0471217336 - download.e-bookshelf.de
TRANSCRIPT
PULITZER
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page i
Also by Denis Brian
Murderers and Other Friendly People The Publicand Private Worlds of Interviewers
The Enchanted Voyage The Life of J B Rhine
The True Gen An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingwayby Those Who Knew Him
Fair Game What Biographers Donrsquot Tell You
Genius Talk Conversations with Nobel Scientistsand Other Luminaries
Einstein A Life
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageii
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
PULITZER
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page i
Also by Denis Brian
Murderers and Other Friendly People The Publicand Private Worlds of Interviewers
The Enchanted Voyage The Life of J B Rhine
The True Gen An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingwayby Those Who Knew Him
Fair Game What Biographers Donrsquot Tell You
Genius Talk Conversations with Nobel Scientistsand Other Luminaries
Einstein A Life
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageii
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
Also by Denis Brian
Murderers and Other Friendly People The Publicand Private Worlds of Interviewers
The Enchanted Voyage The Life of J B Rhine
The True Gen An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingwayby Those Who Knew Him
Fair Game What Biographers Donrsquot Tell You
Genius Talk Conversations with Nobel Scientistsand Other Luminaries
Einstein A Life
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageii
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
PULITZER
A Life
Denis Brian
John Wiley amp Sons IncNew York bull Chichester bull Weinheim bull Brisbane bull Singapore bull Toronto
ffirsqxd 73001 909AM Pageiii
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
Copyright copy 2001 by Denis Brian All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley amp Sons Inc
No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmit-ted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recordingscanning or otherwise except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976United States Copyright Act without either the prior written permission of the Pub-lisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copy-right Clearance Center 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers MA 01923 (978) 750-8400 fax(978) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to thePermissions Department John Wiley amp Sons Inc 605 Third Avenue New York NY10158-0012 (212) 850-6011 fax (212) 850-6008 email PERMREQWILEYCOM
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information inregard to the subject matter covered It is sold with the understanding that the publisheris not engaged in rendering professional services If professional advice or other expertassistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought
This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-33200-3Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in thiselectronic version
For more information about Wiley products visit our web site at wwwWileycom
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
To Martine Danielle Alex and Emma with love
And to The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) of WashingtonDC a nonpartisan nonprofit organization of which my daughterDanielle is the executive director Since 1981 it has worked toinvestigate expose and remedy abuses of power mismanagementand subservience to powerful special interests by the federalgovernment POGOrsquos goal is to improve the way the governmentworks by revealing examples of systemic problems offering solutionsand initiating change Pulitzer would have loved POGO
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page v
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
ffirsqxd 73001 909 AM Page vi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ixIntroduction Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 1
1 The Fighting Immigrant 5
2 Upright Spirited and Dangerous 15
3 Survives Fire and Marries 21
4 Buys St Louis Post-Dispatch 31
5 President Garfield Assassinated 40
6 Jesse James ldquoShot Like a Dogrdquo 51
7 Pulitzer Takes Over the World 63
8 Puts a Democrat in the White House 79
9 Saves Statue of Liberty 97
10 Haymarket Square Massacre 110
11 Nellie Bly Goes Crazy 120
12 Tries to Save His Sight 133
13 ldquoAn Instrument of Justice a Terror to Crimerdquo 139
14 Nellie Bly Races around the World 144
15 Running the World by Remote Control 158
16 Pulitzerrsquos ldquoSatanic Journalismrdquo 169
17 Prevents War between the United States and Britain 184
18 Fighting Crime and William Randolph Hearst 196
19 War Fever 213
20 Americans at War in Cuba 226
21 For the Boers against the British 244
22 ldquoAccuracy Accuracy Accuracyrdquo 252
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page vii
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
23 President McKinley Assassinated 266
24 ldquoFind a Man Who Gets Drunk and Hire Himrdquo 275
25 Euphemisms for Abortion 282
26 Breaking In Frank Cobb 288
27 Unmasking Corrupt Insurance Companies 299
28 ldquoI Liked the Way He Sworerdquo 310
29 Protesting Jingo Agitation 322
30 Secret Double Life of Rockefellerrsquos Father 331
31 Roosevelt Tries to Send Pulitzer to Prison 343
32 ldquoThe Big Man of All American Newspapersrdquo 350
33 Roosevelt Seeks Revenge 359
34 Victory 370
35 The Last Days 383
36 The Aftermath 391
Notes 397 Bibliography 419Index 423
viii Contents
ftocqxd 73001 911 AM Page viii
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
ix
Acknowledgments
The following invaluable sources left their firsthand impressions of JosephPulitzer John Heaton Don Carlos Seitz Dr George Hosmer James BarnesAlleyne Ireland George Cary Eggleston Norman Thwaites Walt McDougallNellie Bly James Creelman George St Johns Harold Pollard and Charles EChapin Chapin a former Evening World city editor who idolized Pulitzercomposed his memoir in a Sing Sing prison cell where he was serving a lifesentence for killing his wife in a failed double suicide attempt
Also of great help were William Robinson Reynoldsrsquos PhD thesis onPulitzer Allen Churchillrsquos Park Row W A Swanbergrsquos Pulitzer and his CitizenHearst James Wyman Barrettrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and His World George Juer-gensrsquos Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World Daniel W Pfaffrsquos Joseph PulitzerII and the Post-Dispatch A Newspapermanrsquos Life Brooke Kroegerrsquos Nellie BlyDaredevil Reporter Feminist Joyce Miltonrsquos The Yellow Kids John WinklerrsquosWilliam Randolph Hearst David Nasawrsquos The Chief The Life of William Ran-dolph Hearst the St Louis Post-Dispatch the New York World the New YorkJournal the New York Sun the New York Times James V Maloney corporatesecretary for Pulitzer Inc and the extensive Pulitzer archives at ColumbiaUniversity and the Library of Congress
