Like Mr. Dana, he was interested in Chinese porcelains, and he made a deeper study of them than did his employer. When a catalogue was needed for the Chinese porcelains in the Morgan collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Laffan, who was an active trustee of the museum, was called upon to edit the work. He also edited a book on “Oriental Porcelain.” He was the author of “American Wood Engravers,” published in 1883. For these things he is remembered in the world of art. The men of the stage remember him as one of the most distinguished dramatic critics that New York has seen. Even to-day, in the comparison of the styles of critics old and new, Laffan’s incisive reviews are recalled as standards. In the business world of journalism Laffan is thought of chiefly as the publisher of the _Sun_ from 1884 on, and as the live spirit of the _Evening Sun_ for many of its years. As the actual director of the _Sun_--although his editorial powers were almost entirely delegated to Mr. Mitchell--Mr. Laffan was a picturesque and powerful figure. Beneath an inscrutable exterior he was distinctly a likable person. One day Laffan wrote a ten-line item, a bit about an exhibition of a friend’s painting, and asked the city editor to print it. He never commanded, even when he controlled the paper; he asked. The item was lost in the shuffle that night. The next day he rewrote it and again asked a place for it. It was printed in the first edition and left out of the city edition. For the third time he carried the article to the city editor, and without a sign of anger. “It seems to me,” he said, “that anybody can get anything printed in this paper--except the owner.” A millionaire advertiser asked Laffan to print an article about his pet charity. “Take it to Clarke,” said Laffan. “If he’ll print it for you, he’ll do more for you than he’ll do for me.” A New York newspaper once remarked of Laffan that “he never drove any man to drink, but he drove many a man to the dictionary.” That was a commentary on the unusual words which Laffan, whose vocabulary was wide, would occasionally use in an editorial article. His articles were never involved, however. They were not frequent, they were generally short, never without important purpose, and they drove home. Patient as Laffan was with lost items of his own, he was a man of fine human temper. One morning, on arriving at the office, he found that a Wall Street group of rich scoundrels had sued the _Sun_ for several hundred thousand dollars for its exposure of their methods. He called the city editor. “Mr. Mallon,” he said, “tell your young man who wrote the articles to go ahead and give these men better cause for libel suits!” The _Sun_ was making a vigorous war on a great railroad magnate. One day an attaché of the office informed Laffan that a man was waiting to see him who bore a contract which would bring to the _Sun_ four hundred thousand dollars’ worth of advertising from the magnate’s railroads.