Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/76

 a washing-stand with blacking brushes underneath. Desirous to occupy himself usefully, he took these articles from their hiding-place, and on my return I found him with one foot on a chair polishing off his boots. When he had completed that operation we proceeded to business."

Among the editors he met, Cassell specially notes Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, whose career was not unlike his own. "Popularly known as The Tribune Philosopher, he is one of the most remarkable men in America. Originally a journeyman printer, he has become by dint of great energy and ability one of the guiding spirits of American politics." But on the whole Cassell was not enamoured of American newspaper methods. No conservative and no stickler for convention, he yet caught his breath at "the light, dashing manner" in which the most important subjects were turned off, and complained of the "apparent absence of earnestness and sincerity in what is written."

American politics made hardly more appeal to him than American journalism, except on one side: its highly efficient "publicity" system appealed strongly to his business instinct. When he arrived in the country, having left England in November, 1859, the Lincoln election campaign was in full swing.

"One of the most remarkable scenes which I witnessed," he wrote, "was a torchlight procession of 'Wideawakes,' members of the Republican party, so called, I believe, from the kind of hats which they wear. They numbered 12,000, each man, in the costume and hat of the party, carrying a pole with a blazing lamp at the end of it. They assembled in Madison Square, which, together with the streets at the sides and the Fifth Avenue, became completely filled. So dazzling was the glare of light that the whole sky appeared illumined. Presently they formed a line six abreast and passed along the Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and Eighth Street. As the square gradually became empty the men from the side