Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-12-05
ORIGIN OF NEWSPAPERS.

ORIGIN or NEWSPAPERS.
Tho Pioneer Journals OF Great britain and
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. EnRarde
in the Inland Printer. The earliest English
newspaper that has been discovered Is in
duarto pamphlet Of a few leaves, compre.
hending . summary Of parliamentary pro
ceedings from an entire year. II Is entitled,
1.-THE Diurnal Occurrence, or Daily Proceed
ings of Both Houses, in Their Great and
Happy Parliament, from the Sd Of Novem-
ber, 164O, to Sd of November, 1641.n 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, "
'Tidings from Ireland" The more regular
newspapers were published weekly at first
then twice and three times week. The
impatience of the people soon led to the
publication of daily papers, and Epalding,
the Aberdeen annalist, mentions that in
december, 1852, daily newspapers came
from London, called Dturr,al 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 its printer along with it to report
progress, and, of course, to exaggerate sue
cess. 1t is from this circumstance that the
first introduction Of newspapers into Scot
land has been attributed to Oliver Crom.
we'll .,
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 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, 17O4, saw the first newspaper in
the English language in the American colo.
mes or on the North American continent.
This was the Boston Ne,0s Letter, q small
half sheet, published by John Campbell, q
Scotchman, who was bookseller and
postmaster. The contents of the first num-
ber were: "Queen's speech in the English
parliament, few local articles under the
Boston head, one advertisement, extracts
from the London papers and four para
graphs of marine newsw Advertisements
were inserted at reasonable rates, from two
pence to five shillings.
In 1721 James Franklin established
newspaper in Boston. The paper was se-
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 New England Courant
without supervision, etc. He evaded this
by substitution of his brothers. name for his
own. The Courant lived three years.
The american Weekly Mercury, Of Phila-
delphla, issued in 1722. was the third news
paper printed in the colonies. It was made
up of quaint advertisements and shortpar-
sgraphs Of antique news.
The Pennsylvania Gdzette, 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 shillinRs year.
In 1875, Thomas Fleet established the
Boston Evening Post. Fleet was born In En-
lSnu auu AoeTuOu uAD tIou0 euCIOs no
once advertised a negro woman for sale as
follows: ITO 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 Pcnnsvlpdntd Journal and Weekly Ad-
pertiser 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, dolorous and dollar
less" There was also deaths head in
one corner of the page, and under 1t these
words "Oh! the postal stamp"
A journal called the New York Gdzette
AOurished little while in the year 1771, but
was remarkable in no particular; and the
first daily in the United States, the Pennsyl-
panid Packet, afterward called the Ddty Ad-
wrtiser, 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 collst-
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 1t now repre-
sents the entire world, and IL greater
than the throne ITSELF" Its number is al
most countless, and its power for good or
evil beyond calculation.
cRliEi ~ OE pEODI ERS.