The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1901-04-25
OLDEN NEWS CARRIERS
HOW SIXTEENTH CENTURY ENC
LAND COT IT'S INFORMATION.

Came. FedQlers ana Naffier- y rIN AA0
chief Purveyors a0d Disseminators o.
News-.Higglers" Were Sewsmoagers
Ii is not easy for people 10 get their
newspaper delivered with the regular
its of cl0ckwork. who can buy their
evening journals in almost as many
editions as "A popular novel and who
are continually repeating the parrot
phrase that there is nothing in the
papers or who. if they live far from
London. can get either choice Of
local papers or receive their favorite
London Journals not many hours later
than dwellers in town it is not easy
for such folks Of to-day to realize how
slow. how casual and haphazard were
the transmission and circulation Of
news in the days before steam and
electricity revolutionized the world.
In the sixteenth Century, when news
papers were not and when pamphlets
dealt more with matters Of controversy
than with current events. the news Of
what was happening in London and
that which had gradually reached the
capital from foreign countries, cireu-
lated through the rural districts Of
England in very casual, slow fash
ion.
The chief purveyors and dissemina-
tors Of news were the peddlers and
carriers II is a mistake TO suppose
fhat 800 years ago there WIS little on
Irregular communication between the
capital and country towns and vii
lages. The country was covered with
n network of carriers routes. Their
carts and wagOns-great numbering
machines travelled with what would
De 10 MS an appalling degree Of slow
ness. but they went TO and fro with
great regularity The service might
be merely a weekly one in many places
or even monthly on not a few routes
but the carrier went his rounds with
very fair regularity and acted as the
universal newsmonger as well as the
occasional letter carrier and the con
veyor Of goods of every possible kind.
An act of Parliament of 1884 speaks
Of ''the poore carriers repalrying weke-
~ and monthely TO youf citee of Lon
don"
An enterprising man. one John Iay-
lor. complied with much difficulty and
labor kind Of carriers directory
which was printed IN 1887. \ copy
lies before the present writer II
is entitled .The Carriers Cosomo-
graphy." and the very long title page
goes on to promise "a list Of inns, etc,
where the carriers. waggOners. foot
posts and higglers" from all parts Of
the kingdom were wont TO put up. with
the days of their coming ana going,
and much other Information. There
were curious differences in the amount
Of communication by carrier. Thus
those from Nantwich in Cheshire Mr.
Taylor records. were to be found al
the Axe in Aldermanbury on Wednes-
days. Thursdays and Fridays; those
from NuneatOn. in Warwickshire,
came on Friday. but -the carrier for
Nottingham doth lodge at the cross
Keys in St Johns street. He cometh
every second Saturday" Similar diff
ferences existed in the service Of other
provincial towns But whether he
went once or twice or thrice a week or
but once or twice month the carrier
was the chief newsmonger Of the day.
The "higglers' were men in small
Ter way Of business than the regular
carriers. Taylor styles them "demi-
carriers" The name is seldom heard
now. but the higgler of days gone by
was man who owned a horse and
cart and sometimes carried goods in
small way from place TO place, but
whose chief occupation was the buy
ing Of poultry and dairy produce from
farmers and cottagers for carriage 70
town and the selling TO his customers
of small wares brought from the shops
in town. The carrier was purveyor of
news to the towns and villages, while
the higgler was newsmonger in Ordi-
nary to the dwellers of the main
roads. to farmhouses and cottages
De Foe in his Account Of the Plague
Of "hlgglers and such people as went
TO and from London with provisions
SAYS they were also called -hagglers,' y
ana UAitN Hdu ITO tdAts Hht NNhA -"
horseback. method Of travelling
which was probably resorted 10 for
other reasons than poverty At n
time when the main roads were often
in a most deplorable condition the by
roads and country lanes were always
worse. and q man going from farm 70
farm and from hamlet TO hamlet
could get about much more con-
veniently and rapidly on horseback
than when hampered with cart.
These higglers on horseback carried
their goods in panniers. Fuller. in
his R5orthies Of England" written
about the time Of the Commonwealth,
says "Dorsers are peds or panniers
carried on the backs Of the horses. on
which haglers use 10 ride and carry
their commodities" An early name
for these most useful itinerant dealers
and newsm0ngers. which was current
four and a half centuries ago. was