The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-12-26
ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.
:ho Pioneer Journals Of Great Britain ans
he ITDife6 States. y

ORlGiN CF NEWSFAFEHS. ~
Tho Pioneer Journals of Great Britain and
tho United States.
From the first day Of the meeting. OF tho
Long Parliament may be dated the begin
ming Of journalism, writes ". A. Engarde
In the Inland Printer The earliest English
newspaper that has been discovered L: IN
quarto pamphlet OF few leaves, compre-
hending summary Of parliamentary pro
ceedings from an entire year. 1t is entitled,
ssThe Diurnal Occurrence, or Daily Proceed.
ings Of Both Houses, in Their Great and
Happy Parliament, from the Sd Of Noveu-
ber, 1910, to Sd Of November, 1641.n More
than one hundred newspapers, with dif:
ferent 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 published after the civil war
began, limited to local or special occurrences,
as ssNews from Hull, !" 'Truths from York;
ssTidinss from Ireland" The more regular
newspapers were published weekly atfrst,
then twice and three times week. The
impatience of the people soon led, to the
publication Of daily papers, and Spalding,
the Aberdeen annalist, mentions that II
December, 1862, "daily newspapers. came
from London, called Diur1dl Occurrences, de-
claring what is done in Parliament" In
the Scottish campaign of 1850 the army OF
Charles, and that Of Oliver Cromwell, each
carried it's printer along with it to report
progress, and, Of fcourse, to exaggerate sue
cess. It is from this circumstance that the
first introduction Of newspapers into Scot
land has been attributed toOlyer .Cron-
well
When we look over the United States and
contemplate the vast number Of newspapers
and periodicals, daily, weekly and monthly,
and some of them two or three times a day,
the fact can be hardly realized that it is but
little over hundred years since the first
newspaper Of any kind on the American
continent was started, and but little over
half that time since the commencement OF
the first daily. Such is the fact, however.
April "a, 17o44, saw the first newspaper IN
the English language il the American colo
MES or on the North American continent.
This was the Boston Nears Letter, small
half sheet, published by John Campbell, a
Scotchman, who was bookseller and q
postmaster. The contents Of the first num-
ber were: "Queen's speech IN the Enghsn
parliament, a few local articles under the
Boston head, one advertisement, extracts
from the London papers and four para
graphs Of marine newsl" Advertisements
were inserted at reasonable rates, from two
pence to five shillings.
In 1T1 James Franklin established q
newspaper in Boston. The paper was Sc
7erely critical withal, and somewhat hostile
to the clergy. Franklin became unpopular.
was censured and imprisoned for scandal
Gus libel" James Franklin was strictly
forbidden to print the Ne1D England courant
without supervision, etc. He evaded this
by substitution of his brothers name for his
own. The Courant lived three years.
The american TIsekly Mercury, Of Phla-
delphia, issued in 1722, was the third news
paper printed in the colonies. It was made
up Of quaint advertisements and shortpar-
agraphs Of antique news.
The Pennsylvania Gazette, edited by Dr.
Franklin, and published in 1729, was the
next venture to mark journalism. In its
prospectus Franklin announces his inten-
ton to make good, readable journal; and
in his ideas it is easy to see that he was far
in advance Of his contemporaries His pa
per consisted of four small pages, and the
subscription was ten shillings year.
In 1875, Thomas Fleet established the
Boston Erentng Post. Fleet was born In En-
gland and learned his trade there. He
once advertised negro woman for sale: as
follows: 'oTo be sold by the printer Of this
paper, the very best negro woman in this
town. She has had the smallpox and
measles, is as hearty as horse, as brisk
as bird, and will work like beaver"
Fleet was humorous character, and made
money out Of his paper.
The Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Id
vsrtiser was started in 1765. At the time Of
the Stamp Act, in 1765, the paper came out
in mourning with the motto, "The times
are dreadful, dismal, doloroas and dollar
less" There was also a Deaths head in
one corner of the page, and under it these
words: "Oh! the postal stamp''
a journal called the New York Gazette
aourished little while in the year IT'LL but
was remarkable in no particular; and the
first daily in the United States, the Psnrsyl-
ycnta Packet, afterward called the Daily Ad-
vertiser, was started in 1794.
These were the first attempts at Ameri-
can journalism, and, as such, are alone
worthy Of mention. Soon after the advent
Of the daily newspaper, the idea Of collat-
ing and dgesting the news became moro
and more comprehensive, and from the be-
ginning Of the present century up to this
time, the American newspaper has grown
steadily and rapidly, until it now repre-
sents the entire world, and is "greater
than the throne ITSELF" Its number is al
most countless, and its power for good or