Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/209

 CHILDS.

CHILDS.

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CHILDS, George William, journalist, was born in Baltimore, Md.. M.iy 12, 1829. He came of humble parentage and what education he re- ceived was obtained in the public scliools of his native city. His aptitude for business was manifested in early boyhood, and in his twelfth

year he became an errand boy in a book store. In his thirteenth year he entered the United States navy, but resigned the service at the end of fifteen months, and, r e - turning to Balti- more, attended school for a few weeks. He then re- moved to Pliiladel- phia, where he ob- tained a situation as clerk and errand boy in the store of a bookseller. His previovis experience in the business made him a valuable assistant, and he was intrusted with the task of attending auction sales in New York and Boston. At the «nd of four years of faithful labor, the firm of George W. Childs & Co., entered upon the manu- facture and sale of confections and candies, and later became venders of soaps, powders, and patent medicines. He sold out his interest in the business in 1850, and became a clerk in the pub- lishing house of Daniels & Smith, afterwards E. E. Peterson & Co., of which firm he finally be- came a member, the name being subsequently changed to Childs & Peterson. Although some of the publications of the house reached enor- mous sales, the firm was insolvent in 1860, when Mr. Peterson retired, leaving Mr. Childs to con- tinue the business alone under a heavy load of debt. In 186S-"64, while still engaged in pub- lishing books and editing the American Literary Gazette and Publishers' Chronicle, he conducted an agency for the sale of sewing machines. On Dec. 5, 1864, he purchased, in conjunction with Mr. Anthony J. Drexel, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, a prominent penny journal which had fallen upon evil days. Under his judicious man- agement the paper soon assumed new life, its tone and morals were changed, and its circula tion and its list of advertisers were .soon doubled, despite the facts that the price of the paper was two cents, and the price of space in its advertising columns materially increased. The Public Ledger rose rapidly to a commanding position among the leading journals of the day, and in 1876 a new building, erected specially for its accommodation testified to the financial prosperity of the under- taking. Mr. Childs was the friend of amateur

writers, and he was continually offering prizes and other inducements to encourage the produc- tion of good American literature. He poss3sssd good literary taste and judgment, and his selec- tion of material for his journal was uniformly ex- cellent. He surrounded himself with a staff of able assistants, and under his management the Ledger became famed for its pure literary tone. In 1868 he presented to the typographical union of Philadelphia a large and handsomely enclosed lot in Woodlands, to be used as a printers' ceme- tery, and to this he added a liberal endowment for its proper care. He also established a fund for the maintenance of superannuated printers, and of widows and orphans of printers. He was one of the founders of Fairmount park, contribu- ting half the money that secured that splendid addition to the attractions of Philadelphia, and was one of the first to subscribe ten thovisand dollars towards the expense of the Centennial ex- hibition in 1876. The Meade fund was raised with remarkable rapidity as soon as he identified himself with it; so great was his reputation as a business man, that his example in contributing to any public enterprise was an assurance of popular recognition and sympathy. He placed in Westminster Abbey a memorial window to the poets Herbert and Cowper, another in St. Mar- garet's church. Westminster, to the poet Milton, and he was the largest contributor to the Thomas Moore window in the churcli at Bromham, Eng- land. He gave to the church of St. Thomas, Winchester, a reredos in memory of Bishops An- drewes and Ken, and in 1887 he erected at Stratford-on-Avon a highly ornamented drinking fountain and clock tower in memory of Shakes- peare. Mr. Childs numbered among his friends the most distinguished men and women in every walk of life. Presidents, emperors, military men, titled foreigners, statesmen, eminent publishers and politicians, authors, poets, artists, actors, financiers, all were entertained at his handsome home in the most unostentatiously royal style, and by his genial and graceful hospitality he did more than any other single individual in the United States to elevate foreign ideas of Ameri- can culture and refinement. He devoted much time, attention and money to the accumulation of a fine collection of rare and standard books, and he possessed many original manuscripts and literary treasures of priceless values. Among these were a sermon written by Cotton Mather, a copy of Leigh Hunt's works and an autograph inscription to Charles Dickens, Hood's comic almanac for 1842. poems of Fitz-Greene Halleck with autograph inscription, the original manu- script of Ha%vthorne's Considar Experiences, letters and manu.scripts of President Pierce, William Cullen Bryant, James Russell Lowell,