Many thanks to John Gable Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Asso-ciation Sylvia Jukes Morris Ann Morris Director Western Historical Manu-script Collection University of Missouri Dorothy Dyer Curator Bar HarborHistorical Society Ross MacTaggart Motor Yacht Historian Jill Radel Museumof Yachting Newport RI
My wife Martine worked with me enthusiastically on every aspect of thebook and her advice critical acumen and penchant for le mot juste enhancedthe finished product enormously
My editor Hane Lane gave wise and welcome suggestions persuaded methat less is more and was patient and encouraging
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page ix
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
flastqxd 73001 913 AM Page x
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
1
i n t r o d u c t i o n
Joseph Pulitzer and HisldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World
Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say somethingcourageous and true to rise above the mediocre and conventional to saysomething that will command the respect of the intelligent the educated theindependent part of the community to rise above fear of partisanship and fearof popular prejudice
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
Always fight for progress and reform never tolerate injustice or corruption always fight demagogues of all parties never belong to any party always opposeprivileged classes and public plunder never lack sympathy for the poor alwaysremain devoted to the public welfare never be satisfied with merely printing thenews always be drastically independent never be afraid to attack wrong whetherby predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty
mdashJoseph Pulitzer
A t eighteen Joseph Pulitzer a penniless gangling Hungarian emigrant re-cruited in Europe to fight in the Civil War threw himself from the ship
bringing him to the United States and swam ashore to collect the bounty hethought should come to him and not to his recruiter He fought in the UnionArmy and after the war while working at various menial jobs taught himselfenough English to become a lawyer a US congressman a superb journalistand eventually the multimillionaire owner of two great American newspapersthe St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World At its peak in the late1890s the World had a million daily readers
Always a hands-on owner Pulitzer focused on his high-minded informedand intelligent editorials
One of his early editors John Cockerill who often handled the newspages defined news as ldquoany hitherto unprinted occurrence which involves the
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 1
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
violation of any one of the Ten Commandments and if it involves a fracture ofthe Vth VIth VIIth VIIIth or IX Commandments and by those people whosenames people have heard and in whose doings they are specifically interestedby knowledge of their official and social position then it is great newsrdquo
Perhaps this explains why the World had a mass audiencePulitzer however insisted that ldquoSensationalism as generally understood is
to be avoided Cheap crimes are not to be seized upon to play up A sensationalstory that is worth featuring is to be pushed to the limit But no fakingrdquo
He told World reporter James Creelman ldquoI want to attack anything that iswrong in public service the police department or elsewhere I believe in thepaper being a moral teacher of what is right and what is wrong It must takepart I should turn in my grave if the paper sat on a fence The paper shouldnot run the government or make tariffs but it should lead public opinionrdquo
And lead it did Pulitzerrsquos influence became so great that he elected a pres-identmdashClevelandmdashprevented a war between the United States and Britain ex-posed and cleaned up corrupt insurance companies surpassed Theodore Roo-sevelt in trust-busting and outsmarted banker J P Morgan for the financialgood of the country Without Pulitzer there would be no Statue of Liberty Hesuccessfully fought slumlords crooked police and shady politicians Even hismost ferocious rival William Randolph Hearst acknowledged that Pulitzer wasldquoa mighty democratic force in the life of the nationrdquo and ldquoa towering figure innational and international journalismrdquo
One of Pulitzerrsquos less known achievements was to create a new way ofswearing that caught on such as his assertion that his World was ldquoindegod-dampendentrdquo That he invented it was confirmed by American language expertH L Mencken and is ldquoabsobloodylutelyrdquo part of todayrsquos talk and known asan ldquoinfixrdquo
A contemporary called him the most interesting man on the planet andthe Texas Newspaper Union ldquothe greatest journalist on earthrdquo To his friendHenry Watterson editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal Pulitzerrsquos life readldquolike a story out of the books of giants goblins and fairiesrdquo Theodore Rooseveltonce praised the World as ldquomagnificent and strongrdquo and called its editorial pageldquothe finest in the countryrdquomdashuntil Pulitzer called Roosevelt a liar in his effort tocover up the bribery and corruption involved in buying the land for thePanama Canal Then Roosevelt sued him for criminal libel and tried to sendhim to prisonmdashan episode the ex-president failed to mention in his memoirs
But there was a time when Pulitzer betrayed his high principles For sev-eral months before and during the Spanish American War he engaged in afrantic attempt to outsell William Randolph Hearstrsquos New York Journal whichearned both men disrepute as purveyors of the sensational ldquoyellow pressrdquo As avisiting English newspaperman saw it theirs seemed like ldquoa contest of madmenfor the primacy of the sewerrdquo
2 Pulitzer
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 2
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
After the war Pulitzer bitterly regretted the exaggerations rumors and out-right lies his paper had printed and redirected the World to regain its formerglowing reputation as a great newspapermdashwhich it did
