to the intellect like an arrow to the bull's-eye. There is always
plenty of room for the man who has a gift and can do a thing better than
any one else.

But the panic of 1837 bankrupted Greeley, who knew nothing about the
business end of his enterprise. He had 9,000 subscribers, but none of
them would pay their bills, and the more his paper grew the worse off he
was. One day he struck from the roll the names of 2,500 subscribers. A
little later he offered to give the entire establishment to a friend,
and pay him $2,000 for taking it off his hands, agreeing to work out by
typesetting the large debt. Then came an overture from Thurlow Weed and
Benedict, and Greeley founded the _Log Cabin_, a campaign paper
advocating the election of General Harrison as president, and sent out
the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." Politics was his passion and
delight. An ardent Whig, he loved Henry Clay as an enthusiast, and
worshipped him like a disciple. The death of Harrison in 1841,
therefore, brought another crisis into Greeley's life. Then he founded
the _New York Tribune_. In later years Horace Greeley used to say that
the first half of his life was preparatory to founding the _Tribune_,
and the other half to building up the newspaper that was his pride.

On April 3, 1841, the _Log Cabin_ contained an announcement of the
appearance of "a morning journal of politics, literature and general
intelligence." It was to be sold for one penny, was to be free from all
immoral reports, to be accurate in its statements, impartial in its
judgments, unbiassed and unfettered in its opinions. The _New Yorker_
and the _Log Cabin_ were merged in the new journal. The expenses for the
first week of the _Tribune's_ existence were $525, and its income $92.
Greeley was thirty years old, full of health and vigour, pluck and
determination. He never knew when he was defeated, and when events