St. Mary's gazette., 1866-11-15
HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS

Could the great geomcLrlclan Oh cyFa-
! cuse, whose discoveries and Improvements OF
mcchnuical powers drew from him the ex-
ultinc exclamation, Give me where to
stand, and viii move the worll.' have
enjoycd a prsphetc vision of our day III
| this ninetcenth century. he might Lave
found in the printing office standing
place, and in the press lever whercwlin
to move The world OF the influence ex
crted and power maintained by the press,
much has been sail, many articles written.
and vet all cannot but fail to fiii far short
in estimating its value The Information
thu. conveyed and tho force thus exercised
is incalculAble The press not oAly IN
great measure shapes our thonghts and
IDEAS, Jut our very actions themselves,
while " its diffusion oysr the entire cl"l-
lizad world, as weii e@e b Is rapid com
,nunica.;on of intrI.i,"nc on subjects OF
immcdiata interest, the public m!nd IS
thereby acted upon, controlled, and strnn-
lated, as By no other power, Every day
If our lives We arc accustomed to read the
newspaper, to sean hnrriclly It's para
graphs. plancc hastily but anxiousy at the
rricc of stocks. or seek I1e-~ousiy for the
fuc,uAtions in the market genera"g get
We Anow little or nothing Of the process
by which it is made, of the myrlad5 Of mo-
ton, and thousands Of pieces necessary
to it. crmposit,on, and still less do we
thin, Of the difficulties and cnba.rassu
through which it has struggled to It's
present position. Noro particularly 70
his las branch of tLo great whole, d. We
call our readers attention at this. time
Of the early history of paper, the
fair white carpet, woven for thought TO,
walk on. the rags that tluttercd upon
the back Of thc b"ggar yesterday, We
do not propose TO dwell, through lial-
lam. in hi4 "Niddlr Ages" dates It's IN
ycn,ion a. far hack A. the year 1909
Next came printing the word being
derived from two Latin words, IN upon,
and promo to py,sa. This, too. Ii: It's
simplest form, has bcon practised from
rhc remote agos of antiquity. The hricks
IF E1vpt and Assvria were stamped %lth
characters UNDERSTOOD a, that titne and,
IL the Book of JOB, We read Of writings
unon stone, rocks. ana lead II WAS on
tables Of stone. TOO, that Moses received
the law, written Is the Anger Of God, him
self.
Wbc.h,r - not a. some assert. q
ccro first gave the idea of types III their
present form, will ever rc,n3n IN obscu-
r;tv their usc however. must have been
cocval with the press l'scif, from the
nature Of the case. arA his, we are told
hv Judicial records at Strashurg, was
first constructed in that city by Guttcn
bnrr IS carly as 1856.
Nowsrarors v,,rs preceded h- the Acto
pinroa Of tina Romans their oriria is
rrnrr,l,v ,scr;hsl to i Italians. The
war which the Republic Of Venice wascd
aq,jnxt the Turks IN Dalmatia. gave rise.
in 1868, to the custom. IN Venice. OF
communicating military or commercial
news by written sheets which were read
n particular piare to those de>raas
to hear them. and Who paid for this
nrivilcce il. coin. no longer in use.
called (,a-.tt.,, a name which hv de-
crees was transferred to the newspaper
itssIf Those who first wrote tcvspape. IS
w,rc called Nv III, Italians 7nanra.i. be
,an>c th,y jlten..c4 by these low papers
~ s.-s,4 abort d,f,ua,o~v reflections.
,nd wore therefore n~olib,tr6 IN Italy bv
n special bull from Pope Gregory NH.
Saws an Italian writer. 1T is common
for the n,asantrv ~ he knows from cx-
- r;enro - ,ail' the newsnanrr Pc L9r-
.n,l3 the Iviur n,aar and ,h, Ger
man nrovcrh N Us. to this day. lie
lies lk. print j. connected with this