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
The whole of the basement of the tower was taken up by a swimming pool
and dressing rooms. The water was pumped in from the sea and could be
heated by a system of steam pipes. The upper floors of the tower were
given over to bedrooms, for J. P., for the major-domo and for several of
the secretaries.
Most of the servants were housed in a large building some distance from
the main residence, and there were separate quarters for the grooms and
stablemen, and for the heard gardener and his assistants.
While we were at Chatwold there was a gathering of the Pulitzer family--
Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, a cousin of Jefferson Davis and a belle of
Washington in her day, who married Mr. Pulitzer years before his success
in life had been made and when the fight for his place in journalism was
still in its early stages; Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Pulitzer and their young
son, Ralph; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Miss Edith Pulitzer, Miss
Constance Pulitzer and Mr. Pulitzer's youngest child, Herbert, a boy of
fifteen.
The presence of the family had little effect upon the routine of Mr.
Pulitzer's daily life. He saw as much of his wife and children as he
could; but the intensity of his family emotions was such that they could
only be given rein at the price of sleepless nights, savage pain, and
desperate weariness. His interest in everything concerning the family
was overwhelming, his curiosity inexhaustible. Everybody had to be
described over and over again, but especially young Master Ralph, a
bright and handsome child, born long after his grandfather had become
totally blind, and Master Herbert, of whose appearance he retained only
a memory of the dim impressions he had been able to gather years before
when a little sight yet remained to him.
It was at lunch and at dinner that Mr. Pulitzer saw most of the family.
He almost always took his meals in the library at a table seating four;
and the party usually included Mrs. Pulitzer, one of the other ladies or
Master Herbert, and a secretary. I was present at a great many of these
gatherings, partly because J. P. had gradually acquired a taste for such
humor as I was able to contribute to the conversation, and partly
because he relished a salad-dressing which represented my only
accomplishment in the gastronomic field.
A feature of the Bar Harbor life which Mr. Pulitzer enjoyed greatly and
which he could not indulge in elsewhere were the long trips he made in a
big electric launch on the sheltered waters of Frenchman's Bay. When the
weather was fine these trips occupied two or three hours each day. J. P.
sat in an armchair amidships, with two companions, very often his two
older sons, to read to him or to discuss business affairs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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