Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 43, no. 1103: May 4, 1889

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May 4, 1889 Record and Guide. 613 EH De/oteD to I^e^L Esvwe . BuiLDif/o A^rcKitectji^e .Household DECOffATiotJ. "^ BJsii^ESS AtiDThemes or GeHeR^^ 1;JT£i\est PRICE, PER VEAR IN ADTANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published evei-y Saturday. TELEPHONE, - ■ - JOHN 370, Coiiimiinicatioiis should be addressed to C.W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLIII. MAY 4, 1889. No. 1,103 David Goodman Oroly. ' ■ Man that is born of icoman is of few days and full of trouble. He Cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fieeth also as a shadow and continueth not." So was it written more thau two thousand years ago, and as it waa then so is it to-daj^ The name at the head of this ai-tiole now belongs to the Past. The bearer of it lies buried at tbe top of a sandy hill in the beautiful cemetery at Lakewood, N. J., his body resting with his face towards the distant sea, at whicb he never wearied gazing. The spirit of loneliness pervades the spot. Around the grave the melancholy pines keep watch, and tbe wind in the dark boughs whisper the low, sad music which he loved to listen to wben living. A little more than twenty-one years ago this man said to afriend: "Here you are deing nothing just now; why don't you start a weekly paper in the real estate interest? I am sure it will pay, as there is no organ publisbed devoted to tbis and building, and there are transactions involving millions on millions wbich ought to be printed and the proper comments made upon them. Further than this, I will join you ; aud, although I cannot at present give any particular time to it, yet later I may be ableto." This conversation practically was the beginning of The Becord and Guide. Witbin two weeks the first number of The Record was issueil under the joint management of Mr. Croly and tbe present proprietor, and with tbe exception of the years intervening between 1873 and 1830 bas so continued until Mr. Croly was witiiin the past week stricken with death. Mr. Croly died at bis residence, No. 148 East 46th street, on Mouday morning last at half-past six o'clock. In 1873 he parted with his inter¬ est in the paper, and iu 1880 resumed his editorial connection with it. Fi'om this date, until within the week preceding his decease, he was the chief editorial writer of tliis journal. Last fall, on account of physical ailments, he was compelled to absent himself from the office and was the greater part of the time confined to a sick room, from whence he continued his contributions to this paper until within a few days of bis death. His last eflforts appeared in The Record and Guide on Saturday a week ago, and his interesting reminiscences of New York during the past half century, which appeared in '■ Our Prophetic Department," showed that Ids mind was clear and vigorous to the end. His nature was such that even in severe sickness he could not brook mental idleness, and it was only the hand of death that could force bim to stop. He literally died in harness. Mr. Croly was bom at Cloghnakilty, County Cork, Ireland, on November 3, 1839. He came to this country at a very early age, and during the flrst years of his boyhood lived below the City Hall, in wbat was then called Little Green street, now Liberty court, on which the Real Estate Exchange stands. Mr. Croly, as a youth, was apprenticed to a silversmith, and learned the trade, but he acknowledged that he was but a poor mechanic. His taste ran to books. He very early joined a debating society, which helped to interest him in questions affecting the larger policy of the day. After he became of age, conscious that he was out of place as a mechanic, he resolved to enter the New York University, where he took a yea^r's course. He studied shorthand, teaching himself. Soon after leaving the universityhewas offered a position as reporter on the Evening Post, which he accepted. Here hecame under the observation of William Bartlett, who subsequently made his reputation as a newspaper man on the New York Sun. At this time William Cullen Bryant was the editor and chief owner of the Evening Post, and John Bigelow the chief editorial writer. The salaries of the writers then were very small. During the four jiontbs he was ou the paper Mr. Croly received iS8 per week i'or his services. He next joined the Herald staff, where his salary was §14, and he had charge of the city intelligence department. Here he was under the orders of Frederick Hudson, whom he always regarded as tbe most suggestive and intelligent editor ever developed on the American press. Mr. Croly used to say tbat, in his judgment, the auccess of the Herald was far more due to Mr. Hudson than to the elder Bennett, and that the former never received the salary due to his merits, for he was as modest as ho was able. In 1857 Mr. Croly married Miss Jennie Cunningham, the daughter of an English minister. This lady is now known as a writer all over the United States under the nom de illume of " Jennie June," In 1858 Mr. and Mrs. Croly went West and started the