Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-05-09


on the 18th day of AlalAh. 1902, the first
number Of the first daily newspaper in the
English language was published in London.
Its appearance was not heralded by advertise
ment, for, besides the two or three weekly
journals then published, and which were
wholly devoted to politics and court matters,
there was nothing in which toadyertise. Tie
proposed publication Of the Cowaut-ior
such the new venture was to be called-was
not looked upon with high degree of favor
by the mOnopolists Of the London newspa
per field who affected 10 regard it with su-
preme contempt, and spoke of it only as
1.-The pitiful Project of a poor Printer,
with all the added weight that could be con
yeyed by liberal use of italics and exclam-
ation-points The publisher was a shrewd
fellow, and saw that this display Of spite
would act as an irritant upon public curiosi-
ty, and Judging by what a Sharp newspaper
man would do nowadays, he went home, or
dered his pressman to put on two more
quireS, '' and awaited the result.
When the C0WGnf did appear, upon the
aforementioned date. it was curiosity. II
was about the size Of half a sheet of foolscap-
paper, printed only upon one side, contain
ing neither editorials, locals, court news, po-
litical matter, advertisements, nor English
intelligence Of any kind whatever This last
omission was the more singular, not to say 81
gnihcant, when the reader will remember that,
upon that very date, the | lth Of March, Queen
Anne went to the House of Peers to deliy
er her first speech from the throne, King VIII
liam III having .diedupon the sth. three days
before We have said there was no home
news in the first issue of the C0UrdHf. The
assertion was too sweeping. In one corner
there are seven lines. four of which, relate to
the funeral Of the deceased king, and three
are devoted to the condition Of the English
army in Flanders; for war at that time was
raging between England and France. The
remainder of the contents consisted entirely
Of quotations from foreign papers, with the
exception of half column in reference to its
future prospects anJ'plans ''This CoWaHt.'
says the publisher, las the Title shows, will
he published daily, being designed to give all
the Material News as soon rs every Post ar
rives, and is confined t.. half the Compass To
save the publick at least half the Impertinen-
ces of ordinary Newspapers
SIX weeks after the first issue the publisher
announced in his largest type that the pro-
iect had been $50 Successful, that hereafter
both Sides will be printed" The appearance
of over column of advertisements in the
same number is sufficient Endorsement OF
the statement, and from that time the COH-
rant increased in prosperity. Every newspa-
per has its leading feature, and that claimed
by the Courdnf was foreign intelligence.
Three months after its first appearance the
following notice found a conspicuous place
in it, columns. which leads to the belief that
newspaper publishers We're much the same
in those DAYS as now, a. regards the dlshlng-
up of news from abroad - ID Will be found
from the Foreign Prints which. from Time
to Time As Occasion offers, will be mentioned
in this paper. that the Author has taken
Care 10 be duly furnished with All that comes
from Abroad in any Language. And for an
Assurance that he will not. under Pretence
of having Private Intelligence, impose any
Addition of feign'd Circumstances to an Ac-
ton, but give his Extracts fairly and impair
tally, at the Beginning Of each Article he
will quote the Foreign Paper from whence
It's taken, that the Publick, seeing from what
Country piece of News comes, with the al
lowance Of that Government, may be better
able to Judge of the Credibility and Fairness
of the Relation. Nor will he take upon him
to give any Comments or Coniectures of his
own. but will relate only Matter of Fact,
surprising other People to have Sense enough
to make Reflections for themselves.
Had we any intention of glorifying the
modern daily newspaper at the expense Of the
Courant, we might stop here to draw very
striking comparison between the merits of
the two. But that was no part of our origi-
nal plan, and we leave it for those who have
nothing else to do. As we have said, and is
claimed in the above quotations, the strong
point of the Cowdnt was its foreign intelli-
gcnce. Clipper-ships, ocean-steamers, and
submarine-cables. were alike unknown IN
those DAYS, and the publisher was obliged to
depend upon the uncertain movements OF
transatlantic shipping, so that the news from
America was sometimes two, three, and oe-
casionally even four months old. Even the
news from across the c Channel was often two
and three weeks old But then this intelli-
gence. stale as it was, was undoubtedly read
with as keen an appetite, and discussed with
as much earnestness, as if it had come hot
from the wires an hour before A fire might
occur in New York, and the destroyed build
ings be replaced by the time the intelligence
would reach London; or colonial ofhclai
in Boston might die, nd his widow be spend
ing her honeymoon with her second, beiore
the news of the first event would be publish
ed in the columns of the COurdnt. But the
preservative power of time did not allow
anything in the news line to lose its sayor,
and these mouldy scraps, with Others gather
| ed from various parts OF the world, were serv-