An Adventure with a Genius: Recollections of Joseph PulitzerIreland, Alleyne
General
An Adventure with a Genius: Recollections of Joseph Pulitzer
Ireland, Alleyne
Pulitzer, Joseph, 1847-1911
At the end of a week the yacht was sent to Marseilles to coal in
preparation for a cruise, and I went to stay at an hotel near the villa.
It was a change for the worse.
By the time the yacht returned I had had some opportunity of observing
the routine of life at the villa. After breakfast Mr. Pulitzer went for
a drive, accompanied by one, or occasionally by two, of the secretaries.
During this drive he received a rough summary of the morning's news, the
papers having been gone over and marked either the night before or while
he was having his breakfast.
As he seldom let us know in advance which of us he would call upon for
the first presentation of the news, and as he was liable to change his
mind at the last minute when he had named somebody the previous night,
we had all of us to go through the papers with great care, so that we
might be prepared if we were called upon.
On returning from his drive Mr. Pulitzer would either sit in the library
and dictate letters and cablegrams, or he would have the news gone over
in detail, or, if the state of his health forbade the mental exertion
involved in the intense concentration with which he absorbed what was
read to him from the papers, he would go for a ride, accompanied by a
groom and by one of the secretaries. When he went to Europe he usually
sent over in advance some horses from his own stable, as he was very
fond of riding and could not trust himself on a strange horse.
After the ride, lunch, at which the conversation generally took a more
serious turn than at dinner, for at night Mr. Pulitzer disliked any
discussion of matters which were likely to arouse his interest very much
or to stir his emotions, for he found it difficult to get his mind
calmed down so that he could sleep. Even in regard to lunch we were
sometimes warned in advance, either by Dunningham or by the secretary
who had left him just before lunch was served, that Mr. Pulitzer wished
the conversation to be light and uncontroversial.
Immediately after lunch Mr. Pulitzer retired to his bedroom with Herr
Friederich Mann, the German secretary, and was read to, chiefly German
plays, until he fell asleep, or until he had had an hour or so of rest.
By four o'clock he was ready to go out again, riding, if he had not had
a ride in the morning, or driving, with an occasional walk for perhaps
half-an-hour, the automobile always remaining within call. As a rule he
spent an hour before dinner listening to someone read, a novel, a
biography, or what not, according to his mood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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