The Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1865-1870, 1868-01-08
NEWsPAPERs.

When Richard Pierce, printer, Of Boston
IN the Colony of Massachusetts,, worked Of
upon his hand. press, on the 18th Of SePtem
Der, 1880, the first newspaper ever published
| in America, the General Court took tn
shabby little sheet into custody. held solemn
debate over the daring disturber Of the publi
quiet, and voted that it " contained reflection
Of . very high nature" and its publication
was contrary to Law. The poor thing was no
| allowed to appear again. Yet if We cOult
read that journal to-day-which unfortunate
| ly we cannot do, because the only copy Of il
in existence is locked up in the State Paper
Office in London-we should probably fnd
nothing SO very alarming in it; we should
probably regard it, on the contrary, a. par.
ticulariy stupid publication. A newspaper
Nowadays which does not sometimes disturb
the public quiet, and indulge in reflection.
of = very high nature" has little chance Of
long life and prosperity. We have made
wonderful progress in almost everything since
the generation Of our great-great-grandfath-
been so remarkable as in the profession OF
journalism. The newspaper is no longer
merely retailer of petty local gossip, or a
summary record of great affairs of state, or a
mouttl-piece of individual opinion, or a social
or political essay. 1t is all Of these at once.
The province of the journalist is to gather in
telligence, and to spread it abroad; to tell Of
the quarrels of street-hghters and the revoiu-
tions of empires; to chronicle with fidelity
the theft of a dollar and the theft of a king
dom to reflect public opinion, and at the
same time to guide it; to be the organ at
once of popular sentiment and of individual
convictions; the representative and the mon
itor of parties, the guardian of great inter
ests, and the hreside gossip. If poor Richard
Pierce could come out of his tomb, he would
be appalled, at the magnitude of the institu-
ton which has grown from his unfortunate
If he could compare his rude
hand-press, upon which with much labor and
he struck off few hundred impress
sions in a DAVIS work, with the complicated
and beautiful machines whose steel fingers
seize upon the huge sheets of white paper,
whirl them at lightning speed upon the re-
yolving types, and hand them forth by tens
Of thousands an hour all ready for the pur-
chaser; if he could contrast his little sheet |
Of four pages Zone of them bank) with |
The forty hit broad columns of The Tri- |
1une, each one of which contains more
han the whole of his newspaper; or turn
from his narrow office to the great busy |
world of modern newsp per establishment, |
with its thousand workers; its pressmen
'eeding the gathering monster deep in the
1aults type-setters, with flying fingers. busy |
1t their cases; carriers pursuing their rounds; |
Jerks at their ledgers; reporters securing the |
.ity and all the nj lib n country for items;
he telegraph ashing news from the remotest
nds of the globe watchful correspondents
letters from every quarter of the
world; editors reducing to order and shape
he chaos of intelligence, and explaining and
upon the reports and occurren-
es of the night; scholars and critics discus
ing carefully all that is worthiest of notice
n science, literature, and art brilliant essay
SITS writing upon all themes that are enter
aiming; and finally men making known their
rants to one another through the far reach
~ advertisements If he should get up and
&c all this he would make haste in bewilder
lent to 20 back to his coffin.
We do not know what price Mr.. Pierce got
u his paper; but we can hardly be far
7rong in guessing that if we made a proper
onate charge for ours, the cost of The
'ribune would be two or three dollars a copy
instead Of four cents. Every number of The
ribune. for instance, contains as much mat
n As a duodecimo book, such as is sold for
ollar and a half or two dollars. The ex- ,
ense of preparing this matter vastly exceeds
rat of preparing half dozen ordinary books.
he annual outlay of good daily Journal,
UGH as we endeavor to make ours, 10 IN the I
of a million of dollars. In I
lie Weekly and Semi-Weekly editions Of
he Tribune in the course of year, beside
olumes of news. essays, public documents,
nd popular information Of every description, ,
,ere are published three or four novels or I
Their works. which, if purchased in book
rn., would alone cost twice As much az the ;
Inscription to the paper. The best produc-
ons Of the most popular writer's at home
nd abroad are thus presented to our readers I
a price which is really Insignificant, and
e modern press stands acknowledged as
}, only marvel of enterprise and ingenuity,
1t as "a paragon of cheapness.-Ne'o YORK
,i6tne.