turers on science, ethics, or phrenology, and three average congress ional or other demagogues. Why, then, should starvation wave his skeleton scepter in terrorem over such a congregation of available excellences?"

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3. The leading spirit of the New Yorker had a singular, a constitutional, an incurable inability to conduct business. His character is the exact opposite of that 'hard man' in the gospel, who reaped where he had not sown. He was too amiable, too confiding, toc absent, and too easy,' for a business man. If a boy stole his let ters from the post-office, he would admonish him, and either let him go or try him again. If a writer in extremity offered to do certain paragraphs for three dollars a week, he would say, “No, that's too little; I'll give you five, till you can get something better." On one occasion, he went to the post-office himself, and receiving a large number of letters, put them, it is said, into the pockets of his overcoat. On reaching the office, he hung the overcoat on its accustomed peg, and was soon lost in the composition of an article. It was the last of the chilly days of spring, and he thought no more either of his overcoat or its pockets, till the autumn. Letters kept coming in complaining of the non-receipt of papers which had been ordered and paid for; and the office was sorely perplexed. On the first cool day in October, when the editor was shaking a summer's dirt from his overcoat, the missing letters were found, and the mystery was explained. Another story gives us a peep into the office of the New Yorker. A gentleman called, one day, and asked to see the editor. "I am the editor," said a little coxcomb who was temporarily in charge of the paper. "You are not the person I want to see," said the gentleman. "Oh!" said the puppy, "you wish to see the Printer. He's not in town." The men in the composing-room chanced to overhear this colloquy, and thereafter, our hero was called by the nickname of 'The Printer,' and by that alone, whether he was present or absent. It was "Printer, how will you have this set?" or "Printer, we're waiting for copy." All this was very pleasant and amiable; but, businesses which pay are never carried on in that style. It is a pity, but a fact, that businesses which pay, are generally conducted in a manner which is exceedingly disagreeable to those who assist in them.

4. The Year of Ruin.

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5. The cash principle,' the only safe one, had not been yet ap plied to the newspaper business. The New Yorker lost, on an aver age, 1,200 dollars a year by the removal of subscribers to parts unknown, who left without paying for their paper, or notifying the office of their departure.

Of the unnumbered pangs that mortals know, pecuniary anxiety is to a sensitive and honest young heart the bitterest. To live upon the edge of a gulf that yawns hideously and always at our feet to feel the ground giving way under the house that holds our happiness, to walk in the pathway of avalanches, to dwell under a volcano rumbling prophetically of a coming eruption, is not pleasant. But welcome yawning abyss, welcome earthquake, avalanche, volcano! They can crush, and burn, and swallow a man, but not degrade him. The terrors they inspire are not to be compared with the deadly and withering FEAR that crouches sullenly in the soul of that honest man who owes much money to many people, and cannot think how or when he can pay it. That alone has power to take from life all its charm, and from duty all its interest. For other sorrows there is a balm. That is an evil unmingled, while it lasts; and the light which it throws upon the history of mankind and the secret of man's struggle with fate, is purchased at a price fully commensurate with the value of that light.

The editor of the New Yorker suffered all that a man could suffer from this dread cause. In private letters he alludes, but only alludes, to his anguish at this period. "Through most of the time," he wrote years afterward, "I was very poor, and for four years really bankrupt; though always paying my notes and keeping my word, but living as poorly as possible." And again: "My embarrassments were sometimes dreadful; not that I feared destitution, but the fear of involving my friends in my misfortunes was very bitter." He came one afternoon into the house of a friend, and handing her a copy of his paper, said: "There, Mrs. S., that is the last number of the New Yorker you will ever see. I can secure my friends against loss if I stop now, and I'll not risk their money by holding on any longer." He went over that evening to Mr. Gregory, to make known to him his determination; but that constant and invincible friend would not listen to it. He insisted on his continuing the struggle, and offered his assistance with such

frank and earnest cordiality, that our hero's scruples were at length removed, and he came home elate, and resolved to battle another year with delinquent subscribers and a depreciated currency.

