The morning news., 1894-10-21
NEWSPAPERS IN MANY LANDS.
1000 Square Miles of White Paper
Represents the Annual Issue of
American Newspapers.
From the New York World.


American Newspapers.
From the New York World.
The daily newspaper reaches back into
a highly respectable antiquity. 1t is in
disputable that the Gazette of Peking
China has appeared in it's present form
for a thousand years at least. This ven
erable pioneer of daily journalism proba-
bly, holds the record for SCOOPS
1t still sends out daily its edition of
eighteen pages printed on oblong sheets
of soft ragged-edged paper inclosed in
yellow covers stitched at the back. It's
circulation reaches 10000, and its contents
are mainly official informatin and imperial
edicts.
In Europe new pamphlets containing
information of and comment on the more
striking news of the time appeared before
the discovery of America. A specimen
bearing the date 1495 is still in existence.
written news letters were widely circulted
in Europe and to a limited extent in the
American colonies also.
The Frankforter Journal appeared in
that Well-knOwn German city in 1915, and
was the first regular European newspaper.
1t was followed in 1919 by News Out of
Holland, Bngland's earliest paper This
was succeeded by the Weekly News in
1922. The Courant, established in 1909
was the first London daily.
A paper which attempted to establish
itself at Boston in 1853 was promptly sup
pressed by the government Of Massachu-
setts on the plea that it contained re
heXions of every high nature which,
however, consisted of nothing but the
ordinary political news of the day. Pub
lie Occurrences, launched the following
year, met a like fate. So effectively were
these pioneer American sheets stamped
out that only one copy of the first
and two copies of the second are known to
be in existence.
The Boston Newsletter was started
in 1904, and the Gazette of the same city
in 1719 At the breaking out of the Rev
olutionary war there were thirty-four pa
pers in the various colonies. MaSsachu-
setts had seven; Connecticut three;
Rhode Island two, and New Hampshire
one. Pennsylvania had eight papers and
New York three. In the south South
Carolina led with three: Maryland Vir-
ginia and North Carolina had two each,
and Georgia one.
newspapers and periodicals. Since the
most reliable statistics estimate about
a, 900 as the product of the whole world
this country issues nearly one-half of
them.
OF the other leading nations Germany
issues the most, 5000 periodicals; France
has 4lO0; England, 1000; tro-Hungary,
$500, and Italy 1,400 No other country
has 1000 publications. Canada possesses
919; all Australia, 200; South America,
635; Asia, 461, and Africa about $50. The
state Of New York publishes more news
papers than the whole world lying south
of the equator.
China, with six times the population of
our own country, has only twenty-four
papers. OF these eleven are issued in the
native tongue one in French and the
rest in English. Bleak little Iceland
supports more papers than the huge
Flowery Kingdom.
Japan has ninety-two dailies and 175
other periodicals. oil started within the
last twenty-five years. India publishes n
number of papers in the various native
tongues. These are said to be more
widely circulated and read in proportion
to the number of copies of them printed
than any others in the world.
Persia has six papers, five in the YER
nacular and one in the Syriac. NO type
is used in their production. The editor
gets up his matter and hands it to an
expert, who with the pen produces d
fine caligraphiC copy. This is photo
graphed on a photographic stone touched
with acid. whence the edition is printed.
The smallest newspaper printed in
the world is the little sheet printed III
English at Sarawak, in the island of Bor-
neo. 1t measures only S1a by 13 inches.
England supports 200 dailies, and the
United States 1865. Paris possesses 14I
dailies; more than London, New York,
Philadelphia and Boston combined. AS
the only great city of one of the greatest
nations, Paris monopolizes the journal
ism of all France. Then, too, it's papers
exploit a literary field that with us is
largely left to magazines and special
periodicals. These two facts conspire 10
give the newspapers of Paris that unique
pre-eminence as to circulation which they
enjoy.
The Sunday newspapers are perhaps
the most truly indigenous product of
American journalism. There are about
400 of these in the various cities and larger
towns. Somewhat in the manner of the
French newspapers they have partly
usurped the field of the purely literary
periodical. and besides supplying the daily
news have diverted to their columns much
excellent matter that would otherwise
have appeared in the magazines or re-
views. The latter have felt deeply the
effects of this poaching upon their pre-
serves. Canada has but one Sunday pa
per.
In the United States we have the news
paper sent forth in no less than twenty
three languages, embracing the tongues
of every quarter of the globe. German
papers are numbered by hundreds and a
score or more at least are published in
each French, Norwegian, Danish, Span
lSut 0WtuAeNi DOICIlldH anu EOUSn.
Nineteen papers appaer in Holland
Dutch, fourteen in each Hebrew and Fin
nish, five in Welsh, four in Slavonic,
three each in Hungarian, Icelandic Rus
sian, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Armenian
and Chinese.
Rarest of all there is one journal pub
lished in each Arabic, Cherokee and Irish.
Such a variety of languages has never
before existed in any one land since the
Tower of Babel rose on the Mesopota-
mian plain.
A reasonable estimate would give
nearly 5000 100000 as the number of COP
les of newspapers and other periodicals
issued in this country in one years time.
That makes two for each inhabitant OF
the globe, or fifty-one a week for every
American old and young. Allowing for
the moderate dimensions of one square
yard of paper for each of these, the re.
suit would show that 1000 square miles
Of paper is annually submitted to the
eyes of American readers, or enough TO
cover entirely the state of Rhode Island
1t would also reach from the earth to the
moon in a strip twenty-one feet broad.