, 1904-06-29
WEEKLY
Our Fifteenth Anniversary,

VII
There are times in the life of every
newspaper when it is pleasant for those
who are making the paper to speak of
things of common interest to its faith
full readers and subscribers. Just at
this time as we begin the fifteenth vol
ume and the fifteenth year of the
JOURNALS existence, it seems a fitting
hour for a chat with you.
Fourteen years ago this week the
JOURNAL was born. Five Mile Beach
at that time was in a vastly different
condition than it is at present. There
were scarcely any graveled streets, in
fact none in the limits of Holly Beach
or Wildwood; no water plant, no sew
erage system, 40 electric lights, no
trolley cars, no cement sidewalks and
no bank. AT the present time the is
land has all these conveniences. Wild
wood vas not yet incorporated as a
borough and had only about twenty
houses within its limits. Compare
these conditions with those of the
present.
Samuel p. Foster, of Elmer, the
originator of and the first editor of the
JOURNAL, greeted its readers with the
following paragraph in the initial is
sue under date of July 9th, 1890:
"What do you think of us? The
FIVE MILE BEACH JOURNAL WI mean.
Don't you think we look a little fishy?
Never mind that, we are here to stay.
The JOURNAL proposes to put forth
every energy to advance and develop
this wonderful, sp~irit-reviving, health
giving portion of New Jersey known as
Five Mile Beach. We have been par
ticularly impressed with the wonderful
natural advantages of the Beach and
these advantages must be made known
to the outside world. Our readers cal
help us by subscribing and advertising
through these columns. The subscrip-
ton price will be M dollar a year and
advertising rates as low as business
principles and a good financial basis
will permit. The JOURNAL is run by
newspaper men of experience and is
not published to burst up, but every
week in the yearit will find its way to
your homes, winter and summer.
Help the JOURNAL in every honest
way and the JOURNAL will help you.o
Men of wide business experience
were of the opinion that the paper
could not exist in this limited field and
predicted that as a successful financial
venture it could not continue through
out the summer, certainly not for a
whole year. However, every claim
made in the above quoted paragraph
has been fulfilled ten fold. The JOUR-
A has missed a single issue in
all these years, and has always advo-
Gated that which was thought to be for
the best interests of the island. Dur
ing the past year we have located in a
new office on Wildwood avenue and
added a large cylinder press, job press,
gasoline engine, new type and other
labor saving material and we are now,
perhaps, as well equipped as any print
ing office in Cape May county for turn
ing out first-class job and commercial
printing.
After these years of effort ON, our
part. it gives us great pleasure to pre-
sent this birthday number to our sub
scribers in its new dress but recently
donned. The printing of the JOURNAL
is a serious business with us, though a
genuine interest in the work makes
what would seem an arduous task a
pleasant n in the main.
And now in a few last words we
wish to renew u promises of former
years. 1t shall be our continued en-
deavor to keep the paper a bright,
clean sheet, which will be anxiouslY