THE HEARST BOOK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 306, 15 November 1906, Page 1

THE HEARST BOOK.

A NEWSPAPER MIL,DIONAcRE. i The campaign of Mr W. K. Hearst, the proprietor of the Now York "World" and other journals, for the Goveroorship of New York State, .when he was defeated by Jlir Huphes, attracted much lattentioniu America, particularly in view of the fact that Mr Hearst is aspiring lo ibe nominaten as the Democratic candidate at the next . Presidential election. The following description of Mr Hearst from Collior's Wooklv" is interesting- in view of the recent ca;ble messages. Hearst does not sit at a dcsK with a row of push-buttons which will summon his different heads of departments ; he is given to none of the formulas which n.flke the •head of an institution palpable to the average perception. When he is in the mood there is no side of the comic "sups" or of sensational news displav or business management too small for his consideration There are many examples in point which his associates recount. People who follow such horrors will remember the famous Guldensuppe case, whico occurred in the riotous days of the "Journal s beginning. To those who do not I will sav that a o'crman midwife, one . Mrs Nack, and her new paramour, Thorn, murdered Guldenstippe, her old paramour, and cut his bodv into sections in a bath tub. The discovery oi first one and then another of the sections weated one of these sensations which makes papers sell when the general public scarc?ly look at the head-lines of a debate in Congress. Hearst personally took the same morbid and intense interest in this case as his rea-dtrs, and personally took charge of its direction for his paper. He sented the house where the Nack woman lived in order to keep the other newspaper men out • he bribed the rubbers of tho Turkish bath-house, who had the secret of the - physical mark which would identify the murdered man, to keep silence till the 'Journal" sleuths had their case of identification complete, and then no sent out reporters and representatives on the "Journal" waggons to prevent any other moniinp paper from purloining a copy and taking the edge off the scoop' with a stoppress notice in their later editions. This was a lark and a triumph which he would have enjoyed even moro keenlv in that stage of his career than the 33 minutes of cheering with which his delegate of his Independence league Convention greeted him when he appeared herore them after his nomination for Oovernor. Besides, a scoop ol , Guldensuppe meant circulplirm ; and circulation was his ambition of the moment. For ever he was unsatisfied with his Journal. It .was never quite powerful or striking enough. Ar. ideal mornmcr edition to him would have been one in which- the -Prince the Princo of Wales had cone mto vaudeville, .Queen Victoria had married the cook, th* Potw had issued an encyclical favouring fro^ love, a man Tiiurderr>d in Jersey hart heen identified by the thum-b mark of a seventh daughter found on the Sphinx, Franco had declared war! on Oermanv, tho President of tho United States had secured a divorce in order to marry the Dowarci- Empress of China, the Czar bad committed suicide by the use of a bomb of his own making, and the Sultan of Turkey had been converted to Christianity— all of theso , being "scoops in th? form of "sign- • ed statements." Signed statements were then tho . rage. If you couHd get a great j ruler simply to sav that he had ai ' cold and to say it under his own name the "feature" was played up in double-column headlines. There was no limit to the darim? of Hearst's conceptions. He proposed to sink a ship in the Suez at his own expense to prevent the passage of Camara's srjuadron to the Pacific _: and the sent a nian- j half-way round the .'world to get Admiral Dewey's consent to a Presidential nomination with thd Jour-< nal's label on it. Like the author of "The Thtloo Musketeers," he lay abed late inventing new wonders ; and when he : rose with that >x>wer of his for j creating energy in others without . exhibiting energy hbneelf, he stir-ret) , the fagged brains of his assistants ; to further. dreams in order to make ; a continuous holiday of surprises for his public. His favourite hour for going to the offico was then, and is sti.ll,

from five to six in tho afternoon and at midnight. These visitar tions -are never perfunctory. Nigtoti after night his high-powered French automoibile— and he ha<l one of tihe first brought to this countrywaited in front of- the "Journail ofiice while he watched the, sensations ticking in over the wire, amd with Chamberlain he sought the extravagant feature in some re- | porter's story. It waa in those days that one of the men workkia under him .was asked about his personality. "He is -a world-beat-er," was the answer. "What kind of a worldnbeater ?"■ I pursued. "Don't ask me •!'- was the answer ; "I wiill mot quarrel with my d-ailv broad,' 1 Hearst, the proprietor, the autocrat, the commander, -was the ono who finally said "no," ov finally said '''yes" x to every important suggestion, and no one ever said "no" to him except the Hearst estate, which furnished him tho funds for his mighty escapade.