The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-06-26
NEWSPAPERS.
Their Antiquity - Roman Journals
GazettCs-0lllcial Papers.
By,DR. II. SHELTON MACKENZIE.

u newspaperir England when ! was
only eighteen years old fnrcy |
that | nm competent to write on the
history of journalism. First, then,
as to its antiquity.
1t would appear that, in ancient
Rome, th-re was something nearly
what, in our time. is called the
'rcwspaper." By-the-way, the deri-
valion of that word ne'cS is worth
looking into. 1t is a noun, both
singular and plural, the base OF
which certainly is the adjective, nep
- Just us goods comes from gQod.
News means information, fresh and
recent, particularly from u distance,
and has come to be considered and
employed in the singular number.
In the scandinavian languages
Gothic, Anglo. Saxon, Dutch, Ger
man, Danish, Ice'andic and Swedish
the same little word is used, with
little variation of spelling, and, odd
ly enough, though showing the com
mon kindred OF tongues, it is much
the same, not only in the Greek and
Latin, with their modern dialects,
but also in the Sanscript, Hindos-
tanic and Persian.
There is poplar but unfounded
tradition, in England, that the word
"news' was derived from tho initial
letters of the four cardinal points
North, East, West and South. This
tradition is of long standing, for it
is mentioned in an epigram, III
"Wit's Recreation" first published
| in 1649. The lines run thus
When nc,tw doth come, if any would dfscuss
Tho letters of the wOrl resolve It thus:
News is conveyed by letter. word or mouth, A,
And comes from North, East, West and oouth'
Here, undoubtedly, the word ex-
listed long, long before any one TOOK
the trouble of inventing its origin
for the names which we have given
} to the cardinal points Of the compass
are Anglo.Saxon whereas in Greece
Rome, and India, u word very llk'
r. necs has been employed long before
, the Christian era began.
1t may be safely assumed that th'
I, Greeks, with all their culture, neve
j, had newspaper but the Romans
had something of the sort in th'
.lclo Diurnn, or Acia Publica, which
during the Republic and consider
able period of the Empire, appoaret
daily, under the sanction OF the Gov
eminent, and kept the Romans dull,
o "posted up" as to the births ant
deaths in Rome, the amount o
IS money paid into the public treasury
T. statistics as to the supply of corn
st extracts from the laws, the declslon
e of the magistracy, reports OF trials
with the names of the acquitted ant
:, condemned, lists of newly electe.
l. magistrates, accounts Of public al
= fairs and of foreign wars, particular
Vt about the emperor and the mem
bers of his family, with news relat
If irc to public buildings, funerals
% games, festivals, fires, sacrifices an
/. miracles. There even were amator
t. stories, Just rs there used to be !
the French newspapers before tn
Franco German war. These Rc
N man journals were prepared VIII
~ ~ great care, under the supennteI
~ dence of censors, questors, an
- other magistrates, by officers calle
, octucrii equivalent, in some respec
!e to the reporters of the present day
Is assisted by clerks and notarle
id There was no printing-simply b'
IN cause it had not then been invente'
rd The Acta Diwna, containing Il
the varieties of news here enumera
v ed, were posted in two or three pu'
by lie places in Rome, i'll view OF q
'e- who could read, and these were NJ
id many. But there were several pc
a sons, better educated than most
tn their citizens, who used
lounge about the public places, an
re for a small fee, read the Acta
~ those who desired to know Il
an latest news.
,ix The modern newspaper obtain
ng the name by which it long was nc
,rs known from Venice. 1t was Il
custom, in the fourteenth and !
teenth centuries, when Venice W
1o engaged in war, to have the de
Eli matches from the naval and mint
ms ~ ~ commanders fairly written o
III, and affixed to the column OF
Gu Theodore, which stands in the oP
zen space, or piazzctta, between l
bogo's Palace and the Library
;ho St. Marks. (On that pillar ] ma
in often seen printed notices aillxed'
lty, like manner. There always loung
rts about some needy person who COZ
to read, and those who could not
wd were curious to know the last ne
.d's from camp or sea, paid these re'
.d's ers with a small coin called gaEi
ia. Ere long the name OF the c.
was popularly given to the sh i,
The containing the news Later 81
''o . each official issue of intelligence
a." !" called gazette, from the sh
''n M which communicated it to the p
on Oh lie. Long alter printing was lar
'iI If " practiced in Venice-for the A
IL y,,ppiJ;sbad themselves in the oc'
mil. oTe city early in the sixteenth eentur at r
Pm ho the government continued to $ $
= Do ~; ,rinen gazettes, as OF old, to u
~ n.ao towns on tho main land, nav
.'an. o ~ them posted up in pubic pa
nea' @ where all could read, or hear u
ooan oon read, At last the printing p.
'''' superceded the'pen. But the LII
stuck, and, all over Europe
,orcs official publications OF the respec
IoiSN nsl1