THIS book is an attempt to faithfully portray the life of
a man. It includes, as the appropriate background
of such a portrait, a sketch of the public events which wrought
on him and on which he wrought.

The first interest of the general public in the career of
Samuel Bowles arises from the fact that he was an eminent
journalist. He was one of the representative men through
whom a new power in society has been developed and exer-
cised. His field was in one sense narrow, for the Springfield
Republican was published in a provincial town, and limited
to a comparatively small circulation; but it exercised a wide
influence. The best measure of its editor's attainment was
not the number of readers he reached, but the theory and
ideal of journalism which he exemplified. His personal history
touches the principles of the art of newspaper-making.

The justification for sketching a nation's story as part of the
story of a journalist's life is that the journalist has become an
important factor in national affairs. Mr. Bowles's editorial
work covered the period from the annexation of Texas to the
close of reconstruction under President Hayes. He was a spec-
tator and actor in the struggle which ended in the overthrow
of slavery, and also in the problems which taxed the nation in
the years following the war. A great part of the significance
and value of his life lay in his contribution to these debates.

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