He was a blind invalid for the last twenty-two years of his lifemdashand so sen-sitive to noise that he traveled in a soundproofed yachtmdashbut he remained inactive control of the World relying on a group of secretaries to keep him in-formed and to write out his ideas complaints orders reminiscencesmdasheven hispersonal letters to his wife and children Most if not all of these records are inthe archives of Columbia University and the Library of Congress and providerich sources for a Pulitzer biographer
He died in 1911 at age sixty-four His World survived him by nineteenyears His Post-Dispatch still exists and flourishes Among his other legacies arethe annual Pulitzer Prizes the Columbia University School of Journalismmdashand the fountain in front of Manhattanrsquos Plaza Hotel
Pulitzerrsquos son Joseph Jr said that ldquoa flame of integrity was extinguished atthe death of my father but its light will always radiate to newspapermen of con-science everywhererdquo
More recently Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote ldquoJoseph Pulitzerhad a shining personal character humility in possession of power and compas-sion for the unfortunate He hated cant sham injustice and corruption andwas incapable of any of these He was one of the few gifted with both humorand a sense of consecrationrdquo
His plea at a political convention in 1875 is still strikingly apposite over125 years later ldquoThe growth of money power in this country has been fabulousand its connections with and interest in the Government [are] alarming Letus never have a Government in Washington owing its retention to the power ofthe millionaires rather than to the will of the millionsrdquo
The evidence suggests that the restless pain-racked nerve-racked disease-riddenmdashand perhaps manic-depressivemdashgenius was the Einstein ShakespeareChurchill of journalists and is still the greatest newspaper editor of all time atleast in the English-speaking world
Joseph Pulitzer and His ldquoIndegoddampendentrdquo World 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 3
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
cintroqxd 73001 913 AM Page 4
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
5
c h a p t e r 1
The Fighting Immigrant
1864ndash1869
17 to 22 years old
S eventeen-year-old Joseph Pulitzer couldnrsquot take it anymore He adored hismother but got into so many fierce arguments with his stepfather that he
was desperate to leave home A military career seemed a way of escape He wasprepared as it turned out to fight for almost any country that would accept him
Joseph was born in Mako Hungary on April 10 1847 the eldest son ofHungarian Jews His father Philip a prosperous grain merchant retired in1853 and moved with his family to Budapest where Joseph and his youngerbrother Albert were educated in private schools and by a tutor who taughtthem French and German When Joseph was eleven his father died of heartdisease and a few years later his beloved mother Louise married Max Blau abusinessmanmdashthe man Joseph had grown to hate
The scrawny almost six-foot-three-inch tall high-strung teenager looked asmartial as a beanpole Yet he hoped to follow in the footsteps of two of hismaternal uncles officers in the Austrian Army But when the Austrian Armyrejected him for his weak eyesight and emaciated appearance he was unde-terred He traveled to Paris to join the French Foreign Legion for service inMexico When the French declined his offer he crossed the Channel to En-gland where he volunteered to serve with the British forces in India Again fail-ure Bitterly disappointed he reluctantly headed for home stopping en routein Hamburg Germany And there he met his destiny
Shortly before in America in the summer of 1863 US President Abra-ham Lincoln his country torn by civil war his army depleted by casualties dis-ease and desertions had planned to turn stalemate into checkmate by a massattack against the Confederacy Lincoln intended to bolster his weakened armyby drafting three hundred thousand men from New York City alone But many
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 5
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
of the eligible males there were recent Irish and German immigrants who livedin squalor and didnrsquot give a damn who won the war
In resisting the draft they looted and torched draft-office buildings andprevented firemen from dousing the flames Motley groups of policemen andconvalescing soldiers were sent to quell the riot They had orders to take noprisoners and kill every man who had a club But they were overwhelmed bythe mob beaten stabbed kicked to death or shot with their own muskets Sur-vivors retreated in panic from a barrage of bricks stones and dead animals
Responding to anguished cries to save the city the army hurried thousandsof battle-scarred Union troops with field guns and howitzers to take back con-trol of Manhattanrsquos streets For men who refused to join the army the riotersproved fierce fighters some two thousand died and about ten thousand werewounded After this tragic fiasco Union Army agents looked for urgentlyneeded recruits in less dangerous territory especially Europe under the guiseof encouraging emigration
Languishing in Hamburg after his failed missions to join any of threearmies Pulitzer met one of the Union recruiting agents Assured that he couldride a horse and fire a gun the agent put the unlikely recruit aboard a Boston-bound ship
The gangling nearsighted youngster soon showed his spirit and audacityby jumping ship in Boston Harbor swimming ashore through almost freezingwater and taking a train to New York There he collected the three-hundred-dollar bounty for enlistingmdashwhich otherwise would have gone to the agenthersquod outsmarted But when Pulitzer arrived at Remount Camp Pleasant Val-ley Maryland on November 12 1864 the captain in charge took one jaun-diced glance at him and according to biographer Don Carlos Seitz who pre-sumably got it from Pulitzer himself yelled ldquoTake that little away fromhere I donrsquot want him in my companyrdquo
He stayed despite the frigid reception and spent the rest of the war inL Company of the First New York Lincoln Cavalry Taking their cue fromthe captain fellow soldiers ridiculed his appearance inadequate English andguttural accent although many of them were of German origin Some tookhis name (pronounced Pull-it-sir) as an invitation to grab his large nose Whena sergeant tried it Pulitzer struck him hardmdashthe only injury he inflicted inthe war
