Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-09-24

One of our townsmen has called our at
tention to the following piece. published on
the Sd inst, in the editorial columns of the
Erening Bulletin, Of San Francisco, Cal:
James Lewis. of this city. has in his pos
session a file Of newspapers'published at
Burlington, VT. in 1880 and 1871. 1t con-
sists of bat half dozen numbers, and these
ragged and moth-eatcn. yet. nevertheless, 1t
contains news to be iounG IN the columns
of but few papers in the country. The pa
per is called The Citizen, and was published
by Watham Shipmeniand Gideon " ilmarth.
some of the most interesting of the closing
events of the Revolution are there for the
first time noted as fresh and exciting news.
In the issue Of August. 1850. after the dis
coyery of the treason of Arnold had reached
the editorial ear, and before the execution
of Andre, it speaks of Arnold as an in
famous and despicabls wretch, and also
animadyerts very severely upon Andre. and
remarks upon the wisdom and justice OF that
martial law which requires the lite OF spy
This was evidently before the death OF
Andre, and before it, with its magic power.
brought out the shining spots upon his HE
and character.
In the two issues of the spring of isl.
several disastrous sklrmishes are ehronIcled
as taking place in the Carollnas. between
the forces of Gage and CORVALLIS; and IN
one of the papers the massacre oil fOri
Griswold is narrated and the atrocities OF
Arnold are dwelt upon in certain logged
and unnaturally subdued way which would
have argued i'll for the safety OF the traitor
had he fallen into the hands OF the ed'-
tors.
la an editorial of January 9. l7sl. ihs
tone is gloomy and hopeless and the writer
evidently has no anticipatiOns OF the CON
ing triumphs. In the same issue there 4.
a notice OF meeting at the "COngrega-
tional Meeting House" to take measures
for the relief OF the suffering soldiery-
curious incident related in the same paper,
and one savoring of Delaware at the pres
ent time, is that of the whipping in the pub
lie square of negro named William Smith
as punishment for beating his a.e-
Throughout all of the numbers stage lac
is advertised to run from Burlington to
Rutland, over what il now the route Oi
the Rutland and Burlington Railroad The
fare from one place to the other was seven
dollars.
In column oi humorous breVi.ie- III an
epitaph, taken from a tombstone IN Essex.
Massachusetts, to the following effect
Here lies Barbara,
The relic OfWilliam Wilkin.
heiser kicked her life away,
One day when she was mllkto
In a subsequent issue it pub .lshes among
the regular death notices d nOiice. which
to say the least. is original and unique ii
not provocative Of reverence. the following
beinSyerbatlm
'2lben Styles departed this life III
brciA 4 and contrite spirit of a ruptures
bowel on the 2o.h inst, in the year OF a-s
Lord one thousand seven hundred an
eighty-One.
The angel Of the Lord
las carried him away,
He lived the fulnsss ~ his ye4rs.
And could no !eageT ST. %
in the type used in TIE printing Of shes-
old papers the ianf..stic tails given - all
the capitals. afr the fashion IN ''ys ollen
time, and .Ie similarity between the anu
the ''',e the pages a very old look.
There must be, we think. some mistake,
either in the date. or place of publieationot
these old papers. Burlington, Vt, Wa M
uninhabited wilderness in Isl. The first
clearings indeed were made in l175 By some
venturesome pioneers, who put up two OF
three small log huts. over on the river but
at the outbreak of the war they left. AMI
the place was uninhabited till l7-j, when
the first permanent settler, Stephen Law
renee. took up his abode here. According
to Thompson. the first newspaper published
in Burlington was the Burlington Mercury
started in 1871, by Donelly y Hill.
We find no published record of any new
paper published in Vermont as early a
I7sO. To the Vermont Ga-ette or Gr-eu
MouHfain Boy. started by Spooner ~ Green,
at Westminster in ISL, has hitherto been
accorded the distinction Of being the first
Vermont newspaper in point OF time
and the Ga-sffe or FreemaH's Repository,
started by Anthony Haswell and David
Russell. at Bennington, in June, 1883. has
been considered the second. 1t occurs to
Us as possible that few copies of a paper
may have been published at Bennington, at
an earlier day, to which the article from the
Bulletin may refer.