of luring from
the Fair for one day the small army of newspaper correspond-
ents from foreign countries, and entertaining them so hospit-
ably that they would, in common gratitude, write to their
respective newspapers about Milwaukee's enterprise and
beauty, and thus advertise the city to the uttermost corners of
the world. The Club submitted the scheme to the merchants
and manufacturers of the city, and the enterprising men of
business recognized its merit in an instant, and expressed a
desire to co-operate with the Press Club in entertaining the
foreign journalists.
A committee of the Press Club discussed the matter at
several meetings with a committee of business men, and the
preliminaries were satisfactorily arranged. The Club was
48
represented at these meetings by President Herman Bleyer,
Geo. H. Yenowine, Chas. K. Lush, Ed. Quin, and Dr. E. \V.
Krackowizer, and the business men by Henry C. Payne,
August Richter, Jr., and others.
Without loss of time a committee, consisting of Geo. H.
Yenowine, Chas. K. Lush, Harold G. Underwood, Frederic
Heath, and Dr. E. W. Krackowizer went to Chicago to perfect
the arrangements, bearing with them the formal invitation,
which was framed as follows:
The Milwaukee Press Club
Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a
Banquet
Tendered in Behalf of the Citizens of Milwaukee
To Distinguished Foreign and American Journalists,
Thursday, June 22, 1893.
R. S. V. P.
The committee encountered a number of discouraging ob-
stacles, but it stuck to its task with journalistic pertinacity,
and eventually succeeded in making all necessary arrange-
ments for the success of the happy enterprise. It learned,
when it reached Chicago, that the dedication of the Ferris
Wheel was to take place on the date fixed for the recep-
tion and banquet, and that Maj. Moses P. Handy, Chief of
the Bureau of Publicity and Promotion of the World's Fair,
who had been counted on to act as dean of the visiting news-
paper men and Exposition officials,
was down on the programme for a
speech on the occasion of the first
turning of the Brobdingnagian
wheel. As Maj. Handy could not
be spared, the committee brought
every influence it could enlist to
bear in favor of a postponement of
the dedication exercises, which
was eventually accomplished. In
this effort the committee was earn-
estly assisted by President Stanley
49
Fred Dougherty.
Willis L. Moore.
Waterloo, Opie Reid, John Fuller
and other members of the Chicago
Press Club, which invariably ex-
tends every courtesy within its
power to the members of the Mil-
waukee press.
On the day previous to the re-
ception and entertainment Geo. H.
Yenowine, Harold G. Underwood,
A. W. Dingwall, M. D. Malkoff,
Geo. W. Peck, Jr., W. J. Ander-
son and Dr. E. W. Krackowizer
went to Chicago as a committee of escort. The weather was
threatening and showery, but it transpired that this cause of
anxiety was Nature's contribution to the conspiracy of the
Press Club's friends in favor of a perfect event. The 22d
dawned as perfect a June day as was ever recorded by
weather observers. The atmosphere was clear and invigorat-
ing, and not a particle of dust was afloat. This made the run
from Chicago over the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail-
way a preliminary treat.
The train arrived at the Union Depot at 11:15 o'clock. It
consisted of a parlor car, two ordinary coaches, and a baggage
.car. and was comfortably filled, the ladies and their escorts
occupying the parlor car. A committee of business men and a
committee of the Press Club welcomed the city's guests.
Gov. Peck was with the committees. He had intended to go
to Chicago to assist the escort, but official duties at Madison
made it impossible for him to do so. Among those who were
at the depot were Horace Rublee, W. T. Walthall, Jr., P. V.
Deuster, Paul Bechtner, Francis B. Keene, W. J. Pohl, Geo.
Koeppen, Henry E. Legler, Herman Bleyer, Julius Bleyer,
E. C. Wall, Col. W. J. Boyle, Henry C. Payne, John E.
Hansen, Henry M. Mendel, H. J. Steinman, E. C. Eldridge,
Col. J. A. Watrous, August G. Richter, Jr., J. T. Bannen,
Richard B. Watrous, John R. Wolf, W. F. Hooker, B. B.
Hopkins, Willis L. Moore, W. D. Carrick, Ed. S. Quinn,
Capt. Mason Jackson, C S. Clark, A. C. Dick, H. C. Camp-
bell, P. J. Shannon, Capt. I. M. Bean, H. H. Rand, Curt M.
Treat, A. W. Dingwall, Fred. Wilkins, J. D. McManus,
Herman Schultz, R. B. Wescott, C. W. Emerson and Frank
Schultz.
The visitors were escorted to a special train of trolley cars
which had been made up on Third Street, in front of the
Davidson Theater. When the cars had received their brilliant
freight they were photographed. Some difficulty was experi-
enced in getting a picture, owing to the immense crowd of on-
lookers that occupied the streets and walks. Vice-President
Henry C. Payne's elegant private car led the train, carrying
the ladies and their escorts. Among the occupants of this car
were Mrs. Eugene Field, Mrs. John F. Ballantyne, Mrs.
Dogget, Miss Erickson, Gov. Geo. W. Peck, Mayor Carter
Harrison of Chicago, Maj. Moses P. Handy, Henry C. Payne,
Hakky Bey, the Turkish Commissioner, Henry M. Mendel,
Geo. W. Peck, Jr., Geo. H. Yenowine and Herman Bleyer.
The train moved through the city by a circuitous route, the
members of the Press Club acted as guides, calling the atten-
tion of the occupants of the cars to objects of interest on the
way. When the Soldiers' Home was reached a tempting
lunch was found in readiness, in the pavilion a thoughtful
provision made at the suggestion and under the direction of
Chas. K. Lush. Here Dr. E. W. Krackowizer introduced Gov.
Peck, who made a few humorous
remarks, in the course of which
Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago
announced in his happy style that
the governor was the gentleman
who was made famous by his " Bad
Boy." " Yes," rejoined Gov. Peck,
"you are the ' Bad Boy.' " After
lunching in the balmy air of the
Home grounds the refreshed guests
were again enlivened by Gov. Peck,
who appeared on the balcony and
George W. Peck, Jr.
1
Frank M. Harbach.
delivered a humorous address.
Miss Alice Raymond, the famous
cornetist, then sounded the bugle
calls with drum accompaniment.
As the assembly call, reveille,
assembly of the guard, detail,
adjutant's call and the tattoo
pealed forth, the pleased veterans
of the war paid the fair musician
hearty tributes of applause. In
response to these acknowledg-
ments Miss Raymond played
" Marching Through Georgia," and " Dixie."
Mayor Carter Harrison, of Chicago, then delivered a witty
and eloquent address, rallying Gov. Peck and paying a
warm tribute to Milwaukee, which he said was the home of
music and the future American Baireuth. In behalf of 1, 800
veterans of the Home, he read a letter signed by E. \V. Xagle
greeting the visitors to the Home and extending to them,
through Hon. John L. Mitchell, "an Irish welcome, which
means an honest welcome multiplied a hundred fold." Mayor
Harrison laughingly substituted his own name for that of
Senator Mitchell. After humorous allusions to Gov. Peckand
himself as soldiers of the war, Mayor Harrison pronounced a
stirring eulogy on the heroes of the war of the rebellion.
At the conclusion of the speaking the guests and their
escorts were photographed on the lawn, and then seated in
carriages for an extended drive. The brilliant procession
swept into the city, winding through a number of private
grounds on the way. Capt. Fred. Pabst received the party
with hearty salutes and handshakes, as he stood on the porch
of his palatial residence. A short halt was made at the brew-
ery of the Joseph Schlitz Company, where refreshments were
served. When the procession swept down Prospect Avenue,
giving the visitors glimpses of the beautiful bay through
handsome residence grounds, there were loud exclamations of
delight. These exclamations developed into enthusiastic ad-
miration as the carriages turned into Juneau Place and Mil-
waukee Bay lay in full view from the top of the bluff. The
bay was a revelation to many of the strangers, who declared
that it was one of the most beautiful views they had ever
enjoyed. The drive ended at the Lay ton Art Gallery, where
the carriages were dismissed.
