In the late eighties the _Sun_ was supplementing its Associated Press news service with a valuable corps of special correspondents scattered all over America and Europe. The news received from these _Sun_ men led to the establishment, by William M. Laffan, then publisher of the _Sun_, of a _Sun_ news agency which was called the Laffan Bureau. This service, originated for the purpose of covering special events in the live way of the _Sun_, was suddenly called upon to cover the whole news field of the world in a more comprehensive way. Lord’s part in this work, when Dana decided to break with the Associated Press, has been graphically described by Mr. Riggs: “Chester,” said Mr. Dana one afternoon early in the nineties, leaning over Lord’s desk, “I have just torn up my Associated Press franchise. We’ve got to have the news of the world to-morrow morning, and we’ve got to get it ourselves.” “Don’t let that fret you, Mr. Dana,” replied Lord. “You’ve got a Dante class on hand to-night. You just go home and enjoy yourself. I’ll have the news for you all right.” Dana always said that he didn’t enjoy his Dante class a single bit that night; but he didn’t go near the _Sun_ office, neither did he communicate with the office. He banked on Lord, and the next morning and ever afterward Lord made good on the independent service. He built up the Laffan Bureau, which more recently has become the Sun News Service, and the special correspondents of the paper in all parts of the world see to it that the _Sun_ gets the news. A task like that which Dana thrust on Lord might have paralyzed the average managing editor of a great metropolitan newspaper confronted by keen and powerful competitors. It was unheard of in journalism. It had never been attempted before. Lord, with calm courage and confidence, sent off thousands of telegrams and cable despatches that night. Many were shots in the air, but the majority were bull’s-eyes, as the next morning’s issue of the _Sun_ proved. Was Dana delighted? If you had seen him hop, skip, and jump into the office that morning, you’d have received your answer. When Lord turned up at his desk in the afternoon, Dana rushed out from his chief editor’s office, grasped him about the shoulders, and chuckled: “Chester, you’re a brick, you’re a trump. You’re the John L. Sullivan of newspaperdom!” The Laffan Bureau, which assimilated the old United Press, became a news syndicate the service of which was sought by dozens of American papers whose editors admired the _Sun’s_ manner of handling news. The Laffan Bureau lasted until 1916, when the _Sun_, through its purchase by Frank A. Munsey, absorbed Mr. Munsey’s New York _Press_, which had the Associated Press service.