Mexico weekly ledger., 1901-02-07
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MAKES NNEAh W,on4Eh STRONG
AND SICK WOVEN wElL.
Written for the Ledger.
0ld-Time Journalism.

FULTON, Mo-, February 2, 19Ol.-
Newspapers are not so very modern
as they are generally supposed to be,
and the prices for advertising and sub
scription have not changed so very
much in two hundred years. The first
sporting paper ever published in Eng
land, called the Jockeys Intelligen-
Ger, ;" in 1858, charged one shilling for
an advertisement the first time it ap-
peared, and a sixpence for each re-
newal; a shilling (25 cents was then
worth about as much as fifty cents
now. "The ObseryatOr's" price, about
the same time, was eight lines Of local
for shilling, while 'The Country
Genteman's Courantn charged two
pence per line. The advertising busi-
ness was not very brisk, however, at
these prices, but rather than cut prices
or carry dead ads, the publishers left
their columns blank. For instance,
in 1895 the "Flying Post" announced
that it sold at two pence per paper,
"one-half Of which being blank, the
buyer may write thereon his own pri-
yate business. Another, the News
Letter" announces that "space not
filled with advertisements is useful
for writing paper" Another filed
empty advertising columns with por-
tions Of the Bible, and history tells us
that he actually succeeded in thus
printing the whole Of the New Testa-
ment and part Of the Psalms before
bankruptcy closed his office.
But newspapers date farther back
yet-in the days Of the Roman En-
plre the '.'Acta DiuTne" was regularly
issued. Imagine the newspaper office
OF that day-one or two hundred copy
lists seated at desks, the reporter read
ing his copy" while the busy quills
scratch it down. OF course, only the
rich could afford TO take the paper in
those days. They were interested in
the same kind of local items people Of
to-day like; Petronius (the gentleman
to whom our young people have been
introduced in "Quo Vadis'1 has left
on record for US few specimens Of
these locals from "Acta Diurna"; here
are three:
July 26th thirty boys and forty girls
were born at Trimalchi's estate at
Cuma." On the same day "a slave of
Trimalchi was put to death at Cuma
for uttering disrespectful words against
his lord" "a fire broke out in the
night at Pompey's garden in the stew
ards room, " etc.
Here is something more modern and
perhaps it may be untrue: 1t will be
noticed that in newspapers a comma
before ''and' connecting the last of a
series Of words never makes its appear
ance, but in the books and the better
class Of magazines the comma-thus:
John, James, and Henry''-is always
TO be found. An old tramp printer,
who had held cases In every Office be-
tween the St Lawrence and the gulf
and the two oceans, used to give a
comical explanation Of this by saying
that in early days Horace Greeley al
ways insisted on that comma and al
ways marked iton the proof, and finally
discharged one careless compositor
who invariably jumped IL, both I'M
copy and proof. But the man appealed
TO the organization to which he be-
longed; its executive committee de-
cided that the last comma in "peas.
potatoes and pickles. was a useless
piece Of flummery and not a Just cause
for discharge; the "Tribunen was
Threatened with a sympathetic strike
and was forced to yield. Thereafter
the Objectionable comma disappeared
from the New York papers. The old
printer said the book-work men did
not belong to the same union, and so
they continued 10 insert the comma
and are doing il yet HAIRsPACE.