The banquet at the Hotel Pfister in the evening was a
brilliant function. The regal splendor of the table accessories
and the pristine beauty of the spacious dining hall met the
requirements of the great occasion to the fullest extent, and
the feast set forth by the hotel's chef was an exposition of
culinary skill. The menu was as follows:
BANQUET TENDERED TO THE
FOREIGN AND AMERICAN JOURNALISTS
BY THE MILWAUKEE PRESS CLUB.
Radies.
MENU.
Little Neck Clams.
Niersteiner.
Consomme Printaniere aux Quenelles.
Amontillado.
Timbale de Riz de Veau Rachel.
Almonds Salee.
Saumon bouilli, Sauce Cardinal.
Salade de Concombres. Pommes Dauphine.
Haute Sauterne.
Filet Pique aux Truffles, et Champignons Frais.
Petits Pois Francaise.
Mumm's Extra Dry.
Asperges en branche, au beurre.
Sorbet Imperatrice.
Becasse Roti Flanques sur Canape.
Salade de Laitue et Tomate.
Chateau de la Paix.
Gateaux aux fraises.
Fruits. Fromage.
Cafe.
Hotel Pfister.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Juin 22, 1893.
Olives.
53
Jno. F. Crai
A. W. Dingwall.
The table of honor extended
along the south side of the hall,
and the other tables reached across
the hall at right angles. Over 200
persons participated in the ban-
quet, which was thoroughly enjoy-
able to the visitors because of its
informality. Cordiality reigned and
exchanges of courtesies were fre-
quent. A number of German jour-
nalists arose from their places and
proceeded to where Dr. Ernest
Hart, the eminent editor of the British Medical Journal, was
seated and courteously toasted him. They then paid the same
conspicuous compliment to Horace Rublee. During the
evening the orchestra in the balcony played the national airs
of the leading nations of the world. As the music recalled
home and country, the joyous guests were moved by an
irresistible feeling of patriotism to cheer their national hymns.
Many sang the " Marseillaise " and " Die Wacht am Rhein,"
while the band played those airs.
When the cigars were reached, President Herman Bleyer,
of the Press Club, who sat at the center of the table of honor,
with Horace Rublee, the toastmaster, on his right, and Gov.
Geo. W. Peck on his left, began the intellectual programme
by greeting the guests of the evening and declaring that the
day had been a proud one for the Press Club. He said that
from the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition, the
members of the Milwaukee Press Club had felt that they
would like to gather in the little army of busy press workers
who were telling the world of the beauties of the greatest Ex-
position that had ever been conceived by any country under
the sun. The Club had finally succeeded in doing this, and
now it earnestly hoped that its guests had had a good time.
"We have! We have! " came from all parts of the hall.
President Bleyer closed his remarks by introducing Horace
Rublee, who was greeted with enthusiastic applause. Mr.
54
Rublee spoke at length, sketching the history of Milwaukee
and making interesting observations in regard to American
institutions and the American people. His address was
scholarly and eloquent.
The toast "Wisconsin" drew a characteristically happy
speech from Gov. Geo. W. Peck.
James G. Flanders responded to the toast "Milwaukee"
with a speech in which he recounted the city's growth and set
forth her advantages. He presented facts and figures that
would have overburdened a less eloquent address, and thus
showed that he fully appreciated the purpose of the gath-
ering.
The World's Fair correspondents had an eloquent and
witty spokesman in Maj. Moses P. Handy, who joked Gov.
Peck about his stories in regard to Milwaukee, and matched
one of the Governor's tales with a tale about a St. Paul
boomer.
W. Austin, of the London Morning Post, made eloquent
acknowledgment for "The English Press."
Rudolph Cronau, of Leipsic, spoke briefly in German, and
Adrian Paradis, French Commissioner of Fine Arts, delivered
a short address in French. Franz Berg, who represented
Herr Wermuth, the German Imperial Commissioner, made
an eloquent speech in English.
J. S. Larke, Executive Commissioner for Canada, made
one of the wittiest and most enter-
taining speeches of the evening.
Thomas Watt, Commissioner
for British Guiana, proposed three
cheers for Milwaukee, which were
given in many languages and with
a polyglot " Tiger! "
Eugene Field recited two of his
poems, "Casey's Table d'Hote,"
and " Wynken, Blynken and
Nod."
55
M. C. Douglas.
M. D. Malkoff.
JJi %O After the banquet the Press
jT Club held a reception, or " com-
I llfit *K mers," in its rooms, to which the
guests repaired in a body. The
spirit of the grotesquely pictur-
esque apartments is infectious, and
all immediately abandoned them-
selves to thoroughly Bohemian
enjoyment. Refreshments were
plentiful and cigar smoke dense
and all-pervading. Eugene Field,
Paul Hull, Dr. Ernest Hart and
Will Vischer convulsed the crowd with recitations, poems,
dialect sketches and songs. Nearly every member of the
Press Club assisted in entertaining the guests, who occupied the
Club rooms and the rooms of the German journalists on the
floor below. The assemblage was a remarkable one. It in-
cluded representatives of many nations, who fraternized as
they drank and smoked. Even the picturesque representa-
tives of Japan, who could not understand a word that was
said, participated in the merriment of the occasion. The
" commers " lasted until daylight.
At 10:30 o'clock on Friday morning, June 23d, the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul special train steamed out of Union
Depot with the visitors, on the return trip to Chicago. Every-
body was pleased, and on every hand could be heard re-
marks in grateful acknowledgment of the courtesies and the
lavish hospitality which had imparadised the stay of the visi-
tors in Milwaukee. Among those who were present to
"speed the parting guest" were Gov. Peck, Horace Rublee,
Herman Bleyer and other members of the Press Club,' and
Geo. H. Yenowine with Mrs. Eugene Field and Mrs. Ballan-
tyne of Chicago, and Mrs. Dogget, of St. Louis. The depart-
ing journalists cheered lustily as the train moved out of the
depot, continuing their hearty acknowledgment of Milwaukee's
generosity until they were lost to view.
When Chicago was reached the following message was
sent back over the wires:
CHICAGO, June 23, 1893.
Secretary Milwaukee Press Club.
Returning from excur>ion, we wish to tender the members of the
Milwaukee press our best thanks for the liberal and fraternal hos-
pitality extended to us. Our visit to your beautiful city will remain
everlasting among the finest souvenirs of the Chicago Exposition.
DALFERO,
Secretary Italian Royal Commission.
Eugene Field and wife, Mrs. John Ballantyne and Mrs.
Dogget remained in the city as guests of Mr. and Mrs. Geo.
H. Yenowine. They were entertained at luncheon by Horace
Rublee at his residence on Prospect Avenue, together with W.
Austin, of the London Morning Post, and Edmund Mitchell,
of the Melbourne Age and Sydney Telegraph.
The distinguished party which was entertained by the
Press Club was composed as follows:
Thomas B. Bryan, vice-president Columbian Exposition ; Moses P.
