John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[511] the newspaper as in the style of his own writing, or in that which he impressed upon his assistants and contributors. It was as natural for him to run his pencil through words and phrases, to substitute other words, and to transpose paragraphs and expressions in the contributions of others as in his own. His constant effort was to clarify, to strengthen, and to condense for the purpose of bringing out the meaning of the writer, saving the time, and finding the line of least resistance to the understanding of the reader. In all that was necessary to those ends he was an adept of transcendent ability, and yet much of what he did seems to have been done quite unconsciously. When asked how he did it, he replied, “When a man knows it he goes and does it.”

As his fame spread throughout the country, he was frequently called upon to deliver lectures, especially on the subject of journalism, and quite frequently accepted, but it is not known that he ever wrote out beforehand what he intended to say. Without being an orator, he was evidently able to think rapidly and clearly on his feet. His delivery was not only deliberate, orderly, and consecutive, but unusually pleasing, if not eloquent. He was happy as a raconteur, and as his mind was stored with poetry, history, and anecdote, his most informal talks were always cheerful and interesting.

While it is by no means certain that he had in the earlier stages of his editorial career any established canons for the profession of journalism or the art of newspapermak-ing, it is evident that the true principles to be observed slowly framed themselves in his mind, and ultimately received definite form and consistency. This was doubtless due in part to the fact that the Sun was printed for many years as a single folio, given up almost entirely to editorials and the briefest statement of the news. The science of journalism as developed on that paper by Dana is set