The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-03

monastery ana monastery tnSTe was q
constant exchange of manuscripts. This
led generally to the birth of a new kind
OF Journalism for in each monastery
there We're men of education who were
capable of handling the pen. Some of
these coupled with admiration of the
past desire to record in a modest way
the events Of the present. and when
they had done so 1t was a short step to
exchange their chronicles with those of
other monks who we're doing the same
thing in other places. Such were Cas-
sidorous of the sixth century, the au-
( thor OF the History of the GothS." and
J the founder of high class monkish
+ scribe work; and Saint Benediet, to
whose precept and example the Bene-
dictlne order owed its subsequent su-
! prenlacy as the preserver and dissem-
inator of learning. To this same class
1 belonged the venerable Bsde, who
wrote the Ecclesiastical History of
England" to the year 1St: Vitalis Of
/ Shrewsbury, who described the contest
( between Saxon and Norman; William
( OF Malmesbury. Godfrey of Monmouth,
Roger of Wendover. Matthew Paris in
! England; Gregory OF Tours, Frodoard
! Richer, Helgaud, Almoin, Chabanais,
( Raoul, Glaber Hugh of FIavigny, in
France; Echhard. Eginard. Rodulphu5
! OF Fulda, Regime of Prum, Wittel1ind
OF Convey, Ditmar of Magdeburg, Ber-
I thoId of Reichenau, and others in Ger
( many; John. Paul and Peter, who were
/ all called DiaconuS; Leo of OStia, Vol
turna and others whose works have
( been collected by Mulatori in Gtaly. Of
/ the use to which these chronicles were
put as journals, George Warren Put
! nam says:
! While the evidences concerning the
/ arrangements for the circulation of
! these chronicles are at best but scanty,
! the inference is fairly to be drawn that
| through the interchange 'of books be-
! tween the libraries of the monasterieS,
! by means of the services of travelling
! monks, and in connection with the edu-
! cational work of the majority of the
monasteries, there came TO be, as early
/ as the ninth century, q very general
! circulation of the long series of chron-
| icies among the scholarly readers Of
| Europe. Even the literary style in
! which the majority of the chronicles
! were written gives evidence that the
writers were addressing themselves, not
to one locality or to restricted circles of
! readers, but to the world as they knew
! it,
The monks We're, in fact, the journal
! ISIS OF the Dark Ages, though their
/ journals did not come out at regular
! intervals, had no regular lists OF sub
! scrIbers and were not encycloDedic in
their scope. Following them the uni
| versities, Bologna, Paris and oxford
! eXerted themselves vigorously in dis
seminating manuscripts, and prepared
| the way for the circulation of periodical
| literature.
| Inc first newspaper-in our accept
ance of the term-which appeared in
! Europe, was the Gazette of Venice.
! Which made its appearance in 1896
! forty cdd years after the discovery of
| America. Its feature was the distribu-
! ton of news of the war between Chris
| tendon and Turkey, and it may fairly
| be credited with some share of influence
in generating the feeling that Gull
minated in the battle of Lepanto in 1911.
1t was written by hand, and appeared
! once a month.
The stirring events of the period. the
| discovery Of America. the expulsion of
! the Moors from Spain, the advent of
Martin Luther, the spread of printing,
I the conquest Of Mexico and Peru. the
( defeat which eXtinguished the sultan's
hopes OF oVerrunntng Europe, aroused
public interest in public affairs, and
made Englishnen especially, who were
| better educated than their neighbors.
curious about wEat was going on in
| the world. Had Elizabeth been q more
| Tolerant monarch the press would prob
{ ably nave found a tongue in England
| at the time that Shakespeare was
! teaching his countrynen the tale of
their past history. But it was ticklish
matter in those days to fall into the
| hands Of the star chamber Even 100
! years later Addison called the political
press a pernicious machine In
Elizabeth's time the news letter of an
| eient Rome was revived to inform peO-
! pie OF current events. Smart fellows.
with access to the court and the ear
| of public men, wrote letters in mani
! fold and distributed them to subscribe
er5. When their list warranted the ex-
| pense they had their letters printed.
ard circulated them in type. These let
{ tefs were the precursors Of the Spec
tator and the Tattler. They were an ex-
| pensive luxery In the memoirs of the
Earl of Craven, whose descendant late
| ~ allied himself with an American
| family. a chronicle of accounts con-
tains the item:
To Captain Robinson, by my lords
| command, for writing letters of news
to his lordship for half a year, So
a sour critic Of that day implies that
even then the faker cast mis- shadow
against the sky. Says ne; These be
| news caste abrodde to feede the COM
mon sorte. do not believe them. Prog
: nostications, ueWes, devices and letters
from lorraine countries are but used as
! CONNECTIONS. to feed the common people
! withal. = man must give no more
credit to such newes than TO fugitiyes'
| promises and plaiers' fables"
The journalist of the day is described
as "a decidedly shabby gentleman,
! who haunts the chief places OF public
talk, Westminster Hall, ST. PauPs and
the Exchange, and earns a precarious
living by collecting news for his coun-
try subscribers" 4 demand for more
reliable journalism arose at the end OF
the century, and in d prospectus of a
new paper, the Evening Post, il is
stated that there must be G3 orG4 per
annum paid by gentlemen Who are out
of town for written news. which is SO
far. generally. from having any proba-
bility of matter of fact in il that il is
generally stuffed W With we hear,
or an eminent Jew merchant mas re-
ceived a letter, etc, being nothing
more than a downright fiction"
History records the sad fate of an
early English Journalist whose name
was Edward Coleman. = as the sec
retary of the Duke Of J =, and e IKE
out his living he wrote Ne letters for
so nIuSh a year. 1t was said of n
that his intelligence was Ease, his yea
indiscret, his principles criminal" bat
people bought his letters none The less
One day mis- letters fell under the eys
of Lord Keeper GUildford, who drew
the kings attention 10 the scandaIous
sc2ibDler. and his majesty insisted on
his being dismissed from the service OF
the Duke CT YORK, though he s,.renu-
eusiy denied the authorship Of the let
ters. There was one person whom he
could not convince of his innocence
that was Titus Oates, on whose toes he
had trod3en rather heavily. That per-
iured villain. who WAS engaged at the