Saved from a court-martial for striking a superior by an officer who admiredhis prowess at chess he took part in minor skirmishes on horseback against theenemy at Antioch Liberty Mills Waynesborough and Beaverdam Flat endingthe war in the comparatively peaceful Shenandoah Valley as a Major RichardHintonrsquos orderly
After Confederate general Robert E Leersquos surrender Pulitzer rode with hisregiment for the victory parade in Washington on May 23 1865 his view ofGeneral William Tecumseh Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
6 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 6
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
taking the salute completely blocked by the men riding their horses so closebeside him that they bruised his knees
What now Certainly not a military careerCompetition for jobs among Civil War veterans was desperate In Manhat-
tan a city of astonishing contrasts about fifteen thousand panhandlers workedthe streets some hiring deformed babies to raise their take A district known asFive Points on the Lower East Side crammed with desperately poor immi-grants depraved criminals and prostitutes scared even the police awayNearby was another world a booming war-fueled Wall Street mansions flour-ishing businesses and affluent individuals window-shopping on BroadwayRealizing he stood less chance of emulating them than of joining the HellrsquosKitchen crowd which welcomed army veterans Pulitzer a good sailor fol-lowed a tip and traveled to New Bedford Massachusetts to apply for a deck-handrsquos job on a whaler But the whaling industry had not recovered from itsdestruction by Confederate cruisers and the only shiprsquos captain seeking a crewturned him down
Despite the odds against him he returned to New York City where Irishimmigrants had a lock on jobs for waiters laborers longshoremen and otheremployment requiring some English Thoughmdashthanks to his successful grain-merchant father PhilipmdashPulitzer had been well educated by tutors and wasfluent in German French and Hungarian his English was all but incoherentUnable to pay to rent a room he was reduced to sleeping in the streets in hisfrayed army uniform and scuffed shoes some nights on a bench in City HallPark
With his last few cents he walked into the luxurious Frenchrsquos Hotel for amorale-raising shoeshine But a porter thought he might offend the snootyclientele and told him to beat it (Pulitzerrsquos life often resembled a fableTwenty-three years later he bought that same Frenchrsquos Hotel had it demol-ished and replaced it with the tallest building in the citymdasha two-million-dollargolden-domed skyscraper to house his newspaper offices)
Having his topcoat stolen was the last straw he decided to check out andhead for St Louis Missouri Some joker had advised him that unlike Manhat-tan crowded with German immigrants after the same nonexistent jobs therewerenrsquot any Germans in St Louis Pulitzer also liked the idea that in a German-free environment he would have to learn English fastmdashor starve
Unaware that hersquod been fooledmdashSt Louis had a huge German popula-tionmdashhe sold his only capital a silk handkerchief for seventy-five cents to buyfood for the long journey Then he took a train west as a stowaway arriving onthe night of October 10 1865 at East St Louis across the river from St Louis(The railroad bridge to reach St Louis was not completed until 1874)
He got off the train broke tired and shivering with cold A downpour ofsleety rain soaked him to the skin But he hardly noticed it For him the shim-mering lights in the distance barely visible through the curtain of rain across
The Fighting Immigrant 7
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 7
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
the Mississippi River were not just the lights of a city but of a promised landAttracted by the voices of deckhands on a ferryboat and puzzled to hear themspeaking German Pulitzer walked to the riverbank and asked how to get acrosswithout paying He was lucky Their fireman had just quit Could the youngman fire a boiler
ldquoIn my condition I was willing to say anything and do anythingrdquo herecalled One deckhand ldquoput a shovel in my hand and told me to throw somecoal on the fire I opened the fire box door and a blast of fiery hot air struck mein the face At the same time a blast of cold driven rain struck me in the backI was roasting in front and freezing in the back But I stuck to the job and shov-eled coal as hard as I couldrdquo
The captain resented his limited and awkward English bullied him andworked him to exhaustion After a few days the harsh talk escalated into a vio-lent quarrel and Pulitzer walked off the boat for goodmdashinto St Louis He latertold his biographer Seitz ldquoI still have a painful recollection of firing that ferry-boat with its blasts of hot air on my face and the rain and snow beating downon my backrdquo
After renting a room he headed for the nearest library where he read inthe want ads of a local German-language newspaper Westliche Post that anarmy barracks needed a caretaker for sixteen mules pay to include free mealsEx-cavalryman were preferred
The weather turned unexpectedly hot as he walked the four miles to thebarracks discovered hersquod left his discharge papers behind ran to get them fromhis room then ran back panting and sweating He was hired but not for longThe food was inedible and the mules impossible He stood it for two days thenquit
Then he took almost anything he could get as a deckhand laborer steve-dore hack drivermdashall poorly paid dead-end jobs The ldquopromised landrdquo wasbecoming a mirage However he did learn enough English to work as a waiterat Tony Faustrsquos restaurant where at least he had bright surroundings but all toobriefly Apparently he couldnrsquot balance his tray and was fired for dropping ajuicy steak onto a good customer
When on his next job as a laborer the foreman who paid his wages failedto turn up with the cash Pulitzer now nineteen struggled with a moraldilemma How could he face his landlady without the room rent He knew noone well enough to borrow the money and had just ten cents in his pocket Hesolved the problem by sleeping under the stars after eating a dimersquos worth ofapples The next day the foreman had recovered from a brief illness andappeared with Pulitzerrsquos wages That evening when he handed over the rent aday late and explained his ldquodisappearancerdquo from bed and board his landladyteased him for being too sensitive But he made sure there was no repeat per-formance by saving money for rent from moonlighting
Working sixteen-hour days at two jobs he was still so anxious to masterEnglish quickly that he also spent four hours in the local librarymdashleaving fewer
