Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1866-11-24
History Of Newspapers.

chanical powers drew from him the oxulting
exclamation, "Givc me where to stand, and |
will move the world y have enjoyed a pro-
phctic vision of our day in this nineteenth
century, he might have found in the printing
office standing place, and in the press le-
yer whcrcwith to move the world. OF the
influence oxertcd and power maintained by
tho press, much has been said, J; many articles
written: and yet MI cannot bnt fail to f,l, far
short in estimating its value. j he iirurn,;,-
ton thus conveyed aud the force thus cxcr-
ciscd is lncalcuiub!c. The press not only in
a great mcasute shapes our thoughts and ideas,
but our very actions themselves, while by its
diffusion over the entire civilized world, as
well as by its rapid communications Of intclli-
gcnco Oh subjects Of immediate interest the
public mind is thereby acted upon, controlled,
and stimulated, as by no other power. Every
day OF our lives we are accustomed to read
the newspaper, to scan, hurr:cdIy rS para
graphs, glance 'astiIy but anxiously at the
price Of stocks, or ,ack ncrvou>ly for the nuc-
in"tions in the market generally; yet we know
little or nothing OF the process by which it is
made, Of the myriads OF motions and thous-
ands Of pieces necessary TO its composition,
ami still less 10 VIC thr! Of the difficulties
and cmbarrassmcnts through which it has
struggled to its present position. More par
ticulary to this last branch Of the great whole,
do 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 hutterod on the back g the beg
gar yesterday we do rot propose to dwell,
though llallan,. in his Z" Middle Ages" dates
its invention as far back as the year ICCO
Next came printing; tie word being de-
rived from two Latin words, an upon, and
pwmo, to press. This. too, in its simplest
form, has been practiscd from the remote ages
OF antiquity The bricks of Egypt and As
syria were stamped with characters understood
at that time, aud, in the Book of Job, we read
OF writings upon stone, rocks. and lead ii
was ON tahcs OF stour. too, that Moses re
ccivcd the law, written py Tic h.y. (: u
himself.
Whether or not as somlc assert Cicero first
gave the idea Of types in their present form,
will ever remain in obscurity; their use, how
ever, must have been cocval with the press
itself, from, the nature Of the case, aud this,
we are told 10y judicial records at Strasburg
was first constructed in that city Ivy Guttcm
burg rs early as l436.
Newspapers were preceded by the Acta Di-
urna Of the Romans; their origin is generally
ascrbcd to the Italians The war which the
Republic Of Venice wagcd against tic Turks
in Dal;natia, gave rise, in 1868, to the Gus
tom, in Venice, of communicating military or
commercial news BY written sheets, which
were read in particular place to those dcsi-
rous to hear them, and who paid for this priv
ilcec in coin, no longer in use, called ca
! .riia, name which by degrees was transfer
red to the newspaper itself Those who first
wrote newspapers were called by the Italians
mcnunti, because they intended by these low
papers to spread about dcinmatory reflections,
and were therefore prohibited in Italy by a
special bull from Pope Gregory MIL Says
an Italian writer, g 1t is common for the peas
antry, as he knows from experience, to call
the newspaper De l.ogcnblad the lying pa
per-" and the German provcrb, in use to this
day, " He lies like print" is connected with
this view of early newspapers.
To Lord Burghlcy, ministcrof Queen IIliz-
abeth belongs the credit OF first securing lib,
| crty for printed sheets of public intelligence
in England, the earliest of which relate to the
descent of the Spanish Armada on the Eng
lish cost.
The first advertisement appeared in 1857
IN 1888 the charge in "Thc Jockey lntclli-
gcncer" for inserting advertisements was sta
ted as ga shilling for horse or coach, and
sixpcnce for renewing" "rhe Country Gen
tcmans Courant" says, "Sccing the forma-
ton Of tfiac Is a matter that ought 10 be en-
couragcd, the price OF advertisements is ad-
vanccd to two pence per line
Publishers, in this early period, were puz-
zloa for news sufficient to fl their sheets
the difficulty was obvatcd in an ingenious
| manner by some of them "The Elyinp