Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1890-07-03
SOME EARLY NEWSPAPERS.
History OF the Times When News
papera Were Not Neysnanera.

idea of modern newspapers. 1t con.
tanned notices of marriages, births.
deaths, the movements of the royal
family, news from the wars In Gaul,
etc. This was continued until the
downfall Of the western empire, or, as
others say, until the time of Augustus.
1t was not published in Constantinople.
The word gazette was variously Of
Italian or Hebrew origin, and was de-
rived from two words gazzctta, the
Italian for ehatterer, or isga, Hebraic
word for messenger. This is a dis
tincIvs feature of the English language.
BY the ransposition or looping off of q
letter. you can prove any word the
lineal descendant of another. The
first Gazzetta was published in Venice
in 1868. 1t has been suggested that
the name might have sprung from .
small coin which the bearer paid for
the purpose of hearing the news read.
1t was issued monthly.
The first English newspaper was sup.
posed, until recently, to DO the Mercury,
published in 1888. when the Armada
menaced the shores of England. Lord
Burleigh was said to have been the ed
itor, and that his purpose in issuing It
had been to quiet the fears of the En-
glish people. D'Israeli incorporated
it in one of his works, which reached
the eleventh edition before he discovered
that the papers were cleverly executed
forgeries of no later date than 174O.
The mantle of age, by this discovery.
then fell on the Certain Ne,Des of the
Present Week published in London in
1922.
The Oldest English paper on file is
the Stamford Mercury, which began
on July 6, 1896, and is still in existence.
There is an unauthenticated report
that a newspaper was printed in MUIR
emberg in 1857, or before America was
discovered. There is, however, at
Heidelberg a newspaper published
in 1909. To Germany and MUIR
emberg the world owes its first news.
paper type, thus fulfilling the saying
in regard to its industries;
"Nuremburg's hand =
Goes through every land"
In the Heidelberg aper reference is
made to Calico of Provence, professor
at Padua.
The lecturess dwelt at some length
on the claim of the Chinese to priority
in every discovery and the disposition
to ridioule them. But they could lay
claim to the oldest newspaper, the
Pekn Gazette, begun in Oil A. ID. II
had three editions, two on yellow and
ono on red paper. The first gave Off.
cial news and the second commercial
and the third extracts from both. The
theory Of the origin of the word "news"
from the initials or the four cardinal
points of the compass she demolished
by showing that in early editions it was
spelled ''newes." The compass surely
did not have five points. The theory
was, however. as old as 1910.
1t was in 1913 that the death blow
was dealt in England to censorship of
the press. Milton's famous Speech to
the Parliament, his best prose work,
was the weapon that accomplished this,
and called forth in his praise the say
ing: Those who fight bravely are for
an age; those who write brave are for
all time" Speaking of editorial abuse,
she saw that in this profession as in
others the millennium had not arrived
The lion and the lamb were here, but
the little child who was to lead them
had not come. As in the present day,
our ancestors fought with papers, and
score of them were started in 1643,
Then the opposing armies carried its
printers, who, like Wendell Phillips,
believed that lead was wasted in bull.
lets, when 1t could be use,l in type.
In those days an EDITOR was not an
editor. He was the printer or publish
er, and he had hard time filling his
diminutive sheet. OF four pages one
was left blank ''for We subscribers use,
and for We improvement of ye childreu's
handwriting"
The French, when they were called
Gauls, are referred to in Caesars Com
mentaries" as running after strangers
and mobbing them in order to learn
the news. This gave rise to the law
that strangers must first report to the
authorities all the news they possessed.
The first French newspaper was pub
lished in 1881, and was venture OF
Cardinal Richelieu. The editor was a
physician, and he "got out" newsy,
sparkling sheet.
Louis XIII. often wrote for it, and
watched with childish interest the "set.
ting up" of his articles. The first pa
per in North America was published
in Boston in 1890, and copy of the
edition of September 20 of that year il
on file in London. Its fearless course
pccasioned its suppression BY the Col
onial government. Richard Pearc,
was the printer for the owner, Benia
min Harris, a patriot who had been pill
loried for his writing in favor of liber
ty. 1t was eleven by seven inches, tw,
columns to a page, of which three wcr,
filed and one left blank.
The first comic paper published il
America was gotten out in New Yorl
In 1888, by Benjamin Franklin Day
1t failed because there was no field fol
it, and it was thought that there never
would be, The existence Of Puck, LIT;
and others now disproye this idea. The
year 1909 marked the publishing of thu
first daily which had a cirelution il