8 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 8
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
than four hours for sleep Between temporary jobs he almost lived in thelibrary Each morning he waited impatiently on the library steps for librarianUdo Bachvogel to open up kept reading all through lunchtime while munch-ing apples and only left in the evening just as the doors were being lockedUdo helped him with English conversation and they became friends for life
But a chance encounter with a scam artistmdashnot his hard labormdashput himon the road to his remarkable career With some forty others he paid five dol-lars to this smooth talker who promised good jobs on a Louisiana sugar planta-tion shipped them by steamboat to a desolate spot forty miles south of StLouis and dumped them Realizing they had been taken they began to trudgeback to the city resolved to murder the man ldquoWhether or not this reckless pro-gram would have been carried out it is impossible to sayrdquo according to biogra-pher Alleyne Ireland ldquofor when three days later the ragged army arrived inthe city worn out with fatigue and half dead from hunger the agent haddecampedrdquo
By chance a reporter who had heard something of the story met Pulitzerand persuaded him to write an account of the scam It was published in theWestliche Post the German-language paper through which he had landed hisfirst civilian job
Pulitzerrsquos energy intelligence and way with words appealed to its partowner and coeditor Dr Emil Preetorius who started to give him writing
The Fighting Immigrant 9
Pulitzer (right) with his friendlibrarian Udo Brachvogel
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 9
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
assignments Eventually other tenants in the Post building sensed somethingworth cultivating in the intense driven young man especially attorneys WilliamPatrick and Charles Johnson and physician Joseph McDowell
Dr McDowell asked him to help in the summer of 1866 when a choleraepidemic terrorized St Louis killing 1686 residents in two weeks More thana quarter of the population of 260000 fled the city Victims of the disease wereto be buried on dreaded Arsenal Island and Dr McDowell was appointedhealth officer for the area Piles of corpses awaited burial because officials incharge of the job had panicked and left for the mainland Though McDowellhad known Pulitzer for only a few months he recommended him to be incharge on Arsenal Island Pulitzer found the place almost deserted even bythe convicted murderers from prisons on the mainland who had been prom-ised their freedom if they helped to bury the dead Some had taken advan-tage of the offer only to escape to unknown parts Pulitzer stayed helpedto bury many of the cholera victims and also kept the records When the epi-demic was over in October having killed 3527 in St Louis he was again inneed of a job
The two attorneys in the newspaper building pointed him toward work inwild Ozark country for a railroad company in the early stages of incorporationHe rode there with a black aide Both men were swept from their horses whiletrying to cross the flooded Gasconade River The aide and his horse sadlydrowned but Pulitzer a strong swimmer and his horse survived
He dragged himself up the bank drenched to the skin and worried by theprospect of having to catch his mount which had started off on a cross-countrygallop Then he saw an elderly farmer sitting on a tree stump watching himwith intense interest
ldquoThe first thing he didrdquo said Pulitzer ldquowas to take me to the farmhouseand hand me a tumbler three parts full of whisky When I refused this helooked at me as though he thought I was mad lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquotdrinkrsquo he said When I told him no I didnrsquot he said nothing but brought mefood After I had eaten he pulled out a plug of tobacco bit off a large pieceand offered the plug to me I thanked him but declined It took him some timeto get over that but at last he said lsquoYer mean to tell me yer donrsquot chewrsquo I saidno I didnrsquot He dropped the subject and for an hour or so we talked about thewar and the crops and the proposed railroad That man was a gentleman Hedidnrsquot take another drink or another chew of tobacco all the time Finallybefore he went to bed he produced a pipe filled it and handed the tobacco tome but I failed him again and he put his own pipe back in his pocket firmlybut sorrowfully
ldquoWell my God It was nearly half an hour before he spoke again and I wasbeginning to think that I had really wounded his feelings by declining his hos-pitable offers when he came over and stood in front of me with an expressionof profound pity lsquoYoung fellerrsquo he said lsquoyou seem to be right smart and able for
10 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 10
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
a furriner but let me tell you yoursquoll never make a successful American untilyer learn to drink and chew and smokersquo rdquo
Next morning having dried his clothes and caught his horse Pulitzerstarted to work for what would become the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Itrequired him to master complicated articles of incorporation involving twelvecounties which he later recorded from memory This feat so amazed thelawyers who had steered him to the job that they encouraged him to become alawyer letting him study at a desk in their office and giving him a free run oftheir law library
He took time off on March 6 1867 to visit St Louisrsquos Court of CriminalCorrection where he renounced his allegiance to the emperor of Austria andbecame an American citizen
Shortly after his sixteen-year-old brother Albert left Hungary to join himin St Louis Having already taught himself English Albert soon got workteaching German to local high school students
Joseph was a remarkably quick study The following year in 1868 he wasadmitted to the bar and became a notary public But handicapped by hisyouthmdashhe was now twenty-onemdashodd appearance scruffy clothes and still im-perfect English he attracted few clients and none of consequence One aferryboat captain who wanted some documents sealed immediately recog-nized him as the youngster he had hired to stoke the boiler on his boat ldquoHestopped shortrdquo Pulitzer recalled ldquoas if he had seen a ghost and said lsquoSay ainrsquotyou the damned cuss that I fired off my boatrsquo I told him yes I was He was themost surprised man I ever saw but after he had sworn himself hoarse he facedthe facts and gave me his businessrsquo rdquo
