The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-26
SOTH ANNIVERSARY OF
 CHICAGO JOURNALISM

As the history of any modern city
 cago may be said to have been born
 eighty years ago to-day. Nov. 2s, 1888,
 when the first number of the Chicago Democrat, the pioneer journal of the
 infant metropolis, was issued. The
 Democrat was 8 crude little weekly,
 printed on an old-fashioned hand
 press. Only a few hundred copies Of
 the first issue were published, for at
 that time Chicago had just been in
 corporated town, and it's popula-
 ton was little over 500. At the first
 election, held shortly before the Dem
 ocrat began it's career of enlighten-
 ment, there were only twenty-eigh
 legal voters. The government of the
 little municipality in the wilderness
 was vested in i've trustees, and nearly
 every adult male citizen held an office
 of some kind. Poor Lo was very much
 of a problem to the Chicagoans of
 those days. The Democrat devoted
 much space to the removal of the red
 skins. Shortly before the beginning
 aof the newspaper, a council of the
 Potawatonies was held. 1000 of the tribe being present, and the chiefs signed g, treaty by which they gave up their lands around Chicago and were removed west of the Mississippi
 The publication of a newspaper in Chicago must have influenced it's growth, for within four years the first city charter was granted, and the pop uIation had increased to 4,470. Tho city then contained 398 dwellings, twenty-nine drygoods stores, four warehouses. five hardware stores, three drug stores, nineteen grocery and provision shops, twenty-six gro- ceries, ten taverns. half as many churches, and seventeen lawyers. In 1850 the population was 2s,2es, and within six years it had passed the 1OO,- 900 mark. In 1850 there were but forty miles of railway centering in Chicago, but within seven years this
 mileage had increased to 4.0oo, and Chicago could boast of being the greatest primary grain market of the world. The Great Lakes, in connec- ton with the WeIland canal, gave Chicago a waterway to the Atlantic. by way of the St. Lawrence, and in 1856 the Democrat could report the Richmond, which had been loaded with wheat at the wharves of Chicago and Milwaukee. In 1858 the Ma deira Pet arrived at Chicago with 9 cargo of crockery and iron direct from England. The Democrat, although it has ceased to exist. lived long enough to share in this first era of Chicago's 
 The Democrat did not long hold the Chicago journalistic field to itself. The Evening Journal, oldest of existing Windy City newspapers, was founded in 1s44. A decade later the Chica- with newspapers called the Herald, and later with the Rec ord, and is now the Record-HeraId. The Tribune was founded in 1s47, and under the editorial direction of Jo- saph Medil1 attained that standing in the worlds journalism which 1t re- tains to-day. Other early Chicago 1 included the National Un- ion and the Press. In 1858 Chicago 1 had no less than eight daily papers. 1 two of them German. and more than 1 a score of weekly and monthly pubI- 1 cations. Like most young and boom Ing cities, Chicago had too many newspapers, and the names of many of them have all but passed from hu- man memory. The Attest have sur vived. The enterprise of Chicago l Journalism was fully tested by the 1 great fire of 1870, when the Tribune, 1 Journal. Republican, Post, Times and | Mail all printed small sheets within | two days of the time when their plants |