The new North-west., 1888-10-26

F1EST OFFICE OF THE KENTUCKY GAZETTE.
Mr. William Henry Perrin, of Louisville,
has also written an admirable sketch of the
papers of Kentucky. Looking over the old
papers and noting how very small the places
were in which some of them were published,
the wonder is that they lived at all. But ali
food products were ''dog cheap, and printer
could get as much bread, meat, potatoes.
milk, butter, game and whisky for his fifty
cents day then as he does for his So now.
The luxuries Of today he did without, and did
not know what he was losing In fact, most
OF them had not been invented.
Lexington, KY, claims the honor of hav-
ing had the first newspaper in the west, The
Kentucky Gazette, first issued Aug. IL, 1857,
by John Bradford. Kentucky was then
county Of Virginia, and land Of fighting
and fighters. Buckle ought to have analyzed
that state in his History Of Civilization. y for
it is most perfect illustration of his theory
as to the development Of fighting qualities.
No tribe of Indians owned the region; all
fought for it, and only the most warlike could
remain. Thus itrequired the most determined
fighters from the older states to make settle
ments there, and of these only the best fighters
survived; and as a result Of century Of
natural selection and survival of the fighting
est, behold the Kentuckian of 1850 80. It Is
not surprising, therefore, to learn that the
second editor Of The Gazette, Thomas r.
Benning, was mortally shot March Q, 1929,
by Charles Wickliffe, and that his successor,
George ]. Trotter, killed WickliRe in duel
Bradford, founder Of The Gazette, was
veteran Of the Revolution and successful
printer of small books and pamphlets. He
also wrote work on the early history of
Kentucky. The Gazette was ardently Demo
cratic and opposed to the pride Of the Blue
Grass region, Henry Clay. It therefore Ian
guished in the years Of Wing supremacy,
and died of inanition in 184S
The Guardian of Freedom was established
at Frankfort, KY, in 1913, also by John
Bradford, in partnership with his son, and its
'long felt want" was the public printing,
which kept it alive many years. The Ken
lucky Herald was established in Lexington in
1895, and in q few years was absorbed by the
Bradfords. Between that date and 1911
thirty more papers were started in Kentucky;
but by this time papers were common in Ohio
and other western states Two features
about the old papers are amusing-they paid
no attention to local affairs, and rejoiced in
long and high sounding titles. One was
called The Farmers Library or Ohio Intelli-
gencer, another The Repository of Human
Freedom, and The Liberty Hall and Cincin-
natl Gazette survives to the present under
much curtailed name.
The absence or scarcity of local items re-
NAMED feature Of papers in the west, out
side the main cities, till after the war. And
this is all the more surprising in view of the
fact that tho papers were generally started to
'sboom" new town. The Terre Haute paper
of 1896 devotes few lines to the fact that
the Ploughboy, tho first steamer on the upper
Wabash, had started for the regions
above, and whole pages to publishing
speeches delivered in congress. In 1S43
died Gen. Tilghman A. Howard, charge
d'affaires from tho United States to Texas,
and the paper in Rockville, Ind, where he
resided, devoted just half q column to his
life, death, burial and the meeting Of the
citizens to pass resolutions. But every issue
for many weeks contained full speech Of
Henry Clay, John NJ. Stuart or other pronli-
nent Whig, and frequently the entire paper
was filled by speeches. editorials and extracts
from New York papers Nowadays one may
find the complete social history for many
years Of any country town in tho west in the
files Of the local paper.
The oldest existing paper of Kentucky is
Tho Western Citizen, of Paris, established III
1908. Two years later the noted Humphrey
Marshall established The American Republic
at Frankfort Later he established two
other papers, one Of which, Tho Harbinger,
had under its title head tho cut Of rattle
snake in coil, and tho motto, ''Wake snakes"
Marshall did wake them and many other
enemies, and had stormy lifo altogether.
Shadrach Penn issued the first daily paper in
Kentucky, Tho Public Advertiser, ut Louis
willie, April 4, 1895. Ho was native of the
state, and ruled dcspotically till George D.
Prentice came and set up Tho Louisville
Journal, Nov. q, 1880. 1t jumped in
month to tho highest place in popularity, and
the twelve years war between Penn and
Prentice was the sharpest known in western
Journalism. Penn was radical Democrat
ana able writer, but no match for Prentice,
whose pungent paragraphs were the delight OF
tho day. Penn removed to ST. Louis in
1876, and Prentice lived to fall into errors in
newspaper work that produced bloody con-
sequences. His last years were gloomy in
the extreme.
Tho Cincinnati Commercial was born in
1912, and may be said to have been born
again dozen years later, when Murat Hal