The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-03
JOURNALISM IN THE DAYS OF OLD

JOAH bOHHSf, san Francesca ONTOA-
Gle: The father of the modern newspaper
is the bulletin board 1t IS sim in use
among the most conservative of peo-
pIes-the Chinese. On the corner OF
Clay and Dupont a wide expanse of
wall is covered with long strips Of
colored paper, on which, in Chinese
characters. the events of the day. so
( far as they concern the exile from the
Flowery Kingdom and his dealings
with the foreign devil, are faithfully
related. From such attempts to diff
J fuse intelligence in Che ages long ago
! the newspaper sprang. Bunetion
! boards are row back numbers.
! Tne newspaper OF Babylon and Nine
/ yah was not printed on paper. 1t was
! scratched With q sharp tool on tablets
OF brass or soft bricks made of the
/ mud OF the Euphrates. The editor
was public official, whose business it
I was to record passing events for the
/ information of the people. He stated
! on his bricks what was going on at
! home and abroad: what victories the
! kings armies had won Che probably
! did rot chronicle the defeats they had
endured; what ships had arrived from
! the Red sea and from Ceylon; what
! was the current price Of wheat and Oil;
what moneys had been borrowed that
/ Gay, and at what rate of interest; what
! property had been mortgaged; what
slaves were worth and whether the
! slave market was brisk or DUH How
/ do we know he. put these things on
record? We know it because we have
/ the bricks. which are now as hard as
stone. and there is or was at Man
! chester, Eng, an apothecary who
could read them as a child reads 8
primer, and he taught the trick to
others.
In the newspaper of Babylon there
was no circulation department. 1t had
| no subscribers. When the editor had
| scratched his item on his brick, he
hung it up on a wall, and it was on
| that wall that people read it, as the
| Chinese read from their yellow and
| red placardS today. In those days
! there was no money in Journalism, not
even in journalism of a new kind.
A few thousand years afterward,
| more or less, newspapers broke out at
Rome. They were written by hand on
papyrus, and were hung up on wall
like a Babylonian tablet or a modern
bulletin; it would have cost too much
to reproduce them for the perusal of
! individual subscribers; no angry
reader could in those days vent his
| feelings by ordering his paper stopped.
AS at Babylon. the Roman editor was
at first a public official, and his paper
was known as the Acta Diurna, or, as
we should say, the Daily News. 1t was
a publication in the style of the Paris
Moniteur or the Pel1ing Gazette, and,
! from illusions to il in Tacitus and
Suetonius, it appears to have con-
tanned nothing but reports of the pro
| ceedingS of the senate and other Of
! fetal bodies.
But the Romans thirsted for a livelier
publication, and the Acta Diurna was
| expanded into something like a mod
ern newspaper A few numbers which
have come down to US contain accounts
Of street brawIs and the trials of the
disturbers of the peace. Of fires. of a
fight at the tavern known as the Hog
in-ArTnor, where Horace used to get
| fuddled; of the funeral of a lady of
fashion; of a thunder storm which may
have inspired the famous ode Tam
Salts" etc: of the trial of DRINKS and
/ disorderlias in the police court: of the
punishment of a grocer for giving short
| weight; reports of the proceedings of
the senate; reports of speeches by lead
ing citizens on questions of the day. II
| would seem that two or three copies
| were made of each number of the Acta.
and hung up in different places in
! Rome. Citizens who made a pretense
! stopped on their Way to the Forum to
read them Pliny- writes to Tacitus:
You must have sfead my speech in
such case. for 1t was. reported in the
! Acta." Rich men residing in the coun-
try had the Acta transcribed for them
and sant 10 their address. This was
the beginning OF newspaper circula-
tiGi1-
But the institution was too feeble 20
| Stand against political storms. After
the assassination of Julius Caesar. the
Acta was forbidden to report the pro
ceedings Of the senate. and in the strug-
gle which ended in the foundation of
the en1pir2 other restrictions were laid
upon the official organ. It came TO be
dull and stupid. Roman gentlemen. pol
ished and cultured. familiar with their
own Cicero and Horace, and Terence,
and with the Greek SophocIes and
Aristophanes and Thucvdides. rebelled
against being deprived of their
| newspaper. Ther felt as citizens of
| California would feel if they were de-
prived Of their daily San Francisco
Chronicle" The invasion of the rights
Of the citizens was resented throughout
the empire.
Not only was a newspaper demanded
by residents Of the Palatine and the
! Esouiline and by the owners of Roman
! Villas at PCmpeii and NIisenum and
| Tare-tun and Rrundusium, but it was
IN urgent request among Roman gen
tlemsl who had settled on the .berus
in Strain. a.. Massila and Nemannus in
Gaul. CoIcnia in Germany, at Aquis-
gnanum on the Rhine. and even as far
aWaH IS 1ti3oracum in distant Britain.
Thcy all wanted to hear of the tri-
un1pts of the Roman arms in the east.
OF lie intrigues in the senate. of the
fluctuations OF fashion on the Apian
Way and of the yicissitudes of fortune
on the Nile. a syndicate was formed.
and a sufficient number CT subscribers
were secured. to enable 4 shreWd news
gatherer to hire copyists and to buy
paoyrus. and the first systematic news
letter service was established.
InoW long it lasted 1 cannot tell. 1t
as lourishing when Augustus became
elnDcror: i was dead when OdCacer
oveTthTew the empire. Under the II
Caesars it Seems to have led 4 fltful eX-
istence. Sometimes the subscribers got
their letter regularly. Then the paper
would be satzed and the editor imprls-
oned, and perhaps erucifed on charge
that be had Hbeled persons Of state.
With all its changing fortunes the news
letter was for q period as long as that
which separates Us from the pilgrim
fathers the chief source of information
regarding passiur events If cur ac-
ouaintance wi>h the Nis.ory of the sec
ond third ard fourth centuries is lin
tied and VAGUE. ii is because there were
so few news letters and their publica-
ton was 50 irregular.
Two hundred years after Christ the
energy of the Ptolemeies made Alexan-
drla tho canter ct the lettered world
Munf5cent rewards attracted scholars
from all parts of the city on the delta
L. TIE r-,nlrn,, tI,nr..