pen, but
also with his pistol. So frequent were the attacks upon him
that he was commonly caricatured by cartoonists with a pistol
in one hand and a pen in the other. Possibly the nearest that he
ever came to losing his life was when he was fired upon by George
J. Trotter, editor of The Kentucky Gazette. At the beginning of
the war, he espoused the cause of the Union and put into his
column all the ardent enthusiasm of his nature in spite of
the threats of his enemies and the enlistment of his two sons,
whom he loved devotedly, hi the Southern Army. An old-time
Whig, he could not become either an out-and-out Republican
or an out-and-out Democrat. This indecision during the Re-
construction Period proved a handicap to The Journal, which
was not heeding the new voice of the South. Henry Watterson,
however, in reviving an old suspended newspaper in Nashville,
was attracting a great deal of attention with his editorials. It
was to him that Prentice, in retiring, turned to find a successor
for the editorial chair of The Journal. Later, Walter N. Halde-
man, who had revived The Courier, made even a more attractive
offer to Watterson. The offer was refused, and for a while the
papers continued a separate publication, though always on
friendly terms. On Sunday, November 8, 1868, however, sub-
scribers were surprised to find on their doorsteps a united sheet,
The Courier- Journal. At the start, Watterson had found him-
self at a disadvantage following the steps of Prentice. Gradually
he impressed upon his subscribers his own remarkable abilities
as an editor. During the Hayes-Tilden fight, "Marse Henry,"
a sobriquet bestowed upon him by the press, announced that he
was prepared to lead one hundred thousand Democrats to Wash-
ington for no other purpose than to put Samuel J. Tilden in the
White House. On the other hand, Watterson did much to dis-
seminate broadcast a better feeling between the North and
South.
EVENING PAPERS OF NEW YORK
Augustus Maverick, writing in 1870 about the New York press in general and The New York Times in particular, expressed sur- prise at the alarming growth of New York evening papers during recent years and asserted that it was a mystery which n