Handy, chief, John T.Cramhall, assistant, and Victor Sarner, German
editor, bureau of publicity and promotion; Adolph Wermuth, German
imperial commissioner, represented by Franz Berg, assistant commis-
sioner; Sir Henry Truman Wood, secretary Royal British Commis-
sion; J. S. I.arke, executive commissioner for Canada; T. J. Bell,
official reporter for Canada; W. M. Andrews, superintendent transpor-
tation department of Canada ; N. Avery, commissioner for the province
of Ontario; C. W. Young, official re-
porter for the Ontario Cornwall Free-
holder; F. Howard Annes, assistant
reporter for the Ontario Whitby Chron-
icle: Charles F. Law, commissioner
British Columbia; W. P. Perley. com-
missioner Northwest Territory; Fitz-
William Terry, superintendent liberal
arts New South Wales, Australian Press
News; J. J. Grinlinton, special com-
missioner, Ceylon; L. Wiener, commis-
sioner Cape of Good Hope; I. I.
Quelch, special commissioner British
Guiana; G. V. Dalfero, secretary
57
W. W. Pollock.
H. C. Campbell.
f Italian Royal Commission; Prof. J.
Hubert Vos, R. B. A., acting commis-
^ 1 sioner fine arts Netherlands; Ibrahim
Hakky Bey, Imperial Ottoman commis-
sioner general; Marquis de Chassel-
oup Laubat, special commissioner
French Republic ; Adrien Paradis, spe-
cial commissioner fine arts France;
Axel Welm, secretary Royal Swedish
Commission; W. Austin, Morning Post,
London; James Milne, Daily Chron-
icle, London; Francis Edlam, Pall
Mall Gazette, London; J. S. C. Brown,
Leader, Edinburgh; Richard Owen,
Banner and Times, Denbigh, Wales; A. Cookman, Roberts' Musical
Times, London; E. R. Dolby, The Engineer, London; Alice M.
Hart, Ernest Hart, British Medical Journal, London; Charles A.
Baker, British Colonial Druggist, London; Thomas Watts, Press
News, British Guiana; H. Gilbert Stringer, Daily Times, Dun-
edin, New Zealand; Edmund Mitchell, Daily Telegram, Mel-
bourne, New South Wales; Joseph Wilson, Builder and Contractor
News, Sydney, N. S. W. ; George E. Wray, West Elgin Mercury,
Canada; Heinrich Blau, Londoner Feuilletonistische Nachrichten;
Rudolf Cronau, Gartenlaube, Leipzig; Mrs. Anna Simson, Nord und
Sued, Breslau; Dr. Constantin Noerrenberg, Rhein- Westphalia,
Essen; Mrs. Louise Weber, Mecklenburger Tageblatt; Theodor
Phillipp, Hamburger Nachrichten; Carl Boettcher, Breslauer Zei-
tung; Mrs. Adele Boettcher, Leipziger Tageblatt; Dr. L. Kayler-
Post, Berlin; Hermann Helger, Berliner Lokalanzeiger; Otto Liebe,
truth, Nordhausener Zeitung; H. C. Schultz, Strassburger Post;
Christian Benkard, Ueber Land und Meer, Leipzig; Miss Elise Voll-
mar, Schweitzer Familienblatt, Zuerich ; Leopold Jockel, Neuigkeits
Welbblatt, Wien; M. Schmidthofer, Welzer Anzeiger; Dr. Hugo
Hunfalfy, Magyar Hirlop, Buda Pesth ; A Verdure, du Bethomez
Journal, Paris; S. M. Loubrie, La Gironde, Bordeaux; H. Percy
Guy, Le Rappel, Paris; Dr. Alexis Rieunier, Journal deCelte; Louis
Hennis, Illustriret Tidende, Copenhagen; A. Edling, a Swedish syn-
dicate; Ragnar Sohlman, Aftonbladet, Stockholm; Harold Kimbarz,
Nya Dagligt Allehanda, Stockholm; Etienne Barszesewski, Kurza
Warsawski, Russia; Jenny Ericson, Altonblat, Helsingfors, Finland;
Anna Molander, Hemmet Och Samhallet, Helsingfors; HranoAsadow,
Arelvelk, Constantinople; Paul S. Ourfalian, Monzeuma, Constanti-
nople; M. Terakado and T. Ineno, Osaka Mainichi Shinban, Tokio;
Ph. H. Stynis, Haarlemsche Courant, Haarlem, Holland; H. H.
Kohlsaat, Inter-Ocean; Eugene Field, News; Charles D. Almy, Maj.
John B. Warde, Leroy Armstrong, Herald; H. E. O. Heinemann, The
Brewer; J. P. Pollard. Figaro; Frank S. Pixley and J. J. Lane,
Evening Post; John Ritchie, N. M. Reed, Jr., Banner of Gold; S.
Wright, Dunning, Fred. C. Laird, M. Hennius, German Press Club
all of Chicago; Dr. Ad. Wiener, Oesterreich-Ungarische Zeitung; Dr.
Henrick CooJing, Skandenaven; M. DeYoung, Chronicle, San Fran-
cisco; Will Vischer, Spokane News; John Fay, New York World;
Thomas O. Quincy, North American, Philadelphia; George L. Bovee,
Herald, El Paso, Tex. ; Maj. George A. Tappan, Donahue's Magazine,
Boston; Carter Harrison, Chicago; A. Broletti, Perseveranga, Milan;
E. Patrizi, Lombardia, Milan; Rome; E. Candiani, Industria, Milan ;
G. Campi, Arte et Natura, Milan; G. Pogliani, Rivista Internationale,
Milan; F. Tryegnoli, Villaggio, Milan; P. Rossi, Gazzetta, Venice;
V. Flipponi, Gazzetta Piemontese, Turin; G. Peterso, Gazzetta,
Naples; E. Conti, Commercio, Milan; A. Besetti, Commercio, Flor-
ence; G. Ciambeti, Italio American, New York.
The bread of hospitality which Milwaukee cast upon the
waters in entertaining the foreign journalists and foreign
officials on duty at the World's Columbian Exposition was
plentiful in quantity and accompanied by a generous outpour-
ing of the choicest wines of refreshment, but in accordance
with the predictions of the promoters of the happy enterprise
it was returned like the bread of the proverb, multiplied many
limes. For months after the reception and entertainment
newspapers came to the Milwaukee Press Club from all parts
of the world, containing World's Fair correspondence in which
Milwaukee was described with glowing words, and her beauty
and her enterprise and hospitality
praised in the superlative degree.
The writers of these letters will
never forget the enjoyment of the
perfect June day during which they
were the guests of Milwaukee, and
the city will be pleasantly men-
tioned whenever they have occa-
sion to say anything about the
people of the New World.
Of all the cities that tried to
advertise themselves to advantage
59
J. C. Garrison.
among the visitors to the World's Fair, Milwaukee alone
succeeded in spreading her name and fame to the utter-
most parts of the civilized world; and through the kind
offices of the Milwaukee Press Club she obtained this diffu-
sive advertising for a comparatively small amount of money.
Had the Common Council appropriated $100,000 for the work
it could have secured no such results as were achieved by the
Press Club for only a small fraction of that amount.
JULIUS BLEYER.
60
EASTER AT THE CLUB.
HAT ho, the Press Club gathers ! Behold, 'tis
Master night,
And all the Knights of Pencil and of Pen
Are mustered in their quarters; the board is all bedight
With the fruit of the meek and gentle hen.
With a face as red as fire, the valiant Julius Bleyer
Comes fresh from bending o'er the kitchen range
And waves aloft on high, not the spider and the fly,
But the spider and the eggs a welcome change.
Now, then, who'll have peraties ? Oh here they are, all hot !
Are there any actors here ? Who'll have the ham ?
Here are eggs boiled, fried and scrambled. Here, take 'em
now or not.
And the platter strikes the table with a slam.
From the grill-room with a rush, comes the omni-
present Lush
With a smoking pot of coffee in his hand,
And with a gentle roll, bearing high a salad bowl,
Wallie Walthall next appears, and takes his stand.
