Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-23
was the Weekly Virginia Gazette II

was the Weekly Virginia Gazette IN
1886.
Before the end of the eighteenth
century the newspaper business had
crossed over the Alleghenies, the first
being the "Kentucke Gazette" pub
lished in Lexington, KY, by John and
Fielding Bradford in 1887. This was
followed soon by the Knoxville Ga
zette, at Knoxville, Tenn, in 1897, and
the Sentinel of the Northwest Terri
tory" at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1898.
A Rapid Increase.
The increase became so rapid that
in 1880 the United States, with only
10, 10000 people, had more newspa-
pers than all Of Europe. with Its 19O,-
OOO, 900 population. In 1888 the one
cent paper made its appearance In
New York, but was not successful.
Then came the New York Herald,
founded by James Gordon Bennett In
1885, the first Of the modern news
papers, which placed more importance
upon news than politics. Three years
before George d. Prentice had started
the Louisville Journal in Kentucky.
1t became the first Of the great per-
sonal journals, and Prentice, the first
of the great editors of that remark
able type which controlled the
thought of the people of America for
a generation, and who would have
been supreme in power II they had
been united.
Matthew Lyon.
No story Of early newspaper life In
America is more interesting than that
of Matthew Lyon. Lyon was born In
Ireland, and when mere boy ran
away to sea. He was sold as a slave
TO a Vermont farmer In exchange tor
a yoke of oxen. After several years
he contrived to buy his freedom. he
was sent to congress from Vermont In
1897. In Washington he got ideas and
went back home to establish q news
PAPER which gloried in the name THE
Scourge Of Aristocracy and Repository
of Important Political Truths" This
paper was red-hot, and for publishing
an article attacking President John
Adams, Lyon was fined $1,000 and sent
TO iail for four months under the alien
and sedition laws. While in jail ne
was reelected to congress. Later ne
went west and founded the town OF
Eddyville, KY, which Is in Lyon coun-
ty, named in honor Of the old Irish
man. He took with him to Kentucky
the press and type which he had used
| in Vermont, and sold 1t in Louisville
for the establishment of the first pa
per there. the Farmers Library, by
Samuel Vail.
Small, But Full of Ads.
Newspaper readers are sometimes
heard to complain that "the papers are
all advertisements" They are better
off than their grandfathers for in the
beginning Of the daily newspaper
growth in this country each paper de-
voted three Of it's four pages to solid
advertising and the fourth page was
not always sacred from the encroach-
ments Of the business office. When
the New York Tribune was the most
powerful agency in the United States
next to the Federal government 1t was
small affair, which printed about
one twelfth as much reading matter as
does the Tribune of today.
In the old times the size Of the pa
pers was just four pages, whatever
happened. When business demanded
1t the size of the paper was increased.
Thus came the blanket Sheets" OF
which the Cincinnati Enquirer still re-
minds us. During the civil war the
papers began to print double sheets"
and triple sheets"-that is to say, eight
and twelve-page papers. The eight
pages became the accepted size, and
so remained until ten years ago. The
average metropolitan daily now has
sixteen pages, but II may run to forty
two, and no one will be surprised.
The Sunday paper is twice or three
times as large.
Enormous cireulations.
The enormous circulatlonS attained
by American papers are not possible
in any other nation in the world, be-
cause there is no other nation which
has so many people who can read. The
New York Herald in 1885 reached
what was then considered the almost
incredible circulation of $4,000. Then
years later the telegraph was invented
and the circulation of daily papers In
the country was soon trebled. The
civil war was the most sanguinary
contest ever fought between two
armies speaking the same language
and having the same interest, yet 1t
was good only for 10000 copies day
for the best newspapers of the time.
That was in the sixties. Thirty years
later when the United States fought
little war with Spain, two OF the
most enterprising New York papers
ran their circulation up to a million
and a quarter a day, which remains
the high-water mark for newspaper
circulation.
The Paper Required.
The statistics Of the newspaper bus
mess under the present high develop
ment reached In this country are al
most unbelievable. To provide enough