Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)

Studies - András Csillag: Joseph Pulitzer, Master Journalist and Benefactor

ANDRÁS CSILLAG JOSEPH PULITZER, MASTER JOURNALIST AND BENEFACTOR An adventuresome youth of seventeen, Joseph Pulitzer (1847— 1911) departed from Hungary, his home, in 1864 leaving the age-old hostilities and oppressions of Europe for a new life in America. He viewed the United States as the land of promise, opportunity, and, above all, freedom. Virtually penniless when he arrived, he served eight months in the Union Army. When the Civil War ended, he joined the ranks of jobless veterans. Unable to find work in New York, he headed for St. Louis, traveling the way of thousands of exsoldiers

—by hopping rides on freight trains and walking. He worked his way across the unbridged Mississippi River by firing the boiler of a ferry for several round trips. In St. Louis he labored as a mule hostler, stevedore, hack driver and waiter in a beer garden. There was a time when he lacked money for room rent and slept in a park. From this humble beginning, he started a career in journalism which was to reach towering heights of moral force and influence. His militant, crusading spirit dedicated to the public welfare was to achieve reforms, to win honors for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and its sister papers, The World newspapers in New York City. Fluent in German and Hungarian but limited in English, Pulitzer got a job as a reporter on the German-language Westliche Post where he soon demonstrated a remarkable drive and "nose for news". He turned in so many exclusives that the exasperated editor of another local paper, the St. Louis Democrat allegedly roared "I'm tired of having to read a German paper to learn the real news." Pulitzer 9