John R. Rathom

An epic of world wanderings and a career in journalism came to an end with the death of John Revelstoke Rathom, at the age of 55. He was born on July 4, 1868, in Australia, and after many wayfarings died in Rhode Island.

His first adventure came at the age of 18 when The Melbourne Argus sent him to Egypt to cover the British campaign in the Soudan following the disastrous siege that ended when General Gordon's head rolled 'down the steps of the palace in Khartoum. There followed several years of wandering in the Far East, .with the Bunbury Expedition in New Guinea and elsewhere. In 1890 he came to Vancouver, and during the next eight years was on the staff of several papers on the West Coast.

Then came another war. The San Francisco Chronicle sent him to Cuba as correspondent in the Santiago campaign. He was wounded, contracted a fever, but had hardly grown well when he started for South Africa and the Boer War. It was from that time that his close friendship with Lord Kitchener was said to date.

But even wars have their ends. Rathom returned to the U. S. and took a post on The Chicago Times-Herald (later The Record-Herald). Then he went to Providence. In the last 18 years he was managing editor, editor and general manager of The Providence Journal and The Evening Bulletin, said to be one of the most money-making magazine combinations in the U. S.

If wars have their endings, they have also their beginnings. The Great War brought Mr. Rathom more publicity, not all of it of a desirable character, however. He began an exposure of the German spy system in the U. S., of the activities of Ambassador Dumba and attache Boy-Ed, partly in his papers, partly in speeches and partly in a series of articles in The World's Work, which, it is said, were stopped abruptly because some of his disclosures were proved fictitious. In the inquiry which followed, he modified some of his statements and retracted others.

In his last years he became a director of the Associated Press and President of the New England Daily Newspapers Association, and received orders from King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy and King Albert of Belgium. Sixteen months ago he underwent an operation from which he never fully recovered.

His good friends included Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes and former Secretary Robert Lansing.