JOSEPH PULITZER
EARLY LIFE IN ST. LOUIS AND HIS FOUNDING AND CONDUCT
OF THE POST-DISPATCH UP TO 1883
BY GEORGE S. JOHNS*
FIRST ARTICLE
EARLY ADVENTURES
On the tenth of October, 1865, Joseph Pulitzer reached
the east bank of the Mississippi river, on his way to St. Louis.
He had started from New York ten days before in his old
Union Army uniform. His overcoat had been stolen in New
York. He had pawned the only valuable article in his possession, a fine silk handkerchief, for 75 cents, to buy food on his
journey. He was penniless when he reached the Mississippi
river, an unexpected obstacle in his journey. He didn't
know American geography well enough to know that St.
Louis was on the west side of the river. The river was too
broad for even such an expert swimmer as he had proved himself to be to attempt it. Besides, the weather was cold. It
was the evening of a raw day, with sleety rain falling. How
he had come from New York in ten days, with 75 cents, no one
knew. He never told his experiences on that journey. In
addition to his army uniform, he had his native genius, and
courage and persistent determination which he had proved on
several occasions.
Joseph Pulitzer's whole life from the time he left his
native country was a romantic adventure, so far exceeding in
intensity of struggle and immensity of achievement that of
the average man, that the record reads like fiction rather than
reality. He was born in Mako, Hungary, April 10, 1847. The
tenth was a notable date in his career. He was born on the
♦The author gratefully acknowledges indebtedness for material relating to
Joseph Pulitzer's early life to Don C. Seitz, from his book Joseph Pulitzer; to
Alleyne Ireland, from An Adventure With a Genius* and other associates and
employes of Joseph Pulitzer during his St. Louis period.
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