Eockford (III.) Daily Neivs. They lost money by tlie enterprise, but gained a good deal of,local fame by the vigor and ability with which they conducted the paper. Mr. Croly always felt that it was the mistake of bis life not to have started his journal in Chicago, for the news¬ papers then iiublished in that city wore wretched affairs, and his training in New York would have giveu him a clear start of them. The people of Rockford offered to contribute money to keep the Daily News going, but Mr. and Mrs. Croly both felt that they had made a mistake in leaving a large city for a smaller one. About this time, just before the Civil War, Mr. Croly returned to the metropohs, where he became city editor of the World, just then started. Here he found himself in tbe midst of a group of able journalistic writers. James R, Spauiding, Richard Grant .White, Ivory Chamberlain and Manton Marble were then on the paper, and while these men were all better writers than Mi-. Croly his technical experience surpassed theirs. The World became bankrupt, but when Manton Marble got possession of the paper, as a Demo¬ cratic organ in 186?, Mr. Croly became the managing editor. This position be retained until the defeat of Horace Greeley, hy the election to a second Presidential term of General Grant. During these years Mr, Croly did some very good work, but while he loyally served Mr. Marble he rarely agreed with his political action, Mr, Marble was a free trader, a believer in the theories of Herbert Spencer,, John Stuart Mill, Bastiat and the school of English political economists, while Mr. Croly, though never a protectionist or high tariff advocate in tbe ordinary seuse of tbe term, thought that each side only saw half tbe trutii. Wlieu the Franco-Prussian war broke out, (ieneral McClellan told Mr. Marble tbat the French woiild imdoubtedly be tiie victors. Mr. Croly was not of this opinion. He gave hia views through St, Ciair McKelway, now editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, who wrote an article under Mr. Croly's inspiration. But Mr. Marble killed it and allowed Mr. Henry Hurl- bert to give false impressions of the campaign hy belittling the Ger¬ man victories and constantly throwing out hopes of success for the Fi-ench. As there were a very fow French residents of New York and a great many German, most of whom were good Democrats, the course of the paper was doubly unwise. Agaii, when the Titnes commenced the fight against the Tweed Ring, Mr. Croly begged Mr. Marble either not to take part in the discussion or to be on the side of common honesty. He warned him that the paper would be ruined if he defended the Ring rascals. But Mi-, Chamberlain and Mr. Hurlhert, influenced by Mayor A. Oakey Hall, persuaded Mr. Marble that there was nothing in the Times' charges. And so, during that dismal year, the World did what it could for Tweed and his associnte scoundrels, ' Mr. Croly was alao opposed to the paper's support of Greeley. The World had bitterly antagonized Greeley's tai-iff views, and it seemed absurd to support a man for President whom it had so violently assailed. After the re-election of Gen. Grant to the Presidency, Mr. Croly resigned the position of managing editor of tbe World, for it seemed to him that the policy of the paper was perverse to inanity, and that it could not succeed when it was invariably on tbe wrong side of every great question. In 1873 Mr. Croly became editor-in-chief of the new illustrated paper, the Daily Graphic. This publication was successful from a hteraiy and artistic standpoint, but the times were against it. There probably never was a paper more applauded and commended than was the Graphic betw-een 1873 and 1878. In the latter year Mr. Croly resigned his position on account of tbe inteiference by the owners of the paper with his editorial management, which he held should he entu-ely in his hands, as the responsibility lay upon him. As an editor bis strong point was suggestiveness. He could keep a great staff of people employed writing articles and reportorial matter suggested by his brain. He had a remarkable memory, and his mind was a storehouse of facts and incidents. He was fearless and independent, with his sympathies invariably on the side of the right. He claimed to bave been the first to recognize the ability of many able writers in journalism, among them George Alfred Townsend, Jerome B, Stjllsoo, A. C, Wheeler (" Nym Crinkle"), George Wakeman, Clinton Stuart, Henry E, Sweetser, Montgomery Schuyler, St, Clau: McKelway, Capt, Rowland Coffin, the nautical writer, H. G. Crickmore, the sporting editor, and many others less known. Mr. Croly did some miscellaneous literai-y work. He published the Modern Thinker, a bizarre-looking periodical, intended to call attention to the inadvisubility of our literature beiug printed in black and white. The sheets aud inks were of different colors. The work was never intended for regular publication and only two numbers of it were issued. He also published a '' Positivist Primer '- and a • 'Lif e of Horatio Seymour." He was a contributor to Appleton's Journal during its existence. Among his miscellaneous magazine