Gambrinus isn't slighted the amber fluid flows;
And the rattle of the knife and fork abounds.
The fun is fast and furious, the corn-cob pipe soon
glows
And many a song and jest that night resounds.
Then rising on their legs all take to picking eggs.
Frank Keene succeeds, till china eggs are barred,
And the gallant Colonel Peck shows an egg without a speck
And carries off the prizes, which is hard.
Oh, nights of fun and laughter that these old walls have known!
Where all forget the wrangles of the day.
And where the ancient grievances in clouds of smoke are blown
Forever and forever far away.
Long may the boys here gather long may the grill-
room stand,
Long may the guests endure a friendly roast.
" To the good Milwaukee Press Club " here take
your glass in hand
And drink with me the honored Press Club toast.
H. G. UNDERWOOD.
doofcere' ant> Eaters'
(Xlmftea.)
A550CIATIO/1 (LIMITS)
i HE Cookers' and Eaters' Association
is an organization of club members,
and was born of a rebellion caused
by a good appetite and a decided disinclination to attempt to ap-
pease it on a continual diet of spareribs and sauerkraut. After
quite a period of agitation the chairman of the room committee
was granted permission, about a year ago, to place a gas stove
in the billiard room and to also purchase a small outfit for
cooking purposes. Many of the members scoffed at the ven-
ture and predicted that the stove would never be used to any
extent. But the little band of cooking promoters went right
ahead, their first efforts being devoted to the kindergarten
course of frying eggs, making oyster stews, and frying ham
and bacon. Their progress was rapid, and it was not long
before the most proficient could broil a porterhouse to a turn,
plank a whitefish or produce an
omelet that even an epicure could
relish. This little coterie took to
having a regular noonday dinner at
the Club, everybody standing his
share of the cost of the raw mate-
rial and assisting in the cooking. It
was found to be a very satisfactory
way of satisfying the inner man,
and many a time I have sat down
to a dinner of sirloin steak, pota-
toes, bread and butter and coffee
A. J. Van Leshout.
T. S. Andrews.
where the individual assessment
flRPv^Lk would not exceed fifteen cents, and
such a steak as it would be ! Not
one of your restaurant affairs, but
a great, sizzling cut of meat, an inch
and a half thick, with strips of
bacon lying across it and plenty of
gravy. In the early days of Feb-
ruary one of the honorary members
of the Club, General Louis Auer,
was an about-to-be married young
man, and it was decided to give
him a dinner which should be cooked and served by the mem-
bers of the Club who had made a practice of cooking in the
rooms. The dinner was given as planned out, and a jolly affair
it was, and before the party arose from the table the Cookers'
and Eaters' Association had been formed the officers being
Chas. K. Lush, President; Francis B. Keene, Secretary; Geo.
H. Yenowine, Treasurer; W. T. Walthall, Jr., and Prof.
Thiese, Directors. Fifteen persons were served at this dinner,
and the menu was as follows:
Oyster Stew. Cold Slaw.
Brown Link Sausage. Baked Potatoes. Buttered Rolls.
Apple Dumpling. American Cheese.
Claret Punch. Coffee.
So successful was this inaugural dinner of the Association
that President Bleyer, him sell a charter member of the Asso-
ciation by reason of having produced a very fine quality of
corn-bread for the especial purpose of securing admission,
decided to have the next Club dinner cooked in the rooms and
to act as chef himself. Covers were laid for thirty-two, and
the dinner was cooked and served by Mr. Bleyer, assisted by
Thomas Andrews and J. D. McManus. It consisted of oyster
stew, roast beef, baked potatoes, stewed corn, stewed toma-
toes, hot biscuit, Indian pudding and coffee. Later an "egg
festival" was given by Mr. Bleyer, at which about thirty mem-
bers were served with eggs cooked in every variety that could
66
be thought of. While the Cookers' and Eaters' Association
will, from time to time, give a formal dinner, this is by no
means the primary object of the organization. The idea of the
founders is to foster a spirit of independence by teaching each
member to be fully able to take care of himself in all matters
culinary. With women folk entering all lines of industry
there is bound to be a falling off in the supply of good cooks,
with the consequent result that the day may not be far off when
it will devolve upon the masculine portion of the community
to "cook or cut bait." And, as it is even now, the members
of the Association enjoy a peculiar thrill in sitting down to a
well-cooked steak and realizing that, even should one's wife
visit her mother for a month and the hired girl go on a strike,
he would not be at the mercy of some slatternly wench
trained to throw a piece of meat in a greasy frying-pan upon
hearing the command, " One on the fire ! "
CHAS. K. LUSH.
67
Club's
annual uting,
E annual picnics of the Press Club have been
held, for the last three or four seasons, at Gen.
Louis Auer's farm, "Villa Auer," at Lake
Pewaukee. And what an ideal spot that is ! Arcadian groves,
crystal springs, superb boating, bathing and fishing facilities,
ample accommodations for all emergencies, and, above all,
the unlimited and unstinted hospitality of the princely proprie-
tor. Let it be recorded here, as it has been for long, in the
hearts of Press Club members who have enjoyed that hospital-
ity, that the Badger State does not hold a more open-hearted
and free-handed host than Louis Auer, one of the few honorary
members .of the Club. With the freedom of his sixty-acre
farm at one's disposal, his boats and fishing tackle, his hunter's
shacks, his tents and hammocks, his men servants at com-
mand, and the presence of his energetic self, to plan, suggest
and help on with the business of
having a good time, one cannot
help after the fun is over, and a
sense of its fullness steals over him
one cannot help recalling a line
of Young's and feeling himself to
have been a
"Poor pensioner on the bounty of an
Auer."
The poet does not spell it in just
that way, but let it go for senti-
ment's sweet sake.
M. D. Kitnball.
Though varying in. features,
from year to year, the picnics of
the Press Club have been in the
main similar, and a brief account
of the last one (1895), may suffice
^Ka for all. The date was June 22. The
JH attendance numbered about forty
^^4lH BHaBBHfe members and a few invited guests.
MB IK^Pi Upon arriving at the farm, we were
EK conducted to ample tents which had
been pitched for our accommoda-
Curt M. Treat. t j on> Here ^e gang was turned
loose upon a supply of lumbermen's flannel suits of poly-
chromatic hues and misfit proportions: trousers of collossal
amplitude; frocks of giant girth; hats of all degrees of lati-
tude and altitude, from the expansive Mexican sombrero to
the pointed poke of a Welsh peasant. When the transforma-
tion had taken place, there emerged from the tents a group
with which Falstaff's tatterdemalion soldiers were dudes in
comparison a bit of living marquetry that would have made
the Midway appear of sombre hue.
Meanwhile the appetizing aroma of a savory soup, of frying
sausages and of O. G. J. coffee pervaded the sylvan shades,
and eke the nostrils of these nondescripts. The business of
the next hour seemed to be an effort on the part of many to
expand their girths to the amplitude of the garments aforesaid.
The provisions held out, but appetite, as you know, is not
infinite, and as they rose from the table the drapery of their
checkered and striated tunics still hung in graceful and
pendulous folds, as though the struggle had not been.
There was revelry that night in the hunter's shack. A
couple of old-fashioned fiddlers sat on a table in one corner of
the capacious cabin and scraped off reels, jigs, hornpipes and
other lively music until midnight. This was the "Dance of
the Stags," according to the printed programme. The dances
were interspersed with exhibitions of pugilistic skill (gloves,
of course), acrobatic feats and fancy steps, some of which
72
would have done credit to a vaudeville stage. The fiddlers, on
this long-to-be-remembered occasion, were John Eastman, who
claimed to hold the belt for long-winded fiddling, and L. S.
