Ixiii. 



THE LATE 



WILLIAM THOMAS STEAD. 



By his "Friend and Colleague in Australia," W. H. Judkins. 



Ill the absence of definite news regarding his safety, it is to Ije feared that the loved and 

 honourt-d i)r(>prietor and editottin-chief of " The Review of Reviews "has met his death in the appall- 

 ing tragfdy of the "Titanic" disaster. The days of suspense have brought no relief. Beyond a 

 doul>t he i> among.^ those who faced grim death in one of its grimmest and most terrible forms in 

 that f<;irful rush of docm. It seems impossible to believe that Jle is not alive. His personality was 

 so impressive that its influence pervaded one's atmosphere. He was so well known, his name being 

 a household word whtiever men could read, that he was present ever\ where in a most realistic wa\ . 

 And .ir will l)e a long time before we shall be able to accustom ourselves to the fact that he has 

 gone. With many yt-.irs of useful life before him, he has been cut off in such a sudden and remorse- 

 less kind of fashion lii;it one's sen.ses are numlied. 



He was a worlds man. There was nothing .small abnit W. T. Stead. He could nt>t think in 

 small circles. The widest horizons appeared always oi)en before him in connection with anything 

 that he undertook. He was a big man, in the biggest sense of the word. He [londered in continents. 

 The foremost journalist of the wt)rld, he spoke to civilisation a.s a man who had a geniu.s for grasiiing 

 srtuaitions, lM>king at things in their right persjjective. and intuitively finding his way to the loftiest 

 jiKlgmeirts. 



He l«eg.in his career earlv. .\t the age of twenty-two, he took liis lir.st editor's chair, and com- 

 pletely changed the character of the "'Northern P:cho." it D.irlington. .Nine years later he iK^-anie 

 assistant editor to the "Pall Mall Cnzette," iinil.r Mr. John Morley, .succeeding to the editorship 

 three years after he joined the .staff. In 1890 he founded ' The Review of Reviews." which has played 

 so large a jiart in the making of history, and has Ixx-ome a p.iwer, not only in Britain, but also in 

 .America antl .Austral.isia, in l)oth of which <x)untTies separate edition.s are published, and on the 

 Continent of liuroix*. What a jxiwesr he has l)et-n in his m,ig;izine all oiir readers know. The 

 ch.iracter skeielies of f.imous men and women, which ap|«Mre<I regularly month after month, are inaster- 

 pi<-c<'S. Niching like them has e\er U-en printe^l. |Rai'y, briglit, inform-.itixe, and witli a sulitle in.<ight 

 into the eharacter of the perwm whose ch.Traoter was .sketchetl. .iiid which summed up the dominating 

 eh,iracteristi<« in a sentence or two, they fxinifiy a uni(|iie place in literature. 



fV-«ni|)ying the .time level as the character sket<'hes were the interviews whii li m . .iiitinually had 

 with |)romineMt |xTs>iiages upon curn-nt topics of interest. ' In this connection he cime into per.sonal 

 contact with <\ery crowned head of KuroiK-. It was not given to any other jfnirnalist to have almost 

 free eiitr) to liie mon.irehs of tlv Old World. He had only to request, .md the request was granteil. 

 There is no other journalist li\ing who could commancl this. How elo<|iienily it spoke f>f the pro- 

 found res)xvt in which he was hehl ! If a big newspapiT or journal wanterl a king or emjicror or 

 sultan intervi«-wed, there w,is one cert.iin way of gil'tiug it done, and th.it w.is ihruiigh Mr. Stead- 

 These knew it was im|>nasible frw him to deal other" than fairly, th.-it there woiiM Iw m. disi.rtion t.. 

 make sensation.d "copy," and th.it the dipnitv of the throne would Ix* uphehl 



