East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1866-11-29
Our First Papers.

When wo first look over the United
States and contemplate the vast num-
Der of newspapers periodicals, dai-
ly, weekly and monthly, and some OF
them two or three times a day, we can
hardly realize tho fact that it is little
over a hundred years since the first
newspaper of any kind on the Amer
ican continent was startad, and but
little over half that time since. the
commencement Of the FIRST daily.
But that is the fact. obs 90 intro, il1a
The oath day of April, 1704, saw
the first newspaper, in the English
language, in the American Colonies
or on the North American Continent.
This was the Boston Neies Lette'--a
small half-sheet, printed on plea type.
1t was weekly, published by John
Campbell, a Scotchman, who was book
seller and postmaster. The contents
of the first number were tbe queens
speech in the English parliment, few
local articles under the Boston head,
one advertisement, extracts from the
London papers, and four paragraphs
Of marine news" Advertisements
were inserted Eat a reasonable rate,
from two-pence to five shillings." " Z
In l721, james Franklin establish
ed newspaper in Boston, The par
per was severely critical; withal, some
what hostile to the clergy. Franklin
became unpopular; was censured and
imprisoned for ''scandolous libel" :"
James Franklin was strictly forbid
den to print the Ne,c England Comant
without supervision," etc. He evad-
ed this order of supervision by substi-
tuting his brothers name forhis own.
The cOwGnt lived three years,
The Amricap weeky Mercury, of
Philadelphia, issued in 1922, was the
third newspaper printed m the colo
nios. 1t was made up of quaint ad-
vertisements and short paragraphs of
antique news.
The Pensylrdnia Gazette, edited by
DIR. Franklin, and published in 1929,
was the next step towards journalism.
In its PROSPECTUS, Franklin announces
his intention to make it good reada-
BILE Journal, and in his ideas it is easy
to see that he was far in advance of
his cotemporaries. His paper consisted
Of four small pages, and the sdbscrip-
ton was ten shillings year. aii
In 1885, Thomas Fleet established
the Boston EreniDq Post. Fleet was
h---- - n..pi---sJ -..1 fe.s.4oa iIio
trade there.
The Pennsylvania Journal asd WeskIy
Adratser WAS started about 1760.
At the time of the stamp act. in 1765
the paper came out in mourning, with
the motto, "Ihe times are dreadful,
doleiul, dismal, dolorous and dollar
less" There is also deaths head
in one corner of the page, and under
it these words, "Oh the fatal stamp"
A journal called the Nev York Ga
zetto flourished little while in III.
1t was remarkable in no particular.
The first daily in the United States
was the Pensylsdnia Packet, afterwards
called the Daily Adrrt'Ser. 1t was
started in 1894.
These were the first attempts at Amer
can journalism, and, as such,are alone
worthy Of mention. Soon after the
advent of the daily newspaper, the.
idea of collating and digesting the
news became more and more compro-
hensive, and from the beginning of
the present century up to the present
time the American newspaper has
grown steadily and rapidly, until it
now represents the whole world, and
is greater than the throne, itself"
Itsnumber is almost countless, and its
power for good or evil beyond caleula7
ton Wmdsor Spectator.