Despite his apparent failure as a lawyer Pulitzer caught the attention ofCarl Schurz the high-principled other coeditor and co-owner of the influentialand prosperous Westliche Post As a youth in Germany Schurz had beeninspired to become a revolutionary by Gottfried Kinkel his art history professorat the University of Bonn In 1848 Kinkel founded the newspaper DemocraticUnion which Schurz helped him to edit and a year later they both joined anuprising against the oppressive Prussian government
Prussian troops captured Kinkel who was sentenced to life in SpandauPrison Schurz escaped arrest by hiding in a sewer Then he risked his life tofree Kinkel by traveling on a false passport to Berlin where he persuaded asympathetic prison guard to lower Kinkel by rope to the ground Waitingnearby with a horse and carriage Schurz eventually helped Kinkel reach Scot-land After escaping from Germany himself Schurz landed in England wherehe married He and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1856
As a political activist Schurz had enthusiastically campaigned for Lincolnwho in 1861 had appointed him minister to Spain Schurz had hardly arrivedin Madrid when he turned back to fight in the Civil War as a Union major gen-eral He led his mostly German American troops at Bull Run Chancellorsville
The Fighting Immigrant 11
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 11
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
Gettysburg and Chattanooga and fought alongside Sherman in North Caro-lina Idolized by his men Schurz in turn idolized Lincoln
After the war although Schurz devoted more time to politics than to theWestliche Post he did discuss the paperrsquos need for a new reporter with his part-ner Preetorius and the city editor Louis Willich They eventually agreed on ashort list either Pulitzer inexperienced but promising or a veteran reporternamed Ahrenberg Willich had his own agenda Afraid that the experiencedman might covet his job and unseat him he put in a strong plug for hiring theldquoharmlessrdquo Pulitzermdashand prevailed
ldquoI could not believe itrdquo Pulitzer recalled years later ldquoI the unknown theluckless almost a boy of the streets selected for such responsibilitymdashit allseemed like a dreamrdquo
But it was a nightmare for Willich He had chosen the wrong manPulitzer willingly worked nonstop all day and night and into the next morningturned in reams of good copy covered breaking news and politics showingsuch a mastery of the job and tenacity in getting a story that he was promoted
12 Pulitzer
Carl Schurz had beenLincolnrsquos minister toSpain
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 12
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
over Willich to virtual partnership with the paperrsquos owners He was also a threatto rival St Louis reporters who tried to put down this newcomer who wasscooping them They scoffed at his enthusiasm shaky English large nosesmall chin and tall gaunt figure But ldquoit was not long before the editors of theEnglish sheets were advising their young gentlemen to cease guying lsquoJoeyrsquo andendeavor to imitate him if they expected to hold their jobs as it was a littlemonotonous to be compelled to secure the best stuff by translating from thecolumns of the Westliche Postrdquo
Among those ldquothreatenedrdquo reporters were Henry Morton Stanley laterfamous for tracking down Livingstone in Africa and William Fayelmdashwho gavethis account of Pulitzer in action ldquoOne sultry day nearly all of the reporters ofSt Louis were drawn to an alley behind the Old Post Office at Second andOlive Streets by some incident Suddenly there appeared among us the newreporter of whom we had all heard but whom we had not yet seen He haddashed out of the office without stopping to put on his coat or collar In onehand he had a pad of paper and in the other a pencil He announced that hewas the reporter for the Westliche Post and began to ask questions of everybodyin sight I remarked to my companions that for a beginner he was exasperat-ingly inquisitive The manner in which he went to work to dig out the factshowever showed that he was a born reporterrdquo In Fayelrsquos opinion Pulitzer wassuch a go-getter that ldquohe became a positive annoyance to others who felt lessinclined to work and as it was considered quite fitting and proper in those daysto guy the reporters of the German papers the English reporters did not hesi-tate to try to curb his eagerness for news On more than one occasion he wassent out from the Coronerrsquos office on a wild-goose chase But it was soon ob-served that while taking this banter in good part he never relaxed his effortsrdquo
His publishers were so dazzled by this talented workaholic and his knowl-edge of the law that they sent Pulitzer to cover the state legislature in Missourirsquoscapital Jefferson City There he continued to work sixteen-hour days impress-ing one colleague with his ldquounquenchable thirst for newsrdquo and another bywhat appeared to be his ldquochief ambitionmdashto root out public abuses and exposeevildoers In work of this kind he was particularly indefatigable and absolutelyfearlessrdquo He was also full of surprises a sort of intellectual Superman who dis-armed the opposition When for example a secret Democratic caucus washeld in Jefferson City only reporters for Democratic papers were invited andthe doors were locked But early in the session Pulitzer broke open the doorssending the doorkeepers sprawling on the floor and calmly walked to thereportersrsquo table took a seat and opened his notebook while the memberswatched in silent astonishment No one objected or even questioned his pres-ence The next day his was the only Republican paper in the state with a reportof the meeting
The cynical deal-making politicians and corrupt lobbyists he despised andtried to expose ridiculed his efforts and appearance mimicking his guttural
The Fighting Immigrant 13
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 13
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
speech by calling him ldquoChoe Bulitzerrdquo ldquoJoey the Germanrdquo and ldquoJoey the JewrdquoBut he had equally influential admirers especially Lieutenant Governor HenryBrockmeyer a philosopher and nephew of the German statesman BismarckldquoThey thinkrdquo said Brockmeyer ldquobecause he trundles about with himself a bigcobnose and bullfrog eyes that he has no sense but I tell you he possessesgreater dialectical ability than all of them put together Mark me he is now en-gaged in the making of a greater man than Editor Preetorius or even Schurzrdquo
