The Arizona sentinel., 1900-04-18
Official Paper Of Yuma County
EARLY JOURNALISM.

. Journalistic toes. It is stated, in explanation of tie untimely demise, that the time is not yet ripe fer
 venture of the kind. The time
 must then have been still less ripe
 sixteen years ago, when 1 published ] a somewhat ambitious weekly in Tucson, under the euphonious name
 of sunshine and Silver" There
 was a large amount of hard work
 put into that journal, which col
 tained a number of features then
 unique in Arizona. 1t had illustra-
 tons and contained no display ad-
 vsrtisements or quack medicine
 literature. The oldest paper Tn
 Arizona is the Sentinel, published | at Yuma, and next to that, the Tucson Citizen. The Silver Belt, at Globe, was published for twenty years by Judge Hackney, who dlec a few months ago at an advanced age. and who, I believe during the entire period, was not out of Glla county. Publishing a newspaper in Arizona is quite different from the newspaper business in the Mid dle and Eastern States. At least it was, and I do not suppose that conditions have changed much dur
 ing the past fifteen years. Many of thr dai.ies did not published any dispatches and those that dId only took @ small amount, generally costing about $30 a week. The population belng so scattered-ln 1890 the population of the entire Territory WIS just about equal to that of Los Angeles city-it was literally "iong time between drinks" for q newspaper canVasser' and getting subscriptions and ad- vertisements on the outside was an expensive job, especially when, as in my case, one was not on the visiting list of the Southern Pacific Company, although most of the travel had to be q ne by blackboard or on horseback. Possible sub soribers being so few and far be- tween, prices for subscriptions and advertising had to be correspond ingiy high. The regular subscrip- ton price for a four-page, six column weekly was $5 year, None ofthe papers depended entirely or subscriptions and commercial ad- vertising for support. The "stronG holt" of most of them lay in politics public printing and job work. Al election was harvest time for th' journals. Fo, the publication of | card announcing a candidacy there was a regular graduated rate, run ming from $10 for @ Coroner to S15l or 90 for a Sheriff, and more thar that for a Congressman, the price charged iacluding a commensurate amount of favorable mention Then. again, the rates tor Iega notices were very high, being en tirely out of proportion to the or dinary commercial prices. Tn Sheriff had the giving out of large number of such notices and thest would he given to the onewhich hap pened to support him for office making very nice perquisite. Il some eases, where there was onl, one paper published in county, ] may be imagined that such pub lication had a pudding" Then for jeb printing, rates were charge which would make the eyes of th Los Angeles job printer of 190 open w.de in amazement. Anothe soarce of revenue after election wa found in the practice of getting th Legislature, when it convened, vote an appropriation for sever' hundred copies of each Arizon paper for the use of the member during the session, at 9 cents pc copy. A legislator who failed vote for such an appropriation wa considered something of freak.
 Other papers which 1 either cor ducted or edited in Arizona wei the Pinal Drill. the Quijotoa Pros gector the Tombstone Epitaph an the Tailings. The last-named wa ssmali four-page afternoon dalI' ba, was rather lively, and furnlshc #, lald o,d afternoon -comtemP s-arr- lLe Cjuzen, with consider