Bemis, a septuagenarian, who was in demand at all the
pioneer dances in this part of the State "back in the forties."
Whatever their past record, they fiddled themselves into fame
that night in the hunter's shack, and the glory of the "old-
fashioned fiddlers " will go down to posterity with that of the
" Um-pah Band," which stirred the sleeping echoes of Pewau-
kee Lake at the picnic of 1894.
A plunge in the cool waters of the lake at six o'clock the
following morning, freshened us for the day's programme. The
great event of the day was to be a clambake, which was set
for two o'clock, afternoon. Some preliminaries pertaining to
this having been attended to, the intervening hours were spent
in various sports. Chief among these was a game of ball
played under the rules of the league when slow pitching was
admissable. It was intended that competing nines from the
morning and evening newspapers should be pitted against
each other in this contest, but when the ball players were
counted a complement was lacking and a "scrub " game was
the result.
By one o'clock the ball-tossers had settled their dispute and
returned to camp, the sunfishers had put away their tackle, and
those who had spent the morning lounging in hammocks, or,
in shady nooks, had engaged in the
exciting sports of " Duck on the
Rock," and " Baby in the Hole,"
had likewise sought the center of
interest. That center was a barrel
containing eleven hundred freshly-
imported clams and a second barrel
filled with sea weed. For upwards
of an hour following, Hunger,
Appetite, Curiosity and all their
cousins, stood around the fiery pit
watching the process of converting
73
J. D. McM
George F. Kerr.
KMMk India rubber bivalves and spring
chickens into something which,
though it may not have had the
consistency of ambrosia, was at any
rate fit food for gods or men. The
process was slow, and, moreover,
it was a long time since breakfast.
Thus it happened, just at the point
when certain indescribable deli-
cious odors came steaming up from
the simmering mass, that a gaunt
and wasted figure whom some rec-
ognized as Famine, stepped up and touched Curiosity on the
sleeve. Whereupon Curiosity and her brood withdrew. It
must have been that Messrs. Carrothers and Higgins, who
were conducting the clambake, witnessed this episode, for
shortly after the order was given to the darkey, Bell (sur-
named Shadrach on this occasion for the intrepid manner in
which he walked in and out of the fiery furnace), to rake out
the clams. A great feast followed. Curiosity, Appetite, Famine
and half a hundred hungry clamoring mortals were satisfied.
It was the first clambake of any importance attempted in.Wis-
consin, so far as the writer knows, and it was a splendid
success.
Some one appeared on the scene, shortly after dinner, with
a bag full of greased pig. Entries were made, at a quarter
each, making a purse of some four dollars. The lubricated
porker was turned loose in the woods and there was a wild
and exciting chase for his capture. Shadrach caught him.
Take him all in all, Shadrach was " hot stuff."
Thus ended the annual outing and clambake of the Press
Club. The spontaneous cheers which were given as the steam
yachts carried the party away were for Louis Auer, but the
enthusiastic "tiger" which followed expressed
the satisfaction which was felt over the all-around
good time which was had. But as I recall it
since, as I often do, I am conscious of an old song running
through my head :
" Oh, the days of the. Kerry dancing !
Oh, the ring of the piper's tune !
Oh, for one of those hours of gladness,
Gone alas ! like our youth too soon."
The recollection of those spring chickens, saturated with
the flavor of a thousand clams, will suggest another sort of
song to some, but to me comes only the strain "Oh, the
ring of the piper's tune ! " I think I am to thank the old-
fashioned fiddlers for that.
MATHER U. KIMBALL.
75
Wisconsin TKHar
Correspondents.
Otis Colburn.
J. W. Campsie.
C. S. Osborn.
W. A. Booth.
TIIK time when "Our Washington Letter" and "News
from Our Special Correspondent at the Front" began
to appear in the Milwaukee newspapers marks the
period when the first attempts to secure news from without the
State were made. The general desire of the reading public
for war news and particularly for news of the Wisconsin
soldiers was so pressing that the Milwaukee papers were com-
pelled to make arrangements for a special service, and thereby
obtain matter which was not to be had through the regular
channels of the Associated Press. The latter included but
little beyond what was suited to the purposes and policy of
the War Department or of commanding officers, hence a valu-
able field was open to the special correspondents, and quite
often the news of important exploits in the field was in the
possession of the editor before it was reported to Washington.
As a rule the arrangements for special service made by the
Milwaukes press were with officers or enlisted men. Several
stepped out of the editorial rooms into the recruiting station
and developed into the most satis-
factory correspondents because of
their previous experience. Four
men from the editorial rooms of the
Evening Wisconsin and two from
the Sentinel entered the military
service. Two of the former were
killed in battle.
The reports from war corre-
spondents to the Milwaukee papers
were necessarily sent by mail. The
use of telegraph wires was not then
so general as it has since become.
79
Frank Markle.
R. B. Watrous.
Jmm The Milwaukee papers were not
alone in this respect; Chicago papers
did no better. Telegraph charges
in those days were heavy, and only
publishers with resources equal to
James Gordon Bennett's could in-
dulge in war news by wire to any
considerable extent. It is related of
one of the war correspondents of the
Evening Wisconsin that he misin-
terpreted his instructions and sent
about half a column by wire one day,
creating a financial crisis in the counting room of that paper.
Several years before the outbreak of the rebellion Warren
M. Graham came to Milwaukee from Ozaukee County, and
appealed to Mr. A. J. Aikens for an opportunity to learn the
printer's trade. His persistency was finally rewarded, and
he was put to work in the mechanical department. A short
time after he had " learned the boxes," he was transferred to
the editorial rooms, and subsequently became commercial
editor of the Evening Wisconsin. When but nineteen years
old he enlisted in Co. B, First Wisconsin Infantry, the first
regiment to leave the State. While in the service he wrote
letters to the Wisconsin describing his army experiences.
\Vhile in camp at Hagerstown, Md,, he captured a rebel news-
paper outfit at that place and became its editor, revolutioniz-
ing the sheet from an organ of secession to one with a radical
union sentiment. Mr. Graham's military as well as journal-
istic career was abruptly cut short in July, 1861. At the
battle of Falling W T aters he was mortally wounded, but he
faithfully reported a description of the battle, concealing his
own sufferings. He died Aug. 26, 1861, and was the first
soldier to be buried in Forest Home. The deed of the ceme-
tery lot was purchased by the Milwaukee Chamber of Com-
merce, and the expenses of bringing the body home and of
burial were defrayed by that organization.
80
Everett Chamberlain was born in Newburg, Vt., in 1839,
and in his eighteenth year came with his parents to Burling-
ton, Wis. He taught school for several years, and in 1863
entered the editorial rooms of the Sentinel. In 1864116 raised
a company for the Thirty-ninth Regiment and served until
the regiment was mustered out. During the period of his
military service he wrote letters to the Sentinel. After the
war closed he returned to Milwaukee and continued with the
Sentinel until 1868, when he went to Chicago. He became
commercial editor of the Tribune, contributed to periodicals,
and was the author of three books. The first was a volume
on the political campaign of 1872, followed by a volume on
the Chicago fire and another on Chicago and her suburbs.
He was a versatile, trenchant writer, a fine musical critic, and
also a musical performer and composer. His health failing he
went to Florida and died at Jacksonville, February 19, 1875,
of pulmonary consumption. He left a widow and three chil-
dren who reside in the town of Vernon, Waukesha County.
Mr. Chamberlain is remembered as an amiable, honorable
gentleman, and one of the most gifted newspaper writers the
West has produced.
