Within a year the Civil War ended, and Pulitzer found himself, in common
with hundreds of thousands of others, out of employment at a time when
employment was most difficult to secure. At this time he was so poor
that he was turned away from French's Hotel for lack of fifty cents with
which to pay for his bed. In less than twenty years he bought French's
Hotel, pulled it down, and erected in its place the Pulitzer Building,
at that time one of the largest business buildings in New York, where he
housed The World.
What lay between these two events may be summed up in a few words. At
the close of the Civil War Mr. Pulitzer went to St. Louis, and in 1868,
after being engaged in various occupations, he became a reporter on the
Westliche Post. In less than ten years he was editor and part
proprietor. His amazing energy, his passionate interest in politics, his
rare gift of terse and forcible expression, and his striking personality
carried him over or through all obstacles.
After he had purchased the St. Louis Dispatch, amalgamated it with the
Post, and made the Post-Dispatch a profitable business enterprise and a
power to be reckoned with in politics, he felt the need of a wider field
in which to maneuver the forces of his character and his intellect.
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