Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-23
Some Things You Want to Know
A Notable Bicentennial.

Two hundred years ago the good people
OF London awoke to find themselves the
possessors Of what no people ever before
had possessed-a daily newspaper. The
Daily Courant was a tiny single-sheet
publication appearing six times a week.
Like all it's successors. living and dead, It
was intended to supply a 'long-feit want /"
The particular demand existing At that
time was the desire OF the people Of Lon
don TO obtain news of the campaigns being
waged on the continent by the duke OF
Marlborough, for in the good year 1909 Eu-
rope was bleeding in the war OF the Span
ish succession. The history Of daily news
papers from that day until this is the his
tory Of the world, but there is a particular
trade history which Is Of interest even to
those not engaged in journalism.
The United States and Canada now
boast $500 daily journals and the rest OF
the world has about as many. There are
eO,OOO newspapers and other periodicals in
the world. 1900 Of which are published in
the United States and Canada. More than
half Of all the periodicals In the world APP
pear in the English language. The devel-
opment Of modern Journalism has been the
peculiar mission Of the English and Amer
lean nations. II lie fitting, therefore. that
London should have the honor Of being the
birthplace Of the daily newspaper and that
II should now be the home OF the most
powerful of all daily journals; while the
United States surpasses all other countries
In the versatility, scope and prosperity Of
its press.
The newspaper. however, is an Italian
invention. Leaving aside the Chinese an
t~iquities and reckoning only the western
world, the first newspaper editor was
Julius Caesar. The great Roman did not
possess the facilities of the twentieth CEN
tury, but he had the soul OF a press agent.
He used the dead walls OF Rome to display
bulletins OF the news-news carefully col
ored to suit the political desires Of ]. Gaze
sar. II this early effort at publicity be
barred, still tho Italians have the claim to
the first newspaper. In the latter part Of
the sixteenth century the first regular pub
LEGATION OF a bulletin containing intorma-
tion for the public was undertaken in
Venice. These bulletins were not printed,
but were written on large sheets and dis
played in a public room. They were called
"Gazetta." from which comes the English
newspaper title Gazette" The popular
clamor for news Of the war between tho
Vsnetians and the Turks was the long
felt want" supplied by the appearance Of
these ."Euzetta.' The files Of sixty years
of it's issues are preserved in a museum in
Florence.
The first printed paper was the English
Mercuris." a religious publication which
appeared in London in 1855. The earliest
real newspaper was the London Weekly
News. born in 1918. For ninety years the
London press led a varied existence, more
than 300 newspapers being started only to
perish in early failure. But in the fullnsss
Of time several weeklies were firmly cs-
tablished, and there were sever thrice-a-
week. journals in England when The
Daily Courant" made its bow to the pub
lie in the autumn of 1909.
The first newspaper venture in America
was a tragic failure. Mr.. Richard Pierce
of Boston in 1890 began the publication Of
"Publick Occurrences" He declared in his
salutatory that there were too many un-
founded and baseless rumors floating about
Boston, and that the mission of his paper
was to record them and then trace them
to their source. Mr.. Pierce appears to be
entitled to the honor OF being the first
journalistic muckraker. But those were
cruel times, and the legislature suppressed
the sheet after it's first issue. solemnly de-
claring It 10 be "a pamphlet which came
out contrary to law and contained reflec-
tons OF a very high nature"
A generation later Benjamin franklin
confided to his mother his intention to
start 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,
but three of them were so far away tina
Mrs. Franklin had net heard of them
The successor OF the paper which Franklin
did establish now has the largest circula-
ton Of any weekly publication in the world
more than a million and a quarter a
week.
The first daily newspaper in the United
States. The American Daily Advertiser,
appeared in Philadelphia in 1884. three
years after England had acknowledged the
Independence of the states and five years
before the beginning OF the government
under the constitution. The New YorR
Daily Advertiser followed in 17s5, and in
1856 the Pittsburg Gazette began its
present prosperous career.
The United States now has eighty-five
newspapers more than a hundred years
old, and in this respect, at least, America
is quite as old and quite as mature as its
European sisters. Many OF the eiRhty-five
members of the Newspaper Century club"
are still weeklies. but most of them, week
lies In 1909 are now dailIes. The Baltimore
American, the Philadelphia North Ameri-
can and the Charleston News and Courier
are the most venerable.