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
There are no doubt other houses which have an octagonal dining-room and
a church organ; but no other house, I am sure, has a bedroom like that
which Mr. Pulitzer occupied. Although it appeared to form part of the
house, it did not, in fact, do so. It stood upon its own foundations and
was connected with the main structure by some ingenious device which
isolated it from all vibrations originating there. It was of the most
solid construction, and had but one window, a very large affair,
consisting of three casements set one inside the other and provided with
heavy plate glass panels. This triple window was never opened when Mr.
Pulitzer was in the room, the ventilation being secured by means of fans
situated in a long masonry shaft whose interior opening was in the
chimney and whose exterior opening was far enough away to forbid the
passage of any sound from the street. At intervals inside this shaft
were placed frames with silk threads drawn across them, for the purpose
of absorbing any faint vibrations which might find their way in. In this
bedroom, with its triple window and its heavy double-door closed, J. P.
enjoyed as near an approach to perfect quietness as it was possible to
attain in New York.
I saw very little of J. P. when he was in New York. He was much occupied
with family affairs; he was in constant touch with the staff of The
World; and the deep interest he took in the prospects of the
presidential election of 1912, which was already being eagerly
discussed, brought an unusual number of visitors to the house.
The extent of my intercourse with J. P. at this time was an occasional
drive in Central Park, during which we talked of little else but
politics, and on that topic of little else but Mr. Woodrow Wilson's
speeches and plans.
It did not take very long before the hard work and the excitement of the
New York life reduced Mr. Pulitzer to a condition in which it was
imperative that he should go to sea again and abandon completely his
contact with the daily events which stimulated rather than nourished his
mental powers.
On October 20, 1911, the Liberty left New York with J. P., his youngest
son, Herbert, and the usual staff. We headed south, with nothing settled
as to our plans except that we might spend some time at Mr. Pulitzer's
house on Jekyll Island, Ga., and might pass part of the winter cruising
in the West Indies.
As soon as we got settled down on board I was delighted to find that J.
P. had apparently satisfied himself in regard to my qualifications and
limitations. He abandoned the searching examinations which had kept me
on the rack for nearly eight months, and our relations became much more
agreeable.
Apart from bearing my share in the routine work of dealing with the news
of the day and with the current magazine literature my principal duty
gradually assumed the form of furnishing humor on demand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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