USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 41
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GEORGE W. CHILDS.
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GEORGE WILLIAM CHILDS.
T HE career of a man like Mr. Childs is full of instructive lessons in perse- verance and industry. Born in Baltimore in 1829, of parents in the middle walk of life, he received a common-school education, and entered the United States navy when only thirteen years of age, where he remained for fifteen months. Even in that comparatively short space of time he gained a full knowl- edge of order and discipline, which have since marked his conduct of affairs. This term of hardy service also had its effect in aiding his physical development and permanently benefiting his health. In 1844 he came to Philadelphia, as he thought it afforded a better opportunity and a broader field of business than his native city did. Although depending entirely upon himself, young Childs, then only fifteen years old, soon managed to obtain employment in the store of a bookseller named Thomson, at Sixth and Arch streets. Here he worked early and late, applying himself to business in a manner very unusual to boys of his age. He once mentioned to the writer of this sketch that he took but little interest in the customary sports of the lads in his neighborhood, and found more enjoyment in acquiring a thorough knowledge of his business. In this he suc- ceeded so well that his employer soon recognized his value, and intrusted him with work requiring rare judgment and taet. He was selected to attend the book auctions to make purchases, and by the time he was sixteen years of age he regularly attended the great trade sales in New York and Boston, where he purchased whole editions at a time. At eighteen years of age he had saved up a few hundred dollars, and with this limited capital, aided by his experience, he resolved to set up in business for himself. He obtained a small room in the building then occupied by the Public Ledger, at Third and Chestnut streets, and began business.
Here he worked hard, and success attended his efforts. He soon gained an extensive acquaintance among publishers, and was recognized as a young man of great business talent and sagacity. So favorable a reputation was not without its advantages, and by the time he was twenty-one he was offered a partnership in the publishing house of R. E. Peterson & Co. He accepted it, and the firm was changed to Childs & Peterson. Both partners went to work with a will, and as they possessed good judgment their business increased rapidly. Mr. Peterson compiled a work from numerous sources entitled "Familiar Science," in which much valuable information was set forth in an interesting manner. Mr. Childs, with great energy, pushed the sale of the book to two hundred thousand copies, and had it placed on the list of studies in many schools where it is still retained. The next venture of the firm was with a handsome edition of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane's "Arctic Explorations," which was largely advertised and had an enormous sale. The number of copies sold can be imagined when it is stated
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GEORGE W. CHILDS.
that the firm paid Dr. Kane nearly $70,000 as royalty. Shortly after this the civil war broke out, and the suffering of Southern loyalists excited much atten- tion, the most notable case being that of Parson Brownlow, of Tennessee. Childs & Peterson took advantage of the sensation, and issued a description of the cruelties practised in the South, written by Parson Brownlow. Before the book appeared Mr. Childs had so skilfully advertised it that public curiosity was ex- cited, and it sold tremendously. Fifty thousand copies were disposed of in a short time, and Mr. Child's handed over to the Southern parson $50,000. This was the only work of a sensational character ever published by the firm, but the interest manifested in it made it an exception to Mr. Childs' customary rule. Among the other very successful books published by the firm, many of them through his advice, were Allibone's " Dictionary of Authors," Bouvier's "Law Dictionary " and "Institutes of American Law," Sharswood's " Blackstone," Fletcher's " Brazil," and Lossing's " Illustrated History of the Civil War." All this time, while the firm was prospering, Mr. Childs had one object in view. Nearly ten years before he had said to a friend in his little office at Third and Chestnut streets, "If I live I will become the owner of the Public Ledger." He was only a boy at that time, but the remark was not uttered in boyish boast nor as a jest. It was said with the utmost sincerity, and with a positive conviction that the words would be verified some day. The gentleman to whom he spoke, the late Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie, was deeply impressed at the time, and years afterward recalled them in a letter to Mr. Childs. When he did so the prophecy had come true, and George William Childs had become proprietor of the most widely read newspaper in Philadelphia, the Public Ledger.