In 1869 although hersquod only recently moved to the state Carl Schurz waselected US senator for Missouri the first German-born American to enter theSenate It encouraged Pulitzer to dream of a political career for himself
14 Pulitzer
c01qxd 73001 914 AM Page 14
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
15
c h a p t e r 2
Upright Spiritedand Dangerous
1869ndash1872
21 to 25 years old
U nexpectedly Pulitzerrsquos political dreams became a reality of sorts whenhe attended a Republican Party meeting on December 14 1869 as a
reporter and leftmdashthe most surprised man in the placemdashas their candidate forMissouri state senator Attorney Chester Krum first choice to fight for the seatdeclined to run Everyone else who was proposed chickened out And whocould blame them The Democrats had the election in the bag When Pulitzersimply there to report the event left the room for a moment someone light-heartedly proposed him His nomination was greeted with a storm of applausea mixture of derision delight and desperation What had they to lose Hereturned to renewed applause tried to take it as the joke it was meant to be butcouldnrsquot resist the unanimous ovation He called their bluff and accepted say-ing that he had not sought the honor but would campaign in earnest He wasof course supported by his own paper which characterized him as a thor-oughly upright young man with spirit education and talent
His confident Democratic opponent Samuel Grantham a local tobac-conist was always the front-runner his only disadvantage pointed out by theWestliche Post was that he had fought in the Confederate Armymdashthough thiswas hardly an obstacle in Missouri
Pulitzer kept his word to run a lively race From morning to night heexhorted his constituency to support him and went from door to door to can-vass the voters arousing an unusual interest in the campaign The MissouriDemocrat a Republican publication despite its name hung back waiting until
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 15
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
voting day December 21 then gave him a halfhearted endorsement ldquoMrPulitzerrdquo it read ldquois neither an old resident a great man nor a rich man Hehas lived here only since his return from service in the army But he is a youngman of thorough honesty [who understands] the workings of our City Govern-ment and he has a fine education and natural abilityrdquo A snowstorm kept theold and infirm indoors which seemed another strike against him But thosewho braved the weather beat the odds They gave Pulitzer an upset victory of209 to 147 He was four years too young to be a state senator so when theproud twenty-one-year-old took his seat in the legislature on January 5 he wasbreaking the law If anyone caught on they kept quiet And he soon ldquoagedrdquohimself with a reddish beard and mustache Depending on his mood it gavehim a benign or a ferocious appearance
Afraid of losing their hot property to politics the owners of the WestlichePost persuaded him to staymdashand handle both jobs
In the state senate he held his fire briefly voting in 1870 with the majorityto support the Fifteenth Amendment which gave blacks and other minoritymales the right to vote But almost everywhere he looked he found crookeddeals among the judges lawyers and many fellow Republicans who wereruthless in their efforts to sustain the system As Seitz explained during theReconstruction period the halls of the legislature were crowded ldquowith adven-turers and the lobby with agents of corruptionrdquo These Pulitzer attacked in hispaper and on the state Senate floor ldquowith all the zeal of his fiery soul He wassoon in a very unhappy position The old hands in the lobby tormented himincessantly while his high sense of duty and lofty ideas put him much out ofplace among his careless and often corrupt colleagues He fought for honestyagainst the sale of law and engendered much hostility To be in a position tofollow up his crusades on the floor with the power of a newspaper of suchstrength as the Westliche Post then enjoyed was held unfair in the eyes of hisfellow members with the result that he soon became a storm centerrdquo
To their alarm Pulitzer dared to introduce a bill to abolish their powerbasemdashthe five-member County Court This judicial den of thieves used theirposition to fleece the public appointed all county officials and fattened theirown wallets with kickbacks from lobbyists and contractors
One of these judges heading a committee to oversee the building of acounty poorhouse supplied the building material himself submitted aninflated bill approved it and then cashed it from the public treasury UntilPulitzer arrived such shady business would have remained unreported Theplacid local press was no threat to the judges lobbyists and contractors whodespised its reporters as schnorrers (spongers)
To make his point Pulitzer focused on Edward Augustine a lobbyist andcontractor who profited from the crooked system and had been assured that hewould get the contract for several hundred thousand dollars to build a newinsane asylum at Allenton Fearing that Pulitzerrsquos reform bill would lose him
16 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 16
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
this plum Augustine and several other lobbyists arrived in Jefferson City tourge its defeat
In his dual role of reporter-politician Pulitzer had questioned Augustinersquosmotives and asked who was financing him Claiming his honor had beenimpugned Augustine threatened to ldquoinsult the young jackanapes to his facerdquoThey confronted each other at Schmidtrsquos Hotel where political delegates fromSt Louis gathered for a meeting on the evening of January 27 When Augus-tine a bully with a prizefighterrsquos physique arrived he shook a meaty finger atthe tall skinny Pulitzer and yelled ldquoYoursquore a damned liarrdquo
Everyone expected Pulitzer to respond in kind Instead he merely toldhim not to use such language Even when taunted by his friend St Louis Dis-patch reporter Wallace Gruelle ldquoWhy didnrsquot you knock that man down whenhe called you a damned liar You must keep up the esprit de corps manrdquoPulitzer muttered incoherently and walked away In fact to the fierce but frailPulitzer his only hope of saving face was with a bat or a bullet
There were conflicting reports of what happened next Not in dispute isthat Pulitzer went to his nearby room and told his roommate Anthony Ittnerthat Augustine had insulted him and he intended to ldquoreturn the complimentwith interestrdquo He then took a four-barreled Sharprsquos pistol from his suitcase
