The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-11-23
WAR JOURNALISM IN DIXIE.
Samples Of Richmond Gossip Published
in 1864.

Paper Without "Ads.", Very Rebellious
and Decidedly Averse to yankees"
(From the St. Louis Globe Democrat
The year 1895 has been full of echoes
of the ''late unpleasantness," an unpleas,
antness that, with some thirty years and
more between US and April 8, 1865, seems
SO far away, except to few veterans in
blue or gray, as almost to have never
been. With the dedication of Chicka-
manga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary
Ridge, and the great battle-ground OF
Tennessee into National Park, remin-
iscences have sprung up on every hand,
and battles have been bloodlessly fought
over and over again. Every fireside that
can date back to the rebellion has had
| it's contribution to give to the spirit OF
| recollection that IS abroad in the land.
| Some of the most interesting memories
are those that are revived by the freside
| and that do not get into print at all, es-
pecially in the States south of Mason and
Dixon's famous line, where the battles
were fought at the very doors, and where
the actual incidents of war came home
to the people and abide with them yet.
more vividly than would be possible away
| from the scene of action.
But of all the rem iniscent echoes from
the ex-Confederacy, there are few in the
journalistic line. Once in while some
body runs across a Vicksburg newspaper
printed on wallpaper during the siege, a
| Memphis Avalancha or "a RichoDd WHO
but journalism in the South during the
civil war was of minor Importance.
Freshmen. editors and reporters were
needed Fat the 'front.' and courier
could bring the news Of battle sooner
than crippled printing office could set
the type to tell the di-efull news. There
were newspapers, of course, with their
lists of killed, wounded, and missing and
their more or less authentic accounts of
victories and skirmishes, but those that
could be depended upon for news were
scarce, and literary publications had but
few dayssand were full of sorrows.
Of these latter, which kept up a
precarious existence, and struggled
through three or four volumes, was
The Southern illustrated News, an
eight-page publication, four columns to
the page, published in Richmond by
Messrs. Ayres & Wade, who were at once
editors and proprietors, and probably, if
the truth were knowl, oompositors and
presslnen, reporters and general hust-
| lers Two copies of this weekly, yellow
with age and poor ink. have drlfted into
| the writer's possession; they are valuable
souvenirs now of the "late unpleasant
ness" but in a very few years they will
lie more valuable ourios of a period that
has quite passed into history. The edi-
torial page of one bears the date, April
%, 1864, and is followed by an announce
ment Of terms" that, in the days of
penny papers and great journals at IS
cents week, rather takes away ones
annum $40 for six months, Ono subscrip-
ton taken for less time). The trade
supplied at $25 per 100. No county or in
dividual money taken"
| No line is drawn at Confederate scrip,
in which, of course. the twenty dollar SUBJ
scription was paid, but even Messrs
Ayres & Wade, loose as must have been
their IDEAS of sound money, could not go
SO far as to recognize the scrip made by
an individual. The Confederacy might
be lettering, but Messrs. Ayres & Wade
would be loyal to its currency; further
than that the publishers of a literary
weekly could not go. Thus it was that,
though one drew pretty fourishes around
scroll saying, "Will pay to bearer"
and had it engraved upon the thinnest
and most crackly of banknote paper, with
his own autograph in the highest style of
chirographcat art, he could not own a
years title in The Southern illustrated
| News-no, not for carload Of ''individ-
ual'' notes. In the long run they would
have been worth as much as the "shin-
plasters' 'iof the Confederacy, but the mex
orable editor and publisher of the Rich
mond weekly did not see it that way.
From the 'fcause' to which they were
pledged they would accept worthless rags
simply for the faith they had Ill its ulti-
mate triumph; from their brethren moth
ing that called itself money unless repre-
sented by substantial proxy, such as a
ham, a bag of meal, or load of fire
wood.
Il is unnecessary to say that The South
ern Illustrated News, in 1864, paid no div
idends perceptible to the outer senses; the
stockholders surely neither saw nor felt
them, which is not a fact to be wonder
ed at, since, outside of the topsy-turvy
condition of the country at that time,
and the shakiness of the money ques-
tion, there is only one cad" to be discov-
cred in the entire edition of April %. and
five in the succeeding issue. There is no
reason to suppose that lads" were any
more plentiful during the rest Of the year
than in these two copies, as the clouds
gathered more thickly with the opening
of the Summer months, and business be-
came more paralyzed as Johnston's weak
er force skillfully reiterated before Sher-
| rnapbS y,oaet.>rlv movements Hood