The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1880-09-18
For the "Union."
OLD NEWSPAPERS.

them after long searching. In the FIRST
place ! give you the
ORIGIN or NEWSPAPERS.
From the first day of the n3ecting of
the Long Parliament may be dated the
beginning of journalism. The earliest
English newspaper that has been dis
covered is quarto pamphlet of a few
leaves, comp-ehending a summary Of
parliamentary proceedings for an entire
year. 1t is estitled "The Diurnal Oc-
currence, or Daily Proceedings of both
Houses, in this great and happy Parlia-
ment, from sd Nov, 1910, TO sd Nov,
I64I." More than one hundred news
papers, with different titles, appear to
have been published between this date
and the death Of the king, and upwards
Of eighty others between this event and
the Restoration. Occasionally papers
were SSucd after the civil war began,
limited to local or special occurrences,
as "News from Hull" Truths from
York, "ridings from Ireland" The
more regular newspapers were published
weekly at first, then twice or three 4
week. The impaticncc of the people
soon led to the publication of daily pa
pcrs; and Spalding, the Aberdeen an
naliSt, mentions that in December, I6s.,
"daily papers came from London, called
'Diurnal Occurrences declaring what
is done in Parliament" In the Scot
tish campaign Of 1850 the army Of
Charles and that of Oliver Cromwell
each carried its printer along with ii TO
report progress, and of course to cxag-
gcratc successes. II is from this cir
cumstance that the first introduction OF
newspapers into Scotland has been at
tributcd to Oliver Cromwell.
FIRST AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.
When we look over the United States
and contemplate the vast number of
newspapers and periodicals, daily, week
ly and monthly, and some of them two
and three times day, we can hardly
realize the fact that il is but little over
hundred years since the first ncwSpa-
per of any kind on the American CONT
nent was started, and but little over half
that time since the commencement Of
the first daily. But such is the fact.
The s4th of April, 1904, saw the first
newspaper in the English language in
the American colonies or on the North
American continent. This was the
Boston Ncaps Lrnty-a small half-sheet
printed in plea type. 1t was weekly
paper, published by John Campbell, 4
Scotchman, who was bookseller and
4 postmaster. The contents of the first
number were "Quecn's speech in the
English Parliament, few local articles
under the Boston head, one advertise
ment, extracts from the London papers
and four paragraphs of marine news :"
Advertisements were inserted sat rea-
sonablc rates from two pence to five
shillings."
In I7:I James franklin established 4
newspaper in Boston. The paper was
severely critical; withal, somewhat
hostile to the clergy. franklin became
unpopular, was ccnsured and imprison-
cd for .scandalous libel" lanes
franklin was strictly forbidden TO print
the .Nr'o EDChIRd C1NJam without SUI
pcrviSion, etc. He cvaded this by sub
stlluliOu VI uiN uIOttlGI - lstiiC ipi uiS
own. The Conya1f lived three years.
The .imcyIfn Hfckh Mercury, of
Philadelphia, issued in I7.2, was the
third newspaper printed in the colonies.
II was made up Of quaint advertisements
and short paragraphs of antique news.
The Pennsylvania GAZETTE, edited by
DR.. Franklin and published in I7s9.
was the next step toward journalism
In its prospectus Franklin announces
his intention to make good, readable
journal, and in his ideas il is easy TO see
that he was far in advance of his con-
temporaricS. His paper consisted Of
four small pages, and the subscription
was ten shillingS year.
In 1885 Thomas Fleet established the
Boston EifHinc Past. Fleet was born
in England and learned his trade there.
He once advertised negro woman for
sale As follows: "To be sold by the
printer of this paper, the very best ne
gro woman in the town. She has had
the smallpox and measles. is rs hearty
as horse. rs brisk as n bird, and will
work like beaver" Fleet was 4 hui
morous fellow and made money out of
his paper.
The Pennsylvania ./on,na/ ami Hf6k-
n 1iscynSer was started about 100
At the time of the Stamp Act. in I765,
the paper came out in mourning, with
the motto: "1he times are dreadful,
doleful dismal, dolorous and dollarleSs. !"
There was also 4 deaths head in one
corner of the page, and under il these
words: "Oh the fata stamp"
A journal called the New York Ga
:ctkr flourished little while in I'LL
Ii was remarkable in no particular.
The frs, daily in the United States,
the Pennsylvania Packet, afterwards
called the D0br .fdaeyziSy, was started
in 1894.
These were the first attempts at Amer
ican journalism, and, as such, are alone
worthy of mention. Soon after the adj
vent OF the daily newspaper the idea OF
collating and digesting the news be-
came more and more comprehensive,
and from the beginning Of the present
century up to the present time, the
American newspaper has grown steadily
and rapidly, until it now represents the
whole world, and is "greater than the
throne" itself. Its number is almost
countless, and its power for good or
evil beyond calculation.
The first daily newspaper appeared in
I7os. The first newspaper in the Uni
ted States was published in Boston, Sep
tenber 2sth, 1890.
The first Methodist newspaper was
published in I74I in London. lis title