Jonas M. Bundy spent his boyhood years in Rock County,
where he became a protege and admirer of Senator Matt. H.
Carpenter. Coming to Milwaukee he assisted Mr. Wm. E.
Cramer on the Evening Wisconsin, and subsequently became
editor-in-chief of the Sentinel.
While the war was in progress he
enlisted and became a member of
Gen. Pope's staff, which gave him
superior facilities for getting war
news. After the war he went to
New York and joined the editorial
force of the Mail, subsequently
rising to the position of editor-in-
chief of the Mail and Express. In
1880 he went to Mentor and pre-
pared a biographical sketch of
81
John J. Poppendieck, Jr.
John Schnitzler.
^^^BSfew- Garfield which was said to be the
JBr' best which appeared during the
'.. -.-iVf. presidential campaign of that year.
He also wrote a sketch of Disraeli
%p which was acknowledged in flatter-
ing terms by that English states-
^^^S^ /' man. Maj. Bundy was consider-
^^^^ able of a pianist, and his rendition
of the "Swanee Ribber" was high-
ly praised by Christine Nilsson.
When Col. Shepard obtained con-
trol of the Mail and Express he
sent Maj. Bundy to Paris, where he died.
George M. Bleyer, one of the family of Bleyer brothers so
unanimously identified with the Milwaukee press, began as a
carrier, and subsequently worked as printer and city editor in
the Evening Wisconsin office. Leaving his desk at the first
call to arms, he enlisted in Co. A, First Wisconsin Regiment,
for three months, at the expiration of which he re-enlisted for
three years. He subsequently became second lieutenant of
Co. B, Twenty-fourth Regiment, and was mortally wounded
at Stone River, Sept. 30, 1862. He lingered in the hospital
until death came to his relief on January 25, 1863. He wrote
letters to the Wisconsin during his service in the field, his
last work being a description of the battle in which he was
shot. Lieut. Bleyer was also a writer of verses, his poetry
being readily accepted by the magazines, and his bright
humor was a source of pleasure to readers.
L. L. Crounse spent his boyhood years in Wahvorth
County. Sometime in the '5o's he came to Milwaukee and
was employed by Sherman M. Booth, then publisher of the
Free Democrat. He did not enter the military service, but
he was with the Army of the Potomac during its most event-
ful campaigns. He accompanied an expedition down the
Potomac which contemplated a destruction of rebel batteries,
and distanced all competitors by an elaborate report of the
Battle of Gettysburg, which he sent to the New York Times.
82
It was a big achievement for those days, and the Times was
justified in crowing over its defeated contemporaries. Mr.
Crounse was also an occasional contributor to the news col-
umns of the Evening Wisconsin.
Sylvanus Cadwallader, who was associated with the late
George H. Paul in the Milwaukee News, had previously
made a record as a war correspondent. Gen. Rawlins had a
liking for Cadwallader, and he had superior facilities for ob-
taining news which he sent to New York papers. Mr. Cad-
wallader served four years at Madison as assistant secretary
of state, and subsequently drifted to the Pacific coast.
With the establishment of two additional daily newspapers
in Milwaukee the Republican and News in 1881 and the
Journal in 1883 competition between the new and the old
became sharp and led to an enlarged use of the wires in secur-
ing news. Prior thereto the Milwaukee papers were con-
tented with the Associated Press reports from Washington,
supplemented by an occasional letter from some office-holder
at the capital. As a result of the sharp rivalry between the
Sentinel and the Republican and News, the former was the
first to establish a news bureau in Washington, with a special
wire under its control during the night hours. This was in
1881, and the writer of this was sent to Washington as cor-
respondent, with license to use the wires daily and liberally
whenever necessary. This was the beginning of a special
news service by telegraph which
has since been adopted by all the
dailies of Milwaukee, according to
their respective needs. Twenty
years ago Washington specials to
the Milwaukee papers came by
mail almost invariably. Since the
change of methods in 1881, nearly
all of them keep their own men at
Washington and the wires are
freely used. Of those who have
served as Washington correspond-
83 1^^^*
J. J. Schindler
ents may be mentioned T. C. Crawford, who was city editor
of the Milwaukee News. Mr. Crawford's work for the Chi-
cago Times, Chicago News and New York World has given
him a wide reputation. James Langland, for several years
telegraph editor of the Sentinel and now associate editor of
the Chicago Record, served as Washington correspondent of
the Chicago News during the years 1881 and 1882. F. A.
Moore was located at Washington for many years and sent
news to the Evening Wisconsin. J. A. Truesdeil, formerly
of Beloit, was the Sentinel's correspondent at Washington for
a couple of years, followed by Arthur J. Dodge. Others who
have been sent to Washington by their respective papers are
S. M. Curtis, of the Sentinel, and Fred Puhler and J. J.
Schindler, of the Journal.
FRANK MARKLE.
after Dinner
Reminiscences.
A. Thiese.
C. P. Salisbury.
E. C Eldridge.
Geo. C. Neusse.
ITTIXGat one of our Press Club dinners a few years
ago an occasion that had been rendered even more
than usually enjoyable by the reading of a paper on
Ben Franklin in his capacity as a printer my thoughts
drifted back through the haze of cigar smoke to a time far
beyond the war days, to a date when only a gravel pit occu-
pied the site whereon stood the fine hotel in whose dining-
room we were, and to a point in the history of Milwaukee
newspapers when the Sentinel had just started its first steam
engine and the steam engine had started its Hoe press, and I
stood, a wondering youngster, watching the process by which
in a single sheet, printed on one side only, two of the four
pages of the paper for the following day slowly reeled out
and slid down smoothly along a light wooden framework, like
a gate to a miniature picket fence, which gate suddenly
turned on a horizontal axis at the bottom, whacked the sheet
down on a steadily growing pile of its mates, and then as
suddenly jerked back into position
for the next one.
Friendly faces were grouped
about the press and kindly voices
bade the youngster look at this
thing or that about the Sentinel's
new toy, but he hung fascinated
about the stern end of the machine,
only occasionally casting a half
timid look over his shoulder at the
fly wheel of the engine that worked
not ten feet awav, for his attention
Capt. Charles King, U. S. A.
W. G. Bruce.
was riveted upon that admirable
piece of machinery at the rear.
For the life of him he could not
help thinking that its real use was
a spanking device and that at any
moment he might be hoisted upon
the footboard and, vis a tergo,
made the recipient of its measured
strokes.
The kindly voices are all stilled
now, save one. We heard it ses-
sion after session in the halls of
legislation at the capital, and none was better known or better
loved. The friendly faces once so familiar in the old com-
bined job and composing and press room of the Sentinel
seemed to come floating back from spirit land through that
haze of fragrant incense, for surely not one was there in the
flesh. Of all the forty fellow-workers gathered at the board
that night not one was on the Sentinel's force the day the old
new engine fired up and set the walls to quivering, and George
Dyer's workmen in the saddler shop next door ran out on the
river bank behind us and gazed up at the back windows of
the grimy brick building to see what was going on. It was
called the Ludington Block in those days, and stood on the
corner where the great Pabst building towers now, and in the
second story front to the right as you entered was the counting
room and business office, where for years the present secre-
tary of the Chamber of Commerce kept the books. From
this office through a rectangular hole in the party wall and
down a dirty step or two you passed to the combined compos-
ing and press room, the cases and the compositors being
towards the East Water Street end and the engine and presses
towards the river. Above the counting room and on the
third floor was the editorial sanctum, looking out upon the
busy street, where on hot days one could hear the hiss of
Alcott's soda water stand in the shop across the way, the first
of its kind in all Milwaukee, and watch the portly figure of
its most persistent patron, George H. Walker, waddling,
red-faced and perspiring, from the Walker House, where
stands the Kirby now, to demand "extra sody " at the cool-
ing fount. Melms had the ground floor then, and lager beer
was just coming into vogue, and Americans were beginning
to drink it and admit that there was something palatable
about it, and Melms' saloon had many a patron from the inky
regions above before the days pf the pint trade, but not before
the advent of the "growler." Well do I mind me how
"improper" it was for minors to be seen in Melms' at any
time except on those warm noontides when despatched
thither with a dime and one of those little brown glass
flagons in which German wines were imported in the old,
old days; for thrifty housewives up along the breezy bluffs
had learned the soothing and sustaining qualities of lager
when it came fresh and cool. Therefore did it happen that
to the admonition to keep in the shade going and coming
there was now added, now that the steam engine had
come, "and don't you stop at the Sentinel office."