In 1836, when Mr. Childs was a school-boy seven years of age, in Baltimore, three journeyman printers determined to establish a penny paper in this city. Messrs. Swain, Abell and Simmons started their journal and named it The Public Leder. It was a sheet 1532 by 2118 inches, and had four columns on a page. Its first office was in the Arcade, which extended from Chestnut to Jayne street, between Sixth and Seventh, and its editor was Russell Jarvis, a bold and dash- ing writer. The Daily Transcript, another penny piper, was afterwards con- solidated with The Ledger, and its title has ever since appeared on the paper. The Ledger at once gained the sympathy and support of the respectable portion of the community by the stand it took on all public questions. When Pennsyl- vania Hall was burned by a mob to prevent the delivery of an anti-slavery lec- ture, Tite Ledger denounced the perpetrators of the outrage in unmeasured terms. This caused considerable excitement, as many of its readers were pro-slavery men. It also denounced the excesses of the medical students, who carried things with a high hand in those days, beating watchmen, twisting off door- knockers, and creating disturbances in theatres and public halls. The attention of the authorities was called to these practices in a four-column editorial in The Ledzer, which had the effect of promptly suppressing the young gentlemen's amusement. In these and many other instances The Ledger had supported law
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and order, and gained the thanks of the community. The result of this was that it prospered exceedingly, and was compelled several times to increase its size and remove to more commodious locations. It was at this period that Mr. Childs formed his resolution to become its proprietor at some future day.
The opportunity came sooner than he expected. After the war broke out the price of white paper, and other articles necessary for its production, advanced to very high figures. Labor and material doubled in price, and in 1864 the pub- lishers were losing money daily on their publication of a penny paper. Every issue cost them $4So more than they received for it, the annual loss being $150,000. All this time its circulation kept up and its columns were well filled with advertisements. Mr. Childs, learning that the publishers were anxious to dispose of it, looked carefully into the matter. He made a close calculation of the expense of publishing it, and despite the advice of many of his friends, who thought that he was throwing his money away, purchased the whole property on December 5th, 1864, for a sum only little in excess of its annual loss. Mr. Childs immediately showed how the paper could be published at a profit. He doubled its price and increased the advertising rates to what he considered a compen- sating sum. The change was at once felt, and advertisers and subscribers dropped off in considerable numbers. Then Mr. Childs conceded a point and reduced the subscription price from twelve to ten cents per week. The Ledger had become a necessity in many families, and the subscribers, recognizing the justice of Mr. Childs' proceeding, began to return. Then new ones came in and the paper began to gain gradually. In a short time it was established on a substantial and paying footing, and the ominous prophecies that it would be a failure were shown to be without foundation. In the meantime Mr. Childs was working with all his strength on his new purchase. He superintended every- thing, and for several years did not leave the editorial rooms until midnight. His hand was over every department and his eye saw everything. He began by making various changes in the character, and strove to elevate the tone of the paper. Ile made the rule that no advertisement having the slightest taint of bad morals should appear in its columns. This determination led to the exclusion of a large number of advertisements, amounting to at least fifteen thousand dollars annually. In return, however, it fairly created the classes of advertise- ments for which it is noted. The " Wants," " Boarding," " For Sale " and "To Let" advertisements formed the great feature of the paper then and have since. They are read as eagerly as the news is, and among a certain class of people it would be considered a violation of all the properties if a family did not advertise the death of one of its members in The Ledger. The " secret societies " and "relig- ious" notices also form a principal portion of the paper. While exercising this careful supervision of the advertising columns Mr. Childs did not neglect the news and editorial departments. Nothing was allowed to appear in the paper that might wound the feelings of any person, and any attempt at sensation was carefully avoided. The effect of these rules was seen in the constantly increasing
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business and circulation of the paper. The building at the corner of Third and Chestnut streets became too contracted, and in 1866 the handsome brown stone building at the corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets was purchased, together with the adjoining lots of ground. Upon these the finest newspaper publication office in the city was fitted up and formally opened with interesting ceremonies, fol- lowed by a grand banquet, on the 20th of June, 1867, which was attended by many of the most prominent men in the country. From that day the career of The Ledger under Mr. Childs' management has been even and uneventful. It has been successful beyond all expectations, owing to his liberal and judicious course. While he is assisted by able and faithful heads of departments, he has never once slackened in his interest in managing its publication. He has shown that a losing business may be made to succeed by applying tact and perseverance to the management of its affairs.
