Wichita eagle., 1888-11-23


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 all
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 50 now
The Injuries 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 II, 1877,
by John Bradford kentucky was then a
county Of Virginia, and land OF fighting
and fighters. Buckle ought to have analysed
that state il his History of Civilization" 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 tho most warhlle 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 lS50-S0 1t is
not surprising, therefore, to learn that the
second editor of The Gazette, Thomas r.
Benning, was MORALLY shot March 8, 1929,
by Charles Wickliife, and that his successor,
George j. Trotter, killed Wickliffe in q duel
Bradford, founder of The Gazette, was O
veteran Of the Revolution and a 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. 1t therefore Ian
guished IN the years Of Wing supremacy,
end died of hamilton in 1913.
Tho Guardian of Freedom was established
ut Frankfort, KY, in 1898, also by John
Bradford, in partnership with his son, end its
''long felt WANT was the public printing,
which kept it alive many years. The Ken
lucky Herald was established in Lexington in
IDS, and in 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
40 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 a
much curtailed name.
The absence or scarcity of local items re-
manned 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 the papers were generally started to
''boom" new town. The Terre Haute paper
r IL Al. r
the Ploughboy, the first steamer on the upper
Wabash, had started for the regions
nbove, and whole pages to publishing
speeches delivered in congress In 1913
died Gen Tilghman A. Howard, charge
d'afaires from the United States to Texas,
and the paper in Rockville, Ind, where no
resided, devoted just half a column to his
life, death, burial and the meeting of the
citizens to pass resolutions. But every issue
fer many weeks contained a full speech Of
Henry Clay, John NJ. Stuart or other promi-
nent Wing. and frequently the entire paper
was filed by speeches, editorials and extracts
from Now York papers. Nowadays one may
find tho complete social history for many
years of any country town in the west in the
files of the local paper.
The Oldest existing paper of Kentucky is
The Western Citizen, Of Paris, established in
1905 Two years later the noted Humphrey
Marshall established The American Republic
at Frankfort. Later he established two
other papers, one of which, The Harbinger,
had under its title head tho cut Of a rattle
snake in coil, and the motto, wake snakes
Marshall did wake them and many other
enemies, and had stormy life altogether
Shadrach Penn issued the first daily paper in
Kentucky, The Public Advertiser, at Louis
vile, April 4, 1896. He was native Of the
state, and ruled despotically till George D.
Prentice came and set up The Louisville
Journal, Nov. "a, 1850. 1t jumped in
month to the highest place in popularity, and
the twelve years war between Penn and
Prentice was the sharpess known in western
journalism. Penn was radical Democrat
and able writer, but no match for Prentice,
whose pungent paragraphs were the delight Of
the day Penn removed TO St Louis in
1872, and Prentice lived to fau into errors in
newspaper work that produced bloody con-
sequences His last years were gloomy in
the extreme.
The Cincinnati Commercial was born in
iS42 and may be said to have been born
sgein dozen years later, when Murat Hal