Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-03-04
Italy the Birthplace of
Newspapers.

his mother that he was considering
The establishment of 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
papers 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 in some $4,000
journals Of various descriptions,
which is ten times as many as were
In existence fifty years ago When
the Declaration of Independence was
signed there were only thirty-four
newspapers in the thirteen 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 phenome-
nal as the growth of its newspapers
If the New York World had attcmpt-
ed in 1910 to issue Sunday paper
such as 1t now prints each week,
with the equipment then In use, the
press would be still running and the
edition would not be finished.
The newspaper is an Italian inven-
ton. The first regular publication
of bulletin containing informa,
tion for the public was undertaken
In Venice in the latter part of the
sixteenth century, 1t was not print
ed, but, was written on large sheets
and displayed in room. Those who
desired to read them were admitted
upon the, payment OF small coin.
They were called "gazetta,'' from
which comes the word gazette, !"
common in the newspaper world Of
to-day. The war between the Vene-
tians and the Turks, and the popular
clamor for information concerning
1T, was the reason for the birth Of
this first newspaper. The files of go
years of Its issue are preserved In a
museum in Florence.
The f1rst printed newspaper ap-
peared In London on July 23, 1888.
1t was called the English Mercurie,
and was q religious publication of
which Lord Burleigr was the patron.
The earliest real newspaper printed
from type, one designed to give the
news, was the London Weekly News,
which appeared In 1919 from the
print shop Of N. Newberry. 1t proved
SO popular that six years later Ben
Johnson wrote the first newspaper
play, satirizing 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 newspapers to publish
a report Of its proceedings. In the
next nineteen years there were two
hundred papers started in London,
but all of them failed for want Of
support.
First Paper Suppressed.
In the United States the first at
tempt to establish newspaper was
made in Boston on September 25,
1890. 1t boasted of four quarto
pages, one Of which was blank. 1t
evidently took lively interest in
politics, and It's editor must have be-
longed to that class of journals now
known as muck-rakers, for 81 was
suppressed. The Legislature off,
cially described 1t as pamphlet
which came out contrary to law, and
contained reflections of very high
nature"
Boston came again, and In 1904
John Campbell, a native OF Scotland,
and postmaster, began the issue of
the Boston Newsletter. 1t had two
pages, twelve by eight inches each,
and appeared first with this an
nouncement. "This Newsletter is
to be continued weekly, and all per-
sons who have any Houses, Lands,
Tenements, Farms, Ships, Vessels,
Goods, Wares, or MerchaL disc, etc.,
to be sold or let; or Servants run
away, or goods stole or lost; may
have acco, nts of the same inserted
at reasonable rate from twelve
pence to five shilling, and not to ex-
ceed, who may agree with John
Campbell, postmaster" When this
weekly was fourteen years old it
had circulation of 800 copies week
iy, and announced that 1t would is
sue an extra half sheet fortnightly,
( as the editor was behind on printing
the news from Europe. A year af-
terwaPd ha annonncad that he ha n