Amid the cares of business Mr. Childs has always found an opportunity to do good with the wealth he has accumulated. His liberality is proverbial, and there are few public movements to which he is not a contributor, always with the stip- ulation that his name shall not be made known in the matter. A window of stained glass was put up in Westminster Abbey in memory of George Herbert and William Cowper, by Mr. Childs' instructions and at his own expense, merely from a suggestion made by the late Dean Stanley. In England this aid was regarded as a graceful and fitting tribute from an American citizen. He also contributed handsomely to the monument to Leigh Hunt's memory and the window in memory of Thomas Moore at Bronham. His generosity and liberal- ity to his employés and persons in distress can scarcely be realized by those who do not know him thoroughly. llis dinner to the newsboys every Fourth of July gives more pleasure to the little urchins than any other gift possibly could. Among other benefactions of Mr. Childs was the presentation of a large lot of ground in Woodlands Cemetery to the Philadelphia Typographical Society. The lot is enclosed by a handsome marble wall and has a gateway of elegant design. These are among the good acts of his life, which show his character and his con- stant desire to help his fellow-man.
Ilis social qualities attract to his elegant home the leading people of almost every nation as his guests. Among those who have been glad to call him their friend are the Emperor of Brazil, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Dufferin, Dean Stanley, Canon Kingsley, Charles Dickens, Longfellow, Holmes, Bancroft, Gen- eral Grant, and George Peabody. In the vast array of friends with whom he corresponded were Washington Irving, William H. Prescott, Nathaniel Haw- thorne, Edward Everett, John P. Kennedy, Thomas H. Benton, William H. Seward, William C. Bryant, Horace Greeley, Thurlow Weed, Peter Cooper, G. P. R. James, Mary Cowden Clarke, George S. Hillard, Fitz Greene Halleck, William Gilmore Simms, Jared Sparks, Thomas Hughes, M. P., George William Curtis, John Lothrop Motley, John Murray, and Dr. Francis Lieber. Surrounded
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by his friends, either in his elegant country seat at Wootton or in his comfortable home on West Walnut street, Mr. Childs dispenses an almost royal hospitality.
In the summer of 1887 President Cleveland appointed Mr. Childs one of the. annual Board of Visitors to West Point and he was unanimously elected Chair- man by the members. He signalized his visit to the Academy by having the portraits of Grant, Sherman and Sheridan painted and placed in the great hall of the Post, and by having headstones and tablets placed at the graves in the ceme- tery to mark the resting places of many distinguished officers which he thought were not adequately honored in this way.
Mr. Childs has been frequently solicited by his fellow-citizens to permit hin- self to be a candidate for various offices of public honor and trust and has been generally named for the Presidency, but he has uniformly declined all these -marks, of public confidence, preferring to devote his attention to his great news- paper, which he has recently enlarged and greatly improved in many respects.
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ALEXANDER K. MCCLURE.
ALEXANDER KELLEY MCCLURE.
A LEXANDER KELLEY MCCLURE was born in Sherman's valley, Perry county, Pa., on the 9th of January, 1828. There was nothing either in the circum- stance of his birth or its surroundings to indicate that he had been destincd for any remarkable work. His early years were spent upon his father's farm ; his attendance at school, which he never liked, being in the week-about principle with his brother. He was noted more for his reckless deviltry than for studious- ness or familiarity with any branch of study, and it was but the natural result of his bent of mind that he should carly leave such scenes to look for more exciting labor. At fourteen he became apprenticed to a tanner, James Marshall by name, with whom he remained four years. Leaving his old master he came to this city for work, which, owing to the depression in leather circles, was refused, and he was glad to return to Mr. Marshall after a fruitless trip to New York and west as far as Iowa.
