The American Tribune was begun on March 8, 1883, and published irregularly during the middle part of the [eighteen] eighties by L.U. Reavis. It was a weekly, containing papers on current topics and selections from the Eastern press. Reavis was an enthusiastic admirer of Horace Greeley, and carried his admiration even to the extent of imitating his slovenly appearance. With his assertive ways, his flaming beard, his baggish clothes and his lameness, he was a noted character on the streets of St. Louis in the seventies and eighties. He published many pamphlets, a book on “St. Louis, the Future Great City of the World,” and lectured on Horace Greeley, the American Republic, and kindred topics. The American Tribune had a very limited circulation and was not a financial success.It failed to remove the capital of the United States to St. Louis, and to extend the rule of the United States from Panama to the North Pole.
(From the Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri by Alexander N. De Menil, 1901).