During the early years of the New Yorker, Mr. Greeley had little regular assistance in editing the paper. In 1839, Mr. Park Benjamin contributed much to the interest of its columns by his lively and humorous critiques; but his connection with the paper was not of long duration. It was long enough, however, to make him acquainted with the character of his associate. On retiring, in October, 1839, he wrote: "Grateful to my feelings has been my intercourse with the readers of the New Yorker and with its principal editor and proprietor. By the former I hope my humble efforts will not be unremembered; by the latter I am happy to believe that the sincere friendship which I entertain for him is reciprocated. I still insist upon my editorial right so far as to say in opposition to any veto which my coadjutor may interpose, that I cannot leave the association which has been so agreeable to me without paying to sterling worth, unbending integrity, high moral principle and ready kindness, their just due. These qualities exist in the character of the man with whom now I part; and by all, to whom such qualities appear admirable, must such a character be esteemed. His talents, his industry, require no commendation from me; the readers of this journal know them too well; the public is sufficiently aware of the manner in which they have been exerted. What I have said has flowed from my heart, tributary rather to its own emotions than to the subject which has called them forth; his plain good name is his best eulogy."

A few months later, Mr. Henry J. Raymond, a recent graduate of Burlington College, Vermont, came to the city to seek his fortune. He had written some creditable sketches for the New Yorker, over the signature of "Fantome," and on reaching the city called upon Horace Greeley. The result was that he entered the office as an assistant editor "till he could get so vething better," and it may encourage some young, hard-working, un. →cognized, ill-paid journalist, to know that the editor of the New York Daily Times began his editorial career upon a salary of eight dollars a week. The said unrecognized, however, should further be informed, that Mr. Raymond is the hardest and swiftest worker connected with the New York Press.

CHAPTER XI.

THE JEFFERSONIAN.

Objects of the Jeffersonian-Its character-A novel Glorious-Victory paragraph-The Graves and Cilley duel-The Editor overworked.

THE slender income derived from the New Yorker obliged its editor to engage in other labors. He wrote, as occasion offered, for various periodicals. The Daily Whig he supplied with its leading article for several months, and in 1838 undertook the entire editorial charge of the Jeffersonian, a weekly paper of the campaign' description, started at Albany on the third of March, and continuing in existence for one year.

With the conception and the establishment of the Jeffersonian, Horace Greeley had nothing to do. It was published under the auspices and by the direction of the Whig Central Committee of the State of New York, and the fund for its establishment was contributed by the leading politicians of the State in sums of ten dollars. "I never sought the post of its editor," wrote Mr. Greeley in 1848, "but was sought for it by leading whigs whom I had never before personally known." It was afforded at fifty cents a year, attained rapidly a circulation of fifteen thousand; the editor, who spent three days of each week in Albany, receiving for his year's services a thousand dollars. The ostensible object of the paper was -to quote the language of its projectors-"to furnish to every person within the State of New York a complete summary of political intelligence, at a rate which shall place it absolutely within the reach of every man who will read it." But, according to the subsequent explanation of the Tribune, "it was established on the impulse of th whig tornado of 1837, to secure a like result in 1838, so as to give the Whig party a Governor, Lieutenant Governor Senate, Assembly, U. S. Senator, Congressmen, and all the vast executive patronage of the State, then amounting to millions of dol ars a year."

The Jeffersonian was a good paper. It was published in a neat to form of eight pages. Its editorials, generally few and brief, were written to convince, not to inflame, to enlighten, not to blind. It published a great many of the best speeches of the day, some for, some against, its own principles. Each number contained a full and well-compiled digest of political intelligence, and one page, or nore, of general intelligence. It was not, in the slightest degree, like what is generally understood by a 'campaign paper.' Capital letters and points of admiration were as little used as in the sedate and courteous columns of the New Yorker; and there is scarcely anything to be found of the Glorious Victory' sort except this:

"Glorious Victory! 'We have met the enemy, and they are ours! Our whole ticket, with the exception of town clerk, one constable, three fence-viewers, a pound-master and two hog-reeves elected! There never was such a iumph!"

Stop, my friend. Have you elected the best men to the several offices to be filled? Have you chosen men who have hitherto evinced not only capacity but integrity ?--men whom you would trust implicity in every relation and business of life? Above all, have you selected the very best person in the township for the important office of Justice of the Peace? If yea, we rejoice with you. If the men whose election will best subserve the cause of virtue and public order have been chosen, even your opponents will have little reason for regret. If it be otherwise, you have achieved but an empty and dubious triumph.

It would be gratifying to know what the Whig Central Committee thought of such unexampled 'campaign' language. In a word, the Jeffersonian was a better fifty cents' worth of thought and fact than had previously, or has since, been afforded, in the form of a weekly paper.

The columns of the Jeffersonian afford little material for the purposes of this volume. There are scarcely any of those characteristic touches, those autobiographical allusions, that contribute so much to the interest of other papers with which our hero has been connected. This is one, however:

(Whosoever may have picked up the wallet of the editor of this paper-lost somewhere near State street, about the 20th ult., shall receive half the contents, all round, by returning the balance to this office.)