During his apprenticeship he had been a frequent visitor at the office of Judge Baker, then and now the editor of the Perry Freeman, and under the advice of the latter had read hard in politics and written occasional articles for publication. About this time the judge was applied to by the Whigs of Juniata county for an editor for a new Whig organ which they proposed to start. This position Judge Baker urged McClure to take, and although discouraged by his father and his former employer, and fearful of his ability to fill it, the latter finally consented, beginning his editorial work when but nineteen years of age. He mastered the mechanical details of the office, and ran the paper with the aid of only an apprentice ; placing the paper upon so successful a basis, that it not only lived through the trying times of that period, but is the leading Republican paper in that region to-day. Mr. McClure's management of the Funiata Sentinel is still remembered by the pioneers of that section. His caustic pen cut right and left. Positively fearless himself, he made friends and foes on every hand. Before he was twenty-one years old he was a conferee to a Congressional Conference in the interest of Andrew G. Curtin. The latter was defeated after a bitter fight, but from the intimacy that sprang up during the progress of the contest was born that mutual friendship between these two remarkable men that has never wavered through the mutations of time and politics, and that is firmer to-day than in their youth. It is a peculiar fact that in the same year was also born Mr. McClure's dislike for the political methods of Simon Cameron-a dislike that time has in nowise weakened.
By this time McClure's influence had begun to make itself felt. In the year 1849 he took an active part in Pennsylvania politics. He had previously been elected Burgess of Mifflin, and was the recognized leader of the younger and more aggressive element in the county. Fitted for this position by habit and inclina-
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ALEXANDER K. M'CLURE.
tion, his influence was eagerly sought for by the ambitious politicians of that vicinity. He rendered good service on the stump and in his paper to W. F. Johnson, the Whig nominee for Governor, and went to Harrisburg to the latter's inauguration. Nor was his work forgotten by Governor Johnson. On the day he became of age McClure's commission as a member of the Governor's staff was placed in his hand, thus giving him additional prestige throughout the entire State. In 1850, through Curtin's influence, he was appointed Deputy United States Marshal for Juniata county, and about this time began the study of law.
But he was not destined to pursue the quiet life of a rural editor. The marked ability with which his paper had been conducted had attracted notice beyond the limits of his county, and when an opportunity was given John M. Pomeroy, of Chambersburg, to buy a half-interest in the Chambersburg Reposi- tory, he promptly purchased it for young McClure. Removing to the seat of his new labors he at once assumed a prominent place in political circles. The Whig Convention at Lancaster in 1853 nominated him by acclamation for Auditor-General when he was only twenty-five-the youngest man ever named by any party in Pennsylvania for a State office. Defeated because of the over- whelming adverse majority he lost no time in returning to more aggressive service with his pen. His paper bore a leading part in the preliminary battles against the advocates of slavery, who at this period in national and State history threatened national dissolution as the price of abolition. When the Franklin Whigs, for temporary benefit, joined with the Know-Nothing party they led a way in which McClure could neither follow nor lead, and he promptly sold his paper to begin the practice of law. In 1856, after settling the troubles between the Northeastern Railroad and the Erie rioters, by virtue of a Governor's ap- pointment, he was a delegate to the Fremont Convention, subsequently making a brilliant canvass for the first Republican candidate.
In 1857 he was elected to the State Legislature from Franklin county, and was re-elected in 1858. Exciting as had been his previous career, it was fated to become insignificant in comparison with that which followed. Warring factions and rival leaders had created dissensions in the Whig or Republican camp, which the war had not yet come to heal. As a candidate for the State Senatorship of his district, it was Mr. McClure's duty to unite the party if he could, and get it into trim for the national contest in 1860. He bent himself reluctantly to this task, realizing its responsibility. Local historians testify to the vigor of his can- prign. He spoke by night and day in every school district in the county. He organized every township in the district. And when the vote was counted, it was found that he had been elected by a majority of 400 in a district strongly Democratic.
