Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-09
Relic of the Transformation in the
Latter Part of the Last Century.


Latter Part of the Last Century.
A friend, yesterday, left at our Office q
copy of the Massachusetts, Spy and Worcester
Gazette, dated September I, 1896, being vol
ume 25, No. 1921, of that Journal the oldest,
we believe, in New England, having been
established in l77l, three years before the
passage of the Boston Port Bill by the Brit
ish Parliament, and Eve years before the
Declaration of Independence.
The number before us bears this motto:
"The liberty of the Press is essential to the
security of freedom" and that it may be
made more impressive it is literally trans
lated into Greek, Latin and French.
The mechanical part of the paper, although
doubtless regarded at the time it was printed
as really elegant, is not equal to those sheets
published in our new Territories, in villages
less than six months old. The paper is
coarse and heavy, and inferior. to the bass
wood paper of the present day, which, after
a short trial, was rejected. The type has all
the irregularity common in the latter part
of the eighteenth century, and which is
| familiar to those of our readers, who can
| call to mind some book of that age, which
has come under their observation.
But it is not in the mechanical depart
ment that all the contrast between journal
ism of that day and the present is to be
| found; in other respects, the progress of
newspapers has been even greater than in
| that. A mere glance at its columns will
| give the reader some idea of the improve
| ment of the facilities of communication be-
tween different parts of the world, that have
been made within sixty-ive years. The
first page Of the paper contains number Of
items of foreign news, which are dated from
| Italy on the 8th of June; from Germany the
4th and 9th of the same month, and from
Western Europe from the 18th to the Goth
making an average of about three months
as the period required to bring newspapers
I and letters across the Atlantic. We who
expect to hear Of all important events which
have transpired in Naples in ten days, mus
really commiserate our ancestors. Let vi
suppose, for instance, that we were sud
denly compelled to adopt the old method o
transport; that steamships, railroad cars anC
telegraphs were at once blotted from eX
4 istence-can any one conceive of the conse
quences2,,the commercialland financial revo
lutions that would follow2
Home news is not abundant. The lates
dates from Philadelphia are thirteen day
old; those from Hanover New Hampshire
eight days from other portions of unite
Columbia, as this country is called, there
nothing.
OF editorials, there are none, in the sens
that term is used at the present day. Their
is, indeed, summary of items ofa local an
and general nature, evidently prepared b
the edltor-the only original matter Il
. paper contains.
The column headed "Pegasus of Apollo
is filed by two poems, one an " Ode
Washington" and the other entitled, "Tl
Old Maids Epistle to the Bachelors of IL
Village" copied from the Farmers Week
: Museilnl, a journal long since forgotten, e.
cept by those who have access to those libr
, ries where such relics are preserved.
There are about three columns of adye
: tsements; one of which, proposes
g give 500 reward for the return of silk DIRE
stolen by an Indiana fact suggestive of Il
: revolution that has taken place since lis
: | when the natives Of this continent were fir
! | uuent visitors of what is now one of Il
most thickly settled districts of Massach
y chusetts. agr .r..ar-.
y 1t is about half as large as the DAILY Pre-
u and was a mammoth sheet in its day.
: was 'printed at Worcester (Massachusett
at the Old Printing Office, near the Coui
house, for Isaiah Thomas" et-...,..