It was no doubt due to the success of the _Sun_ that Bennett, after two failures, established the _Herald_. He saw the human note that Ben Day had struck, and he knew, as a comparatively old newspaperman--he was forty when he started the _Herald_--what mistakes Day was making in the neglect of certain news fields, such as Wall Street. But the value of the penny paper Day had already proved, and Day had established, ahead of everybody else, the newsboy system, by which the man in the street could get a paper whenever he liked without making a yearly investment. Bennett may have written the constitution of popular journalism, but it was Day who wrote its declaration of independence. If it had not been for the untrained Day, fifteen years younger than Bennett, it is possible that there would have been no _Herald_ to span nearly a century under the ownership of father and son; and the two James Gordon Bennetts not only owned but absolutely _were_ the _Herald_ from May 10, 1835, when the father started the paper, until May 14, 1918, when the son died. It had been said of Bennett that he discovered that “a paper universally denounced will be read.” Day learned that much a year before the _Herald_ was started. Day was sensational, and he seemed to court the written assaults of the sixpenny editors. Bennett also sought abuse, and did not care when it brought physical pain with it. He was still more sensational than Day. If there was nothing else, his own personal affairs were made the public’s property. He was about to marry, so the _Herald_ printed this: TO THE READERS OF THE HERALD--Declaration of Love--Caught at Last--Going to be Married--New Movement in Civilization. My ardent desire has been through life to reach the highest order of human excellence by the shortest possible cut. Association, night and day, in sickness and in health, in war and in peace, with a woman of the highest order of excellence must produce some curious results in my heart and feelings, and these results the future will develop in due time in the columns of the _Herald_. Meantime I return my heartfelt thanks for the enthusiastic patronage of the public, both of Europe and of America. The holy estate of wedlock will only increase my desire to be still more useful. God Almighty bless you all--JAMES GORDON BENNETT. James Parton described Bennett as “a man of French intellect and Scotch habits.” Bennett was not of Scottish blood, his parents being of French descent, but his youth in Scotland, where he was born, probably impregnated him with the thrift of his environment. He established the no-credit system in the _Herald_ business office. Probably he had observed that Colonel Webb had lost a fortune in unpaid subscriptions and advertisements.