author, biographer, editor
by abadmin
November 11, 1897
The Revolt Against Bossism
“This year the bosses threw off all disguise. They declared that bossism is the ideal perfection of government in a democracy. [Mark] Hanna summed up their creed in these orders to his subjects a few days before the election:
September 27, 1902
Mark Hanna kicked off his presidential campaign in Akron, Ohio with a parade featuring live elephants. Event organizers “wore looks of suppressed satisfaction” even though the “elephants did not arrive until the last minute…”
September 13, 1885
“Mark Hanna, of Cleveland, is the most objectionable and snobbish Republican in the State.”
February 16, 1904
Mark Hanna was “one of the country’s great men” whose death “caused profound sorrow in all quarters.”
by abadmin
“The Lost Art of Letter-Writing” (An article appearing in The Nation on November 11, 1897)
Over a century ago, some people feared that the venerable practice of writing letters was doomed. One culprit – a shocking advance in technology. “The fact is the telegraph has killed letters.” The editors of The Nation saw the risk, but still had hope. They believed the “long and tiresome letter…may have gone” but that letter-writing as “an art…cultivated by the discerning” would continue.