Perhaps that admonition would have come anyway as a
necessary sequence of the steam engine, for mechanical effects
had ever a fascination for the first born of the editor-in-chiei
as well as for several of his juvenile friends who could get
into that press room and concomitant mischief and printers'
ink only through the mediation and guidance of the eldest
hope aforementioned. People won-
der why the name of Printer's
Devil is applied to the juveniles
with smutty faces and bedaubed
aprons who hang about the press
rooms now, and the only wonder
that I have is that printers could
apply any other name to the preda-
tory small boys who occasionally
raided the job office in the days
gone by. Yet we couldn't keep
away ! Even choleric old Mr.
89
H. B. Aldrich.
W. A. Friese.
Corbett who chased one of our
gang into the river the day we
upset a keg of printers' ink and
sent a tarry stream a-billowing
over the floor and down through
the rope holes of the old-fashioned
" lift " upon the stacks of card-
board and bales of paper in the
room below, even old Mr. Cor-
bett had no real terrors for us as
compared with the joys of contem-
plating such complicated machin-
ery, and cracking hickory nuts unbeknownst to him in the
slow revolving cog-wheels. The engineer was a genial soul
and had some proper appreciation of boys, not all he might
have had, perhaps, because he did rebuke a future United
States Senator for giving an extra pull to the throttle and
suddenly doubling the speed of every wheel in the floor, to
the dismay of the operators and the manifest disturbance of
the walls. But he didn't mind our worrying Corbett in the
least. Then there was one awful day when most of the
hands had gone out to dinner, or were to have gone out, and
we had been waiting for their departure to enter and do some
printing on our own account. Two of us had opened a kite
shop and we needed a sign board, and another had started a
candy and cigar stand across the street from where we lived
and had been promised a printed schedule of his wares in
exchange for a prepaid portion thereof, and Corbett, once so
ready to print anything or everything for that eldest hope,
had tired of his trade and not only refused to lend his own
hands after the episode of the capsized keg, but had forbidden
his "hands" to lend theirs, and the only way to escape
defalcation was to do the job ourselves. Even in those days
the proprietor of "Jim's Store," now a shining light in a firm
whose name is as long as his first business title was short,
was possessed of a legal mind. He knew where most of his
cigars came from and so did I though the editor-in-chief
90
didn't until some time later, and we knew that if that printed
schedule were not forthcoming coercive measures might be
resorted to. When Corbett went to dinner and the engine
slowed down for the noon hour the press room was often
deserted by all but one or two semi-sympathetic souls upon
whom we could rely to set up the necessary wooden type,
provided we promised to "set up" an equivalent. We had
been watching the premises and killing time at the river
bank behind, and the devil, always finding mischief for idle
hands to do, had placed there a long stack of pig iron,
belonging, it was discovered later, to a hardware store close
at hand. One of our number made the accidental discovery
that one of those pigs dropped over the edge of the dock
made a famous splash, and in the course of the next ten
minutes, encouraged by the smiles of a communistic citizen
lolling, out of work and elbows, over the railing of the
Spring Street bridge, we derived much exercise and comfort
from heaving over pig after pig until half the stack was gone.
But still Corbett seemed to stick to his work. Then it came
the owner's turn to get exercised, if not comforted, for he
rushed out of the basement, where now dry goods and hard-
ware are no longer dispensed, and pounced on our party with
a rawhide and then on the proprietor of the Sentinel with a
bill. It was an easy matter for three agile Milwaukee urchins
to escape the rawhide and take refuge among the dark and
inky stairways of the Sentinel.
Later we were busily at work in
the composing room under the
tutelage of a gifted young printer,
who made a gallant soldier later
on, and "Jim's Store's " schedule
of prices was well nigh ready for
the press when the editor came in
with that bill in one hand and a
stick in the other not a compos-
ing stick. This was forty years
ago, but I recall it as though it
91
Victor L. Berger.
W. A. Bowdish.
Bk were yesterday. That hour marks
the initial point of the process of
^B^ JP5* alienation which has gone uninter-
ruptedly on, the breach between
the Press and me began when I
was barely ten.
Yet life in the grimy old office
was not, as perhaps it might justly
have been, associated solely with
spanking machines. Sunshine
penetrated even there, and smiles
were radiant when the circus and
other showmen came around. They used to have their print-
ing done of local practitioners in those good old times and
often paid for it in tickets big stacks of tickets, and never
in a life of fifty summers have I known the smiles of such
popularity as surrounded the son of the Sentinel for two suc-
cessive seasons at the First Ward school. Spalding & Rogers,
Signor Blitz, North's Menagerie, Christy's Minstrels, all had
their posters and programmes from our job room, and a kind-
hearted foreman, sympathizing with the sorrows of the
youngster, forbidden henceforth to enter its sacred precincts,
more than once shoved a little pile of tickets into his willing
palm and sent him off to school full tilt, a boy to be envied
and fawned upon and nattered until the shows and the tickets
were gone.
Then the public school system, though young, was
efficient. Ever since his coming to the infant city in '45 the
editor had thrown himselt con aniore into every public enter-
prise. Editors nowadays are presumed to do quite enough
when they give undivided attention to the elevation of man-
kind or the running down of contemporaries, but the editor
of those days headed every scheme and subscription that
could be suggested for public weal or private benefit, fore-
manned the engine company, generated the militia (and uni-
formed not a few of its officers), chairmanned every reception
committee, dined every new arrival, lobbied the legislature,
92
floor-managed every fireman's ball, regent-ed long years the
University, superintended the public schools and filled pretty
much every office in the gift of the people that had not a
salary attached to it. It is true that after having served with-
out a cent of pay for nearly fourteen years as superintendent
of schools, having examined the teachers, performed all the
clerical work and furnished the stationery out of the Sentinel
office, a grateful people did enact that hereafter that incom-
parable official should receive an annual compensation of some
two thousand dollars; but before he had enjoyed these fruits
of his labors a twelve-month the discovery was made by a
Democratic council that this important office had now been
held by one of the opposing political faith for more than four-
teen years and it was high time for their side to be recog-
nized, which recognition was promptly accorded at the next
election.
The manifold functions of the head of the Sentinel had
not diverted his attention from the great political questions of
the day. The torchlight procession in honor of old " Rough
and Ready" and the illumination (with candles) of half the
windows in Milwaukee had their inspiration within the
wooden walls of the old sanctum. The banner of Scott and
Graham was flung to the breeze from its first flagstaff, and on
the death of Whiggism the principles of the Republican
party were first expounded to the Northwest through the
columns of the growing sheet.
