Pulitzer Eyes

In 1889 Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, started to cruise around the world. His doctors had warned him against overexcitement. In Greece he received a cable from his brother-in-law, Colonel William L. Davis, which kept him in a rage until his ship reached Constantinople. As the ship was about to leave port, Mr. Pulitzer said to his secretary, Ponsonby:

"How suddenly it has gotten dark."

"It's not dark," said Ponsonby.

"Well, it's dark to me," said Joseph Pulitzer.

When'that happened, Publisher Pulitzer was 42; it remained dark for the rest of his life. What impaired his eyesight was detachment of the retina. Noises aggravated his condition. When he got back to the U. S. his doctors told him he would have to retire. Publisher Pulitzer gave up active management of the World but continued to run it through subordinates. In Manhattan his house contained a sound proof room designed by Stanford White. By 1898, he was nearly blind. Of the things that filled the World from then until he died in 1911 -- War with Spain, the assassination of McKinley, the Roosevelt Administration, the election of Taft -- Joseph Pulitzer saw almost nothing. Last week Joseph Pulitzer Jr., 49, was cruising around the world with his wife on the Empress of Britain. When the huge Canadian Pacific liner reached Manila, the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had to cancel a speech he was to have made at a newspaper dinner. From his cabin word went forth that his eyes had suddenly failed him. His left eye was reported completely blind, his right one nearly so. In their health, Joseph Pulitzer's sons resemble their father. Anemic Ralph resigned from the World in 1930, a year before it was sold; he wears thick glasses. Herbert, youngest son, wore glasses at 19. Joseph Jr. has had poor eyesight for years. Like his father, he has a staff of secretaries to read his paper aloud to him, keep him informed.

The day after the report of Joseph Pulitzer's blindness last week, Ralph Pulitzer said he had received a cablegram, from his brother saying that his blindness was only a temporary attack, which, as before, he hopes to cure by complete rest.

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