Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-06-01

by way OF Illustration, the first being
taken from one of the very earliest issues
of the old Centinel, and the quaint spell
ing retained
|. How TO raise devyle2 Contradycte
your wyffe.
Which shows that the'marriage relation
had its terrors even to our sturdy ances-
tors An attempt at an original pun Is
made in the following:
. A schoolmaster in Vermont lately recon-.
mcnded to his pul lis u very fine edition OF
Comb on the Head.
The writer alluded to is probably |
Combe a favorite text in the schools 80
years ago. The same editor who coined
this witticism remarks, in another place
B. We see that pantaletts are now beauti-
| fully and politely termed Shtn-curtdtns.
And here is another equally refined pro-
duction;
4. II won't cover your heels, I'll be ddrned
if I do" as the ragged stocking said to the
novel reading lady.
1t never rains but it pours; so the fun
at the expense of the fair sex continues
s. II is currently reported and generally be-
lievcd of the whole female sex, that they DO
not soruple to HOOK each others dresses.
Here il something that is probably
quoted 1t is good enough for bon-nlOt:
g. The woather-cock, after all, points to the
highest moral truth, tor shows man that 1t
is "yane" thing to II "spire"
Here is one of the original versions of
the antique coffe joke:
T. "why do you set your cup of coffee upon
the chair, Mr.. Jones ?" ssld our worthy land
lady. this, morning at breakfast. Its so
weak, madam" replied Mr. Jones, demurcly,
~ thought would let it rest"
1t is also an interesting feature of
, this study of early journalism, to note
something of the customs and manners
the everyday life of the people of that
time. The older files or the newspapers
, of Chittenden county are full of inter
esting matter of this kind, but we have
space for only one or two characteristic
examples The first relates to the science
of incubation for smallpox, at the time
when it had first been introduced into
this country. and shows something of the
old fashioned neighborliness and lack of
conventionality among our worthy an
cestors. The article in question is taken
from an old copy of the Vermont Cc'tt-
r net dated May 4, 1910, and relates to "a
new mode of noculating Kline Pock"
which is extending in practice with the
happiest results.
When a child has been infected, instead
of physician coming, when the pock Is
, mature, to take away the matter, and
brighten the babe into tears and terror by
his lancet, quilts, etc. the parents an
nounce by board fixed outside the door,
| "that on such day children in perfect
l health may be inoculated without eX-
= pense, and with ripe living matter pro
= vided they are brought by their mothers
between the hours of 10 O'Clock III the
morning and in the afternoon. The
! mother of the infant from whence the
matter is to be taken, Is furnished only
with a common sewing needle the point
of which she dips in the ripe vescicie, on
the arm of her child and then inmedi-
ately with it makes a slight puncture in
the arm of that which is brought to re-
oeive the infection. No blood is drawn.
. If the children are asleep, they are neither
! of them suffered to be disturbed. This
mode of infection, with living matter,
meyer fails, no Inflammation ensues, and
the whole of the operation is performed
. by the mothers only.
d The foregoing examples givea general
idea of the character and contents of the
=, early Chittenden county newspapers. The
t method of their mechanical production
: was far more crude and primitive, as com
e pared with the facilities of the modern
newspaper printing office, than their liter
Il airy style and contents compared with the
= contents of the modern newspaper. 1t
K was not until 1888 that the first printing
press was brought into Western Vermont,
i by Anthony Haswell, who issued the
Il first number of the Vermont gazette from
Q Bennington, on June 3, 1888. This press
of Mr.. Haswell was a hand press, cum
/, brous, crude, slow working affair; but
there was no material improvement in
f printing presses in Vermont for almost
s. fifty years afterward. The earliest news
:, papers and periodicals of Chittenden
o county were all printed on the same kind
: of press-the old Ben Franklin style
, with fiat bed and horizontal platen, so ia
h miliar from cuts in the heads of old news
papers and in printers catalogues. Every
d impression taken necesstated first, the
}. linking of the type by a hand roller, ther
# the laying of the sheet to be printed ovel
the type, care being taken that it was
even and square" then the taking of the
impression by pulling down the handle o.
+ the press, which lowered the platen on tn,
IS type, then the raising of the platen and re
re- moving the sheet adhering strongly to tn,
y ink with the hand. This process, o
course, took great deal of time, and wa
+ exceedingly laborious and veXing yet
"a single operator, or perhaps two, would
is work off the whole edition Of newspape
~ in little more than half day. 1t must b
f. borne i'll mind that subscribers in thos
days were few and far between, and a lis
of 500 was considered an enormous clrcu
latlon for a local journal.
The Mercury and the early issues of tn
to CCHtinel We're set in the old English styl
90 of types and spelling, and make yer
u quaint and curious appearance to day
rs Editors were accustomed, in those days.
~, as to some extent now in country Offices,
~ ~ to do good deal of the mechanical, "a
III well as the brain work, connected wit
ne their journals Anthony Haswell, TIN
proprietor of the Vermont Gazette, con
H. posed, we are told with such facility tina
is most of his printed matter was that c
b. thoughts set up by himself in type, a
he they flowed from his mind without havin
Ie them first committed to paper.
Editors are proverbially poOr-but in tn
he early times of which we are writing the
sh must have been even less burdened wit
oc wealth than they are supposed to be t
e; day. Their subscription rates were e>
Oh ceedingly low, and their subscribers +,
rs markedly few. Even the Chttende
n county dailies We're only a a year; an
.y they were we'll worth the money. AZ
nd vertising rates were correspondngly low
de as may be judged from the proportion
,itG this class of literature to other matter
HHI the daily and weekly journals When a
of editor came to grief-was burned out, {
cr suffered some other calamity for which y
"a was not directly esponsble-instead
A. borrowing money, or getting somebody I
III, start subscription paper, he applied to IL
n %V legislature for lottery license, whC
~ was invariably granted, and the restore
Ter printer went on his way rejoicing with
me scheme containing many blanks and fe
min lott fau ,Nif ,,ath Ia