When the Republican National Convention met in 1860 the Pennsylvania delegation had been instructed for Simon Cameron. Seward was the choice of over two-thirds of the convention, but no Republican triumph was possible with-
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out the then doubtful States of Pennsylvania and Indiana, which it was feared Seward could not carry. Anxiety sat upon the face of every delegate in that now famous convention. Consultations were held, and between the Indiana leaders and McClure and Curtin, it was arranged that the Pennsylvania delegates should break away from Cameron and vote for Abraham Lincoln. Whether McClure turned to the task of convincing the delegates of the necessity for such a course any the more gladly because of his old enmity for Cameron, those who best know can best decide. Certainly the work was well done, and Lincoln was nominated. McClure was elected Chairman of the Republican State Committee, and made a campaign of unsurpassed vigor and dash. To this day he refers with pride to that contest, in which a record was kept of every cent that was expended by the committee, and a detailed account finally submitted. In the Senate McClure led his party in action and thought; his speech, foreshadowing a bloody war and the abolition of slavery, being repudiated by Republicans at the time of its delivery, but afterwards circulated by the Republican managers. Advanced thinkers seldom have a more complete triumph than was Senator McClure's in this notable instance.
There is no more brilliant record than that made by Senator McClure during his Senatorial term. His policy never wavered; it was always aggressive, bold and vigorous in support of Curtin and the war. As Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs his advice was often invited and accepted by Governor Cur- tin, whose faith in the subject of this sketch never faltered. The natural energy of his high order of intellect found vent not only in State but in national coun- cils, and a close intimacy with President Lincoln speedily followed his advent into this broader field. The close of his Senatorial term witnessed his appoint- ment as Adjutant-General, with the duty assigned of superintending the Penn- sylvania draft. After the State's quota was filled, he resigned this position for the purpose of again practising the law, to which, however, he gave only brief atten- tion, as he shortly afterwards again purchased the Chambersburg Repository.
In 1863 he declined the Chairmanship of the State Central Committee, but bent every energy to secure the re-election of his old friend Curtin. In 1864 he was again a delegate to the National Convention, and in the same year declined the State Chairmanship, again accepting the Republican nomination for the Legislature in his district, which he again carried in the face of its adverse vote.
The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, and the subsequent burning of Chambersburg, are historical facts familiar to every intelligent reader. The torch was rudely applied to many a home that industry had reared, and every dollar that McClure owned went to satisfy the appetite of the flames. In 1866 he was almost penniless, besides being broken in health. A year among the Rocky Mountains renewed his health, but still more seriously depleted his purse. Again a dele- gate to the National Convention which nominated Grant in 1868, he fol- lowed that service by speeches upon the stump in several States of the Union. After the triumphant close of this campaign he decided to make Philadelphia his
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home, his law partnership with John Stewart, the Independent leader, into which he had entered shortly before, being abandoned for this purpose.
It is probable that but few men dreamed of the work this man was yet to do after his arrival in this city. Perhaps he did not expect it himself. For four years he led the quiet, studious life of a lawyer, but with restored health and better financial prospects, the old longing for excitement returned, and the year 1872 found him again in the field. The excesses of Republican profligacy had turned him against the Republican party, and with his old friend Curtin he now joined the Greeley movement, and became one of its leading spirits. Always independent in thought, he then assumed that midway position which has been his ever since. In compliance with a petition of citizens from the Fourth Sena- torial District, he consented to become an Independent candidate for the State Senate, speaking during his canvass from store-boxes or tables, at every street corner in his district. The result of the election was the memorable contest in the Senate, which ended in the seating of McClure.
His position in that body was at once unique and commanding. With his old fearlessness he abandoned all party ties, and brought the vast resources of his mind to bear upon the task of rooting up party evils. It mattered little to him by whom a measure was proposed-if bad, he assailed it with his invective and sarcasm; if good, he gave it his support. The measures of reform he introduced were framed to prevent the jobs of jobbers on both sides, and the best evidence of their thoroughness and spirit is found in the fact that leaders on both sides combined to defeat them and weaken McClure. If he made many friends in the Senate while representing the Fourth Senatorial District, they were not political friends. Succeeding events have testified to the political enemies he made at that time.
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