Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-09

stance of journal remaining in the same fam
lily for much over a century, and the Leicester
Journal 1l9 years old, is another. The New
castle Courant during its long life of 100 years,
has had but six successive proprietors.
OF the london daily papers only four are
older than the present century. These are the
Times, Morning Post, Morning Advertiser and
Public Ledger, the last of which is now devoted
exclusively to commercial matters and has no
circulation except among merchants. The first
daily paper in London was the Daily COurant,
first published in 1902, and which long ago eX,
pired, at least it is commonly reckoned the first,
although it is now said that small sheet which
had but a short life preceded it little. The
number of daily papers now published in Lon
don is eighteen, of which thirteen are morning
and five evening papers. Two of these print an
average edition of more than 100000 copies, and
three Others circulate about 20 600 daily. In En-
gland, outside of London, sixty-three daily pa
pers are published; in Scotland twelve and il
Wales two. The weekly papers of London mum
her 249, those of the English counties S51, o
Wales So, Scotland 1871, and Ireland 1873.
Previous to 1888 every advertisement in
| newspaper published in Great Britain was sub
ieet to duty of eighteen pence. This tax ham
| pered the business in more ways than one. In
consequence of it advertising was confined with
| in very narrow limits, compared with its present
| development. Up TO 1855, also, every copy of a
newspaper was required to bear penny stamp.
| The abolition of this stamp duty gave great
impulse to the business of newspaper publish
| number Of journals and the
extent of their circulation. That and the tele-
graph have been the making of the provincial
daily papers, putting them in the matter of news
on a leVel with their London rivals Some Of
them are said to be, in their editorial manage
ment, if not in the literary excellence of their
leading articles, superior to any of the latter.
On the London papers 'penny-a.liners," so
| called, are still employed. These are kind Of
volunteer reporters, not regularly attached to
the staff of ANY paper, who pick up
what they can find in the way of local
news, such as fires, murders, accidents and
other street happenings, and sell their reports at
fixed rates, according to length, to any paper
which will pay for them. The necessity for this
class of reporters is defended by London jour
nalstS on the ground that in a city so large it
is impossible to have regular reporters in such
numbers and so stationed as TO gather all the
events which occur. The newspapers may be
represented at the courts, the exchanges and
other places where news of importance may reg
ularly be expected, but accidents and catas
| trophies are liable to occur anywhere and at any
| time. These penny-a-ners are said to be a re-
spectacle and industrious class of men, but, as
their payment depends upon the number
of lines which their reports occupy in the papers,
The temptation is great to magnify the import
ance of the events they relate and 10 use
verbose and turgid style, which has had some
effect in bringing newspaper English into disre-
repute.
A peculiar class of English journals is the
parish newspaper. These are published weekly.
largest and best are in London. Their specially
is the reporting of parochial bodies, such as
vestries and boards of health. Some of them
are as large as The London Times and as well
printed, and contain a surprising amount of in
formation concerning parochial matters of
kind not to be found in the daily papers. 1t is
not unusual to find in them the proceedings of
vestry meeting reported as fully as an impor-
tant parliamentary debate usually is in the lead
ing London papers. They also frequently report
local police cases at great length, including
many of those details which ordinary news
papers dismiss with the remark that they are
unfit for publication"