The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-06-28
NEWSPAPERS
Their antiquity Roman Journals
Gazettes-0 Official Papers.
BY DIR. R. SHELTON MAcKENzIE,


my life with the press-for I edited
new paper 10 England when I was
only eighteen years old fancy
that l am competent to write on the
history of journalism. First, then,
as to its antiquity.
1t would appear that, in ancient
home, there was something nearly
what, in our time. is called the
newspaper" By-the-way, the deri-
vation of that word neuos is worth
looking into. It is a noun, both
singular and plural, the base Of
which certainly is the adjective, ne10
Just as goods" comes from good.
News means information, fresh and
recent, particularly from distance,
and has come to be considered and
employed in the singular number.
In the Scandinavian languages
Gothic, Anglo Saxon, Dutch, Ger
man, Danish, Iceandic and Swedish
the same little word is used, with
little variation of spelling, and, odd
~ 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 the 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, IN
wits Recreation" first published
In 1919. The lines run thus
When ,lelos doth come, if any would discuss
The letters of the word. resolve it thus:
News is conveyed By letter. word or mouth,
And comes from North, East. West and South
Here, undoubtedly, the word ex-
listed long, long before any one took
the trouble of inyenting 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, word very like
nel0s hassbeen employed long before
the Christian era began.
1t may be safely assumed that the
Greeks, with all their culture, never
had newspaper but the Romans
had something of the sort IN the
Acta Diurna, or Acta Pltblica, which,
during the Republic and a consider
able period of the Empire, appeared
daily, under the sanction of the Gov
eminent, and kept the Romans duly
'fposted mp" as to the births and
deaths in Rome, the amount OF
money paid into the public treasury,
statistics as to the supply of corn,
extracts from the laws, the decisions
Of the magistracy, reports of trials
with the names of the acquitted and
condemned, lists of newly elected
magistrates, accounts of public af-
fairs and of foreign wars, particulars
about the emperor and the mem
bers of his family, with news relat-
ing to public buildings, funerals
games, festivals, fires, sacrifices anO
miracles. There even were amatOTy
stories, Just as there used to be IL
the French newspapers before the
Franco-German war. These Ro
man journals were prepared witt
great care, under the superinten
dence of censors, qu9stors, anC
other magistrates, by officers called
actucrii equivalent, in some respect
to the reporters of the present day
assisted by clerks and nOtaries
There was no printing-simply be
cause it had not then been invented
The Acta DiTRG, containing al
the varieties of news here enumerat
ed, were posted In two or three pub
lie places in Rome. in view of al
who could read, and these were no
many. But there we're several per
sons, better educated than most O
their fellow-citizens, who used t.
lounge about the public places, ano
for q small foe, read the ActG t
those who desired TO know tn
latest news.
The modern newspaper obtaine
the name by which it long was bes
known from Venice. It was tn
custom, in the fourteenth and fl
tecnth centuries, when Venice wa
engaged in war, to have the DIES
patches from the naval and militia
ry commanders fairly written on
and affixed to tho column of S
Theodore, which stands in the ope
space, or piazzetta, between tn
Doge's Palace and the Library {
st. Marks. ION that pillar hav
often seen printed notices affixed, /
like manner. There always lounge
about some needy person who eoul
read, and those who could not, "
were curious to know the last new
from camp or sea, paid these reat
ers with small coin called gaze
Ia. Ere long the name of the col
was popularity given to the she'
containing the news. Later still
each official issue of intelligence wa
called q gazette, from the shet
which communicated it to the pull
lie. Long after printing was large
" practiced in Venice-for the AID
established themselves in the ocea
city early in the sixteenth century
the government continued to sen
aCriHen gazettes, as of old, to thei
towns on the main land, havin
them posted mp in public placer
where all could read, or hear theI
read At last the printing pres
superseded the-pen. But the nam
stuck, and, all over Europe, IL
official publications of the respectiN
governments appeared in paper
bearing the title of Gazette.
The eldest of these, still flourish
ing, but not official, is the Gazette {
France, begun in April, 1851, an
edited by Doctor Renaudot. 1t VIZ
patronized by Louis XIII, who