Well do I remember the grand
procession of flag-bearers started
from the Sentinel office on that
dismal November day that did not
result in the choice of Fremont and
Dayton. The editor had provided
big white cloth banners, each let-
tered in huge characters with some
appropriate device. " Fremont and
Dayton " said the first flag, " Fre-
mont and Free Speech" said the
r
93
Thompson Mulboliand.
next, " Fremont and Free Press
a third. There were two dozen
in all, and two dozen young Re-
publicans were marshaled to bear
them through the streets, the exile
of the composing room at their
head. One block we marched into
the bowels of the land and the
direction of the Third Ward a
hapless choice, for at Michigan
Street we encountered a patriot of
V. J. Schoenecker. opposing political convictions and
perhaps twelve summers. He was of the class described in
our dialect as Micks, a resident of an aggressive district,
and no Sentinel inspired aggregation could pass unchallenged.
The bearer of the foremost banner thought he had the right
of way, and the patriot landed on his chubby jaw forthwith,
leaving on one side the impress of a dirty but determined
fist, while the mud of Michigan Street defiled the other. The
outrage occurred within full view of an attache of a rival
sheet, and he seemed to find it funny. Even getting knocked
down for the Sentinel did not entitle one, in those days, to
the undivided sympathy of the populace.
But there were two features in the journalism of the time
in which I can proudly claim to have borne a hand and served
an apprenticeship that should entitle me to some recognition
in the Guild. The mailing room was then a corner of the
main office. Wrappers, paste and pen and ink were on one
end of a table, a stack of Sentinels on the other, and many's
the time the mailing clerk has farmed out much of his job to
the little squad that trailed in with me, hoping to earn half
a dime to invest in peanuts. A desk mate at school was one
of the carriers, and many a summer's morn has seen us
through the old First Ward pelting doorways with tightly
rolled Sentinels for projectiles. And this, too, came to an
untimely end, for once in a while a window would be left
open on summer nights, and it was so much better to fire the
94
paper through that, the owner was so much surer of his
morning bulletin, especially, as once happened when a near
neighbor received a flying billet in his face, and appeared
forthwith at the window in an abbreviated garment and a
towering rage. Again my efforts at forwarding the circula-
tion of the Sentinel met with discouragement, for he, too,
complained to the editor and I came in for another para-
graph.
In fact not until the organization of the Press Club and
the institution of its dinners has my connection with the pro-
fession been of unmixed benefit either to myself or its
patrons, but the mists of the past bring no damper to the
gladness and the sunshine of the present, the memories of
the old tribulations never mar the glad associations of the
day. Out from the legends and traditions of the old times
in the old office I gather over and again the reminiscence of
many a kind word and deed. Through the dust of years I
see the cheery "faces and over the ring and bustle of the
-crowded streets I hear the echo of beloved voices long since
stilled. Glancing about our board I see in many a face a
look that tells me that here, too, is one who well recalls the
men and memories of those bygone days, and who turns
from the contemplation of the old
life only the more keenly to appre-
ciate and value the friendships and
the fellowships that, engendered
here, surround and bless the new.
CHARLES KING.
Frank Barry.
95
'George.'
to
On reading his sonnet entitled,
" The Press Chtb."
(See page 26.)
Scudday Richardson.
THESE were but curios, bizarre at best,
To vulgar visions (such is mine, I own),
Suggesting only some ephemeral jest,
Unspoke, save to my inner self alone
Till Scudd'y, one night at his frugal snack,
Wrote, say, a dozen lines upon his knee,
Which snatched them from the realm of bric-a-brac
And made their meaning clear as day to me.
Much then I marveled at this sapient youth,
Who, munching his unbuttered bun the while,
Could thus discern and phrase a solemn truth
Where I had only found vain thing ! a smile.
If inspiration comes from eating "hoppin,"
Great Scott ! let's eat and eat 'em without stoppin'.
MATHER D, KIMBALL,
97
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99
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THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL.
101
JtlUtimtika JUmlg 3Xetus
<aeL- s r~=> . -r^^s- '
102
J.htg.nj 41.
I0 3
105
9Ulan>uktt, f rittag. Dm ae. Ai-cll I89B
"T!r^.r~*''' w " ~J,?TJJ, J ,T',SH >, , ""*-" ~ *
-i. -:^r teH .
1 06
108
SATCTRODAY STAR,.
L&&VI
109
THE AMERICAN
NFW YORK. CHICAGO MILWAUKEE, APRIL, 1895
JULIUS C/ESAR EDUCATIONALIZED
THE MODERN ROMAN SENATE "COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN.'
Marcus Antonius (School Board) Oh, pardon me, thon patient prey of
That I am meek and gentle with these botchers.- jauvt C.BAX, , m.s~ i.
no
IRoeter of fIDembere.
Sctive.
AIKEKS, A. J.
ALDRICU, H. B.
ANDERSON, W. J.
ANDREWS, THUS. S.
BANNEN, JAMES.
BLEYER, IIKKMAX.
BLEYEK, JULIUS.
BOWDISH, W. A.
BRAUX, HERMAN.
BRUCE, W. G.
BERGER, VICTOR L.
BARRY, FRANK.
CAMPBELL, II. C.
CRAMER, WILLIAM E.
CRAMER, JNO. F.
COLEMAN, E. W.
CURTIS, S. M.
COLBURN, OTIS.
DINGWALL, A. \V.
DEUSTER, OSCAR.
DANKOLER, II. S.
DOUGHERTY, FRED.
DOUGLAS, M. G.
DINI.OF, W. S.
EMERSON, C. W.
EVERETT, WINTER.
FRIESE. P. W.
FRIE8E, A. W.
GARRISON, JAMES.
GREGORY, JOHN G.
HOYT, M. A.
HOOKER, W. F.
HANNAN, JOHN J.
HARBACK, F. M.
KRACKOWIZER, E. W.
KING, CHARLES.
KEENE, FRANK.
KERR, GEORGE F.
LEGLER, II. E.
LUSH, C. K.
MARKLE, FRANK.
MYRICK, II. P.
M'INTOSH, M. E.
MALKOFF, M. D.
MULHOLLAND, THOMPSON.
M'MANUS, JGS. D.
NEUSSE, GEO. C.
POLLOCK, W. W.
PECK, GEO. W.
PECK, GEO. W., JR.
PUTNAM, FRANK.
POPPENDIECK, JOHN, JR.
RUBLEE, HORACE.
RUBLEE, W. A.
REMY, O. E.
RICHARDSON, SCUDDAY.
STARKEY, D. B.
SCHINDLER, J. J.
SCHOENECKER, V. J .
SCHILLING, ROBERT.
S'.'ll MT/LER. J. J.
TREAT, C. M.
TOFI-T, A. J.
UNDERWOOD, II. G.
WA TKOl'S, J. A.
WALTHALL, W . T., JR.
WOLF, JOHN R.
WATROUS, R. B.
YENOWINE, GEO. H.
Ill
Bssociate.
BOOTH, W. A.
CAMPSIE, JOHN W.
ELDRIDGE, E. C.
HOWARD, SAMUEL.
KIMBALL, M. D.
MOORE, W. L.
PAIXE, C. M.
OSBORX, C. S.
GARDNER, W. E.
AUER, LOUIS.
BROWN, SHERMAN.
CARRINGTON, MISS ABBIE
HOBART, H. C.
KEENE, THOS. W.
LITT, JACOB.
PECKIIAM, GEO. W.
SALISBURY, C. P.
SCHULTZ, H. C.
THIESE, A.
VAN LESHOUT, A. J.
WRIGHT, A. G.
LANGLAXD, JAMES.
COLEMAN, W. W.
FOSTER, A.
KRAUS, MICHAEL.
MENDEL, H. M.
PABST, FREDERICK.
PAYNE, H. C.
RICHTER, AUG., JR.
WHITTEMORE, I). J.
Deceased.
PAGENKOPF, H. W
QUINN, ED. S.
DANKOLER, E. D.
112
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