Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-07-12
A CHEAP PRESS.
News Items Published Two Thousand
Years AGO.

News Items Published Two Thousand
Years Ago.
Not only in ancient Athens have
men spent their time in nothing else,
but either to tell or to hear some new
thing" The desire to disseminate
gossip. to retail some item of inter-
esting information, seems inherent in
mankind. 1t is therefore only to be
expected that the history Of newspa-
pers goes a very long way back in the
records of time. The Chinese had
their newspapers at least 5000 years
ago. The Romans had their Acta
Diurna, in which was recorded for
the information Of the public the cam
paigns Of the generals abroad, the tit
tletattle Of Rome, the trials and pun
ishments of criminals, the sacrifices
of the priests, the predictions of the
augurs and the feats of the gladia-
tors. Here Is an extract from one Of
these, dated in the year 5S5, after the
building of Rome. 1T thundered, and
an oak was struck with lightning in
that part Of Mount Palatine called
Summa Velia, early in the afternoon
A fray happened in a tavern at the
lower end of the Banker street in
which the keeper of the Hog in Ar
mour Tavern was dangerously
wounded. Tertius, the Aedile, fined
the butchers for selling meat which
had not been inspected by the over
seers Of the markets. The fine is to
be employed in building a chapel to
the temple of the Goddess Tellus"
1t is difficult to believe that 1000
years have passed since this was pub
lished. But after the Romans no
newspapers, or news letters, were pub
lished for many years; not indeed
until the year 1866 A. D., when a
manuscript written news letter was is
sued in Venice. Appearing at first
monthly the demand for it became so
great that it was soon published more
frequently. For permission to read
lit gaZetta-a small Venetian coin
was charged, and from this, by an
easy sequence the paper became
known as a "GaZetta." The contents
of these early letters were known as
"neue- things" or ''neue-t -tidings,"
which, when shortened to "newes,"
speedily became newspapers" In
1888 Lord Burleigh issued a sheet,
giving an account of the Spanish Ar
mada, which was circulated in diff
ferent parts Of the country, but this
could hardly be called a newspaper
so much as an official document con-
tanning particulars and instructions.
1t is interesting to note that this was
actually printed Probably the first
English newspaper was the Weekly
News, small, Imprinted sheet, which
appeared in 1922. About the middle
of the seventeenth century several
journals were issued, and, curiously
enough, most of them were callel
Mercuries.
These news sheets contained but
little information, printed no adver-
tisements, and when short of copy
filled up their vacant columns with
chapters from the Bible! But this
pious practice was not of long con-
tinuance, for about 1870 advertise
mentS began to be inserted, which
V ere paid for at the rate of three
half pence and twopence per line.
The newspapers of those days were
very short lived. They contained no
parliamentary information. no reports
of public meetings and but scanty
items of news. 1t was not until 1902
that the first daily paper, which had
a fairly long life, appeared. called the
Daily Courant 1t was printed only
on one side and was an insignificant
sheet, rather smaller in size than a
page of the Spectator. 1t was publish
ed by +. Mallet and its offices were
against the Ditch at Fleet street
bridge" The bridge and the Fleet
Ditch have long disappeared, but this
site must have been very near to the
present Times offices. It's two col
umns, printed on a single sheet. con-
tanned foreign news only. The editor
was careful to announce that he would
not venture to give any comments of
his "supposing people to nave
sense enough to make reflections for
themselves" The day of leaders and
leader writer's clearly was not yet!
The printing of the Times newspaper
by steam in 1914 marked the begin
ming of a new era and was a great
stride toward a cheap press I'm
prOvements in printing machines soon
followed and their rapidity greatly
increased until this evolution has now
beer crowned by the invention of the
rotary machines with their eXtraor-
dinary powers. and it is this invention
which has done so much to make 1t
possible to issue daily papers at the
low price of a half penny. Another
obstacle to a cheap press was the
newspaper tax. In those days chan
cellors of the EXchequer were as
hard put to it to raise the necessary
revenue for the countrys government
as now, and tax was put upon news
papers which from 1915 to 1886 was
as much as fourpence. Such heavy
impOst caused the price of the daily
papers to be sevenpence: but when
this tax was reduced to n penny in
1861 the general price fell to three
pence. 1t seems difficult now to real
iZe that the Globe once cost seven
pence. was reduced to fourpence and
then to twopence. The reduction of
this tax, the increasing effectiveness
and rapidity of printing machines.
the spread of education, the coming
of railways and many other causes all
combined to create n demand for
newspapers and those i'm existence not
only enlarged their columns but new
ones rapidly appeared.
For the newspaper of today. togeth-
er to a less degree with the weekly pc
riodicalS and the monthly magazines,
is not only the best advertising me-
dunn but is rapidly becoming almost
the only one. The countless circulars,
catalogues and pamphlets with which
every householder is Inundated and
his letterbox hope.essly congested
have become a perfect pest and are
promptly destroyed unread as soon as
their nature is discovered. Enormous
sums of money must be spent annual
ly upon these bows drawn at ven
ture, the arrows from which so sell
dom reach their mark.-London
Globe.