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 17
Joseph Keppler cartoon of Joseph Pulitzer (standing left) at a church festival in St Louis
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 17
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
unobserved by Ittner and returned to the hotel En route he met Gruelle head-ing for the telegraph office and advised him ldquoIf yoursquoll wait a little while yoursquollhave an itemrdquo
Pulitzer was about to see more action than during the Civil War He foundAugustine still in the hotel and insulted him with a few well-chosen adjectivesechoes of his military days Augustine held his ground and kept his cool say-ing ldquoI want to tell you in clear and simple English that you are a damned liarand puppyrdquo Then he rushed him As he did Pulitzer raised his gun They fellto the floor locked together in a frenzied tussle during which Pulitzer firedtwice One bullet hit Augustine below the knee the other made a hole in thefloor Pulitzer had a head wound The place was in an uproar as politicians andreporters tried to separate the contestants Someone grabbed Pulitzerrsquos gunand someone else called for a doctor
Accounts of what happened next differAccording to Pulitzer he knew that Augustine always carried a revolver
and brass knuckles so when Augustine came at him holding ldquoa yellow gleam-ing instrument in his raised handrdquo and smashed him over the head he firedhis own gun in self-defense Other witnesses claimed that Augustine did nothave a gun and that Pulitzer got the head wound when he hit the floor duringthe struggle
Pulitzerrsquos roommate Ittner in a bowling alley when he heard of the shoot-ing hurried to Schmidtrsquos Hotel surprised to see Pulitzer looking quite cheerfuland washing blood from a cut on his head ldquoHello Tonyrdquo Pulitzer greeted himwith a big grin
Strangely Augustine was still in the same room sitting in an armchair andsmoking a cigar He seemed to be feeling little pain and was surrounded by anexcited group of friends One of them suggested that they punish Pulitzer ldquoasthe officers of the law in Jefferson City were not in his opinion very eager toprotect citizens from assaultrdquo But no one took him up on it and Pulitzerreturned to his room with Ittner unmolested
Press reports of the fight also differed One pro-Pulitzer written by Gruellestated that Augustine did have a gun ldquoTonight [January 27] about half past7 orsquoclock Mr Pulitzer shot at and wounded Mr Augustine in the office of theSchmidt Hotel It appears that Mr Pulitzermdashand by the way I am on Pulitzerrsquosside not because he is a newspaper man but he is a clever affable gentlemanOnly two shots were fired one of which took effect in Augustinersquos leg Augustinestruck Pulitzer on a head with a Derringer [here Gruelle supports Pulitzerrsquosaccount] or some other kind of pistol cutting his scalp and ending the battlerdquo
The Missouri Democratrsquos anti-Pulitzer version implying that he shot anunarmed man reads ldquoAugustine called him a puppy when Pulitzer calledhim a liar Augustine started toward him when Pulitzer drew his pistol aimingat his breast but Augustine seized his arm and directed the shot downwardwhich took effect in the right leg below the knee A second shot struck the
18 Pulitzer
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 18
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19
floor when Augustine pressed him into a corner and knocked him down cut-ting his head severely The act is generally declared one of shameless and mur-derous intent [and] a disgrace to St Louisrdquo
Gruelle again came to Pulitzerrsquos defense in a letter to the ldquoEditors of Dis-patchrdquo I know the correspondent of the Democrat to be a perfect gentlemanyet misled doubtless by rumor he has done Mr Pulitzer injustice I am noupholder of assassination but because a man unfortunately gets himself into ascrape I do not see the necessity of hounding him down Politically MrPulitzer and I are enemies Personally we are friends I have stood by him andI will stand by him I may not justify the step he took but then I want justicedone this manrdquo
Gruelle wrote for his own paper the following day a lighthearted pieceapparently meant to ease the situation and showing no sympathy for thewounded Augustine ldquoPulitzer is blamed more than he ought to be As I toldhim last night after he reached his room I had a great notion to shoot him foraiming at Augustinersquos breast and hitting him only in the leg Bad marksman-ship is to be deprecated on all occasions and when a member of the pressmdashand a legislator to bootmdashessays to burn gunpowder I want him to go the wholehog [I am going to] put Pulitzer under a severe course of training and I willbet at the end of that time he can snuff a candle at ten steps If he canrsquot I nowand here pledge you my word of honor that I will shoot him myselfrdquo
A policeman arrested Pulitzer and took him and Ittner to a magistrateIttner posted bond and they were both free to spend the night at home In courtnext morning the magistrate gave Pulitzer a small fine for disturbing thepeace But there was more to come Although Augustine had only sustained aflesh wound in his leg Pulitzer was also charged with assault with intent to killhis trial to take place in the late fall
The next day in the state legislature a fellow senator proposed appointing acommittee to investigate the fight intending at least to embarrass Pulitzer andat most to cripple his political career Others heatedly opposed the idea afraidapparently that it might boomerang and expose them to investigation for minorpeccadilloes such as fraud and fornication The proposal lost by a vote of 58to 42
Waiting to come to trial through the summer and fall Pulitzer continuedto work as both politician and reporter Part of his job was to scan other foreignand domestic newspapers for story leads especially the lively New York Sunwhich specialized in human-interest stories and what Pulitzer agreed was thebrightest and sprightliest news He sent a fan letter to its editor and part-ownerCharles A Dana calling it ldquothe most piquant entertaining and without excep-tion the best newspaper in the worldrdquo which Dana published in the Sun onAugust 24 1871
Three months later on November 20 1871 Pulitzer stood trial in Jeffer-son City accused of shooting Augustine with murder in mind Defended by
Upright Spirited and Dangerous 19
c02qxd 73001 915 AM Page 19