Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-10-03
ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.
The Pioneer Journals of Great Britain AN
the United STATES

the United States
From the first day of the meeting Of the
Long Parliament may be dated the begin
ming OF journalism, writes w. A Engarde
in the Inland Printer The earliest English
newspaper that has been discovered is in
quarto pamphlet of few leaves, compre-
hending a summary of parliamentary pro-
ceedings from an entire year 1t is entitled,
''The Diurnal Occurrence, or Daily Proceed.
ings Of Both Houses, in Their Great and
Happy Parliament, from the 81 of Novem-
Der, 1910, to 81 of November, 1Gil." More
than one hundred newspapers. with diff
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 "News from Hull" Truths from York"
''Ildings from Ireland" The more regular
newspapers were published weekly at first
then twice and three times a week. The
impatience of the people soon lsd to the
publication of daily papers, and Spalding,
the Aberdeen annalist, mentions that in
December, 1852, ''daily newspapers came
from London, called DirypGI Occurrences, de-
claring what Is done in Parliamentn In
the Scottish campaign of 1850 the army of
Charles, and that of Oliver Cromwell, each
carried its printer along with it to report
progress, and, of course, to exaggerate sue
cess. 1t is from tins circumstance that the
first introduction of newspapers into Scot
land has been attributed to Oliver Crom-
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 day,
the fact can be hardly realized that it is but
little er 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 frs. daily. Such is the fact, however.
April "a, 1904, saw the first newspaper in
the English language in the American colo
mes or on the North American continent
This was the Boston Ners LIE ter, small
half sheet, published by John Campbell, a
! Scotchmdn, who was a bookseller and
| postmaster. The contents of the first num-
| Der were: Queens speech in the English
/ parliament, a few local articles under the
Boston head, one advertisement, extracts
| from the London papers and four para
! graphs of marine newsr' Advertisements
were inserted az reasonable rates, from two
| pence to five shillings
In 112l James Franklin established
/ newspaper in Boston, The paper was Sc
verely 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 Nei0 England CoTdnt
without supervision, etc. He evaded this
| by substitution of his brothers name for his
| own. The COltrdHt lived three years
| The american Weekly Mercury, of Phila-
| delphIa, issued in 17.22, was the third news
| paper printed in the colonies. 1t was made
up of quaint advertisements and short par
agraphs Of antique news.
The Pennsylvania CGzette. edited by Dr.
Franklin, and published in 1729, was the
next venture TO mark journalism. In its
/ prospectus Franklin announces his inten-
tion 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 a year
In 1875, Thomas Fleet established the
Boston Euenin0 Post. Fleet was born in En-
gland and learned his trade there. He
once advertised negro woman for sale as
follows: ITO be sold by the printer of this
paper, the very best negro woman in this
JOwn- She has had tle slli;...- I5.sA An !.
Measles is as hearty as a horse, as brisk
as bird, and will work like beaver"
| Fleet was humorous character, and made
money cut of his paper.
The PcnnsyludniG Jolt nal and VeeIsly Ad-
uerttser was started in 1865. AT the time of
tho Stamp Act, in 1765 the paper came out
in mourning with the motto, 1.-THE times
are dreadful, dismal, dolorous and dollar
less" There was also deaths head in
one corner of the page, and under it these
words: "Oh! the postal stamp"
A journal called the New York Gazette
fourished little while in the year 1771, but
was remarkable in no particular; and the
first daily in the United States, the PennsyL-
vdnfG Packet, afterward called the Daily id
rertiseT, was started in 1874.
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 digesting the news became more
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 OF
! evil OeyOnd calculation