San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-02-16
AMERICAS NEWSPAPERS.
A Russian View OF the Wonderful Iunuenee OF the
Press In the Unite States.
S, Petersburg zagraniehny vestnik,

will find the newspaper occupying the
most conspicuous place. The present
writer has visited the different states of
New England, the western agricultural
states, the Pacific states OF gold and
silver, the southern states of cotton and
tobacco, of lemons and oranges. and he
could not help noticing every where the
Yankees love of reading.
The newspaper has become daily
necessity OF the Americans. what
paper do you take? ?" is one of the ques-
tons oftenest heard there. If one
should answer that he took no paper he
would be taken for an ignorant emf
grant. The foreigner who visits New
York City for the first time might sup
pose that the sole employment of the
Inhabitants related to newspapers.
Some collect the news and write the
articles, others print the newspapers, a
third set sells them and the rest of the
people read them.
In the United States the number of
periodicals has increased in a greater
ratio than the population. In the rev.
olutionary year, 1776, there were in the
thirteen original states thirty. seven
periodicals all told, and as the popula-
tion then numbered little over 3,000,-
600, there was one periodical for every
$1,000 in 1abitants. Now there are in
the United States over 100000 of
inhabitants, according to the census of
1880, and the number of periodicals
has risen to the enormous figure of
9.723. So we see that in that country
there is now one periodical for every
4,12S persons. This shows that the
Americans OF to-day, who but recently
celebrated the centenary of their indie
pendence, read twenty times as much
rs did their revolutionary ancestors who
fought for and won independence. As
far as the number of newspapers and
magazines is concerned, America sur
passes all other countries. In fact. the
United States puts forth more than
half of the total number of periodicals
published in the world.
Of all periodicals, the weeklies are
the most numerous. There are 1880
of them. This fact is very gratifying,
for it shows that in the New World the
farmers and workingmen, who are the
principal subscribers for the weoklies.
are readers, while in the old world thew
are hardly able to read at all. In New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago,
st. Louis, San Francisco and some
other large cities even the workingmen
read the dailies, for there are papers
published which the poorest man can
buy. There are 1858 monthly magazines
and 843 daily newspapers. These are
read by the Yankees of the large cities,
who, in their To-, G of news, surpass even
the citizens of ancient Athens.
In regard to the circulation of the
periodicals, it may be stated that there
are 3,5OO,OOO subscribers for the dailies,
over Is 100000 for the weeklies, 4,5OO,-
600 sub scribers for the monthly maya
zines, and about 1905 sui ,ribers for
other journals and magazines. 1t is
believed each copy is read by at least
three persons; therefore there must be
100000 readers; in other words the
are 3,00O,O 900 Americans who regularly
read more than one periodical. No
other country in the world presents
anything to equal that. The impartial
figures force us to admit that the
Americans read great deal more than
any other nation in the world Horace
Greeley, the most honest of the statis-
ticians, affirmed that in his country
three quarters of all the families took
journal or magazine. That accounts
for the enormous figures that are given
in the American Newspaper Directory.
The Sun, it is shown, has circulation
OF nearly 14O,' 90 every day, which ex-
ceeds that of any other paper in the
United States. Four papers have
daily circulation of $4,000; twelve of
$4,000.
Every religion and religious sect,
every science and art, every branch of
industry, trade and finance, every pub
lie and private institution and societies
of every possible kind have their own
paper. There are 42l religious papers
and 55S papers in foreign languages.
The Americans value their period
icals very highly. They regard the
newspaper as the tongue of the nation
and of the age. 1t is the speech of the
masses and communities. 1t is the
sci DOL of American manhood. It is the
peoples library, and the cyclopedia of
the millions. 1t is the peoples univer-
sity. 1t places its reader in the parlla-
ment of the world, and thus makes him
a citizen of the world. The Americans
live, work and think through the news
paper. Among the editors and contrib
utors of all kinds there is included a
large proportion of the talent of the
Union.
For the American people, who indeed
hold their destiny in their own hands,
the free and highly developed press is
a normal need. 1t is one Of the great
est factors Of their political and social
life. 1 will go even further than that:
Without the newspapers neither cleo