Passin’ the Tribune office recently, I couldn’t help comparin’ the monster, zebra-like Tribune buildin’ now with a modest structure which answered all purposes in the days of Horace Greeley. And I couldn’t help thinkin’, either, how different the real Horace Greeley was from the imaginary Horace that has been written about so much by people who never knew him.
Why, the fact is that Horace Greeley, temperance man and moralist, as he is called, and as he really was, was identified with sportin’ matters for many years, and owes his first big start in life to the lottery interest.
And the man is livin’ to-day who has taken many a drink with Horace Greeley, and who distinctly remembers Greeley’s “standin’ treat.”
The first friend Greeley found in New York was a tavern-keeper and rum-seller named McGorlick, an Irishman, who kept a grogary and cheap boardin’ house combined. And the man to whom Greeley was indebted for his first good job in a money way, the man who first paid Horus anythin’ over and above his mere hack wages, was Dudley S. Gregory, the great lottery man.
When Greeley came to New York lotteries were all the rage–Chatham street was full of ‘em. They were patronized by the most respectable people, and everybody young or old had a shy at ‘em, just as they do at the racin’ pools today.
Horace Greeley from the first was an inveterate buyer of lottery tickets–investin’ in ‘em was about his only extravagance. Generally he clubbed in with some of his fellow printers and they bought a whole ticket between ‘em.
In the course of time, he advanced from buyin’ lottery tickets to advertising ‘em. When he went into partnership with Story, as Greeley & Story, his partner told Greeley plump that the lottery business was worth to a printer more money than any other line just then, and that he, Story, was goin’ for it. Greeley agreed, and so Story prospected around and soon got heavy orders for printin’ lottery tickets, which orders Greely conscientiously fulfilled.
It ain’t the ordinary Tribune idea–this picture of the founder of the Tribune makin’ his livin’ by printin’ lottery schemes, but it was the case, nevertheless. To tell the truth, in a little while Horace Greeley got to be regarded all around Chatham street as the young man of all others most clever in settin’ up an arrangin’ the list of prizes and drawin’s.
In consequence of this he was given the entire gettin’ up of the Constitutionalist, a paper which was then the organ of the lottery men. There were four pages of this Constitutionalist, of which three were devoted entirely to lottery affairs.
Right on the last column of the last page of this paper was kept a kept standin’ this card: “Greeley & Story, No. 54 Liberty street, New York, respectfully solicit the patronage of the public to their business of Letterpress printin’, particularly lottery printin’ schemes, etc., which will be executed on favorable terms.”
But Horace Greeley not only printed for lotteries, but wrote for them. He not only became a lottery printer, but a lottery editor. He not only set up lottery schemes, but set up jobs and wrote articles to help lotteries along.
Dudley was then the leadin’ lottery man of the country, and he of course took an interest in the Constitutionalist, and got acquainted with Story & Greeley, who published it.
One day Gregory came into Greeley & Story’s printin’ office lookin’ rather blue. Story naturally asked him what was the matter, and then Gregory told him. It seems that a young man whose father had left him a lot of money had invested all his fortune in lottery tickets and not gettin’ his money back, losin’ all his money in fact, the young man had committed suicide by blowin’ his brains–or at least the contents of his head–out with a pistol.
The circumstances of the young man’s death caused a stir, and the religious people and a certain portion of the press were raisin’ a hue and cry against lotteries–that they were very evil and injurious, and that they ought to be suppressed by law, and so on.
Gregory didn’t like this, of course, and felt rather blue about it. “It will hurt the business, Greeley,” he said; but Greeley, just then, said nothin’.
But in the next issue of the Constitutionalist there appeared an article–an editorial article–very ably written, discussin’ the case of this unfortunate young fool of a man, and provin’ that the mere fact of his bein’ a fool and committin’ suicide, had really nothin’ to do with a good or evil, the pro or con of lotteries. “Lotteries were just as honest or dishonest, precisely as allowable or objectionable the day after this man shot himself as they were the day before.” This sentence will give the general idea of the article, which was calculated to do the lottery cause an immense deal of good.
Gregory saw this at once and came over to the Constitutionalist office, at Greeley & Story’s, to know who wrote the article. Findin’ out that Greeley was its author, Gregory not only congratulated and complemented Greeley on it, but he insisted upon liberally compensatin’ him for it.
From that day on Dudley S. Gregory was always the warm friend of Horace Greeley. Years afterwards Gregory and Greeley sat together in the Representatives’ Hall at Washington as members of Congress.
It must be borne in mind, though, that lotteries, in Gregory’s days, were much more fairly conducted then they are a present, and were much more generally sanctioned by public opinion.
It must also be remembered that in after years Horace Greeley changed his opinions regardin’ lotteries, and opposed their bein’ licensed by the State.
Still the fact remains that he began life in New York as a lottery ticket buyer, lottery scheme printer and lottery apologist, and that his first big “lift” came from the lottery business.
[Editor’s notes: Harry Hill (and/or his ghost writer, Ike Reid) had mixed feelings about Greeley. On the one hand, Greeley’s career as an editor of the New York Tribune had an enormous effect on New York City, and provided a clear, moral voice to city society, and the nation as a whole. On the other hand, it’s clear that Hill thought Greeley was a bit sanctimonious, and enjoyed poking at Greeley’s legacy. The result just adds a more human dimension to Greeley.]
