Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-23
NEWSPAPER HISTORY.
Growth of the Publishing Business in
the United States.

SroWtn OF tne rupiisH'h9 ousiness III
the United States.
When Ben Franklin confided to his
mother that he was considering the
establishment Of a newspaper the
worthy woman exclaimed: What
can you be thinking of-there are two
newspapers in America now" AS a
matter Of fact, there were five then,
but three of them were printed in
places so remote from Philadelphia
that the Franklins had not heard of
them. The United States now glories
scriptions, which is ten times as many
as were in existence SO years ago.
When the Declaration of Independ-
ence was signed there were only thir-
ty-four newspapers in the colonies,
and now there are more than that
number Of dailies in New York city
alone. No other phase Of American
development has been so phenomenal
as the growth of its newspapers. If
the New York World had attempted
in 1S40 to issue Sunday paper such
as 1t now prints each week with its
equipment then in use, the press would
still be running and the edition would
not be finished.
The newspaper is an Italian inven-
ton. The first regular publication of
bulletin was undertaken in Venice,
in the latter part Of the sixteenth CEN
tury. 1t was not printed, but was
written on large sheets and displayed
in a room. Those who desired to read
them were admitted upon the payment
of a small coin. They were called
"gazetta," from which comes the word
Gazette" common in the newspaper
world of to-day. The war between the
Venetians and the Turks and the pop
ular clamor for information concern
ing it was the reason for the birth OF
this first newspaper. The files of sixty
years of it's issue are preserved In a
museum in Florence.
First Printed Paper.
The first printed newspaper appear
ed in London on July %, 1883. 1t was
called the English Mercurie, and was
religious publication, Of which Lord
-urelgh was the patron. The earll-
est real newspaper printed from type
one designed to give the news-was
the London Weekly News, which ap-
peared in 1919 from the print shop OF
n. Newberry. 1t proved so popular
that six years later Ben Johnson wrote
the first newspaper play, satirizine
the novel venture in piece acted on
the London stage under the name OF
staples, of the News" In 1641 the
parliament first permitted the news
paper to publish a report Of its pro-
ceedings. In the next nineteen years
there were 200 papers started in Lon
don, but all of them failed for want
Of support.
First In This Country.
In the United States the first at
tempt to establish a newspaper was
made in Boston, on September 25,
1890. 1t boasted Of four quarto pages,
one of which was blank. 1t evidently
took a lively interest in politics, and
it's editor must have belonged to that
class of journalists now known as
muck -rakers, for it was suppressed.
The legislature officially described 1t
as pamphlet which came out con-
trary to law and contained reflections
Of very high nature"
Boston came again, and in 17O4
John Campbell, a native of Scotland
and postmaster began the issue Of the
Boston Newsletter. 1t had two pages,
12xS inches each, and appeared first
with this announcement: This News
Letter Is to be continued weekly, and
all persons who have any Houses,
Lands, Tenements, Farms, Ships, Ves-
sells, Goods, Wares or Merchandise,
ETC., to be sold or let; or Servants run
away or goods stole or lost may have
accounts Of the same inserted at
reasonable rate from IL pence to five
shillings, and not to exceed, who may
agree with John Campbell, postmas-
ter" When this weekly was fourteen
wears old 1t had a circulation Of 800
copies weekly, and announced that 1t
would issue an extra half-sheet fort
nightly, as the editor was behind on
printing the news from Europe. A
year afterward he announced that he
had caught up eight months Of the
news, and that in five months more
he would have all arrearages Of in
telligence from the Old World need
full to be known in these parts
In All the Colonies.
The American Weekly Mercurie
came out in Philadelphia in 1719, and
the New York Gazette appeared iE
Manhattan in 1925. The weekly paper
that time had become a profitable
venture in the larger towns and soon
spread through all the thirteen COL
onies, until 1776 there were thirty
four which maintained regular is
sues. The determined opposition OF
the crown representatives in the south
prevented the foundation of several
papers, and the first successful one